Student Achievement Committee of the Whole Meeting April 15, 2026

001Seeing a quorum of voting members, I call the April 15th, 2026 Student Achievement District in Instructional Performance Committee of the whole meeting to order. Uh first thing on our agenda since we do not have treasure Augustine today as he is doing business for the district elsewhere. Uh I do need a motion for a treasure pro Tim. Um so is there a motion for a treasure prom? >> I make a motion for who? Uh oh my goodness. Board member crosset. I make a motion that for member crosset serve as treasure prom for the April 15th student achievement committee the hall meeting. >> I second. All righty. Uh, board member Crosset, do you accept their nomination? >> Yes, happily. >> Uh, okay. Would you call the role? >> Yes. Well, first I think um >> for that

002for that vote. >> For that vote. Yeah. >> Yeah. Um, board member Arber. >> Yes. >> U board member Crosset. Yes. Board member Lindy, >> yes. >> Board member Matt, >> yes. >> Vice President Moffett, >> yes. >> President Craig, >> yes. >> Uh, so we have I now ask uh that we all please stand for the pledge of 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. >> Now, treasure prom, will you call the attendance role? >> Yes. This is a vote for um call to order. >> This is the just the attendance. >> Oh, attendance. Okay. >> Um board member. Yes. >> Board member Cross. Yes. Board member Lindy. >> Yep. >>

003Board member Matt >> here. >> Board member Moffett. >> Yes. >> President Craig. >> Here. All righty. Well, we have just hopefully some short presentations today. So, uh, Superintendent Murphy, please introduce, uh, our presentations for this evening. >> Absolutely. So, today's presentations encompass guard rails 1, 2, and three. And so we're appreciative of director Turner putting together our deck today. Uh but what we'll do is with guardrail one, we'll take the time to focus in on our arts and athletics participation shared with us by Josh Harden. And then we will look at category 2 infraction shared with us by Monishia House as well as the chronic absenteeism. She will give a up an update your um annual update on bullying and gaggle fun. And then at the end we will have uh Mr. Galahghue share

004the climate and partner survey update. Josh Harden. >> Thank you uh board president, board members and superintendent. Um next slide. I'll pre presenting today on the percent of high percent of high school students participating in arts and athletics. Next slide. Um based extracurricular activities. Uh we know that this strategic plan goal uh heavily encompasses our department as well as Emily Campbell's department with fine arts. Had a great meeting with her and her team over the last month as well as earlier today to talk through some of those strategies. Next slide. As we see our three-year trend here of district-wide participation, we're really locked in and focused in on our fine arts um extracurriculars as well as athletics. We know with schedule E there's many other clubs and activities that are happening and occurring outside of

005this, but this particular guard rule really locks in on their fine arts and athletics. So in 2023 24 we were at 26% of our student uh in high school 9 through 12 participating. In 2425 uh we had a big jump and increase to 36%. Uh much of that um was growth in our fine arts program led by Izzy Rdnik as well as uh the sports of soccer and flag girls flag football. Uh we saw soccer numbers more than doubled um to six and n six girls teams and nine boys teams at our respective schools uh thanks to FC Cincinnati and a grant. And then uh in 24-25 we saw a jump of 10 of our schools that had girls flag football. Happy to say that as of today 2526 we have all 13 high schools

006with athletic department that uh are fielding a girls flag football team including SCPA. >> Nice. >> All right. Next slide. Yes. Very excited about that. Big big time. Big time. Uh and that is of course thanks to the grant that we got from the Cincinnati Bengals. Uh as we look at our numbers for this year broken down by grade uh we see that uh we have increased from the start of the year that we would see uh these numbers in the spring taking consideration all of fall, all of winter and then our start of spring rosters. We know that there are still some spring activities that are occurring uh with fine arts that may increase these numbers just slightly. Uh but we will see that uh those numbers went district-wide from 27 to 38%. Um

0079th grade uh jumped from 19 to 30, 10th grade 27 to 37, 11th grade from 31 to 44, and 12 from 32 to 42%. And that's our student athletes and uh fine arts students 9 to 12. Uh we do uh continue to see that the number in ninth grade has been a a lower number and we definitely have identified that and had conversations with the fine arts department on some strategies around that. Um the link that you see down at the bottom of this slide is just a deeper dive into these overall numbers that we have broken down by school with fine arts numbers. uh you'll have a nice grid where you'll be able to see uh the student athletes uh participating, the fine arts uh students participating as well as a column dedicated to

008uh students that may be participating in both athletics and fine arts at the respective schools. Uh next slide, please. All right. So uh after unpacking the data with the fine arts team and our athletics team um as I said we uh came up with some of these solutions. Um so building a ninth grade on-ramp strategy uh to continue to increase early engagement. So, as we know, we saw phase two. Uh some of our seventh and eighth grade uh students went to our new junior high middle schools. And so, some dedicated effort uh there in uh preparing those students, uh engaging them what school they're going to be attending, and then making sure that they're aware of the fine arts and athletic opportunities ahead of them uh at their particular nth grade. And then being a

009little bit more intentional of our efforts at our high schools about engaging our ninth graders, knowing that many of our 9th through 12th grade schools, uh those students are entering at that first time. A great opportunity to talk about what is all happening at that respective school. Then a collaboration with fine arts and athletics to crossromote students. seeing that that column that we have there that identifies students participating in both. We see those numbers uh definitely as an opportunity to go up those student athletes that are participating in a athletic event that could also be in a um a theater or a fine arts club. And then this is something that Emily Campbell and I have talked about really over the last few years. Um creating an initiative uh that would be themed every student

010connected and that would be diving deeper into the students on uh this list that um are not a part of the percent of both student athlete or fine arts. diving deeper into those numbers and those particular students and how we can engage them further through their counselors and through uh their teachers to have them engaged in some opportunity fine arts and athletics and then just an opportunity to re-engage with the leadership at every school. We've got fine arts leaders, of course, we have our athletic directors in sharing these participation numbers with them, what we're identifying at their respective schools, but also trends that we're seeing districtwide to support them in awareness uh and and and be aligned and collaborative on growing participation numbers across the district. Uh these are the numbers as as presented. Uh

011I know that a lot of these activities are um run through our schedule E stipens. Uh and so you know those would be the the uh funds and stipens that would support uh continued growth in athletics and fine arts. Um and happy to next slide answer any questions. >> All righty. Uh thank you Director Hart. Uh there are there any questions from board members or thoughts or any other comments to share? Uh board member Crosset. I I was just curious the um there's uh been a lot of conversation around that the students that participate in extracurricular activities, fine arts, athletics, it helps their academic outcomes. Do we ever correlate participation with um students academic success? >> Yeah, absolutely. Uh and it shared at the the city council meeting we presented at earlier when it kind

012of came up. students that are participating in athletics and fine arts are more likely to attend school as well as well as have a higher GPA. And so we do have um um the office of secondary education has a data team member that has been very supportive of taking all of our rosters uh and then uh computing that in the system to identify that. So we do have some great grids and and data that can be shared with you guys. Thank you. >> Uh other board members um board member map and then >> um yes so thank you for the presentation. My question is around um the fine arts piece and we know that um Miss Campbell and I believe Maria has done um uh an exceptional job really trying to help support the fine

013arts um um after Dr. Rutnick um retired. Um my question is how um are we supporting them from a curriculum standpoint um and making sure that those resources and opportunities are available. So I know that you talked about that on-ramp, right? So, we have several students that are in either band or, you know, um, orchestra or whatever the case may be to but to make sure that if there's that handoff going into the high school experience, um, that the curriculum is there to support them, right, with those opportunities as well. Can you speak to that to make sure that there's that, I guess, streamlined level of engagement and consistency? >> Sure. Um, no, no, that that would be more a question for Emily Campbell and her team. Uh I I partner and collaborate strictly on

014the extracurricular piece. Uh and and our team has set a a meeting with all of the athletics department and her curriculum team uh as it pertains to the PE department uh and fine arts to talk about the things that we collaborate on, which would be readiness and preparation for high school athletics. and then uh readiness and preparation and collaboration to this strategic plan goal of um more students participating in fine arts and athletics. And so that'll be the the big pieces that we collaborate on. Superintendent, >> I do know board member Matt that they um there are study tables for various groups and I also know that they you have to do a grade and attendance check to make sure um you're able to participate on a regular basis. >> Okay. I I think my

015question is more so centered around like the fine arts piece where there are students and I'll use band for an example. There are students say for instance we have students in our uh middle schools right that are looking to be a part of it or may have been a part of it. They're metriculating into high school and they want to engage. We've had students come down and speak about, you know, maybe not having that level of um access to opportunities or resources or funding that they uh that will be very beneficial to help them stay engaged. And so I'm wondering if there is a curriculum that helps to support them in that process in addition to those other factors that are called out to help them stay engaged because if I'm, you know, if I'm

