001Right. Good night everyone. Thank you for joining us for the October 28th Board of Education meeting. If you could all join me for a pledge to the flag. >> 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, with liberty and justice for all. Definitely the students don't know about standing up for the recognition. >> Huh. Sorry. >> Okay. Thank you. Sorry about that. Uh yes. So we will now start with R recognition of excellence. Dr. Murray. We are pleased to begin tonight's meeting by honoring a group of extraordinary students. The Rye Recognition of Excellence Awards recognize students who have achieved great things in the arenas of academics, arts, and athletics. Tonight we honor six Rye High School seniors who
002have been named semi-finalists in the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program and 13 who have been named commended students. The National Merit Scholarship Corporation recognizes outstanding students based on their preliminary SAT test scores. Approximately 1.3 million students in over 21,000 high schools automatically enter this competition when they take the PSAT in their junior year. Of that 1.3 million, approximately 16,000 students throughout the nation are named semi- finalists. These students place in the top less than 1% of graduating high school seniors. We are very proud of the six Ry High School students who have earned this distinction. Please come forward as I call your name. Lana and [applause] congratulations [applause] >> Pedro Becker. [applause] Ryan Croer. [applause] >> Congratulations. >> Graduating >> Jackson Paige [applause] >> Reed Thigpen. [applause] CONGRATULATIONS [applause] and Grace Wang. [applause] >> Of
003the 1.3 million students who took the PSAT, approximately 34,000 students are named National Merit Commended students. These students placed in the top two 2.6% of high school seniors who took the 2025 PSAT. We are very proud of the 13 Rye High School students who have earned this distinction. Please come forward as I call your name. Tara Brown. [applause] Claire Curran [applause] >> Harry Ellis, [applause] [applause] Brendan Fischer, and unfortunately Brenda could not be here tonight. We'll give a round OF APPLAUSE THOUGH. [applause] WILSON FITZ, [applause] you congratulate [applause] >> KATHERINE SHATZ. >> [applause] [applause] >> ALLESIA MCKINNON. [applause] Arv Sha [applause] [applause] >> David Singer. [applause] Thank you >> Gabriella Steinmets. [applause] >> [applause] >> Michael Talbet's not able to be here. Uh, and Amelia Whan, [applause] >> our warmest congratulations to the students. Their
004success is reflective of a great deal of hard work and dedication, not only by the students themselves, but by their parents, their teachers, and the school district community at large. And now, please allow Sarah Dur, our public information officer, to take your photo. So, can all the students please come back? We're going to have you stand in front of the Ry School District seal there. We'll get a group photo. So, come on up. >> Yes. Back. Mr. Thank you. that go first. >> We'll say one to all of the >> and then I want to get one of the commanded and then one of >> Let's do that first. >> Okay. Do you want to be an ide [laughter] in the front and then everybody needs to take a big step forward because you got
005the screen on on your faces. Couple more steps forward. There we go. Trippy good. Nice. Okay. Ed. >> Thank you for voluntar. [laughter] >> Okay, everybody. One, two, three. One, two, three. by the sake of >> pretty stone. [laughter] >> Instagram principal's phone at work. >> Get ready for Insta. [laughter] >> Now it counts. >> Gamer, you want to step in >> fresh? You got to drop it. Jump in for 50% to me. >> No, we got >> It's a great one. It's a Is that correct? >> I never wanted this. >> Okay. And now could I just have maybe the National Merit for a second? Just do the front. So Gabriel over here can just mend it. Okay. We still think I can get you all. Yeah, >> step forward. Sarah like the like.
006>> Oh, again step forward a little bit in the light. There we go. >> It's okay. >> One, two, three, do you need this too or are you good? >> I don't. >> Thank you guys. And then can I do the 75? Thank you. Okay. And again, everything's kind of set forward. Otherwise, you're in the lighting. I'm not that good with bird shop. Okay. One, two, three. Actually, can I have every awesome congratulations [applause] >> [applause] >> you. >> Oh, sorry. I'm like literally like standing in front of your camera. >> Sophia's congratulations. Thank you. Jose. >> All right. Uh [sighs] great. So now, sorry, we will move on to the report of the superintendent, Dr. Murray. Good evening again and welcome to the October 28th board of education meeting. October has been a busy
007and exciting month across the district with so much happening in our schools and community. The Rye High School Parson Street Players put on three outstanding performances of Radium Girls. The Osborne scare for scarefair drew a large crowd on October 19th, bringing families together for a day of fun and community spirit. The Ry Garnets defeated the Harrison Huskies 4928 last Saturday. It was a beautiful day for football and wonderful to see so many community members cheering on our team. This week, Rye High School will hold its first round of parent sorry Ry Middle School will hold its first round of parent teacher conferences tomorrow and our elementary schools are preparing for theirs on November 13th. On Tuesday, November 4th, we'll hold a superintendent's conference day. Our elementary faculty and staff will engage in professional learning focused
008on responsive classroom, part of our ongoing commitment to social emotional learning. At the middle and high school levels, faculty will explore artificial intelligence and its potential to enhance teaching and learning. We're also excited to welcome Matt Miller as our keynote speaker. He'll be sharing his insights on preparing students for an AI integrated world. Continuing that theme, we will host the first of three parent universities on AI on November 17th at 6 o'clock p.m. We encourage families to join us for this important conversation about how AI is shaping education and the world our students are growing up in. And finally, we've entered postseason play for many of our Garnet teams. Uh today, the girls varsity soccer team played Eastchester at 3:30 at home in the quarterfinals and they had a three-0 victory. and the varsity field
009hockey team. I just got news that it looks like that that game just finished up in New Jun Stadium with a 5-0 victory. [snorts] Um, and tomorrow, October 29th, the girls varsity volleyball team takes on Brewster in the first round of playoffs at 5:00 at home. And the boys varsity soccer team plays Walter Panis in the semifinals at 6:00 at home. Friday, October 31st, the varsity football team takes on Brewster in the quarterfinals at 5:00 p.m. in Newent Stadium. We wish all of our athletes the best of luck as they compete. And that concludes my report for this evening. Okay, great. Thank you. All right, we will now move forward with our presentation and discussion on assessment data. Dr. Murray or Dr. Santa Barbara. >> Right over to Lord. >> Hi. Good evening. U I'd
010like to thank Dr. Murray and the board of education for the opportunity to share and discuss the K through2 assessment data for Rye City School District. Here you will see our Rye commitment and the focus on our instructional programming which is on the left and the professional learning opportunities that are outlined on the right. Over the last few years, we have invested in time as well as financial resources to increase professional learning opportunities for our teachers and we are seeing results in student performance. We have implemented new programming such as Spire, PAF and UFly to support our literacy efforts which is outlined on the left. In coordination with our elementary teachers completing professional learning in the science of reading, we have seen a vast improvement in areas of growth for ELA and math. To support
