Westerville Board of Education Meeting, October 23, 2023

001hello everyone and welcome to this evening's meeting of the Westerville City Schools Board of Education we're delighted to have all of you this evening uh there will be one opport wait I should back up sorry uh the agenda will be displayed on the screens in the front of the room for you to follow along and there will be one opportunity to address the board tonight before we enter into a work session there is a signup sheet located on the table in the back of the room and each speaker will have five minutes to address the board and a timer will be shown on the screen and with that Miss Marshall will you please call the role Mr Bel here Mrs Alman here Dr Nest Breer here Mrs Meyer here Mrs Davidson here will you please

002join us in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indis liy and justice for all okay up first this evening we have the superintendent report uh president Davidson vice president president Davidson vice president Meyer members of the board Mrs Marshall at your request I'd like to take a few minutes to give a brief overview of the district's local report card and our goals for the year the district did score overall four stars on the state report card and we have lots of things to be proud of 40 uh more than 47% of our graduates take an an advanced placement course which is outstanding but when you add that figure with International backal orate and college

003credit plus classes it shows that a majority of our students will have College college level experience when they graduate uh evidenced on their transcripts all of our high schools met or exceeded the State's graduation rate expectations our graduation rate of 92.5% for the class of 2022 exceeds our preco graduation rates it's the first time since before 2018 that Westerville schools exceeded 92% as a district our five-year graduation rate for the class of 2021 is 94% their four-year rate last year was 91.3% which shows our commitment to work with our students to earn their diploma even after their cohort has graduated for all grades combined our results on the state test indicate that as a district our students exceeded student growth expectations set by the state most high school assessments exceeded um expected one year's growth

004um English language arts 2 Algebra 1 geometry and biology all student subgroup demographics met their performance index Targets in English language arts and math resulting in five stars in The Gap closure component in the area of expected one years growth by subgroup in English language arts the groups that had the highest growth were English Learners economically disadvantaged and black non-hispanic students for math the greatest growth happened with our economically disadvantaged English Learners Asian his Hispanic and black students what that tells me is that we are having great learning success with our most atrisk student populations of our schools 21 of the reported 22 schools met or exceeded the state's expectation for performance manura Park will be represented on next year's report card 18 of our schools met exceeded the state's expectation for Progress growth 21

005met or exceeded the state's expectation for Gap closure and 13 of our 15 elementary schools met or exceeded the state's expectation for early literacy however we do have areas we can grow uh one in five of our students are considered either chronically or habitually Trent missing 10% or more of their instructional time of our 2022 graduates only students categorized as white and Asian have graduation rates of 90% or better all other groups fall somewhere in the '90s and as a new superintendent coming in I'm curious if we have policies in place that are hamstringing us for example uh if we don't allow students who are suspended to earn credit while they're out are we biting off our nose to spite our face math passage rates at the middle school represent the lowest percentages in the

006district with sixth grade passage rate of 60.6% 7eventh grade at just over 55% and e8th grade at 42.9% although for grade six and seven math students exceeded the state's expectation for growth and a dip in performance for fourth grade English language arts uh a close eye will be kept on this group school was shut down in their kindergarten year and for most of their first first grade year they were in cohorts so their Foundation Learning Experience was much more disrupted than any other class so overall I think our report card shows really promising things about the Westerville schools and we know that we have areas to grow and we'll continue to do that regarding District goals um our our district goal as a whole the combined goal is for us to have an overall report

007card grade of meets or exceeds standards on the OD local report card this is the star rating system that was Implement implemented this year for the first time our building and apartment goals will be a share file uh for the board to view if desired so we have work to do it's good work to do and uh we have a good team to do it so I'd take any questions if you have them and I'll do my best to answer them it's day 23 of my [Laughter] tenure anyone have a hard question to ask him no nope hearing none thank you so much we appreciate it okay you did have one oh sorry okay moving on 4.1 approval of the minutes of the regular Board of Education meeting held on Monday October 9th 2023 may

008I have a motion please so moved second any questions or comments here hearing none Mr Bell yes Mrs Alman yes Dr Nester Baker yes Mrs Meyer yes Mrs Davidson yes um moving on to the public comments we do have one person signed up to speak um I would like to welcome Melissa Smiley to the podium I am here to present a is that better do it work uh the light is on okay great thank you I'm here to present a case for potential exemption to the residential district boundaries my husband and I have a Shared Parenting Agreement for our son Morgan that is currently a sophomore at Westerville Central his dad is the individual that secures the um I guess the the boundary or allows him to attend Westerville schools he is currently building a

009home in um technically in Big Walnut School District and there are houses adjacent to his address that are in Westerville City Schools we um have paid Westerville taxes um probably over 18 years my parents still live in Westerville when we moved here in 1987 so I am requesting the board to review our case in more detail and allow him to continue his um High School career at Westerville Central and not have to move and disrupt that education plan that he is currently at at Westerville Central so we don't answer questions from up here we usually have more questions for our staff so I would like to thank you for your comments and someone will'll get back to you uh how I guess do I provide what I've prepared in more detail to the board so

010Mr Dorne in the back uh would be the person you could do that to and then he will instruct me on how to get in contact with someone yes okay yep thank you and I think we have your contact information so definitely we will be in contact and we appreciate your comments okay moving on to financial 6.1 approve the financial report and Investments for September 2023 may have a motion please so moved second and Miss Marshall uh thank you president Davidson members of the board so uh this month we're going over the September 30th month in financials um for the general fund we ended with year-to-date receipts of $8.5 million and for the general fund year-to-date expenditures of 47.7 million and I will mention that September is only the third month of the fiscal year

011that we're in uh we ended with an unencumbered fund balance for September in the general fund of 197.4 million and for all funds we have year-to date receipts of 104.6 million million year-to dat expenditures of 82.1 million and we ended with an unencumbered fund balance for all funds at 232.000 million and that's all I have there any questions hearing none Mr Bell yes Mrs Meyer yes Mrs Atman yes Dr n Baker yes Mrs Davidson yes 6.02 resolution to approve the purches in accordance with orc 5754155740 purchases prior to us being able to make a payment so we have three on the agenda uh riddle All American Sports uh this was for Westerville North athletic department uh the order was placed in order to see a substantial savings on helmets that they were ordering over the

012summer um and also to have it in time for the new year so that was prior to our July 1st uh start date of the fiscal year but it has been budgeted for so we're we do recommend that that um approved and then Triad Architects this was for a pass through permit that we had that was required um that the PO didn't get opened in time for again has also been budgeted for and then Granville Exempted School Exempted Village School District is for a cohort cohort from the Martha Holden Jenning grant that we received where we're working with three other schools on learning practices and um the timing of the Grant and getting the vendor set up was the reason why we didn't have a purchase order in place here but all have been budgeted

013and I do recommend the board approve any questions or comments hearing none Mr Bell yes Mrs Atman yes Dr Nester breaker yes Mrs Meyer yes Mrs Davidson yes 6.3 new audit committee appointment and do I need a motion motion to appoint Carl pedman to the audit committee so moved it's not on there second apologize for that that's okay that's why I kind of who did who was the second I'm sorry thank you um thank you again so I'm very excited I believe he's joining us tonight Mr Carl pedman is a member of the Community he is a retired accountant um he has called me over the years to talk to me about our popular annual financial report we had one opening on the audit committee so we're excited uh for Mr pedman to be joining

