001foreign could I ask that everybody either turns their cell phone off or that's a silent piece foreign we're going to start with public forum I have one person to speak Mr Curtis who's here thank you for the opportunity to speak as a former board member and a lifetime resident of the community I'm embarrassed to hear what the community is saying about the current Board of Education as I was approached by multiple community members over the course of the past few weeks where did President Miss Megan at the last board meeting you stated in the executive session the only topic of discussion was the negotiations in fact that was not the truth it at all as more than that was discussed in fact you went in at 8 30 and got out at 11 47. you
002were asking for transparency and you're not being transferred yourself shame on you as board president misleading the community our community is concerned about personal agendas that each board member seemed to appear to have students and staff have always been top priority in the school district not your personal agendas how dare put your own personal genders over the needs of his students you all should be ashamed of yourselves Miss Allen vice president of this board you need to put your friendship feelings aside remember your students are the top priorities in the sister and not your own friend's personal agendas priests continue the knowledge to use your knowledge and do some good on this board Mr Dingman had multiple board members who indicated that in my district well this is your District not the district that you
003work for remember you were voted into the position by Red Creek community our community is expecting more from the new board members not our students and your children deserve better and if you can't do it for them then please resign we ask our children to be leaders not followers board members stop being followers make your own decision to keep your students your number one priorities not yourselves I hope you remember the decisions you make now and in the future foreign could have a negative impact on our students and staffs and taxpayers in the community we are truly making the right decisions don't be a follower be a leader you're voted in for it thank you okay um since there's no one else for public forum we're gonna move forward with B the minutes one and
004two of the regular meeting of August 31st the special meaning of September 9th if I have a motion please thank you Mrs Kaiser the second one Mrs Bliss any questions corrections I think there were a couple of Corrections since the last revision or with the last revision anything else there is something that I did find after I thought it was asked in order earlier the emails but when I looked back it wasn't um on page 10. reference to are you on page 10 of 175 or okay yes I'm sorry one of the appointments it's the appointment for Diana Hildreth it's an appointment to a long-term self position it says effective September 1st 2022 through approximately June 23rd 2022 the English probably be 23. yes okay oh you're in the very last paragraph right here actually
005I think I think it might be right right it's November 23rd 22. oh which paragraph are you in it's it's in the third third position so it would be one more year 23 yes he said page 10. yeah paragraph three so Mrs Kaiser could we amend a motion with the change yeah says Bliss yes any other changes Corrections okay all in favor aye any opposed any abstentions moving forward uh see the financial reports could I have a motion for one and two of the treasures report and warrants for July Mr dates on a second thank you Mr Nodine any questions on this I only have one question um and how many Corporation status report there are this is for July there are athletic salaries wondering what um who are paying for athletics in July it
006wasn't for the athletic director would you mind telling us what page you're on again it would be on page 74. thank you okay oh yes I'm sorry it's 28.55 150. it's the first one underneath the worst cold curricular activities yeah what we did with Larry's salary is we splited and if you look at the one right below the athletic director we did not so I'm wondering if they move it into the athletic salaries but I would need to take a look at Envision so we have an athletic director that we were paying in July I believe we did left all right yeah but I want to take a look into that I appreciate it thank you any other questions okay all in favor okay any opposed any abstentions okay all right so I have some
007copies for you and I'm just going to ask that you not dive into them yet because I'm going to make you work a little bit with some data work um so I have a couple of pieces to share with you tonight around some of our district data and a lot of this was part of my onboarding process and kind of playing catch-up to where the district currently is and where we're operating in terms of student achievement and performance so I want to share that data with you but then also kind of explain the other two hats of my role and that's related to Community Schools and diversity equity and inclusion and then I'll share with you some pieces from the State Board of Regents around Dei as well Dei being diversity equity and inclusions don't
008throw darts at me if I use acronyms okay so you have now this just kind of walks you through where you've been in terms of presentations from the administrative team so you heard Cindy's update over the summer and then you've heard from each of the buildings about academics and supports in place there so the next two pieces to that are mine in terms of diversity equity and inclusion and then Community Schools and Grant programming that we have available to our students here as well so my hope through this session is that we're able to take a deeper dive looking at our historical data really through that diversity lens also taking a look at some of our current data again from that diversity lens review the New York State policy on diversity and then a little
009bit of a piece around our accountability system it's been a while since we have looked at the accountability system really across the state because that's been paused due to covid so I want to make the connection between diversity equity and inclusion and our accountability system and then look at where that crosses paths with Community Schools and then talk about where we go next so this is what we anticipate will be the first of multiple data presentations um and we'll talk more about what future sessions will look like at the end of this so um the New York State Board of Regents in their policy statement which I have a copy for you at the end of this so don't let me try to take that to you all says that strong Dei policies in partnership
010with parents and families Empower students from all backgrounds to visualize successful futures for themselves and provide them with a sense of belonging and self-worth so if that is at the core what we do day in and day out haven't we been successful as a school so these are the big pieces that really guide that Community Schools work that's under my umbrella building those Partnerships visualizing and preparing our students for successful Futures and really building that sense of belonging and self-worth so when we think about diversity equity and inclusion to me that truly means belonging that every student feels that they have a place where they belong here within the walls of our school and then out within our larger School community so as I shared part of this was my own onboarding to see where
011we've been so to have a really Clear Vision on where we need to go next I went back in time to look at some of our historical data all from the New York state report cards through history so back to 1996 so some of us in this room are actually a part of that data the statistics you'll see so we're not that old if you see you know if we're in the state report cards we're not that old yet um so what I pulled I'm not that old Larry um what I pulled from those state report cards were those items that were consistent over time so back to 1996 items like fourth grade and eighth grade math and Ela were reported back then as well as they are now graduation rate was consistently reported and
012we've added additional measures along the way but I only pulled the ones that were consistent over that period of time the goal of this was really looking for those Trends over time are we trending upward are we trending downward what's the relationship of poverty in our community compared to achievement and then really we just always want to remember as we go into a data conversation that data should never be a weapon it should never be an excuse it should never be a gotcha but we want to use it as a tool to make informed decisions going forward and hopefully when you all are at that point of having board goals you're able to pull in this data to really inform what you're establishing for goals for our district so with that we're going to do
013a little brief data protocol so what you're going to get don't peek is a view historically so I can show you from a distance of our fourth and eighth grade ELA scores so you'll see a graph with a lot of data and the second page is all the raw data of that so in that you'll see fourth and 8th grade ELA fourth and eighth grade math our poverty rate as a district our graduation rate um and on the raw data side you'll also see um staff turnover rates or overall enrollment rates and our numbers our quantity of Staff members over those same years as well so when you see laid out in a linear fashion as a graph from 1996 to 2022 what are some initial predictions what does your gut say I'm going to
