Student Achievement Committee of the Whole Meeting November 19, 2025

001Seeing members of the whole meeting, please stand for the pledge of allegiance. United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty justice for all >> Mr. Greg here Mr. >> here Mr. W >> here math Mrs. Vice President Bolton >> present [clears throat] Murphy please introduce our first presentation board members award for the day. >> Yes ma'am. So uh really not much of a presentation on the semianual report on bully allegations. Miss Davis is helping me get that u to you uh as we speak. But this is a report that we have to share with the board and make aware uh make the board aware of each year and then we have to post this report uh to our website for the public to be able

002to see. Um just as you um are looking at that on board docs just in summation um you can see by school the number of uh confirmed bullying cases the number of unconfirmed uh bullying cases and if there are any unresolved cases >> and superintendent Murphy this is required it's on board docs I believe this is required that we do this right just at least have it a public presentation. >> That's correct. It's it's done semiannually. It has to be presented, shared with you, and then it is uh put on our website for the public to be able to review. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Yes. And I know this has been the case for well over 10 years or so. This report has been mandated, I think, by the state. And I know that one

003of the initial problems, and I've said this before, but one of the initial problems with this mandate is that um at least in the very beginning, and I don't know if it's still true, but in many districts, it actually um how shall I say it, it it it um made it less attractive to concentrate on bullying if it was going to be public. This sounds terrible, but by having the reportage needed, uh, initially there was a downturn, uh, regarding uh, what people thought bullying incidences were, and I know we experienced that a little bit at CPS, but I'm wondering if they I know we research and investigate all of the um, suggestions that they're there, but are we are we also kind of trying to verify Y that these that these are the only or

004these are representative. I mean how do we how do we feel about these particular numbers and and the authenticity of these numbers? >> So of course it would be great if there were no incidents of bullying but in a district our size that probably is not reasonable. Uh but there are two mechanisms for which to report directly at the school level with a teacher or administrator or some other trusted adult. And then in our school district, we do have um a process using technology where people can go online and be somewhat anonymous about what they're are choosing to report. And there are people who respond rather immediately to any of the cases that need to be reviewed. and and I remember when we put that into effect. I think that's a really great idea. And

005um how how do you prepare administrators to make sure that we have some consistency of reportage because some may not want to have these be reported or there's an opportunity to discount what's been reported or do we have a clear definition of what is to be reported or what isn't? I know the student conduct uh has some definitions. How do we how do we make sure that these are are valid and and hopefully comprehensive? >> I think three things that come to mind. One, uh universally educators are mandated reporters about things that happen with children and with young people. The uh second piece is every year we do review the code of conduct and we review it at the beginning of the year and uh generally speaking most principles review it with their staff and

006their students at the semester when we return in uh January after a little winter recess. And the third thing I can uh share with you is through our safe schools courses uh every Cincinnati public school employee has to take a um course online course on the bully uh process the definition and what do you do about it uh in a particular situation. >> Thank you. >> Yes ma'am. woman. Uh we'll uh own the word that the president has given us today for brevity and just just want to highlight one point. The report is really about what incidents meet the definition of bullying, not what incidents were disciplined. Correct. >> Correct. Exactly. Yes. Thank you. >> Thank you for that. I was going to actually ask for that clarification. And I remember a few years ago

007we had when we had them during um our health and safety reports, we had to clarify that cuz we were even as board members a little conflicted around. We kept going to discipline versus reported actually by the definition. >> And I think it's good that you as a board support that we do have a full-time bully school social worker um to help us really make sure that we're uh naming things that are confirmed. But this is bullying and this is really something else and should be addressed in a different way. All good. All right. Thank you. If there are no more questions, Superintendent Murphy, please introduce our next presentation. >> Yes, ma'am. So, uh, next we have Director Mike Turner. Uh, he's going to be coming to give us an update on where we are.

008Lots of information. and goal one and interims, goal two and interims, goal three and the interims, as well as goal five and the interims. >> There we go. Good afternoon everyone. >> Good afternoon. So, our um goal tonight, as Superintendent Murphy said, and the next slide shows uh kind of the alignment between the superintendants goals and what's in the strategic plan. I know that was um a topic of conversation at at the last board meeting and there is for the first three uh a direct alignment uh from what's in the strategic plan that is sun setting and the superintendent's goals. I will just point out that superintendent goal number two is specifically algebra 1 which is strategic plan goal number three and we will touch on the progress for the adding to industry recognized credentials

009and the graduation status update as well. So jumping right into the third grade reading goal. Uh the superintendent's goal is we will increase the percentage of third graders proficient in reading on the Ohio State test from 55.7 to 59.7 by uh September 26. So the fall benchmarks have been given and now they're already preparing for the winter benchmarks. Just a reminder uh when it comes to the percentage that you see that is projected proficiency based on the benchmark. And so what you see is that 39.1% of third graders have a projected proficiency. Uh what that means is that's the percentage of students projected to reach proficiency in the spring if they make typical growth over the school year. Breaking that down a little bit on the next slide, uh we had the drilled down, we've

010also added which is different uh from the past because one of the superintendent's goals does delineate economically disadvantaged versus non. we now have that percentage in there. I will say that these percentages and I know that you uh saw uh data in the dashboard recently the um we're not calling it the dashboard are we? We're calling it the scorecard sorry of dashboard from the past in my head. Uh these are pretty on target with u the trends from last year. Uh so just wanted to point that out. Uh but again, this is the projected proficiency for each one of our groups of students for the third grade reading. The next slide shows the very real action steps that are already in effect. Uh this was put together a few days ago for posting. So there's

011certainly reflection that is occurring uh on the scores and applying the learnings uh so that there's a very intensified um multi-week intervention. Certainly some buildings need more support than others and so the curriculum teams uh are drilling down into the buildings looking at coaching cycles and whatever is needed to help the adults implement what is needed. certainly looking at closing the gap strategies because we know there are gaps across uh groups in different areas. And then uh we have the third grade reading tutor tutors who are um being trained continuously with a focus on uh comprehension and vocabulary acquisition which we know help move the needle on the third grade reading test. And then as always a just a strong system of continuity because it has to be database that falls in line with our

012multi-tered systems of support uh as well uh because things have to go in the continuous cycle of looking at your data doing your interventions figuring out if the improvements worked and then going back and um redoing that cycle. So the next goal uh is the algebra one uh goal again this is firsttime algebra 1 test takers. The the goal for the superintendent is to go from 47.1 to 51.1% by September of 2026. Again the projected proficiency based on the benchmark right now is 42.4% 4% of our students are projected to be proficient if they have typical growth um over the school year. [clears throat] Looking at the groups again, we have the same breakdown on the next slide as the previous uh goal. And so we have our percentages for all of our different groups

013including economically disadvantaged um and non. And so there's action steps that are already being uh taken to prepare for winter benchmark. And again we have that progression from fall benchmark. There's interventions put in place. Winter benchmark that data uh will come out in January. Then those interventions are revised, new interventions put in place so that when state testing uh comes around in the spring, uh students are progressing towards proficiency on that. So the next slide shows the action steps uh for this goal. And [clears throat] so again, the continual strengthening of the implementation from a curriculum standpoint, database decisionmaking, uh they do a lot of collaboratives in algebra 1 in particular where uh teachers are brought together. They're given very targeted um training in uh different areas that help them with algebra 1. We do