011all students, we have been heavily engaging in monitoring student data in order to track skill progression. The database instructional cycles use multiple data points to monitor student progress and provide targeted instruction based on need. In coordination with our elementary teachers completing professional learning within the science of reading, we have seen vast overall improvements in ELA and math. This slide shows our multiple assessment measures K through 12 and these are assessments that are ongoing throughout the year. So we have that that cycle up on the screen. We have an array of local assessments which includes running record funological awareness which is K through two and our K through 12 unit assessments. On the right we have our NWA which is grades K through 8 in reading. Um, this is given three times a year for grades
012one through seven and two times a year for grades K and 8 for ELA and math. And then we also administer the New York State assessments for grades three through eight in math and ELA as well as the science tests in grades three and grade 5. Lastly, we offer our regent exams for students who were enrolled in designated high school courses. And as you can see, we collect numerous data points of our students to not only drive our instruction, but to better understand our vertical alignment throughout the courses, our curriculum needs, and further enhancing our academic learning. >> So, we're going to go through an array of slides um that provides an insight into our data. I'm going to give you a few minutes to to look at our numbers and then we can analyze
013and please feel free to ask any questions as we go throughout the presentation. This slide shows the New York State assessment for EL for the ELA exam for grades three through eight. This chart indicates the percent of students who achieved a three and or four which identifies proficiency within English language arts. The blue bars are the 2024 data and the red bars are the 2025 data. And as you can see from the chart, some areas have increases specifically in grades three and four while others have decreases. This slide shows the cohort comparison. >> Sorry, Lauren, can I just ask one question about this? >> So, for grades three and four >> of the programs that you talked about earlier, >> um how much of those would have been fully implemented for these kids from 24
014to 25? >> So, grade three has full implementation. >> Okay. Yes. Um they would have gotten full implementation in second grade um of the youthly program. Um but I would also say that our our early literacy phonics work in general has has targeted kids up to fourth grade. So all the early work we started working with Haskins when we trained all our teachers and OG doing more structured literacy. That's I would say it would be about the the fourth grade mark, >> right? because those those started a couple of years back and then these would be would have been the kids that have would have benefited from those in those younger years. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> So looking at the this is a comparison for the cohort for the New York State ELA
015assessments grades three through eight. So this is really looking at the same students from year to year and looking at their achievement levels. So the black bar represents the percentage of students who achieved a three or a four in 2024 and the red bar shows the same cohort's achievement in 2025. It is important to look at compar at the comparison from year to year to better understand the vertical alignment and overall achievement for those that same cohort of students in grades three and four. The cohort comparisons suggest steady improvement over time, indicating that the same group of students are maintaining and/or increasing proficiency as they move through those grades, specifically the younger grades. Early literacy initiatives and program interventions such as Spire, UFI, and PAF appear to be producing measurable benefits in our reading proficiency,
016which is what you were you were discussing. Within the last two years, our faculty have been trained in the science of reading, which is what Dr. Murray referenced and so the pedagogical approaches were a little earlier and then the programming came right after that. >> As we continue with the state exams, this chart indicates the percentage of students who achieved a three or a four on the New York State math assessment for grades three through eight. This is a clear overall trajectory with high levels of proficiency. We have recently extended our programming of math and focus into the sixth grade. that's in our its second year and the data um such as this allows us to really review the curriculum, analyze the data over time and make course changes if necessary. So, our math trajectory
017in the later grades is consistent. Um we're we're right at that high 80s. Um and then looking at where our our curriculum has if there's any places of gaps or skills that we can revisit and really start to look at reteing. Um that has been proven beneficial in the past. that >> this is our cohort comparison. So, similar to the ELA, we have our New York State math assessment grades three through eight and our cohort comparison. So, this slide shows um students who achieved a three and a four in 2024 is the black bar and students who achieved that same rate in the 2025 is the red bar. As you can see, we're staying in the mid to upper 80s, similar to the last chart in many of the cohorts. But some things to think
018about as we review this data is the decrease from fourth to fifth grade. It is our practice to analyze that testing data as I mentioned before to see how we performed on each standard. Um we review this um with the instructional team with the coaches and the principles and then we take that data and we bring it back to our grade level teams and we really look at where the standards were in comparison to the region and any consistencies or trends that we're seeing within our curriculum and we go back and revisit with the teachers to really analyze if there's a gap in in skill or it's maybe something that we need to retach for a specific cohort. we'll go back and do that and we're doing that as early as right now so that
019it gives our teachers time to plan and it gives our students a longer time to understand the concepts if they need to do so. So we continue this practice year to year to make sure that we're providing support. You will also notice that there's a decrease in our eighth grade scores. This can be attributed to the fact that our eighth graders took the algebra 1 regions and at that time uh the time was spent largely focused on that curriculum. that was the focus where our teachers um put a lot of their teaching especially towards the end of the year. The algebra regions does not cover geometry, stats or probability which the eighth grade math state exam does. So knowing that there's a gap in that curriculum because we really did put our focus on the
020algebra 1 exam which was um really where our priority was. So we do expect this to be a trend as we continue with our math continuum. >> Just go ahead. Just one quick question on um on that third to fourth and I guess sort of the the third grade as a whole on on the math assessments. Um >> I mean I see you know very strong over outperformance with uh with with reading and I know all the the emphasis on UFly. I guess would any of that be attributed to sort of over spending more relative time on reading relative to to math? So you're asking if the achievement that we're seeing in reading is going to correlate to the you're saying is it because we spent time there and the math isn't reaching there. >>
021So a lot of times and and what they're looking at and this is a really interesting study with the implementation of the science of reading and programs like UFly. They're seeing the literacy rates increase first and then the math starts to increase in a couple of years because a lot of students who are having reading comprehension the math problems are wordy so the vocabulary tends to catch up. So, what I'm hoping that we're going to see in a couple of years is watching those math numbers increase. Something we're going to be looking at to Matt's question and then another piece is at this point now, uh, math and focus has been our textbook series for if I'm got to be getting on 10 years. it I well I was on the I was on the