014us tonight and for the a committee in the future with the board's approval and you do have a copy of his resume any questions or comments just hearing none Dr Nest breaker yes Mrs Meyer yes Mr Bell yes Mrs Alman yes Mrs Davidson yes um Personnel consent agenda can I take this as one is everyone okay with that okay may have a motion for 7.1 through 7.11 for the Personnel consent agenda second and welcome Mr Cooper good evening president Davidson vice president Meyer members of the board Mrs Marshall and Dr Clark this evening's Personnel consent agenda includes action with regard to resignations retirements leaves of absence contract status changes onetime pays and other employment related decisions it is important to highlight our retirees on this agenda within our classified staff Philip sharvit is retiring after

01510 years of service within our schools Timothy Hill after 13 years of service Sue kazer is retiring after 23 years of service and and Janet Koenig after 35 years of service to the district within our certified staff Valerie Thompson will be retiring after 25 years of service and Jame Webster will be retiring with 37 years of service within our district this group of employees represents a collective 143 years worth of knowledge and dedication to our students and the families of our district I would also like to share some changes to Our Food Services Department in an effort to continually improve on the services that we provide to our students we have restructured the department to include a director and two coordinators reclassifying the previous position titles of manager and assistant manager the director position promotes

016a focus on vision and goal oriented planning versus the previous responsibilities being much more focused on day-to-day management the director position right sizes the Food Services Department to be more aligned to all other District departments and director position responsibilities the coordinator roles provide for positions focused on the coordination of day-to-day services within the school year as well as summer food programming uh offerings within our district and a commitment to supporting our families more efficiently it is important to note that restructuring the department with these positions does not impact the general fund of the district as these positions are funded by the Food Services account and our Food Services Program will we remain self-funded on the agenda this evening for your approval are the new Direct director of Food Services Brent kasler as well as our

017new food food services coordinator Tama Johnson Brent has joined us this evening so welcome Brent he's in back there uh within the contract status changes item on the agenda as well you will see the reclassification request of our current assistant manager Daniel Parton to be reclassified to a coordinator finally I wanted to take a moment to update you on our transportation department status at this time currently we have three open contracted routes we have had some trouble covering absences recently which has caused some early releases the good news is that we have a potential for 14 new contracted and sub drivers who are going through the hiring process somewhere between actively training scheduled for training or on hold for clearances to come back our transportation team has been doing an amazing job making each day

018work despite the absences in these three posted positions at this time I'm happy to take any questions you may have any questions congratulations that's a lot of years retiring so thank you for the 143 years of service that's amazing thank you we wish you all the best I'm really pleased about the reorganization in Food Service um it's obviously a vitally important department and it's one that I know runs as fast as it can all the time to keep up with all the demands and hopefully this will will help with some of that great thank you so much Mrs Meyer yes Mr Bell yes Mrs Alman yes Dr Neer Baker yes Mrs Davidson yes old business 8.1 final reading policy 26 23.02.18 comments questions here hearing none Mr Bell yes Mrs Meyer yes Mrs Alman yes

019Dr neest Baker yes Mrs Davidson yes 8.2 final reading policy 8210 school calendar May have a motion so moved second any questions or comments here thanks to everyone who works on this takes a lot of work actually to put this together so yep Mr Bell yes Mrs opman yes Dr Neer Baker yes Mrs Meyer yes Mrs Davidson yes we do not have any new business tonight recommended action standing business 10.1 resolution to adopt online day plan may I have a motion please so moved second and I would like to welcome Mr Reeves welcome Mr Reeves thank you president Davidson vice president Meyer Dr Clark and Mrs Marshall members of the board this is a resolution that you have before you that is a uh result of a change in our budget bill this Summer that

020replaced the online or added the online day plan and replaced the old blizzard bags and there's several uh requirements in there and we have been working with uh our wa colleagues to draft a plan that meets the requirements set by the legislature and OD which would be enacted it would be an option for us to enact if any of our levels Elementary Middle High preschool would exceed the minimum number of hours due to Calamity days and we would have to make up days and the resolution would allow for those days to be made up in an online teacher directed format I just appreciate the thoughtfulness I went into this thinking about how to move around the the um Chromebooks if needed so thank you well we had practice in [Laughter] yeah and I think if

021if you could clarify um just I know we've talked about this once before but it is not the case that we plan never to call a snow day that's not what this is saying right yeah you heard it here yeah I mean yeah just that this doesn't mean that there will never be those kind of days it just puts the plan in place when we get close on the Calamity days correct if we have too many yeah and we need to make some days so yeah thank you are you ready okay sorry good Dr Nest breaker yesk you Mr Bell yes Mrs Alman yes Mrs Meyer yes Mrs Davidson yes 11.1 a resolution to suspends to suspend Robert Rules of Order may have a motion please some moved second second right Mrs Meyer yes Mrs

022Alman yes Mr Bell yes Dr Nest Breer yes Mrs Davidson yes and we are going to um open up a work session so we are able to speak freely um and you're welcome to stay and watch and listen it's okay so 12.1 uh special education audit and I would like to welcome Mr Reeves again and he's going to get us started this evening thank you once again president Davidson um before you I'm I'm here with Gertie glass and Adam flugy who together we will update the board on our progress on our special education review and report audit that was done a few years ago so just in review really quickly if you recall after the 2021 school year here Westerville City Schools contracted with Gibson Consulting Group to take a look at all aspects of

023our special education department operations over the course of the 2122 school year Gibson reviewed data documents completed staff surveys did small group interviews and one-on-one interviews and made observations in over 40 classrooms in in nine different school buildings in August of that year Gibson provided us with a very comprehensive 108 page report of their review the review contains 10 commendations and processes and practices that the special education administrators teachers and AIDS do very well and should continue to do they also included 19 recommendations for any adjustments improvements or changes to our current practices Gibson first shared the document with former superintendent Dr Kellogg and members of our executive leadership team after reviewing And discussing those uh pieces and parts of the document I shared the report with the Board of Education I also shared it

024with our special education administrative team our teaching and learning Department uh administrative leaders and our principles uh I also convened a special education core team which president Davidson was a part of and what we did was this team met periodically to review all of the recommendations and we discussed what they meant and we prioritize them into very high priority medium priority or low priority we also prioritize them in terms of being less complicated to very complicated to implement over the course of the work that was done by the special education department we created what we call a summary document which chronicled the work that had been done or completed in each of the different recommendations that were given to us in August of 2023 at the start of this school year I shared with all

025of the staff in Westerville City Schools the full Gibson document as well as the sum document and those documents can be found not only on my website but Mr flug's website as well so we categorized thank you Adam we categorized our review of the recommendations and we want to First go over the recommendations that we believe have been completed and brought to an end the numbers that you see up there actually coincide with if you were to look at the Gibson document they coincide to the number of the recommendation that was given so um I will do the first one item number two which is actually recommendation number two and that was the reorganization of the Department of teaching and learning and really to provide more oversight and accountability for all of our specialized learning

026programs and all of our teaching and learning department so as as you recall the superintendent Deputy superintendent and our Board of Education over several years completed an examination and an analysis of the district's admin team structure to maximize our efficiency our accountability our workflow and to support all facets of the district's operation adjustments were made to the admin team and to various positions and um that culminated last April as the board made its final recommendations and changes to align and better structure our teaching and learning team and so that was a recommendation also from Gibson that we believe has um come to a completion good evening president Davidson Miss Meer members of the board Dr Clark and Miss Marshall first off uh I would like to thank our team for being here this evening because

027I know that um it's a lot of work that you guys have been doing and this work has not we you guys are very much much appreciated for all the work that you have done so if I could please have um Miss Fogo please raise your hand and say hello Miss R Miss witson Miss Jin Mr sites again thank you for all of the work that you guys have done so items item number three restructure the special education coordinator's responsibility to increase program accountability and improve instructional supports the special education department has has been actively involved in the professional development of building administrators four summer training session have been conducted with two more plan for the school year additionally monthly deportment meetings continue to be led by special education coordinators with special education staff withed

