001I'd like to call the Monday, September 22nd regular board meeting to order. Call the role, please. >> Mr. Ferguson, >> here. >> Mrs. Washington, >> present. >> Dr. Ballard >> here. >> Mrs. Nazario, >> here. >> Presence, but you're never here. >> I'm sorry. >> Here. >> Uh, Mr. Surgel >> here. >> Do we have someone for the group for the pledge? >> We do. Do >> y >> please? Yep. >> Yeah. I'd like to welcome Mrs. Rodriguez and Mr. Shaw from Admiral King Elementary School tonight. They're going to lead us in the pledge and also have their students talk to us about who their hero is and why. >> Very cool. >> All right. behind you. >> Okay. >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic
002for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay. Okay, today we have with us uh some of our grade five students um who on September 11th did some reflections in class on September 11th and talked about who their heroes are first of all what is a hero and who their hero is and they each did um a few sentences on who their hero is and I thought that would be perfect to share with you tonight. So first up, can I have Mr. Robert, come on up. >> Amy, you can take the microphone out, too. Works better. >> Okay. >> A her Wait, hold on. >> A hero to me is a someone that helps me when I need it. To me, a hero is my mom. She
003helps me care for me and helps me when I need it. Thank you, mom, for giving me birth give giving me life. >> Amen, >> Robert. That was >> outstanding. [Applause] Awesome job, Robert. Thank you. Next, can I have Miss Summer Celinko come on up? This is what's going to make them hear you by talking into here. Okay. >> Okay. To me, a hero is a person who saves me from everything. My heroes are friends, mom, dad, because they always save me from any every anything. >> Beautiful, Summer. Thank you. >> Awesome job, Summer. Thank you. Next up, can I have Miss Ava Torres talking here? This is what makes them hear you. Okay. To me, a hero is helpful. My hero is Jesus because he's here for me and blesses everyone that needs it.
004>> It comes down to Yes. [Applause] Take take a minute. Okay. It's okay. It's okay. You want to do it right now? >> All right. Next, we have Isaac Stouterman. Okay. Just talk right in here. That's what makes them hear you. >> To me, a hero is someone who saves lives. My hero is my mom because she helps me. >> Nice job, Isaac. Okay, Miss Nariah Williams, come on up. It's >> okay. I'll get to here. That's kind of right here. >> Right here. >> Yeah. >> To me, a hero is someone who is nice and helpful. My hero is my family because my mom gave birth to me and my family cares about me. [Applause] And I think that is everyone. We had a couple more kiddos, but it seems like something happened and
005they're not here. So, one more round of applause for our Admiral King students and their heroes. [Applause] >> Absolutely amazing. I appreciate the depth and the focus and the fact it was about people who you care about and care about your back. So, that's what a hero is. So, if we could maybe line up front so we can get some pictures. That's all right. >> Yeah. I'm trying to meet you ready. One, two, three. Round of applause. [Applause] [Music] mine. >> Whoops. >> Sitting in my chair. >> And this is a part of the meeting where it gets a little bit more boring. So, if everybody wants to sneak out, we fully support and understand and >> recommend. We would join. >> Yeah. Highly recommend. But >> you're welcome to stay. Can you pass it
006down to please? >> It's okay. She's supposed to >> uh at this point any uh visitors in the audience? >> Matt Ker from the city. I see Matt Kzner for the city. Hi, Matt. >> First hearing of the public. >> Job Nia, great job. >> Anybody with anything they might want to talk about? Nope. I will entertain a motion to amend or approve the minutes of the September 8th meeting, waving the right to read the minutes. >> So moved. support >> discussion. Roll call. >> Dr. Ballard? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Nazario? >> Yes. >> Mr. Ferguson? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Washington? >> Yes. >> Mr. Sturgil? >> Yes. >> Old business hearing. Seeing none, reports and recommendations of the treasurer. >> I have items 8.01 through 8.05 for approval. So moved. support >> discussion. Once
007again, uh, thank you to all our donors. The first one, two, and three. There's another $7,000 from our good friends at the IAV. I see a lot of things for individual classrooms and schools on here, and that's absolutely appreciated and welcome. Thank you to our community partners and supporters. >> Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Washington, >> yes. >> Mr. Mr. Sturgil, >> yes. >> Mr. Ferguson, >> yes. >> Dr. Ballard, >> yes. >> Mrs. Nazario, >> yes. >> Reports and recommendations of the superintendent personnel. >> I would like to start out by inviting up Mr. Bill Oie and Miss Mr. D'Angelus to give us an update on where we are with attendance. I think we've all acknowledged the fact that we are certainly areas in which we need to improve and at the very top
008of that list is attendance. Um, and many many plans have been in place. We're finally identifying uh factors that have had a tremendous impact on attendance. I'd like to give you an update on where we are compared to where we've been. >> Hi, good afternoon everyone. Again, wanted to follow up um the presentation we started off with in August about where we were and now that the data is now public from the report card, uh I'll show you that we have had some gains in areas along the timelines. Um, we have seen uh our attendance rate improve. We have seen our attendance rate gain steadily over the past several years. And the red line is the line I'd like to focus on in this graph. Um, this is showing how our chronic absenteeism rate is
