001Bye. Impressive. >> We moved from executive session into recess and now we'll be moving back into our regular session, regular uh board meeting. I'd like to welcome everyone who's just joining us at this point. Uh we will begin this portion with the pledge of allegiance. >> Hannah, could you lead us? >> Could you lead us? [laughter] >> Sure. >> They're on the spot. I pledge 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. [laughter] >> Thank you. >> That nice ending. >> Uh let's go through the agenda. Yes, we uh do not have any recognition tonight. So uh that will be adjusted. We will have communication from the floor. Then we will have two standing reports.
002One specific to nutrition services. And then a second is our November data report uh which will be going over uh several different areas connected to our performance metrics and our strategic plan. Uh we will do some first policy uh readings uh in my report. It will be short today. I don't have a lot of updates for state and federal funding at this point. So, we we don't have any of that today. We'll go into board reports, then into the consent agenda, and we do not have any uh business agenda items tonight. And then closing items, and then we will not have another executive session tonight. So, that will that will be it for our agenda today. >> So, no rec without any recognitions, we will advance to communication from the floor. Emily, do we have
003anybody online? >> And nobody here that I see. So, we'll go to standing reports. Welcome, Mr. Alex Singer. >> Yes. So, joining us this evening is Alex Singer. He is the manager of our nutrition nutrition services. Uh you will also hear us call him the food dude. That is what we like to call him. Uh to give the board an update on central school district nutrition. I want it ready to be put this quickly up to the spot. >> Right. Organized now. I hear you. You guys have may have some questions for me, but I prepared a short little report that you should have a copy of with updates from LA from finishing up last year and then going into some of what's going on now. >> Hello. >> Um this year we we've had
004some movement in our team over the summer. We've had a couple staff that have moved to new positions. Uh Carrie Morris and Irene Rodriguez. We've added four new smiling faces to our department. Uh DD RS, Erica Wright, Cowry Dores, and Virginia Glassman. Um in June, we finished our third year of operating under C community eligibility provision. That is the program that has allowed us to feed uh students at no charge uh both breakfast and lunch and uh supper and snack. Um during the summer, we reset our our um what's the right word? Approval for C because it's a four-year program. You get approved in the first year and you get three consecutive years without having to reapply. But we've taken the tact of applying every year to extend that out. Um so we are currently
005approved to operate under C through the 28 29 school year at no charge to students. Um, on the professional development day on October 10th, I took uh the majority of my department uh to a training and seminar in in Portland um through the for the Oregon School Nutrition Association is their industry seminar and it was also a food show. So, they got to go and try lots of different things and test. I know I I told them everybody you can't commit to buying anything but everyone asks you to commit. you just tell them to call me. [laughter] But it was fun that, you know, they get to meet other uh school nutrition professionals from elsewhere in the state. Um, kind of network and get some training on things that they may not necessarily see all
006the time. Um, and they've always been very excited. This was the third year I've been able to take them and they were very, very excited about it. And especially people never been to a food show before, they were pretty darn excited. I did have to warn them, you don't eat all the bites at the first place cuz there's, you know, three aisles of food and you're going to have to snack your way through. So, be careful. Um, uh, financially, we finished out the year on a positive note. Uh, our mail counts were up previously slightly from the previous year and we closed the books, um, in a posit with positive fund balance. Uh, even with all the increased cost of pretty much everything under the sun was going up. Uh, and it was it got
007a little touch and go there for a minute. Was I was concerned, but we came in came in came in in a good spot. All right. So, now for the current year. Um, I know there may be some questions today about some of the things that are going on that we've seen in the news. Um, we are continuing to face operational cost rising and uncertainty about funding. Um, I spoke with Dustin Melton. He's a director of child nutrition programs at OD and he also put out a a uh a memo about this and at the as of today the way everything stands today uh the issues with SNAP do not affect us feeding students initially. Um since we are set for the next this year and the next three years it it would not affect
008that unless something were to drastically were to change. Um so we are approved through 2829 to feed all students at no charge. Um the state is actually recommending to all the districts to do what we have done and in the in the spring apply again to keep pushing out um because it's it's a good thing. Right now I think I think they said 98 or 99% of the districts in the state are utilizing C. There were a lot of districts that were slow to um to take it on, but it's it's it's great for the students. I've done this at two other districts previous and it's it's amazing. It just takes all the the worry off for parents and families, you know, if Susie and Johnny and Juan get to eat. So, we they come