014see in our district data over that 26-year spam so this is interactive that's your question that's a question yes and like any YouTube classroom teacher we don't go on until there's an answer okay so decrease in student population what about in terms of student achievement I would say just an overall decrease overall decrease okay accelerated at any times in history accelerated by any items or trends I don't like to use them in covet as an excuse I think probably accelerated a little bit during you know since gobit but I think overall a general decrease in student achievement in map and Ela other thoughts I would say our poverty is probably here's my initial thoughts that our poverty has has gotten worse in our area has a lot of jobs have moved further further away from
015us but also become become more accustomed to driving further so I might take that back okay I agree that I think I wouldn't take it back I think I would concur that there's a good possibility that the poverty level is increased anyone have any thoughts on the relationship between poverty and student achievement all students can learn I agree and you can't give poverty as an excuse a lot of students can learn can't give up the excuse but they are increased Dynamics that come in when a family and students deal with poverty have to be addressed to help keep that Improvement or keep that level of achievement that you saw that you saw so there's factors that that you know come into the other hours of the day outside of the building so I if I'm
016correct I think you're referencing supports around trauma those those types of things won't be evident in data I don't have those pulled number of counselors or interventions I would also say that I think maybe late 2000s mid 2000s um 2010s when social media and the increase of electronic use came into play I would say I think there was probably a tendency for things to go down around that time period as opposed to in the 90s the early 2000s she's saying our high school time was probably like the peak yeah so that was probably like the highest point now it's just downhill from my parents I will say and like you know technology took right off after that so attendance rate is one of the points in here so any thoughts on how social media and
017attendance right might be related back in those peak days you had to be here if you wanted to know what's going on you didn't have social media to help you get there any other predictions so if you would like you can open up now to the colorful pages in your packet and I'll walk you through what's in here and then I'll give you a couple of minutes to just kind of process and then we'll talk about what your observations are not jumping yet to inferences making judgments of why just the straight observations so the first item you have is that historical overtime chart of each of those data points so this teal line is our free and reduced rate fourth and eighth grade ELA are the shades of pink or purple or sorry fourth eighth
018grade math are the shades of purple fourth and eighth grade math Ela are the shades of green you see our graduation rate up toward the top this color and then high school math and Ela total cohort so that's the consistent measure at the high school of performance with regard to math and Ela so that's stretched out over time these arrows here at the bottom represent when common core standards were adopted you'll see the little arrows peeking in at the bottom and then this is the first year of those Common Core assessments so when our students at three through eight the test shifted over that's the first year of the Common Core assessments so in looking at this when you click there the only thing that remained as much consistent is attendance so we'll come back
019to observations all right so this is the raw data if you prefer to see the numbers more than the pictures these are all the numbers that feed into that chart on the first page a couple of additions that don't chart well so this gray column is Staff turnover rates so the first number in that represents the percentage of our teachers who had been here for five years or fewer who left the second number is the percentage of our overall teaching staff that left so like the let's take this year of 2012-2013 we're at zero and twelve so zero percent of our fewer than five-year teachers left that year but 12 of our total staff left that year so then you'll have three in reduced rate that is charted our overall enrollment numbers and then the
020counts as they're available from this the state report card of our total quantity of teachers and paraprofessionals supporting them when you calculate these out our teacher to student ratio is actually the highest right now that it has been in our 26 year history I was really surprised to see that I did not think that it would be that way did you say that second number in staff turnover rate is overall staff or teaching staff they're they're both representative of teaching staff alone correct okay thank you and the second one was staff that is excuse me not that that's everybody so fewer than five years and greater than five years all in one statistic and can you repeat I'm sorry you can repeat the like the last thing you said about the um when you when
021you ran the numbers and did the math teacher to student ratio is the highest that it has been so the most teachers currently compared to our current enrollment numbers those students who need those supports so sheer statistics mathematical division it's the highest number that it has been wait till we get to inferences all right so the next page just really Zooms in on math scores from that first page of data and then you'll see that there are these dotted trend lines so it's kind of hard to get an idea of where our data seems to be trending from the up and down and up and down so the the dotted trend lines give you the overall trend of where we're headed so you can see again looking at math our poverty rate is trending upward
022our fourth grade math rates are decreasing at a faster rate than our eighth grade math rates the next one is the same thing with our Ela again you'll see poverty rates trending upward and then both our fourth and 8th grade ELA trending downward over time so any questions about what you have on those four slides don't worry about the next one of graduation rate just yet any questions about what you have in front of you so take about five minutes and kind of pour through and we'll come back together and share out your observations what do you see in that data what do you notice what are things that stand out to you and feel free to call them out whenever you know there's things in there you didn't say the rest of the package
023don't skip ahead don't skip ahead you want us to look at what we've don't be the overachievers just stay right here suspense is killing me no one told you you were going to have to really work tonight Oh Oh you mean 2019 2009 I thought you were talking about 100 years ago correct there's a great one there because of women who graduated four years graduation okay yeah okay why is five minutes of a board meeting foreign grade four Ela grade A Ela math Etc that's the percentage of students who were a three or four okay yeah so those numbers represent the percentage of students not the student count the percentage of students that score to three are four which is considered on grade level or above grade level [Music] will we get to a point
024where they talk about how they scored grade 4 Ela to grade 8 Ela yep so the very last slide of this tells you what's the next step of that and that's our plan at this point is that the next board meeting will bring back to you cohort data so this is same data points different students and then next time I'll bring back to you same students different grade levels so you'll see them at third grade and then that same group of students how they performed each grade level going up through it's a lot for a grant coordinator little bites foreign so I will take some data observations whenever you're ready to share them can you tell me what the arrows mean again has something to do with common core yeah so the the first Arrow
025was No Child Left Behind the previous accountability system the second arrow is when the Common Core learning standards were adopted and then that marked two years or three years later whatever it is is when we had our first Common Core assessments so the state the gov the federal government ruled out Common Core and said we're all going to teach these same standards New York state had to align with that and then you know a couple years after they were adopted is where we saw those first assessments that were aligned with those new learning standards so what was the very first Arrow I believe the first one is No Child Left Behind get my copy yes 2001 2002 was the adoption of No Child Left Behind so the previous accountability system looks to be fairly clear