009dropping. >> And Missy, we're we're these are same points in time in the past, right? >> Same points in time. and school your data that's been um provided by the state through our state report card system. >> Thank you. >> Um so in the gap closing component related to attendance we uh were just shy of meeting uh points related to attendance in our chronic absentes and percentage points reduced. We reduced as a district 0.9 points. We would have gotten the indicator in attendance if we had 1.1 or in our chronic absentee and percentage reduced. We reduced 1.5. If we were 3.0 or higher, we would have gotten that indicator. So, we're making great strides. >> We expect to get that this year. Yes. >> Yeah. As a district, we're making great strides. We had some
010great um performance though by individual buildings. We wanted to spotlight them at this time. Um the buildings highlighted in green are those that showed gains in their attendance rate from last year to this year from the reporting year of 2324 to the reporting year of 2425 as also a drop in necrotic absenteeism rate from 23 to 24 and 24 to 25 and further share our story. Mr. I wanted to highlight a few ways that we're actively working to improve attendance across the district. First, we're proud to be a part of the Cleveland Browns stay in the game network. Um it's a state campaign that connects showing up to school every day with success both in school and in life. And through assemblies, incentives, community recognition, we're making daily attendance something our students can be excited
011about. And secondly, um we launched the tightest attendance challenge. Thank you, Michael Scott, uh for bringing that development to us. And this friendly competition recognizes the schools with their um highest attendance each week. And the winning um school or yeah, the winning school earns um the tightest chain and celebrates with announcements, photos, student spotlights, and takes great pride in their achievement. It's been a visible and a motivating way to keep attendance from the center. And we're also shifting uh the way that we engage with families by making asset based phone calls. Instead of only calling when there's a problem, our staff also reaches out to celebrate improvements and recognize that. And the calls build trust and strengthen partnerships with our families and they help us address barriers to attendance. Also, our school leaders meet every
012Tuesday at 9:30 to review attendance data like Missy just showed us and friends. And these meetings keep us focused and accountable, ensuring that we're identifying challenges and uh working as a team to remove those barriers. The emphasis is on finding solutions together so that families and students feel supported in coming to school every day. These efforts reflect our commitment to building a culture where every day counts and we're beginning to see progress and with continued partnership among family, staff, and the community, we believe can sustain and accelerate these. That's where we are right now. >> Very good. >> Any questions for the board? >> Again, this is something we recognize is an area of growth for us. Uh we've been focused on it for well since we came back from COVID. We've tried some things
013that were best practices and candidly they didn't have the effect or the impact that we we hoped they would. Uh we did some things last year by trying different things and personalizing our approach as as Bill and Messi were talking about uh and trying to be much more um connecting with our families and it's had a positive impact on several of the elementary schools last year and now we've expanded it to make it an expectation of all. So, Jeeoff, I would ask um >> and it seems like we're trending up, >> but when we cut back our busing route, is there any correlation on us cutting back on the busing route to absenteeism for some of our kids that may be out of our 1.9 miles? >> I can get that information, but I think
014that we cut that back a long time ago. I think it was always it was two two miles when I was here during my first tour and our attend our chronic absentee rate was about 20%. where last year was 59%. So even with the two miles, we were a whole lot better off in the past. Um but Barbie asked the same question before the board meeting and I told her that I would get you the information on the cost. >> Get you. >> Look at you. >> Yep. So we'll get the information out to you tomorrow. >> It'll take a couple days because there's obviously a lot of things to factor in. If we change ours Lraine City Schools from two miles to a mile, we also have to accommodate all the charter schools and
015private schools the same way. So >> you know it's a balance in that. >> Yeah. I was just curious if there was any correlation between the two. >> I don't believe so based on what um at least not during my 10 years. >> Okay. >> We know the transportation department is working hard to rewrap students and make sure that they're being as efficient as possible and getting the kids to school. >> Sure. >> As quickly. >> Amen. >> And we have a lot of what we call space available. When there's space available on a bus, even if you don't qualify, we still get you on the bus. >> Got it. >> Do we have a uh a waiting list for that? used to >> and uh right now is about the time that they're probably
016I want to say finishing it up. Uh but actually Tony's out there. Tony, can you speak to that specifically? I know the goal is to have it done by October 1st because we have so many students moving in and out uh that it's we have to make sure that the students we're required to transport have access. Uh and that number just changes daily. So we say October 1st, but our goal is to get it done much sooner. >> Can Can you do the microphone, Tony? Do you mind for TV? Tony, >> he's got a face for >> Oh, yeah. >> He doesn't mind being on this one. >> No, no, not at all. >> Yeah, we do have quite a few students that are currently waiting on space available. We do delay that process simply