014have our algebra 1 pilot uh that is as a result of working with sens federation of teachers. So that is at West High, Woodward and Withro. Uh got a lot of uh effort being put into that with professional learning, bringing the education specialists together, working with the teachers. And again, you're going to find uh a similar thing with specialized building support in in all of the areas that involve coaching cycles. in algebra in particular, bi-weekly cohorts of algebra 1 teachers uh coming together in that pilot and giving that uh special emphasis through the professional learning uh collaboratives and then bi-weekly learning walks to make sure that progress is celebrated but also to inform um more support that would be needed. So the third goal is specifically around sixth grade reading and the gap. And so

015the superintendent's goal is specifically on um the gap between economically disadvantaged and noneconomically disadvantaged. The goal was to reduce the gap from 50.7 to 47.7% by September of 2026. Again I want to stress that the percent that you see of 56.7 is the projected proficiency gap. That is not proficiency percentage. That is the projected proficiency gap. So the next slide shows the actual projected proficiency. So for example, if you take the 94% for noneconomically disadvantaged and subtract the 37.3%, you get the previous number which is that gap. What is also again could be done with this is looking at gaps in many different groups, but the goal specifically addresses economically disadvantaged versus not. >> [clears throat] >> So the action steps for this one uh is again a collaborative. There was there was a a

016makeup scheduled for a collaborative for teachers to come together. Uh that will follow on into quarter three. Uh again some of the same coaching cycles with specialized building support. Uh this one specifically working on tier one settings. Uh just a side note, excuse me, a side note with our MTSS or multi-tered systems of support, uh we have uh a rapid uh push out of professional development for our schools. In fact, we just did the second session today with um 32 of our schools between yesterday and today and we're doing a a professional development uh after Thanksgiving with a group of schools that have not had PD yet. And so they are getting a lot of emphasis on tier one uh and tier 2 as well. So, [clears throat] RIMPs uh which um are the reading

017improvement plans that the state is mandating for students who have not reach proficiency on state testing. This keeps ramping up. So, this year support has to be given for sixth graders. Next year it will move to seventh graders, the following year to eighth graders. and it keeps going and and a student moves off of a RIMP once they meet proficiency on a state test. That has a whole host of things that kick into place because you have to figure out when to give the reading interventions. It's all for a great cause because we want the students to be prof uh proficient. So there is a level of support uh for the sixth grade teachers which will be new this year when it comes to implementing uh the rims very intentional gap closing strategies for uh

018students uh in in this goal in particular our multilanguage or MLL students and again we want to make sure that we're always capitalizing on data and the continuity of the process. [clears throat] So, we move to our superintendent goal number four. And even though we don't have data on this one because it would be implemented, we did just want to give you an update. Uh, so this one was to add two industry recognized credentials of seven points or higher by September of next year and there are some kind of timebound things with this one. So, updates are really important. The next slide shows progress thus far. Uh we have done a scan of all the credentials that ODEW has approved. Uh there aren't any seven 8 10 or 11 point options th those just don't

019exist. So we have looked at a viable pool of largely 12point credentials. There are a very small amount of 9point credentials and we are looking at one of those in particular. Some are repeated. Phabbotomy is repeated by a number of vendors. So is welding other things that we already offer. We've just taken those off the list because wouldn't make sense to offer the same credential from two different vendors. We're looking uh at the feasibility of the remaining options and we are bu building have already built an initial short list that we will um look at. Uh some of those are in agriculture, manufacturing and health but there are others as well. So the next steps with this goal uh is to narrow the list, look at how what districtwide roll out would look at including

020cost factors because we know we have to tie it to budget and that could involve staffing, equipment, supplies. Um gathering input from the business advisory council is really important. They should be guiding uh what we do um with this sort of thing. That doesn't mean they tell us what to do, but they give input. So, uh, board member Crosset was part of, uh, the meeting the other day and we had an activity to get feedback from our BAC and we have up there apply to ODW by March the 1st. They are trying to do away with deadlines and just make it a a continuous process that stays open. So, we're hoping for that, but we still have a deadline of March the 1st to apply because this does have budgetary impacts perhaps with some of

021the credentials. And then finally, graduation. could go on for hours about all of the things going on with graduation, but just to give you some highlevel information uh with this. There um are lots of tracking documents with expectations, definitions, and and all the data processes uh that are in place. And so there are a number of ways to track graduation including credits, competency, and readiness. students have to have the credits in order to graduate. So that's tracked and it actually even goes by grade level in looking at whether a student is on target. That's one of the factors. We also have competency which would either be the statemandated testing or perhaps they need to go into the career option. Maybe they sign up for the milit military. All of those things that could help them

022graduate. Grades 11 and 12 have building created graduation trackers that they had started with that were individualized by building. Those are being phased out so that there is a standard common district tracking system that is now in effect for 9th and 10th graders. that will reduce any uh errors or inefficiencies that could occur because it's one form that everybody would use. College department does a great job in um working uh on that. The next slide shows uh just again what they look at. That's a drilled down approach. But there are meetings in a variety of different ways to look at data to escalate those issues that need to be escalated by student. It's not just by building, it's by student. And so there's cohort meetings with individual school administration and then the EMIS department actually

023looks at the cohort lists and makes sure that all of the students are in there. Again, we've talked about this before, but it's worth mentioning again that in the denominator, it's whoever is in your cohort according to ODEW. So a particular high school may have 100 seniors, but ODW may say there's 140 because 40 of those students somehow no longer go to Cincinnati public schools. And if we can't identify where they went, then that becomes problematic. So EMUS works with the schools on that. Uh finally, the next slide um just summarizes these key checkpoints and I'm not going to repeat that. It's just another way for you to see it. And the next slide actually gives you an update. And this is as of the 7th of this month. So those numbers if we looked

024at them today would be a little different, but this just gives you an example of the drilled down approach. So, cohort 2026, which are the students who are supposed to graduate in um May of of this school year. And the reason why we avoid saying 12th graders is not all of them are 12th graders in focus. And sometimes students say, "I'm a 12th grader. I'm going to graduate." But maybe they have 10th grade credits. So, we have to be careful about that. So, cohort 2026, there's uh 2,700 students in the cohort. 63% of those students are on track and the criteria to show that they're on track is they have credits greater than or equal to 15. that the competency piece of this means they've passed ELA uh 10th grade and algebra 1 or they

025have completed an alternate pathway could be the career readiness pathway or um some other and they have one of their seals completed and a second one started. Uh right now there are 204 students in that cohort who are coded as a dropout and there are different codes for that. Won't won't go into that. And then the areas of need in particular attendance is problematic as we know. Uh we do have certain populations with attendance and dropout rates and much of that is due to uh the the climate um issues that we've experienced uh in our city and across the country. And then competency scores if they are not hitting the cut score for English 10 and algebra 1, they have to have both of those. They they could do great on English 10 and never

026ever be proficient on algebra 1. They have to have both. And so something else has to kick in. Not going to repeat everything for cohort 2027, but we know that based on the cohort denominator and the other criteria, which uh is slightly different because they're not seniors, so the number of credits is less. um that is 64% and 74 of those students are coded as a dropout as of November the 7th. So again, this is continuously updated. Schools work by student and at any given time people could say these are the students on track and these are the students who are not. And so the next slide just gives some graduation action steps. Clarifying and communicating consistency is a common theme with this with so many high schools, so many students. We have to make