016showing up to be in the band but we don't have the opportunity to perform, what is my likelihood of remaining a part of this? Right? or some of the things that they've called out is well we recognize that the athletics department or the football team or the you know the cheerleaders may have more opportunities but we are not getting those same level of opportunities. What is the likelihood of me staying engaged? So I'm wondering if there's a curriculum I'm wondering if there's opportunities for them to be able to have that level of involvement where they feel supported in that journey as well. >> I think there's two things but I'll follow up with Emily to be specific. I think there was uh well first of all with the band specifically um I do know that

017the Woodward band director connected with South Aenddale and that's only one example and you may recall this um they did participate together like in the Roberts ribbon cutting earlier in the school year. That's just one example, but I also uh believe that Emily Campbell shared with the board that next year there's efforts to put uh have the band at the middle schools, but I'll follow up to make sure that that is still able to happen. >> Okay. Thank you for that. And again, I do think that helps to streamline the level of engagement and keep students, you know, involved. >> Yeah. And I I agree. I think that that was part of our conversations today um surrounding that ninth grade on-ramp. How do we support the junior high and middle schools more? Um, but obviously

018to the curriculum piece, I can't speak to that, but uh to the extracurricular piece of how do we get those seventh and eighth graders prepared for what 9th grade looks like? That that's definitely a part of our uh strateg strategic goals. >> Yeah. Uh Brewster, >> I just wanted to add a personal anecdote to that example. Um, apparently I just learned today that after an 8-year hiatus, Clark Monasuri is hosting a Monasuri band night where all the elementary Monasuri band members can come in and perform at Clark with their band. So things like that I think are more of what you're talking about is making sure that they have that connection to see like they could continue on and have chances to perform. And I think that's a really good example of it. It should

019obviously be offered in other settings as well, but I just wanted to give that one example. >> All right. Uh, Vice President Moffett. >> So, thank you for the presentation. I'm super excited that we've got girls in uh football, flag football. Hopefully, we'll get to see the conference. If you missed the presentation, people, then they're doing a conference for football for boys. But maybe since we have so many girls football players, maybe we can not not at the same conference. Not at the same conference, but maybe, you know, do something different. So, I'm excited about that. I do have a question for you and this is well for you and um Dr. House and this can probably not be answered today, but I'm wondering about the uh correlation between athletics and academics and that question

020was already asked and um answered, but also behaviors. So, do we keep data around um student athlete that get referred to A to S or even just um the uh the one that's on the inside of the school just detention, let's just say that. I don't know if we keep that data, but I'm also I'm very interested in that because I think that's great public facing data for us to highlight that our student athletes and athletes is not just the physical, but it's the brain bowl and the other things as well. they have less incidence of um classroom interruption time and higher incidence of academics. So I'm wondering if we keep that particular data and if we could get uh some report on that cuz I'm sure it's there. It's just um not compiled that

021way. And then my last question is probably more to you. I know and again I've my my kids are pretty old but we had coaches that were in the buildings in some capacity and that helped deter negative behaviors in the classroom that helped keep them on track with regard to academics. There was the connectivity between um the coach knowing that this particular student athlete was skipping or that they missed assignments that were due. Do we have I know now we are in in budget times but do you know the percentage of coaches that are actually in the buildings and either teaching or um in whatever capacity and then I'm very interested to see the data around of those coaches that are in the buildings the academics and the behavior incidents for those student athletes because

022I think there is something to be said about having coaches that coach students in their buildings in the building. And so I'm wondering um if we have that and um that I just remember Doc Gamble and that's how my my kids are were scared to upon graduation that he was going to make them do fun bunches because they were skipping class. And so there's so much significance there. I'm just wondering do we have it? >> Yeah, I I agree 100%. Uh we do not have that data at this time. Uh we we have the the data surrounding staff members through schedule E that are CPS employees versus nonCPS employees and those that are just coaching with us. Uh I know that this is something that our principles definitely push on, our athletic directors push on

023uh for those exact reasons, the ability for uh the kids participation. Um and we have the coaches that are in the building that are recruiting the kids in their buildings to come out uh consistently. They had a good meeting over at Woodward last week where they talked about exactly that with their staff member then in the building. So don't have that data uh but definitely uh makes sense and and can get that data. And then the same for the behavior that's not a data point that we've tracked just the attendance and GPA but I'll uh definitely follow up with house and and look to incorporate that. >> And my last question is around do we survey our student athletes? um not not like do you like your sport because they would not be doing it

024if they didn't but um around where their needs are like I remember speaking to some student athletes that graduated and went to college >> and they said that when they got to some of the colleges they were missing things that they wish that they had had at the high school level or some of them got it in certain schools and some of them didn't. So I'm wondering do we do any of that around I'm calling it like reach back but just find out what they need and then capture their some sort of their data after they graduate to see how we can support our student athletes. >> Yeah. So two things there. Uh we do survey all of our student athletes at the end of each season. So our current student athletes and get engagement

025around their coaches and their athletic directors, their programs and so are able to have that kind of data. And then for our students that have gone on um we have had um small groupoup sessions uh with some of those students has traditionally been our past athlete of the month winners and so identifying kids that we've had together through the athlete of the month program over uh the last 10 years kind of bringing some of them back asking them questions about their experience and in u uh Google meets um but not not to the full extent of a far and wide reach of of alumni at this time. >> I'm just wondering, I'm curious because we have some student athletes that are playing at the collegiate level and have useful information to share and a couple

026of them have been hired back by us in the summer and so I I've had a chance to interact with them and so they've got great little nuggets that I think are are interesting and I just was wondering if we formalized that in any capacity. So, okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. No, I think that's something that came up. Uh we've been doing listen and learn sessions at all of our high schools over the last month. So we've been to every school except for Walnut Hills and Withro thus far and that's one of the things that have come up that the schools have built out a list of kids that have metriculated into college to play sports. Uh and so we have been building out that kind of list. Um so I think that there's definitely

027an opportunity for that engagement. >> My last question promise we since the state of Ohio has now allowed NIL which is name image and likeness in for our our students. Are we doing I think I heard you mention we were doing some training on that for our our a student athletes to be aware of what to expect with that, right? >> Yes. So, we're meeting with um Lawrence Kaine uh at this point uh to try to set up some sessions for our student athletes far and wide. Uh we've shared information with all of our families on what NIL is and uh the resources that that we have it uh now. And then we'll be looking to do a uh student athlete, coach, and parent kind of seminar for everyone uh broadly. And then there will

028be some next level um conversations. So students that have been identified that may receive a division one highle college scholarship, their uh education may need a little bit more in the space of what they're going to be exposed to when they transition to that that division one level. You know, some of these kids are now going to division one and signing as they leave high school, they're signing a six-f figureure deal to just go play. Um, NIL plus the pay to participate that they're or a pay to play that they can now receive. So, some of our kids are receiving six figure uh scholarships. Sorry, they're receiving full scholarships and in addition to that cash money uh to go and play sports. >> Do you see any negatives with that NIL in with regard to

029just your opinion? I >> I think it I think it just goes to the education piece. Um there there's a lot going on on the college level now. Um not as um easy to build programs. Kids are leaving and and jumping this place to that place. Everything that happens on the college level finds its way down to the high school level. So as you see more college kids going to chase the money and going to this school and this school every single year, um we start to see some of those things happen on the high school level. and it makes it very difficult for um small schools and programs to build a true program, >> right? Because they have these kids that are leaving every year. That's happening heavily on the collegiate level and it's

030just happening more with those things and it's it's working its way down into the high school unfortunately. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you, >> Board Member Lindy. >> Um thank you Josh for the great presentation and all the hard work. Um, I was trying to remember if we go back maybe to slide I don't know, one, two, three, four where it's got the Yeah, this one. No, sorry. Slide four. Uh, where it's got the three-year trend. Did we have a goal >> for where we wanted this to be? >> Yeah, if you recall, this was one of the tough ones with this goal. Uh, we started off the goal and had a a very large number due to some discrepancies in uh the fine arts. We initially incorporated all students um uh co-curricular and

031extracurricular in the number. So the number was very high uh because when uh Izzy and I had met, he originally um submitted the numbers to Jeremy, he submitted numbers of kids that were in the curricular class as well. And so it was pretty much all 9 through 12, any student that was in a fine arts class. And so I think I shared this the last time I presented. So those numbers just they they no longer made sense. Um so we kind of adjusted and said we would have to get back to a a baseline here. Um and over the last two years is is kind of our ability to to see that. But I I can't say that we had a true goal because the goal that we had was was off of um wrong