028services and behavior specialist and these monthly meetings will continue to occur for the M of the school year okay item number four review and update job descriptions to to ensure that they accurately reflect assign roles responsibilities reporting relationships in position qualifications during the Spring of the 2223 school year the special education administrative team conducted a comprehensive review of all job descriptions related to special education they also gathered input and feedback from special education teachers reled staff School psychologists with Pathologists physical therapists ET ET the revised job descriptions were then shared with the human resources department for final approval during the summer of [Music] 20123 item number 10 this is not working include the including the the total number of minutes a student is to receive the recommendation was to include the total minutes a student

029is outside of the the general education setting in the individualized education plan Services however this recommendation was rejected because of process need to reflect the guidance from the Ohio Department of Education the district will continue to develop and implement the IEP to be compliant and provide the student with a specific amount of specially specially designed instruction and time within the resource setting is determined by the IEP Team all administrators have been trained to check IEP P for compliance before enduring IEP meetings in which they participate can you say what an IEP is absolutely individualized education plans so an IEP is when a student is um go through the ET evaluation and then based on that if the team find the child eligible for IEP services such as a math executive deficit uh Reading Writing uh

030then the team is to write goals to make sure that we are are um help helping the student earn the uh learn the skills deficits so that they can make progress into the general education settings okay and oh God can you just um identify the difference between an IAP and 504 for those that are at home maybe listening and don't know the difference absolutely when a student is facing a 504 you are still considered a child with a disability however a lot of the times you do not need uh accommodations to be able to uh receive the general education information the education that is put in front of you and a lot of the times we need to put accommodations in order for you to access the curriculum versus anep is when you go to

031an ETL process there are a lot of dates that you have to follow and then a school psychologist is involved in the uh uh assessment sometimes it's speech path uh phys physical therapist and whatever it is that the student needs can be and then based on that if you are found eligible for services then you are giving an IEP to make sure that we are also helping you to just learn according to uh the stard that is set in front of you I'm sorry number 10 number 11 see here this is why here help number 11 the practice of referring team teach and IEPs should be replaced with general education with support during the special education review Gibson selected random IEPs to review an IEP that was selected stated team teach under Section seven of

032the IEP which is location of services team teach is not a location of services and that was an error the district continues to provide training ings so teachers should use the terminology of general education for the ELA and math courses if the student requires additional adult support all administrators again have been trained to check IEPs for compliance before in doing IEP meetings in which they participate can you explain what team teaching is yes sure so most of the times when we have a team teach class that's when you have a general education teacher along with a special ed teacher to ensure that all the students in the class classroom are receiving the proper um accommodations the proper support in the class so the child can all succeed uh a lot of the times when we

033have Team teaching class we also make sure that we help the students also in a 504 to ensure that they are also meeting standards okay um I have one clarification question could you also explain how IEPs get written right so that we had this verbiage in there that maybe didn't belong but just explain who writes them and and how they get reviewed absolutely so just the IEP I don't have to go to the so after a school psychologist along with all whatever the related Services found the child eligible for services the team then has 30 days to write an IEP the IEP is written by a special ed teacher which is called intervention specialist and they read the ETR they look at all of the deficit that was uh talked about uh during the ETR

034meeting so we read then the goal so written based on the deficits that were found in the ETR so again a lot of the times it is for math it is for uh Ela it is for executive deficit it is for written expression whatever the IEP on the ETR talked about then we have to address the needs great thank you and then so they're written and then they get reviewed right correct so uh an e is written every 3 years and an IEP is written every year however we often tell parents that the IEP is not uh written in stone so if ever you know you need to meet you can call a meeting and also a lot a lot of the time uh School the school staff can also call a meeting if we

035find that the student is um reading all of the uh IEP goals so we can call a meeting to ad uh ad man theep and a lot of the times the parents also call to ensure that you know we either um look at other goals or whatever the needs can be so yes every year great thank you mhm number 16 we design and rename all classes that currently have a disability category designation to reflect the level of supplementary AIDS and services that will be provided in the class during the start of the 22 23 school year the specialized Learning Classroom titled intensive autism and multiple disabilities were renamed to life skills classroom We are continuing to analyze the makeup of our specialized learning classrooms in their need in their need to further inform the descriptions

036identified focus and supports okay all right it's my turn good evening president Davidson vice president Meyer Dr Clark Miss Marshall and members of the board our next and final item that has been completed is item number 17 eliminate practices that preclude some students with disabilities from participating in Career Technical education courses so the special education department and transportation department have been working to address known areas of need a lottery system has then such been put in place um which accepts students into Career Centers since a lottery makes this selection students denied access are not done so based on an existing disability this will naturally eliminate practices that would preclude students with disabilities um again we've also been working with the transportation department um to ensure we're supporting students with specific needs that would have outlined

037in their IEPs to ensure we're providing them that specialized Transportation as needed if they attend these Career Technical institutes can I ask a quick followup on that one yes um so was that identified as a recommendation because um that is something that is generally seen that many districts struggle with or is it because they something they saw specifically that had been one of our practices previously um that was putting barriers up for Career Tech yes so that that wasn't specific to Westerville City schools that was more of a general insuring that these um these certain technical schools that we send our kids to um this also this review was done by um um an organization that's not based in Ohio so some of their recommendations as we'll go through this are more based on National

038standards and don't necessarily follow some specific laws and regulations in Ohio um so when this recommendation was made that's when the practice had changed for the lottery so not just Westerville but all districts that send their kids it's based on lottery not based on if a student has a disability in an IEP thank you thanks for clarifying that I just want people to understand it wasn't specific to a practice that we had had but just a general um recommendation so yes and and um what was more specific to Westerville and as I mentioned with the transportation department we've been ensuring we are providing multiple modes and means of um more bus stops and more different ways to get our kids to and from these Career Tech programs great thank you so we are moving on

039to now items in progress so we have not completed these items but we um hoping to have an end date as we are working through them so the first item in progress is item number five determine an appropriate methodology for calculating workloads and case loads when recommending Staffing allocations for licensed service providers so the special education department is currently working with the assistant superintendent offices on this project um District administrators we've recently met with the Westerville Education Association and Ohio Education Association um as recently as October 16th and again on October 20th so we are currently in discussion to review workload and case load processes with these organizations so can you explain the difference between a workload and a case load yes so when we're looking at a case load that would be um what

040the law states um a certain special education staff member is required to have a maximum on their case load and legally cannot have anymore so for an example if I am a sixth grade crosscat teacher I can have a case load of up to 16 students so legally I can have no more than 16 is that how the law is written workload is a little bit differently than case load as it doesn't just look at numbers that a that a staff member can max out in it looks at actual individual the work of the teacher as it relates to the students they're working with the types of needs and services they require as well as the work surrounding that um such as paperwork so a workload process um gets much more in depth than an

041actual case load number of a maximum because it looks at all all aspects of the students and the work that goes of surrounding the students great thank you could you just you said crosscat I'm sorry yes so crosscat would be like cross categorical so that would be our students that are served most in the general education setting um they maybe have a is that would push in in like a team talk classroom set setting or maybe be pulled out for an IEP service period to get that specially designed instruction so that was what that would what we be consider like a mild to moderate cross-categorical support the workload issue is uh a difficult one it is extremely difficult and I I really want people to understand um the hundreds of layers that are engaged in