027sure that there are the consistent protocols put in place uh so that there is effective uh intervention and progress monitoring. Targeted support is again a theme that you see through curriculum and with graduation here. It's just a little bit different. A lot of times it's about um tracking but it's also about what is the school doing for the students who need a certain type of intervention. Streamlining data is is always um a a desire so that people can have timely data that is accurate. Standardized documentation reinforcing that and then supporting principles in fully owning the cohort meetings. Um there there has been a move to do that over the last uh year or so because the principles live in the buildings. they know their staff and it is better for that to occur than to

028try to have multiple people and multiple meetings. And so that is a goal that um is being worked on as well. And I believe that's the last slide and as always we're here for kids. >> Well, thank you very much. >> Sure. >> Board members board member Craig. Um, so I have a couple of questions, but I'll try and keep them pretty focused. Um, I think the first [snorts] question I have, and I think this is something I've I see this a pattern be in our in our district at times where we have positions that are there for support, but we haven't really defined what that position does. And I was thinking about this with regard to our third grade reading numbers because I think we've implemented a lot of things into trying to improve

029third grade reading by adding additional support roles. And have we looked at the effectiveness of those roles or maybe the consistency of how those roles operate within schools because I know that that's one of the things that we saw especially with our uh with trying to standardize some of the the resource coordinator roles is trying to get them to be doing something consistent so that that shows a measurable result that we get a benefit from. So is that something we have either implemented or tried to implement or are looking at with regard to kind of standardizing or looking at what places have the best practices and yeah >> kind of coupling those in? >> Yes sir. So we started that work this fall uh making sure that all of the third grade teachers were trained

030in a particular way for approaching this third grade reading piece. We didn't necessarily have that before. uh sometimes buildings would be on their own or sometimes it would be only a particular group of students and schools. And so what we wanted to do was take what we know has been successful and apply that across the board to everyone. Where we want to go next [clears throat] is a deeper look at the um K3 literacy spectrum overall. So instead of waiting and putting all the eggs in third grade preparation, what are we doing as the preschoolers are coming into kindergarten to first etc. So we have an even stronger foundation. One of the other things that I'll add speaking of MTSS from before part of the MTSS framework is a decision tree and in that decision

031tree uh in different places of the framework it identifies a role who should be supporting an intervention and I think that helps as well uh with exactly what you're getting at pairing that with what superintendent Murphy said because that does come up in training [clears throat] is people do talk about well this person in my building helped me do that but I I hear your point that what if this person in my building didn't help me do that. So >> yeah and and again I think what I I would hope that we can do as we build a strategic plan going forward is not necessarily in the plan but in the implementation of the plan look at ways to to make sure we're getting efficiency and effectiveness out of some of those roles that we've

032just historically had in the district. Um I think the other question around algebra 1 and this one for me is also a little bit different because I think some schools have implemented algebra 1 earlier our opportunities to use algebra 1 earlier and that does present some of the challenges also with looking at what our numbers are because the students are at a high pace process and they're being asked to take algebra 1 8th grade and show some success in other schools it's implemented ninth grade and now it's it's a different model or different style. Have you seen any challenges or any uh difficulties in that? >> So, so I I can speak to that just a little bit. So, I will say that this is definitely on the radar. Um, so, Assistant Superintendent Randolph has

033um gotten a meeting on the calendar with curriculum and people from the office of secondary education to talk about when algebra 1 is offered outside of the 9th grade. Uh part of the um thing that has occurred is as we've had middle schools come on board, some of the high schools that had the middle schoolers were had algebra one for some students in the eighth grade. But then you have to figure out how do you carry that on? And so that meeting is coming up I think first or second week in December. >> U I can at least speak to that part. I don't know if Superintendent Murphy has anything to add on that. >> That's perfect. That's perfect. >> And and that's exactly part of the reason I was asking also is because I'm

034I'm recognizing we have different middle schools who are operating at different approaches. And so if a middle school doesn't offer as extensive of a curriculum on algebra 1, even though we're doing algebra 1 uh pilots at the high school level, if a student is able to take it at the at the middle school level or at least get exposed to more of it at the middle school level, they're better prepared to pass it at that ninth grade level. Um the last kind of quick question is really on looking at the ontrack off track. I actually think we should probably on some of these elements look at them at the seventh eighth grade level more so than even at the ninth grade level because a student coming in again because we've implemented um the we've implemented

035the middle school plan. I would love for us to be able to also assert that when they've completed seventh and eighth grade as they walk into ninth grade what track or what are they on track or are they off track? Um because what I am a little bit worried about is that we're now having two different groups of folks kind of trying to prepare the students through high school because we're doing some career tech. We're doing some work on like again like algebra 1 or some of the other components to prepare them so that when they get to high school they're ready. It depends on where you go for middle school and then where you go for high school. It may be different. And so I just want to are we able to do a

036little bit also in looking into in seventh and eighth grade as a lead seventh and eighth grade is there something we can measure or look at to see whether or not they're on track because I think we can also have some of these things accomplished well before they get to their last year of high school. Right? So if a student has both seals their 11th or 10th grade year they're getting or at least on track to get both seals by their 11th or 10th grade year then we're not worried about it at high school trying to finish. And that was something we talked about in student achievement. uh when we first joined when uh four years ago, >> three years ago um because that was one of the things we were concerned about was that

037with the new requirement of the SEALs, there was so much of an emphasis put on the 12th grade year. And in some cases, students were not just didn't think about it, you know, and they they didn't prepare themselves because they weren't thinking about it. And I I I think if we're going to start with some of those things that we've been doing at the seventh and eighth grade to give work at least with some of the uh opportunities to do some of the um focuses at each of the seventh and eighth grades programs that we can at least maybe make some assessments as to whether or not they're on path on track. Do they need some additions? Are there things we need to do as they go into nth grade to make sure they stay

038on track or that they get ahead of track? >> Thank you. Any other board member questions? >> Is that a yes, Vice President Bolton? >> Yes, please. Thank you, >> Vice President B. >> Um, a couple of questions. Um, first on the career piece, uh, you said you are you've got a kind of a long list, short list. Uh, and I think you're right, it doesn't do any good for redundancy. Uh, if just because you're changing vendors or something. I think that makes sense. Um, I know on our career readiness and and readiness overall, we did very well. Uh, at least among a cohort of the eight urbans, I think we were first in in in readiness or close to it or something or no, we met state standards by getting a three or something.

039Um the schools that which are are schools that don't have uh significant number of career uh readiness pathways. >> Yes. So the schools that so Walnut even though Walnut has career they have a senior only cyber security they don't have a pathway. Mhm. >> I will say there have been conversations about pathways which makes me feel really good. >> Uh Spencer also has senior only but we do not they have senior only it we do not have a pathway uh there. We do have some of our schools that have career tech, but it's not like a Hughes, a Woodward, a Taft, or a Wro where nearly everyone goes into career tech. And so that would be um so Gamble, we have agriculture, but it does not cover like if every student at Gamble wanted to

040go into agriculture, there is not enough teaching space for that. We also have and I think this this has been discussed before West High and Dator uh have a fairly small amount of career tech programming for that many students. So that's an area of growth. I I will say that even though there may not be a career pathway, there are quite many students graduating because of the career readiness option. And that's typically because of a 12point credential package and then Ohio means jobs readiness seal. And those two combined also give them the two seals that they need because they you can double dip um with those. So [clears throat] those are the ones that that come to mind. Aken is it probably about 60% saturation maybe 50 to 60% at Aken. I just think it,

