SMFCSD Board Meeting 2026-02-02

001Good evening. I'd like to call to order the board of education meeting uh for uh Monday, February 2nd, 2026. Roll call, please. >> Merleti >> here. >> Moyer >> here. >> She >> here. >> Sulaonic >> here. Whitaker >> here. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Everything we do is designed to pro provide a future ready student centered learning experience for every single child. Our strategic plan for 2021 through 2026 will help us accomplish this goal by considering every facet of a student's learning experience from curriculum to infrastructure to wellness and everything in between. Now, we have to we're going to

002have move to adopt our agenda, but I need to ask for some modifications to that agenda. Um, do I have a motion to adopt the agenda first? Yes. Motion to adopt the agenda. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> The proposed amendments would be to move the executive session to discuss the employment of a public employee or official uh to immediately after the adoption of the agenda and then have the high school schedule presentation immediately following that. So 5B would become 5A and then the uh language arts adoption and then also a small presentation of Dr. Gould about the light speeded parent portal. Do I have a motion to amend the agenda in that format? >> So moved. >> Second. >> A second. >> Roll call, please. >> Just so I get clarity. So

003we're taking 10. Is it 10 and we're moving it till now? >> Uh we're moving half of it to now. We're leaving the attorney discussion uh okay for later >> because that person's not ready for any for us right now. >> So roll call please. >> Merleti >> I >> sula >> hi >> whitaker >> hi. >> Just a quick point of order. I was just curious why this whole vision statement section isn't wasn't read. >> I can read it. Um >> I just didn't know if there was a reason behind it. >> There is, but I mean I can read it, but >> Okay, >> I'll just read it and then we'll go into executive session. As members of the board of ed education, we serve as trustees. Therefore, this is a business meeting

004being conducted in public, not a public meeting. We are grateful to serve an engaged community and therefore engage and respect input from citizens. We expect that everyone present will behave in a manner consistent with the behavior we expect of our students. We reserve the right to have those who do not comply removed from our meeting and pursuant to the motion that passed. Do we vote on that motion? No. All right. I'm sorry. That's all right. Roll call, please. On the amended agenda, >> Merleti >> I. >> Moyer. >> I. She >> I Whitaker. >> I We are now in executive executive session at 604. We are back on the record from executive session at 6:46 p.m. Just want to clarify we are in executive session for the purposes of discussing the employment of a public

005employee and that the board had invited uh human resource director u Mr. Love in there with us. So we will move on to our next agenda item which is the presentation on the high school schedule. Again, I apologize for making everyone wait. Hello. Good evening. Hello. Oh, wonderful. Thank you. Okay. Thank you for your time tonight. Um, I'm excited to be sitting up here to be talking about Oh, I can Can you guys see over Dr. Gold's head? I'm okay with it. Okay. Um, to stand up here today to talk to you guys and share a little bit of information about a possible transition for our bell schedule. So, currently at the high school, we have eight periods. So, a student can take eight classes with a lunch. Um, the bell schedule when you do

006look at it actually goes down to 11. Um but truly we don't we do not have 11 periods available to students. We have eight periods available to students with that lunch period. Um when we think about where did this idea come from? Where does this idea about eliminating a period and going down to seven periods come from? Well, first it's been something that we've talked about for many years at the high school. Um all the way back to 2012. Um there was conversations then about going to a seven period day. Um a few years ago there was even some discussion about a block schedule. Um overall though this conversation has been had with students and staff especially staff because staff have been looking for a way to get more time with their students right we

007know that the demands in education and the demands on students um continue to increase right and as um a staff we look how to maximize our time with our students. Uh back in you know back when we talked about the black schedule back in 2012 at that time uh changing the bell schedule would have had additional cost to the district and we were not in any type of position to do that. Uh currently we are in a position due to our lower enrollment that we would be able to make a change to go down to a seven-p period day and not have any additional costs to the district. Um and so also where did this come from? Right? So last year when the counseling and the administrative team sat down and we started looking at

008student schedules. So um the master schedule in the high school is all student driven. So students sit down, they pick the classes that they want to take and then from there we make what we call our master schedule. when we sat last year and we started looking at the classes our students were taking, we had some big aha moments. And so we started to really pull the data on that. And so last year we learned that the students that were in our building last year, only 15 of the students last year in our building had a full eight period day. This year, and you can see it up there, it's one of the bullet points, uh 1.1% of our students, so only 18 students out of our current over600 students have a full eight period

009day. Um and and so that that seems, you know, that's that's a shocking number to us. Uh we also know that many students in our building sit through two study halls. So I can agree that one study hall is advantageous for a student, right? It can be beneficial, but we know that 30% of our nth and tth graders actually sit in multiple study halls um in their day. And so we just look at that as a loss of instructional time overall. And you know, we would we would rather them be with us, be in our classrooms, right? maximizing that time with us. Um, when we look at our upper classmen, we know that many of them have multiple periods of dismissal on their schedule. So, a junior has to take six classes. Um, a senior

010has to take five classes. And those are just kind of the rules that have always been in place. And so, and it goes along with funding. Um, and so when we look at our juniors and seniors that are not in CTE programs, right, but just our typical students who come to school every day, we know that 30% of them have multiple periods of dismissal. Um, so it is very possible for a student um to be leaving the high school prior to one o'clock every day, 12:30. Seniors can even be leaving at 11:30 um because again they're only required to take those five classes. Um let's see what's that bullet point be. Oh, and so we also looked at we thought this was important data to look at too. So we know in a seven period

011day students would be able to get 28 credits over the course of their four years, right? they'd have 28 open blocks that they could schedule a class. So, we looked to see how many of our students with last year's graduating class actually graduated with over 28 credits. So, how many of them took advantage of anything over that seven period day and uh 1.7% of our seniors last year that were not in CTE or CCP programs um graduated with that more than those 28 credits. Um so again, that that showed us and tells us that students overall are not maximizing their time with us. they're not um you know we think that we have more to give right and so the idea overall is that so first of all the end and start times of the

012high school are going to be the same we're still that 7:30 to 2:30 time frame but the goal is to take the classes from the 43 minutes increase it to 50 minutes so yes it's seven more minutes a class period and to some that might not sound well to some that might not sound like a lot at all and to others it might sound like too much but to an educator seven more minutes is crucial right that's the difference of some different activities you can do in a classroom. Um some more individualized learning. Um so that's that's the goal overall. Okay. Um passing time on the schedule. I've had many questions about that remains the same. So we're not you know our high school is very large physically, right? And we know from one end

013to the other end it can take time. Um so we're not losing any minutes in that in that passing time. Um one change that is big and people have had concerns we'll talk about it is we are proposing to go down to two lunches. Okay. So currently um we have three lunches. they span almost an hour and a half of our school day. Um, in this new proposed schedule, we would have two lunch periods. Uh, lunches are actually a little they're five minutes longer in this um, schedule. Um, and so back in the day, you would have at least six to 650 students at every single lunch period. Um, around 2007 in this district, we actually had four lunch periods. We went down to three when the enrollment changed then. Um, and now we're proposing

014that we can go down to two. Uh we have options over lunch, one with CCP, one with our CTE students, that's right around lunch transition and many of them find lunch on their way into the building. Um and then also we have something called uh credit flex passes. Well, not credit flex but flex passes. So students can if they're doing all the right things and you know they can they've proven to us that they're good students, they can have a flex pass which allows them to leave during lunch, get their own lunch and to come back. Um so when we look about look at the number of students that are actually sitting in our commons and eating lunch um that number has has lessened over the years. Um we think a positive um part of

015having the two lunches is our day our high school is very um very kind of quiet the first few periods of the day. Once lunches start is when a lot of the movement starts, right? Kids are coming and going. CCP CTE students are coming and going. um to shortening that time so that lunches only span um a shorter amount of time we think is good just for the overall management of the building as well. Uh we'll talk some more about some concerns when we get to the other slides too about lunches. Um one thing about the lunches and I think it's another slide as well with only having two lunches too we can open up the gyms for movement and activity. Um many times we feel that, you know, our students need as much movement