017because we don't know how many of our students are going to be eligible riding on our buses. So, we want to make sure we have space available on those buses. Not to mention, we don't want to put a student from the space available list on a bus to find out that we're going to have to move them off the bus because somebody eligible is going to take that seat. So, they're very cautious on how they do it. That's what the delay is. Uh, but we're about the time where we're going to start routing a lot of those kids and giving them opportunity to transportation. Um, I will say that hopefully with the new buses that are coming in, we picked up five of them last week. So, uh, that should help, uh, fill some of
018those gaps as well. Uh, but transportation department is working really hard to try to get all those students uh, transported and we're going to do the best we can at getting them off that list and get them on a bus. >> Thank you. >> Good. Thank you. >> Um, uh, I don't know if it would be appropriate. I know um, Dr. Sturgil uh works uh with the with the Tuesday meetings and um would you be able to speak to like what are the main concerns in general? >> I'm sorry. Main concerns of >> uh for the students that are um chronically absent. >> Yeah. Stephen Stephen does take the lead for the district. Yeah. Can you come on up >> while he's walking up? Yep. Um you know there there's a gamut of issues. I
019wish there was a you know where we could say there's one or two trending things. Um you know it is a personalized approach. I think you know things range from >> I mean remember we were in co we were telling folks if you had a then you were staying home and we did that for a while. I think there were some habits that were um grown through that. Um now we need to differentiate between um not feeling well and being sick because those are two different pieces right. um you know I know we talked a lot about transportation um in the big scheme of things I don't trending I can't say that that has been relative to busing has been a a the root cause um that's what we got trying to solve to be
020honest um so I don't want to you know put uh Dr. surgeon to answer this alone, but you know, how we take care of ourselves does matter. Access to medical care, that's why we have the clinic at at Washington to help provide uh readily accessible care uh for our families, which we know has been historically a barrier. Uh but, you know, making sure that, you know, germs don't spread widespread during the seasons, that's a big part. Um but let's be honest, too, we have to make sure that school's as irresistible as possible. uh because that does impact uh students desire to want to come. Um and we're working on those pieces as well. Um you know, going back to our last year uh public very public conversations around, you know, how, you know, behavior and
021how we begin and end our days. That's what's one of the huge things that came up. We're starting to see where that's, you know, really making a difference for some kids this year already. Um even with our big kids, you know, doing things like the senior lounge, you know, raises some excitement. um we have to continue to look for those ways and activate student voice on what's important to them. Um so I wish I could say you know there here are the three main reasons um students aren't coming to school but there's so many personalized approaches that's why you know having the meetings at the building level um where we bring parents in before it becomes punitive in nature to find out what those root causes are and then work like heck for those individual
022families uh to help overcome some of those barriers and then sometimes it is a will piece too you know it's I got seven and 8-year-old at home and some mornings it's hard um you know but we have to be resolved and those habits around what we do at night what we do in the morning how we um build positive experiences do matter so I think there isn't a one-sizefits-all to make a long story short but there are a lot of individualized things and it's our job uh to help meet what those individual barriers are and then sometimes we do have to hold the ground and say no this is our our reasonable expectation for our family too. Like we have to and and what we don't realize is two days of absence a month add
023up over the course of eight months, right? Seven months, seven, eight months. It adds up. >> And historically speaking, we know that around the 9th, 10th, 11th day of absence in a year. After that 11th day of absence, that's when our scores start to, you know, student success on our standardized measures uh begin to go down. I was talking to a student today at Longfellow and a student said part of the reason why they come to school is because they don't want to miss the work because it's twice as hard to catch up. I think that was a brilliant point by that young lady. If you miss one day, it's not just missing one day. It's like missing two because when you come back, the class is still moving forward and you're trying to catch
024up, right? So, what happens when I feel as though I'm behind and I can't catch up? I stop coming. And those are the barriers that we're fighting every single day. But things like we having fathers walk last week, fathers or father figures, the community effort towards getting our most precious entities to school, our children, that's how we're going to win this thing. And it does have to be competitive. If we got to be able to say as a community, you know what, we can do better. We are better than what our ranking has been. And let's show up and show out. To me, like that's the that's the grassroot effort that we need to take. So, didn't answer your question uh completely. Gave you some things to think about hopefully. And Dr. Sturgil uh what