009to us, we're going to feed them. Um, for the one thing we have to increase is the price of uh non-reimburseable meals, which would be if a staff member decides they want to come come through the salad bar, come get a meal, we have to increase that price, spend $5, we have to increase it to 575. There's rules from the USDA that require us to charge enough to make sure we're not taking away from the funding that goes to student meals. So it fully pays for every part of the meal, the food. Um, so nothing takes away from the student meal. So we're going to be increasing that uh January 1st. That's the the balance of my report. I'm happy to answer any questions you guys have. >> Alex, you want to talk about with
010the C what the percentage is just because I know that that's been a big conversation of just qualifications and the percentages. >> Yeah. >> Just we can help the community understand sort of the things that we continue to watch. Sure. Right now, so the numbers we we reapplied for this year on were from uh April 1st. That's the day they want us to pull data to apply for the next year. Um districtwide, we reached a percentage of 56.2% of uh students qualifying for free and reduced. Uh they qualified under what's called the direct method. direct method would include anybody on SNAP, uh foster, uh Medicaid, uh any one that applies to Mckin Vento and um then the migrant program. So all those automatically apply for the for free and reduced meals. Before C, we would
011have to take applications on top of all those families. And when I got here in 2017, this 56% was it was considerably lower. Uh we've been pushing ever since, especially through co getting more and more families. You know, even if you don't think you apply, apply anyway. You may may help us get there and it gave them benefits, especially once CO hit and people were struggling. Um individually, the schools, they vary. The majority of our schools are in the mid to upper 50% range with the exception of independence which is at 62% this year. Uh last year and the year before MEES was actually higher than I uh but it's shifted back to is where it had been um previously the highest but altogether that 56.2%. What C allows us to do it takes that
012number and multiply it by 1.6 six and which eliminates us having to take applications to find which students qualify if there's any additional free or to qualify for reduced meals which would be 40. So because of this that pushes our 56% up to 89.92%. And the state has taken the um step of funding that extra 10 10.08% 08% out of state funds to make us 100% um refunded or reimbursed. If they didn't do that, the the feds would pay us 89.92% of the meals that we serve at the full free rate, which is about $5.5 with all the reimbursements or no 516 with all the uh reimbursements and the uh commodity reimbursement. without it without the CP the remaining 9% we would get re we would get reimbursed at about 56 cents uh for the
013remainder meals but the state has taken the um taken it further and said we'll make up that difference to make sure all our districts are whole. So we're we're are being reimbured at 100% of the rate for all student meals. Does that make sense? Or was it a little >> It's a relief to hear too that we have all those years. >> Such a relief. >> Yes. And we, you know, like like I said, we we every at the end of every year in the spring, we we apply again and if our number for some reason came in significantly lower and it would be a detriment, we wouldn't have to necessarily do it. We could >> use our three years and wait for see how it was the next year or we could extend it.
014Um, so that's it's nice having that option. Uh, we've not had to do that yet. Um, and we hope never to have to do it. We hope one day to get universal meals for all students everywhere in the country because, you know, if students are required to be at school, we should be feeding them. >> And again, I've shared with you all, we do a Friday meeting with all superintendents across the state. This is a topic of conversation every Friday. the state has or has received funds. Uh, normally they get them in three-month chunks. Right now, the federal government's giving it in one month chunks. Um, so they did receive and we've been told that >> [clears throat] >> um we will be funded through November, but again, there's also again that's continued conversation. Um,
015so we'll we'll just keep moving forward. Again, we keep every Alex sent me a couple articles today. We're just tracking everything and making sure that we have the most updated news. Um we'll continue to keep you all posted as we we move forward. But um again, the state has talked to us about there is um reserves that they have and if they need to, they'll jump into that and use those. Um again, like I said, they're normally in the past they've gotten them in three months. They're right now getting them in in one month increments and that's okay because we're still getting them. Um, I think we'll have a little better idea in the next couple weeks if we if we get the November one. I read a couple articles today that uh Emily sent
016me that um just was talking about some of the funding for specifically uh schools and so um it didn't look like that was going to change at least at this point. So that's a that's a good thing. >> And then nutrition funds are coming in early right now. They have in their hands for nutrition department. They have September, October, and November funds. And we usually like we just turned in reimbursement for uh September a week ago, and we'll probably in another week or so turn in for October, and we'll we usually get it within about 3 days of putting it in. So they they're they have it ahead at this point. Um as Dustin said, as it stands today, they expect to continue getting that monthly. Yeah. Any other questions for Alex or us? >>