032information. >> Got it. Got it. Um that context is helpful. I I transparently feel divided on this because on the one hand, I think it's important that we as a board with the administration set targets and then hit them. On the other hand, we're in the process of writing a next strategic plan. So, I think it it it it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to put something on paper that might or might not be very meaningful in 3 to six months. I think my bigger point is for the future. If we're going to report this to the superintendent, if we're going to report out on things in a cow meeting, u my preference is that they be with reference to some kind of target and then our conversation can be about whether we're

033close, not close, why are we close or not close, all the work sounds great. Um, but I think to decide in advance where we want to be 3 or 5 years from now, um, is is a good step forward. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> All righty. I'll be really brief because I want to keep us moving today. Um, and would like to get us out of here a little early so folks can go to the LSMC meeting if they need to or to other things that we have going on today. Um, want to say I I think part of the thing that I think and you actually just raised it in in response to board member Lindy's question. We we did a little bit of a reset on how we thought about this because we

034talked about moving some of the things that were we considered as that were part of the curricular activities that had traditionally been considered. So like again a band class, a fine arts class, a you know a choir class and and said that that necessarily did not constitute what we were trying to grow which is the extracurricular activities which are not traditionally the things that you do during the school day. Right? So even if you're in a band class or you're participating in the band concerts or other activities that might happen outside of the normal course of just a class. Um the question I would have though is for the uh for the middle school junior high level we were kind of on the verge of building that up right when we decided to move into

035this middle school model. And I think one of the questions I might have is there there may be a need to do some of this rethinking around like regional or kind of growth plans within a a specific pathway for uh some of these middle school athletics or middle school extracurriculars because I do think to what board member Matt asked about earlier that might be a great way to transition folks in so they're not having to relearn a whole new concept again but if there's no natural pathway no natural trend to say okay I played trumpet at this school. I'm a >> that therefore I can go up and do this this school or or I was on the football team here. My natural transition is to the football team here. Maybe we have some cross

036collaborations and those type of things. I think that might be something that we would want to start to figure out. That does require us to have some form of a pathway through the district that we've been talking about and that may be something that we talk about in a more strategic way as we think about our strategic plan. But I just think it's something to put out there is that, you know, we have middle schools that don't necessarily connect to a high school >> naturally. And we have some middle schools that connect to multiple high schools. And in a lot of ways, that that does is it creates a pathway to like or pathway not to to the school, but a pathway to out the middle school. Right? Right. So, we know that if I'm

037at South Aenddale, I might go to a couple different middle schools after I leave South Aenddale or a couple of high schools after I leave South Aenddale and and it's not necessarily a natural transition in the same way that some other spots are. So, I just think that's something as we talk about our strategic plan and the direction of the district, we may need to think about a little bit closer to align to some of those opportunities to bridge um especially for extracurricular even more so than curricular activities >> um are done. Um, but that that was all I really had for you. I don't think that necessarily requires any >> No, no, I appreciate that. Um, actually the meeting we had with Emily and her team and Maria today and my team was setting

038the stage for our next meeting and we'll have more of a brainstorming, brain steering meeting. Uh, and we did talk about the timeline for that meeting surrounding kind of where we are with budgets and and resources that we feel like we'll have to be able to make, you know, decisions for the future. But I can say on the athletic side of things um that are that is you know things that we've done on junior high middle school how do we bring multiple teams together to provide wrestling right so all junior high wrestling teams are together uh and we've done that and we'll continue to do that and those we don't have this opportunity at one school so how do we provide the opportunity and I know in the conversation we had with Emily today that

039was one of the biggest things that she was excited about she talked a little bit about regional opportunities and and and really everything that you're talking about right now was was mainly what Emily was excited about talking more about. >> That's awesome. >> Yep. >> Great. Thank you, Director Harden. >> President Craig, just uh uh Director Campbell is listening and she did text um just awareness yes to band in our middle schools for next year. >> Awesome. >> Great. All right. Thank you guys. Let's keep it moving here. So, we have uh I believe our guardrail 2 is up next. Good afternoon. So, I'm presenting guardrail 2, the percent of K12, black and Hispanic and multi-racial students with a category 2 infraction compared to white students. And so, looking at this chart, uh, we have

040a comparison between October and March and looking at those numbers of the average number of infractions per student. um looking at this data it's a little bit hard to contextualize like so was there an improvement is there not I mean I see that there's an incr increase but what does this look like in comparison so just to look at uh more specifically this percentage um because what this does not include just looking at this measurement it includes those students that have multiple infractions and so that can kind of skew the number um so when we look at just a percent of students um in the same category that have a category 2 infraction compared to white students. Our goal by the end of the year was about 11.5% and right now at quarter 3 um

041our gap is about 14%. So we're continuing to decrease but we have not met our target yet for this end of the year. But I wanted to give this data some more context because this includes those students that have multiple infractions and it can kind of skew what that is. Yes sir. >> Where is the 14%? How does that calculate? >> Let's let's see if the let's see if the question is still after the completion of the presentation. Yes. >> So on this is a further breakdown the percent of black male students with a category 2 infraction compared to white male students. And when we look at this measurement of just looking at the average uh we see that there is um still a gap um but cont to contextualize what this actually means because

042right here just gives us the average of just all students that have had infractions per student. If we look at and compare the students um that are African-American males that have had an in category 2 infraction compared to their white counterparts, our goal by the end of the year is 16.5% and right now at quarter 3 we're at 15%. Um so we are actually meeting that target to get at this end of year and next year our goal is really to hit 12% to really decrease that gap. So, um, with talking with the department, we just wanted to give some feedback on how we can calculate. We do feel like this is a really strong, um, guard rail to continue to look at and monitor. Just wanted to make some feedback on looking at the

043percent of students that have that category compared to the other percent of students that have that category. um so that we have kind of clearer data so that we can see as opposed to just looking at the average of the whole um to make sure that we can kind of see specifically where the gap is and are we improving and are we not improving. So action steps just to let you know what we are doing. So um one thing that we've started to do this year is provide monthly student behavior update data and analysis to our leadership and all of our department heads. so that they understand when they're going into the schools how we can support as well as um areas of improvement that we're seeing and areas that schools really need additional support

044with so that we can have an alignment as we're supporting schools. Um another thing is that we are supporting schools that have higher rates of disproportionality with monthly targets, action steps, and resources to support. We've been meeting with those schools that we could statistically see significant um disproportionality differences between their white and black students. And we've been working with a monthly plan on what they can do. Um, and it's been really good work and reflective work on the practices and the adults realizing that they're a part of the data and how do we have an understanding about our processes, procedures, about our students, even getting down to common definitions and misunderstandings that we have around that. We will continue to provide professional development opportunities around restorative practice and trauma-informed care. It's really important for our

045staff to understand um sometimes we see behavior and it's not necessarily a behavior response but a trauma response. And so how do we help support our staff with tools to equip them to help support our students um not only if they are responding that way but also in a restorative way. Um and then to continue to expand SEAL and mental health supports. We realize that many of these infractions are due to students not having or being able to demonstrate some of the social emotional learning skills that they should have to be productive in the classroom. And so in order to help support them, we need to explicitly teach that. And so to continue to expand that is going to help kids to be successful in the classroom, but it's also going to help our students

046and staff build relationships together as they learn one another together. Anything else? All right, go to that guard, too. >> All righty. Uh, well, we'll go to board questions. I'll go to board member Crosset since he was the first to >> maybe go back a screen or two. Yeah, that that screen you said the gap was 14%. How is that the uh how do you calculate that? >> How do we calculate that? Yeah. So, this includes all of the student at this snapshot in time that have enrollments that have um looking at all of the infractions. And what we wanted to do is we wanted to take out students that had multiple infractions so we can actually compare to see what we're looking at to see how that rate is. And so I just wanted

047to provide some context in a different way using that data. But this is the data regarding looking at the average number of infractions per student. So, so this data is not what you use to calculate that. >> We still have the data. We looked at it. But the data that we've been monitoring, we wanted to compare >> students that with one, you know, that have had at least one >> infraction so we can see what the rate is, >> right? Okay. Thank you. >> Mhm. >> Yeah. >> Other board members arrewster. >> Um, two things. One, I I think what Jim said is accurate. This is confusing. Mhm. >> So, it would be helpful if you could provide us with the other information. Um, I know uh when I was on LSDMC, my vice principal

048did provide it um as as infractions were and had to point out like this could be the same child over and over. So, it does skew the data. >> Um so, it it would be really helpful to see um how you're getting into your calculation. I think >> cuz when you say that and we see this, it's just very visually confusing. >> Um, and then the only other point I was going to make um was just another shout out to the Promise Center and their restorative um promise center and the amazing work they're doing there. I think if we can um highlight that as a district and the training that they provide um it I saw it in action and I think it's an incredibly powerful tool. So, just a big shout out to the

