MSD Regular School Board Meeting May 18, 2023 Part 1

001this time we're gonna call to order the committee meeting for May 18 2023 at 6 PM Dr oberg the president good evening board of directors School administrators parents members of the McGuffey School Community it's actually hard to believe that we're sitting here towards the end of May High School graduation is just a little over two weeks away so things are definitely progressing here for tonight's agenda I have two items for the committee to consider first members of the McGuffey choir boosters have asked to speak with the board this evening about improvements that are needed for stage lighting in the auditorium I would ask I believe is it Jody Ms Noble um who's a representative McGuffey choir booster to come to the podium to speak on that behalf snowball um yes we wanted the choir boosters

002there's Christy hi everyone Hi apparently parking ever in this spot isn't the fastest way to get here so I apologize um did you introduce him just introduced you right um so good evening everybody my name is Christy Stanek I am here as the vice president of the choir boosters it's in that capacity that I am here representing not only the boosters but the students and the parents of the choir the drama and Highlander Harmony we first want to say thank you for supporting us over the past year we know that you all were very supportive when it came to the musical and that sort of thing we also want to thank you for giving us the chance to come here and talk to you um over the past year our students have represented McGuffey throughout

003the community at various events including but not limited to the Nathan Kennedy ride senior night Relay for Life 911 memorial event in Claysville Veterans Day events homecoming musical around the district music in our district month the district choir which also includes over 50 other school districts County choirs including all 14 school districts here in Washington County they participated in the superintendent conference Memorial Day at Claysville senior Awards baccalaureate graduation and of course the musical that we just had most recently they clearly represent our district very well they're out there in the public they're bringing people here into our district when we have the musical so we have not only parents and family from here but also from other districts we have over 107 160 students representing the middle school and high school choir Highlander Harmony

004and musical drama um you can multiply that 160 by the number of parents the number of family members that that impacts here in the district as someone who was born and raised and grew up in this district and raising my kids here you all know if you're like me that we have family in this District everybody comes they stay right we have grandparents we have cousins we have um so when you when you have one student in choir it's not just one student and their parents in this District it's probably 15 20 or plus family members that they have here in the district so that's how many uh folks were talking about that are impacted by this program after careful assessment over this past year of the program needs we have determined that there are

005a few areas and needs for updates and we'd like to share those with you today first the lighting our lighting is I think over 30 years old um so as you can imagine there are parts that we can't find that are no longer exist because the system is too old as an example we the lighting should be yellow red blue and green however um we're down to yellow and red because we don't have the other colors and we can't purchase them because the system is too old so what we're doing is using a floppy disk if you can imagine that to try to get some system of color when the students are on the stage so that is one area that we would like to discuss also um we need that will include adding an

006additional lighting board onto the stage so that we can update the lighting and have you know all of the different Dynamic vibrant colors that are needed during musicals as well as other events that we have here at McGuffey the next thing is um the backdrop and the curtain so when you have musicals if you I know that many of you have come to our to our musicals you've seen them um the backdrop allows us to really set the stage again keep in mind our community has come into this and other communities are coming to this so when we're sitting when they're sitting there it's not just a reflection of the students and the program it's a reflection of all of our district um and again as someone who's been here for my entire life I

007take pride in what our district looks like and how other people perceive our district I even went to other districts plays this year um because I'm slightly competitive and I wanted to see what other school districts had and I I've always said that in this school district we might be small but we're Mighty and when we all come together we can certainly do anything that these other districts are doing so for example the backdrop that's there now is stained so there are different like brown stains and so even when you have some some lighting on there um the two like the two like colors that we have um it it doesn't look nice because it is stained up so we would like to consider looking at additional curtains and backdrop to make that area look

008nicer for our students uh as you know we don't just use the choir and the choir and the drama are not the only ones that use the um Auditorium so we have uh you know we use the auditorium the middle school we use the auditorium and the high school we use the auditorium for baccalaureate which is going to be coming up we use the auditorium for assemblies for awards uh band concerts um a lot of other students it really is something that affects the entire student body in the middle school and high school not just the choir so our ask for you today is we're here to see if you would consider beginning the process of getting quotes we know this is a big ask to look into these things but we're asking if you

009would just begin looking at quotes we are willing to help you do that we're willing to make phone calls to do that but we would like to start that process and have that so that when the next year rolls around and we're doing you know events like that that um we're representing our district much better than than before um so we would like for you to get quotes on the backdrop get quotes on the lighting um and then have further conversation with us as a board in terms of whether that's something that's doable for our district and doable here for the board what we're willing to offer you we have been working very hard with fundraisers and we've been really saving over the past few years this isn't something we just had a conversation about

010last week and we're coming to you with it this is something we've really been planning for for and trying to bring you um a request that's reasonable so we are willing at this point we believe that we have enough money to offer fifteen thousand dollars to whatever you're able to find um but that money we have this year that money we have right now I am a firm believer that when parents and kids do fundraisers we don't want to have that money sitting for years and years and years I believe that that money needs to be spent on the kids um so we are willing to sort of hold that and see what happens with the quotes and see what happens and what we can work together with you to to make this happen again

011not just for the choir but we're willing to do this for all the students in the district but again I don't want to hold on to that money past the 23-24 school year because I don't think that's ethical for the parents to do um to do that when they've been working so hard I think that money needs to be spent on the kids also um just to show you another and this is actually a quick fix I think one of the things that's hanging is really in my opinion a safety issue that you might want to take a look at I think this is the part one of the speakers um we are not requesting any change in our sound system I think because that was my question I'm like no I'm gonna ask her

012no no no no we think that's fine because I believe that you made those changes right before covid so I think it's an updated system we are going to um we have been looking into microphones but that's something that we can purchase on our own I don't believe we need the board for that because that's a standalone item um but this speaker in particular I'm not sure but you can see it's just sort of things around written up there I think and we have had students say that they're concerned that it's going to fall in their heads correct can answer this fortunately he's here she's a parent she's not age a part of the law we have annual stage reading inspections and that speakers voted up above to structural I love that above the drop

013ceiling yeah that that basically you're you're talking about the big base yeah so because it looks like it's hooked around the ceiling if you look at some of the photos it's not it's not because you're saying it's above it goes up ceiling yes my question Craig is does that speaker even operational oh yeah oh it's a new speaker with the other two on the outside that we put in yeah okay and I didn't stop here and I'll show you the last quote I have for the lighting system okay that's great that's great okay well that's good that helps us because then we can assure the kids that it's bolded Beyond The Wire that they see each other yeah exactly um did you have anything else that you wanted to no that's all so um yeah

014we we did get a couple quotes again um certainly we know that you you're going to want to get your own quotes and I would recommend us getting two or three quotes just to have the the best price um but you can see that the backdrop between the backdrop and um we also need as part of the backdrop it's kind of like a system where you pull it and it lifts up and down and the total for that is is close to fourteen thousand um so that would be one that's that estimate certainly there might be cheaper estimates and we're willing to look into those and Mr Mckee did you say the most recent quote you had for lighting was 2020 yes yeah we talked about this before yeah and that backdrop that you're referring

015to is no more than six well I know five years old the sound system was or the Lighting systems and the sound system were put in in 2002 with the renovation and I can't tell you that we got the biggest bang for our buck with our event no but I was sitting here thinking when I was the advisor for drama club I know that the lighting system was put in new and that was around that time yeah [Music] still old and I don't know that it was a real great but it was closer than we were thinking yeah but you're saying the backdrop is only six years old the backdrop's been replaced since the original was put in in 2002 and it was put in I'm it was put in either the year I retired

016or the year after I retired so it's either six or seven years old the old one was ripped torn right and but they put the new blue one in and yeah but it's not more than five six years old that's what I was going to ask I don't know the answer to that do you know the answer to that and we will certainly look into that um but one of the things that I think we we also we're trying to do to save some money is we've seen other school districts do this where you have um kind of a one white backdrop for examples you'd have it you'd have other ones but one white one and then you can put up a projector that would project the scenery onto the backdrop so that it gives

017you more options depends so you don't have to purchase a new backdrop every single year that there's a different play um and and obviously you know there's multiple scenes throughout a musical um so we have looked into that as well and that would be a cheaper route to go and we're certainly willing to do that but we do need the ability to have the white backdrop screen and then the ability to be able to kind of pull up you know each yeah even curtains in your house I mean you're in your church they they don't last as long I mean they do wear out Mr McKee when I have a meeting next week with uh first contract Ed okay may have machines big enough to actually you know be able to clean that and okay

018and if they're able to clean that then that would be one that we would still need the white one and we would still need the mechanical ability to pull up and down so if I were to ask you to prioritize your request I I eliminated one tonight this is I'm just asking yeah budgets or concerns yeah it's what I would prefer is if we could start getting the quotes and it sounds like we're we're on our way I didn't realize that you had one from 2020 that we might just be able to update okay that they put them down a lot of stuff yeah but at the same time if our newest quote is 2020 I mean I don't think it's not going to be too far wrong with getting a new one yeah absolutely

019but I would imagine it's going to be more than it was in 2020. well let's see right yeah so as far as far as the board's concerned unless I have anybody from the board who has a problem with it um I don't think there's anything wrong with asking Mr McKee to look at getting quotes on the lighting with additional lighting board on stage in the backdrop in the curtain and then we can have a conversation does that work for everybody and then if depending on where I know I think we can certainly look at is there other fundraising we can do if you guys are like here's our limit is there you know but I think exactly like if we could just get the quotes begin the conversation and see where we can go with

020it this is the year we will be able to help you guys and we want to be we want to be able to do that and contribute right if we could see some of the quotes from 2020 it'd be helpful so we'd know about what we're looking at but I'm sure it's a lot more I mean nothing that nothing that's complicated well I would think that your 2020 quotes are going to be outdated I don't know that it's worth really spending time looking at because I can imagine they're going to be more I can tell you right now and Craig correct me if I'm wrong but we're north of six figures yeah yeah you've got yeah but regardless is the motors in the light there's I don't know how many six or eight lights up

021there in the front that have a motorized gel Rod that they could change with the light board up here those a lot of those Motors are gone you can't get parts for them yeah let me pay about those two they're uh the company that used to making one out of business they're in their company and they Nebraska that bought all of their inventory that I've spoken to both companies I have a list of parts I need for those it's the it's the color screens that she's talking about that right moving back and forth kind of thing um the company that borrowed Parts said okay give us six months a month we'll get it all inventory we'll get it there so when I call it back I need you know two different kind of belts and

022it's just not there so you know now for color change you really you'd have to upgrade it to the color changing the other needs so again I think at this point if we could just ask Mr McKee to look at getting some new quotes in those areas and then we'll have further discussion from there work for everybody thank you ladies thank you thank you very much thank you appreciate all your hard work and all you do thank you thank you okay the second item tonight several years ago in mid pandemic I'd mind everyone as I was conducting my very first needs assessment superintendent other districts we realized I realized rather quickly in conversations with teachers administrators um if the district was in need of a complete revamp of our curriculum and resources to support the