017No, just thank you for all you do for the kids. >> No, you're welcome. Absolutely. >> I have one small comment because >> when when we were at um school lunch week a couple weeks ago, I learned something new as always do from you. Just as an aside, we were talking about the mozzarella sticks and you were explaining how the kids gave feedback on all the different options and you went with the one they liked the best and it never occurred to me that you were getting feedback from the kids about what they have to eat, which is great. >> Um, so I just want to make sure the community was aware that that is even happening. >> Thank you. We actually got to do a a test with a manufacturer. I've been talking with
018the different manufacturers that make pizza that qualifies for schools. Um there's a couple different Oregon manufacturers that we use can use local dollars for. Um and the kids have been asking about can we get a white sauce pizza instead of a red sauce pizza? And there really isn't one for school that qualifies for schools. So, Roadrunner Pizza, which is out of Gladstone, um, and talking [clears throat] with them, this is precoid, and they worked with us for about a year and a half to develop a white sauce pizza that they their machines could put out, and it met the guidelines, and there was a whole it was a huge process. And we got to do a test run at the Telmage, and the kids went absolutely nuts for it. They they were so excited. And
019then like 3 weeks later, CO hit. [laughter] And so um actually the Wade the person I dealt with at the company they had lost twothirds of their works for so they like we're down to survival mode and I talked to Wade last year and they're still working on it and this year they actually have new owners to the company and the owners have said they're excited to try it. They they want to expand so they're they're committed to seeing if we can get that back up again. >> Pretty exciting. Pretty fun. >> So I just have a quick question. I'm I'm new to the board. So, I was just curious to know how large is the nutrition team like um between all the schools and how I was I was able to go to town
020for lunch >> and so um yeah, I was just curious to know that. >> Okay. Including myself, my administrative assistant and our driver that have works for us half time and half time delivering the mail. There's 25 of us. >> Okay. [clears throat] >> That's not very many for all the kids you >> Oh, no. It's okay. We we have um six at the middle school because we we actually serve more at the middle school than any other building. Uh we have four at the high school. We have um three at MEES. No, excuse me, four at MEES and three at the other elementary schools. We have four at MES because we have to a different format of serving that we're delivering out to classrooms. It takes just a little more labor. >> And just
021remember high school, remember we have open campus. So we do have kids that do go off campus. That's why Talmage is our largest school for >> for lunches >> for a closed campus. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And and traditionally elementary schools are pretty as a you know percentage wise serves the most and the elementaryaries do serve more the highest percentage but because the size of townage they're percentage is a little smaller but more more bodies >> and then the high school typically high schools always have the smallest percentage unless you have a closed campus which we don't have. >> Thank you. >> Oh you're welcome. Any questions for Alex before I let him go? Because he does get up early like the rest of us. He's up early. All right. Thank you, Alex. >> Thank
022you. And if anyone if you guys ever have questions for me, feel free to reach out by email or whatever works best. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thanks, folks. >> Let's talk about attendance. >> We're going to talk about a couple things. So, uh they're coming on up here. Uh so uh joining us is uh executive director of Highman from teaching and learning and our new director of curriculum instruction Dr. Amy Jackson. Uh they're going to share with you not only attendance, we have a update also on discipline and then I'm just going to say overall academic growth and achievement and um I'm very excited for them to share this uh with you today uh because there are some great bright spots. I'll just say that. So director Hman. >> All right. So, um, good
023evening. Um, I don't know if Amy needs to sit up here because it's this is you all may want to take a stretch break before we start because it's going to be long. Um, and it can be, uh, because Amy just started. And, um, so if you don't want to stay up here, you can either stay here or I mean, you're welcome to stay. >> Stay. >> Okay. Look at that. I feel like Saturday live skit. Okay, that's good. Let's go. >> But no laughs. All right. Okay. Um I apologize ahead of time. >> All right. Good evening again. Um so this is going to be quite a long um presentation. I'll say it's going to be two hours. So when it's not you'll be like that. No, don't worry, Jan. It you'll >> be