041you know, we think of um we've been very careful over the last at least 15 years to make sure that we are preparing our kids for for college as well as preparing them for careers and what have you. And and and we don't want any of our kids to graduate without feeling that they have choices and we want them to be capable of making those choices and prepared to make those choices. I just think maybe that kind of might work in another way too in that some of those places where we have not invested that much time or staff or thought uh because we're thinking this is more college preparatory might not be a bad option for many of our those kids uh be and it might be a I don't know which of the

04216 clusters of of uh of uh of careers that would entail but it would seem that those kids should have an option too, whether it's coming out of the monasteries or whether it's coming out of the, you know, a walnut or wherever that it seems that that would be fair that they shouldn't necessarily not have that opportunity be and we know they're going to be into careers and and making those decisions and certainly um are you know we're going to have the resume to be hired or accepted at a college or hired in the in the workforce. I just like us to think a little bit more about that evenness and I think that would also help us with the report card uh as well uh if some of those schools additionally had the opportunity

043the other uh that's I have for for the career but I do have a question I know the part of the report card that we did the the at least the way they worded it seemed to be where we had our biggest problem was the gap piece uh they they their language was kind of harsh on the gap category uh rather than the rest of the categories. Um and I think it's uh watching the demographics which is what the board is very interested in and and making sure there's fairness and what have you and and equity as as well as some degree of equality. I'm interested do we look when we look at demographic groups do we I know we look at it in the aggregate. I know we look at it district-wide. This group

044is throughout the all of our schools or something and here's this group or that group. Do we look about how different demographic groups perform and their outcomes in various schools? meaning does do do um some kids do better in the the PK8 model or do we know are there neighborhood schools where in indeed are um white kids are doing uh better or worse or uh are there um do people do better in the in the PK12 do we study where the kids are having particular success or where there's disagregated enough that we could say this kind of school works best. And it's not like looking at staff or looking at um maybe that's part of it, but it's it's is there a model that works better where you where the gap decreases or diminishes or

045where um certain demographic group categories of children or teenagers do better? I just I don't know. But be it's interesting to me because of the tremendous variety when you look at the report cards for all of our schools just the range of difference of where schools were achieving you know so there's a bunch of surprises and then there's oh yeah that's obvious or what have you. I just wonder if we look at the demographics school by school uh and just just a thought. Thank you. >> Thank you. Those are some good questions. I'm going to go last, but I'm going to piggyback off of both of your two questions because I have to build on that. That that was where I was thinking. Member Matt. >> Um yes. So, I'm in some ways tracking with

046um where um board member Balton um what she spoke about [clears throat] in terms of the um the disparity that we're seeing with the economic disadvantage versus the non-economic disadvantage. And I'm a firm believer that um while we recognize that there may be challenges um in those that are experiencing some economic disadvantages, I'm a firm believer having taught several students from um this demographic that they are equally able to excel and do exceptional work. And so I'm curious to know about the resource allocation. um if there's a contractual thing that may um maybe cause this uh disparity in terms of where we're placing our teachers. Um is it an access and opportunity uh concern? So, I'm trying to drill down on what are we noticing as it pertains to this particular area and how do

047we provide that turnaround support and turnaround work to ensure that um all of our students uh in spite of their economic background are able to be successful. >> I know just one example but this is a while ago. We haven't done this in several years, but we used to uh do a budget where there was waiting in different categories, whether it was a student with disabilities, the level of economically disadvantaged students. And I don't know the history of why we got away from that, but what you're saying makes sense to revisit how we allocate resources, especially with this being a a focus area. Um, and so it's something I think everything that has been brought up is something really for us to dig into. I have not looked at that, but you are giving me

048food for thought. Thank you for that. I think it would really uh generate or yield some really important information. And again, I know that we have our CBA, so I don't know what that particularly looks like, but if we're um I I know several um you know, boards and administrators just at different conferences has talked about how we allocate our stronger teachers, right? Maybe in those um particular cont areas or different schools um so that we are able to ensure that our students are successful. So, look forward to just uh feedback as you begin to maybe look more closely at that information. >> Great. Thank you, board member Lindy. >> Yeah, thanks very much. Um I think I have three uh three comments. So I think the first one is um I just really appreciate

049the alignment between this meeting and the goal setting we've done around the evaluation and the conversations we've had over the last couple of meetings. To me, this feels like some of the most focused conversations we've had in a committee of the whole just in terms of um trying to keep focus on a small number of most important things with some discipline. Uh and so I truly truly appreciate that and I think this setup is a big step forward. So thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um both both the topic alignment and just the visibility into where we are versus where we want to be at the end of the year. I think on all of those outcomes I think that is a really critical first step. So thank you. Um I think I'm still trying

050to size the second thing. um where we seem to be headed versus where the goals are versus past years. Um some of those numbers seemed quite scary to me. Uh and I didn't want to breeze past them too quickly without checking to see if my level of surprise and concern is in line with others or not. Um, but when we were landing at 55 in change last year, trying to get to 57 and change this year, and when I first saw the number, could we go back to the third grade reading number for a second? When I first saw this, I thought it was, oh, that's 39.1 who would pass today. We need to then close a gap to get all of them to pass or 59.7% to pass by the end of the year.

051But then I read this more carefully. I don't think that's what this says. This says that if present trends continue 39.1% at the end of the year will be proficient. And so I I wanted to ask am I interpreting this correctly? If I am interpreting it correctly, can you help me understand how concerned or not concerned we should be about this and why? >> So we can talk about interpretation but my immediate response is uh kind of two things. One, I'm glad that you said that you see the progression and how this is being done. If you remember when we did the last uh board meeting the um scorecard and we showed file to file benchmark there's improvement. So, uh, looking at this presentation a few times only today in this moment, listening to Mike

052talk through it, I'm thinking, you know what? We don't have what the benchmark was at this time last year. So, you could see the difference. >> I mean, that that's helpful. Sorry, I intermed. >> No, that's basically what I wanted to share. And it if I could just say so a year ago the percentage of projected proficiency for this was 38%. So this is higher than a year ago. Um and actually I mean I could tell you for each one of the three uh where we were a year ago. And like I'll just briefly say like sixth grade reading >> uh is a year ago was lower than what it is now. And so the the way this always seems to work is fall prof projected proficiency comes out. Actions are put in place. Then

053there's winter which will hopefully be higher than the fall, right? And then action steps are put in place. things are refined and then you get your your scores. So we are either about the same or ahead of the game for each one of these three from what was presented fall a year ago. And then the dashboard does show actual data. >> Yeah. >> Well, and look, I I think um seems to me first of all, I appreciate that. Um it does seem like two things are true. One is that's good news because we are better than where we were a year ago. So, we should take that. The other is we got to get some better forecasting materials because if we are regularly off by 20 percentage points, I mean, that's a terrible forecasting tool.

054Like, if I predict that I'm going to owe, you know, $15,000 in taxes at the end of the year, but instead I wind up owing $25,000 in taxes at the end of the year, that's a huge difference. like I I got to have a better system for my own life. You know, it seems like we need a better system for the way we're forecasting because you can't plan if you're off by that much. It can be a topic for another day, but I it it I led with the point about alignment and visibility. I stand by that. I appreciate it. I'm glad things are looking better. Would be great if we had some better tools um for trying to steer the ship. Um, then the last thing I wanted to add, uh, was I I

055do I'm so glad that we made the $350,000 investment in supporting teachers on curriculum implementation. Well, on most of these goals, third grade reading, algebra 1, closing class-based reading gaps for sixth graders on on all the other work we do. Um, so much of the ballgame is whether or not we can help really strong, rigorous curriculum come to life in the classroom for students. I think we've done a good job of purchasing high-quality curriculum. We have to help teachers get it to work the right way. And so I I I'll just come back over and over again. I think that that's was a good decision. I think it's going to make a difference if we stick to it. Um, and I would just come back to one last part of the the support on curriculum.