025do you want to add to that sir? >> I really have nothing else to add. >> I think Mike >> Mike stole the mic. Yeah. >> I will I will say this that there is a conservative conservative effort. >> Okay, good. Uh there is a concerted effort from everybody in this room. um and to the school admin on doing everything we can to get our students in school and our model of being on time all day and every day is that consistent message. And so what you're seeing uh everything that Bill did, what Missy and what we're doing is is really um really working to uh break down those barriers what Mike talked about. you know, we have a very aggressive wraparound services department, but also we offer a lot of services to our family.
026Um, which is incredible. So, I think, uh, one is definitely, uh, those relationships matter. We're doing it. Um, and knock on wood, you're going to see a nice decrease in chronic absentism if everything holds the way we're going. >> Thanks, Stephen. Thank you. >> And, and just we we do have a check. I Stephen didn't mention this, but uh to Stephen and Missy and others credit, every every single week on Tuesday morning, we know exactly where the students are. So, it's a check every single week to see who's been out, where are they, why um it home visits are a part of that with follow-ups and then a follow up the following week where they are. So much um started last year and then even more intense this year. um attention to knowing where all
027of the students are and if they haven't been coming, why they haven't been coming, what the results of the home visit was um to really make sure that we know where our kids are at all times. We've thrown around the term chronic absence. Can we define that for people? How many hours or days makes you chronically absent? >> Think about it in a 10%. How many days do we have in a in a school year? >> 174. So >> 10% of that. So 17 okay >> days which is depending on the building. >> It's a day every two weeks. >> Yep. >> And and it's all the hours though that hours, >> right? It's about hours. >> Yeah. It's all the hours. So if we we come late here and there, we leave early here
028and there, it all it all adds up. >> Everything matters. >> Okay. >> I have a question um regarding the high school. I see we do a lot um to target the younger kiddos. What are we doing at the high school to help you know let them know school is fun and important and all of those good things? >> Well, the Titus challenge is districtwide. So, there's an elementary division and a secondary division. So, they're they're also involved in that race to get the the chain. Um >> yeah, jump in. Um the personalized approach. So, um Julio Rivera at the high school. Yeah, >> the the assistant principal is champion um the attendance. So, he's the on Tuesday when we meet, he represents the high school and the same processes. So, each grade level has
029um there are students that they're responsible for. Um personalized phone calls come out through administr through um the building um trying to find out where kids are. Um, also, uh, we utilize our SEO to go out, um, for those big cases, um, figure out, but I think the root of your question, and correct me if I'm wrong, Mrs. Washington, is, you know, how are we making school cool for the big ones to make sure that Yeah. Um, and and and that is, you know, clearly a focus on, you know, leveraging student voice. So, Dr. Graham over the last couple years with Miss Cheers um has had some advisory groups kind of give them some thoughts on what could make school a little bit better for them. Um you know making sure that we have access
030that all our students have access uh to the plethora of clubs. So at the beginning of the year they had a whole like this is what we offer beginning with the freshman and saying hey here are the here are the things that we offer sign up because we know when students are engaged in at least one activity after school that the the likelihood of them coming to school more often increases. So um they are going to continue to work on that. We are going to continue to activate more student voice um and find out you know what they need and get their feedback. But I will give a shout out to Michael Pashotti who's behind the scenes right now. Yeah. Yeah. you right over there. I don't know if the camera will swirl to you,
031but you know, making sure that, you know, we also modernize our approach towards communicating um with our students is important. So, uh Titan to Titan uh podcast created uh by students for students and the things that are going to come from that um you know, we're going to listen and and and if they say, "Hey, these are some things that are trending that are important to us." It's our responsibility. It's our moral obligation uh to make sure that those things come to life. >> So now is that as quick as a switch an on switch? That that takes some time. We got to continue to build trust and you know things of that nature. But that is the approach and all of the practices you know from a systemic standpoint are important. So identifying early
032in the day who's here and who's not here, making sure that our mandated law calls go out, but then also the personalized pieces. Um, you know, to me it matters, uh, when I get a phone call from my, it could be any staff member. If my child's out and I hear a personal phone call like, "Hey, I just missed you." That matters. So we're, you know, working in that avenue. Um, and that's whether you're uh uh prek all the way up to that senior year. Um, but it does start with really making sure that we're paying attention to the data because if we don't pay attention to data, it's very easy, especially a school as big as Lraine High, for students to fall through the cracks and that's, you know, things that we can allow.