024you'll be relieved. Um so uh we know it's November uh no 23rd. Today is November 23rd. We're off to a good start. Um welcome to November 3rd board meeting. Um uh slide two. Thank you. Um we are here this evening to give the board an update um on our longterm performance metrics. Know you're all very familiar with them. Um slide three. As a reminder to the board and community um on of what we continue to strive towards here is our district mission. Um you're one slide ahead. Will you go back one for me, please? Thank you. Nope, you're good now. Go forward one. You know what? Let's just stay there. Are we good to? Okay. So, uh um so Central uh school district has a strong strategic plan focused on students and achievement, which you
025look at the top um row, family engagement, community partnership, and staff leadership and continuous improvement with clear longitudinal metrics, which we call how we measure our progress. Um, this document we call our strategic plan scorecard, which I think has been reviewed before. Um, we'll go to the next slide. You um, tonight we are here to review the following metrics with the board. Um, regular attendance, discipline, the 2425 school year state assessments in language arts and math, and um, our fall cohort universal screener data um, in reading and math. Next slide. We will start with an update on our 2526 school year attendance. Next slide. Uh the district continues to focus monthly on our strategic metric of regular attendance. This slide is our overarching metric goals specific to attendance. >> And let's just hold it here
026for a second because I want to just give the community for those that may not have seen this in the past, right? just what we are trying to focus on not only for all of our students but our key focal groups. >> All right, next slide. Thanks, Jen. Um, this slide shows our regular attendance K12 for all students um for the last two years. On the left of the slide, you'll see our current September and October regular attendance data in blue. You can see our October data is 74% and two percentage points up from the previous two years, which is a yay. >> This is that's a huge success. Huge success. >> Next slide. For students with disabilities in October, we are up two percentage points from the previous year at 68%. Another yay. and
027we'll go to the next slide. For students who are economically disadvantaged, we I'm gonna actually I'm gonna I have the slide going here and there. I'm turning it off on my computer because it's delayed. Um, so for students who are economically uh disadvantaged, we also see a 2% point increase from the previous year for October. Next slide. I'm here again. Are the 2526 school year strategies and action steps in place across the district focused on regular attendance. We continue to establish welcoming environments developing strong classroom engagement strategies and solid communication with families on the importance of attendance. >> And I just want to add here as I've shared with the board uh we have gone through a what we call a plan do study act with our building administrators. It's a cycle that we do.
028We've done a uh I believe it was 47day cycle really focused and being intentional with these strategies on attendance. We are now in our second cycle that we'll go through all the way up to when we leave for winter break with our principles. But obviously you can see the intentionality is working. Um and I'm really thankful for um not only the students, the families and our staff that are doing that work uh to make this happen. >> Definitely a lot of work and it's good to see that's being improvement. All right, go to the next slide, please. Um, and up next is discipline. Um, the next slide. This is this slide is our um overarching metric goal. Um, specific to discipline, as a reminder to the board, for the 20 202122 school year, we had
029a total of 622 suspensions across the school district. Next slide. This slide shows our discipline K12 for all students last year. On the left of the slide, you'll see our current September and October discipline data in blue. For September, we are eight suspensions less than last year, a 14 percentage point decrease for September. For October, we decreased suspensions by 29 from last year, which is also a 29 percentage point decrease. >> And we are one metric at within the first two months down from what our strategic goal is. So we are about at 24%. So again, we're we're getting close to meeting that metric as we move forward. So again, it's a good start to the school year by our staff and our kids. Um, next slide. Uh, this is discipline for our male students.
030You will see our current September and October data. The two-year trend for male student suspensions in September was flat, but there was a 15 percentage point decrease in male suspensions this October from the previous year. I'll pause for a moment and go to the next slide, please. Here are the 2526 school year strategies and action steps in place across the district that focused on decreasing suspensions. You can see some of these strategies also align with our attended strategies and action steps. Schools continue to teach and retach expectations where and when necessary throughout the school. So examples might be um how behavior should look in a classroom, during lunch, on the bus, or at recess. Just examples. Um we also to continue to support social emotional learning groups with our counselors, behavior support staff, and our
031school-based mental health associates. Next slide. We'll now shift to our academic achievement and growth goals. um when we uh when we begin with a third we're we're gonna begin with a third grade um state assessment in both language arts and math. >> And before Julie goes to the ne this next slide, remember our third grade is not cohort data because it's the first time they take the test. So as we look at this data, these are not the same kit. Um the rest of them that we look at will be cohorted, but this first year is just year-over-year. So just a reminder to the board. Thank >> you. This slide is our overarching metric goals specific to language arts and math for third grade state assessments. Next slide. This slide shows the last three years