049team there. Um, and I want to find his name real fast because he's very proud of his work. Andrew Bulmer, I believe is the name of the um, person that runs that program. So, >> awesome. And, um, Promise Center, that Owens Center, they are one of the schools that we're targeting for additional restorative practices coaching. >> Awesome. Other board members board member Matt. >> Um so my question um is around the the category 2 infractions and how it's being coded. Um we I know that there's a been a huge push from you and your team around making sure that um the infractions are coded correctly. However, we know that this continues to also skew the numbers as well. And so, I guess my question is around like what systems or what supports are put in

050place to ensure that we are that our teachers are accurately coding the um infraction correctly. And then also what does that mean in terms of like the principal because most of the category 2 infractions that's going to lead to maybe suspension or something of the sort, right? Um do the principles um I guess give the final recommendation as to what the determination would be for that student. Um, and is it still considered or listed as an infraction or you know is it uh if the principal deems it not a category 2 like what is that process? Do you give are you tracking? >> That is an absolute great question and I just had a conversation with the principal today uh to help them to understand what happens in focus. So, a teacher when or any

051staff member that writes a referral for a student, they will indicate um what the behavior incident is and it says whether it's a category one or two. It's a brief description, but it will say whether it's a category 1 or two. And then they submit the referral. The administrator who is reviewing the referral and should provide due process and an investigation, they will determine what the infraction is. So in our system when we're providing data in reports the infractions that are reported is what has been the final determination. So even if a teacher wrote this is a category 3 and the principal said no this is a category one classroom management behavior um that's in our code of conduct is category 1. They um can indicate it's a category one and that is what is

052kept on the record not only for the student but also for reporting processes. So, um, if a infraction is considered category 2 does not always necessarily mean it is a suspension or an ALC or sent to the promise center. They have a a menu of items. We have started to have conversations with schools um, especially with schools with larger populations where they are realizing that some of their chronic absenteeism data is impacted by their discipline data. if they're using a lot of suspensions, a lot of emergency removals and things of that nature. So, we are helping to support schools and school teams to have a better understanding of their data, the relationship and the other options that they have um and even within their own school system like their own school building um the resources

053that they have to be able to support students behaviorally. >> Thank you for providing that insight. I think is really helpful for all of us. Um, and I I appreciate that you and your team are having that conversation and how that data is, you know, um, connected. Um, because just in observing in some settings, there is that reactionary and impulsive, you know, kind of knee-jerk reaction. Okay, well, this was the referral that was written. This is the category 2. Okay, well, you got to get out of here versus looking at the that menu, right? um or the options that are provided to provide that more restorative approach. Again, I understand when it's necessary, right? Um but I think that it is helpful to move um the culture and the climate of our our schools. Um

054and it also uh leans into that instructional leadership style of our principles as well to make sure that they're adding that additional layer of coaching um and support to our teachers too. And to your point about supports, one of the things that we want to offer next year are um office hours for any staff member that want to problem solve around behavior. >> Um because a lot of times they just need someone to talk through that with and they might not feel like the best avenue. Is it in my building? Is it not? But just to provide additional layer of support, whether it's an administrator or just a teacher or a pair professional that's dealing with a group of students that need some support. >> Yeah. Thank you. Uh Dr. >> I do have one

055question. Um is the data that you're providing regarding discipline inclusive of students with disabilities or is that extrapolated? >> So um in this uh the data that is presented and what I just included, it does include students with disabilities, but we also pulled that target out as well. And I can tell you that um with students with disabilities that have a category 2 infraction um it was very high and so we started monitoring that the gap was about 29%. And so our goal at the end of the year was 26% but right now our quarter 3 gap is 9%. >> And so there's been a lot of intentional work um with student services and with the teams around behavioral supports um behavior plans in place some things that we are doing. So, we are looking

056and monitoring that data because we know that the students that were sent to the promise center or ALC or that were suspended um a lot of them were students with disabilities. And so, >> thank you. And I actually appreciate I may be in the minority but I appreciate having the data disagregated where it's one incident rather than number of infractions because sometimes students you know if you're fighting now you've got fighting disorderly uh you know and and that's five different infractions for one incident. I appreciate that and I know firsthand that that happens. So I appreciate it being uh disagregated that this is the number of incidents versus the number of infractions because that is misrepresented misrepresentative of um the actual but perhaps for those that need to see it that way. you know, we

057can maybe have have an extra column because the reality is should be the the number of incidents. And so maybe we need to say category 2 incidents instead of >> per per student like for individual students because what happens is you have students that have multiple infractions and it can skew the data. Yes. for that subgroup. And we're trying to eliminate as much as we can any data that could be swayed or skewed because students um might have multiple infractions. And so it could make it seem like there's a much bigger uh problem between races or between students with disabilities and or not. And so we're just trying to make that clean and clear so that we're targeting the right thing. >> I appreciate it because I I've lived it. The other only other question

058that I'd like to ask is and this is nothing that the board has asked but I would be interested in the um the data by gender and so because I know that I read an article recently that uh girls the the infractions amongst girls is rising. I don't remember the exact number but it was like exponentially versus boys. And so I'm very curious as to um along with uh category the category of race what is the um the gender of the infraction and the type because nationally that's that's an actual issue and then also the students with disabilities and so um and that's not necessarily something to report on but if you do have that data I'd love to see it. Thank you. Yeah, I think the last time we checked the boys and girls

059were about the same, but um I will definitely look at that because some grade levels are higher than others. We see this kind of peak. >> Yeah. >> Um but developmentally it makes sense where they are. >> Thank you. >> All righty. Um and I think some of the things have been asked here, great things that can be provided offline and ways to share with the board so that we are, you know, again, staying aware. I I think I just have a couple things and then uh we'll keep our day moving here. But um first I do think the the way we think about the average number of infractions versus um number of students with an infraction you know a category 2 infraction is significant in some in some ways differences because the types of

060incidents and other type of things. I think the actually more significant thing was the point you made earlier also, which is that the result of a category 2 infraction does not have to be the same level of removal from school. Mhm. >> And I think what we do know is that the more often a student is removed for incidents that could still keep them at the school in some form or fashion, the more likely they are to get behind and the more likely they are to not be able to or to not attend, >> you know, uh promise center or other methods in which we would use to to uh have them not when they're not attending school. and the more likely they are to have a repeat incident where because they are so far

061behind or because they're so now not wanting to be there or because of these other factors they are no longer uh being an active and and uh engaged participant in the school day. And so I think that part of it to me is actually more significant in some ways is that if we're not if we're really thinking about it the thing we probably do want to change >> is yes schools are going to and schools going to have different standards and different things that they expect. So their category twos are not going to be perfectly lined up, but how much are they using out of school as a discipline method or category 2 versus what does a school say is a category 2? Because I again I think there's some schools that actually probably give

062a wide ley to things that we might be in the district office saying, hey, like that was kind of close to category 2, right? But they know their students. They're dealing with those students on a regular basis. may understand a little bit better why this thing may not be necessary. But are they thinking of doing that because they figure if it's a category 2 that also means I have to remove them from the school. >> Um so I do think that's that's an aspect of it that I think is is a great part of the conversation that we we need to have. >> Um the last two things, one is I want to say the work that we're doing on uh and you've just given us numbers with regards to the the the differences in

063disability. I think all these things are things that we should be able to go out to places and tell folks how good we're doing and the things we're doing and how well it's working. I think the point of us getting good results is yes, we want the students to achieve, but we don't want to do that just so we hold it here. >> So, what I would just encourage is that as we come up with these things that are working, as we see products or as we see things that are showing great outcomes and development, please, we will find a way somehow some fashion. I can't guarantee it but from here but I will say we we really should strive to do that to give you an opportunity to also sell that information or share

064that information with others about the great work we're doing here because I think that's the only way you show that you're an innovative district is if others are coming to you to match what you do. So I look at things like our community learning centers and other models that we we have people coming from left and right across the country to try and learn from. If this is produc I mean if you're going from a 30 I think it was almost 30% to nine I don't understand why a school district and again many of these out many of these larger districts are struggling right now hard with this issue of discipline and uh with connected to disability if why would they would not want to come and talk to us about what we're doing. So

065I mean I would just encourage us to do more of that and putting ourselves out there in those ways. Um and then the last thing I will say the one thing I do worry that we are sometimes missing uh when it comes to category 2 and in general discipline in our district is that how much do our principles talk with our parents talk with their staff talk with their team about their numbers. I I have gotten into this habit now saying that I I think our principles need to be instead of being thought of as an instructional leader, they need to be like the dean of their of their school, right? And they need to be the ones be able to talk about the what their school's doing, how it's working, and be able to