033>> And and our seniors had the one of the larger improvements in chronic absenteeism last year. Second grade made great improvements. our senior class was uh one of the larger uh or grades with the larger improvement. Success Academy was one of our schools that had some of the best improvement in attendance and the the emphasis around connectivity and and Success Academy in particular. The students asked for a more family feel to the school which they've absolutely worked on to do and they've had again some of the best improved attendance um at 12th grade at Success Academy. >> Thank you all. Appreciate it. >> Thank you. And we had Nope. We're not done. >> Are you doing it? >> Okay. No. I'm trying to go ahead, please. >> No, no. I I wanted to spotlight Reggie
034if I can right now, too. Um today, Mr. Shaw, today I was walking through Admiral King. Um and I walked in um and he was on the phone talking about, you know, calling and personalizing. He's reaching out to parents, you know, midday, still encouraging them. It's not too late to bring your child to school today. If they're feeling better, bring them in. Um because every minute matters. So I just want to like those type of midday approaches and then kids are coming through. So that personalized approach matters. Um please you have a young student here with us right that still has some uh information from ramp that they like to share. Correct? >> Yeah. >> Come on up. >> And Jay I apologize. I know this room is hard to find. So thanks for being
035patient with us. >> All right. This is one of our uh fantastic fifth graders. She is a leader in the building. She's a part of the leadership team. But today, she's up to present her hero. So, I'm gonna step back and I'm gonna let you do your thing. >> Okay. My hero is Martin Luther King because he let different races be able to go to the same school and he gave No. And he made he made a speech for everyone to go to the same school. >> Very good. >> Nice. Never worthy. [Applause] Jaylen, can we get our picture taken with you? >> Yeah. >> All right. And also dad's here. Come on up, >> dad. Dad was my father's walk. We uh we had a parade pretty much and he was right there with
036the >> parade. I And one, two, three. One more. And one, two, three. >> Nice. Nice job. All righty. At the request of the board, I would like to pull out um from the administrative section, I'm sorry, from the policy section 9.07 uh admin contract uh volume 44 number one uh new uh board cell phone policy. And I would like to move that from 9.07 to make it a standalone item at 9.10. I'd like the board to consider for approval items 9.01 to 9.09. Um for approval >> support >> discussion. >> Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Washington, >> yes. >> Mr. Sturgil. >> Yes. >> Mr. Ferguson. >> Yes. >> Dr. Ballard. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Nazario. >> Yes. >> And I'd like the board to consider for approval the cell phone policy just removed.