056You know, one other part of the budget was rescoping some of the responsibilities for a couple of these roles. This was the curriculum coaches, the district-wide mentors, the lead teachers. Um I think if we go back a month or two ago, there was some work that was happening to clarify all of that. There was a retreat that was going to happen. There was the RFP. There's a bunch of stuff that's going to happen. I think one thing that I had wanted to see but had pushed pause on because those things were all still happening but now would love to return to is just on one page what's the difference between what those people were doing last year and what they're doing this year. Um because I think that if we can that's where the rubber

057is going to meet the mo rubber is going to meet the road on so much of this is whether we can get people who can help um into classrooms supporting teachers making their curriculum come to life. So can I request that it's not urgent but it's I would like maybe before the winter holidays. >> Yes, absolutely. and and the great thing is all of those people did come to the table for the retreat that we had and so I am excited about that and um should [clears throat] be able to prepare what's the difference. >> Thank you. >> I'm just going to give my comments and then we can go back around again. So I I was a little concerned about that and that's where I wanted to start because um I think we can

058do better around um forecasting. That doesn't give me hope. But doesn't make me leave the meeting feeling very hopeful we're at 39.1 especially since I don't see the previous year's data that you say we were better this year than we were last year. So my suggestion is that if we're going to say that we have that data to look at because that's very help it's a little it places it a little bit more in context although it does not alleviate my concern. Um I also agreed um and wanted to build a little bit more on very briefly what um Vice President Bolton shared. Can we go to the slide um Rob Rob around this uh economically disadvantaged to me and I've been asked this question before around economically disadvantaged students and how they need they

059need this and they do need extra supports but it has that does not define their achievement level. And so I'm concerned when you post the all of this, you posted the subgroup, but then you clarify that, hey, if we subtract 84.1 from 35.9, that's the number that we see on the other screen. That explains that, but it doesn't tell me why we've got the black students that are significantly low on every single area in your slide presentation. Every single one. It doesn't also explain to me when I see action items how we're going to significantly increase that demographic. If we go back to another um we can go to the graduation, we can go to the algebra like they're significantly lower along with there with Hispanic students yet they're that doesn't I I don't see

060where the alignment of the action items is going to increase significantly those subgroups and I also don't see the transition or the trend data of where those subgroups were versus where they are their projected proficiency. Um, I just think I am super appreciative of the presentation, but I would I would like a little bit more clarity for shity that we're going to meet the goal. Um, and I understand that you were saying, hey, in the in the winter it comes back this, but we're in the fall and you just gave me a 39% proficiency right now and the goal is 50 some odd percent. So to show to me to tell me that we're going to get there without any demonstration that we've done this before is concerning. Um so I'm I'm leaving that with

061you all. I'm trying to be brief, but that this has a lot of different um concerns just from a data standpoint. And the forecasting to me um I think we skipped some things because the forecasting should have more data in between there. It should definitely we can break it down by quarter to we can just do different um with regard to the industry credentials to implement. I understand and appreciate and have sat on and interacted with our BAC. I absolutely love our BAC. But one thing that is missing from the BAC is the student interest. I know for a fact cuz I was at uh Schroer with board member Crosset and the students asked questions of us about why they could not have plottomy a phabbotomy program which we knew nothing about. And when we

062asked the principal, it had to do of course with funding but replicating the program that was at another school very successful that students wanted in their program at their school. she was not able to just replicate that. So I would suggest while you're looking at and I also would suggest that you look at schools that are that have a gap because I'm not interested in what you all are I'm less interested in what you all think that we can implement quickly versus what students want and will participate in and will reduce our absenteeism rate and we'll get them to actually be successful. They're asking for things that I don't know if you know that those students at Schroeder uh were asking for plebotomy but >> pro sorry definitely aware of Schroeder uh that came down

063to budget um I would love to have some of our programs on both sides of the city that way there's not the transportation >> sure distance um definitely at the foundation of career tech is student interest I mean if somebody asked me what's what's the factor to add a program. I say two things. First is student interest and second is does the facility allow that program to be at that school. So Schroeder for example when they wanted to add a career tech program about three years ago the reason why they got health added and so right now they have medical bioscience and they have farm farm tech that they've had for years. The reason why that got added is Navian surveys. The top sector that came out, there were two or three, but health was

064one of those. And so, we added a health program. Um, for a couple years, we weren't allowed to add any career tech programming in the city. So, I'm happy now that we're having these conversations. Um, so I'm more than willing but again there's budgetary impacts to adding a program and like phabbotomy being added to Schroeder would have been the cost of a teacher and the cost of the equipment and in lean budget times sometimes the answer is no with those. So I don't disagree with >> I completely understand. I just I I guess as a community member, I'm conf my the community is confused because they hear the governor talk about career tech dollars. They hear all of these um other schools that get career tech dollars, yet ours are limited by budget and there's

065millions that are available for career tech dollars. So, I think we have a lot to do um with with regard to I think that was my my comment that we need to survey students. We also need to tap into some of the existing funds. And I also would like for us to look at some of the programming that exists and expand on that. We've got students doing drones in other schools. We've got we've got but there are weight lists of students and we're trying to search for things to to build and I don't hear that we're applying for these these funds. I don't hear that with ODW they have this money and we're trying to capture that so that we can expand it. So, those are some of the things that I I would really

066like to hear. Um, with regard to the graduation um slide, I think it starts at 16, Rob. Um, and this is well, this is kind of my last one. The community is really confused on what that graduation number means. And I'm I'm pretty aware of it, but with this presentation, I wasn't very clearer. I don't I can see where the community is not very clear. I'm wondering what are we doing to educate our students in the school around graduation requirements? Like what are we doing? Are we are we not just checking off a box that hey you've met these requirements, you're here, but are we really educating from the like a cohort model like seventh acres? Do students know that 9th grade is where it matters and at the end of 9th grade this is

067where you are where you're deficient and do their are we having a checklist where we told the parent there's there attempted this number of hours and they've only gained [clears throat] earned this number of hours. Where where are we putting recognizable stops so that the student is aware of their data that the parent is aware of their data and where are we educating the community on what graduation that number means because it's they don't understand a two and a half stars might be 82% like they don't understand that and we're talking about this as if everyone understands it and I is such a significant number. We didn't put it on these superintendent goals, but it is something that we're going to continue to monitor. So, I guess my question is where are we educating those

068that the consumer around what that means because that's part of resolving the issue. Where are we doing that if at all or can we start? Can that be an action item? I didn't see that part. >> Dr. Muffet. Uh I will share happy to share Thursday when we had the principles meeting if you recall we started to do the deep deep dive with the report card components um with our principles to make sure [clears throat] they understood and could speak about each of the components and how do we make growth in each of the um components. So where we can do work is creating a parent checklist that you um just described because I do not think we have that. Um but I think that would be helpful as it relates to the um community.