016and activity they can get throughout the um school day. And so having two lunches allows us to have our upstairs gym open both of those periods. So students who want to take advantage of being in the gym um moving around have the option to do that. A important part about this schedule that we'll continue to talk about is that it aligns with the CTE transition. So the major time for CTE is at 11:15. That's when the buses come and go to transfer level one and level two. And so if you see in the schedule at 11:15, that is right at the beginning of that very first lunch. Um, and so that would align. Okay. So, so why, right? Why do we think that these seven more minutes a class period and going down a period,

017why do why do we think we need to do that? What are the positives? So, the number one thing, and there's no hidden agenda here, right? that we just truly think that that extra instructional time is worth it. Um when you look at it, you can see there that it's almost 20 hours. It's 19.8. Um each class would get almost 20 extra hours a school year per class. And so, you know, when we look especially at our core classes and we think about math and English and social studies and science, 20 more hours is invaluable, we believe, right? Especially when we look at things like our state report card and ACT scores. We think that we have more to offer there. Um and there's some area for improvement there. And we think that that extra

018instructional time uh could help us there. Also, if you look at the second bullet point, it says students taking six required classes, right? So, there are many students just doing what they have to do, taking their six classes. Currently, they have 258 minutes of instruction, right? 43 minutes for the six classes, that's 258 minutes. Um, by increasing that right to 50 minute periods, we're taking a student's day of instruction from that 258 to 300 minutes. Um, and again, we think that is a positive change for students. Um, the next bullet point. So, right, this goes back to those varied instructional activities I talked about, right? And as a staff, we've been talking about this isn't just seven more minutes at the end of the class period, right? We have to think about this as seven

019more minutes at the beginning, in the middle, right? So, in a history class, maybe it's having that debate or it's having that discussion that in the past you felt like you didn't have the time for, right? It's doing more labs in science or in our arts or, you know, our cooking classes. Um it's doing more activities with student grouping, right? And having students work on those this the you know the life skills that they need. Talking about preassessments, right? Many times in a classroom teachers especially for closing activities, right? That bell will ring and then they're gone and we didn't, you know, get to close that lesson maybe as well as we wanted to, right? So using that time to open with preassessment or you know um interest inventory type things and being able to

020close that lesson and then especially too um more time we've been pushing as a building right more time for one-on-one and small group instruction. So in many classrooms across the high school you will see a teacher working with just three or four students um and allowing more time for that right. Um, so those, you know, that's the the hope right there and that's what we would work with as a staff and with our teachers and making sure that with those seven extra minutes, right, that we're making sure to use that time wisely and doing different things in our classroom that engage our students in different ways. Continuing with the positives, we think the lunch time is a positive thing. If you walk in our commons right now and you go into fifth period lunch, it

021is very, very small. Um, I would say maybe 200 kids are in fifth period lunch. And so we easily think that we can take those 200 students and divide them up over the next two periods. Um I talked about the gym being open. Uh we did change that this semester. We have the gym open two of our three lunch periods currently. Um and the amount of positive feedback we got from students about just being able to, you know, it's just a different environment in the gym, right? And they enjoy that. And we always struggle when they're in the commons at lunchtime because around the last 10 minutes all students want to stand because they're getting a little antsy. But then for you know then it's hard to control a crowd if they're all standing but

022you also don't want to make them sit because they sit all day long and so it's it's a whole little thing that we go through. So they love being in the gym. We also know and I have heard through this process that some students really want that study hall option right they want to be able to work on their studies and they want to be able to be focused students. Um so we also will offer a quiet study hall option during lunch where students can either buy a lunch or take their lunch. We have to you know work out the logistics. We're thinking the library. It might be better in a classroom, but where they could go outside, you know, not be in the commons where it's loud and, you know, students are socializing, but

023more of just a quiet option. I'm I'm going to eat and work type thing. Um, and we do know from PTA meetings and other meetings that there has been concern about if we can do this. And so, we have worked with our kitchen staff. Um, and we all feel confident that this is possible. Um, on our summit of assessment days, we have all of our students eat that day. Um and then even in those days we can get everyone through in 20 minutes and it would be less than that. Uh we currently have one lunch line that's not even open and so we have the option of opening that. Um so the kitchen staff and us have talked um about a few different possibilities that we can do it. It is important to all of

024us that our students get through the lunch lines in a timely manner. Um ideally everyone would be through that in 10 to 15 minutes and then still have you know 20 or more minutes to be able to eat and socialize, work on what they need to do. um a big positive and I will tell you that when we looked at this schedule, a block schedule and other schedules in the past, there was always a CTE kind of hiccup. This time there's truly not. Um we know like I said that that CTE transition time aligns. Um all other so you know we're part of the sixth district compact. Um the other schools in the compact also all have a seven period day except Woodidge. So Woodidge does have an eight period day similar to the one

025we have now. Uh but all the other schools have a seven period day as well. And so um when we look at that and we look at that 11:15 transition time um there is no concerns there. We will have conflicts with CTE scheduling and I have some slides just kind of highlight that for us but we do now as well. Uh we have a large part of our student body almost 50% of the junior and senior class take advantage of CTE programs which we want to continue to support that. Um I think those opportunities for students especially as we look post high school um are invaluable for them. So we definitely want to continue to support our students in the programs. Um, and we think that we're able to do that with a schedule. So,

026a little bit where did this start, right? Where did it start? What have we done? Um, like I said, it started last year when we started to put that master schedule together, right? Some of our high school classrooms are not completely full, right? And so, that is also what started to give us some pause and some thought about I I think we could do this, right? um we again started to look at how many students had study halls, how many students were asking for dismissal, right? And and we as educators want to spend time instructing and teaching our students, right? And we think this change allows us to do that. Um we um after last spring after we floated the idea by Dr. Gold and got a little bit of support, she said, "Yeah, start

027talking to your staff. See what your staff thinks." Right? And so we had at least three different separate meetings with our staff in different formats. We started with our curriculum facilitators, our leaders, just asking their thoughts. Hey guys, are there things we're not thinking about? Overall, how do we feel? We did some staff meetings. Administratively, each of us met with our departments and had smaller meetings asking for feedback, trying to figure out what their concerns would be. Um, and overall, I, you know, I have a slide later, um, I can show. Overall, right now, our staff is very supportive of this change. We've done our work of thinking through um, their concerns, and the concerns the staff brought to us early on are the same things that we have heard. um right they too were

028concerned about CT right because they know how many of our students do that um so from there we once we got you know our staff was bought in and they thought it was good we started to talk to some students um I went in and met with student council all the administrators went in and picked a different class just to kind of get some feedback we went all different grade levels all different academic tracks um we kind of shared the thoughts with them showed them the bell schedule got some feedback I presented at the PTA meeting on two separate occasions um and shared some feedback back there. And then most recently, last week, we gave a student survey as well as a parent survey. We gave that on Friday night. Um, and I'm here tonight

029sharing about it as well. And then also going to the band uh boosters meeting after this um to share and get some feedback as well. Right? So those kind of the kind of things that we have done, right? So this has not been rushed. Um again, we've tried to be as transparent as possible throughout the whole pol, you know, the whole process. And again, it just goes back to we think that extra time with our students is is valuable. So what kind of feedback did we get, right? And so we did see that the feedback we got from st students was the same feedback we got from parents, right? Which we would expect that. So we know that our students in band and in in choir and orchestra, we know they're concerned, right? We know

030that they're worried they won't be able to get in all of the things that they want to do, right? I think our band is one of the best things that we do, right? So, I'm definitely not trying to limit any of our opportunities with the band, right? And I have a slide that will show you a sample schedule for some of our CT or our band students. Um, we know that people are concerned about the CTE and the CCP, right? We know our students want to take a, you know, they want to pursue those options. Um, and so they're worried that they won't be able to, right, with a seven period day. We talked about the lunch issues. They're worried about that. And then we also heard and this was very clear in the second

031PTA meeting that I had that some students do plan that seven period day, right? Because I posed the question to them, if I'm hearing you guys want this, then why do we only have 18 kids doing it, right? Um and you know, they did share, well, some of our kids want to take seven periods because they really want that study hall, right? And so they did a good job of highlighting for us that we have students we know that are very involved, speech and debate, the band, sports, right? And so they shared and we saw that come through loud with our students and our parents that they want to make sure that students can have a study hall if they want one because our students are busy at night, right? And they're sometimes not home