022parent committee before I was a board member >> so it's at least >> six or seven years I would say more seven years they piloted in seven years ago third grade >> so >> it's it's actually seven years same same years >> came on same time as you Dr. Fremer look at that all right now I'll never forget all so has there been um a look back and a look through to see if we and and where I guess the question really would be where are we in our review cycle of math and of that textbook series. Funny you should say that because funny you should ask about that because I was just talking to our math instructional coach about that and that we are up for a review cycle of it and that is
023work um >> that um we I'll be speaking to Lauren about engaging in um because I I think we're at about that point here. Um and and not that I'm not you know I think that math and focus has served us well in a lot of ways. Um, but I think it's important that we always go back, we review, we review the curriculum, make sure that's meeting our students needs, make sure we're seeing the growth that we want to be seeing. >> Got it. Sorry. So, so I guess um and it's not we're not we won't see it here. So, this might just be a question for for to look at. >> Yeah. >> After [laughter] um from a from a progression point, say like if we looked back three years and this third to
024fourth It'd be interesting to see what those numbers look like. So, because we're looking at this and we're saying 83 and 85, very great, very good numbers. [laughter] I mean, I think that's the other thing that that strikes me in all of these, >> these are very high achievement numbers. So, what we're, as we talked about a lot, we're looking at how can we make those smaller movements in in these very proficient students. Um, but that's where the 83 and 85 sort of stands out and you're like, well, what's happening there? So, I'm curious if it's if there if we saw this as a a dip from years before, like several years back, or if this is just kind of sort of where they came in at. You know what I'm saying? Does that make
025sense? >> Well, I think so. So, this is the third to fourth grade. So, this is the same cohort you're looking at when they're in third grade to fourth grade. I wouldn't have any more data on that cohort specifically, but you can look back from previous cohorts, right? >> Um, and I would say overall the trend is that we are we're doing better. We're making a lot of growth in in the fact that we like we're living in the upper 80s now, >> which wasn't always the case. >> Okay. So, that's really sort of the the question because I don't I don't recall what all of the numbers were before. Um so I think that um clearly we've seen that that growth and I is I guess kind of the question now is as we're
026doing this review cycle have we hit a plateau somewhere in that >> I think also though it is interesting to think about who uh or what experiences these third and fourth grade students have had. >> So these are kindergarten co kids. So what does that if at all impact where they're starting where their baseline is? Right? If you're learning math on the computer in kindergarten, I can attest I would not have done well. >> It just >> just that's n and I would imagine that's been a different experience for these kids. So how that's translating up and down I think is interesting. Another question I I had separate. Um, you know, you're looking at 4%. 2%. >> It's not a it's not a great percentage. And is that enough? Is that be is it small
027enough really that it's about how many kids are taking a test at a given time? >> Can some of that be part of that? Go >> ahead. [laughter] I think They're all going off. >> Teacher. >> Yeah. Yeah. That's Can you hear us? >> No. >> Wait here. This one. That one's working >> here. >> Oh, I'm on. I'm back. >> You're on. >> Oh, they're back on. >> That was a That was a heartbeat. [laughter] >> So, looking at the trend for the refusal numbers for Rye, uh we are decreasing in the refusal. So what that means is in the last couple of years we've been anywhere from 10% refusal to to nine to eight and this year we were seven. So what that what that says is that we're having more of our
028students test. Um which is wonderful and it's giving us an accurate reflection of where our students are and how they're performing on the test. Um, so that's data and it's it's helpful data because we can see if there's, you know, if there's a gap, if there's something we need to go back and revisit, if there's vertical alignment that we need to, you know, this year we put our teachers into vertical alignment for professional learning with advanced literacy. It's the first time we've grouped them that way. Um, I think in a long time, [laughter] so it's tricky to say first times. Um, so it's the first time we've done that and the teachers have given feedback that has been really eye- openening to see, you know, what the third grade teachers working on and how those
029kids respond. We do classroom visits. So it's real time look at our curriculum and how our students are learning and really what our students are bringing to the table with prior knowledge because that's something that's very helpful for that next teacher in that next level. Okay. All right. So, this is the NWEA reading mean RIIT scores for grades 1 through 7 for the 2024 2025 school year. RIIT stands for the RASH unit. It's a measurement scale used in NWA MAP growth assessments to estimate a student's academic achievement and track their progress over time. So this equal interval scale is similar to a ruler where a change of 10 RIT points indicates the same amount of learning regardless of whether the student is at the beginning or the end of the scale. So this allows us
030for consistency comparisons of growth across different grade levels and years. The blue bar represents the fall mean RIIT which is on the left. The red bar represents the spring mean RIT and the black bar represents the national spring mean RIIT scores. The mean of the RIT score indicates the students are performing at or above the national norm. The fall and spring data also in indicates that students are making significant progress. So in many of the grades, our students are coming either right at national norm looking at that grade one and two or they're coming in over the national norm and then there's growth beyond that. So looking at that right side is that national norm again. But what's really interesting to look at is the red bar from the red spring measurement to that black
031measurement of the national spring. Right? Looking at that change is really what we're focusing on. This data helps support that. that our recent literacy programs are having a positive impact and growth on our students. Specifically noting the differential between those spring scores specifically in grades 1 2 3 and four and then that difference in the older grades specifically five six and seven. You don't see as much of a growth level there. So you're seeing it in the younger grades which can help attribute to the programming that was recently put in. >> I has a question on on that. I I mean I know it's it's design so the numbers you could kind of look over time in a progression from grade to grade to grade. The the tests are changing each year, right? Though it's
032not like I mean in theory if you had a really really smart first grader they're not like >> getting to the same questions the seventh grader would have or are they like how does it work? the the test is adaptive and so technically yes you could be if you keep doing well and they give you more challenging question more challenging you can you could be a first grader getting a seventh grade question hypothetically >> okay >> and it'll it'll do the same in reverse as well so it'll it'll get to a target at some point any comments you can >> All right this is our NWA math math mean RIT scores for grades 1 through 7. The blue bar represents the fall mean RIIT. The red bar represents the spring mean RIT and the black