042the workload that we're talking about it is a great deal of flex and fluidity as we consider different student needs as we consider different reporting needs as we consider all of those uh variances that occur so uh it isn't that I have a specific question I guess it's more that I feel for you um as you work through this as you work with the associations and trying to identify how best to deal with living in Gray because these workloads aren't necessarily black or white they very much are living in Gray and and that is difficult to categorize and difficult to quantify 100% correct um and that makes me just um want to ask a question about how cases are allocated right so when you're trying to distribute out that case load among staff how do

043you decide who is assigned a case yeah so again that's a very you know uh convulated process where we have students across the district who could be served in their home schools um through that mild and moderate cross-categorical support we also have students that may have more intense needs that would need a specialized Learning Classroom that may not be in their home school so this is something we have to review and analyze on a regular basis um where we are looking at every single program within every building across the district to then determine how those case loads can look um to where we have won't have one building where they're sitting at 20% and another building at 100% um but it's again it's a process where um it it takes us to be looking at

044a regular basis to then determine how we can best support these teachers in these programs depending on whether it's the child's home school or we have to determine placing a child outside of their home school so this is something that's always ongoing that we're always examining yeah thanks thank you recommendation number six in the Gibson report recommends that we Implement a data management system that allows for realtime access and Analysis of student data across multiple systems over the course of the last school year the teaching and learning team uh researched and met with a variety of companies and we landed on the product Tableau as our data dashboard tool and if you think about the dashboard on your vehicle and your dashboard uh especially in modern vehicles gives you a dazzling visual array of the

045performance in of your vehicle and how well it's it's doing there's a variety of data points well it's the same thing except looking at the performance of your engine or how fast you're going or how much gas you have left we are looking at student data which could V vary from the attendance of a student the grades of a student the assessments of a student uh throughout our system as we look at that to then make decisions about the things and the programs and the resources that we should uh purchase and and Implement to support them so in August of 2023 a partner company from of Tableau plant Moran they came in and provided intensive training to those who would be actually building and connecting our District's v a variety of sources of data into

046that dashboard so that we could create a variety of dashboards to answer any question that we may want to have over the course of this school year they will be continuing to learn and train on how to connect our buildings data to their product so that we can have those dashboards it is our goal that by the end of this school year we are ready to roll out some of our preliminarily built dashboards and use them throughout our system as the years progress into a tool that can be used all the way down to the classroom level okay I always have a question all right fine so uh with with the dashboards and obviously this is something that's in progress right in building the dashboards out um the intention in building them is around special

047education but I'm assuming that there will be dashboards that will include data outside of absolutely that what we have found when we looked at several of the recommendations that and including the next couple that I'm going to go over um they're far broader than the narrow scope of of students with disabilities that they in actually impact the entire District this would be one of those yeah okay thanks and so the tent of the dashboard is too that you can look at an individual student but then also various classes or particulars questions that you have and and be able to answer them with the data that's provided from like power school and yes schoology okay we can use sources like Power School in our our primary and and middle school grades we can look at I

048ready assessments State assessments we can look at discipline records we can look at attendance records and combine them into charts and graphs that help us determine which students may be the most at risk and we can take that from a comprehensive holistic look all the way down to a singular student all right uh moving on the next recommendation recommendation number seven provide campuses with adequate resources and supports to implement multi-tiered systems of support or what we throw around quite often as ntss uh with Fidelity so what does ntss mean again it's a multi-tiered system of support in its most simplistic way it's a framework for Universal instruction and behaviors that can be used to give targeted supports to struggling students and it's called multi-tiered and you will typically find ntss in three different tiers that

049first tier tier one is instructionally and behaviorally what is universal which every student has access to and we hope that all of our students are successful in but we know some May not be successful within the tier one setting and so you go into what we call tier two and you have a smaller amount of students that just needs moderate amount of support on in addition to their tier one instruction or behavior to be successful and then the smallest number of students you will find in tier three which are the more intensive supports that could be formalized into special education or other um holistic uh behavioral consequences or things like that so that's what multi-tiered systems of support are when we say mtss and the various tiers that's what they mean so over the course

050of last school year the teaching and learning Department worked to build effective and efficient and consistent structures of student supports throughout the district every single one of our buildings provides supports to our students what we were finding is they were all doing it on their own and there wasn't a consistent Westerville City School's response to how how we help children and so what we have been building and working and are continue to work on at the elementary and the secondary level is to provide consistency which helps our principles be more effective and our staff members more efficient in helping our students and Westerville City Schools made some Investments with this in 2022 23 Westerville City Schools invested in hiring four mtss multi-tiered systems of support coaches at the elementary level that were hired to support

051especially at the tier 2 and tier three level some of our Title One buildings they supported four of our Title One buildings last year they supported Hawthorne Huber Ridge manura France and Point View and this year they are expanding their uh their reach into more of our elementary schools to provide that support we also invested in Contracting with the ESC of Central Ohio that brought a team out to our teaching and learning team meeting meetings from about the second semester through the end of the year to help us this with this heavy lift um we are a large organization we are a very complex organization and for them to come in was very helpful for us to then take the Baton and be and continue that work this year over the course of this year

052the elementary division has a team that they are working with and subcommittees um working to look at District data that of the kids and how they Implement across all of our system not just our title buildings the tier 2 and tier three supports we are chronicling our work and what we hope to build an ntss guide book so that paired with secondary and the work that they are doing that we have a guide book that is a reference for our teachers a reference for our parents a reference for our buildings on how we support your child what data we look at and what happens when there is support that's needed where do they go who supports them what resources do we use and we had to start from scratch we had to start from even

053using a common language for what we mean for tier one tier 2 and tier three um how we support it and what do we call it looking at regular data and being consistent with the data that we look at and analyze to determine what students may need some supports and of course our number one Focus that is spearheaded by our curriculum and instruction department is our tier one our Universal everyday instruction because we know that the higher quality tier one instruction a student is going to receive the less support down the road that they may need and so that's uh really the work that is ongoing um has been a main focus in the second semester for us last year and this year and even at the middle school level we were able to find

054as we were opening manura Park we were able to find within that FTE allocation some uh NTS as support uh in terms of FTE at each of our five middle schools so Scott as you talk about the mtss structure and the identification and um I want to say formalization but understanding of shared understanding of what we mean by tier one tier two tier three and the uh supports that we have in place for that I am looking down the road ways um at a combination between item number six and item number seven so as I look at the database and I look at our mtss structure I am seeing down the road as we get these pieces up and moving that those two could um work together to really give us an excellent three-dimensional look

055at what's going on with our students in our classrooms and our buildings and I see it as having the potential to inform Staffing decisions as regard level of stff Staffing that are needed is it's you know when we don't work from the same definitions we don't work from uh the same understanding of the data it's easy to miss where some of those staffing needs are becoming ever stronger so I view six and seven as working together much more closely than we might think at this point and you are 100% correct which is why oh that's twice I've been 100% correct um and that's why we are investing in that dashboard tool to make better decisions to help our kids all right um when we look at mtss most people tend to think of the academic

056portion but there's the whole child portion there's the social emotional needs there's the behavioral needs of a student so when you look at recommendation eight design a system for delivering tier 2 moderate tier three more intensive interventions for Behavior at each School level um another acronym that's thrown around quite a bit is positive behavioral interventions and support or we say PBIS quite a bit and so PBIS plans are one of the things that every school in our state is required to have and required to submit to the Ohio Department of Education and then it's really a way that how we are able to support our students um at the elementary level they have a behavior andal committee to really dig in to the PBIS Fidelity inventory the secondary buildings have used that PBIS Fidelity inventory