026at once they started their assessments after Common Core was not produced everything kind of Tanked um is that because it wasn't well received or are we not looking at Apples to Apples I mean that's that's really bad but so I think in some cases especially your teachers would argue that it's not Apples to Apples when the standards change the rigor change the expectations of our students changed and the format of those tests changed drastically and that was the idea the theory behind Common Core is that we want this expectation for all of our students across the country um so in theory they thought set the bar high and this is where we will see our students perform and some students do perform at that level so clearly looking at this though since Common Core and
027the shift in those assessments we're not performing at that same level that our students were on the previous style of assessment so we're failing our kids we're giving them a subpar education is that your observation that's what the data's showing so as a board what do you do about that well we've we've hired people we've hired administrators we've hired people to assist the teachers so we're going to get to to the what now in a little bit can we come back to that oh thank you other observations I have just a question I don't know if you you have this information but no questions allowed at this point yeah I was gonna say I'm observing that I'm wondering if you know um has the is this enrollment drop over this time frame common for this
028area yes I think most of our rural districts in this area have seen this that's substantial it's a New York state as as a Community resident as a taxpayer I think that we collectively have the ability to shift the quality of life in our community that would bring people here and make them want to move here and you might see that shift the other way but if you look solely at the New York State report card data which is what they give you on realtor.com are people going to choose to live here right now or not no if they do this well part of the reason that I asked is because you're three and fours your data from that based off of 1200 students as a percentage versus 800 are obviously going to be potentially
029very different for the same number of three and fours so yeah so we're going to talk a little bit about the impact of those sizes as well a little later in this session of their observations but before what's the title on it I'm sorry uh math historical family okay thank you but because I just I've seen where there's a um yeah making sure I get my lines correct here where there's a crossover of the three uh David mines you know in there where the free and reduced lunch was making a continual climb up and that's where the crossover point was where the two score areas of the linear for the math four and math a excuse me um you know if we're getting a decrease there so historically I'm thinking okay what was going on
030as one is going up and those are continued to drop when we looked at this same data with our leadership team someone had predicted that you would see a spike in poverty around when the housing market crashed along with a decrease in achievement at that same time where that might be in there as well other observations very very helpful with this right all right so going back to those questions now so the next phase after observations is inferences what can we infer about the data based on what we've seen and then my next question is are we serving the diverse needs of our students so what are your thoughts on that what can we infer about the data based on what we've seen what judgments do you make based on that data what assumptions do
031you make based on that data let's tackle that question first we need to get the right people on the bus we need to get the right people on the seats and we get the need to get the right person driving the bus to the correct location and what is that correct location it depends on what your what makes a student successful elaborate more on that well my opinion of what a successful student is is different than what Mr Curtis thinks a successful student is okay so what would you as a board member if you were setting goals around this is the portrait of a red Creek student when they graduate what would be some of those descriptors of that student who was successful well of course you want everybody to be a productive member of
032society okay is that evident in test data have we done a data driven um look at to see what post-graduation results so that would be a data point we could vote to look at them I mean you didn't do that in the past six weeks no not yet give me time give me time the day the nerd will get there other inferences about the data so I think it's hard for us especially those of us that are not in education to um the bus route and the driver and all of that I think that let me give you a book I I think that um we all want to see the students successful but I think it's for some of us it's a little bit more about what our options are to get there as
033opposed to making the path ourselves so you know my my first thought is we want them all up and staying up you know and and then it comes to the people that are in District and making those decisions to hopefully help us put the right things in place or money in the right place to do that other thoughts inferences it'd be nice to see what major employers have left this community in the time frame that we were discussing it might give you a lot of insight into your poverty level and what you're seeing in homes even though you're making more money you're driving someplace further to make it at the end of the day you have less in your pocket maybe less time to help here less time to help your kids with their homework
034right well I think addressing the elephant in the room not all students are good test takers I have a classroom of 21 kids that I see every day I can hand pick the ones I know before I know they had a good breakfast I know Mom and Dad talk to them up today they took the test I know the ones whose parents have been arrested that morning the ones who didn't sleep last night I think looking at students who are threes and fours are not necessarily I don't find them as a measure of success I think we're Drilling in college teach all levels of ability um some students work well Hands-On some students work well reading out of a book at the end of the day you don't want to teach to the test but
035that's what we're measuring how many students can sit there in bubble in 60 answers who guessed who didn't so my next question is are we serving the diverse needs of our students on both ends of that spectrum and in the middle it's almost as if we get a certain thinking figure about IEPs almost every kid could use okay to broaden the understanding of IEP because Stephanie says there's so many different diversity of learners that we could maybe start thinking differently of how to address all of those learning skills and that's where value P starts to do so take it away from just the silo it's in and providing that so that there's more individualized or practical instruction they're all taking the same standard unfortunately yeah we're driven by that dictated by that text there's anything
036that could help them to do better ultimately have that test through individualized instruction if that's what we want to measure your students success on I don't necessarily think a three and a four is a measurable Student Success I see students every day that succeed in different ways they're never going to be a three or four on a standardized test they're not going to be but they could be successful in other areas we just have to be able to provide a strong academic experience that promotes growth in Reading in mathematics you know The Sciences the social studies so going off of Stephanie's point I promise I didn't prep during recess let's talk about diversity and diverse outcomes within our community so this is a breakdown by subgroups of our graduation rate from this past June so
037the First Column is all students the numbers at the bottom are the student counts and up above are the percentages so there were 52 students who entered ninth grade with us as a part of that cohort of those 52 43 graduated so just under 83 percent of our students graduated from that class does that account for ones that left because you say that once it started if they enroll in another District they're not counted in there if they drop out they are counted in this data based off of the cohort with which they entered ninth grade so that name we're still accounted for correct they were on our rolls in some capacity either as a Dropout or a non-completer so of that cohort of students there were 26 female students 25 of those 26 female
038students graduated so the graduation rate for all of our students was just under 83 percent the graduation rate for our female students was 96 percent compared to our male students in that cohort whose graduation rate was just over 69 percent then comparing general education students to those students with disabilities so those who have an IEP the graduation rate for our 47 general education students was 87 compared to 40 percent for our students with disabilities and then that poverty rate our students who were not classified as economically disadvantaged there were 30 of them all 30 of those students graduated last year of our 22 students who are economically disadvantaged only 59 of them graduated so back to my previous question are we serving the diverse needs of our students through pausing is fantastic I think another