032of third grade state assessments in language arts. For the 2425 school year, we had a 4 percentage point increase from the previous year. It fell 1 percentage point short of our strategic goal of 5% increase year-over-year. Next slide. Um, you're going to tell me to slow down, right? If you want more time with the slide. Okay. If you need it >> or if you have questions. >> If you have questions. >> Okay. Um, so this slide is third grade state assessment in mathematics for the past three years. For the 2425 school year, we had 5 percentage point increase from the previous year. That did meet our strategic goal of 3 percentage points or more of an increase year-over-year. So, I'm going to pause for a second here because I think this is important. Um, we
033have just started initially the math really [clears throat] K12. We did some piloting last year in >> fourth grade and then >> uh the high school started with nth grade last year. >> Nth grade. So, we've got two grades that have started. But again, a 5% increase. I I do that's reading. I'll be very honest with you. the work that we've staff has done and our kids have done specific to this and again I think our teachers doing a good job of the math curriculum that we had but this is a really big win um to see that type of of increase in a year um again and we haven't even we're in the initial steps of implementing our new math curriculum. So um this is exciting. >> Um we're going to go ahead and
034go to the next slide please. We'll now review third to fifth grade cohort data in state achievement in both language arts and math. Next slide. These are our metric goals for state assessments and language arts and math for third through fifth cohort. Next slide. The left graph is our current cohort percentage proficient from third through fifth grade for all students in language arts. As you can see, this group has seen an increase of 13 percentage points since third grade. For the second year in a row, these students met our strategic goal of 3 to 5 percentage points increase from year to year over year to year. The right graph is our students with disabilities percentage proficient from third to fifth grade. Although these students did not meet our strategic goal of 3 to 5 percentage
035points increase, they continue to improve. Our next slide, these graphs are our cohort math percentage proficient from our third through fifth grade. On the left is the graph for all students where we again were slightly down. For our students with disabilities, we had an increase from fourth to fifth grade of six percentage points. This increase meets our established district strategic goal. Next slide. Next up is our sixth through 8th grade state assessment in both language arts and math. Next slide. Um these are our metric goals for C assessments and language arts and math for again sixth through 8th cohort. Next slide. The left graph is our cohort percentage proficient from 6th through 8th grade for all students in language arts. This group had a slight increase from 7th to 8th grade. The right graph is
036our students with disabilities percentage proficient from seventh to 8th grade. They had an increase of 12 percentage points. Both groups met our goal of 1 to three percentage points increase with a significant jump in achievement for cohort of our students with disabilities. Next slide. These graphs are a cohort math proficient proficient percentage proficient from sixth through 8th grade. On the left is the graph for all students where we were down a three percentage points uh three percentage points from our previous year. For our students with disabilities, we had an increase from seventh and eighth grade of six percentage points. Next slide. We'll close our presentation with universal screener data um from the fall. We'll begin with first through third cohort data. Next slide. These are the district metric goals from for our third grade universal
037screener in both reading and math. This graph is showing the results of students spring reading universal screener and their fall third grade scores. As you can see, students had one percentage point dip, but we see this as not having summer slide and reading for third grade students. When we look at summer slide, you'd expect about a 17 to 28% pile or percentage difference. So that's uh fantastic. Uh the national mean for reading for the uh 2025 uh year is 491 and Central's third grade students um average a score of 468. We're still at some risk but continue to trend toward the national mean in reading. Next slide. This graph is showing students spring math universal screener results and their third grade scores. Third grade students are on track for meeting the strategic goal of 60%
038or higher by the end of the school year. The national mean for math in 20 2025 is 205 and Central's third grade student average score was 2011. We again are trending toward the national mean in math. Next slide which you're already there. Uh maybe um we will move uh next to six through uh fourth through six the universal screener data in reading and math. Here are the district metric goals for fourth through sixth grade cohort students. Next slide. This graph is showing students spring reading universal screener and their fall sixth grade results. As you can see students had a 3 percentage point increase and again no summer slide in reading for our sixth grade students. The national mean score for reading for 20 2025 is 520 and central sixth grade students average score was 515.