057as well this summer well what is that the tiered Fidelity inventory is a national model for the standards that should be found in effective PBIS plans so that when you build your PBIS plans you are looking at data you are looking at your discipline data you are looking at the non-academic needs of your students you are seeing the supports that are needed and that data that should be in there and it really helps guide you for the types of supports and the folks that should be helping students and their families um it preserves our PBS plans our tier one Behavior portion of our process and we see those a lot they're celebrated we see uh pause that's P AWS that's one of our cat schools uh P STS or something a stand or something w

058stand you see that throughout our elementary schools you see that throughout our middle schools you see Mom and such as the warrior way uh portrait of a Warhawk is something uh cats with class all of those things all of those characteristics that we want our students to be able to exhibit you will find in those PBIS plans uh but also a very standardized and structured way to help students whose behavior isn't where we want it to be at the tier one level um and and a lot of times for our students there's a deeper reason than they're just misbehaving and and we want to be able to to uh uh surround them envelope them and help them and their families in all aspects of that the second the secondary team is also doing that and

059the team is also looking at um the inventory inventory throughout the year and looking at the consistency of what they do across our system so that um actions and supports that are taken in one building are comparable to the actions and supports that are taken in another building across our system and and so that's really the work the heavy lift as you said uh that is getting a system as large and as complex as ours uh on one Speaking plane about how we help kids can you walk us through um I like to picture things a little bit so um it's one of the hardest things that we have to do I think in our system with so many schools and is trying to create that alignment between schools right so can you just walk

060us through for a minute what that conversation looks like so you're bringing you know principles and team members together across the district and then just like tell us how it looks how did it look this summer when you working well I'll tell you and really is is broader than the summer it's really ongoing all of our principles meetings started um some in the summer because we have a little bit more time um I've sat in on some of the secondary principles for example and so the principles would get together and and we've had opportunities to bring assistant principles together and we looking at some of our infractions that we have for example and we say okay for this particular infraction what do you do here what do you do there what do you do and

061they start to talk and discuss well uh this is how we handled this particular infraction we handle this one a little bit different and we start talking through how should we handle it to where that we can find common ground to say now there's always when you're talking about individual Behavior there's always variances from the severity of it to the frequency of it uh and all of those things but to get to a common place of saying for these for these actions and infractions here are how we're going to approach it here's how we're going to involve family here's how we do we need to involve a counselor in this type of infraction do we need to involve a cir social worker or a psychologist and that's the conversations that they're having at every single

062principal meeting they're actually developing uh a matrix which which they are building um as we go at the elementary level as well you know fortunately the behaviors at the elementary level are a little bit different than the ones that we have at the secondary level but that's a big start and and the second piece that secondary is working on is the consistency with which we even report our data and let's say you have some of the more extreme behaviors like fighting where it gets there's some physical violence involved well you could have one school that enters it as a fight one school could enter it as an assault one school could enter it as uh just a disturbance and so the reporting to the state when you look at our discipline data could be wildly

063different for the same thing and so finding that consistency so even our data that we're looking at is is consistent and accurate is something that we're working on um very hard and I've seen more at the the secondary level because the infractions tend to be a little especially when you're talking about those tier 2 and tier three behaviors and infractions such as out of school suspension and expulsion the line share of those tend to be at the secondary level thank you for walking through that cuz I do think it's one of the it's it's something that's really important for us to do it it's it shouldn't be that a kid who you know might have one Behavior at one school if they were at a different school they would be treated very differently for that

064and it's but it's just really hard to drill down that way so I appreciate they're creating that Matrix and understand that every situation is different you have to start somewhere and getting everyone on the same page so just really want to thank everybody who's doing doing that because it's not easy to tease that all out yeah yeah thanks and for both uh an Baldwin and Cheryl rord I mean that's been a one of the focuses that they have carved out time for their principles to have those conversations because the principles never have those conversations they live in isolation they live in their building that's they're the mayor of their town but when they come together they realize well we've got some differences here that we need to reconcile so kudos to those two for putting

065that together thanks can I just have a a a follow up on that and I agree that's a a lot to get consistent and thank you for all that work um I know there's also some really good things that are happening in some of those buildings and you know and I'm assuming that that's also being shared amongst the other principles and how we handle you know a fight or something and some skills that are taught to children to be able to work things out so as they learn and grow through the years that they're able ble to address those things that they might see later in life as well and and our buildings do uh like I said at the beginning you see a lot of acronyms at the elementary middle level and more character

066phrases some like the Warrior Way are deeply deeply Ed in those buildings um we celebrate our the kids that are doing the things that we want them to do as well from Renaissance programs to different celebrations that we have but we also want to do so in a way that's mindful that we're not alienating the students and creating a bigger riff between others and so we have led by Tammy Santa and her team I mean just I don't know that a district has any District around has a better team to help our principles with that and so it's really a unified effort from our department all right the ninth uh recommendation Implement A two-prong diversity and cultural awareness training program and classroom management strategies for all teachers and campus administrators and really this was work

067that I think began before long before uh Gibson ever showed up we were one of the first districts around to invest in diversity and inclusion from a human resource investment um as a function of of our our board approv administrative and organized changes we have taken our educational Equity department and moved that within the student student services department one of the things that we have been doing in the last couple of years is all of our new staff members and we have uh continued to do that through our new staff orientations every summer is we go through training modules that is provided by the Ohio State University's current Institute for the study of race and ethnicity and it's the be the change modules which highlights maybe some implicit biases that you may have that you

068don't even realize that you have um and so it really kind of helps also put the forward step for forward that diversity and equity and inclusion is very very very important with us there's some other Investments that our district has made in this uh uh without just having a director of educational Equity we have invested in equity facilitators in every building and the equity facilitators help partner with the principles and their staff to forward programs activities trainings for their staff to make sure that all of our students feel welcome feel safe feel included in our buildings uh and feel like truly our moniker where you belong that this is where they belong and that they're seen and that they are and that they are heard buildings have developed over the last couple of years Equity

069goals that have partnered with their academic goals and they develop them in smart languages and they have strategies and measures and things that they want to look at and it could range from not just we want to take a look at maybe some inequities with our discipline but it is how are we providing an opportunity for the kids here to have uh what Jim mcon always say that Spotlight how do how can can we make sure that the SP Spotlight gets placed on this section of child and we think of equity in a way a lot of times our mind tends to go to race but Equity is so far broader than that from religion to ethnicity to uh disability status to all kind of preferences and choices that students make that may make them

070outside of the mainstream we want all of our students to know you are young humans who we are going to embrace and love and um and make sure that you have a place where you can be successful and so that's the work uh that we continue to do that Gibson um highlighted that we have um a department that's devoted to making sure those experiences are there for our for our kids you um we have um the recommendation was to implement a two-pronged uh Diversity Awareness cultural awareness program what can you share real quick what are the two prongs well when they when you look at the the recommendation the two-prong diversity and cultural awareness program which we've been very very heavy on in classroom management strategies we provide classroom management strategies we do that through

071formal and informal training it could be formal such as uh s sessions that we put together or guest speakers that we bring together on WE day we have uh trainings that principles and professional development that we're providing we're also continuing to look at that just recently and we've had our first meeting we put together a discipline committee to take a look at our discipline data to take a look at our policies and processes and and the way that we manage and work with our students and a part of that could be some of our data could be telling us which we'll see in real time down the road in in our data dashboard that maybe there's some additional professional development that we we need to to employ with our staff so it's not only cultural

072training and awareness but making sure that that all of our staff members are equipped to be successful with all the students that they have in their buildings and each build I think it's also important for us to know each building has developed their own smart goals as it relates to diversity equity and inclusion yes and we this is probably our third year at least doing that can you share with us um real quick um followup to those goals what kinds of um procedures are in place to monitor the progress of those goals actually being accomplished yeah well our our initial um coordinator for equity and and educational Equity Cynthia deis now anra Simmons they actually uh give those not only to their supervisor and and Sher but they also give those to Anitra and Anitra