039piece that can play a role and I know it's not standard in all cases but I mean we've kind of talked about the economically disadvantaged and not having that breakfast or not having that pep talk from their parents in the morning um and that goes back into like the social emotional help that we're able to provide and um who are we missing and are we really reaching out to those that that need it or are we making assumptions on who does who doesn't and um I I think that those kinds of things are playing a role as well so Jolene just talked about using data to make your decisions are we assuming what students need are we are we catching everyone if we're not using data to guide those decisions clearly not so hence the
040reason for a coordinator of Dei in theory if we are being an equitable District we have Equitable outcomes for our students all of these rates should be the same right if we're a highly successful School District they're all going to be the same and high so we're not seeing an exponentially High they're not all this 100 graduation rate and they're certainly not even so we have some work to do in that diversity equity and inclusion umbrella and world so the challenging thing we talked about data so we'll skip over this one the challenging thing when we talk about diversity because it's been on social media over the course of the last few years people hear oh they're doing a diversity curriculum and that's critical race Theory we want to distinguish the differences between those because
041when we look at the diversity of our community it's less about race and more about poverty for us within this community not to say that we don't have racial differences as well but these are our biggest subgroups from last year's cohort of students so in the New York state so we're kind of Shifting now to the New York State Board of Regents call to action around diversity equity and inclusion so their challenge that they have put out across the state or their expectation I should say that they've put out to the state is that districts would establish a Dei committee and within that they're going to focus on these six areas of increasing diversity equity and inclusion across the school districts in our state so the first piece is creating that committee that's representative of
042stakeholders so that is something that we will be doing we would certainly invite you all to join that as well it'll be coupled with our 21st century Grant Advisory Board and there will be an invitation to our community to join that as well that's coming out in the newsletter under the teaching and learning we have to look at the need for inclusive and culturally responsive teaching and learning including opportunities for that Civic engagement so to me that means that our students are seeing experiences that are that they can relate to within the curriculum that they're using that also means instructional practices and classroom management strategies that are research based to support our students so for example we have our PBIS program the Rams program the research behind a PBIS program is that those consistent expectations
043for Behavior help all students to be successful but especially help students from poverty to be successful when they have those consistent expectations so implementing pieces like that that are responsive to the culture of our community the next piece is around increasing family engagement so making sure that there are opportunities to have those reciprocal relationships within our community where not only we are benefiting from the relationships of our community but our community is benefiting from those for us as well so I think you all had a piece um in a previous update about the study work program that's the perfect example of that where we're helping our community and our community is helping our students to grow and be successful as well the next piece is around Workforce Development so the state has an expectation that
044we're recruiting and retaining a diverse Workforce so making sure that our students work with adults who look like them who may have had similar experiences to them um building diverse schools and learning opportunities so making sure and this is for me this triggers a lot of pieces under our 21st century Grant but making sure that there are opportunities activities programs for our students regardless of their interest level and their achievement level so looking Beyond just the three and four do we have a something and a pathway for every one of our students and then the last piece around student supports discipline and wellness making sure we're supporting that whole child so does a student who need that needs it have a check-in when they come in the morning do we have breakfast available later in
045the day for someone who may be coming in later making sure that we're building students self-identity self-confidence self-esteem through the day in day out practices within our schools so specifically within each of these and we kind of talked through a couple of these these are tasks essentially for my role as coordinator of Dei so we talked about establishing that Advisory board with that board creating a work plan for how we will lead diversity equity and inclusion work within this District what are our goals for that are they having Equitable outcomes are they setting those high standards for all of our students and then having a means by which to track and analyze that performance under teaching and learning continuing to build in those social emotional pieces but then making sure that we have interventions and
046supports and enrichment opportunities to support all of our students as well as creating opportunities for our students to be involved in our community and build their own Civic mindedness and awareness as well under family and Community engagement you hopefully all got through parent Square tonight an invitation for our open house so that is the first of what we anticipate being several events coming up to build that family and Community engagement as we're seeing covid hopefully knock on fake wood subside and we're able to reopen the doors and invite our community back in we want to do more of those events and experiences where our community can come in and share their own experiences but then parents are invited to be an active part of their children's education I as an educator myself I really believe
047that most parents want to be involved in their children's education sometimes they just don't have the tools to do that so we want to make sure that all of our parents have the tools to be involved in their children's education at the level that they want to be involved um under Workforce Development you made a face what are you thinking oh I can't say it right right okay okay under Workforce Development collaborating with our local teacher prep programs so I just reached out actually this week to Oswego to talk about how we can build the involvement of our pre-service teachers within the district here so how can we invite those pre-service teachers in to develop a love for our community where they want to come work here as well but then also increasing that diversity
048of the workforce in front of our students um and then ensuring as well that we have opportunities for our students for both again the enrichment and intervention the final piece of this under my Dei umbrella is really looking at those whole child supports so and we'll talk a little more about what that looks like within mtss and then Andy Rupert who is working as an administrative intern this year he and I will really be focusing in on our mtss systems and structure to make sure that we have a smooth system that's data driven and supporting the unique needs of our students so why does this matter I talked a little bit about Essa and No Child Left Behind so previously if you remember 10 years ago 15 years ago hearing about No Child Left Behind
049No Child Left Behind is no more that was replaced with the every student succeeds act or the Essa not to be confused with Esser so this became effective in January 2018 so this is our current system of accountability for us for all districts there's increased measures that we're being rated on for us we'll have additional subgroups weighing into that data so what does that look like if this will click oh click too many so under No Child Left Behind we were really focused on primarily on Ela and math the biggest shift to this current system is we're still looking at that but we're also looking at student growth so there is a district within our region that overall student performance was fine but they are identified as a school meeting that that's on a plan
050for improvement based on student growth measures so we're looking not only at that one-time snapshot but we're also looking at growth over time where we talked about that cohort data of students so for that District their students weren't growing over time so they were identified by the state also within this we're looking at additional measures around college career and Civic Readiness we'll talk a little bit about that one in a minute previously districts were identified as Target schools or focused schools they shifted that language to Target and comprehensive support schools we'll talk a little bit about that too so here are the metrics I think we hit on all of those so student achievement overall that one-time snapshot data we're also so there's a fancy algorithm and I'm not that kind of a mathematician to