023instructional needs at McGuffey the first step uh was and it was done by the sport to hire an individual to take the lead of overseeing really such an important large project and and I believe um to this day we hit it out of the ballpark with the hiring of Dr Dan gautrin as our director of curriculum instruction after that and we started putting things in place um we then said we do not have a curriculum cycle a way to look at curriculum in a consistent manner so we adopted a six-year curriculum cycle and this kickstarted a consistency and what we're doing today as far as reviewing adjusting looking at our curriculum looking at our core resources and adopting textbooks to support those the first area of course that we addressed last year was our math

024curriculum and really either one of them could have gone first it was just that type of a dire situation but we chose to in the last school year to look at core resources for the next six years and last year we adopted that math resource which is being used in this school year 2022 2023 school year uh next to our attention of course is now on English language arts Ela um and it goes out saying that in both cases in both reviews we've had tremendous tremendous support hard work and effort that's been put in by our teaching staff at all grade levels because it's it's more than just looking at the adoption of a new resource which again as I said in in those two cases and certainly soon with science can be the same

025we're sorely needed but there was a combined conservative effort by our teachers buyer administrators allowing our teachers to make time to meet with Dr Doctrine to meet as groups meet in smaller groups per building but also as a whole and from that tonight you're going to have a presentation that is asking the board to consider for the June board meeting the adoption of a new core resource for ELA and with that we actually have one of our representatives from the teaching staff that's Miss Natalie Hewitt Mali is a first grade teacher here at Joe Walker and of course uh to present with her is Dr Dan gotcher director of curriculum instructions so we're both coming to the podium to present thanks guys awesome thank you good evening guys good evening good day good to be

026here and it's finally nice out again we finally got some baseball games in and hopefully getting another one in tomorrow night so appreciate the baseball schedulers for not having one tonight because I'd had to miss it so um we will go ahead and Jump Right In for the sake of getting to it so Mr Wilson if you would take us on to the first couple slides there before we started and obviously Mrs Hewitt is here and has uh been the brave volunteer to come and speak as the uh the ELA team teacher representative for the day but we did have a a big number of teachers and um in Personnel in the district that were part of the process and so before we kind of go into the work the team did the conclusions we

027came to the um the decisions that we are recommending I wanted to First just acknowledge all of the people who participated in some Fashion on the team and so the way we did it just because of challenges with subs and coverage and everybody's schedules was that um we selected the initial team which is everyone you see here on the screen and then um we had an email group so that any information any Communications about where things were going all the shared agendas the meeting notes were shared through that uh group on our email but then depending who was available and who the principals could cover and um Mr Wolf and Miss Flack especially they uh did an incredible job of finding ways to have their teachers be available to participate um and so we did

028not necessarily have all of these people at every meeting but we had a good representative of this group at each meeting each time we discuss anything and then they would go back and share with the rest of their colleagues including teachers who were not even listed on the team because as Mrs Hewitt's going to talk about in a little bit every teacher involved with English language arts had a chance to to seek one of these guys out and give them feedback talk to them about what they what they wanted to see what they feel was needed in the district but I wanted to just take a minute to recognize this group specifically these are kind of all the people who volunteered throughout the course of the past year to give their time whether it was

029attending meetings communicating via email stuff like that and so this was our team we had I think there's nine elementary teachers seven secondary teachers for interventionists or Specialists we had two of our reading Specialists and then our two School psychologists on there to to represent needs for intervention and assessment and then of course our building administrators and some of our our district team on the academic side so with that introduction in Mrs Hewitt is actually going to take the first section here so I'll hand it off to her and before I get started I'd just like to thank all the administration for giving us the opportunity to meet that's not an easy task and um so we all really appreciate that you gave us those times and opportunities to meet and collaborate together um our

030priorities and goals for the ELA team um sorry I don't know I understand all right so we first investigated best practices for teaching and learning we deepened our understanding of the science of reading we evaluated current resources that we are using in our district we determined resources that were needed for adoption and we developed Ela curriculum and assessments by the way thank you for the handle because I I know that definitely helps when you're all the way up here and the screen's all the way back there so um I wanted just for a minute and we're kind of kind of tag team some of this so Mrs Hewitt knows at any point to just move up push me out of the way and she has something to say because I told her I'll I'll stand

031up here all night um but she's she used to cut me off yeah um but so before we get too much further into it um she mentioned that we kind of inventoried and investigated our current resources and so what what you see on this slide here is um what we're currently using in the district at each grade and program level and and then next to it is uh the date of adoption the date that that resource was brought into the district and so uh the first one you see that per K to five it is a human product the journeys series which is the the previous Journey series it was pretty widely adopted I think in a lot of school districts it came to McGuffey in 2015 for the 15 16 school year I believe

032and um I'm not sure exactly the length of that initial commitment how many years the term was that I know at least since the year I was at Joe Walker we've been on kind of a year-to-year basis that each year the principals kind of work with the Houghton Mifflin rep to say please renew our Journeys for one more year the the platform the online platform that um they're currently on that's think central Hewitt Mifflin has actually migrated to Ed which is a newer platform and so think central still exists our teachers are still on there this year but so all that to say that 2015 was not all that long ago in the grand scheme of things especially compared to a couple of these but it was a while ago in the sense that a

033lot has changed in eight years including the the platform itself and so even if we were to choose to do nothing from a resource standpoint we would we'd still then have to continue that year-to-year punting of the of the journeys resource because we're we're no longer under any kind of contract or commitment uh Beyond a year-to-year basis if they're going to continue to correct keep that platform correct yes and and they um promote from what they've shared with me it like they won't shut it down but things like hyperlinks have stopped working you click on something that's supposed to be a resource that no longer goes anywhere but yeah there's no it's definitely no longer supported because they've now moved everything to to their updated series and just jumping in with what Dan is saying

034so we're unable to provide these resources that we once had available for other other things that we're finding it's really hard when things aren't working especially online and are readily available um for the middle school so the sixth grade they're the lucky ones um they they want to EMC mirrors and windows for their reading side of it and then connecting with literature um in 2008 I talked to Mrs McNally as the middle school English chair and she said that 2008 was when the sixth grade texts were brought into the district um for seventh and eighth grade it was actually a couple years even before that that in in 2006 um the seventh and eighth grade brought on elements of language elements of literature Mr bonus mentioned to me remembering being the Middle School principal when

035they were doing that and just for a little bit of perspective I told Dr oberg this so a teacher in our Middle School could have been this could be their 18th year in the district and all 18 years of it would have been under the same resource series and if memory serves because I was here prior to break the prior to that we actually had elements of literature elements of language this was just an updated version of they had been using it like updated copyright or something sure that makes sense and um and I do want to stress too throughout this and Dr erburg stressed this at the beginning the resource is just one part of it right we aren't going to to stand here and say you know if if we do this for

036the resource everything gets better just from that right I mean there are improvements that will come just from having a a more current resource but we certainly also don't want to overstate um that resources everything but resource is certainly part of it um nine through 12 they actually and this was fortuitous for them right before covid they moved to actively learn um prior to that they've been using I believe the high school version of the same series that the middle school is using but they they chose in 2019 to go to a fully online actively learned platform which has all basically all the texts all of the literature that they need um is on hosted online through the actively learned platform and so they they adopted that fairly recently and when we get to the

037recommendations part you'll see that that is the one area we're actually not recommending any changes on that the high school team was was unified that they they feel you know they've had a couple years to get used to it um it's current it's still serving their needs but so that is the one resource that you can see is has been refreshed uh relatively recently um for AP language they've been using AP Li that current AP Language and Composition tax since 2014 and talking to Mrs North who teaches the AP language they actually revise the AP language exam in 2020 and so the the this tax was tailored to support the previous version of the exam in addition to being about a decade old and so then for AP Literature you can see that that's even

038um predates the AP language that that came here in 2008 as well and again that was just an update because I taught that same book perfect same book same book it was just updated yep and uh Mr Macbeth's uh shared that that exam was also updated I think in 2019 he said so both both texts are now based off of a previous AP structure or previous AP exam so just a little bit of where we've been um but let's talk about where we want to go so this is the Wilson you'll go there yeah go ahead something just quick question 9 through 12. you said it's all online no textbooks correct it's the for the for the 9 through 12 core it is all online all computer-based yep all the all the texts all the

039literature are online um the AP would have we'll talk about that but that will have a print book but for the the other core classes it would all be on actively learned but my understanding is it's like they can access it without the internet correct but I believe they can yes I believe their computer they don't have to have internet access yes that they can connect at school they can download text onto their Chromebook and then use it without the internet at home correct yeah yes I don't think they could go on like the actively learned platform at home but they could yeah they could get the content if it's previously downloaded while they're online correct um so in the midst of all of this because again it's not just the resources right it's the

040way we instruct it's the way we focus on learning um you guys have probably heard some of the chatter with with science of reading in the past year or two and not being kind of a rightfully so a very big emphasis um both in Pennsylvania and kind of around the country in terms of literature instruction teaching of reading and so what that is and if you hear the term structured literacy which is what Pennsylvania is kind of using in reference to science reading that they're very similar in terms of what they're referring to which is um that systematic uh explicit structure of teaching how to read particularly at those primary grade levels when kids are first learning to read first developing as Learners um what it looks like and there's going to be a graphic

041on the next slide that we'll share in a minute um but in terms of requirements and again I I think this is best practice regardless of requirements but we are beginning next school year we'll be required to have this as part of our ongoing professional development plan um so PA act 55 uh impacted the chapter 49 certification requirements that actually all the ad prep programs in Pennsylvania will be including structured illiteracy as part of the program for really most certification areas technically it's like anyone whose certificate is Elementary or middle level English or special education but because so many people that's like many certificates and even if you're like teaching out of a in a different certification area but you hold that's one of those certificates it still applies to you so even some people

042who are teaching science or teaching math if they hold a relevant certificate they would still be as part of the requirement for training so for our purposes we are are proceeding with almost all staff in the district needing to to get on on board and up to speed with that particular um science of reading professional development and so Mr Wilson if you'll go to the the Scarborough's rope graphic and just we have the journeys and looking at the dates on these other series that um have been shown by the other gray bubbles it doesn't necessarily uh go along with the signs of so it's more of a balanced literature literacy approach which is which is touching more upon each area of reading where the science of reading really focuses on Five Pillars starting with phonemic

043awareness in kindergarten first phonics fluency vocabulary and then comprehension so it's building on each one of those pillars so right now that's not like the system the series that we have does not really go with that idea behind the science of reading and then um great job the so what uh Mrs Hewitt is sharing there is exactly what is is being Illustrated there with Scarborough's wrote and this was something that when we last summer first started talking about what is structured literacy what is the science of reading what does it mean for us um a few team members kind of shared this this graphic that that uh really illustrates it and I know it's a little hard to see the words but it shows those bottom strands right site recognition the decoding the phonics the