033bar represents the national. Similar to the last slide, the mean of the RIT scores indicates that they are performing at or above. The fall and spring data also indicates that students are making significant progress and they are consistently improving on the math. So, you look at the ELA and there's a little bit of um a trend that goes up and down. the mass seems to be trending upward. Um, this is a consistent, you know, numerical differential between the spring and the national mean. This slide shows the NWA reading growth from fall of 2024 to the spring of 2025. This chart specifically shows the rate of growth throughout the year. Right? So this is purely looking at just growth, not the achievement. As you can see, grades one, two, three, and four have shown tremendous growth
034that have surpassed the national norms. So this, you know, in working with Dr. Murray on the presentation, this this is not what our numbers looked like last year. So this is a huge tribute to the work that's been done um you know, from Dr. Murray and the administration, the the administration at the buildings and the teachers and the parents and just supporting our students. This is really something to be commended specifically in grades 1, two, and three. These are our early literacy years. Um so while the grades in five, six, and seven have shown great growth, um this is really wonderful data all around. So it's it's really showing that our students are acquiring those skills and they have potential growth beyond what their trajectory is. So they're surpassing even what our program is programming
035is saying they should reach. This is the NWA math growth. Um, >> sorry. Yep. Sorry. Just to go back to that for a moment. >> Sure. >> So, in a >> next year, this same time next year and we're looking at this, >> we should expect >> the same type we the I it doesn't you can't you shouldn't expect we should not as a community expect, right, to see this kind of continued growth. Then as those cohorts of kids move across >> or would you test? you you might uh hopefully [laughter] I think that that these are all basically it's it's saying that where where these students where these students started we're expecting that because the students let's say in first grade started here we're expecting based on national norms let's say that they're supposed
036to get to they're supposed to they're supposed to grow um on the RIT scale 12 supposed to grow 12 up to 12 and they they surpass that and so um it's possible that students show yeah that much growth from year to year and surpass those growth norms that are national norms. It's possible. >> Does that does that answer your question? It >> it does. I think it's just something I think it'll be it'll be interesting to see what next year looks like to see is it really sustainable or have we kind of >> were we able to hit so many targets with those targeted real you know dialed in instruction that now perhaps >> and I think you're going to see more growth in the lower grades. >> Right. Exactly. that second grade once they're
037going to third grade. You may not expect to see that continue because really the skill attainment is such that now we're talking about even more marginal growth that these that this group of students could be making. >> I mean I I mean ideally those first graders would follow exactly what you see happen with the second, third, fourth all the way down. Yeah. So yes, it would be it would probably be less growth just based on where they are in their development of their reading skills. Okay, sorry. [snorts] >> So, this is a similar chart identifying that growth through the NWA for math. Um, the so the the yellow diamond, right? That's the target of where they are projected to hit. You're going to see that we want to be right in the middle. That's saying
038that we hit that target. You're going to notice in grades one, two, five, and six, and seven, um, they've hit that target and went above it. Um, grade three, they're a little bit below. Grade four. Um, and grade seven, you know, is notable for for tremendous growth in grade seven, right? So, that's something that we may want to look at and say, hey, what are we doing in grade seven that's causing that type of growth? looking at the curriculum, how it's taught, the pedagogical approach, and really looking and say when things are working really well, let's investigate that too, right? So, we want to look at when things if there's a possible gap, but also we want to celebrate the things that are that are performing and maybe we can duplicate that too. So, looking
039at why seventh grade is that high, we want to look at both ends of the argument. >> So, here it's also relative, meaning we're lagging a little behind in the grades prior to seventh. So, it could be some really big catch-up that's going on at seventh for some reason, right? >> I'm sorry, say that last part. saying it looks like we're lagging a little bit behind in the grades prior to seventh and then we're having a big catch-up in seventh which you know so it could be >> what we're doing in seventh or what we're not doing in >> exactly >> and what if any impact is that math and focus being rolled up to sixth grade actually doing now >> right right >> well it is showing that we're hitting the growth target which
040is great which was not always the case so that's definitely something to celebrate >> um in terms of the seventh grade curriculum you know that that course, that seventh grade math course does um it's it's a higher level course because we also want to make sure kids are prepared to go to algebra 1 should they choose that level of challenge. >> Okay. And this is little bit of a different chart. This is the second year that we are um administering the New York State Science Assessment Grades for five and eight. And again, the percentage indicates le students who have achieved a level of a three or a four. Um, and this is really nice data. This is a high increase from the year prior. Um, and you know, with the literacy and that's going to
041take some time to reach these levels, but we expect these numbers to trend up and our teachers have done a really nice job um, working with the curriculum and and really looking at the exam for our students. We've also aligned the NGSS um instructional standards for hands-on inquiry experiences to help strengthen scientific reasoning um to support the performance of this exam. And last year we started a new science program, mystery science, which is more hands-on and grounded in inquiry based learning. So we're hoping that that skill acquisition within that program is, you know, it's showing that it's supporting students on the exam and they're certainly prepared. Would we also expect that given the departmentalization that that should have some impact in these >> absolutely >> at the fifth grade level? >> Yes. >> And that
042started for this year, right? So we'll be watching, right? Like so that's a change in the data. So that's also something to watch. >> Absolutely. >> And if I remember correctly, the shift to this new assessment was pretty significant from what it had been before. So um so it's wonderful to see that that uptick in just one year um because it was it was a completely different kind of test than than the kids were used to. >> Yeah, it's quite challenging and it and it took and it's a it took them a long time. I think these kids sat for a long time for that test unfortunately >> um because it was it was pretty rigorous. It is a lot of reading. It's application of skills instead of just memorizing of content, >> right? Okay,
043this slide indicates the percentage of students for the New York State Regent exams for the 2025 who achieve a three or higher. Level three indicates passing and above on the regent exams. So these scores indicate strong course alignment and skill acquisition at the secondary level. This also indicates a strong emphasis on vertical alignment as many of the formative assessments are cumulative. I'd like to recognize the earth and space achievement level. This is a new course. Um similar to what you were saying before, the standards are new and this took a lot of work um for our teachers to really implement and and change the entire approach to their course. The teachers have done a wonderful job implementing and preparing our students. And to date um for this that cohort's year, it's the highest achieved regents