051be able to do that math but the state has an algorithm based on each of these measures and the school or the district's score for each of these so we'll receive a score for student achievement we'll receive a score for student growth we'll receive a score for academic progress and then they have algorithms for calculating out your overall status based on that interestingly the last piece of this college career in Civic readiness is currently being calculated based on our students diploma types so Nancy talked a little bit about what are our how are our students faring now in the real world once they leave us what are they doing the introduction of this college career in Civic Readiness Rating aims to connect with that data So currently our college career in Civic Readiness Rating is
052determined based off of that students diploma type is weighted to factor into our score so students who are graduating with that Regents with Advanced designation they have a CTE endorsement or the Seal of bi-literacy or they take a high school course that's co-seeded with a college course or an AP course those students earn a wait for their diploma type of 2.0 and you can see how they're broken down by the different types of diploma the last time that the state calculated all of this data was pre-coveted so 2018 2019 for that school year our college career Civic Readiness Rating in that year was a one out of four so the lowest possible score for that so when you look at our strategic plan you will see a lot of pieces specifically focused around improving those
053High School Pathways making sure our students are visiting colleges connecting with their future careers doing you know where Brad talked about having an IEP it's almost creating that backward designed personalized education plan for our students of this is what I want to be and this is how I get there any questions on that before I keep going you just talked about our strategic plan but I'm not sure if you've had a chance to look at it yet but it's not rigorous at all our strategic plan is over five years but a lot of the year two year three year four it's not a full year it's something that could pretty much be done in two months so the Strategic plan isn't even something that you know to the goal that can be attainable Within ramp
054it up this year so hold on to that thought for the last slide of when we talk about so what now and what your role is in all of this so you have to be aware of our data so that you can set those performance goals for our district and you know when we talk about this being all of us together you all have a role in that as well okay so with Essa some of those key changes affecting us we talked about those growth measures the biggest piece from this is looking at those subgroups so previously under the previous accountability System Red Creek did not have to report on a lot of its subgroups because in the mathematical algorithms you had to have 30 students within a subgroup so if we were talking about
055male students we would report our data based on male students because there's over 30 within that grade level cohort we don't have a single grade level where African-American students are over 30. so we would never be reporting or measured on graded on the performance of our African-American students in any particular cohort does that mean that we don't have them nope it just means that we weren't being graded on them before under Essa the state will combine multiple years of data to get us to that count of 30. the idea behind that is to say districts you can't ignore any of your students you can't ignore any of those subgroup populations you have to be supporting all of them So within that as well when we talk about those subgroups students also can count in multiple
056subgroups so if you have let's say a female student who is an English language learner and they are a student with a disability and they come from an economically disadvantaged student or economically disadvantaged home that one student is going to count their performance level in each of those four subgroups so as Kate talked about earlier when we had greater numbers there were more students factoring into that average versus now that one student could essentially ding us four different times and those could all be four different pieces that the state could potentially identify us as needing to improve so what now from the leadership side of things we really need to break this out into a multi-pronged approach so there's that tier one curriculum and instructional Improvement piece that Cindy talked about at the first presentation
057starting this series of presentations so that's that proactive starting with the foundational skills of students there also will be the proactive diversity Equity inclusion work rebuilding those Community Schools programs and engagement opportunities and and initiatives but then simultaneously we can't say it's enough to just focus on those foundational skills we also have to have this reactive piece so when we look at our data and see that over 50 percent of our students are performing below grade level we have to make sure that our tier 2 and tier 3 academic and behavioral supports are evidence-based they're highly effective to close those gaps for our students none of us want to see students leaving here either as a Dropout or walking across the graduation stage that doesn't have the academic Foundation to be successful in the real
058world so we have some work to do to make that happen So within that again Cindy talked about the curriculum and instruction pieces currently they're completing a program review for both Ela and math so that is involving teachers and administrators as well to review the current state of our instructional program for ELA and math they'll be establishing non-negotiable expectations from that so what does your instructional block look like for Math and Ela at each grade level um then we have the follow-up piece from that so we come to agreements or someone lays out expectations of this is what you know if Mr Taylor says to his kindergarten teachers this is what I need to see in your Ela block we have to go follow up and and observe that that's actually happening so whether that's
059instructional rounds or learning walks there's a Fidelity check for that and then the final piece of this is using those BOCES coaches that we have to really make sure we're providing that targeted support for our teachers who need it most at the same time providing instructional coaching and support for our teachers who are high performing who you can really push to that next level of achievement so then under the Dei piece of that the proactive pieces and steps are going to be really looking at those personalized supports so again this will be Andy and I working together with those mtss systems again back to that Advisory board for 21st century and Dei work looking at building a Continuum of Community Resources so we know as you know we're talking about students who are coming with
060various trauma or Aces to our school we can't support all of their needs and focus on the academics so we really have to look to those Community Partners and agencies to help us meet those needs of of our whole students and some of that is parent and Community Support as well so you know having this open house with 29 of Our Community Partners and agencies coming here is a really great start for that to make sure that we're building those relationships with the agencies that can help to support our community as well so balancing those opportunities for enrichment and intervention so we don't want to only focus on our most struggling learners but we also want to look at those students who are the easy four and make sure that we're pushing those students to
061grow at their personalized rates as well also under that Community Schools piece Mr Walter and I have talked about trying to build opportunities for adult education through the community center so opportunities for our parents to come in and have positive interactions around learning and with the school as well and then continuing to build those Community relationships which we talked about so the reactive piece to this work around those tier two and tier three supports which you heard about from each of the building principles what's in place at each building level so from that work Andy and I will be doing some resource mapping to outline specifically what's available at each level to identify gaps or areas where we may need additional supports and we'll also be looking at those individual interventions that we're using to
062make sure that they are evidence-based so we don't want to throw a intervention at a student if we don't know that there's research showing that it's high impact it will accelerate the growth rates for our students we want to be really purposeful about using data to make those decisions for our students like that that's my next Point um so then looking at making sure we have a consistent and sustainable system for identifying those student needs so we don't as Jolene mentioned we don't miss any of our students always coming back to the data and making sure we're doing everything we can to not have students that we missed um and then when a student enters our mtss system for whatever whether it's Ela or math let's say a student's uh third grade student is going