037Uh 9.10. >> So moved >> support >> discussion. >> What is this policy? >> It is a cell phone policy for the board. So, we're um aware that we shouldn't be scrolling on our cell phones either uh like we're asking our students to do and our staff to do uh to be more aware not to use the cell phones during board meetings. Um it came uh from one there's issues uh with the city where uh city council are uh using their cell phones during meetings and people are public uh requesting public records for their um text messages that are sent and received during the meetings and also uh pictures of board members and people at the table um using their on a pretty regular basis. Uh and people want to know are we paying attention
038to what is being said during the meeting uh to the people at the podium or just here at the table. Are we are we committed? Are we dedicated? Are we listening? So my request was at our policy committee to draw up a policy. This policy is used by one other school um with the exception of the storage of the phones, that one included. Um uh you can't have your phone anywhere near you. Um I know that there are emergencies. I use my phone to monitor my um glucose level. Um I know sometimes Courtney has her kiddos that are walking over from the stadium. You might need to glance over and see is that an emergency? Do I need to pick it up right now? I think that that's understandable for you to have your phone
039in your hand scrolling or texting during a meeting. I think that that's disrespectful and unacceptable and that's why uh we talked about this policy in the policy committee and it did get the support and it moved to here. I guess my concern with that is first of all as board members I've never seen anybody making phone calls um while sitting in a board meeting. Um I do understand sometimes when people see you on your phone or your iPad or your computer, they don't necessarily know what you're doing there. But I don't know if we necessarily need a policy to uh dictate that because I can do everything on my iPad that the board issues us uh that we can do on our phones nowadays other than make phone calls. just don't know if and excuse
040me for being short of breath, but um I'm just not sure if we need a policy put into place to govern this group of leaders who should have a pretty good discernment on what they should and should not do with those kind of tools. So, I appreciate the u the the concern from your constituents or yourself, but uh yeah, that's an that's a uh bit of a I don't want to call it anything other than I just think that we can govern ourselves on that without a board policy change. >> Was there anything from the state on this? I mean, usually usually there's there's things where it references law. I mean, is it is it a law? >> I'm not sure. Uh Tonyy's here. I don't know if we want to bring him up. I
041know the other Tony is one of the one of the gentlemen who they're requesting his cell phone messages from, but I've met Tony Gardini. I saw Tony over there shaking his head now. um if it violates a public meetings act or if it if the whatever we're doing on our phone does it is it considered a public record if it's going on during a meeting. >> Correct. So there's no law that requires a board to pass a policy uh like this. On the other hand, uh it is true that u council members in various cities uh text one another during meetings and effectively bypass the sunshine law by making their comments to each other that no one else can see. uh in my opinion if those discussions are going on by text message let's say
042those are public records because effectively those are comments or discussions that are being had but not directly in the public so whether you need a policy or not I don't know because they're going to be public records either way so if somebody violates the policy or they're following a policy doesn't matter If you're texting about uh some matter, some business matter before the board that you're about to vote on, you that certainly would be subject to uh to discovery and a public records request and I wouldn't advise doing it. I think it's um but on the other hand, I understand the other commentary I heard and that is some people take notes on their cell phone, some people, you know, they do other things. placing it might be a little bit uh difficult. >> Do
043we get our policies usually informed from Nola? >> This came from Niola. >> It did? >> Yes, it did. >> Okay. Um well, I I share uh Dr. Ballard's concerns totally and uh I think I've made, you know, my position clear on this. I understand its intent. I agree with Dr. Ballard. Anyone else? Roll call. >> Mrs. Washington. >> Absolutely. Yes. >> Mrs. Nazario? >> Yes. >> Mr. Ferguson? >> No. >> Dr. Ballard? >> No. >> Mr. Sturgil? >> No. >> I'd like the board to consider for approval items 10.01 to 10.13, operations matters. So moved >> support >> discussion. >> Yes. Um I have a discussion on 10.04. Um did anybody read the contract on this one board? Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, I don't support this one. So, I guess I have to retract
044my support on 10.04. >> The second is just >> Yeah, just put it >> just to be able to discuss. >> Okay. >> What's the concerns with the >> um Did you read the contract on this one? >> A while a several days ago. Not >> Do you have any concern? I don't I didn't recall seeing any is >> and I guess I was kind of excited because I've heard Rick Rick Warmell speak many times and >> did you see the number of uh people that this amount of money covers? Do you recall that at all? >> I I don't I do not but I know that professional develop money is is use it or lose it kind of deal. Correct. >> And as I understand if we don't lose use it in the next
045couple of next week you is that right? We lose we lose about >> this this um this money was supposed to be used I believe right as of June this part >> I'm sorry what are the dates on this >> October 8th and November 11th >> so this is for the duration of the school year >> this part is for 26 >> the um >> but it is rollover money if that's what you're asking >> got you >> if I'm not confused correct >> technically >> what's that >> technically two separate drill over >> that's the part that has to be used. Yeah. >> Correct. >> I I'm sorry. I didn't understand. >> There's a portion that needs to be used by the end of this month and there's a portion that has to be