066sell to a parent why their school is a great program. But part of that is how are principles able to talk about things like how their discipline works, how they're utilizing different methods of restorative justice in those models, how they're using restorative justice while also recognizing that you also may have to do discipline as part of restorative justice and how we connect the two so we prevent reoccurrences and and and issues that come up. I would love our principles to be some of the leaders in those conversations as well because I think the other part to it is they may come up with a great idea by taking the horns and and going with it more so than by sitting back and letting folks from central have to do a lot of that heavy lifting

067for them. Right. And I and I think that's in a lot of ways I would just hope that we can kind of create a space where that is something that we are almost expecting or asking of them to do in a way is to have some of these difficult conversations around discipline but have some many of the others especially around our data that would lead us to create better methods or greater see what's working at some school see how they're talking to students and learning about them in some ways that will lead to that. So I I appreciate that. Appreciate the work you all are doing, but I also would love to hear uh our our principles taking a little bit more of the author authoritative position to lead on some of those things as

068well. >> It's almost as if you were at our community PBIS meeting this week and that's one of our actionable items is how we can build communication with families. And so we know that monthly school teams at their PBIS meetings should be discussing this, but that's only whoever shows up at the table. And so how do we make this information more accessible and to have these um organic conversations with parents because they are a part of this plan and system too. So >> y uh board member >> I just want to say referencing LSDMC again I as an LSDMC chair didn't realize that we were supposed to be reviewing our discipline data until I came to a district meeting and was informed. So then I went back to my school and said hey can we

069see this every month? Um, but that again to your point is only going to be the people in the room for that LSDMC meeting. But like even just getting it to them and empowering the group there to know that that is a part of their job and their responsibility. Um, and then you know broadening it but I think there are a lot of those groups that still don't even understand that this data is there and that they should be accountable for for keeping track of it. >> Absolutely. All right. Well, thank you uh director. >> We have the next guardrail. >> Oh, he's still on the stage. Then >> just an update on guardrails 5 A, B, and C regarding chronic absenteeism for all students, our black students and Hispanic students. So on the next

070slide, it just kind of gives where we are um or where we ended up uh with quarter 3 with the amount of days and the total thus far. Um, and this we did take out and remove um, snow days and cold days um, just so that we know what the chronic absenteeism threshold would have been for those periods of time. If we go to the next slide, shows us the percentages of where we started off in the fall, where we are in the spring. We know that this is a cumulative um, measurement, so it is all year. So we do anticipate um some growth uh throughout the course of the year, but it's about maintaining and supporting um those various areas and students that are demonstrating chronic um absenteeism. So, um, for all students, we're

071about 44% and for black students 53% and for our Hispanic students around 41, um, percent. And next slide. So action steps, there are so many action steps around chronic absenteeism, but just to narrow it down, um really supporting the schools with setting clear, measurable attendance goals by school and what does that mean? Um there's a difference between saying this is where your rate is, improve it. Um really giving them some concrete steps and what that can look like and how they know that they are improving. Um shout out to um South Aenddale Middle School. They have created a system where they share a weekly spreadsheet with their home room teachers that color codes their kids so that they know where their kids are and who they need to talk with. And if they make special

072phone calls, they can also talk about, hey, we missed um because sometimes you just miss that when you're in the weeds, but to be have that visual there um updated weekly is great. Um implemented shortterm reset plans post break for schools with over representation for chronic absenteeism. This is something that we did with the 11 schools that were over represented in chronic absenteeism. We met as a team with their counselors, their administrators, teachers, social workers, and even children's hospital along with our PSC department to really come up with where is our areas, where do we need to target, where do we have failures in our system because some of the things that we saw, for example, during testing, we were marking kids absent, but they were testing in a different location. So, how do we

073improve our system so that that doesn't occur? So just supporting those schools and I can say from all 11 schools we did see an improvement from quarter three last year to quarter three this year with them implementing those plans and so we were excited about that. Um strengthening family communication and outreach is always something important and increasing attendance acknowledgements um not only for students but for staff. We want to make it a part of the culture. Uh, one of the most powerful interventions is check-in and checkout. And so we're spreading the awareness around that, giving instruction what that can really look like. And who's a great candidate, not only students, but also for staff. We've been training security to do check-in and checkout. We've been training pair professionals in the ALC, like all hands on

074deck to be able to help support and meet with kids so that they know someone here cares about you. Um, increase hallway presence and structured transitions. um especially in our high um populated areas, we see that incidences occur um in there and then carry over into classrooms, expand SEAL groups and mental health supports and targeted use of bubble list for rapid response. Just so that you know, we work with children's to create a bubble list and these are students that are close to 90%. They are very close. They just need to start attending. These are kids we see every day. They might have missed a week of flu, a week of vacation, and now they are too close. Like they just need to continue to come. And we can remove them off the chronic absenteeism

075list by the end of the school year cuz there's still enough hours. And so we wanted to give the schools the list, but then also help support them with who they need to target on that list. And so as a district, there were 200 um 2,259 students that were close to 90%. If no other student rose to um chronic absenteeism and we were able to get those kids to just continue to come and make every minute count, we could reduce statistically by 7% as a district. So we know that that's a pretty lofty goal. Um but we've set the targets for schools. So each school has a bubble list that says these are the number these are the names of students and the number of students you need to move to get 1.1% improvement in

076your chronic absenteeism. If you want to move 3% this these are the students and these are the number of students that you need to target. And so we're trying to be better about being very very specific so it's not a luck of the draw. we know who to target, why we're targeting, and h can have some very um strategic conversations with families as well because there are students that are even on the bubble list that can still miss one or two days and still hit the 90% mark and not be chronically absent. And so we just we are so close. We just need to continue. We know that third quarter is a high quarter, but we just need to continue in this fourth quarter to get everybody focused. We know that we're focused on testing.

077How do we keep them engaged during that process until the last day of school? >> Uh board member Lindy. >> Thank you very much. This is such an important topic. Um my question is for the superintendent. Uh do we still do work with uh children's around the quality improvement? >> Oh yes, absolutely. Uh they just wrapped up their impact you uh training and graduation for this year. Absolutely. And Dr. House meets with them on a regular basis. Uh they bring me in on a pretty much monthly basis. So yes, absolutely. >> And are they involved in in the work on chronic absenteeism? >> Yes, they are involved. We meet weekly. I meet weekly with them. We also um meet in our huddles with our social workers so we know how our interventions are working and

078we can make um changes quickly. We're also looking at that at this community lens as well. What does our community chronic absenteeism data look like? Um they are ve very heavily involved any work that we've done at the school level. They've helped us to create a making sure that we're using the improvement process through that. So they've given us some information and even information on our enrollment process and things that we can do as a department um to see where we have failures that we haven't been able to see to be able to look at it as a systems level. And what do they say when they see the numbers? >> So sometimes we get discouraged because we see the high rate of numbers. Um but I just um traveled with them to San Diego

079to a improvement summit and this is just a national thing that is working. I think the thing that they are encouraging us about is the consistency around using the improvement tools and not just having the data but looking at the data looking at how we're improving or how we're not improving and how are we responding. One of the things that they continue to encourage us with honestly is a lot of times we try to make these grand plans like we're doing everything with all of these schools and they're like small test of change. you need to know if it's working or not before you try to influence the whole district. Um, and sometimes it's hard when you've got to move with such a large um piece. But that's kind of they have always been very

080encouraging but very um strategic and honest to say, "Hey, the strategyy's not working or to say they have a recommendation on how we can better define what it is that we're looking for." >> I I I'm glad that we're working with them on this. I think um I've been so compelled by some of the work that that impact you has done and how it's impacted other parts of CPS. I think most Mike's not here, but I think mostly about the treasur's office. And sometimes what feels hard about trying to apply that to other parts of CPS is what's the outcome variable because it's that it's it's so attenuated but not attendance, you know, like that that that feels like the great spot to apply this. So, I'm just glad that conversation is happening. Uh and

081I hope it leads to some outcomes that that really make a difference. Thanks. >> Uh board member crosset then board member armbster. >> Can you go back a slide? I think so. um when we look at these numbers um especially like the um the all number or uh it it doesn't look like we're really making a lot of progress over the last couple years. Um so I'm I'm curious you were just and I think to follow on uh Mr. Lindy's question about what does children say? I'd be curious to know if we've identified any uh techniques or strategies that actually are working because it doesn't look like we're doing a whole lot of improvement or I was also curious about um whether or not we delineate this data related to the folks that are in

082project connect. In other words, is housing uh affect this? And what what what if if if if that's um something that can be uh uh what's right? We're delineated out. I guess is that I say that >> would you like that as a different another subgroup? >> Okay, >> we can definitely do that. To answer your question, yes, it does have an impact. We see what's hard is when you look at the whole percentage of numbers. It's not drastic movement but it is some incremental movements. Um what we uh have seen especially with schools that have made great um progress is that the level of consistency and targeting around chronic absenteeism when it is a system throughout the school. The principal has been clear on the targets. The teachers are involved. The social worker is