063to have a math intervention we want to make sure that that intervention is purposeful and successful so that student really needs to have a goal that they're working toward from that intervention time so it's not just a Fluff time for them we want them to be really purposeful about getting the intervention they need to close their Gap and then return to not having an intervention if they don't need it so we have several interventionists in our district that are doing that work so we're really excited Andy and I to dig in with them and and make sure that we're growing those programs and and really highlighting the success of our students coming through those interventions and then the last piece is always that monitoring for Fidelity of implementation so making sure we have measures to
064track the success of our work and what we're doing so now is the what now so our next steps on the district end on our October conference day our Ela and Math teachers will be doing deep data Dives so they are going to go through all of our current performance data both by cohorts and overall achievement they'll be looking at Gap analysis with the standards to see where our students performed where they didn't perform and then really analyzing that back to our curriculum and our curricular program ask you a question sorry to interrupt I'm not sorry why wouldn't we have done that during the summer when when's the October is it spread in so so it's next week so we're already a month into school and at this point then you're going to ask teachers
065to look at the results from the summer why wouldn't they have been done already so in terms of using our state assessment data that embargo on that was just released so very timely that we could share this year's performance data with you all as a board that it was just released last week to share with me as a board but within the teachers the same thing with our teachers I jump in and correct me if I'm wrong my understanding is that embargo data we don't share out until it is unembargoed but I could be wrong on that so we do have internal data and I don't want to force Cindy to weigh in on that because it's not her presentation to have to do that no but internal take away your thunder but internal data
066with Dibbles I know she talked about they were looking at that in June as well with reviewing student performance back in June when they did their final diagnostic data there as well so again remembering that I have not been here that long to really be able to speak about what happened in June does not if I don't know about it doesn't necessarily mean that it didn't happen so our next piece coming back to you all as I alluded to will be coming back and looking at that cohort data so tracking our student progress over time and then hopefully after looking at some of the New York State Board of Regents pieces around diversity Equity inclusion hopefully you all establish that as a priority for you all that you want to outline what commitment you have
067as a board for our district to ensuring Equitable outcomes for our students and so if there is a board subgroup that's working on that you would be reviewing your policies and and really looking at our programs and offerings to make sure that we are meeting the diverse needs of our students as well so with that I talked as fast as I could while still being semi-understandable so what questions do you have for me that I can either take back and research or answer for you now it's a great one isn't it well questions questions prior today um you're talking about putting together uh and the second shared cohort that a subgroup performance data with the staff and with the board in October 12th and that's when our next meeting is right so staff will be
068looking at that on the seventh on the superintendent conference day correct and our plan at this point as long as you all add it to your board agenda is to come back and share that same this year snapshot data with you all looking across subgroups as well as tracking those cohort progressions as well the next bullet of being able I think to me we have to digest what you're going to present before we know what we want to do with that last bullet just speak ing myself what what where how we would address that as as an individual board member you've got to be able to thank you for all that you're going to be able to do that right and and with that you have a host of data in front of you that
069I just Breeze through that you could spend hours and days going through and that doesn't even get into the subgroup data you know so as you are thinking about setting goals for the district this all has to weigh into that if we're being data driven and what we're doing and what we're saying we're going to do then we have to really use the data to make those decisions other thoughts questions not so much questions but thoughts um I think we really need to look at um at what point are we holding students accountable because we can give as much support to teachers as we want but when students are continuously passed through when they're not meeting standards at one point is the student held accountable that's important and we really need to figure out what
070are we going to say is successful a three and a four are we are we promoting students to go visit nobelists or moths or any other you know the new plant as much as we are I'll go visit this college because we really need to make sure that students who are not going to college route still feel successful because they are right right any any trade we need to offer those and I think again considering your role in this you all through policy through letters to the community you set those statements as well and have a key role in establishing that rigorous expectation for our community and I totally understand what you're saying about college versus career my husband was homeschooled he went to the BOCES Tech and career center for one year left after
071his first year to enter the workforce so Technic quickly Eric if you could edit this out of the video later that would be great technically did not does not have a high school diploma he makes more a year or almost more a year than I do with two master's degrees because he works hard and has that work ethic and found a pathway to success for him he would be a one or two on State Testing if he were tested as a student here but but still very successful very productive member of society very well-rounded kudos to my mother-in-law I just worry go visit colleges go visit colleges go visit colleges when right those trade jobs are just as important absolutely especially when we live in a rural area a lot of students don't go to
072college right they find the trades and I think we need to make those available to them and those that's what Rick durocher has been pushing for the last few years I've been fortunate enough to be going so it was turkey with them but we need more wrecks do we need more wrecks beyond that to us to what you're saying understand the diversity of needs foreign and wherever they are and whatever their path is setting the bar high for expectations that accountability piece you reference we want all of our students if this is their goal this is where we want them to be when they leave here right I have two thoughts one um on this students that um both or BOCES program where does where do they typically as long as they complete their program
073are the with a CTE endorsement okay okay and the other thought that came to me while they were discussing is I've been 100 agree with the trades I think I have kids that will go in both directions um but also on that being that we were talking about poverty in our area um and I know I think it recently came up with um a college showcase or something that was at oh goodness can you tell me where was it it was in Rochester Mall there was no college career or a college fair or something like that and I mean it's in Rochester there's a lot of our students that might not even be able to get there might be that number of students that think they can't afford to go to college you know so
074they may not even be thinking they might be totally capable but again helping them realize that don't let that Define you from ninth grade eighth grade fifth grade you know make them feel encouraged to take that path that they want to take that path and don't close that door because your family didn't do it you just in your you feel like I'll never be able to afford that my parents will never be able to do that for me um so as much as it's important to make sure the trades are represented it's really important to make sure any of those underprivileged kids understand that none of these doors are closed for that right and that's part of our job is making sure our students know every option they have in front of them absolutely other