044phonological awareness those kind of foundational skills of how to take what take sounds in letters and words and turn them into something that is more than just random sounds letters and words and and being able to understand how to look at a text and what what is on it in front of you um in that on the top half of the Rope you see kind of those more what we would call reading skills right because they're all reading skills but but the kind of the skills they that you would see starting to develop in third grade and Beyond where they start comprehending what they're reading where they start being able to have a better fluency in terms of the rate that they read the way they retain things and so the idea of the Rope

045is that all of those are individual skills individual emphasis is that then weave together to create skilled reading and so that the idea of structured literacy or of science the science of reading concept is really hammer on those foundational phonics phonemic awareness decoding skills from kindergarten to second grade so that they are then woven together strongly and then when kids flip that switch and they start to comprehend what they're reading they will be doing so with a strong Foundation from that blue part of the Rope so that as the red parts of the Rope come down and mess with it you have a you know a strong skilled reader as a result so that's again just kind of talking a little bit about the the now the best practice the the science behind how children

046learn to read and it's fascinating to me because I I truly don't remember how I learned to read I remember Letter People I remember teachers that you know miraculously got me from one grade to the next um but I just step back and think about the individual skills the individual things that go into learning to read and you know watching my children go through that process as I'm learning about it professionally is is pretty fascinating but um Mrs Hewitt's got the next little bit here so we'll switch again so this was a year of figuring things out on how we can get to the point we are now so in September we started with 18 potential resource options November we met again and narrowed it down to five in December we received sample materials in

047the mail that we were actually able to get our hands on look at talk to our colleagues about um after that we narrowed it down to three in January in February we had our final presentation or our final presenters so those three our top three came and actually talked to us about their series and we were able to ask questions and kind of dig a little bit deeper into uh what they were offering and if it would fit the ones and needs of our students um and then in March we narrowed it down to one preferred core program which we'll talk about here in a little bit um in April we started to talk about supplemental and intervention options uh beginning in December uh 2022 we had the input opportunity extended to all elementary teachers

048and all secondary ELA teachers so we were able to collaborate with our colleagues um and we were actually able to like look at the material look at the online components and kind of decide uh you know what we what we liked for our students what we didn't like for our students and I think that really helped opening it up to everyone so everyone was able to kind of you know give their input and have a voice in what we were trying what we're trying to accomplish and try to figure out if it's going to best help the needs of our students um teachers and I'm just saying this again but I'll read it teachers have the opportunity to access the resources and share feedback with CTO a team members and we we took that back

049their input and discussed what to do from there so a couple other things that went into kind of the review process um beyond our team meetings Beyond those conversations um I have had the opportunity to go and participate with the other curriculum directors or districts that the person in their curriculum role so sometimes it's uh it's somebody in a central office role a few of them are represented by building principles most of the districts it's someone in a curriculum role um but we get together either virtually or in person each month and uh meet with Ron Gallagher who's the curriculum specialist director for the Intermediate Unit and the first thing he does each meeting is he has open discussion time and we can just throw anything out there we want and so the first couple

050especially the first couple of months September October November when we were really investigating I threw out to the other IU districts and just talked to some of the other curriculum people some of the other districts about what they're doing what they're using um one thing I was reassured by is all of them were having the same issues with getting stuff shipped to them before the start of the school year so that made me feel better about a few things for math that were were past the start of the school year that that was seemed to be a cross-publishers across districts but so really just talking to them and hearing what are they doing what's working for them what's recommended we also are in consultation with Patton West I'm not sure how familiar everyone is with

051them but they are the Pennsylvania training and technical assistance Network and so we'll we'll pause exactly what we're doing with them for right now because later towards the end there is a um a specific slide about how we're working with Pat and how we hope to continue working with them but we did consult with them about some of the science of reading and some of the resources that we were considering and we also we crowdsourced as a team we did a Google doc and I asked all the team members I said whatever questions you have for the three finalists with a Google doc for each one and they through any and every question they had in there and then we asked each publisher to respond to that list of questions so that way we could

052gain as much information as much response as we could while we were in that looking phase because that's when Publishers are going to give you the most information right once you once you tell them hey we want to give you our money they're still kind right they're still happy but they they are not trying necessarily as hard in some cases to really tell you what uh what their program is about and so we did that and we also along with the questions we had each of the finalist Publishers I sent them one of those pyramids like is on the beginning of the slide every slideshow I ever do and how dumb I said please within the resources and products we would be receiving fill in where each of them would fit on each part of

053the pyramid because it was very important to us to be intentional about you know tier one for all students tier two three for for support and intervention um and so we will now move into where did we land from a resource standpoint what would we like to do um so for anyone who wasn't already looking ahead in the pages that you already spoiled the surprise but that's okay um we for elementary K to five we did feel as a team that continuing with Houghton Mifflin was the recommended option for the elementary K to five but moving from Journeys to the interreading platform which is the new the the uh the newer hmh product it has some more things incorporated into it with science of reading it's on the Ed platform which is updated um and

054so you can see there what Elementary classrooms and teachers would be getting in terms of access uh there will be the the printed student Edition for each student and that um Blake similar what we did with math that would be on a consumable license so that each year as part of the initial purchase we are committing to six years of renewable subscription so that each year they will actually get their own consumable English book that they can write in that they can do that and so there's actually a couple student books one is the actual student edition book with like the stories with the literature and they also will all be getting kind of like a consumable practice book that has more of like the grammar side and the the writing type stuff so they'll

055all be getting that they all also will have uh the digital access and the online access and similar to the math that the the actual content on there my understanding is that it should work whether they're online or not with the exception of the waggle platform similar to Alex or or the red bird that we have for the math waggle would be our online personalized learning it's the it's the hmh product that goes along with their programs with their series um and then the last thing that in that is it's for tier two so we we have an initial subscription of 20 read and respond journals for each grade one through five and those are actually movable so at the end of year one we realize okay we ended up having to use all 21st

056grade ones but we didn't use any third grade ones for whatever reason we cannot adjust the numbers per grade level each year of the subscription as long as we were to remain within that initial subscription of 80 and I especially for the K5 I want Mrs Hewitt to chime in because that is her that is her space so uh yeah so after discussing the into reading with the ELA team we realized some very important points that I want to share so first off is offering Unity for all of our students K to five but we're actually in uh Dr Gotham we'll talk about this in a minute hopefully recommended the uh what is into literature for grades six to eight which is the same company so we will potentially have Unity for grades k through

057eight which I think is very important this is going to allow common language common teaching practices common strategies common resources common assessments um it has a scope and sequence that will flow from one grade to the next so that students can build upon their learning it has spiral reviews Series so that ideas are continuously practiced it follows the common core standards it has direct instruction leveled readers Center activities and a writing and grammar component there is more of an emphasis on phonemic awareness and phonics in grades K through two which follows the science of reading I also we also like the feature of um the textbook is a read and respond textbook so students will be able to highlight and interact right there with the text which I think is super important and it adds

058some benefits to learning and encouraging that love for reading so I think that is you know all of the highlights of the interview reading for grades K to two I mean I really think it's going to help bring that Unity uh that we that we need for our students and as as Mrs Hewitt started to share um for six through eight uh we are also going with the Houghton Mifflin into literature is what they ship to for secondary and they actually so because the different schools have different models into reading does go to sixth and then into literature starts with six so that if you're a k-6 alimentary model you could potentially do sixth grade into reading if you're a secondary model like we have you could start sixth grade within the literature um for

059our purposes it definitely makes more sense to keep sixth grade with the rest of the middle school because that's that's what they are they're in a middle school building but so what that will get for them they all will have that same waggle access so for K we will have a student license for waggle for every kid and kid eight uh would be the the recommended plan and the same thing that it will be a a consumable subscription so they'll have both the consumable reading book and also the consumable gram book that has practice worksheets problems things like that and then both of those would be sent on a a renewable basis each year along with that online student Edition and the the online student Edition has some assessment components as well it has um

060the the it's they're calling it a growth and Mastery assessment where you can kind of see how kids are progressing we're gonna uh we would investigate that as part of our assessment plan and determine um exactly how we want to use it if that could become our regular Benchmark option um and and so on once we start getting more familiar with all the features but um that would be the the middle school program would be for into literature and then oh God and talk more about the waggle which is the online component and I really like this a lot because it provides adaptive personalized individual practice in the areas of ela for all grades K to H it's animated it's engaging it's games there's an avatar which is like the in thing right now for

061children if you don't know teachers can also assign things to web to waggle so if you have an assignment that you want them to complete they'll be able to view it um they can access these materials home um another feature that the team really liked uh was the online assessment assessment so students are reading you know their story for the week and it's time to assess their knowledge um the future you all really liked was that students can take the online test and it'll break it apart by standard so that the teacher is able to see the students who have mastered certain standards students who still need Improvement so it's it's it's letting the teacher have data driven decisions to make choices for their classroom and how they want to instruct their teaching further so

062I feel like that's really important especially you know I know a lot of teachers would like to use the online assessment sound we've kind of moved in that in that way and that is definitely a great tool for for everyone so I want you to keep that in mind that we will be able to take a test online we'll be able to look and see which standards you know students are achieving and where we need to keep working so they'll be taking a hold of their tests online they could just depending on how the teacher would would want to to do that so because that's the same um Journeys was this had the same capability you don't the the opportunity was there but you don't have to use that you can pick and choose how

063you want to do that and that was one of the questions I had when you're looking at this waggle is one component which is which is more digitalized but they also are going to have like your consumables those are they're working on those with by hand so it's kind of a blend of the two right but not all of their tests would necessarily have to be no absolutely not it's just we they would have teachers would have that ability and access um you know depending on the students wants and needs like at a first grade level I don't know that it you know just because of their technology use I don't know that it would necessarily be appropriate especially you know the first week of school right um but in the higher grades you know

064they're used to that technology and they know how to use it and and you know the teacher knows best for their students and whether they would be able to to take that assessment that way or not and we would still have you know the people paper pencil version as well so if some students are able to you know do the online they could do that or you know students are better taking paper pencil they would also have that option but it still allows for a variety and I know when I've taught from Journeys in the past K through six um we really did use them per student not necessarily per class so if you had some students who did better with paper pencil than we used that if you had some students who were more

065Adept at the at the computer at computerized quiz you could use that it really is it allows for the teacher to be flexible per student yeah yeah and we've even I've even heard teachers talk about especially kindergarten or first grade the students might take the assessment on paper and then the teacher will transfer the responses online so that they can still get the the reporting and the data about the student performance but um that's really the only difference between the online and paper assessment is just if it's not online you don't have the same reporting capabilities um that that you would but they they all have paper copies available for sure so so in the pages are they able to break down the data like they are on online we would have to probably plug