032till very late. Um so those were the concerns from students and parents. And then we thought a little bit more and we wanted to break it down more by grade level. And so when we looked at it more by grade level, we saw that our nth grade students, the thing they were most worried about was fitting in their electives. Okay? And this wasn't surprising to us. And you'll see in a sample schedule, there's this belief in our building when students come into nth and tth grade that they have to hurry up and do it all right away. I think they're excited about the opportunities that high school has to offer and they want to do it all right away. We saw that our 10th and 11th grade students were worried about CTE and again with

033knowing that almost 50% of the classes do CTE. This was not surprising to us. Um, and our 11th and 12th graders, well, we saw that they were just worried about not having two periods of dismissal. um you know that was the overall theme of u 12th graders for sure. Here's a little bit about our teacher feedback. So again I did share so um 88 staff members filled out our teacher feedback form. Um there are five who would prefer not to and then in this particular survey the data you're looking at there are eight people that just had some more hesitencies and wanted to have some more questions. right there. You know, there is a worry, right? Because when we talk about removing a period, people are aligning that to removing options, right? And that's not

034our goal. That's not I mean, you guys approved our course of studies last board meeting. Uh we actually are adding, right? We're hoping to add a whole business teacher and add more electives for kids. Um and so we do not see a correlation to cutting options, cutting electives. We're just looking at instead of kids sitting in multiple study halls, some even sitting in one study hall, being in a class instead and then when they're in that class, having seven extra minutes with them during that time. So, so here's some sample schedules and I think sometimes this is maybe if you're a visual person, this maybe is very helpful. Okay, so here is a SO student that's not in the band and not in CT. Okay, so they just they're they're not in either of those

035two things which we know are concerns. Okay, so you can see that freshman column, they're taking their four core classes. They have to take health and be and they have to take fine arts. So two art electives, but they would still have another period where you can see the green says elective. That could be a study hall or that could be principles of food and another class, right? If you look through all four columns, which would be all four years, you can especially see right in that senior year, there's lots of opportunities, right? um even 10th grade year you can see there's even more options for electives. We filled in in this schedule the electives that are that you that are required. So the health is in here, the two pees are in here, the

036fine arts are in here, the financial lit that students take their junior year, that's also in here as well. So all of the places that it's green and it says elective, those would be choice offerings for kids. So when they get to look at our program of studies and they get to decide what classes they take. So plenty of opportunities there for a student not in the band or CT. So now looking at a student that's just in band. Okay. So a student in band and this goes back to like so we will have to work with students to help them reshape the thinking right that we have to get it all done nth and tth right in this model and what other schools do is they do look at high school as a four-year

037experience and you have all four years to take all of the classes that you want to take. Um so you can see here since this is a band student every single year we have written in the band. Um freshman year currently right we do that if you are a band parent or if you're familiar with band um they have to have a study a band study hall first semester because of what we do switching with marching and non- marching season. um but they can still have um an elective the second semester. And then that very first column which is that freshman year in green where it says elective elective that could be a study hall, that could be principles of food, um could be wood shop. If a student is in the band that meets

038their PE and their fine art requirement. So students in the band are not required to take PE classes or fine arts because their band meets that. they surely could in any of those green spots and you know I'm sure many of them want to especially the art classes. Um but that right there shows you a little bit about the openings that a student just in band would have that junior year financial lit is written in there um because that would be that requirement. A change that was made in the course of studies that you guys approved um a few weeks ago was that government will only be a semester class now. Um and so that does help give a little bit more choice to students as well when they're thinking about electives and trying to

039take some of our other social studies electives which are very popular with our students. So the next one NCTE. So this is probably the most complicated student at STO High School, right? And where we've definitely heard the most amount of feedback and just pause for concern. Um, so you can see the first two columns, ninth and tth grade, right, are very similar to that last slide. But then you can see in their junior and senior year, the CTE component is written in. So junior year CTE actually takes four periods. In the senior year, it only takes three periods. That's just the nature of CT in any of our districts in the in the compact. um the conflicts that are in place in this schedule are currently in place as well and they still will be

040right. So even right now whether we are an eight period day or seven period day but even right now in an eighth period day a student that is in the band and CTE they do their program they come back they go to band they have lunch and then they have two periods for classes and so it would be the same with a seven period schedule as well the times right would shift a little bit um but it's the same setup senior year you can see again there is more choice in that senior year you can see the green elective spaces um seniors currently in our eight period day and they would have to do this in the schedule as well. Seniors have to work with our band and Mr. Newman is great with this um

041with the directors and they have to share CTE and band and so the CTE or all of the compact programs have um an understanding that students are going to have to kind of share. So half they they split the responsibility so half the week they go to band, the other half the week they go to their CTE program. Mr. Newman has this big huge spreadsheet that he makes that shows each kid's individual schedule. Some might be a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Some might be Thursday, Friday at their program. Um, so that's something that happens currently with our band and CTE students and it would have to continue happening in the seventh period day as well. Um, so that's that schedule. And then here's a CTE only schedule. So again, kind of similar to the other ones.

042You can see all the green spots though. Oh, look. Yeah, that's right. Yep. You can see all the green electives to show their openings. Um, okay. And so then, you know, even as I was preparing for tonight, you know, and I'm thinking about all the things, um, it kind of just comes down to this this one statement, right? And it just is that we believe with those 20 more hours of instruction per class, right? right? That that's going to have a significant positive impact on our students, on our state report card, on ACT scores, on the student experience, of our teachers, right? Um, and so that is where we kind of are with the seven period day, where it came from, why we think it's so important, and then some visual examples of how that

043would look for individual students. Questions? I have a lot, but I don't want to dominate this. >> I'm ready for you, Mr. >> U. It used to be that the whole board was full of band parents, and now >> I know, >> but I've got an ally here. I've got a band member here with me. So, um, >> so what about the students that are in band and one other music art? So when I say choir orchestra because >> the band is our our largest student organization, but I've already heard from parents and students in the choir in the orchestra who who were wanting to build and I think student mentioned this during organization building meeting wanting to build the size of the orchestra and are we going to impact that by reducing a period?

044>> So you're saying they're in multiple not orchestra instead of band but you're saying they're in both. >> That's correct. or or or band and choir. >> Yeah. So, no no we don't think that that will be limiting. So, currently orchestra is currently scheduled and it's just by the way we share buildings and everything. Um orchestra is scheduled the same time as freshman band currently, right? So, they're both um fifth period on our current schedule. Um and so we would hope in this new schedule that maybe we could get orchestra out of the same time as the band schedule, right? Like I know currently we have nine freshmen that are in the band and the orchestra and they actually have to share. It's they do a split rotation too, right? Um and so you know

045us having a commitment to the whole music program I think you know Miss Shively and Mr. Compagna and you know Mr. Newman all of them they want to make sure that we support students as much as possible in all of the programming. And so when we make a master schedule and we sit with them uh we just work together to figure out how we can get a student to be in as much as possible. Right. Um, even when I presented the PTA meeting, there was um, they let me know that in the current eighth grade class, there are two students who do all three, which they must be very musically talented. Um, and you know, and I think in a situation like that, that's just where we sit down with all three of the directors,

046right? And say, "How do we make this work?" And they're making it work currently now at Kempton, and if they can do that here, I'm sure we can here right now. Do I, you know, that kid won't be able to sit in all three of those classes all day, but they couldn't do that in our SK schedule now, right? And so, um, that's just where we have to bring everyone together and talk about how we can meet a kid's needs. >> Okay. Um, and this is coming from like a policy standpoint. You know, when we're talking about, you know, our portrait of a bulldog and our well-rounded students, the last thing we want to do is >> impact, you know, the I know it's 15 or 18 students, you know, impact them and and discourage

047them from being as active as they are. Um, and so is there a thought that there are certain areas or classes that might end up being the most impacted based upon either when they're offered during the day and you know, do we have classes that maybe enrollment's kind of hanging on and we're worried about possibly, you know, not being able to offer those because of scheduling cramping? >> Um, well, what our hope is and what we think our biggest impact is going to be is actually study hall, right? And so that's the positive change that we're going for. Um we for the most part, especially over the past few years, we've had to we've kind of set a guideline that there has to be at least 15 students enrolled for the class for us to