073and her team review those and she helps them and she sits down with them Cynthia did that and NRA does that now to sit down with them and talk about what are the things that you are trying to impact here in your building and what does that Equity goal look like here and we monitor that over the course of the year um Anitra and her department does that but but it's it's shared among what is happening with our teaching and learning team that meets uh a couple of times a month and we look at all of those things as well we look at the data that they want to impact and see over the course how are they measuring their progress um I'll give you one for example there were uh certain substatus certain subet

074sets not easy to say of students at Westerville North High School that academically that I know that um the principal and the admin team and the staff there really wanted to Target who typically have been the least successful academically in their building and they put goals and strategies in place met with with Anitra met with an and really measured the strategies that were they were doing to see if there was an impact academically for their students and that's and and that's not an overnight thing but that is a culture that they are trying to build um there that's a one that I can think of off the top of my head but others uh strengthening programs and and opportunities for kids to um Express themselves when you look at some of our high school football

075and basketball games we have dance teams that all students feel connected to and part of that perform we have uh performance I think at Westerville South I forget the name of it but we just had a a performance of a very profound work of uh literature in a very small setting maybe about a month ago and the name of what we what the students there did escapes me but it was very very powerful so opening and providing and being intentional about providing opportunities like that for all of our students I think has been the biggest impact that we've had um through that department and I think it's also important to note um that there are budgetary dollars that follow these initiatives as well so each School each Learning Community can accomplish these goals absolutely and

076and and we've supported them curricularly as well I mean we have classes that we have built that our students have wanted to take uh RAC and ethnic studies African-American studies paired with African-American lit so we have made an investment to say this isn't just lip service for us we we mean it and we're going to invest our our dollars our time and our resources in it all right we are now moving on to ongoing items um we call these ongoing um because really the work doesn't end um this is um projects and um different items that we will continue the work and don't have a projected in dat um so with that being said I am number one which is really their first recommendation it's it's really all-encompassing of everything that we're reviewing tonight and

077it's develop a multi-year plan for sustained Improvement for students with disabilities and so the special education department continues to support designing this multi-year professional plan um this work started actually last year and we're going into year two and that's everything thing we're presenting to you tonight what we've accomplished what we're currently working on and what our goals for the near future are um but just so you guys are um aware of what does this multiplan look for in this department um different items that we are focusing on for the sustained Improvement of students with disabilities include professional development um curriculum resources a workload case load process parent engagement opportunities diving into to our Continuum of services and maintaining special education compliance um just a second can you explain a little further uh in the update

078you when as you said provided four training sessions to all administrators and one's coming up in November can you provide a little more information on and this kind of goes back to ger the things you were talking about earlier what additionally are we expecting our administrators to do that they have not done in the past so attending special education meetings which we would call IEP meetings ETR meetings um this year they may be sitting in more meetings without a special education coordinator um often times in the past they um special education coordinator s were able to sit in more of these meetings alongside a building administrators um so this year we wanted to ensure if they were going to be covering more of these special education meetings when coordinators were not available that's where the

079training really focuses in on that compliance piece the understanding the IEP what to look for when they're sitting in these meetings um how to respond to certain questions um from parents if they don't have this special education coordinator so that that's where the training has really um really focused on since this summer and we'll be going into our fifth training um on the November Wei day is really just supporting our building principles who are the ones that are on the ground the ones that are sitting in these meetings or the sometimes often times the first contact with parents so to be able to give them the tools that we maybe haven't had the opportunities to give such in-depth trainings in the past okay so if the building administrators are uh attend sitting in on and

080in many ways leading more IEP meetings and so forth is that a function of being underst staffed or is a function of a change in our model or both both yeah it's kind of what I thought um for those that might not know we do have a parent advocate can you talk a little bit how that parent advocate it might um help support a parent understand like what that's just starting this process yeah so we we um Stephanie Thomas is our parent Mentor um she's funded through a grant um so she's not technically employed by Westerville City Schools but she does act as our parent Mentor um which is a little bit different than an advocate a parent advocate would be typically someone hired by the family to advocate for their child while Stephanie Thomas's

081role is to really educate parents and be that liaison um so they can better understand the special education process her information is on our District's website she does um also intend our app parent engagement forums um and we'll be working with our um which I'll talk about in a little bit but our special education parent advisory Council um but she's certainly um a resource to our families thanks words do matter I was going to ask you to talk about that so I'm glad you're going to yes I will okay could I ask before we move on real quick just ask a a a question um a lot of this unless you have a student um that has been identified and designated as needing the assistance of special education we have no idea what this world

082looks like um and all that goes into it could you just briefly explain to us real quick what does um an IEP meeting what does that look like what's going on in this meeting and who's in the room yeah yeah absolutely so again as Miss glass indicated that individualized education plan for students um that the team has met through that evaluation team report that multifactored evaluation to determine that student has a disability and requir specially designed instruction so once that is determined the plan is written that IEP and it's individualize so that's the key word here so it's based on the students individual needs that the IEP team comes together as um an intervention specialist proposes the IEP to then talk through the team um because it's individualized it could look very different um there's

083a continuing of services but when we're sitting in these meetings the IEP team would include the parent an intervention specialist general education teachers um and a district rep which could either be a building administrator or like a special education coordinator so those will be the core team members but also depending on the student and their needs they may have um speech needs or um uh occupational therapy needs um so we could have different related service memb sitting around that table as well okay thank you ongoing item number 12 train staff to develop Behavior goals for any behavior that impedes a student's learning if goals are not mastered after a reasonable amount of time amended IEP to include a behavior intervention plan based on a functional Behavior assessment so the district is providing ongoing training to

084staff regarding behavior Improvement plans and functional Behavior Behavior Assessments in August we provide professional development on managing Behavior through learning on how to create and Implement informal Behavior plans as well as ongoing when and how to complete a functional Behavior assessment for Behavior plans additional information regarding functional Behavior assessment behavior in plan isare at monthly Department education department meetings for ongoing learning opportunities for staff I really like like that one yes I really do when we look at uh teaching and implementing best practices regarding student Behavior one of the things that I hear over and over and over again uh from our teachers is that they need additional help and they need additional training around student behavior and I look at this as a tier one tier 2 tier three issue with a heavy Focus

085as as we were talking earlier on tier one so that we can maintain tier one status for a lot of our kids I also see a connection between this and what we were talking about earlier as regards a significant meshing of a number of uh the components that we're working on here to give us a much clearer picture of the student the classroom the building and the district overall so yeah I like this one yes as a matter of fact um during the We Day in August we had a couple of classes that one of our Behavior Specialists uh put together uh the room was so small at uh Central that we had to go to the auditorium and it was mostly attended by jary education teachers which was wonderful because they understand that they

086also need to be part of the solving of you know children with some Behavior concerns so it was really great to see as well and um just a a question about how that or whether or not we've seen a change in those needs right Co and we talk about what are the impacts of all that so when you think of what used to be necessary like in terms of sort of a tier one with the behavioral piece like like have we seen a big change are we hearing anecdotally from classroom teachers that gosh I need new strategies now right for my at my tier one than I did before yes we are we are definitely seeing an increase in behaviors and part of the reason that we are seeing that it's when you think about