044which also indicates the readiness of our students to challenge themselves academically. So students can opt into taking that um regions earlier and they have certainly uh shown up for the challenge. I'd also like to bring your focus to the biology exam which is a new exam as well and our students did as well as they have done in the past. The test is heavily focused on reading and acquisition skills and not as much content and our students were very well prepared for it. So really nice numbers for the regions. Okay, these are our AP results um for 2025 and I just wanted to spotlight a few. Um we have art history. We have a a really nice offering of AP exams. So students can take an array of AP exams as you know at the
045high school or they can take IB classes. looking at the AP results. Um, you know, students can take the English lang, they have chemistry, and we have a high number of students taking these exams, and they're they're doing really well. So, anything with a three, um, a four or a five is eligible for colleges or universities to grant them credit. Um, so anything over that number is is really high highly successful. We have more exams on the next page. This is continued. We offer French, physics one, psychology, US government politics. Um, and looking at the total amount of of exams is really high as well. So, this chart shows a comparison over a five-year trend. Um, the AP candidates, so as many students who were taking the APs to date last year, this is the
046highest number of students we've ever had take the AP exams. The number of exams taken is also the highest it's ever been. And with that, that achievement level is is the highest it's been in five years. So the idea of the AP exam is really access. So the more students you have take it, it's a really nice correlation to see that we've had high achievement with that as well because we do want to expose our students to higher level college classes and it just allows for them to be better prepared in the workforce or into universities wherever they choose to go. So this is this is really nice data for the high school as well. >> Have two quick questions. Um just have you looked at the ECON macro number and and thought about that?
047And then also >> um it's my understanding if if a [clears throat] child's enrolled in the class, they have to take the AP exam. It's a requirement. It's not that you can opt you don't opt into it. It's a requirement if you're in the classes. This way you get the AP designation for the course as well. Okay. So all so all these students are all in the classes that sorry it's not that you can elect to take I know some schools you can elect to take the exam if you want it but it's a requirement. >> It's required if you're in the course. Yes. >> Yes. Okay. >> The the macro numbers is something we are looking at. I looked at last year's were similar. >> Um but that is something that we're we're looking
048at. The college board does a really nice dashboard um for high school principles and for their teachers. So what they can show is they can show the growth of a cohort. They can also show the growth over five years for that specific exam and they can also really break down for the the teacher will get a breakdown of how many threes did they have ones, twos, threes, right? They'll give that breakdown. So it would be an interesting study to look at something specific like the macro and to say, you know, has that increased or declined from how many threes they've had, how many fours they've had and really looked at why that would occur. So is it more content that they're covering? it did the test change? So, really doing a deep dive into that
049data for the teacher. That's more of an individual basis, but that's something that we're going to be looking at this year. >> Thank you. >> I not not anything that can be answered now, [clears throat] but I do find it curious to see an increase in the number of our AP candidates over five years >> um in two ways. One that we've had a conversation from challenge success about students access taking and focusing on AP and and those kinds of rigorous courses and to see those numbers actually grow over time >> is something to that that gives me a question >> thinking about the adoption of the challenge success as a philosophy in our district but to see our students increasing participation it's not a bad thing it's just you're doing one and then we're
050seeing a result of something else. >> The other thing is that I think it will be interesting to see over the next five years is how and do these numbers shift as more students take IB courses. Y >> yes, that is definitely something to watch. [snorts] Just I guess I I did just look because it's easy on board docs, but in 2019 there were 547 students that took 1181 exams and then I think it might have been a pandemic thing but 566 in 2020. So it >> so we're going back to the level the pre-COVID levels. >> Yeah. But what is interesting to see, sorry not one analysis, but um back in at least in in 2019 and 20 those passing rates were in the low 80s. Um >> but you're actually seeing more students
051taking more exams and getting higher grades as you were just you're getting higher passing rates which >> is is great to see. >> Yeah, I think they're ready, right? is just exposing them to that course, right? They're coming to us by their junior year, sophomore year, whenever that AP is available and they're ready to do it, right? They're prepared, which is telling us information about the prior years. Um, but I think getting that exposure to them so they have the opportunity to take that course is where you're seeing that data come through. >> I I I do think that it's something to consider. um the fact that we are back up to preandemic levels. Um and one of the concerns pre- pandemic was [laughter] >> the intensity around constant achievement >> and not to dismiss
052achievement as certainly a a valuable um goal. It's not that it it isn't. However, um part of the reason that we've had a lot of conversation and and went toward a challenge success um uh partnership >> was because that achievement became um seemingly the most important thing. So there's there's an element of concern around burnout around that. Um, and that's maybe not the right term, but but um I think you know we certainly want kids to challenge themselves when they're ready. >> Absolutely. Um, and you know that could be done in a myriad of ways. So I think it's just something that we want to keep in mind. We certainly want kids to feel like they are advancing themselves and and to have that reinforcement, but you know, let's let's make sure that it's it's
053not coming along with some of the >> sure >> the downsides of that. >> Yeah. I think that's the risk you run when you give so many opportunities like this to students and just really making sure and we talk about fit and that's we've talked been talking about fit for years and making sure kids have the right fit in terms of not just in in and colleges our universities but really in what they're choosing for their high school path and I I think it's an important conversation we always we have to be having constantly with our students uh counselors parents teachers administrators and making sure that just because we offer all these really high level rigorous courses doesn't mean that that combination is right for for every child. We really have to to look every
054unique student in what they want to accomplish and and what they what they want to learn more about and what you know feels right for them. >> Brian, >> I want to say that as someone who's been through course selection that I think that is very alternative is followed by both guidance. So I think obviously pushing that further, but I don't believe that there's any environment at school. >> That's good to hear. Thank you. >> I do wonder though. Now um I find I I think it's interesting that part of the whole push to go to uh community lunch >> was so that we couldn't have students who were taking multiple APs. Remember the whole thing was like kids were giving up lunch so they could take 16 math classes. But yet somehow our AP