048run the class. Um we have ran a few classes with less than 15 because we've had the room to do that, right? Um I you know, if we move to a seven period day, are we going to be able to run a class with seven kids in it? No. But I don't know if we should be doing that, right? I mean so again are the students requests is what drives that master schedule and we do feel confident that we have enough teachers with enough availability to teach what our students want. Well, and kind of building off that is, then again, everyone feel free to jump in. I have a few. Um, is there another way to keep the older students in the building either by moving this the the study halls away from the end

049of the day or or saying, you know, coming up with a different policy as a school district that says you're you can only have one study hall and so we're going to make you take another elective. And I don't want to get yelled at, but for the students, but um you know, can we make them only take one one study hall each semester? >> Yeah. I mean, right. I'm sure there's always um policies and rules, right, that we could come up with. It goes back to though when we think about our core academics for sure, right? We think that this extra time with students is valuable and needed, right? So, could we figure out a way for students to be in the building for 45 more extra minutes? Yes. But we don't think that would

050be as valuable to them in the long run as this change would be. >> Okay. Um, and what about the student council students and and the advanced foreign language students? What about their ability to continue through because it gets real tight in that junior year. >> So, it gets real tight if you're in CTE. Um if you are well so here's just a a tip whoops a typical student no band no CTE um that's not necessarily that tight um I said at the PTA meeting and very transparent student if you're in student council so I think there's 43 kids in student council I'm looking 50 now okay looking at Avery um that those are the more challenging ones right we are one of the only schools around to have student council as a class and

051we want to be able to do that for our future, you know, for our student leaders and our future leaders. Um, but that is where, you know, Miss Ker and Miss McMahon and I have already talked about we might need to be thinking about that differently, right? How do we still allow those opportunities for students in a class that is very student driven um but still make sure that our students get all the things they need, right? >> I think that's most of it. I mean that, you know, obviously the the size of the lunches and I didn't see it on here. I thought there was something about possibly allowing and maybe it's the flex pass allowing students to leave a as a parent of a student who just took his last incar here. Um

052the concern about them maybe being able to leave more than just getting into and from school in the car is a little uh daunting. >> Yeah. >> So I mean how do we ensure that you know one kid isn't leaving with another kid that maybe mom and dad would not have said that was a good idea to do? So to have a flex pass, it does have to be signed off by a parent. They still have, you know, they have to meet certain requirements. Uh when they leave, they leave through Miss Rossman, so she has a good She's our building receptionist. She has a good um grasp on who has them and who doesn't. Um they all have to come back in and sign in and be on their next class on time. So I

053mean, with our flex passes, they know they need parent permission, and they have to have that pass to be able to leave. >> Thank you. I I don't have anything else. Anyone else? >> You do. So, we know that we have continuing we're seeing lower enrollment, right? Um, and so I think there's, you know, there's there's there's the the students benefit, right? We think that the extra instructional hours, right, are going to help our students learn more. We're hoping for a very positive impact. State scores, AT scores, all that, right? So that's the student side, right? Um, there is a, you know, we will we current we will eventually have classes that are too small if we continue. So on in this model teachers teach six classes a day with in an eight period model

054and in a fi seven period model they teach five classes a day. Um >> Mr. Shane, could you use your mic so we can hear you? >> Sorry, I just don't think people can hear you. was uh yeah what I was hearing was um and I think you addressed a lot of these was the issue of some kids losing out on the elective. >> Yeah, that is definitely the biggest fear, right? That's what we've heard from students, what we've heard from parents. Uh when we've sat down and been able to show them a visual, you know, I had a mom tell me today on the phone like, "Oh, that's not as bad as I thought." Right? When she was able to see that sit down and see the visual and thought about mapping out the

055next few years for her child, right? And so I do think in a change like this we would have to with a counseling team, administrative team, right, work with parents and looking at look at the next few years for your child and how you get all the things in that they need. >> And do you know the number offhand of how many um kids by their junior year have the amount of credits to graduate? >> Well, nobody by their junior year would have the exact credits they need to graduate because you have to have four years of English and you have to have four years of math. So if you look even up here, you can see the last column for a senior. They have to have English 12 and math their senior year. So

056they have to take those their senior years and pass those senior year to be able to graduate. >> So there's no way of them doing it any other any other way. >> They would not need be able to meet all of their graduation requirements prior to 12th grade. >> Has that always been like that? So, you can ask for early graduation and there's a whole application you can >> Okay, I guess that's what >> Yeah, we've had some early grads over. We usually have a few early grads every year that apply ahead of time to say I want to take >> not enough to make a big difference. >> No. >> And that's a big decision as a family to make that choice, too. Okay. Sorry. Oh, no. You're good. Um, I just wanted to

057ask if I'm understanding correctly that this should not reduce the amount of electives a student takes over the course. It just kind of shifts them a little bit >> more later because I, you know, I have a a freshman now that has a full schedule. Well, she has to have a study hall, but I'm thinking, you know, I know she wants all of those classes and if we reduced one, you know, I that's disappointing. you know, we should be thinking in terms of making sure that we're we're educating the whole student, but >> yeah, >> I also know I had seniors that left the building very early. And so, you know, if you're taking principles of food as a senior and you're in the building longer, >> you know, that's >> that's a positive. So,

058I mean, it is and it's going to be a shift though. It will be a shift for our students and it will be a shift for them, especially if they've had siblings that are older and they've had a senior schedule like this, right? But it is sometimes very hard to schedule seniors because they also lose the interest by their senior year, right? We're just being honest, right? Ninth and tth grade, they want to take all these classes. They're excited. Senior year, they're not so much excited, right? And so, we it's going to take a few years to help change that shift for our 12th graders to be in those elective classes and to make that part of their four year their four-year planning. >> But, I mean, as you can see, there are plenty of

059options and openings for a 12th grader to take electives. >> So, I'm going to ask about those 18. >> Okay. >> Obviously, those are high achieving students. They're all >> those are those are Oh, it's all music >> and there's a lot of student council overlap. >> Okay. So, I just want to make sure that that >> Yeah. >> that we're not going to lose these students in the shuffle because they're they're >> driven clearly. Yeah. And >> and I know and I don't want our top achieving students to feel like they're the ones being punished, right? I don't want that for a student to feel that way. Um the counselors and administrators, we know those 18 students like by name. We have their names. We've looked at them. We've looked at their schedules. Um

060so those are students right that we would definitely be reaching out to um to make sure that we can meet their needs. You know we do have options with admenum which is our online platform with credit flex. So credit flex is a program that's been in place for a very long time. Um but teacher k students can actually apply to take a class that they're not sitting in. So even though I don't spend 43 minutes in this class with this teacher I still make a plan. I show you how I'm going to learn this material on my own. A teacher signs off on it and they can still earn the credit. Um and so we will definitely explore all of those types of opportunities for those 18 and students that would be similar to those

06118 coming up in the future. >> Thank you for the very very good presentation. I was incredibly apprehensive. I think you covered all you know most of my my questions just throughout the presentation. So thank you. I just want to thank you for all the hard work, the surveys, the going to the PTA meetings and and covering all the bases because when when this first came out, we were all getting a lot of phone calls and you did answer most of the questions that um I was receiving from parents and it was mostly freshman band parents um that you know were concerned about you know their kids not being able to take everything. So, I appreciate you doing that. And I I do think we need to keep an eye on the fact that we're

062trying to increase test scores and um get these um students on to uh their career or college or wherever we're trying to get them. So, we want them to enjoy their high school years, but we also need to focus on what they're going to do when they leave us. So, thank you very much. Thank you. I'll just excuse me I'll just add um I appreciate the thoroughess of the presentation and you know similar to Miss Meridi I had questions of like what if what if so this was a lot of what is so that really helps helps me and as a former teacher at the high school I did credit flex for kids who were driven and you know AP economics they came and we did a plan together and so they wanted AP economics

063but it didn't fit into their schedule so we sat down and we worked together and they were able to take essentially more classes than the schedule allowed for. So, it worked out great. So, that is a solution that that I saw firsthand. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> And we we do have our student representative here and if there's questions that she has, it's her time to shine. I think >> um yeah, a lot of the things that I've gathered from students were really concerned about the electives which you covered most of them very well. Most of my questions are gone. But a big thing I still have is lunch because two periods we still have over 1,600 kids here. So for going into next year, that's going to be really difficult for both