087these babies that are sitting in our class right now during Co they did not have access to people right um even when they were communicating with others often they were mask and they were not really attending school for time so again it's just stick a pause and try to understand where their needs are and try to meet them where they need to be met so again it's continue to just understand what they are doing and continue to understand how to best support them and I think our staff is willing and ready to accept more uh training because they see that they also need help yes yeah I've um appreciate all those general education teachers being interested in this because and it and it does help for me to think of it in terms of tiers

088right corre what used to be what maybe we thought of as a tier two in terms of the behavior issue it might just be tier one now and we need it everywhere we are feeling it that's for sure yes yeah thanks number 13 examine Section 504 case management responsibility at the secondary level so uh Elizabeth Jackin over here just uh in addition to the Civil Rights coordinator that she used to uh occupied for the past years she also assumed the of title n compliance coordinator for the district so in addition to her new role she will conduct an internal 54 audit of each building to determine current practices regarding the monitoring and implementation of five or4 plans she also is going to conduct research over surrounding districts to inform her report in early spring she

089is going to sit together with oper Administration so she could inform her findings of what uh we would like for to see for our district item number 14 encourage and support the routine development of unit and Lon plans to support improv instructional practices and higher student achievement levels so West City Schools continue to encourage teachers to submit to their administrators unit and lesson plans the special education department created walkthroughs from across multiple learning environments in order for building administrators to use the guidance document and best practices to support the training throughout our special educ ation classrooms leaders you talked about the leaders observing uh during rounds and walkthroughs and I do really like the instructional rounds and walkthroughs they're great and they're wonderful uh energizers um information uh wealth it's it's really good stuff who

090are the leaders who go on these so this is multi- right so for elementary I know that uh for example Cheryl and Kate uh select couple principles like you know and couple teachers and couple instructional coaches and they go to all of those walkthroughs together for example they will say that we are going to visit three buildings for example so it depends on who's in her rotation and so they do that for at the elementary level and also for the secondary it's also the same thing uh and Baldwin along with Jennifer net and also couple of the CI CI curriculum and instruction teachers right so they all get together and they also invite teachers in different buildings so let's say that they are going to visit South so for example they will say North and

091also Central teachers will go and visit to ensure that you know they are seeing different things so they can see how do we make all things better so they invite all of us so it depends on how busy we are uh if we are not let's say I'm busy sometimes I'll say hey L with would you please go and U to ensure that we all are seeing the same thing and it's not a judgmental thing it is just what did we see and they have questions that they have to answer and they do not put teacher name on the information it is just a learning for all of us to make sure that all of our students are being exposed to uh great instruction and as far as the walk through document that we have

092created special ed is my world I've been in it for 23 years I understand it I live this world special ed is also his world however when we have general education teachers who become principles there's a lot that they do not know so in order for them to in order for us to support them we design those work tools for all of our specialized learning classrooms so for example in an ed classroom you will see certain things that are acceptable that you will not find acceptable in let's say a classroom with uh intellectual disabilities right so with that is when the principal walk into your classroom versus this classroom what should they expect um what should the language be like when they are in instructing the students what are the behaviors that are kind of

093like acceptable and some of them that are not so it is just a matter of ensuring that when they walk into a classroom the principles are aware of what to look for in order for them again to just give gentle feedback to make sure that all of our students are able to learn and all of our students are just you know making progress throughout the day I like that I like the way you've structured both of those uh it's very well done and I uh very much appreciate the inclusion of the teachers on the rounds um that is how we make a great deal of change happen and that's how we cement a lot of things that don't need to be changed so nice job with both of those structures thank you all right we

094are moving on to item number 15 reconstitute the team teach instructional model to focus on the core content areas of ela and math and support campuses and teacher teams and the Implement implementation Fidelity so the district is implementing a scaffolded timeline to phase out team taught science and social studies in the high school beginning with the current eighth grade class which will be the incoming class for the 2425 school year the outcome of the shift will allow for increased sections of English and math team at the high school level additionally this will reduce the number of students sitting in these current sections that are identified for special education services so during this school year the 23 24 school year there will be additional training that will be provided to staff this will address the shift

095and resources and how to differently support and train the general education teachers as a result of this shift item number 18 develop a comprehensive professional learning plan based on disaggregated student data and align resources and guide the ongoing professional learning for all Educators in the district so again the special education department continues to meet with our instructional program teachers to focus on utilizing curriculum resources and addressing student deficits through those resources after the first professional Development Day this team sought and analyzed feedback from staff regarding sessions which has helped inform future PD for November with a focus on utilizing curriculum resources and addressing student deficits and as we come to a close item number 19 which is the last and final recommendation expand parent engagement programs to sustain local participation in Westerville City school special

096education program so recently um our special education department has sent out communication to families with students with disabilities to gain input and suggestions to further inform parent engagement events so we're analyzing this feedback we've gotten well over hundreds of responses to guide the future parent engagement forums that we're going to be holding this school year um so this information was gathered from preschool Elementary and secondary families we actually had the um um first parent engagement Forum which was just held last week on October 17th um we had a great turnout we talked about special education 101 in that meeting we Au we um also asked for volunteers to sign up for something that is going to be newly implemented this school year which is the special education parent advisory Council where we have been working

097with a Westville parent Linda Freeman Locker who has um gladly accepted this is just something that she's going to support us with and act as apparently aison so alongside of the special education parent engagement forums we'll be providing training sessions and information sessions to parents and then also following up with recorded sessions to put on our website and YouTube channel we're going to also be offering a more intimate experience for parents to come together on a regular basis with Miss Freeman Walker to talk through current events or challenges that they're facing so we can hear what's going on in the community and respond to appropriately I just want to say I love that thank you can I actually jump back on number 15 and just ask a question um so in phasing out um hold

098on that's 14 I need my readers you guys it's like a new thing sort of for me so I got to do this um so the phrase out of science and social studies team talk can you tell us how that looks now and then where are you trying to get with that right I mean I understand all the words here but again what does that look like yeah so currently in high school there are sections of science and social studies that are considered team taught so it would have a general education teacher and an intervention specialist teaching that content um this recommendation is is stating and research has also shown that you get more bang for your buck when you put more of your resources in the core content areas of Reading Writing and math

099So based on that research the Gibson review recommended that that's the model we go with currently oh that is the model we have um for team taught science and social studies only in high school we have eliminated that in Middle School to offer more team taught sections in the Middle School setting so with this scaffold and model we're not going to be taking anything away this will be the first class going into nth grade next year and so with that we would we would hope to increase more sections of Team taught Ela and math to reduce the ratio in order for our students in special education to get more of that individ July support by by offering more sections and reducing the ratio okay thank you how do the social studies and science teachers uh

100feel about that uh what's the impact they believe they're going to see so that's something that we um are working on this year where we are going to create opportunities to offer professional development for uh that that class of teachers so we can work with them on Universal Design for learning how to support and use accommodations in those classrooms if historically they've had team taught intervention Specialists I would like to also even reach out because again um our Middle School model is different so finding some Stellar seventh eth grade Jed teachers who have been able to meet the students needs and special education without being in a team toau setting and you utilizing them to also help provide this support for for our high school teachers that will see an impact thanks so I'm wondering

101when you have these team talk classes um did we put more kids that have more needs together in those classes and that way you know where I'm going so so then you would have someone come in and support but they wouldn't really be able to meet all of the needs because they were were heavy in order to try to meet those needs do that Mak any sense that that makes sense and that is correct 100% correct 100% correct fig out a way to point that out so not only do we have a high uh amount of students on IEP sitting in some of our classrooms we also have students on 504 plans we also have students as English Learners and we also have students that just may need more tier 2 and tier three interventions