039We are still at some risk but continue to trend toward the national mean and reading. Next slide. This graph is showing students spring math universal screen results and their fall sixth grade scores. The students had an increase of two percentage points and no summer slide in math. The national mean for math for 2025 is 218 and central sixth grade student average score was 213. We're beginning to trend closer again to the math mean the mean and math to to the national mean and math all stay together. Um and next slide. Next we will move to the sixth through 8th grade universal screening in ma reading and math. These are the district metric goals for the eighth grade for eighth grade in reading and math. Next slide. This graph is showing students spring reading universal screener
040and their fall eighth grade results. As you can see, students had a 2% point in percentage point increase and again no summer slide in reading for eighth grade students. The national mean score for reading for 2025 is 537 and Central's 8th grade students average score was 523. We continue to trend toward the national mean and reading. Next slide. This graph is showing students spring univer math universal screener results and their fall 8th grade scores. The students had a decrease again in math. The national mean for math is in 2025 is 225 and Central's 8th grade student average was 216. Next slide. Here are the 2026 um school year strategies and action steps in place across the district focused on academic achievement and growth. This year K12 um we are in our initial implementation of the
041new math curriculum. Um last spring and this fall we continue with professional learning focus on our professional learning communities K12. As we started this presentation two hours ago, one of the key goals for us um as a district was to increase attendance of all students. Um as we know attendance in school will lead to academic growth and achievement. Um these are some of the key strategies for the school year. Any questions? >> I will say one thing. If you notice the graphs of the achievement and of our cohorts, they trend the same. So that's what you want to see. So you want to see if our universal screener is going up by cohort that our state achievement is going up by again that similar track. So you know looking side by side at those uh
042you're seeing some of those things. We still know we have some struggles in math. Again the initial implementation I think is going to help with with those pieces but we are seeing some success um as we start to to use those together. I was meeting with a [clears throat] principal the other day and there's conversations even with staff of of like while the math curriculum just like when we had the language arts um initially like it's a big lift uh for staff and so um they're wanting to spend more time with it and have conversation about it and focus on their professional learning specific to that. Those requests are coming in. So we'll continue to work through what that looks like. But um you know there's some really good wins. Uh again, we're still as
043we talk about accountability um and we're about to go out to the community and start some chats um really looking at the you know the accountability bill is coming as I've shared with you. Uh we may need to shift our strategic plan a little bit because there is some pieces where we're uh we want to make sure that our accountability we're meeting what the state needs but also then stretching us as a district uh moving forward with those goals. So, um there may be some adjustments that we'll need to do, but I do think um there's some really positive things that are have come forward and and I think with the attendance increasing, I think that could be a huge huge gain for us over this year. >> And our the staff are working really
044hard on the new math adoption. It's a lot of work. Um and it this year as they are teaching it, they'll be learning a lot. Um but it's hard. It's a really big lift for them. um but they're working um with positive attitudes and I'm hope we're hoping that they see some of the the growth in students sooner than later so that it some of that work pays off. Um but it's a really good program um and staff are working hard. So appreciate all the work and then Amy has been able Dr. Jackson has been able to go in and do some observation um and meeting with people. Do you have anything that you want to >> I want to reinforce the idea that because reading is gaining, math is gaining, this math curriculum is
045really language heavy. Um, which is challenging a lot of the primary grades, but because reading is becoming so much stronger. Um, there's a lot more opportunity and motion. So, it's good. It's really exciting to get into classrooms and see everybody working as hard as they are to do something new. I'm glad you included the um Ross score data like I don't think that's ever been in the presentation before so you can really see how close we are >> to that national mean. >> I think we did it last year we did it one time. Um we're trying to do it that'll again that will stay and so we'll just keep bringing that forward as we do presentations with the universal screeners. Yeah. I think we only did it one year. One time last year. >>
046Yeah. So as um we are in the beginning of the implementation of this new math curriculum, are there support structures for teachers um on how to implement and are are we doing something different? I guess that's my question in supporting teachers implement this new curriculum. Uh yeah well so with the implementation they we had training um and for elementary it was a little more challenging because it was training during the first week of school and so they um use time during PLC's and um October the October inservice day they had some time um and then we are we would try to respond to when there's a request for additional training but there'll be a inservice day in January um and we have we pre- purchased time where they get on with a a trainer. >>
047Um and middle school has been um has a plan uh with some release days and trainer coming back. Um they have the digital they have two the digital and hard copy versions of the program. Um and that's a little I mean that's another level of how do you put it all together? Um, and so that and then high school has had several days of training over the last two years or a year and a half. >> And we did a little bit of training with uh just on the programming with our principles so our principles could get in and really see and then uh helping them so they can help their staff um move forward with that and I know that we're we'll continue down that pathway throughout the year. Um again, we're still doing
048work in language arts. I want to be clear about that. But the focus really is is helping staff get on, you know, the needs and what they need from an implementation perspective on on math because it is a it is a lift. It is uh as Dr. Jackson said, it's very um readingheavy. Um and that's what's being communicated to administrators from from staff of can we have a little bit more time? Can we adjust time? Because again, we have blocks during the day when we do reading, when we do writing, when we do math. And so, um, those conversations will continue at the at the building level, especially K5. Um, obviously 6 through 12 were content, so it's specific teacher. But, um, K5, there's there's a little bit more of that that we're working through.