064us and you guys, especially with the phone ban. It'll be harder to control who has their phones. >> The phones always come up. >> Yeah. But also, um, kids finding like a seat because I know in seventh grade there are kids who can't even sit in the commons. they need to go to a classroom. >> Yeah. >> Just to find a seat. So, I feel like >> maybe instead of getting rid of a lunch period, maybe we just spread it out more so that instead of five, six lunch having less students, we have 9th period and seven seventh period students going to fifth period instead of getting rid of it. >> Okay. Yeah, I see what you're saying. Um, so we do have 600 kids in the building, right? we have 300 and some the

065RCTE students who don't necessarily eat in the building. So that takes us down to 1300. Right? Then when we put on our flex passes um so that is where we get around we will think that Mtops will be um providing lunch and a lunch space for 1,200 students. Um I will say we have we do have um space to order more tables and we have looked at that um just as an option right and then it's using that gym. It's using our extra spaces. I do know we have some students in a lunch in a classroom meeting, but from my understanding, they're there because they want that quiet space. And so that's what's kind of given us that quiet study hall idea, too, because some students don't want to be there, right? Um, but yeah,

066definitely things that we can look at, >> Avery. Have you been in fifth period lunch? Have you seen it? >> I have. It's so like empty in there. I'm in ninth period lunch, so I'm like >> it's like a whole different jungle in there. >> Jungle? Oh my. Anybody else? >> I would just like to thank uh Principal Murray and all of the other administrators and our lead counselor uh here, Mrs. Vard uh for all the hard work that they've done on this. Um they have been they have definitely done their research. They have gotten the feedback and they have um made sure that they have um addressed that feedback uh in their proposal for the changes. So, thank you for your hard work. >> You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you for your time. >>

067Okay. >> All right. The next item on our agenda is the English language arts adoption presentation. Mrs. Miller. It's flashing at two. Oh, I got it. He just had to get in the vicinity and it fixed my problem. That's typically how how it goes for me. All right. Can you hear me? Okay, perfect. Okay, making sure I can I have my presentation here in case I can't see exactly all the way over there. But I want to thank you for having me tonight uh to present our 712 recommendation for ELA curriculum adoption. So um what you see tonight aligns with our strategic goals um of strategic goals one and two. So goal one of academics to provide all students rich rigorous and aligned curriculum and assessments in all subjects and grade levels while promoting academic

068achievement for all students. and our continuous improvement strengthen the district's mission through strategic planning, data analysis, and professional development, thus building a culture based on high expectations, respect, accountability, and excellence. So, a little background information and a lot you have in your packet, so you'll you'll see this there, too. Um to give you a little bit of background, the English language arts core curriculum materials that are currently adopted at Stoman Falls um by the Stoor Falls board of education have a copyright date of 2000 at the high school. Um and Kim Middle School currently does not have a core curriculum resource for ELA. Uh Stoman Falls Schools has not piloted new materials for ELA since 2000 adoption at the high school. Um, I have not been involved with any curriculum adoption for ELA since starting

069this position in 2019. Kentton did have a writing resource a few years back previous to me, but Kentton has been relying heavily on a collection of resources including novels, scholastic magazines, and various teacher curated materials. Uh, the high school, depending on the course, used a combination of old textbooks, online databases, no writing subscriptions, and novels. Um, I will say just this year teacher finally reached out over the summer and said, "Our book is beyond the binding repair. It's not going to work. It's not going to happen. We can't order more of them. They are out of print. They are not available." So the ones that we have at the high school are no longer feasible. So therefore, first before I present anything to you, I wanted to say thank you to the teachers who agreed

070to pilot the materials with their classes as well as a thank you to the whole ELA department for participating in the training and discussions as well as give feedback. The teachers are listed here, all the core teachers at Kempton along with the intervention specialists participated in this. Um the high school teachers are listed there, but I will say when we had professional development and we had TBT meetings, the entire department was there. They asked great questions. since they got feedback, they listened to their colleagues because they realized this decision was going to affect everybody. So the entire ELA department um was invaluable through all of this. So tonight um I have prepared this presentation that includes links to materials um before you. The hard copies um give you more information starting with our board policy.

071Um on the first page, that's the first one here and I'll pull it up. It's numbered number one where it has the board language. It's this one. Um, on the first page, you'll see a timeline at the top and then links to the Ohio standards for ELA. You can access all of those links on there when you get the presentation um to the Department of Education and Workforce Standards for each grade as well as the standards correlation to each resource on on um on that first page. Sorry. Also included in that link, well, you'll have a timeline. You'll have the ELA standards, and I'll go through some of these. The background information is on there. Um, some quote comparisons and the Ohio Department of Education workforce rubric and team summaries. Those are all included in

072that. So, a little bit about our timeline. This slide explains our process over the last really it was two years. Um it started officially in early spring of 2025. Prior to that, teachers had requested materials and we had lots of samples sent. So they looked at many different resources that they would be interested in. But as of the spring of 2025, uh the ELA teachers reviewed the samples of textbooks from those various publishers and picked two that they wanted to pilot. So then the timeline just goes through um the process that we did in June of last year, June 2025. Um we had demonstrations conducted with each of the um companies to give teachers basic access and background knowledge uh regarding features of each program so that they could look at them over the summer.

073This the teachers wanted access over the summer that they could begin looking at them because in August then we did our professional development day and we shared resources with all of the teachers and did some basic training. Um and then Kempton um started with Common Lit 360 to start the year through September and October and then um finished with my perspectives through November and December. And then at the high school, two teachers piloted Common Lit 360 within there. And then um seven core ELA teachers and two intervention specialists piloted the into literature. So then as of December um all teachers piloting met in December to complete the necessary rubrics and discuss um the merits of pro the programs that they each piloted and then the final decisions were made. So the next item it's number

074two in your packet looks like this. It says research base for the resource. Um, the next item in your packet gives a more in-depth review of the resources. It's important to note that we only picked from resources that were rated green on ed reports, which gives educators an extensive research base on these three gateways. Gateway one being text quality and complexity and alignment to the standards. Um, gateway two is the building knowledge with with texts and then gateway three is the usability of it. So the using the ED reports kind of took the research base off of our hands because it's already been extensively vetted through the ed reports process. So this slide highlights that common lit 360 my perspectives and into literature all rated green on ed reports and I included the links to

075the specific report for each one if you'd like to read about them. I did not print these because they are very extensive with lots of links like you could go down some rabbit holes. Um but you will get that that you can look into further. I would like to mention that at the time common lit um was not rated in ed reports for the high school but because they were so high rated at seventh and eighth grade and recommended in the state of Ohio that they were pretty confident that they would be also. So that's why we chose to pilot them as well. I did print the English language arts evaluation tool that we used from the department of education and workforce and that top thing when you get the um presentation that's actually a

076link right to it. Um but that is handout three that you have in front of you so you can see a little bit clearer on what resource tool uh the rubric that the teachers used. Um teachers rated each of these 15 criteria and please note that we converted for numbers purposes. as you'll see in a second that their ABC on the rubric. We converted those to 321. So an A was the highest, B and then C. A three was then the highest for us for us a two and a one because you'll see the numbers in a second. So overall into literature as we look at this overall into literature at the high school and my perspectives at the middle school scored higher on the rubric than common lit 360 but the team did note

077many similar qualities for both resources. The main differences that drove this decision were the physical textbooks that are available with into literature and my perspectives. Common lit 360 is entirely online. There are no print materials unless teachers print and make packets for students, which would drive up the cost. Teachers appreciated and appreciate and acknowledged that students need print materials for English language arts instruction and relying solely on the online option wasn't ideal. Um, so a couple of just I brought a couple of samples, not all of them, but these are the student copies that are um they the kids can write in them, they can highlight them, they're consumable, they take notes, they, you know, so it's not a textbook that they can't interact with. This is an interactive textbook for either version for both

078Kimpton and the high school. So some specific points to be made about IN2 literature on this slide is that um again they are physical textbooks that kids can write in. The digital tools that are available for differentiation provide writing support um adaptive practice and specialized scaffolds for multilingual and struggling readers. The digital text features give students annotation tools and modified text to ensure that grade level content is accessible to all students. So some specific points to be made about my perspectives at that they are also physical textbooks that kids can write in. Um the digital tools uh for differentiation allow teachers to create a sharable um intervention playlist quote unquote that's what they call it that includes support in foundational skills a language lab center and a retach and practice skill center. Uh the intervention