066them in I'm not 100 on on that we probably have to put that take their test and get that information into the computer but we would also too if it's like on a each question is broken down we could also do some type of like tally system too we could just go through with the paper copies and Mark two you know which standards are being picked what are not so we also have flexibility in that too I know in the journeys you actually we actually had um like consumable paper copies of tally sheets and um skills sheets but quite frankly it was just easier to input the quizzes and have the computer do it right then to send it the man hours to sit right and do that all of that and that's what I

067would say that it certainly could be done on the paper exams because you know which standards and which areas you know you know if it's a assessing poetry or if it's assessing fiction literature or what have you um but the the online just makes it more more efficient easier to look at in in a batch mode but certainly could be done on paper could be done by hand it was for many many years right I mean that's how teachers for for many generations had to do it so um you know upgrading technology that you know that's allowing us to make more data-driven decisions um for our students do we have a test or something so that we know what technology level of students at so that we can have them do it oh like a

068like a technology literacy kind of um not anything that I I'm looking at Mr Wilson I think it's just kind of the teacher's assessment with the student I don't know if there's something that's out there that we could potentially do with them but is there some of the textbooks even big paper textbooks have a diagnostic test at the beginning English ones a diagnostic test to see what level they're at is this a component that's in this or I think that there possibly is a diagnostic I think that we there's potential that we would like look at something like that to possibly replace because right now they do like the um they do the store assessment at the start of the year they do the easy CBM Benchmark at the start of the Year both of

069those give kind of a Baseline and that's what they use for like um Title One eligibility intervention selection um and so that the growth measure assessment within into reading could certainly either go alongside those or replace one of them potentially um I always and and you'll see at the very end one of our next steps is to evaluate our assessment plan and practices because you don't necessarily want to have five different assessments that tell you the same thing but also you don't want to say oh I we have no assessment that tells us this so I think that would be that would be something that we would look at as we get into the use of the the series and say hey how does this growth measure work like does the beginning of your growth

070measure tell us everything we need in terms of Readiness for this grade and what they need for intervention could we be potentially eliminate some of the other assessments that we're doing and unify as much as possible under that umbrella so to be clear I think what Mr um pleasure was asking and you correct me if I'm wrong is not diagnostic for reading skills but diagnosis and I will say because this is one of my issues with Renaissance specifically star assessment I don't I've always said I've been an administrator on that program I've used it I've got it for instructional support as well as regular classroom I've used it I question the legitimacy of the results for Star reading specifically K through three because it's all computerized and if you have it and at times right

071so they're working on their on question number one and if they're fumbling with the computer and trying to get the mouse to work or what because they don't have much experience that question times out they've missed that and then they go forward so it really becomes more a test of their computer skills than it does their the reading level so I understand that question and I think that's what you were asking yeah no I think that's a I think that's very valid and I know even for for kindergarten for that reason they don't start with the star assessment currently until second one for first grade right yeah we start Miss Stars Stars winter time for do they have a technology class yes Elementary has a computer's rotation and they they do work on computer and

072Technology skills but it's it's one day a week it's part of their specials rotation in elementary and do we have a system that tells us the ones that are capable of doing it and the ones that aren't and how we help the ones that aren't or I I don't think there's a specific like technology Readiness assessment that currently is in use in the district it's it's something we could probably look into do you think I feel like just I mean they're exposed to the technology exactly on a daily regular basis especially since we established even just like the logging in procedure has gotten better um with clever and so students are able to basically leave their Chromebook on and lift the lid and then they have access to the clever websites which in grades K

073and one have been a very nice um asset to teaching because they know you know to click here they they know the steps on how to get on so as far as like a k and one um you know using the technology I mean in some instances if students might be able to do it and in some they might need a small group where they need the paper but that's really more teacher like I can say when I've been in that situation it's really about what you as a teacher are able to observe and you're working with the kids so you know which kids are struggling with that and which students aren't and which student correct ones are not yeah and I in that situation you know I pull a small group and I'm you

074know overseeing a little bit more and a lot of times when we're giving those type of Assessments we have the option to maybe bring in some other support whether it be a para or a special education teacher um to come in and kind of help Monitor and facilitate when we're giving those kind of Assessments in grades okay and and one and sometimes even two and higher up you know just depending on the needs of the class really but I feel like you know since the pandemic and and even before that you know technology and Chromebooks were being used on a daily basis in our classroom so um and you know who they are and you can even see like when you get the results sometimes you can look at the students results and go yeah

075he didn't really read those questions but that's hard to to express to people to translate how that works but you do know your students and you're able to to pinpoint where the problems are and you can always retest if you need to or anything like that yeah I just want to make sure that our students have the ability to learn how to read even if they don't know how to use the technology correct yeah absolutely I I have a lot of faith in our our teachers at all levels that if there's a kid who just is clearly struggling with the technology um we're not going to to sit there and allow that to stop them from from learning to read their you know there are certainly ways that we could help them offline learn to

076read and develop those literacy skills while then also helping to build their technology skills because digital literacy is a whole it's a whole different type of literacy right that it's it's its own skill set in and of itself um and that's why you have a nice consumable reading books right and you have your consumable workbooks and so there's what you're talking about you're here too and I use those a lot specifically for intervention yeah and I really like the textbook because it's you can write right in it so I feel like those students where things are a little bit harder it's right there they're not flipping to get a sheet of paper or a whiteboard to help write the answer down they can pick up their pencil and write it right there or if you're

077practicing decoding skills with them you can actually write in the book and show them how to do it and then have them practice it too yeah so as an example I really like those the text of things that's been suitable and the kids can break right in there I can just share a brief experience which is at 59 years old going to college trying to do math online without a textbook was almost impossible for me um and it was because of the technology it wasn't math so I want to make sure that the reading would be the same for the schools we helped Bridge those gaps for our students and I think you know having the textbook and the online component will really help uh you know help with those those needs I'm sure we

078have the most awesome teachers at McGuffey that they'll figure it out as long as we provide the resources actually to to the credit of the of the last thing on that topic one of the options when we were looking at the things we needed versus things that were maybe a luxury for to cut cost one of the things that the teacher team fought to keep was the um the additional practice book The know it show it bulk because they looked at some of the pages that were in there and they said hey like this isn't like uh yes it might save you know this this much per grade level over the six years but what we're losing versus what we're saving like they they were they spoke up and said that that was a priority

079to them to keep um so let's move on to high school um and we kind of already talked about high school that they uh they would plan to continue with their existing actively learned subscription um and that subscription covers all of the core Ela or not Eli in high school all of the core English classes for grades nine through twelve and so they would all be supported and have access to that actively learned platform that also actually is through collaborate as well so really all of our major program programs are now being rostered and single sign-ons through the clever program which is much better for high school as much as it is for first grade because high schoolers forget their passwords just as easily as a kindergartner does and so the the main thing to

080note in terms of actively Lauren is that um the students and teachers would all have access to those digital assessments the digital resources all of the texts the teachers can assign specific tax on the the high school teachers really from the beginning of this search they they were in favor of it to the point that some of them kind of looked at me like why would we why would we review available resources this one's working for us I said okay I said as long as you guys are are thinking it's working and feel that it's the best resource for your students and then lastly so actively learned is its own platform but it is now owned or was acquired at some point by McGraw-Hill so it's um which actually is kind of beneficial since our

081math is under McGraw-Hill it kind of got us under the same umbrella for both products um but because it's a subscription you don't worry about like your material getting outdated because it's correct yeah so for theirs it's a it's all online and they they update the website you know with any changes yes so we don't have to worry about the the paper content or stuff getting outdated um unless they were to stop maintaining the platform at some point but I don't I don't think that's in the cards anytime soon I think it's it's a pretty robust platform I think McGraw-Hill wouldn't have bought it if they didn't see a way to make money from it so um but yes it's since it's all online the the paper portion of it is is not something we

082need to worry about maintaining um for AP uh they both actually ended up coming to the same conclusion which was the textbook offered from Perfection learning and so what they would both be getting an AP language typically has a little bit higher enrollment than AP Literature so that's the only difference and when you see there's a slight cost difference that's because of the number of copies and number of online licenses for each course we we plan for more for language than literature just because that's how Mr Brown has said their enrollment typically works the teachers agreed on those numbers but um they would be getting both print textbooks these are not consumable these are you know hard or well soft cover but they are non-consumable non- not replaced each year they would just be the

083same copies but then the students would also all have a online digital license and that's where they can do the annotating and some of the highlighting and stuff like that so they even though it's not a consumable text they still can do those important skills on the um the digital version of it um so that's our last kind of core program that we're going to be talking about a couple of intervention items this was really an important priority of our reading Specialists and our special education Representatives that they wanted to see us improve what we were doing in terms of helping students who were struggling to to make progress and and so there are there are various facets of this right when you look at that science of reading with the Rope you have kids

084who might be struggling with the dupontics you know they've been struggling with the decoding they might be struggling with the actual comprehension and so depending on the specific area they're struggling in uh is where there's then a need for several different options in the toolkit of the reading Specialists especially at k25 and so they've they've had tools at their disposal I don't I don't want to paint it that they've had no intervention options available to them but one of the things they identified was that um Sunday systems one and two and and they both are for phonics and decoding uh it's just that system one is for kids who are a certain place in terms of their progress system two is for kids who are at a different place in their journey and so what

085what we would be recommending would be that the district would bring Sunday systems one and Sunday systems to um into use for specifically for intervention so this would be a pull-out type model intervention for grades K to eight and basically the way we we mapped it out from a budget standpoint was that we would get six sets or six teacher kits for system one and six for system two and those would then be spread out between Claysville Joe Walker and the middle school and then they would be available for use and those are just teacher resources because then they use that resource the student materials are included in it but they they use that resource to deliver the intervention to to students who would need it and so I know you wanted to jump in

086on this as well so so um you know we talked about this a lot wanting to get an intervention core tier two and two tier three students specifically in the area upon its congruency um so this hit those those items that we were needing and wanting so it follows the science of reading it is a systematic and explicit um direct instruction to teaching for small groups in the areas again in phonics and fluency there is a placement test that students take and then it kind of levels where they are and then you can build upon that and there are systems for one and two so depending on where the student would place would depend on you know again where they would start once the teacher starts teaching the lessons there is an assessment every three

087lessons and that allows the teacher to know whether we need to stop and reteach or whether the student has so I really think this is important for your tier two and tier three again they have resources available to them but I feel like we need something that is Unified uh for Joe Walker and Placebo specifically in the area of phonics and fluency and in a couple slides you'll see a triangle that we're going to talk about and if we pull this out then we lose we don't have anything for chronic influence so I feel like this is really important so we're not using this currently anywhere in our district um I think some of the teachers are using this um I thought there were some so so Angela Shoppe brought some from like a when