069Maybe something similar um to this parent, maybe not a checklist, but something to inform them and make them a little more knowledgeable about this report card and what the components are and how we're measured as a school district. >> Thank you. And the only other thing is I just think we need to look at those numbers with regard to school and that's and now Vice President Bolton started on that the the numbers to me ask more questions and I'm interested in the trend data per school per demographic. So if you're going to give me black students are at 27% what were they 3 years ago and what schools are moving and what schools aren't moving. and that should drive where we put ext these extra supports particularly around career tech and all of that other

070so I'm I'm looking forward to it. I think we we are where we are. We're going to move and we're going to get better and I appreciate the data. I know board member Craig had a >> just uh quick clarification because I wanted to make sure I was understanding this as uh board member Lindy uh inquired about as well. Are we seeing that the benchmark numbers are a student walking in in the fall semester or the fall uh quarter whatever the fall period of time that as they that we are projecting what that number would be if no other intervention happened and they they grew at their natural level this is what the number would be then what we would expect is that we'll do a bunch of things to improve and and implement an

071action items and then therefore that would increase what proficiency looks like at the end of the year. Is that what we're saying is what the benchmark number is? >> Correct. So the students that make up the 39.1% for third grade reading, let's say, if they just make typical growth over the school year, then they're not necessarily going to raise that percentage. is those things put into place that push the students so that they are making more than typical growth. So if you have a student for example who's reading at a second grade level and if they only make typical growth, they're still going to be behind when they take the third grade reading test because they're reading at a second grade level. And we know that there's third graders who are reading at a first

072grade level. I mean, we we know that. And so again, it it. I do understand concerns about the the fidelity of the projection of but that those are the tools that we have and I will say that the tools that we have are used pretty much across the country widely in many cases and um we I just know and can tell you and I apologize for not having I think I was relying on the dashboard data. If I hit this microphone one more time, somebody should throw a microphone at me. Um, [clears throat] we have the dashboard or the U student whatever it's called. I keep forgetting what we're calling the dashboard report scorecard that has all of the data on there, but I if we need to have it for this type of meeting,

073we can we can definitely do that. >> Yeah. I mean, I guess I would make two kind of maybe recommendations as it's reported out. So I think one is it's definitely helpful to see how the past years where we started at that benchmark where that winter benchmark moved based on the numbers we saw where the spring benchmark and where students ended up is a good pathway and I that's one of the ways we used to look at that information because it told us also the narrative of what happened last year and how we saw success and therefore we could somewhat why we're projecting the success this year >> right [clears throat] >> um I think the other part to it and just maybe a reframing of way it's described. It's like if we did nothing

074other than just had the kids show up every day. This is the number we receive. We know we don't do that. We know that is never how the school will ever operate. We know that there is no teacher in their right mind who would ever sit in a classroom and say, "This student struggling. I'm just going to do the same thing I did every day." So, we know there's going to be a natural, okay, there shouldn't be a student in any school or shouldn't be a teacher in any school who ever does that. Um but I think what we can say is that we will see a certain level of natural progression based on even without our interventions based on like a intervention by the teacher intervention by a parent whatever and then in addition

075to that we have these action items that we're trying to do that will add on to that number to grow it. I I I just think I I think maybe also framing the way that that's understood as the low point of what we think a classroom will have if we did nothing and if there was nothing else supplemental to what is just a daily education might be a better way to frame it because I think one of the things that it kind of set up for us is that it's like okay so now we're essentially saying 39% are going to be proficient and this is the stuff we're doing to get them there as opposed to 39 be proficient if we did nothing, we're doing stuff to get that 39% up to 59.7%. Right. Um

076the one other point I wanted to just call attention to and I think this is with regards to um the uh the workforce development or the uh industry rel industry recognized credentials. Yes. >> And I think one of these things, two things can be true. I'm stealing a line from board member Lindy right now, but two things can be true at the same time. We can need to address and expand opportunities for some of the stuff that we've already offered in schools and ways in which we can do so. And we need to expand opportunities that we may not have offered in the past. And so I'm not to say that we shouldn't explore the thing we'll hold you accountable for as part of your goals is the expansion. I think the thing that will

077show success for our students [clears throat] is or to to add the new thing that show the the opportunities for our students is the expansion of opportunities we already offer and where that can be done to President Maf's point is looking at some of those relationships and partnerships and grants and funding sources that might be able to offer those opportunities in future years. The only caution I would put into that is that we would also then need to make sure we address beyond that one year we give a grant we get a grant or the two years we get a grant whether or not a program is sustainable. Um because we have taken on a lot of programs over the last few years and then we can't give them up because people want them and

078need them >> but the grant ends or the funding source ends for it. And I know that's one of the big things with esser that we are still struggling with is that we committed a lot of stuff under esser that we now can't afford or now can't or now are taking money for something else to do. So I do think we should explore opportunities to provide more of those programming and partnerships with more than yes with the business advisory council but also with again some of our union partners, some of our other community partners, some of our business leaders. Um, you know, again, I look at GE Aerospace and some of the other organizations that have recently put a lot of money into the DIS into the city and investing in workforce development. See if

079we can snack some of those dollars to bring it to the district for like pre-workforce development with our students um through certain programs and maybe more targeted programs. Um and then the last point I just wanted to make is I think we also can for some of the research that we're discussing uh one of the benefits I g got at the council great city schools conference was there was a discussion around using some of your local college uh students to do some of the industry research and to compiling of data and putting those numbers together. And so I think that may be an opportunity to look at some of those >> uh partnerships with Xavier with UC with Mount St. Joe with even NKU if there are students in those fields who can do some

080of the data analytics that may allow you to spend more time on once you get the data back and the research back what to do with it as opposed to spending as much time on the doing the data part. So I just would offer that as an opportunity to explore. >> That's a really great idea just to speak to one of the things that we've done with manufacturing for example. So, we got a manufacturing grant for this year for $170,000. So, that ends in June. No, no more. But we are milking that for as much as we possibly can for sustainability into the future. And I I think we've over the last five years, we've had at least a half a million dollars worth of those grant opportunities brought in because the dollars coming from

081the state have shrunk. And we're not a Butler Tech or a Great Oaks. They do they do have a different funding model than we do. And so that's why you see the gleaming buildings that that they have. Uh so it's definitely sustainability and at least for us most of the extra money that we've gotten we have to show sustainability and we didn't get any of the SSER dollars in career tech and so that's been a good thing for us not having to replace things that were spent. um with Esser dollars. >> All right. Well, we move across it. >> Yes, I'll [clears throat] be very quick. I do want to reiterate I think having a last year's numbers compared to this year's numbers. We've all said it, but I do want to emphasize that that

082context is really important. Um on the uh I think there some kind of assessment test that students can take for career tech that shows their interest compared to their aptitude. [clears throat] >> Yes. Naviance has a career interest profiler that they take >> as part of their just progression, but sometimes we push it out to an entire school to just that's what we did at Schroeder to show that health is really what they wanted and it's a really good accurate. Yeah, I'm just wondering if we can use that information or how comprehensive the testing of is of the whole cohort of a grade level, but that information could be very useful for recruiting partnersh >> so for whatever that's worth. >> Great idea. >> And then also um I think it might be worthwhile exploring

083uh one of the other options. I think it's something called a compact you mentioned uh which is not like Great Oaks or um Butler Tech, but there might be a way for us to uh have get more CT funding from the state if we have some other arrangement with maybe neighboring school districts that don't offer career tech schools, school career tech pathways and courses that we do offer. So maybe just look at something there that could be creative and uh maybe a little bit um innovative for for us because th those arrangement do arrangements do exist in the state other places. >> Thank you board member Bolton. >> Yeah, just a a followup uh on the credit piece that uh uh President Moffett raised. um you know maybe that's part of the report card uh