046used by the end of fiscal year 26. >> Okay. So, do you know the rema the remaining of the money? how much >> um I just I personally u think I'm sad that we have money that needs to be used and we don't have other things on here uh help addressing other needs. Um I think that's a lot of money for at the max for is it 400 people >> up to 100 >> 100 per class. I think it was like four or something classes. >> That That's my concern on here. >> From what I know of Rick Warmeli, he's a uh middle school specialist. I don't know if he's who he's addressing, but >> he's No, he does he does K through 12. Um he is one of the foremost experts in the country
047in standardsbased grading. And >> that's the problem that I think that I have is I worry about adding something else new when I feel like we're still we've tried a lot of we're working on another lot of new things this year that we're trying to make work that we had something else on to I wish we could have got some professional development. I'm in complete support of professional development. I wish we could have got some professional development on the things that we're already doing new in our schools. some more. Um I mean I heard there was great professional development on soft opening and closings. If we could have got some more of those for teachers, maybe something more on we know traumab based um trauma for our kids. If we could have got professional development
048for that for our schools. I just don't think standard based grading is something right now that we need to be focusing on when we have other things that I wish we could have spent that 50,000 on that type of thing. that type of >> I'm going to agree with you. If if this if this is going to turn into a a movement, >> yes, >> this year to standardsbased grading, I would not support that movement. However, >> this gentleman is such an amazing educator. >> Uh >> I don't know if there's a there's not an issue with the with the gentleman. I think there was an issue with this amount um with the amount of money that we were paying per group. So that's why I was asking about the contract if anybody read the
049contract and knows what what it covers. I I'm not talking about the gentleman. I don't have I don't know. >> Yeah. I think if we could talk just take a a a step back and maybe we can kind of tie all these things here here together. So the Yes. agenda contract, >> the educational service center um did a contract with him for Lorraine County Districts last year and we had a a team that participated in that in that learning series and and the the I mean the feedback was fantastic. I mean just really excellent. and our district leadership team met a couple of weeks ago and and one of the areas that we identified as a need is that we don't have consistency in what a grade means across our across all of our schools.
050We have um connected to our strategic plan laid out scope and sequence revision resource adoption. We've we've taken those steps. We've been working on making sure that we have equal opportunities across all of our schools. And the next step on that then is to um connect grading practices. So so this is part of a part of our strategic plan. And to get to that that next that next point um we we I completely agree about that this connects into environment and culture and how we feel about about school. One of the things that that we know is that when students start to fall behind there is a lack of hope. And if we don't have uh quite honestly a really good clear approach to how we measure s student success, how we measure growth and
051how we provide feedback, we can sometimes contribute with without I mean it's not like there's bad intent here, but we can contribute to a lack of hope for students in many cases and lack of clarity. So this isn't just about what we like how we actually put grades together. Uh it's about our expectations all along the way. It's about how we how we hold um high expectations for kids. It's about how we provide meaningful feedback in the moment and how students can show in multiple ways what they know and are able to do. It's about the really going deeper with our collaborative practices that our teachers have and being on the same page with what they expect and how the best ways are to design that instruction in the end for our students. So it
052it's a whole like it ties a lot of work that we've been doing together. And this is not for us to have a new report card this year. This is us learning and growing and developing so we can start to scale up and this team will decide what our like when we, you know, flip the switch so to speak or when we scale up. Um realistically nothing before the start of next school year. So, I know we've uh had a couple of different runs in the past at standardsbased grading and one of the main themes is that it was too quick or it was just thrust upon us or this didn't have any teacher voice and our approach um is no different than than other have a team that works on this. We have a
053eager group from our district leadership team already who's um said that they would like to work on this. we will listen, we will learn, we will lead, you know, based on that and and the timeline will be determined based on the group of people that are are doing the leadership around that work. Um, in terms of expenses, I believe, if I remember correctly, $7,000 per day, which in terms of professional development is frankly a very reasonable price. It's not outrageously expensive um at all. He suggested that we start with two days with our district leadership team, which I think is uh absolutely appropriate. would be very very similar to the two days that our team initial uh team that went last year and participated had who was very uh positive about the two days that