088she came here she had one that's been photocopied and you so so there are yeah especially at Claysville there are some students who are doing Sunday this is this is more so to just make sure that it's a horrible part of our plan yeah exactly Natalie had asked is six intervention kits enough I think we calculated that for the number of reading Specialists and learning support teachers we currently have at this time in our buildings yeah so the the idea of that there are four reading specialists in the elementary and so the idea would be that each of those Specialists would get one kit um and then the uh the final two kids would be for the middle school was the way I would see it and that they would be able to have so

089there'd be three kids at Claysville one kid at Joe Walker two kids at the Middle School uh would be the the way that broke down and I I think that that uh will be sufficient if we were to determine that we need more kids or that that's not enough for the teachers providing that intervention we certainly could could look to add to that but that was the way we came to six was to make sure that each teacher had their own kit to use and from the kids they make the copies that they yeah and you could reorder just the student consumable materials it's like I don't know exactly the cost but it's something that they could put within their building budget each year hey I used up all my students Sunday kids I need

090to do a requisition to the building principal to to get those but the bulk of the expense that we want to take care of is the actual teacher delivery kit yeah and this wouldn't be for every student this is going to be for our tier two and tier three students so we wouldn't even if we had to buy a new consumable we're not buying for a whole positive one but it's a smaller amount that we would need I guess my question is then if we have one for each of our intervention specialists have any left over for our regular teachers if they want to use one so be because of the type of program it is any kids who are participating in the Sunday program it would be with an interventionist they would actually come

091out of the classroom for like that's why it's considered a tier or two or three intervention that for like the last 30 40 minutes of the ELA block they would go with the interventionist in and complete it as a small group with that specialist so that's that's the reason not to have them for the classroom teachers is it wouldn't be a classroom delivery right and so that at that time your regular classroom teacher can continue on for the students who aren't struggling and continue to move them forward in the regular classroom so you're pulling those students that really need that extra extra support and I we really like this system because it gives explicit systematic direct instruction reading isn't really important yeah would it be a benefit for the average teacher to have one also

092with our recommendation for the um into reading I don't know that it would necessarily state for what you were every teacher in the classroom is going to be doing all right thank you and I can tell you having taught English in the regular classroom you don't have time that's why their students are cold because you you can't be everything to all of them yeah absolutely and so one more intervention to talk about um so with the Houghton Mifflin purchase actually and this this was something I did not know I had previously worked when I was in West Virginia we had we had utilized breed 180 when it was a Scholastic product um it has since been acquired by Houghton Mifflin and so as part of our bundle with the inter-reading into literature um we were

093able to also um include read 180 licenses um now when you look at that and you see the 20 initial licenses um that is not a big number right that's for grades and that's to support grades three through twelve um and so the idea would be that that would be for a tart specific targeted group of kids that are specifically working on reading comprehension so if they are struggling with the phonics with the decoding read 180 actually wouldn't benefit them because if you don't have the decoding skills you're not going going to be able to succeed on an intervention designed for comprehension and so we certainly would love to and we'll look at additional read 180 licenses from a cost standpoint even with the the kind of bundle and the discount for for it being

094part of the the package with the other hmh products you're looking at around 600 per license for the six years um the the base price is actually like 811 or something like that so that was the reason that we started with 20 we're going to see as we get into the year I know I've already started looking into possible funding or grants so that if we determine that we have more than 20 students who could really benefit from the read 180 program that we would be able to to secure those additional licenses but this was kind of a jumping off point we didn't want to not have a comprehension piece in place for that tier two and three comprehension um but we so that was kind of where we landed uh with everything else was

095that 20 was was a good number of License to start with um and so again that would be specifically for a small number of targeted kids um who specifically need to work on their comprehension of reading and that begins with grade three so any kid below grade three it's assumed that they would not be working on comprehension yet because they're still developing as readers but kids in grades three and above if they're assessed and it's determined hey they've got the decoding they've got the phonics skills um their big issue is comprehension then that's where this would become the appropriate solution is the wrong word the appropriate support to help them to uh to develop as a reader so um Mr Wilson next thing there Dan coming out of code do we have a higher or

096increase of students that need the help that normal I would assume uh so I would say that's one of the things assessment wise we're going to really look at is when they are doing their benchmarking and when we see the pssa results what are what are they showing that kids needs are and that was actually advice from the patent consultant was when I told her you know we're looking at read 180 and how many licenses to get and she had suggested start with a base number of subscriptions and then look at your actual data and if your data says here are a lot of kids that need comprehension intervention then consider getting additional read 180 licenses but not to load yourselves up with you know 100 licenses and then you turn around and it turns

097out that all of your kids at the elementary level actually needed the phonics support first and and that if that phonics clicks that once that clicks they might pick job comprehension without need for further intervention and so that was kind of that was where I came to the determination to not overdo it with the number of licenses but if we to your point Mr Leisure if we look at that data and it says there are 50 kids that that really need comprehension support um then we may either work with uh with you know special education look at some grant writing uh look at stuff in the following Year's budget to to fit additional licenses in as part of that subscription if that need were to were to become evident so because I would think going

098in the future if we don't have any more pandemics we should be all right with all this teams caught up from the pandemic up to where they should be now would be the most critical time avoid that obviously I would think the the bigger deficiency is going to be the students who were in K through three during that time right because the decoding and the that's the like learning how to read and those skills sometimes are harder to to get past those years um whereas the comprehension is more of understanding what you're reading um and that I would imagine we don't have as many students struggling but would be my guess and that's that's kind of our hypothesis and I'll credit Mr Morrison at Joe Walker and he's been gone for a little while but

099he told me when we first came back and he said you're going to want to watch the kids who were at in first grade at the time we shut down who are now fourth graders because he said that last nine weeks of first grade is like a magical time for first graders um and you I'm sure you see that it's happening right now and so he said that that out of every grade level in math or Ela he said that is the group of kids because of the exact timing where they were in their development it wasn't because they missed more days of time of course but it was because they missed a very critical switch where they they start to put the pieces together um and so that's the nice thing like what the

100Sunday kids we could serve I I believe I mean within reason right if you can't have a reading specialist with 80 billion kids in their group but within reason we there would not be a cap on how many kids we could serve with the Sunday one and two interventions because it's not license based It's Not subscription based it's just based on how many copies of the student materials you have and and those are much more affordable than a 600 license for a computer program so um the last piece and this is not actually anything to do with the bigger purchase but it's more to do with just a a little adjustment or a unification of some things we already are doing but making sure that we're all doing it consistently and Mrs Hewitt actually had

101some homework I don't know if she's done it yet to verify so across both Kindergartens are we using a consistent alphabet chart when we're teaching the the Beginning phonemic Sounds for each letter and so what the team has asked to settle on is to to ensure that across kindergarten that they are using specifically the foundations letter alphabet chart because they they felt as a group that the sounds and the words specific to that chart were the ones they wanted us to build those first letter recognition and sounds on and um that the intro to reading uses because Journeys I know have its own phonics components yes um and it didn't match typically what other yes so so the infant reading does have a specific alphabet chart what's that yes I I can tell you our

102our interventionists especially are very passionate about this specific alphabet chart not the foundations program or the you know the way they instruct both the specific sounds and words that are used um because from an instructional standpoint those are the apparently the verified best words or best letters best ways to learn the sounds that each of those letters typically make more like like the best for example but they were really in keeping with the phonics chart the journeys used you know so how do how are you going to use this to fuse those together yes yeah so I think that's one of the things we need to work on for sure is more about how you're blending that with what you're already using for what you already have so with the journeys we're actually most uh

103after doing a little bit of oysters most uh teachers are using the is not only it makes that connection for the letter and the sound name it also gives a picture and there are hand motions involved in in this alphabet um so sometimes the board is just a little unruly so I'm sorry I see a monkey I don't see it build connections for students to help them remember the letter names so then when forgiving a phonics test then we're going to I'm assuming restructure the phonics test in order to match this particular alphabet chart well our it just our in first grade our phonics tests and now I don't know exactly with this new into reading but as far as variance goes it's a lot of reading the sentence still on the blank um but

104just has like I was thinking even in kindergarten like um Sammy Seal you know is what beginning sound or you know like it it directly relates to their specific yes and what I would say there is maybe the intro to reading doesn't isn't set up the same way I'm not as familiar with it yeah and I would say oh God yeah you know I feel like that's something that we still you know work in progress okay and what I would say there too is if it if it becomes impossible to merge them together clearly our investment is is in the into reading and a priority for me is that we're doing the same thing so if we had to say listen like you may love your foundations chart but it's not meshing it's not working

105with into reading how do we take the chart that we need to use and make it make it work yes make it make it what you like about foundations right so if it I guess yeah if it is feasible and if it flows to merge them together that is the desire of the Specialists and the kindergarten teachers on the team but if it is not able to happen in actuality once we get into the adoption then that would be something that I I would not hesitate to say hey your foundations chart is great we all have you know we all enjoy the the illustrations and the hand motions but um we need to this is this is why it's not working and why we would need to and my concern is more of the cost

106you know I worked with a school that didn't like the journeys yeah phonics part so they basically bought two sets because they had the journeys curriculum for everything lcla and then they bought a different set of curriculum for the phonics and to me cost effectively that doesn't make much sense you're paying for the same thing twice yeah and honestly like just being in these Eli making meetings K to two we wanted something that's unified right regardless that learning support reading Specialists teachers so when the students move on from K to First and from K to start speaking we are able yeah we're speaking the common language we're able to relate that you know with the previous their previous kindergarten teacher or the second grade teacher we just wanted unification regardless of what we actually selected

107that yeah okay so I feel like after we look more into the into reading um if you know we do end up getting it then you know I feel like that is something that we will come again and talk about more so that we do have that unification because I know in our Ela meeting that was really important to just have the same language yeah yeah and that would that would also if we did do the foundations charts that would not be an additional expense other than maybe like eight or ten dollars if somebody doesn't have the actual chart because we're not talking about any of the foundation's curriculum or programming or or other resources besides strictly the alphabet chart itself um and then the Hagerty phonemic awareness most of the teachers that in the

108next appropriate grade levels have access to that um there's a couple at Joe Walker that and I'll I'll talk to Mr Wolf about getting making sure they have it but you're talking about a total expense of maybe 200 250 dollars from his building budget for textbooks to make sure that it just gets them to the same consistency of resource that the other teachers already have in place um and then the sound walls just making sure that across both buildings across the district um are our sound walls or what we are instructing kids and teaching kids is it unified um that was that was kind of the point of of that little bit there so we were almost done I'm sorry everyone for taking so much of your time I'll keep interrupting you so it's our