083doing home visits. these strategies that we continue to talk about and highlight, that's when we see the greatest impact. And especially for those schools where the principal even goes on home visits, it's not just one person, the social worker, but it's a full team effort to really have these dialogues with kids is really helpful. There's a couple of things that um hurt us. Our no-shows when students don't come, they count against us with chronic absenteeism. We have a very um robust, lengthy process that we do everything that we can, taking them through the court process, doing several home visits to try to find these children cuz we're still responsible for them, but they do count in our chronic absenteeism numbers. So, um there have been a couple of hits. For example, when Dawn closed, we

084did take a hit with chronic absenteeism because we took a lot of those kids, but some of those kids did not show up. And so, uh, with housing and instability with housing does definitely have a factor. And so, we're always trying to improve, um, the Project Connect team has been wonderful, as well as transportation. We're always trying to look for areas and ways that we can help support families at a faster rate. Um, so, how do we get students transportation when their housing moves to reduce that from 2 weeks to 3 days or things of that nature? Because if they're out for 2 weeks, that's going to hit us on chronic absenteeism. Board member Ar. >> Thank you. >> Um, thank you for the presentation. I think it's great. I think if you look at

085the fall numbers, it looks like vast improvement. I would be fascinated to see a correlation between cold weather days where we still had school and if you take those days out, what that looks like. Um, because there are so many factors of chronic absenteeism. There is no doubt about that. But from what I hear, weather is a huge driver and we can't control the weather. Um, and it's really hard to motivate people to go out in that weather no matter what. So, I just would be interested to know how many of the days that these chronic absenteeisms come up were also a day where it was, you know, a high of 12 degrees, which we have no control over. Um, and I just also wanted to say I have seen this work actively being done

086in schools with buildings having um things on the walls celebrating absent or not absenteeism. Nope. Um, attendance um, and I've seen those buttons everywhere and I've seen so I do think it's coming through in a way that I personally um, haven't seen before. So I think your team is is doing more and more each year. Um, and so I'm hoping we'll see results from that. >> We did have better improvement this year. In quarter 1, we were Oh, it was so beautiful. And then quarter two wasn't even that much change. Quarter 3 hits us every It is that January, February, March. And you're right, it's the weather. Statistically, when we looked at it, anytime the temperature drops below 23°, we lose attendance. And on average, it takes about seven days for us to get the

087attendance back to where it was before that incident occurred. >> If only mother nature would, you know, follow our directions. Uh, >> Vice President Moffet, >> so thank you for this. And I I was kind of curious about um um board member Lindy's point around children's hospital helping us. I'm so I was looking at the national chronic absenteeism data. I mean this is a this is a problem across the nation and it clearly states that this is um you know high poverty districts see higher rates than lower poverty districts um higher poverty districts 36% higher and so um I think everybody has these issues and I think a big part of it is parents understanding the definition of absenteeism versus tru versus truency. I think that is a huge um conundrum that they they don't

088know how we're calculating that. They don't know they don't understand how it is being calculated. They do not understand how quickly you can get there just by being late a few times and within a month you're you're you're almost there. And so I think this is largely not solely but largely an awareness issue and an educational issue to parents. So I'm wondering um what are we doing to get that message out and are there national initiatives? I know there you know every state has different things and clearly some states are more impacted but the data is saying that this is 10 million students and so that's a large number. Um but what are we doing to really increase awareness as a district and individually because to your point around telling principles the names and numbers

089of students I mean it's almost that minute that it has to be hey this student is close can you make sure that they don't so that's my first question my other question is the national data does disagregate students with disabilities because that's significant um students that may have a chronic illness will reach this number much faster than um and it they're going to always reach that number faster. So is it at all possible to disagregate that data because they are the ones that are going to always make the data skew but I would like to know realistically are we at like 14% and then when we add our students with disabilities who are always going to skew the data are we at 55%. So we know we are making some progress. It is working but

090it's going to be skewed and then we can tackle the known and then the the thing that's the target that's moving and again um it says disproportionate impact in 22 23 36% of students with disabilities were chronically absent. Again, students in urban districts are much higher, but the fact that they disagregate that data makes me think that we need to also disagregate that as well so that we're understanding where we're effective and where we're not because I I believe we probably are much we probably are effective year to year to year, but there are students who have are medically fragile and students who are um experiencing various things asthma attacks. I mean, just just things that are significantly impacting that data. So again, this is not right now, but this is um just kind of

091looking at that if you could provide that alongside of this, I think it will tell a picture that's a little bit more demonstrative of the hard work that we're doing, but there are some things that are going to always impact that. So, um, those are kind of my my two questions. Is the national data would be great to get alongside that so that people can see it doesn't look like we're making much difference, but when you look at the national data, we're we're pretty close to where everybody else is. >> This is a problem chronically across the state and the nation. So, we're not we're not great, but we're we're not the worst either. So, just wanting that information. Yeah, we um as a team we do disagregate so we can definitely share that. Um

092I think that that's a great addition to share that as well as students that are experiencing um homelessness and to kind of put a comparison with national data. And then um right now uh it's supposed to go live uh maybe today, this week uh the governor's um dashboard. So not sure what that all is going to entail, but eventually that will have live data from all districts. But we can definitely share with you where we were in comparison just regarding report card measure with the urban aid. We're just kind of like right smack dab in the middle. And so um in Ohio so um but that is something that we're always um continuous to look at because yes they will um depending on a student's um situation could potentially their their medical situation is just

093going to negate that they might Yeah. Um, but when we were talking with principles with their bubble list, some of the kids they weren't looking at because they were high honor roll. They're validictorians. They're saludadictorians. These are like kids they see every day. They just might miss seven bell every day >> cuz they can leave early, but that's a problem. Like we need them to be here all day. >> Gotcha. And then do we do any differentiation education around truency versus absenteeism? Yes, but we're always looking to improve that and we need to continue to spread the awareness with parents um because they still don't realize even though it is a doctor's appointment and it is an excused absence, it still counts to chronic absenteeism. >> Yeah. Okay. Thank you. >> I I will uh

094give a couple thoughts on this and again trying to keep this moving but um I I want to say I I have always hated chronicism as a measure and I get why we use it. I get why the state wants to use it and I actually think it actually correlates a lot of ways with performance. You know, districts that or schools that have large large scale chronic absentism tend to also have other issues that are directly related to whether or not a student's in class. But the number that you get to to get to be chronically absent is so low a number. And I mean, you're talking about if a student is late every day to school, >> they're more likely to be chronically absent by the end of the school year. If they leave

095early and come in an, you know, half an hour, 45 minutes late every day, they're chronically absent. That student that may be, again, to your point, saludiatoran, validictorian, they may be doing great performance. That first bell teacher may not even care that they're not there on time, which is probably another problem in itself. But um but I say that all to say one of the problems I've seen in in this discussion also is that folks in the school know who are those folks who are chronically absent because of not arriving on time, leaving early, missing a class here and there for different things. They know who those folks are. They will come and tell you when you come to the building, well, you know, Johnny over here gets to school every day 45 minutes late.

096You know, as you know, Sarah over here, she she ain't been to school on time and and her mom always picks her up a half an hour early every day from school. They know that. There's It doesn't take statistics to tell you that. It doesn't take a data pool to tell you that. They know who that person is. And I'm probably sure when you guys pull those names up, there's probably 11 or 12 of those names and they come to you go, "Yep, yep, knew about that one. We've been trying." And and I guess to a certain extent I think this this goes back to that that national issue is that yes we can talk about chronic absetism. We can educate on absetism versus truency. And I hate that everybody associates truency to chronic absetism

097because they're different things. And the and how we define chronic absence is a problem. But the the truth is, if folks knew and cared and valued their child not being chronically absent in the same way they they cared and valued their child getting a good education, in the same way they cared and value their child getting an A in a class, it would feel different. And I remark on that because when we were at Aken for uh a board meeting, one of the things that was talked about there was that every student who attended class who made it to school for each class graduated. So like the fact is that that students that got there graduated because it was a different culture too. Once you get there, once we get you there, we're going to

098get you through. And I just worry sometimes that yes, we can do a lot of education. We still need to do more. or there's a lot of things we can do, but it's almost about how do we change the culture of my child has a doctor's appointment. Let's try and schedule this as much as possible, not during the school day or as much as possible, let's make this the one class, the one day they missed the school day instead of the 13th they missed this semester, right? Um, how do we talk about family trips so that we're not planning a family trip so they miss 10 days and so now they're basically chronically absent from the rest of the year? Like it's things like that that just that are just very different and and I