075thoughts thank you very much all right we'll keep moving okay we're gonna move on to e-new business one certified staff uh I would take a motion for A3 through Q except for n Kaiser yes right yes please Kim yeah okay any questions on the group it and he's one question it's a what exactly is a mental health demonstrations site supervisor so it's actually coming out your Grand Challenge so we have several mental health demonstration Grant interns that have worked with our district over the last few years it essentially is like a cooperating teacher for a student teacher it's there as a part of that Grant they're required to have a somebody here on site to help them connect with our programs and our students as well to really very similar to the model of a
076cooperating teacher for student teaching okay all right thanks other questions are you ready this is Allen yes Mr Davis yes this is Madison yes aqmo through Q passes seven zero thank you okay um I would take in a motion for e 1 n please thank you and this is Goodman second by Mrs Allen sorry hi there I have had the honor and privilege of working with Kim rice for my time here she joined the district coming from Oswego in September of 2005 and has served our students here for over 17 years involved with not only her students in the classroom but supporting Athletics supporting clubs she's been involved with the Union she supports our students in so many ways she's betting the roles of Department leads and BLT which is our leadership team at the
077building level it it's going to be very hard to replace Kim I wish her the best of luck and I congratulate her but she's leaving some big shoes to fill and she's just a really bright light in our school so I'm very sad to see her go but I'm very happy for her and her next steps to her post post red Creek plans so she'll still be local and you'll still see her but um very very happy for her her set for us thank you thank you yeah just to just to follow up with very nice we agree with everything she said um Kim Kim has been here for quite a long time um obviously lives in the community very very um connected to pretty much everybody that you talk to and she's done some
078really great things as Raina mentioned but just even above and beyond with her with her abilities to work with our basketball teams for years and just everything that she does so she'll she will truly be she really missed for a community specifically our high school but the overall population of our our teacher staff so definitely wish her a good luck and uh I'm sure we'll see her yeah same from us um any comments or yeah yeah I was just thinking the same thing she's been a great teacher for my students or for my children so I agree with doing this yeah okay I remember correctly she worked with me with our youth basketball program many years ago Saturday morning I think she was a substitute teacher for me but I didn't want to say that
079on camera because I want to date her but yeah right exactly thank you when you're ready yes Mr Davis yes this is Anna yes this is this yes yes seven zero thank you okay E2 classified staff I would be open to amongst them for all yeah okay a second this is Alan thank you any questions could we um because one of the appointments is um that we're approving was after the fact could we make sure that we get those before their probationary period ends to act on it before their probationary period ends you're talking about the retroactive one yes yeah okay any other questions the change in rate for a couple of the bus monitors is that because of contractor no there was a clerical error with them uh in the first resolution so we're
080rectifying that okay all right thank you anybody else are you ready yes this is Allen yes this is boys yeah here's the thing yes Mrs Kaiser yes this is Manny yes cancer seven zero thank you okay E3 the CSE and ctse recommendations by available motion please this is bliss and second my Mrs Alan questions on these okay all in favor any opposed any abstentions okay moving on uh E4 the Declaration of surplus property for wet dry vacuum there's also one for E5 for miscellaneous Furniture I'd be willing to take those together dates this is Alan any questions I have one question um miscellaneous Furniture one thing that we're getting rid of is a 100 red desks I think it is are those the red desks that we recently purchased or is it different now there
081are 100 deaths they're they're older desks that we've replaced with your desk okay all right thanks peace any other questions I don't know that it should have said red desks I think that's the issue all right thank you preaches only buy red desk so everything we throw on buys the same color okay any other questions when you're ready okay yeah this is Liz yes Mrs Ann yes just another one yes Mrs Kaiser yes this is Madigan yes passes seven zero thank you E6 seven and eight is the correction of the school tax roll for the town of Sterling will get in Victory we take a motion for all three yeah says Bliss thank you secondly this is Alan I have a question why do we do this it's the board of sets the levy amounts
082that that's what the board approves is the levy amount why are we approving the corrections too parcels we historically have it's not something that you know we know that's the tax collector to go ahead and correct those but we should be approving those our district historically has put them before the board I think it was a transparency thing a long time I feel like we had that discussion once before um you're not required to but also it's a Corrections before that that person that texts well they get the notice so publicly there's been that there's everybody that understands that there's been a correction that has been handled and fully conducted I mean we've come into lives I've been out here all right Elle I look forward to it next year then any other questions Mr
083Davis yes this is Alan yes Mr nodan yes Mrs Liz yes this is David no no okay this is Kaiser yes yes passes six one thank you E9 Declaration of surplus property for library books I'll take that as a motion and the second brightness is bliss after McDonald's I understand that you have the list in front of you would you mind just reading it I'm just kidding just keeping you on your toes anyhow I saw it so that's fine it was funny any questions okay when you're ready Mrs Kaiser yes this is David yes this is Alan yes Mrs Bliss yes Mr Nodine yes Mr dates yes Mrs Madigan yes it's a 7-0 thank you so for correspondence um just uh red Creek Central School District received the 2022 school safety Excellence award from Utica
084National the titanium level so we have this quack right here received this today are you going to hang that up we can hang that up yes okay probably in here we have nothing on the wall perfect nice um okay open house is Thursday October 6th I have a little bit of a different structure I know you all received the pamphlet that went out so we're very excited about that several things going on our administrative team has worked very hard to put this together and and make something that we believe is going to be a pretty successful night uh pasta dinner in the high school cafeteria at the house classrooms teachers meet and greet um we have some classroom-based activities Community fair and the varsity soccer game against North Rose so come out and support the
085school with that we had a our first lockdown drill today it was pretty successful we've had some things that we need to look at that that are changes that happen you know like some some doors that have just uh um they're sticking and things like that so just typical logistical things so we decided we wanted to make sure that we had a lockdown pretty quickly into the school year and we just have some things that we're working on tweaking we have a lot of new staff as well so we just wanted to make sure that everybody knows what the plan and the protocol is so that was our first one typically we have law enforcement join us we had our SRO join us but not not any external long-burst enforcement at this point but we
086will be welcoming and asking them to come in and join us for the next uh next lockdown um next week is spirit week so that's leading up to homecoming paper tutoring has a launch for an online after school program for students that we that we are now available so it's for our grades three through 12 students um sweethearts and heroes I think you've heard a lot from our students and from our community about a very successful program and I think it was very well received pretty much by by everyone had a lot of positive feedback our principals had a lot of positive feedback on that and it's something that we're considering continuing on with while we are continuing on with that but also bringing similar types of activities into the school throughout the course of
087the year maybe with them and maybe with some other organizations as well um as far as that goes I do have copies of our strategic plan to ask for those that's what I have for our update [Music] is the pasta dinner the junior supper where's that dinner that is Junior supper what was the date for that uh November 17th you have the information about going out there'll be a parent meeting coming up so there'll be some information coming up in the next week disease everybody's going to write that down yeah and the older house she said it's October 6th it's on Thursday any other questions yes I do um you know as as the board were responsible for approving the 10-year appointments that the superintendent puts forward to us and I think it's a great