109fault I thought Mr bonus was long-winded yes yes this is just a graphic to kind of show a lot of different things we've thrown at you but this is the graphic to show how it all works within that pyramid the things that would be available to all students in a particular grade band or program level and the things at the bottom part of that second tier are the read and response or the reading response intervention journals and those are actually within the classroom so um every grade level would have access to those and if Mrs Hewitt determines that a student in her first grade class needs one she would then work with her department chair for first grade which is her so easy to work with yourself and she would then figure out how many

110copies of that that she would need for her students the other ones the read 180 and the two Sunday systems and the reason that I have them up above with arrows is those would be kind of your upper tier two needs and also meet some of the tier three needs for for kids that have intensive intervention support needs um um tier two and tier three and I think that's super important because these are the kids that are in most need these are the ones that really need that systematic direct instruction and we need something in place that's unified that everybody can use all right so now the part that everybody is probably waiting on this you know this sounds really great for our kids but how much do we have to pay for it can

111we afford it what's it look like and and it is an investment right it is a financial cost um to do anything like this um and we don't I don't believe that our team takes this lightly at all Dr oberg stressed to us repeatedly you know look at where the budget is what are the things you need to have have to have is there redundancy uh can we work things down um especially with the people from Houghton Mifflin because that was such a big part of our cost I I went back and forth with them numerous times and they sent initial quotes and I said okay we don't take this and this off because these are are fluff things that our team says they're not interested in and then even once we got down to

112the things we felt we needed it was then okay what's our best what's our best number what can you get us to um and I you know you'll never actually know how much did they work on you how much margin are they still getting but I will say that they they came down significantly from just their their initial quotes their initial prices um and so this is kind of where we feel it would land for the the final total amount total purchase and um kind of a couple things I want to want to draw or highlight or point to there one is that this would be for the full six year cost of it um there would not be a an annual cost of this amount this would not be a renewable cost for the

113next six years that it's all front loaded so that the amount we pay in year one would then be the subscription for the full six years um and so that's of note um when you take it in combination with what we did with math last year because math still has five more years left on that adoption it would mean that for the next five budget years costs for both math and Ela should be relatively minimal or or nothing right depending on if a teacher needs a replacement for replacement kit right any costs would would most likely be able to be handled at the building level by a requisition to that principle um which is not I don't want to oversell that because we do have changing science standards ahead of us we do have other

114content areas that have not gotten the same attention the same you know the same diligence that math and Ela have but in terms of those two biggest areas I'm told that Ela is the most expensive of the content areas as well um and so what this would do for us from a long a long game standpoint is that for the next six years structurally we would have some sound things in place for for the majority of our Ela program um and you can see there the total estimated cost of 393 250 and then below that are the asterisk amounts and I've worked with with some single men and she did a great job of kind of letting us know here's how much you here's how much you have realistically but also working with us on

115what do you need right she did not want to cut so deep that like we didn't have anything um and so we we worked kind of compromise came together um that Esters 2 is a big amount of that and that's the the money that we need to spend by this fall anyway so this would be a we think a very effective and long-term way to to kind of use some of that money uh the Asters three you can see there was a little bit there that she was able to secure for us and then title four um so you see actively learned next to that actively learn is the only item on this list that is a renewable expense because it's an annual subscription for the online content and so every year since we've gotten

116actively learned it has been a twelve thousand dollar item under title four so that way even though it is a renewable expense it would not be a renewable expense that's on our but our District budget so to speak because it will every year for the the duration it would be covered under title IV funding um and so with that said the the impact on 2324 budgeted funds you can see is that last number that it would be about 83 000 uh line item in the District budget um and I I can't tell you that that amount actually a little bit over that amount was in the budget that Mrs Engelman presented to you guys last month um and so we actually when I took it to her she said this is direct quote you're the

117only one that saved me any money today and so I thought good about that not we didn't save her much money but we we did come in on so that amount is under what's in her preliminary budget report I realize that brings a little bit Hollow in in the context of a broader deficit um that coming in under budget and the deficit budget isn't cause for celebration but with all that to say that we we've tried to be diligent of not doing things that would would make the deficit worse we tried to be responsible in that sense um and so um almost done promise promise almost done um and I will go very quickly through this this last part um just some next steps that could that we are looking at either will happen or

118may happen um besides just asking for approval for some resources um we are of course if we were to move forward with this there would be some implementation training and support for the the new series um that is included in that purchase quote that you saw was was the implementation and onboarding support um for those programs so that is is already part of that budget um we're going to be looking at getting everyone involved with science of reading and structural literacy training I actually signed up for an online science of reading course today to that starts on June 1st runs till the end of July through patent because I want to be able to be done with it before we ask the teachers come fall to to start doing that as a self-paced horse we're

119also going to look at training support on how to do small group instruction at the elementary and primary level and then any additional training with the supplemental programs or the inter um the intervention programs we have budgeted that if we were to need to expand on any additional training that we would certainly we have money in this proposal that would cover any onboarding for those additional programs um specifically um so we when it opens there's a webinar tomorrow and I believe it's going to open Monday they are going to be accepting applications for comprehensive support and what that means is that we can re we're actually going to apply for support kind of combining several areas of focus in the district family engagement our federal programs and our early literacy initiatives and we're going to

120request comprehensive professional development and training in those areas and how those areas kind of work in conjunction with each other and it is a application process so we have to determine if we would be selected but if we are selected for that support uh there would potentially be funding tied to it to help us acquire either further training or additional resources to support early early literacy initiatives which leads me to the next to last thing right see what how I keep doing that I'm sorry um and that is equity and this is something you can put in the back of your mind for now but I wanted at least to be up here um accurate is a potential future resource and and it's exactly what it sounds like in the name it was developed out

121of University of Oregon and they actually have a an overlay specific core into reading that um goes module by module through into reading for K to two and and says here are the so accurate is um systemic phonics phonemic awareness routines it's the it's the science of reading like to to the extreme it's like the multiplier and they developed specific overlays for each major reading series of how to take what's in the series and then apply the accurate routines to those teachings to those strategies um and so it's it's it like it says on there it's yeah earlier about you know Sunday and getting it for every teacher we might not necessarily need to do that because it is going to be you could use that system for tier two and tier three but if

122we would purchase this for next year we're thinking of the following year looking into the equity which would be the phonics and phonological piece that's already that every has developed that goes right along with our into reading so we would be doing that in the classroom and then the students that would need that extra support for tier two and tier three would then be cool to do the Sunday systems one and two so that kind of helps fill that Gap a little bit unwind too we don't wouldn't necessarily need that for all teachers thank you and to kind of fill in so why is that you know potential for 24.25 and there's really two main reasons there one is primary teachers I think we're gonna you know have a mutiny or something if we said

123you're going to have this and this and both require intensive training and we're going to ask you to to start them both at the same time um and it is there's a pretty extensive training that goes along with with how to teach using the accurate process and the accurate routines um and so the second reason is that with our support application that is the the funding the resources to bring that to our district is hopefully going to be part of that support from Patton so that we don't have to occur additional District expenses for something that we can potentially get through that comprehensive support process so again it is not a critical part of the program into reading has phonics it has phonemic awareness things in it um this would be more of an enhancement

124piece that's more to do with how we teach than necessarily and being it's not any actual curriculum or content itself the the books for accurate are just how to apply their routines to into reading or to other reading series um so that's that's just kind of something potentially down the pipe that we wanted to to show you and um a last items like how many times can I say last items who have talked about this a lot I'm not gonna while on this slide but we are going to um evaluate all of the current assessment practices in the district we're going to look at our current curriculum we're going to do the work similar to what we've done with math throughout this year of what is our current curriculum how does how do we make

125sure that our current resource goes in congruence with our current curriculum with our current assessment practices with our current instruction um we're going to be constantly digging into that making sure that all of those things are you know in in cohesion and in unity together throughout the district working on that alphabet short and um same goes for our interventions is that um and there's actually a slide about interventions but basically we're going to see how that's going like I said with the read 180 FB interventionists and special education staff if our data tells us that there is something intervention wise that that is is a gap area or a needed area then we will we will dig into that as we get there so that actually is it does anyone have any questions um I

126have a few one is um where does Title One fit in what are we currently using for Title One how does it fit into this because this is one of the questions I asked when we were looking at restructuring Ela is title one part of that and how so because I will tell you I get a lot of concerned parents who call specifically we're talking not only about students being in title one but not making progress but you know so where does it fit in yeah so I think I'll chime in a couple areas and then if you have anything to add feel free to so one of those areas is that our Title One Reading Specialists were part of this whole process and so when they were speaking to the need for especially Sunday

127systems right that they what they were voicing basically was we have kids come to us for support but we don't have a concrete plan a unified plan of how to support them and how to help them make progress um because it was largely dependent on the specific resources that they were just pulling themselves free free things that are available um and so not using in the classroom that they found would be useful and helpful for those tier two and tier three groups um but honestly we don't really have anything um we have Wilson students yes we don't have anything unified so looking at what you're proposing then it would be that would be the Sunday so the Sunday system it would be would be a big part of Title One intervention um in progress as

128well as the assessments that we're bringing in with the with the growth measure right that we'll be able to see where are they at this date of Point did they make that growth throughout the year but I would say from an intervention standpoint Sunday is a big big piece of that because they um that will become the primary mechanism through which they provide that support to kids who are not making progress especially if it's pre-comprehension right so that's that's the biggest piece also the patent piece and that's why our application is combining Federal programs Family Support um or family engagement and early literacy is because those three need to work better in conjunction with each other right Family Support is going to help us with early literacy and title one is all I mean not

129all about but a big part of title one is how do we get resources into the hands of our families and and our our students so that they can make that progress so I think that was that was a big need and I don't want to again I don't I never want to overconfidently say we've we've fixed it all but a big ask from the reading Specialists especially was we need something clear unified concrete that we do when a kid comes to us for intervention or else it's us just pulling whatever we can come up with thank you I'm not sure what the name of it is it's like right in journals that could be used for the comprehension piece for those students at tier 2 and tier three title special services that might need

130the comprehensional portion so that way that's why I was saying earlier like we have each component of reading um figure it out for tier two and tier three where if you take something out we're missing we're gonna miss a piece especially in that tier two and tier three group and that's our most in need students that need that support okay and then my um next two questions really kind of go together um are we going to be able to have this online for parents to review we are and Miss fry is already on it so on the website um is and that's the both the link and the QR code and I know that link is super long so maybe we'll get it either posted as a news story or as a banner of where

131exactly to go to get to that resource but yeah I know the last time last year when we did it with math there was like a banner on the home page yes and we can get that up uh tomorrow Mr Wilson will you pull up the actual website page that's listed there and along with that while you're working on that yeah um how are we going to let parents know how we're utilizing the Weigel um the digitalized component of any of the curriculum outside of school are we utilizing those components in school are we you know specifically you guys know I'm always on this yeah what about our students who don't have internet access how yeah and what I would say for for stuff that has to be online and so really we're talking about