049Right now, >> we probably fe January, February, we'll start to pull, um, representatives from each school to look at some of the math and reworking of what has been taught and what's going going to be taught. and the language arts um teachers do that currently and started that in last year or the year before um and going through and looking at the materials and the assessments and revising and um and that's um the some of our coaches that we had started that and it was it's been fabulous and continuing um with those meetings I think is really helping u K5 specifically on them improving what content they're presenting to students >> and I'd like to say that every like assessment that comes with a curriculum is great. It's not. And so we there's adjustments that
050teachers have to do because maybe this, you know, we have the curriculums aligned to the standards, right? We talk about um the key standards as I've said before and a lot of times those we hope and hope's not a strategy, but again those those assessments at the end of the unit lessons are matched. Not always are they. And so we have to do those little adjustments. Um, and that this first year is teachers getting in there and doing that and at times saying, "Oh, this one's not as good as we thought it was going to be, and we probably need to add X, Y, and Z." And so then they work through that process throughout this year. And, uh, again, I think that what every year that makes it better as we go through those
051processes. >> Yeah. I just know that um any curriculum change is is hard and the transition can be bumpy sometimes and if we know on the front end of things that this particular curriculum is a little bit heavier. I just want to um I guess I just want to know that we're supporting our teachers as we're asking them to do this and um you know we're really looking at our metrics and our outcomes and so it's a heavy load. So what you know what are we doing to help them? And I think it's really important that teachers share with their principles when they are seeing a need if there's a support need or training need. >> And I think as a district and as a school board as um budget cuts could be coming from
052the federal um level or state level that right now a lot of our training is funded out of title two. Um, and if that were to decrease or go away, um, that we'll have to rep prioritize um, our existing funds in the district because that's that's kind of our source for paying for trainers to come in um, and paying for release time or extra days and time outside of the >> Yeah, our title two is our PD budget. I want to be very clear about that. Um, Julie and I work hard. we have other funds to use, but a majority of our professional learning, again, when we want to pull teachers in like grade levels or content areas at times, as an example, um it's paid for out of of that funding. Extra hours, which
053we don't have a lot of, again, that's the funding where that that comes from. So, >> and that supports our our new teacher academy. So, our first and second year teachers um meeting with mentors and receiving additional training or release days. So it's yeah it will it will be a good conversation if we learn that there's additional cuts but just I think it's an important awareness because PD professional development either with trainers or our time together is is critical. I think it's interesting. I don't think it's was brought up before that this math curriculum is more lang even more language heavy and I think that's great though it might be harder at the beginning but because we need to improve in our technical reading. This is like killing two birds with one stone. So we
054just need to hold on get through the rough part and I think we'll get a good result. >> Yeah. Agreed. other questions or comments either one. I just want to um thank all of our educators, all of our teachers, especially the um K through five and um because I know we're not just asking them to do math. I mean, they're doing a variety of um subjects. And so, um, just we we see you and we we appreciate all of your hard work and your dedication to our kids. >> So, >> yeah, language arts a few years ago and math, it's it's a lot. So, thank you. >> That reminds me, every time I wanted to push them, I'd go up to a couple of teachers and go, "Are we ready?" And they'd be like, "Not
055yet, Jen." Um, but I think this is a good time and we've, you know, they've got a few years of the language arts underneath their belt and that's helping them and then we're adjusting that along the way and we'll continue to do that and now it's just it is a heavy lift, right? It is a anytime you adopt new curriculum it is a heavy lift on the process. >> Yeah, it's um the motivation though because now we're seeing the progress with the language arts and we're seeing that we're we're on the right track. >> Yeah, we did again we did a review of attendance with administrators Oh, was it last week? Seems like it was a long time ago. It was only last week. Um, and we were flat in September and I we we
056kept just saying, "Hey, what are you doing? What's working? What do you what do you see in your data?" Um, and then again today because obviously Friday was the last day of October. Um, I to be able to share with them today that we're up and then they're obviously looking at each of their buildings. That's um, it takes time, right? This is, as I've shared with the board, it we can't turn the ship overnight. it it doesn't work like that. And so just being intentional about the work uh the aligning of standards the adoption of curriculum making sure that's aligned having good assessment across again both what's happening in the classroom and then both district I think the state is you all know it's one metric uh it's an important metric but it's one metric