079playlist will be used for students on RIMP's reading improvement and monitoring plans which the law is going to require for seventh graders next year and eighth graders the year after. So based on all this work by the pilot teams, Kemp would like to recommend adoption of my perspectives and the high school would like to recommend into literature which is spelled on on this slide. Uh so then next is the cost breakdown for each. It's important to note that this cost covers everything for the next seven years. So when you look at this, this is all total for the next seven years. Um it'll break it down by the cost of the textbooks and online platform for seven years. A question did come up like it's uh I think it says writing is very small. 750

080books at Kimpton. That's for seven years. You let the publisher know in the fall how many do you need and they send them. So we have ballparked how many kids based on our enrollment we will need each year. If it goes over they will they will send us you know what we need. Um but we won't pay each year that will be that will cover us for the next seven years. So the cost of everything the breakdown I think on this one is uh each year 30 $34.50 50 cents per student um for this course for the next seven years for my perspectives. And then for into literature, the cost um again everything included textbooks, online platform, teacher edition, and professional development. Um the total for the next seven years, it would cost $35.77 per

081student. And thank you for your consideration. I'll take any questions that you might have. Is this just relating to the the textbooks that we're buying and that platform or is this going to also involve, you know, realignment possibly of the literature that are that's being read and passed out and taught? >> Yeah. So, one of the things that I talked about with the ELA department, they are heavily based on novels. It's a novel based instruction and they have been um and they were very concerned that they wanted to keep the novels that they have. So, a lot of the conversation that we've had is that your use of novels in the classroom won't necessarily go away. This is the core instructional resource that all kids will interact with, but you will incorporate novels in many

082different ways. It could be the novels that you have. You run a book club and it's a choice book club that and then you meet with your book clubs each week. Um there are there are um classes that do like here during win you'd have your choice novel and then they have the common sets of questions that they answer at the end of win time. um and that's how they incorporate their novel studies. So it might look a little bit different. It might be uh the nature of it might look different in the pacing of the year because this would be our core resource for everybody. But there would certainly be classes, especially in an honors or advanced class that the pace is compacted that there might be a little bit more novel study in

083there, but they would pull from the novels that they already have. >> Maybe my question was a little inartful. The concern and you know the kids at home that I have you know if they're reading for instance the Hunger Games I'll pick on that one. If they're reading The Hunger Games two or three times by the time they go from sixth or seventh grade to to 10th or 11th grade I'll just say it. I don't think that novel is really worth reading once, let alone two or three times in the place of classic literature that they I ask them did you read this or that? And they have no idea what I'm talking about. >> That's a good question. So part of what you'll see um and part of what we do then moving forward

084once something is adopted is we map out 7 through 12 vertically about what we cover once teachers has have picked you I'm not I'm going to guess they're not going to get through an entire textbook in a year. It's a lot especially forcing novels but we'll pick the modules that we start with and we'll know what novels go with those and everybody will have a clear picture of what's covered seven through 12. It's not going to keep a kid from picking a book out of the library that they choose to read if you're doing a book club. um I I wouldn't say that, but um everybody 7 through 12 would see the um progression of novels and they each have themes that they fit into um that you would see uh that the the classics

085are actually well represented in both of these resources. So um kids might choose to check those books out, which would be great, and read the entire entire novel or entire entire resource. So >> thank you. >> But yeah, that's a very good question. That's part of our curriculum work that would happen um over the summer and then moving into next year. >> The teachers that are piloting currently, does that mean the the students are learning from that? >> Yes. So the the pilot is technically over. It ended in December. Okay. So teachers were free to move back to what they were using for the rest of the year. Um >> some of them decided to continue just using the resource for the rest of the year, which is fine. They have it. It's consumable. Um,

086so they they went ahead and and are maybe still using it now. >> Okay. Because I think I saw that. I think I I think my daughter has that book and there's plenty of novels that were incorporated still with it >> based on the the uh pilot. Had there been student feedback at all? Like the students on the receiving end, what were their thoughts about either book? >> So, it was interesting here at Kempton. They sent out a student survey um about you know what the kids would prefer and it depended on maybe an advanced or the regular level ELA 7 and ELA 8 class. Um some of our advanced students really appreciated what Common Lit had to offer. Um but again part of the work that we'll do common lit is a free resource

087if you don't get the paid version. when we were piloting the paid version that some of what our advanced students found were beneficial, we could incorporate into our curriculum compacting and still offer some of what they found engaging as part of our curriculum work moving forward. So, we thought that would be a good thing to look at with the feedback that they gave. It was a a small part of the population. Um, but definitely we we heard them loud and clear. Anyone else? >> All right. I'd like to thank Miss Miller for uh her hard work on this and all of the teachers that were uh involved with the ELA PIDA. Uh just reminding the board members that this is your first reading for this uh as well. And these will be um available, copies

088are available for you to come and look at at the front desk with the receptionist at central office in case you need it. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. All right. Uh we will turn I will next turn it over to Dr. Gold for a quick uh word on the Lightseed parent portal and we'll we'll go from there. >> Thank you. I'd like to just share um Lightseed parent portal. Uh this is um an opportunity um for parents uh to actually monitor the activity of what their child is accessing at home. Uh the Lightseed portal will provide parents with an opportunity to um look at the internet activity. Um you will receive weekly reports in your inbox. It will provide you with real time uh video and web activity monitoring and it will also

089help you with screen time management uh of your child uh while they are at home as well. As a part of this uh as we move into uh looking at our uh internet safety and our cyber security plan, we are also putting in some parameters around this uh in regards to um access uh that is happening during the school day um as well. So there have been some changes for our staff as well as for um us rolling this out with parents. And so as part of the parent rights um we feel that um transparency and regarding the student Chromebook uh we uh recently had uh a snafu with um um some inappropriate things uh that were happening uh with a Chromebook that uh really led us to really uh dive deeper into our internet

090safety uh process. We have been working very closely um with uh some families uh to um help us uh with this. And so um this um we think is light speeded will be very helpful uh in really allowing parents to um partner with us and also limit, monitor, restrict and view exactly what uh kids are doing at home. So what parents will see is an introductory email that will come this week uh to them uh through the lightseed portal. Uh what you see here is you will see weekly online student activity. So once you click into the web activity it will list everything um that the student has done for that week. Uh here you will get an activity report that really summarizes the time spent online each day and the most frequently access uh

091sites. You can also see their web activity. It is the real time web activity uh with timestep data. So you can see when the student is accessing the information, what time, how long they stayed on it. Um, and it'll also show you the sites that you have allowed and also the sites that you can also block with the light speeded portal. You as parents, you can allow, you can restrict and you can block any afterchool access to YouTube and any other of the social media platforms. This would include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Roblox, all of those. You can go down the whole list uh and you can block those. You can also pause it. So, you can go in and limit the time. So, if you uh want to pause it and you can uh

092put in that you want it paused for one hour, you can pause it for three hours. you can say that students don't need to access this uh anymore and then you can have it open back up for the uh next day. So there there's a pausing piece uh that you can do uh to cut down on some of the screen time as well. So again, parents will receive an introductory email this week along with a letter um that will outline uh more, but I just wanted to give an update about that this would be going out this week. uh and as I said that we've uh put some parameters in place uh in our classrooms as well as this for our parents. >> I just want to thank you and our IT department for getting

093on on this. I mean the the stuff out there was serious. um as well as to what was being excuse me being accessed outside of the of the school network which blocks a lot of that but um you know the ability for parents to not only get in there and get automatic reports you know not have to constantly go and and get the kids Chromebook from them and and look at that. So I I just want to thank you for going through that because it this was a a concern was raised. It was a you know we we saw the validity as a district and >> um this is a pretty seems to be a pretty comprehensive solution in what less than a week. >> Any other questions? Um, I've I've expressed my disdain for