132waggle because the other components could be accessed at home um I would say we can't require an assignment on waggle that has to be done at home that that should really be part of your when you do your stations when you do your small groups at the elementary and I will say that with Alex at the middle school high school especially they've really owned that and they've they've made it class assignments they've had time to do it um kids have time in Highlander I know at the elementary there's time you know at the beginning of the day and throughout that reading block but I think that would become our our communication to families is you know kids can work on wobble at home certainly but there there's not going to be something where if you

133have to do wagwell at home or you're you know and if you don't you're missing part of your grade exactly and I would I would encourage you know any family of that somehow is missed in Translation with the teacher like just reach out and we you know we would certainly make sure that's something they're aware of but yeah that that is the only component that couldn't be used outside of school offline um and so it's something that I would say the communication to teachers is you can't requ you can encourage kids you can tell kids hey like if you're at home and you're bored and you want to practice like go ahead and jump on but that that shouldn't be something that they have to do as part of their grade or part of it

134yeah okay and then you wanna all right so on the website and it's off now um is is a page just like we did for math with access to the materials and it really really is important to me from a transparency standpoint from a um you know trust standpoint um we have looked through stuff pretty thoroughly right teachers have looked at at each grade level we also are one set of buys right we are are some perspectives some people um if there is anything as families are reviewing it and so you can see as Mr Wilson Scrolls down for into reading and into literature there is a demo link that will take you to the full student Edition versions for each grade level and you can that should remain active at least through the next

135month while we you know until we go go to ask for approval for all of the other components that are listed with links to the corresponding website for that program or that resource and like always if there is something that is not listed on the website that anyone is is trying to review or if somebody says I'd rather have a physical printed copy of this sample um give us you know a little bit of time to to get it up to the admin office or to tell you which building to pick it up from but we can certainly make hard copies of of samples available for the the major programs but given that into reading and into literature is the big bulk of of what students would be accessing we went ahead and had them

136just like we did for math because I thought that was really an effective way to do it right on the website you can use the demo student name and password um one for one for into reading one for into literature and that will give you the full not demo not sample but the full edition of every single grade level every module that's that's available on there thank you I appreciate that and I I've said this I said it last year when you did it you did a great job with it with the math you did a great job with it for the ELA and I really want to thank you for that having said that and I said this at the time and I'll say it again there at some point does the owners of

137responsibility comes the owners comes on the parent too I mean we can't do everything so at some point parents have to also be responsible and take advantage of the opportunities we're giving them so thank you absolutely no I appreciate it very nicely done thank you how does that fit in with this plan because it's for just a year and then this is a yes so so the Renaissance subscription I'll speak to how in terms of how I've seen it utilized in the district to support um so Elementary um each grade level starting with first grade they do the star assessment beginning middle end of year I guess first grade is Middle of your end of year um and then they use that and it gets their their Accelerated Reader level and they use the AR

138program pretty extensively in the elementary that they do the kids have goals each nine weeks and so I would say that at the elementary it's a pretty heavily utilized program the Middle School historically has utilized it um not as extensively at all as the elementary what their typical user looks like is they do the star assessment at the beginning of the year to establish levels and then each nine weeks the kids do one AR book for that middle school the high school at least in recent years there has not been utilization at the high school that's not to say there potentially wouldn't be be in the future but as of the past couple years there's not anyone I'm aware of in the high school that utilizes that program and what I would say is I

139love as much alignment as possible and so that is a year-to-year subscription um but I would love to to make long-term plans like hey if we're you know if we're utilizing the AR program if Renaissance fits into our bigger plans and maybe that's not something we have to decide right because like you said it's on there tonight to to be uh to be up for potential approval I'm not suggesting that we have to say tonight hey we're we're committed to Renaissance for six years but I think we should see how it's if we are to keep it for the next year see how we're utilizing it along with the stuff that we presented tonight and if we if it's part of our plan it's part of our plan not just year by year like that's

140what I was wondering I don't like this like if some of the data that you're able to collect through the through this curriculum could be collected instead of the start which I've already said I have a huge problem with the star assessment anyway um if there's cross over there where we could maybe because the Renaissance you can actually they're different Services AR is a different service than the assessments um you don't necessarily have to purchase both services so I was wondering and Scott that's a great question where is there areas where it crosses over and we're paying twice for the same kind of service and I have the same question from the assessment standpoint so right now for for elementary we're paying for easy CBM for Eli assessment we're paying for Star first Eli assessment

141and then we'll have the growth measure assessment that's part of the interreating package and then for grades three and above you also have access to the CDT exams through through Pennsylvania which are not of cost um they're just included for all districts um we I think we need to to really take a look at what each of those different assessments offer and not just from a cost standpoint because I don't want kids taking seven different assessments that tell us more or less the same information but I would say if there is overlap there that that's something we could we could determine I'm not prepared today to speak and say the growth measure is exactly replaceable with the star assessment and I'd want to really consult our uh school psychologist or interventionist but I I think

142um beyond the next year I'd really want to be intentional about lawyer does Renaissance fit in all this because even though it's technically a technology item it is very much a reading Eli item because it 100 supports reading supports literacy um so I'm not sure if that quite answers your question but well I guess um if I'm understanding that it was kind of left out intentional for this first year to see how it's gonna go and what I think so yeah the technology can match with yes that that was it was not something our team we didn't talk about like how is everyone utilizing it um and I know that Elementary feels pretty strongly that they wanted and we use the AR on a daily basis I mean I know that they take they're not

143talking about the title one title you're talking about just everybody reading goals for them for each nine weeks and then they read books and then they take um you know five question or ten question tests or three question test on the book yeah it depends on the grade the reading level and you Elementary level I really like it I feel like it helps Foster a love for learning because they're watching you know the sort of I think ours is a jet um Joe Walker the little jet grow and meet their goal and they get so excited and so I feel like it helps Foster that love of learning I feel like it helps Foster comprehension skills and just reading skills building those phonics skills in general so I know this isn't a a Renaissance presentation

144and I don't really want to go to but just out of curiosity while we're talking about the Accelerated Reader Program and the elementary level um how much of the input do parents have as to what books are being selected for the students to read through Accelerated Reader um do they have knowledge of that do are they are they given choices that they take home and Mom and Dad can help them decide on you know how are those decisions made yeah so usually uh at least in first grade and all teachers might do this differently this is just personally what I do but all students I have a bookshelf in my room all students can a book at their level and practice it they can they're allowed to take it home I make a list of

145students who take a book at night so that I know that they get returned the next day um and so you know they're practicing they have that availability in my in my own classroom and like I said other teachers might have their system set up a little bit differently but on how they allow Argo to work but um they they are allowed to come in and grab a book and they can take it home and read it and bring it back and then they're allowed to take the test the next day in library they're able to pick if they would like to pick an AR book They're allowed to make that choice and they take their library book home you know after Library class and they can also um if it's not an AR book

146that's okay too they can pick whatever they choose out of the library yeah I know and I'm familiar with bookfinder I guess my question is more about I mean in theory what we're saying is that really a student could come into your classroom pull a book off your shelf and read it take a quiz on it and the parents never seen it doesn't know they've read it and I'm not saying that's necessarily a problem in grade one you know but if I have a student who's an advanced reader and he's a book finder finding books at that reading because let's be honest it's readability it's not content based you know but that content is not something I want my child interacting with so how do I know that yeah so well just that I have

147a daughter here and who plays well in second grade so she and her Chromebook comes home and this is kind of how we have done things in our house like every AR book that the child has taken is on um the AR website right so that you're able to view at that time you know have they passed the place that they have they not passed the quiz you know how are things going with ar if my child is doing it independently and I can see like the type of books they're reading I can see how many non-fiction first fiction books um generally do you send home the letter at the beginning of the year because I know it shows that tells parents how to get in and so they can have updates sent to them

148like I use I used to get an email when my child took an AR quiz you know do we send that home okay yeah thank you I wouldn't realize it wasn't around no that's fine it's very much related and and something else just to your last question there that we've talked about with middle school and high school and fifth grade with like class novels that they may be using stuff like that of trying to really make sure we have as we're going through the curriculum process having updated lists of what is part of that program what maybe what text or in the classroom libraries uh that's one that certainly would take some time because some of our classroom libraries are as big as our actual School libraries I think sometimes but like having that like

149you said it's it's partly the district's responsibility to share what what we're planning or what we're using and then also that parent Civility and responsibility to take ownership there so that's that's something I will I will certainly say we we can improve upon is having that accessibility of this these are the things that we are utilizing so that a parent could make that informed decision or that informed you know communication to the teacher of like hey I you know I I get that this is in your classroom library but if you could kind of just my for my child specifically I'd rather them not have this specific book kind of kind of communication but that's that's something as we develop the curriculum out I'd love to see as part of it of here are novels

150that are utilized in this greater course here are classroom library books that kids have the access to um it's just a matter of developing those lists the time to to really do that and I see that fusing with the curriculum development itself because it's such a part of right resources and materials yup thank you we have one great presentation you got a lot of Hefty resources here which I think all sound great and unity is wonderful and if you remove that Renaissance component would your program suffer I feel like yes at least the K through three level yeah I feel part of my day is just them going to the Bookshelf and grabbing a book and there's no other way to do that there is they can work on an activity on public no I

151mean there are other options besides Renaissance oh yeah I don't know yeah there's like a similar thing but yeah I'll say Renaissance is the one I'm most familiar with in terms of the AR program because before we could certainly research that much money that was the question yeah yeah we could certainly research other comparable you know platforms but that's I think that's the one that we're all most familiar with and most knowledgeable about and uh you guys play a big part in um you know our reading for our students so we did ask them if the majority or many of the books that were in the text are also AR books because that helps reduce build their confidence to be able to take those tests but there's other ways to use AR books but to

152be clear this presentation that you're putting forward is foreign I mean we're already and it's not a Renaissance presentation I appreciate you taking the time to answer those questions absolutely Mr Ross a couple things yeah one is an observation based upon the testing it seems like I see teachers gravitating students toward electronically doing it so there is not so to speak a duplication of efforts them writing it in them entering them and it sounds like we'd be able to collect data across the whole District by knowing hey how our first graders are doing yep and rather than waiting for a pssa test yes exactly the other thing I want to do is ask about is buy it anytime you're making a change you've got the people that were involved kind of skipped over which is

153the right thing to do is how many people are involved you can't get everybody involved but you have to give them access there's some that are they I don't want I'm happy with the group that's doing this I'm sure they're going to have a positive result it sounds like okay right to the door if it's almost like hey you need to accept this we put a lot of work into this I've got a lot of buy-in I know they're they're anxious they want to see this or is this a uh often happens it happens no big deal I feel like the years have been ticking of us meeting and wanting a new reading series you saw the dates 2015 through 2008 we need change and I think people are teachers are ready for that change