099don't know that we have a solution to that or there's any national solution to that to be quite honest but I just worry sometimes that that's what is part of the chronic absenteeism number that is a hard thing to fix. I think the other part, and you already spoke to this, the ill the students who miss class for medical reasons andor disability related um time away from the from the school building. I I just I think there's a a need to advocate on the on the state level to address this because if I have a student who is trying to attend who is trying to get an education in a in a natural space where they can be around other people and have opportunity to interact but they have something like cickle cell or we

100know that they're going to miss a lot of time or they have some other chronically ill issue uh medical issue. It's really, really unfair to label that child chronically absent when they're actually striving as hard, if not harder, to just be there on the days that they can be. It's discouraging and it's it's it takes away some of that energy from a student who knows two weeks into the semester they're already considered chronically absent, right? And and I and I don't know that we are going to fix that from from this level, but I just do think that there's a space to have that conversation at the state level because I do think when we start to disagregate, the problem with us disagregating is that the state doesn't >> and the state needs to the

101state needs to address these things because if we're going to put resources into a student because of them having disabilities, we should also put the knowledge about what that might mean for their ability to attend a school day. Um, so I I believe I mean that's from our little political lens here that we we need to lend that conversation out there to folks to really have a true conversation about what does chronic absentism mean in the state policies and the state guidance um because I think it just it puts a bad shadow on a lot of things. The last thing I will say about this is, you know, when I attended different conferences with regard, especially with regards to the council of great city schools, our large urban districts face this a lot more even

102when they're poverty based, even some more than some of the smaller poverty communities deal with, right? So like some of the districts that are really small but are still large poverty, they're just a smaller location, smaller geographic distance. they don't face us the same way that larger geographic districts do. And in a lot of ways, it's because we're providing transportation in these unique ways. And I just was be curious, the more we get into a space where we can kind of align the district to a space where we keep students closer to where their school is, so their home and their school are not as far apart. I I think this will we will see a measurable distance a measurable difference also in how we're looking at our chronic absentee absenteeism numbers if we're not

103having students go from Sailor Park to Mount Washington, right? Like if we're not having a kid have to go and ride an hour long and if they miss that bus, how long are they going to be waiting? Those type of things. And so I just would be curious if you know in the last in a couple minutes here if you can just share just kind of your thoughts about how do we align if we are aligning closer to those corridor models as we have or keeping kids closer to their schools whether that would have some measurable effect also. >> I think that does have an an impact uh to what degree we would have to go through and measure but I can say that some of the instances that we deal with families they have

104multiple children across multiple schools and none of the schools are close and so they have to choose which child is going to be late. Is it the same child? Do they rotate? What happens? So that is um a concern. There is also a concern um with because we are such a great school district. Families even when they move, they do not want to go to their closest neighborhood school because they want to stay at the school in which they have been, which is understandable. But a lot of times we see those students are chronically absent because they have to provide their own transportation. And many times it's either not that they're coming not coming to school but because they are tardy so often that gets them into that chronic absenteeism or they're picked up early

105so that they can pick up the other kids on time. Um so we do see those implications and so that's just something to consider and to look at. um it doesn't really it's not going to solve all the problems because we do see still high rates of chronic absenteeism with kids that are with less than a mile from their neighborhood school. Um but what we find is that many of the families say a mile is just something I just cannot walk in the winter with snow and ice with a six-year-old and a baby and an infant or they feel like it's not safe depending on the neighborhood and it's dark outside. And so we do see those things from like 0.5 to like 999999. So it's like how do we help support those families especially

106in those months of January, February and March. >> Well, thank you. Um that is all for your presentation on that one and then I think we have one last thing with regards to >> just to give an update because we haven't talked about it. Uh just there is a memo that we just wanted to share around our bullying allegations and report. We wanted to give you the numbers. You have them by school. the total numbers that have been reported, we always encourage whether or not we know it's bullying, still report it because we are still going to do our due diligence to investigate and figure out what happened and what it is. Um, but here are the numbers as well as confirmed cases of bullying for um the first semester being um 31 cases confirmed

107um as uh not as being bullying looking at that number as 169. And I am so proud that all of our schools resolved all of their cases. As you can see, looking at some of the historical data, that has not been the case. But it allows us to know where um things are, areas of improvement, what our data actually is. And so we're able to help um streamline and support schools and to see um how we can help uh to support their culture um and to support their systems so that um bullying is eradicated from our schools. So um that is the update on the bullying. Were there any questions regarding that? >> Seeing none, I just want to thank you for sharing this information. Again, our goal is always have zero, but we are

108know it is it is great to see zero in the unresolved column for now. >> And I just have one more thing. I know you're tired of me. >> No, >> just one more thing. It's just the Gaggle update and we'll send you um we're waiting from Gaggle the company to give us a whole semester snapshot of the data because they just do it month by month. Um but uh just wanted to let you know out of um we have had over um 140,473 flags this year. Um of that we've had about 15,000 actionable things that we really needed to do something like to respond to. Um and the major in all of these instances are when students are sending a correspondence most of them being emails or messages towards us one another. That's what

109the majority of these are. There have been thus far 20 incidences that are um possible student concern is what we is what the um gaggle labels them as. But those are incidents of um self harm or harm to others. And each of those 20 incidences were real incidences that we needed to intervene. And I just wanted to give just um a huge shout out to the principles, assistant principles, counselors that um respond to these alerts during the day and our small and mighty team that respond to these alerts on evenings and weekends and every holidays. This is monitored 24 hours. There is no break. Someone is always on call. So, we receive alerts at 10:30 at night, 2 o'clock in the morning. Someone is responding and we are making sure that we follow up that

110there is a plan. Uh Meg Burroughs, our bullying um social worker, she also follows up with schools when we see recurrence with students, which might be kind of hard for principles to see because maybe a principal handled a situation once and a counselor and a social worker handled a situation, but we want them to know, hey, this student has had multiple gaggle alerts. Let's make sure that we have a plan in place um for their support and that their family is aware as well. >> And that is all. >> Awesome. Uh Vice President Muffet, >> I'll just say to that point, kudos to your team. They are small. They are mighty. But I had a situation where um it was with former board member Moroski and um there was some alerts going around and and

111the parent the family was concerned and the team got it like they were already on it and so um to hear that you guys are small and mighty but doing a lot of work. I appreciate that. So thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Well, I guess we will let you sit down now. Um, just want to let folks know we have our upcoming board meeting on um, Monday, but do we have anything any other presentations? Superintendent? >> Yes. I apologize if you want to. This is the Jeremy was going to go over the climate data. >> Oh, okay. Yeah. And we can ask him to do it at a very high level or, you know, we could move it if you prefer. >> Come on up there. We're here. >> Okay. >> I

112can try to be real fast if we would like. So, uh, really this comes as a response out of the February meeting where we were discussing some of the guard rails that are driven directly by the climate and partner survey and there were a significant number of questions. So, we really just want to take a few minutes tonight to try and do a level set just to get everybody on the same page and do a quick review because in reflection of those questions, we realize we haven't done that in actually about two years. So, we've been reporting out on it from the goals and guardrails perspective, but not from the overall survey perspective to put that into a context. Right? So, there's really five surveys. We refer to one as the student survey, but it's

113really divided into an elementary and then the secondary for grades 3 through 6 and 7 through 12. Both of these are anonymous by intent. The only thing is collected is the school that they're responding from so that we can generate school level reports. The staff survey is targeted to all staff at schools. Again, this is intended to be anonymous outside of there is a few questions at the beginning of the survey which gathers self-identified demographics, not anything personal, but the um in terms of what school they are primarily assigned to, their job classification as you can see listed there, and if appropriate, what grade level band or the primary course they teach. Then the family survey again is targeted to all families uh anonymous goes out through a direct communication to all of our guardian

114emails, but it's also an anonymous link that we can put onto our social media feeds, the website, so anybody can access it there. There are a couple of quick also self-identification questions that start that survey to say, you know, essentially what student is your school or what school is your student associated with or what grade level is that student in. And then finally, the partner survey is the fifth one. It is not anonymous. It is sent specifically to a list of partner contacts, their primary contacts, and it is fully tracked by who responds to that. So, you know, we can have additional information to respond with. So, what you see on this table quickly is the history of the six guard rail measures that the climate and partner surveys um are meas or providing the

115information, the data for, right, in the response rates. You can quickly see the first part of it, a few color coding items. The yellow at the top is when we were doing it through Panorama. Then you can see in green is when we switched over to the Qualrix platform. And then the purple line at the bottom is also still in Qualrix. But I'm just calling that out as that is the most recent set of surveys that completed the non-partner ones on March 22nd. The partner ones in February. So prior to today, that last line had not been reported. So that is new data points for your available for you. Overall, as we look across the six guardrail measures, you can see holistically each of those measures, while we've got some peaks and valleys, there is

116a positive trend and an increasing trend for all of the measures that we've been looking at. Now, when we talk about its overall favorability, there's some questions about what does that really mean? So in short, we use a grand mean calculation, which is a statistically fancy way of saying adding up all the positive answers for each question divided by the num or the total number of responses per question and then dividing that by the total number of all relevant questions. Right? So it gives us that one measure, the grand mean of what the overall favorability is for three of the surveys, the elementary, the staff, and the family. That's relevant to all questions. uh guardrail 2B for the secondary students is defined around favorability with adult um staff at those schools. So it's a few

117less questions that are relevant. Now for the partner survey favorability is defined in two specific questions. The first question is simply I am satisfied with our partnership with CPS. So we add the two positive responses and in the case of when we talk about positive positive responses if there's four responses agree strongly agree those are going to be your positives disagree strongly disagree or your negatives so when we refer to a positive response we just mean the the combination of the ones that are positive and then for the second one is I am satisfied with communications from CPS on the opposite side where we see the favorability as an overall positive trend the students or the survey response rates for the nonpartner surveys. We see the opposite in response rates. We are seeing a decrease.