088practice to hear an executive session of course um you know we have three to four years to hear about those teachers that will be approving um to see what their strengths are what they do if there's any concerns um but I would like to be able to see that we have meetings with the administration the ones that are evaluating said teachers or certified staff to see how they're doing that just makes sense so is that an annual yeah thing once a year you know on a shorter agenda Maybe a month that we have two meetings to set an executive session with the administration that evaluates staff um to talk about all the one tenure teachers and staff okay or you're saying you're very costing that you would like to see us do we approve um
089Staffing we have no idea who they are so it would be nice to hear about you know some good things that they're doing for the kids at the district I think it's probably I think you know it's an idea that we also will have to make sure contractually there's no violation of information that if there's a concern about uh you know what's happening you know for the teachers development as they're developing in those three years I mean we don't want to put ourselves to violate anything in any way contraction I don't I'm not looking to violate anybody's no no I didn't say that I didn't say you were I'm saying that we have to make sure that contractually there's not an issue with that so is this this would be like the list of on
090tenured staff that you would you would review once a year and then they would roll off once they were tenured yeah her thoughts about that other than the um thank you is it warm in here tonight or what okay that's that's probably a good you the board where how that fits within our role too so like maybe four training will hook to have that understanding of what our boundaries are about our friends thank you for that we have administrators that are hired in roles into those things you know so you're thinking it's 2D well are we getting out of our boundary lines doing that because they have to eventually a report comes you know but are we micromanaging in any way shape or form to that I mean and I'm saying this as a former
091teacher I'm thinking we have to be cognizant of what our role is as a board and is that overstepping our role because there is a time where we either approve or disapprove Nismo very clearly refer to it as getting the weeds during the training that our view as a board member is okay 30 000 foot view of the district our administrators doing their jobs and and you know oversight the superintendent and oversees the administrators and that chain of command continues to get directly involved with that level pretty tenure just it doesn't sound like what I was described as my position as a board member other thoughts great great question to ask if you're poetry who's portraying well any new board training that you go to Brad I had my new board training in 2006. yeah
092well I'm saying any time there's a training opportunity that's a good opportunity to ask where where would that fall so why don't we give this some thought and we will come back to it I don't think it's something that needs to be decided right this second could we also get an update on the library the status of the library sure did anything ever happen last month it was directed that um you know the link not to Jen oh I didn't understand the wanted an update right now sure so our administrative team has started to work through some of those areas we have allocated or identified some grant funding for to look at some some comfortable space some work space I know rain is looking in her building to maybe potentially reallocate some space areas so
093that we can kind of make it more warm and inviting area um you know one of the things that we do have to look at is if we're going to change the structure of that we have to look at some of the construction pieces of that where you have a lot of bookshelves that are anchored to the walls into the floors so that's going to need some some changes there as well we are also looking into some pretty significant technology updates in that area potentially so that students could have some some some personalized electronic equipment to do some of their reading on instead of the traditional textbooks because a lot of them quite frankly would prefer to do that so those are the types of things that we've started to have conversations with we've spent
094a pretty significant amount of time on it a few days ago actually and they're just in the investigation pieces of different areas so that's where we are if you anybody want to add anything we have a vendor that we work with for other Furniture purchases who is connected already [Music] Purity to come out and do some Consulting and say here are some options here are some designs that other districts have used and to really look at the space and offer some of her professional recommendations on what we can do because I personally have never redesigned a library before I don't offering it has or not so we're you know tapping into those people who do that every day to help us come in and really work with Mary Lee and say how do you see
095the flow of this space working what are the goals and priorities for student usage within the library so we're definitely tapping into those resources to make sure that we're maximizing our opportunity to change what the library looks like we're also following the committee together sorry we're putting committee together at the high school level and Matt's going to be part of that into Middle School teachers as well um looking like like you said with the flow can we reallocate some computer labs some other spaces and then make that space useful for some other things like maker spaces and things like that so we're really exploring what that Library space could look like and trying to get multiple perspectives as we make those decisions we're also wrapping up our building conditions survey which looked at the structure
096overall structures things that need to be upgraded and replaced that'll help inform our next Capital project one of the things that our Architects are very aware of is that we are looking to redesign some of those larger spaces into a more warm and inviting and friendly atmosphere for our students so so we're working through that piece with our Architects at this point but that that's kind of a a long-term project as opposed to what what I think our plan was here is to try to get something more immediate up and running sure other questions have I had any progress with any driver applications or anything have you seen any come through you appointed a driver this evening yeah so I think anything other than that one um right now I'm nothing nothing confirmed we do
097have a few people who have expressed some interest but nothing yet for just the one that we did hire Netflix is pretty good shape so I know that um recently we had a team that went to an athletic event and they didn't have transportation my understanding is that for those kinds of things they're on a volunteer basis and I know that we're fairly thin with our drivers um but I was I was sad to see that we weren't able to support our students and they had to drive themselves instead to the event um is it what event was that um the Hawaii soccer team went to a soccer game on Saturday um and from what I understand it was that there just wasn't anybody that who was available to volunteer and is that the typical
098procedure that we just had volunteers and if nobody everybody's busy or whatever then we don't we're able to provide the transportation no there's a process in place for providing Transportation I'm assuming this is more like a field trip from what you're explaining it was not the team participating it was a team watching so um so usually what happens is they go up on the board there's a seniority system for that as well um they go through the process and if there's not people available then that does become a challenge that certainly happens um usually we have about the same three two to three drivers that are typically driving these runs during the the school week it becomes challenging because they're they're out on runs and then they have to get back so we have to
099reallocate some things this edition of a driver should help us out with some of that I have to have a meeting with um my myself and Sharon and also with um with April to have conversations about how we're going to structure some of that out to hopefully ease up some of that issues I'm not quite sure this first I was hearing about the Saturday thing um so oh I can I can look into that further but I wasn't aware that that I used to know if that was typically how am I like if nobody was able to be available or volunteered then then that's just how it how it goes if they're so transportation yeah I mean on a Saturday that's a you know it's not a difficult work week it's not assignment okay all
100right thanks how quickly was your request put into I don't know it was a field trip so it wasn't through me it was through it was very short it was within a week it it's the they went at seven o'clock on Saturday night to watch the Su soccer team um we got the request early in the week for a Saturday so it was within the same week the sooner you can put it in the better because we do have typical drivers uh that don't mind taking Saturday and Sunday runs foreign thank you for coming