154um you know they have we've all the elementary teachers secondary teachers have had the opportunity to look at it we've collaborated together we meet um I know at Claysville and Joe Walker specifically we have times at the end of the day where we are meeting with our grade levels to talk about whatever we need to collaborate and this was one of the things that we spent a lot of time with our colleagues talking about so I mean I'm not I don't want to think that like other people's opinions don't matter because they definitely did and we definitely spent a lot of time you know talking to where I did and I know other people on the team talking to our colleagues about you know what direction we're heading and what we're meeting for our students

155and I think we all have come to the agreement that change is necessary you looked at this 2015s we're seeing a lot of gaps in the phonics um level and I think it's crucial that you make a change [Music] um and the so the team itself was a cross-section of at least one person from each grade level in K-5 and then representatives from middle school and high school as well so you did have you had a representative sample of kind of all the facets of ela and there was I would say by the ad and there was definite consensus amongst that team of of what we presented tonight so they're basically excited and we really want to see this happen and yeah so they I think I think people yes people are excited they're they're

156happy for their their chance to to get a reset and a refresh and they know that it doesn't come around every you know every day that they get the chance to really you know start with with a new and completely unified response I would say the English teachers to whom I speak like were ready five years ago specifically for a K-12 requests yeah right time would change and change well thank you I appreciate it was a great presentation thank you so much [Music] sorry you might not be aware but I don't think you probably are but there's people in this room that don't want Runners office we renewed and from what I took from you was that you use it on a regular basis and you would like to see it absolutely or at least

157up Avenue at least do you know of any other roosters not with my colleagues they might know again I want to stress and the vetting that actually has taken an entire year to get to this one point so I'm just I'm so appreciative of the work I'm appreciative of the time that they took for something as simple as the administrative team setting aside time in the day to try to reschedule to have Subs in there so that the teachers could come together and do this and that was over a course of this past year so again I'm just I'm very thankful very appreciative of the hard work that again was on this way tonight and they did a great job thank you okay at this time we are going to end the committee meeting at

158807 pm and we're going to take a small break we will reconvene for the regular meeting at 8 15. as long as thank you a call to order the regularly scheduled board meeting excuse me um for May 18 2023 at 8 14 pm roll call please here peace he's out here this Live card here president here please join oh no no we have recognition no we didn't pledge please join us I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you okay Middle School recognition [Music] good evening our student of the month for May couldn't be in attendance tonight so we were able to celebrate today during school we presented the plaque took

159a picture and we're still going to go through our normal process here so our May student of the month um this award is voted on by our staff and the students selected Excel inside and outside of the classroom and they truly embrace the core values of our Middle School so our sixth grade student of them are excuse me our student of the month is a sixth grader his name is Liam Deaver he is the son of Shane and Lacey Dever his hobbies include bike riding he likes to play ping pong and he likes to collect points his favorite subject is math uh he likes it because it makes him think he's a problem solver so his favorite teacher though is Mr McEwen because he likes to make things with his hands and his advice to

160give to students next year to be student of the month would be be attentive in class be kind to others and ask questions when you need to so that's great advice Liam and congrats to Liam Deaver thank you high school student council representative hi my name is Brandon Baxter I'm a senior here at McGuffey and I'm vice president of student council for the school update the junior senior prom was held on April 28th at the DoubleTree in the Meadowlands with about 250 guests it went good the middle school high school choir concert was held May 11th and was well attended the middle school high school band concert is scheduled for May 24th at 7 pm graduation for Western area is tonight at Chartiers Houston High School Mr Haley is attending two McGuffey high school students

161Gabrielle Bloom and Miranda Anderson were winners in the society for analytical chemists of Pittsburgh essay contest nine McGuffey seniors were recognized at our annual Signing Day to continue their athletic careers at the Collegiate level on May 4th these students are Hope on dash Clarion going for track Clover habathir LaRoche going for softball medicine soupler Carlo going for soccer Kalyn Thomas Penn West going for soccer Isaiah Deo Westminster going for football Morgan Shriver Carlo going for track Logan Smith W J going for football Jacob Ross Penn West going for golf and Cody McKee pen West going for football then we got the high school students were recognized for entries in the 2023 law Day essay contest sponsored by the Washington County Bar Association they were Sierra McAdoo Francis Kevin E Lawrence Shane Smith Payton frame Caitlin

162McCracken Alexa Phillips Marco Reyes Anthony zielinski Alexi Linton and Michael sells the NHS and senior class combined the senior day of caring along with an American Cancer Society Relay for Life this year on May 5th the students helped to raise over 2 500 during the day and Community raised another 7 500 that evening for a total of nine thousand dollars for the American Cancer Society our senior Awards assembly is scheduled for May 31st at 9 A.M baculare is scheduled for June 1st at 7 pm and commencement for the class of 2023 will be on Friday June 2nd at 7 pm at the McGuffey stadium with the high school gym as a weather backup site the sports update uh baseball the varsity baseball team completed their season going 9-8 with only two seniors with a large

163returning roster and eight starters returned in the future is very very bright voice tennis had a competitive season and the largest roster in 12 years voice track finished runner up in the section to South Park and carried a large roster they advance to the whip your playoffs for the first time in five seasons and had seven individuals qualify for wipio individual championships girls track like the boys finish runner runner up excuse me in the section to South Park and also qualify for the Whitfield playoffs with a large roster the girls also Advanced seven uh members to the wipio individual championships and finally softball finished strong taking third place in the section and qualifying for the Whitfield playoffs for the first time in over five seasons they were defeated in a great game in the playoffs

164but the number two seed South Moreland three to one with the girls playing well with only three seniors the future is also very good for the softball program thank you thank you time we will have public comment on agenda items chief yes my President we have one in person Monique Frye and our subject will be L4 good evening Monique fry Morris Township um I wanted to talk about the renewal of Renaissance um as many know who've been paying attention to the meetings um I have a deep concern about the content of the books that our kids have access to um as much as the Renaissance program offers there are alternatives that I myself have found of course there would need to be more research to find out cost Effectiveness what all they have to offer

165um Beanstalk was one that I came across um BiblioNasium is another one that one's geared more towards um ages 6 through 13. that one is specifically mentioned that it can be used with the clever platforms that were mentioned earlier as well um but there are other options and um the problem that I have with Renaissance is it goes back to the AR um the AR part of it the Accelerated Reader part of it um there was a book I think it was last fall that I read excerpts from um Water for Elephants um it is found on AR book finder rated at a fourth grade reading level particular book describes what it's like for a woman's breast to smack together while riding on top of a man I don't know about anybody else but that's

166not fourth grade material and I'm not okay with tax money or any kind of funding that the school is getting going towards twenty thousand dollars to pay for that there was another one that I read excerpts from for Slaughterhouse Five that depicts many things um giving blow jobs feeding a dog shards of Steel and watching him suffer while it's tearing him up from the inside that was rated a sixth grade level there is an issue with whoever is gauging the content of these books and what is deemed appropriate that is not appropriate for my child and I personally don't think it's appropriate for any child especially in elementary um I understand that those particular books aren't available to Fourth Graders necessarily because they were found here in McGuffey in the middle school high school library

167which isn't fourth grade but I don't want my sixth grader reading that stuff I don't want my eighth grader I don't even want my 10th grader reading that stuff it's not appropriate it's not okay it's not acceptable um I don't know who makes those decisions when it comes to those programs clearly not somebody who has the best interest for our children and what their what their seeds they're planning in their little Minds it's not right um the other thing was the psba I know we've all had that discussion previously um obviously it has increased um I don't think we should renew with that for the same reasons as before um you know the gender theory that it pushes the um racial lens content that it pushes those are all things that we don't need here

168in McGuffey um and if that's where McGuffey is getting their guidance from I fear that it will steer us the wrong way I don't see how it could steer us the right way um I'm asking you to not renew with psba or with Renaissance if I had to pick one I would say Throw Renaissance out there are other options they were not hard to find I did it in a few minutes of course it would take a little more research to find out how much it would cost what resources it offers things like that I can tell you the biblioni BiblioNasium one does offer the assessments as well as there's even parental access that parents are granted students teachers parents everybody has access to it I know I have access to Accelerated Reader but just

169pointing it out there's access for everybody um everything else is I don't would it be considered non-agenda since it was presented but it would have been with the curriculum okay I wondered um so that's that's my agenda item um I really don't see a purpose for the school to spend twenty thousand dollars on a program that is deeming pornography as appropriate for a fourth grader so I'm asking you not to renew with that thank you thank you thanks I need a motion to approve the minutes of the April 20 2023 school board meeting I submitted second any discussion all those in favor say aye aye opposed abstentions motion carries you need a motion to approve the general fund schedule of bills from April 21 to May 18 2023 checks 77524-277-644 in the amount of 611

170747.59 as submitted second [Music] Mr Ross what just was wondering if you were coming back to us did we have a second on that I said second any discussion all those in favor say aye aye opposed uh ascensions motion carries need a motion to improve the food service schedule of bills dated May 18th check 7695 and the amount of 55 954.27 as submitted so moved any discussion all those in favor say aye aye opposed abstentions motion carries you need a motion to approve the treasurer's report for the month of April 2023 as submitted second I need to sketch all those in favor say aye aye opposed abstentions motion carries a motion to approve the Gob series 2021 Bill list Bill list excuse me dated May 18 2023 checks 21032 and the amount of 72 000

171as submitted second uh any discussion all those in favor say aye aye aye composed abstentions motion carries I need a motion to approve the list of candidates for the class of 2023 for the purpose of awarding a high school diploma provided the requirements of the Pennsylvania Department of Education and the McGuffey school district have been fully satisfied so move second all those in favor say aye aye opposed abstentions motion carries get a motion to accept a grant from the Dick's Sporting Good Foundation of ten thousand dollars per McGuffey School District policy number 702 gifts grants and donations so move second any discussion other than to say thank you to Mrs Miss group for that and this is going to fund repairs to the tennis courts that's great always in favor say aye aye opposed abstentions

172motion carries this is just informational okay this is do you want to do that then sure um recently Mrs Melissa I'll just read the whole thing Escape Family Foundation Grant covered the cost of General Admissions and a guide dinosaur tour for 32 students and five adults for the amount of 500 Mrs Melissa Cole second grade teacher Joe Walker applied for and received funding for the second grade students to attend the field trip at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History it's great thank you that's right thank you very much I have a question is that all of our students in that grade doing yeah from Joe Walker yes I need a motion to approve as presented the McGuffey School District 2023 2024 client renewal with Lincoln Learning so move second any discussion all those in favor

173say aye aye opposed abstentions motion carries do we have a need of executive session we do man impressive contracts and personnel hey need a motion make a motion to go to Executive session all those in favor say aye aye opposed absentions we're moving to Executive session at 8 31 pm um