055numbers are increasing like >> that's that that's there are we meeting the goals I think are the thing it's it's reflection points to consider >> yes I think I think that it is something to consider especially in with our challenge success success work this year with uh we are going to be giving the challenge success survey again too. And that will be good data for us to look at in terms of the level of of of stress or anxiety that students are feeling or the level of um you know homework that they have or the amount of work and and see if we see any difference between our numbers this year and last year as well. But it's but but it's an important part of the conversation [snorts] >> and just some key takeaways. Um
056you know as we just shared our students are performing well on both academic achievement and growth. Student growth indicates our professional learning efforts are having a positive impact overall. Continuing um our review of the of the not a review of the program but looking at the strength that the program has brought um and its benefit for our students. We will continue to analyze regional and state um question indicators to review our curriculum and to ensure proper placement of skill acquisition. right? That that proper placement is key. And then more students, you know, as we just shared, are taking the AP exams, but I I do think it's, you know, it's key to make sure that we are taking the SEAL focus just as serious as we are the academic. >> Um, so, you know, as
057Dr. Murray uh explained town success is a a wonderful partner in really looking at our student data and to make sure that we're looking at the the whole child and making sure that we're supporting them on all fronts >> because you do support student mental health, right, by having rigorous courses and curriculum experiences for kids. So they are not SEAL is not a watering down of student achievement. And I think it's important to say that a lot >> so that everybody understands this is this is they're not separate. They both feed and and create success for students simultaneously. So, so actually just one last question. Um, >> picking up on on that sort of [laughter] we um we have all this wonderful data from the NWA at the younger ages K to 8 that look
058at that that growth >> factor. Um, and I'm I'm not sure aside from maybe like whatever the teacher might view within the um classroom as as far as growth if we have something that comes close to capturing that kind of data at the high school level. And I don't even know if it's possible, but I'm, you know, I'm just thinking about um >> the growth piece to me is is sometimes the the the element that um gives you so much information about where where a student started and where they're where they've been able to get to just in one year. um and where you know it's I think it's harder to do that with a a region score and a and an AP score because it's all the way at the end always. [laughter] >>
059So just just some I wanted to throw it out as a as a >> just a um kind of a a difference between those two levels and if there's some if if there's anything that you think that we maybe could try to pinpoint that could help identify kind of that. Yeah, I mean to your point, we don't have the same kind of data at the high school. Um there there are assessments you can get the the NWA does go up K12 uh if we you know if we felt like that that was important. Um >> and and and may maybe it is. I think that's a conversation to kind of look at our data overall as an administrative team to see if that is something that is necessary and would serve our students well. >>
060Right. >> I certainly don't want to add more tests. Yeah, [laughter] that would probably be the only thing I can I can um think of that would that would serve that purpose. Can you think of something? >> I I would uh sometimes in the high school too it's not only just focused on achievement like you're saying like looking at so some of the things that um is good data to look at to see if yes achievement wise we're meeting the needs of students but looking at things such as attendance um you can look at rates of attendance, discipline referrals or records. Um you can also do referrals to um you know students with anxiety or hospitalizations um those types of things. Um and then it's also important to look at um the various programs that
061we're offering because yes there's also been great increase like academically with the uh AP tests and scores. Um but we've also had many more students than we've ever had accessing our CTE or tech programs. So I think that there's other data besides achievement that we should also um start to and when we have our presentation we certainly can bring some of that too but I think we need to be looking at like at a whole child >> um and sometimes it's not just about achievement. >> Right. >> Well and actually the CTE is achievement but it's it's different achievement than what we think of as a under that fancy umbrella of what achievement is. going and getting a a a certification to be able to go and and start work immediately upon graduation with a
062a technical skill or trade is a huge achievement and it's one I will never have in my life. I graduated with a college degree. I will never be able to fix a car. And I they're they are as equally important in providing different skills. And I think talking about those kinds of things I think is actually something we really should be considering how to embed those pieces of data into this achievement presentation. >> Yes. I question came up lately because we were talking about this maybe. >> Go ahead. Yeah. >> Talking about challenge success and like try or ask out what actually is being enacted that that's doing that like how is that right? >> So >> because in my mind the team feels like very important factor >> and obviously like students are different
063and everything. Um but >> I I know we're saying you know and achievement are both important they coexist and all that. >> Uh but just making sure like challenge success isn't going to like limit the amount they piece or if a student feels ambitious about that. No, it's about challenge. Sorry. Challenge success is more about like balance, right? Like the like the well- balanced student and making sure that that uh what you kind of surround yourself with and choose for yourself makes sense for you. It's kind of more about the individualization of it all. Um and and the school does have the high school has a challenge success team which is made up of students and parents, teachers, administrators. Um and every year they have a different focus. But, you know, as we mentioned, the
064community lunch, the community lunch piece came out of challenge success. The new schedule where kids are learning for longer blocks of time came out of there as well. >> That's a good piece. >> Yeah. Yeah. And I think I believe right now the team is focusing on like on belonging um and how to how to create different opportunities for students to have more voice in the school. I believe is what Mr. Har is working on right now. >> Yeah. Because challenge success has been in place now for eight years. >> Yeah. It's been a while. >> Yeah. So, it's certainly it's not something new. So it wouldn't be something now that would start to change things in that way. >> I think too if I can just add um one of the core concepts is
065maintaining rigor while reducing stress >> um in that program and also um they're going to be working on a sleep campaign this year again which will go through the balance and um you know incorporating all that >> and I'm sure as part of our presentation that's coming up we will be able to get more information on challenge success. >> Great. All right. Any other questions, comments? No. Okay. So, sorry, moved myself down too far. Okay. Uh, I don't see anybody here from the public, so I will skip uh my hearing of the public presentation, but we are always happy to have members of the public join us. So, please at any time every other Tuesday, typically we're here. Come on down. We'd love to hear from you. So, with nobody here from the public, we