118We'll talk a little bit more about that here in just a second, but the one call out that's different is the partner survey. That's one we are seeing an increase over the past four administrations. Um, so part of the target we have for our sample size, because it comes up a lot in terms of, you know, for our sample of those grade schools, the secondary, the 10,000 plus families, you know, our 7,000 plus staff is how accurate or representative this is. So you'll see on a lot of statistical surveys, right, the 95% confidence with a 5% margin of error. That's kind of the standard responses to say it's representative of the population you're looking for. So for us to hit those goals, that target, we're shooting for a sample size of responses to be at

119least the for elementary, secondary, and family of 370 responses. For staff, 274 for partners would be 73 because we're ultimately only sending it to a list between 90 and 100 partners. Uh so it does have a little bit higher requirement to hit that same threshold. Where we're at with the 64 responses puts us in the 95% confidence with about a 10% margin of error. But for between both the favorability and the response rate, there are two milestones that are common to surveys as a system that we have to kind of acknowledge and think through as we go forward. The first one is the favorability or satisfaction plateau. So if you notice, four of our five surveys have 80% positive favorability. Really what this says is in a statistical standpoint is that once you hit 80%

120you've done things like your operational tweaks for lack of a better term the easy improvements that's going to improve that score. So when you hit 80 increasing it beyond that requires a much longer strategic look at more holistic changes to get improvement. It's also you have to fight against the negativity bias and customer rotation where over a period of time when you administer the same survey over and over people who are positively giving you feedback slowly are losing investment in do I need to tell you again that you're doing good. However, human nature, you know, surveys are a little bit of an art, a little bit of a science. There's some um psychology behind it and everything in terms of the one bad experience can cost you a customer for life, right? So it it

121takes as those as our families and stuff rotate through one bad experience can be reflected in the responses while we're losing investment from the positives. So you have to acknowledge that. But that also leads strictly to the second milestone which we are seeing pretty significant indications of and it actually refers back to some of the other conversations. Typically, when you administer a survey, the same survey multiple times, you should expect to see about a 5% decrease in your response rate just from repeat repetitiveness and survey fatigue. With the current, we've done this now several times. It's harder to measure when we go back to panorama, but looking at our last four across Qualric, we're seeing about a 40% total decline or around average about 10% each. So, we're we're exceeding what we would expect to

122see just by repetition, which gives pretty strong indications. We're hitting a survey fatigue level, especially along with the other results we see in our title one survey responses, our focus survey responses, like all of our surveys are starting to trend down in response rates. So, we're not quite there, but this might encourage a conversation for us at the administration level of do we still want to continue doing this twice a year or do we need to move it move it to a more um centralized single one and adjust some of our other surveys around it? Now, skipping looking past just the platform and the survey as a system and some of that information as to how it's done. It's not limited just to those guardrails, the six guard rails. That's just where we get the

123data that drives those particular six. The surveys themselves are much more comprehensive. So, there's a couple of examples here just real quick of what this is our uh climate and partner server dash survey dashboard. So, this is what we look at when we're looking across the individual questions and collectively. Pulled out two examples real quick. The first one from the secondary student survey, the one in the bottom is from family. And what you can see is that we see each of the four response options and then each of the four Qualrix administrations of this survey. So we can see the the newest one is on the bottom in red. Right? So if we look at strongly agree, we can see that over the last four administrations, it increased from one to two to three and

124then we saw a slight decrease on the fourth administration. Really how we use that to analyze further is when you look at that and start clustering it to if you look at somewhat agree we saw the same or the a different you know the opposite right from one it decrease to two decreased to three and then increased with four which basic and we see the same on somewhat disagree strongly disagree which means that we're seeing a very slight shift of the strongly agree moving down into the lower three categories which helps while still meets our goals it helps us to identify where things are moving moving from administration to administration. On the partner survey, you'll see an example on the right. Slightly different presentation because we're looking at it holistically for one single question. So,

125basically, you're seeing the green and the blue represent your positive responses. Again, the purple is your neutral, yellow and red are the negatives. And you can begin to see that the the green and the blue collectively are growing over each administration. So, they're growing in size, meaning we're getting more and more positive. Um as well as you can see the dashboard reports there are available linked for your perusal if you'd like to. It has every administration in it, every question broken down in these graphs just like you saw. Um you know if there's an interest but beyond again the guardrails there are some specific takeaways that we have from this over the surveys overall for each of the stakeholder groups as well as collectively for each of the stakeholder groups looking at elementary. The big

126call out is if you look through those questions is that there is a the belief from our elementary students that there is strong support from the adults in the buildings and they call out or they see amongst the questions the weakest areas are really between peer treatment and classroom behavior with the secondary. Uh while our results for the guardrail of adult uh relationship favorability is is 80% plus very high overall they express some mixed to neutral um responses for the overall experience at their school and again identify behavior and engagement are their biggest concerns that the students themselves have. Families are our most positive group overall um with one major exception. The one question that flips completely from a positive to a negative is not safety in the school, but concerns about safety getting to

127and from school, which I think we've heard as a common theme already. Staff um responses indicate a very strong adult culture, a strong belief in rigor, and setting goals at our schools. And again, going to hear it several times, one more after this, behavior is what they identify as the clearest obstruction to uh instruction. And then the partner group is the only group where literally every category is is consistently moving upward if you look through all of the questions, but that communication one still remains the least stable and has the most ups and downs in it currently. So if we look at all five of them together, not just the individuals, but we put them all together now, there's several strengths that we can identify across the groups that, you know, teachers and adults are

128viewed positively by families, staff, and our students. Uh schools are generally seen as safe inside our buildings. families and partners have a strong level of trust and believe in their that our relationships are improving. Um and the staff culture is a strong asset to the district. They they indicate, you know, a lot of support, belonging, and feeling of teamwork. So those are all strengths that we have. Some of the tensions that are detracting from our favorability overall would be students tend to be a little less positive than parent or than adults. Not sure that's entirely surprising. Um but they identify that rules are pretty clear um but enforcement and recognition may be lacking slightly and then engagement is weaker than compliance. What that really means is when I was talking about those transitions between the

129different responses when you see that clustering most of the responses are positive in the strongly agree or agree but there's a little favor towards agree over strongly which means there is some movement there that's still possible even in the positive side. But again for one last repetition, the most significant thing that everybody identified across all the surveys internally um is that our biggest challenge that they see is with student behavior and the pure culture and that's what really is impacting the the biggest impact to them on what their learning and student experiences. So hopefully that gets us all a little bit up to pace on the climate and partner survey real quick. >> No, I appreciate you doing that uh expeditiously. Um, we can do a couple questions here from folks. Uh, I do know

130that some, uh, folks in the room have to head over to the LSMC, so feel free as those folks need to leave out to do so. But, uh, board member Lindy, >> yeah, this is really helpful. Um, we do not have this on board docs. Is that right? >> It is on board docs. >> Yes, it's the second presentation listed under >> IC monitoring guardrail one, guardrail 2, guardrail 3. employment and partner service. >> Oh, and it's there. Great. I was going to ask if you could send it to me, but I already have it. Thank you. >> Yes. Uh, Vice President M, >> I'll have some questions for you, Jeremy, but not today. >> That's great. >> All righty. Thanks, Jeremy. All righty. Uh, just again a reminder, we have a board meeting or

131a board business meeting on Monday. Um we will be talking about among the myriad of topics the budget again so be prepared and ready to come talk about it. Otherwise uh I will uh call I will uh seek a motion to adjurnn. Some of