084discussion that the policy group is having and is brought back to the board and I know we're talking about it. I know we're talking in terms of reading level or what have you. Uh but maybe there's a and I'm not sure how we report that on the credit. Maybe we do or we don't, but that might be uh helpful um to make that uh a part or if it is already a part emphasize it a little bit more to to the to the families. The other piece the two things on the career you know again maybe we ought to be looking at the um quarters uh the three quarters. We we do know that a lot of the heavy uh career tech stuff is really in central corridor uh by Hook or Crook. We're not

085sure how that happened. Uh but uh we're fortunate. But if we're talking about doing that then that an east and a west is also part of the corridor model so that the same sorts of programs. But I I really do think that uh our career piece obviously we need to build it around all 16 clusters and say that we offer something in every one of those clusters but it is about as you mentioned us getting the kids to where those programs might be. I don't uh considering we're not transporting these kids necessarily by yellow bus. uh if the kids have time within their day, if we could redesign some parts or some some days at the high schools so that kids can go to school and then they can also have time and we've been

086saying this for a while in the afternoon or whatever where they then go to their their their career tech uh interest or even where they are employed. I mean this this is I just think we need to focus on that from a transportation piece because we are already teaching them how to get on metro and get someplace. Uh and so it may not be that cost prohibitive if we're not thinking we have to transport them as almost being grown-ups because it would probably be either junior and senior year they could be doing that and they could be employed or they can do the apprenticeship which I know the business advisory folks want. And I also think that as we know we're going to be going to the public for more money, we we do know

087and I'm not sure when or how that's going to happen, but we do know that polling is very high for career tech. So I I think we need to start planning on having money for career tech. And I also think that one of the things at least this is what I'm hearing uh even regarding the foundation is that I think that is one of the big priorities I believe is is the career tech and apprenticeships and what have you. So maybe we can start and I I'm totally there. I know what it's been like to to, you know, scrape and and scratch for years. And there I've been through those years where nobody was giving career tech any dollars. Um, and I think the high schools were terribly underfunded, too. But but maybe we're in

088a different place and that would allow us to think as big as the board may want us to think. And I know what the public wants and and I really think that we should start to enjoy it and say, "Let's do it because it is a priority." And if the community starts hearing us say it's a priority, they'll be they'll be very gratified about that because it is a a priority for them. But um let's let's figure out how we can facilitate the kids having this opportunity. >> I completely agree. Thank you for that. And I also want to say too, transportation may not be as limiting as a hybrid model. We need to stop thinking about the limits and start recognizing a that the governor is pushing this. So to say that there's no

089money is is not true and people are hearing that, but also we need we maybe we have students that are on the Zoom or something with another school. I know um uh assistant superintendent badge and I talked about this for the middle schoolers having the two schools talk with one teacher that we need to be a little bit more creative because the kids are already there and so I'm we need to remove the no board member uh Matt. >> Yes. So that was my question around the middle schools. I recognize that we are working to um ensure that there are uh CTE industry recognized credentials. Um the middle schools all have a focus. I'm interested in hearing about what um what has been implemented thus far. Um we are um well into the school year

090as of now. what uh support or what um plans have been put in place to help provide that level of exposure of CTE for our middle school students? >> Sure, be happy to talk about that. So, in all six of our middle schools, we do have active uh career tech middle school courses. So, they're a semester. They don't they're not tested. There's no credit. That's the design of the state. Uh so in most of them there is career tech art, career tech physical fitness, those who have technology there's career tech technology. Evanston is very specific in having those but also career tech business foundations at Pleasant Hill. We have the career techs I talked about, but we also have an area of focus with urban agriculture because they are in the corridor with Aken and

091that fits with the Pleasant Hill um being an upstander uh social justice because of all of the things that Aken has done and urban agriculture fits well with that. So the support that they've been given is uh they're they've been given u support with curriculum crosswalks between physical fitness for example and then the career tech equivalent of middle school which is exercise science as the state name but we still there goes that microphone again. Quit using my hands. And then they've also so the teachers are required to complete a middle school career tech module. So we get credit for this as a career tech course and we'll have funding that will kick in eventually. I think it's a year off the funding is and so they do it's up to a 5h hour. It doesn't

092take them a long time to go in. And it just talks about career tech in a general way because these are teachers. For example, the one teacher that is doing urban agriculture at Pleasant Hill is an art teacher, but he has a passion for the agriculture. And so he has to go in and do the middle school module. And it teaches him about what it means to be a career tech teacher, what are the trends in career tech? And so they have a lot that that they've been given. I will say and you'll hear more about this uh I'm sure it is mandated that all districts have career tech offered in every seventh and eighth grade setting starting next school year. it's been on the books and we're not one of the districts that uh

093are in the twothirds that didn't offer any to any students and so we've been ahead of the game but I will say that we're already looking at and I've talked with assistant superintendent Badget about the K through8s had a conversation with Walnut the other day because Walnut does not have an exemption for this no one has an exemption uh very creative conversation at Walnut was very exciting And so we're looking at every seventh and eighth grade setting and it's easier to accomplish than you would think, but it also really has great payoffs for students because they get exposure to careers that maybe they didn't get in the art class or the physical fitness class. Um, so but no credentials in seventh and eighth grade, too young, right? No work-based learning hours. Uh, that doesn't mean

094that they're not getting career exposure. We also have a grant uh that we got for almost $20,000 that is helping us implement this first year of the career tech middle school model. >> Okay. So, just for um clarity and totally understand that there's no uh credentials earned. Um this is really um an explorative stage. Yes. um for uh seventh and eighth grade but I am really wanting to hear more about while they are in this exploration stage that there's also some application of learning. So I don't know if that's happening in the curriculum crosswalks or you know what type of hands-on experiences are they actually getting to ensure that there's that interest right in these upper level career um opportunities in CTE. And then it also sounds like for our teachers there's still that kind

095of infancy stage as well in terms of the learning process. So it it sounds like it's something that's still that we're still building out and maybe not necessarily having the implementation or application of it, but we're at a very foundational level. Would that be accurate to you? >> Yes, I I would agree with that and we're certainly not where we will be, but I will I will say that we are further than uh what we could have been considering that the middle schools are all new and they're dealing with all the new middle school like formative things. Uh and so we've not had any push back from the teachers in doing this. In fact, they are getting um some additional extended time to do the hours and also to familiarize themselves with the uh career

096tech crosswalk that they have. One of the other things that our department is doing is involving the six middle schools and this is an initiative that came through our business advisory council. as we do things with some of our high schools, we're also exposing our middle schools maybe in a in a not as an intense way to some of those experiences. So, for example, expert panels, we've implemented we have an expert panel subcommittee. There was an expert panel the other day at Withro. So what now we want to do is move that expert panel to a to one of our middle schools and give them that exposure to I think the one at with row was health logistics and maybe it so that they just get a variety of things and then when you compare

097that with the school selection process and everything that they get and then Navvian is also available for all seventh and eighth graders so they can do their career interest profilers as well so that staff at the school see the trends and and all of that. So, we're we're pleased with our progress. Uh but now we're going to have to blow that up to to spread it out to all of our seventh and eighth grade. uh ODW has not said what the repercussions are for districts who don't do this, but they have definitely made it clear we are no longer going to give slack to any districts who don't do seventh and eighth grade. But they've also given us less funding for career exploration this year with the new governor's budget. It was that piece of