066will move on to the consent agenda. Can I please have a motion to approve this evening's consent agenda? Sean Clafar, seconded by Valerie Lapam. Let's take a look at this evening's consent agenda. Consent agenda general. So I am going to just uh jump in here for a second. We have um a slew of policies that we are going to be adopting as part of our consent agenda tonight. And I wanted to point out one in particular um our policy 9259 non-representative employee and nonrepresented employees. Um we had gone through the whole review process around this. Um and there had there was one um additional change since we last met uh to very nonsubstantive uh things like uh correcting a title for someone. um and then also removing um an element about life insurance for titles
067that had been removed from the policy. So instead of starting all over at the beginning because these are such minimal changes to it um I decided that we should maybe just try to uh add them back in and discuss tonight if anyone had any questions. Um I sent it around to the group. I haven't um heard any questions, so just making sure that everybody's had a chance to look at it. >> Yep. >> Just um being on the policy committee, I had no further questions. Great based on >> fantastic comments that you just made. >> Okay. >> And then secondly, um also within the consent agenda, there's the um there's two policies that we are actually repealing. um both of which were policies that uh are just no longer needed. Um one uh is 4136
068which is professional conferences and meetings. This is already outlined in another policy that we already have. Um and then the second was 2450 which is policy dissemination which was important when we had uh binders of policies on paper that had to be housed in different parts of the district so they could be accessed by the public. We no longer need to do that because we have everything accessible through our website and so we felt it was not necessary to keep it. So those are being repealed. >> Okay, great. Thank you. Consent agenda fiscal Consent agenda, professional appointments. >> Consent agenda, classified appointments. >> What? >> Consent agenda, pupil personnel services, and special education. And consent agenda, curriculum, instruction, and assessment. >> Okay. Seeing no questions, can I have a vote to approve this evening's consent
069agenda? All those in favor? That is 7 nothing. Thank you. So on this evening's consent agenda, we have the approval of a contract with academic entertainment for an assembly that will be held at Milton Elementary School, which has been paid for previously by the Milton PTO. Uh as Miss Bole said, we have the adoption of policies previously reviewed and discussed at two previous board of education meetings. The policies related to eligibility of middle school high school extracurricular activities, non-represented employees, student records, student district records, regulations with exhibits, and student privacy under protection of pupil rights pup yeah yep pupil rights ad amendments information and data privacy security breach and notification. Any questions, please uh view our previous board meetings at which we have reviewed these policies or feel free to reach out to the board.
070Uh in addition, we are hiring two new custodians this evening, which I believe now, Miss Peruio brings us up to being fully staffed at all of our buildings. And so I just want to take a moment to thank all of our building service workers because they have been short-handed. And I think anybody who has been in any of our buildings would be surprised to know that we have been short staffed. Uh, and so we do really thank um our our building service crews for working really well together and pulling things together um on a nightly and daily and continuous to almost 247 hour basis. And so hopefully everybody will get to take a little bit of a break, maybe reduce their steps a little bit now that we are fully staffed with our custodians. And
071finally, we have an approval of a contract with the Rain Raid House in the amount of $3,300 to hold our summer 2026 learning institute for our faculty because you can never start planning soon enough for next summer and next school year. Right. >> All [snorts] right. Excellent. So, now we will move on to information and discussion. Miss Bole, >> more policies. So, um, we've been doing a review, a consistent review, trying to, um, uh, look at all of our policies over time. And so, the three policies that we're going to talk about tonight are a result of that review. This happened in our last meeting, so this is a little bit of my committee meeting update. At the same time, um 5150 student admissions, uh we had actually already been reviewing for a change. When
072we had our last meeting, we were uh looking at an older policy which had to do with kindergarten entrance. Um and so in looking at that, it made much more sense to incorporate that information into student admissions. So that's why we have brought this back to the um initial stages to make sure everyone has an opportunity to look at that um and see if they had any questions about it. It essentially was formed because of a change in the date of when students would be eligible to go to kindergarten. Um we didn't feel it was necessary to have a whole policy on its own just to talk about that. So that is what student admissions is on here for. um internal audit function. Again, a similar review was done. There was an uh oneline um
073one uh uh statement in there that talked about um the use of internal uh employees to do internal audits and that is not something something that we [laughter] currently do in our district. So, we removed that. That's the change within that policy. And then 6,800 payroll procedures are really a result of um our audits that we've done recommended uh language to be very specific about the process and procedures around our payroll. Uh and that's the changes that have been made to that policy. [clears throat] Any questions? >> No. Okay. Thank you so much. Absolutely. All right. Yeah, we will have uh board and committee updates, communications to and from the board. So, uh anything additionally from your policy meeting? >> Uh there'll be more coming. We'll be we will eventually be removing 5050, which is
074the kindergarten entrance. [laughter] That'll probably show up once we finish. >> All right. So, look forward to not not too much more right now. >> Okay. Excellent. Curriculum council. >> Um yes. So, um, on October 15th, there was a fantastic curriculum council meeting. I enjoyed it so much. It was really great. Um, Lauren did a great job leading the group, but it was really wonderful to hear from the faculty who, um, were discussing their new courses that are being offered. Uh, so first we heard from Amanda Albano who spoke about the AP research class which launched this September. um she had some wonderful things to tell us about it. Um it's the second course in the AP Capstone series. Um she was able to train last summer, so she had a whole year to be
075able to plan for um writing the curriculum and how she was going to plan out the course. Um the entire course is one project and they have to do an oral defense presentation at the end. Um so we learned a lot about how that course is running and working. it's aligned with the right commitment um with critical thinking where the students have to come up with their own research questions, collaboration where they're working together and giving each other feedback on their projects. Um and the difference from the AP seminar course is that students are no longer writing about others works like they're coming up with their own um unique and for the first time coming up with this own unique writing of their own and creating content um as opposed to writing about what other
076people have been saying. They're creating new data. They're creating their own arguments, surveys, they're doing interviews. So they're creating content. And um one of the things Miss Albano talked about was how um she's enjoying the most she gets to talk to the students as a mentor or a coach rather than just instructing them. She actually cannot give them any corrective feedback on their projects. Um so it's more conversation and leading them and asking them questions and guiding them um in a very different way. It's a different kind of teaching and a different way of working for the students. Um trying to think see what else So the AP score is basically result the result of their paper. They don't take a test. Um so they they present their paper which is 17 to 20 pages.