094Chromebooks number of times and I'm looking to see if we are ever going to have a discussion as to um pulling back on our dependency on edtech. Um, maybe it was God-driven, but I was privileged to be introduced to this book, which I highly recommend every parent who has a Chromebook will read. It's called The Digital Delusion. And I started highlighting things as I read it and I found I was highlighting more than I was actually leaving blank as far as the damage that the dependency on technology is doing to our kids. And I'm guessing we've had these Chromebooks for five years. Is it? I don't know. But to still have this problem now is is disturbing because um I've I've received a number of of texts from people who children have graduated who said

095looks like nothing's changed. You know, I had the same problem with my child when they were there as far as being able to access things on these uh school devices. And you know why? You know, I question why if it's used for say a course that they would have to have access to all of these other non scholastic sites and why that wouldn't be just turned off to begin with and not put another burden on a parent to make sure that they've clicked the button the right way or put it on pause. But I think the the bigger issue is having that I I think at some point we have to have a serious serious discussion about less technology, less dependency on this. I was I was glad to hear on these things here that

096we're actually using books. I mean, I was very pleased to hear that because I was scared I was going to hear we're going to do ELA and it's all going to be online, but that's not the case. So, um, so there's a number of different things there that I'm kind of bringing up, but it it it was disturbing. I saw that email like everybody else did and all the, um, support, I guess the the confirmation of how much this child had access, and I've said this before, that once the innocence is is let out of the bottle, we can't put it back. Would any of you want your son or daughter to have been exposed to that? And what would you do? And how would you even handle that? And and that's the other scary

097thing that I that kids will use VPNs, they'll use hotspots, they'll figure it out, but if they don't have it and it's not available to them or they they can leave it at school, um it it again it's it lessens the um opportunity for that to happen because it's only going to get worse. You know, we hear about AI. It's only going to get worse as far as access and what the kids can can can have access to. So, I think we have to have a I think again a very serious discussion. I mean, the gentleman that wrote this book, Dr. Jared Horvath, um I highlighted a bunch of things here to read, but I I I encourage you to read this. He says, uh the best way to deal with edtech is not to

098deal with edtech. I'm not sure there was a question there. >> No, more of a statement. Well, no. My question is my question was um at some point will we have a discussion of how we can pull away from our dependency on the Chromebook and on edtech? Well, I think you answered your own question because tonight during the ELA adoption, you can see that the staff actually selected uh materials that were not fully online and went with a workbook that students could actually write in the book. So, I think staff are also seeing um that as well. And just like we're seeing kids being engaged and not being on their cell phones, uh also we're seeing a high involvement of of that. Um so I think as we um move through um different uh scenarios

099I think we have to take it on a case-byase basis uh because there are some other things that um like I said the family has been very very good working uh with us on some things but um there's a lot that we need to take a look at um just not based on this but just in general. Well, and I think the bigger one for me is that K through six. >> Now, a lot of this was seven and eight in high school. >> Um, is the issue of K through six. Um, and you know, this is a short paragraph, but I I'm going to read it. It says, "According to my son's online report card, he's doing great. All his scores are up. He looks like he's improving in every subject, but in real

100life, I don't see it. Our conversations are shallow. His writing re his writing reads like a third graders. Honestly, I have no idea how he's learning anything because every time I see him on the computer, he's gaming. I know I sound cynical and I wasn't a great student myself, but I swear we learn more with paper and pencil than we did with tech. I can't prove it, but I know something is off. This was a father of a 13-year-old. And as I said earlier, we have put in parameters uh around the usage of non-educational things uh with our staff as well. So that has been uh looked at also. >> And just another short one that kind of ties with that. Last year I spent more time monitoring devices than actually teaching. So this year

101I ditched tech. Oh my goodness, it's been night and day. I thought my kids would resist, but they've been great. Many have even said to me that they like class better and and and with their peers because it feels calmer and less pressured. We talk, we laugh, and we learn. For the first time in years, I feel like a teacher again. This was a teacher happened to be from New Zealand. So, so again there's a lot of that reinforcement of the fact of and and uh and my concern at that K through six level of um you know I I see it with their neighbors are in that grade. They are never off that thing and you can say the parents, you can say this, you can say that. I don't know what the answer

102is but obviously if they didn't have it, it wouldn't be something that they would then be dependent on. Um but though going back to my question of us having a serious conversation as far as we didn't have it 5 years ago and I think we did fine maybe we need to kind of look at that a little closer and um not heck just have them leave it at school during the day and not take it home you know whatever but I I I think we need to serious have a serious conversation as far as that because you can get into the dopamine fix you can get into all the other things that just caught keeps them on that computer. Um I I think I think we need to have a a serious discussion about that

103>> and I think we will have that opportunity to be int intentional about that and I think that one of the things that we have been seeing with our teachers and the way that we have been doing things is that there has been a there's a desire to be more intentional about the use of technology but you know we can't just be the only district that the kids aren't prepared to use the technology. they have to maybe be more intentional about that use, but I I think if we're focused as a board and as a district, we can get there. >> Yeah, I'll just add as a teacher, um, you know, I use technology, but I also realized if my kids weren't present, weren't with me, then I had to I had to adjust my

104approach. And I think our teachers in our district do that. They use technology for legitimate reasons and um are dedicated to the students learning and they use technology as they see fit and pull back when necessary. But Mr. She and I do I am comforted with the physical textbook. I think um that's something that students oftentimes prefer and and uh appreciate the ELA adoption of that. So thank you. >> Anything else? All right. At this time, we will move on to item six, uh, comments from the audience. At this time, we welcome any comments and concerns to citizens wish to bring before the board of education. All comments must be no longer than three minutes. We will listen to your remarks, but there will be no conversation aside from clarifying questions. Please begin comments with

105your first and last name. And something new for this week is there's a signin sheet at the lect turn. Um, if you could just that the only thing we ask you write down is your first and last name. so we can spell it correctly. If you want to if you need followup, if you want us to follow up, there's a space there for you to put in an email address or a phone number. Um, but if you could just write down your name so that we don't misspell it in our minutes. Do we have any comments from the audience? All right. Um, it's all right. Yeah. Okay. I wanted to, um, Hello, my name is Aiden Young. Um, I was going to I want to talk about the the proposed schedule change and take it

106from a more student um le point of view. Okay. So, I have a little I have a little thing prepared here. All right. Okay. So, I'm here on behalf of students in the school who care about the new schedule change proposal. As as the board already may already know, a petition just last month began spreading through the community and trying to stop this change, knowing it may not be successful, but at least it would show that students cared about the schedule change. Currently, we have about 430 signatures on that petition and about 40 very impactful comments that um of concerns of these students. And um that petition did achieve its goal to show that student that students actually cared. Um it's the reason there was a survey sent on to students by Miss Murray to

107gather their voices because um frankly the students felt ignored um and we wanted our voices heard. But until last Friday when that survey was sent out there was no major way to hear these voices. That's why the petition was created. In um in the words of theu of a student who left a comment on the petition, I don't understand why the administration feels the need to fix something that isn't broken. That's the reason why it compels me and numerous other students to navigate against this change. Something I've heard numerous times is that only 18 kids had a full schedule. But with that statistic, it keeps ignoring the value of having a study hall. and the kids with one study hall and seven classes. It ignored the fact that many students choose to take a study

108hall or even if they are forced to find themselves benefiting very positively from it. Many students express concerns that they have to drop a class because of extracurricular activities, removing some of the joy students feel throughout their days. Extracurricular classes give students the ability to um further their education and take a more approach look for their future. And this with this being spread out, it makes that harder for students over their four years. Make it make it harder to figure out what they're actually passionate about. Um the school incentivizes students to get involved with these extracurricular activities. The core function of excellence in the school and we have seen lots of success with it. We have state champions in speech and debate. Just as last year, music programs are making history in Northeast Ohio. And

109our cheerleading team has qualified to states two years in a row. We have year athletes dominating their respective sports while each and every person balanced their school days. These students and individuals who find themselves to find study halls useful. But they are being given less time to utilize these study halls and allow them to succeed in class and in activities. Students can't get involved when the very school promoting it removes their ability to balance these activities leaving a natural decline in the programs. the students should be proud of in the in the programs the students should be proud of. I'm here for the students who are not here and to say that tons of students care, parents care, and our voices should be heard. Thank you. Are there any questions? >> Thank you for your