098it was cut by 70% across the state. And so we're doing more with less across the state with the seventh and eighth grade. Some districts are having a very difficult time. We're not with this implementation. >> And board member Matt, we're going to have a presentation from middle schools in I believe January. Superintendent Rever, is it December or January? >> December. >> I believe it's [clears throat] December. >> So we can you can send your questions specifically around the career tech for middle schools then too. >> Yeah. Uh the only thing that I was just going to um ask was in that meeting if we could actually have embedded in that presentation specifically what that application right or that uh explorative process looks like in action. Um and so that's what I would be interested

099in seeing to make sure that there is that alignment from you know middle school junior high and how it is connected to our high school CTE uh options. >> Sure. Gotcha. All right. I'm looking around just to make sure everyone's good. Superintendent Murphy, our next topics. >> Thank you, Mr. Turner. I'm sorry. >> No, that's no problem. >> Are updates from assignments that were made, board members, what what I did was I asked our admin to put assignments that were academic in nature or that impacted academics significantly on the cow so we could get the response. So, Superintendent Murphy, I believe, >> so these two assignments update yes, ma'am, are around uh transportation and so uh Mr. Burkheart is going to chat with us a bit about this. >> Yes, thank you. I don't have

100a comprehensive update at this time. Hopefully by the next meeting we'll have more information to share, but I do have some updates to to get us started. Uh as we were asked as the question was asked about students Mark Tardy, the answer is yes. And there's multiple codes that the teacher can use to put in a student who is tardy. One being transportation. So we don't differentiate the transportation code versus yellow bus versus metro versus um horseback, whatever the the case may be. It's the same. Uh transportation is just one bucket that um we look at. uh of the the data that uh Chief Golhu and Assistant Superintendent Badget uh pulled together, we're looking at about 1.4% um of those uh incidents being districtwide. Of that, the question was also asked about Ethel Taylor. Ethel

101Taylor is 87. So much lower than the average across the entire district. Um we are looking at uh two issues within um that was asked about transportation. I don't have answers to either one uh comp comprehensively right now. One was in relation to Ethel Taylor students on Metro and the bus stop moving and students not being able to get there on time. We have had multiple conversations with Metro. They're pulling data and they're pulling video to see if we can back up um some of the claims that were made. Also in relation to the movement of the Pleasant Hill bus stop, we did have a conversation with Metro today. We had a conversation with the city because we want to look at the crosswalks as well in those locations to make sure that the crosswalk

102will um be parallel to wherever we will put the metro stop. There is a better location for the metro stop further east, I'm going to say, which is closer to a apartment complex where there's plenty of folks to stand. The unintended consequence of that is it's right across the street from the school and we are afraid that students won't walk down to the crosswalk over and back up that they'll try to cross mid uh block on that. So we have to do some more research on that to find out if that's possible or not as well as the library I think that um Vice President Bolton brought up. So we're looking at all those options. Not a real easy we we're have the conversation and tomorrow it happens. Once we do decide where it's going

103to be, that old stop is in place for 2 to 3 weeks where we have signage up to say this bus stop is moving so that we have time to get everyone acclimated and then we'll set a date to which that bus stop changes. >> Okay, thank you. I do have another question for you. This is probably nothing that you can answer today, but it is regarding Metro. Okay, >> there was a comment article sent to me that Metro has adjusted their downtown routes to I don't want to say to prevent to reduce the number of students that are at Government Square. Can you confirm that Metro has adjusted routes for that impact our students? Yes, I believe the stop at Fifth and Walnut was disbanded or temporarily disbanded and there is a stop before

104that and there's a stop after that, but the Fifth and Walnut stop is no longer stop. Metro is no longer stopping at that exact stop. I believe it's 100 yards uh to the east and west of that location. >> Do we know about how many students? >> I don't. I'm sorry. I can find out though. Okay. Thank you. >> What member Ken >> uh as a former bus rider who took that area or rode by that area. I think there's like basically they go to it goes to Walnut and then it comes back up main. Most of the buses they go through government square come back up. So it's not not substantially for for many folks. Uh but it really is depending on where they're getting catching the next bus and that type of deal.

105Um, I do want to ask just kind of one general question and this is more of a a a knowledgebased question for us in some ways. There is a difference between the the bus arriving late and the bus arriving kind of on a schedule and that a student maybe or that there was another bus that would have arrived earlier. I guess it's more to my point. Um, and so I do think that would be helpful for us as we think about this as well. Is it that the schedule that we're putting students on gets them too le makes it unlikely that they will always consistently get to school on time >> or is it that the bus is having for some reason a delay and consistent arrivals? Um because I think if you're you know

106in theory you should be getting to school much earlier than like right at entry. Um because the other thing I did notice that is some of the pl some of the routes that some students are writing gets them to school just before entry and to get in the building is you're never going to get in the building on time that way, right? >> Yeah. >> Um and so maybe that's something about us encouraging the students or sending something communicating out to the parents or whatever about using earlier times similar deal with with exiting the building or safer routes even some ways. um because we know that while we give this you know routes that you should take that then it's not always the route that students take to get to the school and it may

107not always be coming from the same place um so I think that may be the other the only thing I would maybe add to just whatever discussion we have is the end of it is recognizing that is it the route that is the problem you know that is inconsistent to get into the school or is it that if you pick the later route you're likely to be arriving uh behind or or after the start of the class. >> Yeah, a lot of the metro routes are obviously supply and demand. So during that supply um both uh at the in the morning and afternoon those buses could in some cases arrive for example every 7 minutes but once rush hour is done it may arrive every 15 minutes and so those are set up under that

108schedule to be able to accommodate those. to your point. Yes. As we are looking at specifically Ethel Taylor, um one of the [clears throat] situations that we found was students did take that last bus. There were three buses before that. They did take the last bus, uh missed their transfer and then therefore late to school. So, we're really digging in to find out all of the nuances because we're talking about students from not just one section of the district, from all over the district, and there's a lot of variables because of that. So, I I don't want to give you an answer before we vetted all of those through, but yes, we're taking those into consideration. >> Okay. Great. Doesn't look like there Oh, did you have a question? I I just want to emphasize

109the idea and we've said this for a number of months and it's part of the confusion for the public too is the is attendance and the idea that there's this terrible uh um truency piece or that there's this uh report card that shows that it makes it appear that none of our children are come or teenagers coming to school. I I really do hope that the administration is finding ways to get into the to the weeds about about attendance. Is this somebody that is sick and it's a you know this because it's it still counts against them. But when you look at the p the attendance rates school by school by school, they're pretty good. But then uh in the community they believe that only half of our kids come to school every day and

110they don't know that. I mean that's what's out there because of the uh chronic absenteeism or whatever the report card tends to report. So I I I think we probably very soon need some sort of understanding of what how we do attendance and and and what absence really is. uh because it's it's getting it's casting dispersions on us and also obviously our kids. >> Well, maybe that's a next cow report. We get some information around attendance categories and by school and what who knows? >> All right. If no one else has anything else, um the chair will now entertain a motion to recess into executive session to discuss safety and security. >> So moved. Is there a second? >> Second. >> I also want to remind you before I hit the gavvel gladly that there

111is a district-wide LSDMC meeting tonight and board members have been invited to go get food briefly before the meeting if you want. >> I wanted to say that before we voted. Mr. Gustin, >> will that impact the vote? >> It might changes everything there. >> It might have. >> Um, do you also want to say that we will not be coming back here? We will not come back. We will recess into exact session and then dis dismiss from there. >> Thank you, Mr. Craig. >> Yes. >> Mr. Cross, >> yes. >> Mr. Lindy, >> yes. >> Miss Matt, >> yes. base president.