054they had with him. And then from there based on those two days our district leadership team is going to decide what what does the work need to look like for our early elementary, for our later elementary, for our middle school, for our departments, for our high school, for departments within the high school and with our families. So we're, you know, making sure our families are part of the discussion as well. and and and then the way that the the contract is written is to give us that flexibility. So, we've got the two days on the front end and then he had suggested a follow-up a couple days in November, but that he's very flexible and and we'll adjust around, you know, our needs and what our team comes up with. So, the contract is written
055for I think it's $50,000 and that's for several days should we need them or not. It's not a it's not a guaranteed $50,000. And please keep in mind that the title 2A uh funds are restrictive funds, meaning they're for limited use and we are not guaranteed to have any rollover funds the following year. >> So they have to be used strategically. >> Yep. >> Used for teacher professional development. >> Yeah. >> And the two points I want to emphasize when Ross gave his again great explanation um is the fact that this is and has been part of our strategic plan and the goal is not just to provide um a report card. It's to improve instruction. >> Yeah, I'm not against focus of instruction >> base grading. I mean, right now, >> that's what I'm
056saying right now. I just, like I said, I just wish we had Excuse me. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt you. I just wish we had some more >> like approving professional development for trauma. We hear so often that that's what our kids, we know that. We know. I mean, I know my kids are in school with kids that they come home and these kids are just, we know that. if we could get our teachers some more of that because Panorama is not giving them everything that they need. And so I would just wish we would have seen a $50,000 to approve a $50,000 payment to a professional development for something like that >> before the we have looked at that by the way. We're still in the process. I'm actually Bruce Perry was
057almost our day one person who is the person but he was $50,000 for the day. Uh so that was a little cost prohibitive. Uh but trauma um informed instruction and trauma um informed um care is yeah is still a focal point. Yep. >> And we did um you know from the voice of what came out of last year's conversation we did offer summer we did begin our year um trauma-informed um professional development series across I think part of professional development now is to go from awareness um into the implementation of the year to having dialogue on our professional development today is still around the same topic >> is professional learning on that. So, we're not straying away from continuing to have the conversation. >> I just said I wish that I saw things a $50,000
058like I said we're spending it on that right now >> and we have 115 believe was new hires that haven't received our training. Going back real quick to the standardsbased grading. I was here when we did it a long time ago and we had >> uh report cards that were this big. No, that's not >> um and I believe we were moving, you know, in the right direction. Then we had the grade for parents to understand the normal kind of grading we were used to along with some standards underneath. So I do understand that it's important. Um that's not why um I voted I I was against this. >> You know, one of the one of the topics that I heard Mr. war speak on was the difference between activity and achievement. >> Mhm. >>
059And I think that I think that that in and of itself is worthy of our teachers to hear because too many times we mistake activity for achievement. >> Correct. >> Yep. >> I'll add I'll add real quick um >> or complaints for achievement. Jay was being asked a question about the contract early on uh in this conversation and I'll look back to Jeff and say I'm certain that you and your team have gone over the contract and you're presenting this to us as a recommendation coming from you. Correct. >> That's correct. And you okay thank you. We but it's still it's our job like I looked at the contracts and I don't need to argue well sort of maybe >> um not to be disrespectful but um you know we've caught where we were spending
060I forget was some outrageous amount of money to a DJ and we were like what this you know because you open up the contract and I just don't think I just don't think that's what we're doing and I think we should >> the I was wondering what you meant in the contract because the amount of money was listed right right there. I was thinking there was something. >> No. So >> that I missed. >> So So what is missed is sometimes these links aren't opening from here and nobody knows and that's the issue. Um I've spoke with Elena about it >> and I agree I agree with that issue. I've had that problem myself and >> and that's the issue. So, no. So, nobody's clicking on these to say, "Oh, does this make sense?" >>
061Okay. Um because we do we do we've already said publicly we support Dr. Graham and we support Miss Pia. Um but it's our jobs to to see what they're doing. It's our jobs to look on every finance report. It's our job to open up the contract and to read them and to make sure that this makes sense and we're not doing that. >> Anyone else? >> Has it been moved and seconded? >> It has been moved and seconded. Roll call. >> Dr. Ballard? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Nazario? >> No. >> Mr. Ferguson? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Washington? >> No. >> Mr. Sturgil? >> Yes. >> And that's all I decision. and we'll provide the board with our plan on trauma-informed care. So, obviously they've been clear and I owe that. >> Any new business from
062the board? Committee reports, requests from board members. Uh second hearing of the public. Um the next board meeting will be Monday, October 13th at 5:00 pm right here. And at this point, I would entertain a motion to go into executive session for A2 employment and B purchase of property. We will not be making any decisions when we come out. >> So move >> support. >> Roll call. >> Dr. Bor, >> yes. >> Mrs. Nazario, >> yes. >> Mr. Ferguson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Washington, yes. >> Mr. Sturgil, >> yes.