077It's about 4,000 to 5,000 words which blew my mind. Um and they have to present a 15 to 20 minute um oral defense. Um there's three potential oral defense questions that they will have to defend their research and their work. Um the skills for success in the class are research, obviously fitting pieces together and synthesizing information. And the units of study are gathering research and identifying a gap, the literature review and proposal, and then the methodology execution and data analysis. U Miss Albano talked about how they're actually going to have to bring statistics teachers into the class to help with that third piece of um the unit of study. they're going to have to assist the students um and push into the classes to support them with that data analysis and that could be um
078obviously an additional cost to implement that piece of the class because obviously we would want to um compensate any teachers for additional work that they're doing in those classrooms um in the English classrooms. So the other additional costs could be um compensating faculty for being panelists when the students give their all presentations. It will probably be three panelists on the panel [snorts] and um Miss Obama also mentioned maybe purchasing a cord for the students to wear who graduate with the AP capstone diploma designation. [snorts] >> And let's see, oh my pages got mixed up. So then um the second presentation was from Ronnie Sere and he will be introducing an advanced journalism class which I don't have that. Hold on one second. So he spoke about he spoke briefly about the intro to journalism class
079that he has right now. And because it's offered as early as 10th grade, there's a nice opportunity to be able to offer that advanced class to upper classmen if they've taken it. Um he spoke about so the introduction to journalism class has been available for three years. Um there are will be a limited number of students initially into the advanced class as the intro to journalism class is a prerequisite. So they're going to co-seeat both courses starting in the spring semester. And then um one nice opportunity for the advanced students is they'll be able to mentor and guide the intro to journalism students while they're right there in the class together. [snorts] And um they'll be able to work with them on the skills that they're acquiring in the intro course. Um the course will
080provide the opportunity for the students to create a full series whereas in the intro class they're doing like one piece of work. Um so they'll be able to create a series. It could be something um they could do audio, video or like a magazine series. Um this class is also aligned with the right commitment in terms of the critical thinking, the ethics, the ethics involved in journalism and reliably representing topics. The skills for success are research leadership component with the mentorship of the intro students for the advanced kids and social skills with journalism. Obviously, you have to talk to people um and interview them and and interact with people in the real world. Um instructional outcomes serve as editors for younger students and project and they do their project in an area and medium of
081their choice. The medium can be written, audio or video. And the project can be a magazine, a podcast, a documentary and they get to develop a multi-part series um capturing one aspect at Ry High School. So the units of study would be a skills refresher from the intro class and then editing, coaching, mentoring of the intro students and then finally their journalism project and there will be assessment in these three units. Um the impacts to the school community are that projects could be added to the school newspaper or students could create new clubs that come out of these areas um to support these activities. Um he did mention that the loss of phones in class is actually um difficult in this environment with all the audio and video. Obviously phones would be very useful to
082be able to quickly get those video clips and audio clips um while they're working, but they're working around it and he said they do have a few iPads that they can use. Um he's looking to see if there's an outlet in the community that they can share some of this work with potentially. And then for students interested in communication, um, one nice thing about adding this class is in addition to looking at creating um, other potential opportunities um, with the new New York State Pathways coming through there, this could be a um, communicator diploma designation with the new New York State pathways in the next three to five years potentially. Um, and basically the last thing Mr. Ser mentioned which was interesting which was a really nice point is that offering a course like this
083um he likes it because it brings new students into an ELA class like students who might not typically excel in writing or taking other ELA classes at the advanced level um could come into these classes do really well and like continue this line of work. So it was a really nice point too. I think I captured everything. Took a lot of notes but I was just very engaged. It was really great. That's really great. >> Okay, great. Uh it looks as if we have uh that'll be after actually our next meeting which is uh November [snorts] 4th, but that's our technology committee that's coming up on November 6th. Uh traffic, safety, pedestrian, did they meet? >> They did. Yep, they met on the 9th. And then um there weren't too too many things that impacted
084the school district, but there were a few touch points. Um so basically the things that I wanted to mention um are that so the the flashing crosswalk that I mentioned last time right at the snow lot that's sitting with the city right now. So that hopefully will be moving forward. Again it does take time as it's a considerable amount of money. Um I don't they did talk about two so fairly recently I think after the very beginning of the school year there was a um light up no left turn arrow put um facing Appalis on Milton where you can't make that left turn like if you're facing like the softball field from Apple and that has actually been really impactful and I do drive home that way after I drop off myself so I was
085very I hadn't realized that sign was there cuz I quite see it from my angle, but it is really moving traffic along because nobody's trying to make that left anymore. So, that has been really impactful and that's really nice. Um, Kelsey Johnson um is working on a commun community education campaign um that she's about to kick off and I believe she's already reached out to Mr. Har. Um the goal is speed mitigation and she's looking to collaborate with the school community to create either a bumper sticker contest or a slogan um something to just raise awareness um and the concept is basically um you know maybe like leave I think it's basically like leave 3 minutes earlier to create more time. Basically telling people what not to do is less effective than telling them what
086to do. So, they're going to promote this leave 5 minutes earlier. You're not rushing. You're safer. Um, and then hopefully spread that around through the schools at some point and try to get some kind of competition going to raise awareness. Um, and I think that is it. >> Bless you. >> Okay, great. Thank you. Uh, any other committees or communications to and from the boards? No. Okay. Uh so as I mentioned our next meeting is November 4th. Do not be confused. There is no school for students but there is school for teachers and our administrators. They will all be here. So therefore the board will be here. So we will be here that evening on November 4th for a wonderful presentation on our new international balorate program. So we look forward to that. Uh okay
087we will not be adjourning into executive session. We are just going to adjourn. So can I have a motion please to end this evening's meeting? Don't all raise your hands at once. We can stay. All right. Jen Bole, seconded by Valerie Lapam. All those in favor, [snorts] that's seven to nothing. Thank you. Have a good evening.