102so when you take all of that together that's making these classes quite quite challenging to meet the unique needs of all Learners right I was yes how many um special education students do we have in our district if you know if you don't it's okay guesstimate or I I would say for a little over 2,000 out of the 14,500 kids correct okay and those are just ones that have been identified to have an i in a 504 we're not counting our English language Learners in there and any of our tiered support students and also the 504 but a little over 25% is just students on IEPs yeah so that's high that's a lot of and then it's across the Spectrum right it's not I mean I think when we sit here as a parent unless

103you have a special education student you don't realize the spectrum of needs so we talked about some of the um we renamed a class it's uh life skills now yes I don't think we realize as community members and parents unless you have a child like really what those needs truly are which then goes back to the case load workload thing where we're putting just a number in there and we're probably I think everyone is well intent has good intentions and wants to meet those needs but at some point we can't really meet those needs with the high numbers would be one can I still 100% correct again yeah 100% correct two times yay um that is correct I am just trying to point a couple things out because again it's high level up here that

104I don't think a lot of us understand unless you're in there and you can really experience it um is there anything else you would like to tell us that we haven't asked you that would be beneficial for us to know um as a matter of fact I know a couple years ago uh I think it was uh Mr V Mr Bill and also you and I think it was even Mr vard when he was here that uh you guys did take a tour with us and go see the life skills class uh honestly I would also encourage you guys if you guys would like to see that and I know Dr Clark has not seen any of all of this classes if you guys would like would love to take you around just so we

105could see just to what you are saying the intensity of the behaviors we have in these classrooms and also the different needs so I think you will help people to better understand when we talk about workload and case load just so you could see what the teachers are going through so if you guys would like I know Miss Marshall also went I if you guys would like we'll gladly set these meetings up for you guys so you guys can go and visit our our classrooms and I think the staff would also appreciate that yeah I think that'd be great I would love to maybe I can go to Kroger with them I know they do some shopping yes they do yes yeah so we love that yeah any other questions or comments thank you yeah

106I do um and I think that this is something that Tracy was referring to and you heard it coming from me as well um I appreciate all of the extraordinar hard work that you're doing on this uh but there are a couple of red flags that I see one is um as we place more responsibility on the building level uh our administrators and our classroom teachers um we cannot ever and you know this really well we cannot ever assume that that is the substitute for appropriate Staffing levels and my concern for special ed especially it has grown significantly over the past few years is that um some of our best intentions sometimes end up um not doing what we hoped because we simply don't have the Staffing to make it happen I don't want to

107see that happen with the hard work that's going on here that doesn't mean I'm promising that as we go through the next budget cycle there's going to just be you know a a windfall um as regards Staffing but it is something we have to keep in mind all the time the other red flag is as much as I like much of what I'm hearing and seeing in here it's really easy to let the pendulum swing too far and when that happens with some of the the systematizing that we're doing here we have to avoid um a pendulum that that swings too far and creates rigidity rather than um a facilitated consistency if you will it's uh you know it's just one of those things we have to caution ourselves all the time uh not substituting

108rigidity for um growth and practice and I know you know it I know that's not your mindset but I also know how in big systems it can happen but this is this is very good work and you done a heck of a lot to move us from where we started with the Gibson review to where we are now and I thank all of you for the [Music] work and in closing I'll Echo that the reason that multinational companies all the way to school districts do audits is to uh find ways to be uh more impactful and you you put the nail on the head when the hammer on the head the nail on the H on the nail you did that when you said if you think of our 19 recommendations seven of them are

109complete and several of them are ongoing to completion and that's because of this group right here I have watched them every day expend every ounce of energy that they've had and these two right here who've devoted their whole professional Souls to helping our kids and and you just you couldn't you couldn't get a better group than this one right here who believes in what they do they love our children they love our staff and so I am so grateful that that this group right here makes up my team anything else thank you thank you so much we really really appreciate it thank all of you um 13.1 may have a motion to approve a resolution to reinstate Robert's Rules of Order so moved second okay Mr Bell yes Mrs Meyer yes Mrs Alman yes Dr

110ner Baker yes Mrs Davidson yes and that takes us to board comments does anyone have comments I do okay start I just want to First congratulate everybody through making the through the first quarter congratul ations um I did I just have a short uh legislative update there's a ton of things that are out there that they're introducing that you question why they're introducing because well at any rate but um just a follow up on um something I brought up at the last board meeting um and the house passed House Bill 187 which was SP is sponsored by Representatives Thomas Hall he's a republican from Madison Township and Adam bird who is a republican from New Richmond by 58 to 26 vot and just to remind everybody um this was so some background uh what's in

111place was in place to ensure that real property is valued at its fair market value County Auditors reappraise or update the value of all property every 3 years I'm sure miss Marshall will correct me if I'm saying anything wrong once every years um each County inter goes a sex sex anual appraisal in which the county auditor reappraises all property based on examination of each parcel and at the midpoint of the six-year reappraisal cycle Auditors review and adjust these values to reflect market conditions since the reappraisal so this reassessment phase is known as the trianal update during the triangual update in L of examining each parcel Auditors make valuation adjustments ments on a statistical basis using the overall percentage change in the aggregate value of each class of property so with this new bill be if

112it's passed and it's passed the house beginning with 2024 tax year the bill removes tax authority to order adjustments to property tax values instead under the bill it would continue to they would continue to review County Auditors valuations but instead of mandating a correction they could only issue recommendations regarding an increase or decrease in values and the county auditor may make further adjustments based upon a recommendation but is not really required to do so and the bill also reverses the appeal process so instead of a county auditor appealing taxes correction order they may appeal an Auditor's decision not to accept its recommendations and the appeal would still be taken to um the bill oh I don't know I'm going to use an acronym after I said don't use acronyms BTA Board of tax revision thank

113you Board of tax appeals sorry okay which could order modifications if it finds the auditor's valuations to be unreasonable or law unlawful and since um the tax May no longer require the auditor to make Corrections the bill also removes the provision that requires um tax to withhold 50% of local government fund distributions to that County and also um strikes instructing the department of educ to withhold 50% of state revenue distributions to school districts in that county um I'll sa the rest for another time the last thing I'll just mention is the Westerville Education Foundation is kicking off the Westerville student Education Association this week it kind of went defunct we're really excited about bringing this back we held our first meeting um today at Central and really appreciate um the principles at all of the

114um the high schools and the staff that have really been supporting in bringing this back um so that's it thank you more to come anybody else um no I we said it before but I I know that this team has put in a lot of work and there are lots of other people too who are working hard on this so I want to thank those of you in the room and thank everyone who's not in the room who's working hard um on special ed in all the pieces that it touches which is really you know everything in the end um but starting with that and working out from there I want to thank you with that and then um just thanks everybody for doing the um suspending Robert's Rules and doing this in this format

115I really appreciated that I hope that it felt um you know it's a little easier for us to ask questions and just have a little bit of back and forth so thanks for for I don't know not being exactly guinea pigs on this but um we it's a format that we haven't used a lot and I really appreciate you doing that so I want to Echo Jen's comments and I also would like to remind everyone to please get out and vote um if anyone's watching this we have an election coming up and uh we have two board seats up unfortunately we're going to lose Mr Bell and um you know we have three people running so please do your homework please please please and uh that's it for me um 15.1 the board will meet

116in regular session on Monday November M 27th 2023 at 6 p.m. here at the Early Learning Center and may have a motion to enter executive session for purposes of discussing employment and compensation of a Public Employee so moved second Mrs Meyer yes Mrs Alman yes Mr Bell yes Dr breaker yes Mrs Davidson yes we are back from executive session and I would like to ask for a motion to adjourn so moved second Mrs Meyer yes Mrs Alman yes Mrs Davidson yes and with that we're adjourned