057I think we we pay attention to what's happening in the classroom and our again more of the universal screeners on are we making progress in that and you can see it correlate so that's a good thing >> I'm excited to have Dr. Jackson with us. I think her skills or experience um are really going to help with our moving the district forward um in it in collaboration with we have some very skilled administrators and teachers and classified staff that help with building and improving our district. So, and we're very lucky to have her and her expertise and she's a nice person. So, [laughter] that's good. Double bonds. Yeah. So then it'll be good. >> Right. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. >> Thank you. Superintendent's report. >> So I only have two items. Uh we
058have two policy updates. And again they're more uh just standard updates. One is the budget committee. Um again most of this is housekeeping language. It also clarifies of what we're doing as the budget committee and their role in approving the budget. Um again that's an estimate that comes to the board and as we share with the board to some degree when you would adopt the budget it is an estimate and then we adjust where we need to. We our goal is always to be as close as possible. Um but in these days I think that um again we're we're having to work through some some difficult things and um you know we'll continue to talk about uh budget but again clarified that process um of what we already do in in here in central. So
059again a couple of that is just minor additions to that. You also see um the superintendent policy committee um that's part of the law that was passed. Um if we do have uh an opening in the budget committee uh then um we will solicit one of those members if they would like to be a part of the budget committee because that's part of the law process that that is in that. So that is also in that uh policy update. The second one is the IKF graduation requirements and again this is something that has been coming and to be very honest we have most of it already built at the high school. Uh there are several housekeeping items that needed updating. It also clarifies the social science credit uh specifically the new 0.5 unit of civics
060but again we're we're building that in already. It also clarifies the credits tied to personal finance and career path skills. Again, those we've are in have built or in the process of building. And then it also clarifies just generally in each of the sections because again we have a regular diploma, we have a modified diploma, there are steps tied to that uh to go through. So, it clarifies some of the processes uh through that, including students with an IEP uh because again, that process starts sooner of just potentially identifying if you might need to go on to um just either a different modified or extended diploma. So, there's language in there that just makes it more clear on what those processes what those processes should look like. Um lastly um you'll see there's a clarifying
061demonstration uh bringing back the proficiency of essential skills in reading, writing and applied mathematics. Uh so that language comes back in that was not there during COVID. It was removed um and it will come back in I believe in the 2027 class. So we will we'll continue working on that as we move forward. So again nothing new. It's just update. we're to that point where we just need to update it. Uh this is a first reading, so I if there's any questions, we'll we'll take those. But otherwise, again, just some housekeeping for both of those policies. As Emily said, we're going to bring you probably two to three over the next few months uh moving forward as we um clear clear up a few things from that perspective. >> Questions or discussion on either of
062those policies? All right. you have an update. >> That's it. >> I do not have anything on state and federal. Again, we talked about >> board report for our PLC on November 17th at 5:00 PM meeting at Talmage Middle School. Are they going to do proposed schedule of walkthroughs again? >> Yes, we are working on that. Yes, we are. Um, we talked a little bit about that today. So we will get that information out to you all um both before and after that. So yeah, we will work be sending those to you. >> Excellent. >> What part of Tomage? Where are we going? >> Uh well, you get to walk any if we'll get you days and then you get to go walk >> like for the >> Oh, there we're going to be on
063the library on the I believe it's in the library on the 17th. >> Thank you. >> Yep. And that they'll very similar to what we did with MEES. um they'll share their data and give us some information of what's going on at their building. >> Right. Consent agenda. I will entertain motions to accept to approve the consent agenda unless there's discussion or questions about it. >> I move to approve the consent agenda. Moved by Susan. >> I'll second it. >> Seconded by Jan. All those in favor raise your hand. Five. No opposed. Consent agenda is approved. Nothing on the business agenda. >> Can I add one? I apologize. I should have add one more thing to the November 17th PLC. We are going to bring to you because we do need to talk about curriculum
064adoption. So uh during that PLC uh executive director Hman and Dr. Jackson will be there just walking us through again the high level curriculum process because we do need to walk through that for science and health again. Again I think budgets are going to be a thing but that we're going to have to talk through but we do have to continue that process moving forward. So uh we will give you a again just a quick high level of what that will look like at the 17th. >> Thank you. Nothing on the business agenda. Closing items, board comments. Anybody have anything they'd like to share? >> Quiet bunch tonight. It's awesome. I feel like I already talked too much tonight, but um but when we were talking about the math curriculum, um I got there a
065little late, but Byron and I were in a few classrooms at MEES together, and in one of the classrooms, they were teaching math, and I actually thought it was great. Like the kids seemed really engaged. They're all kind of working on things in diff different ways, but getting there. It's just um if you can squeeze it into your schedule to go when we go to the next school, it's really satisfying to see like the things we talk about here in action. >> Agreed. >> All right, there's no objections. We will adjourn the meeting. Thank you everyone.