110comments. >> All right. Thank you. My friend is also going to come up here and say something. Hello, I'm George Baxter. I'm a freshman at the high school and I also would like to voice some concerns from a student point of view about the proposed schedule change. We feel that quite frankly our voices what we have said has not been taken into deep consideration. We made a petition and we have spoken many times, but we feel many of our concerns have been blown off or dismissed and acted like it hasn't mattered. I have here some quotes and I'm not going to read all of them because I'm limited on time, but one that really spoke to me was part of when someone left a comment on the petition and part of his comment said to

111the administration of the school, we're told to act like adults when it's beneficial to them, but treated as kids when it's also beneficial to them. So to that I also say like we all have we have our opinions and we try and speak up but then we're not our opinions aren't taken into consideration. We're then treated like kids when multiple times a day I've been told to act like an adult and that I'm closer to being an adult than a kid. And so we decided to take a further step. And I have here, if you would like, we pulled a bunch of students in study halls to see if this new schedule would affect their study hall and how many of them actually use their study hall. Because something Mrs. Murray had pointed out a

112lot that I heard was that bunch of students have a study hall, but she's acting as if students don't actually use that study hall from my understanding. So, we went and pulled and asked what students use their study hall and if they need it and if it would affect them. And I have also asked many other students that do sports and extracurricular activities what this schedule would bring to them. One of the best freshman trumpet players and football players told me that he would have to drop either football or band with this new schedule. And seeing as how the band is one of the things our school prides itself on, I feel that that's just something that we need to consider. And also, I've been talking to some of the eighth graders at Kim and

113they feel really disappointed in the fact that they were looking forward to an eighth period day and being able to broaden their horizon with electives and everything and now they're being limited to it and they're not going to be able to find what they're passionate about. So, if you would like, I can pass out these pie charts we made after we pulled people in the study halls. And if you would like to hear any of the direct quotes I have taken, I wrote my phone number down here. You can contact me and I will for I will gladly forward them to you. And is there any questions? >> Yeah, if you want to hand those to Mr. She >> Mike, can you hear your microphone? >> When Mrs. Murray was giving that presentation, there's a

114lot of stuff on there that I hadn't heard, you know, I mean, I was only Were was any of that that she explained kind of new to what you guys already were aware of? >> None of it was necessarily new. And that was another thing. I feel like a lot of stuff has been repeated over again as a positive. She seemed to give the same positive over and over again of the extra seven minutes. I haven't really heard anything other than that. >> Okay. So, yeah. So, the data she was sharing again was not did not change her mind, I guess. Yeah. You you were already aware of it. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. >> Thank you for coming and speaking both of you. Do we have any more uh public comments this evening?

115Seeing no one approach the podium, we will move on to Oh. Oh. All right. Thank you. My name is Marty Simpkins. I wasn't going to say anything tonight, but after listening to the presentation about the change in in classes, I have one um point you have worrying about adding seven minutes 49 minutes a day to classes and you're every Wednesday you're have a late start they're losing two hours every day every Wednesday that's a lot of hours after an entire school year in in driving and in just in those hour in educational hours and not only the fact that you're also destroying the traffic on Graham Road morning and afternoon in children arriving late to school, parents leaving after dropping them off and getting caught in the traffic at at Woodland with elementary school being

116it's an absolute nightmare to get through there even to drop off a kid. And so I'm curious as to the um how you're making a a pass on two hours adding two more hours a week where you're seemed so excited to be adding 49 minutes. That's all. Any last uh arrivals to the to the lectern? All right, seeing none, we will move on to item number seven, personnel recommendations. I will turn this over to Dr. Gold. >> I would like to uh recommend the following personnel recommendations. >> Do I have a motion? >> Second. >> Dr. Any discussion or do you have anything? No, we have our retirements um this evening and we would like to thank uh those individuals for their uh service in Stomoral Falls. Miss Ernest uh at Lake View, Mr. McKille

117at uh at Kemp, Mr. um I always say his name wrong at uh math teacher at the high school and Mr. Turnit STEM teacher uh at Kemp. Thank you so much for your service. >> I just want to give an extra thank you to Mr. who made such an impact on all four of my kids and I I think uh we there's a hole left at Kimpton. So we you'll be missed greatly missed. >> Mr. McKil is a Kempton institution. He's been here for a very long time. So I'm sure we'll see him around. >> All right. Any other discussion? >> Roll call, please. >> Merleti. >> I. >> Moyer. I >> Sheen. >> I >> Sul Leadonic. >> I Whitaker. >> I >> Next item on our agenda is the first reading. I think

118we've already done that for the most part, but it is officially the first reading for the English language arts adoption. There's no need for a vote, but it is on the agenda as a first reading. All right. Next item on the agenda is our discussion item which would be to discuss and take action on the selection of a firm to assist with the search for a treasurer for our school district. Um just to kind of start off um if you watched our last meeting um we did have four different uh companies come in brave the weather brave the schedule rescheduling the meeting rescheduling and we are very thankful that they did that. um that was a lot of time out of their evening uh in some less than ideal conditions. And so with that, I

119will turn it over. I'd like to try to focus on the positives. You know, we've got some very some people that are very invested in their time and their and their businesses. And so if we could focus on positives to arrive at a firm that we may want to consider employing. >> I'll start um of the group. I liked the summit ESC. Uh my reasons being one um in a very unfortunate timeline uh they were able to provide us with a very qualified interim. Um the other thing I think was probably the biggest selling point for me is that they voiced the opportunity or the willingness to help us. Um because I don't I I think our our final decision is going to outlive our interim treasurer. but that they were going to be able

120to provide for that which I think is huge that we will not have to go out to another company or another service to do that. And um they're as local as you can get and we've dealt with them and many other um there's many other things that we've dealt with the Summit ESC for. >> I'm going to echo everything that you said. Those are my exact reasons for also uh wanting to go with Summit ESC. And I also just to add to from a cost perspective, they were one of the, you know, bottom line, one of the lowest. So, that was also something that I took into consideration. >> And and and to be fair, I think we did get a break from them um on the cost because we are um affiliated with them.

121We we get a lot from them. So, I think they did give us a break on that cost. >> Any any other opinions? >> Um I also picked some at ESC. So, um because they're local, because uh it was a good decision financially also uh because they do offer an interim treasure and we can also extend that or get another interim if we uh aren't successful in our first search. um we've had years and years of a working relationship with them and uh everything's been positive. So um they were also my my choice. >> If I could add one more thing too, I was incredibly impressed when we had a um Dr. Dr. Wind and I sat down with somebody when we were looking for um our first um interim um uh solution and the

122creative um way that the summit ESC can handle some of the the uh the ways of filling a treasurer position including um use of mentors and sometimes they discussed even like not that it's applicable here but sharing um services with other districts just it it um I I was impressed with the outside of the box thinking. >> Okay. Yeah. So, yeah, I I um when I was thinking about the four different presentations, uh they are marketing similar products. So I think what differentiates them and to the point that was shared uh they're local um the the price and you know they brought two presenters with them and they shared the the thinking and they provided us with Miss Molner who's done wonderful things and so Summit ESC is is an organization that I think would

123do a really good job in in what we need them from. Thank you. >> Well, it sounds like we're trending in one direction. And I do want to thank everyone that came um because the you know the fact that one is is kind of local and in sort of embedded already a little bit um and has a level of comfort that that's hard to overcome doesn't mean that the other three presenters did not present very viable options and I think that all four firms would be competent. Um but I I I concur with with everything that I've heard. So, um, with that said, I guess I would entertain a motion to engage the Summit ESC, uh, to sign the contract and assist us on our treasury search. >> So moved. >> There second. >> Second.

124>> Unless we have further discussion, I would ask Miss Wool for a roll call. >> Merleti, >> I. >> Moyer, >> I. Sheen >> I I >> Zadonik I Whitaker >> I right well then after this I will uh consult with Miss Woolard and Dr. Would about getting that process started. >> All right. The last item on our agenda prior to adjournment is uh to go into executive session to confer with the board's attorneys uh regarding p pending litigation and legal action. Um there I don't believe will be any action taken after that. The board will invite attorney Bernard should she still be available at this hour. Um aretta Bernard to join us in that executive session. So do I have a motion to move into that executive session. >> So moved. >> Second. >>

125Roll call, please. >> Merleti. I >> Sheen. Hi. >> Sulonic. Hi. >> Whitaker. >> Hi. We are in executive session at 8:17