001You are live. Meeting is yours. Thank you. Okay. I would like to call to order the May 13th meeting of our ECI committee. And we will begin with the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, thank you everyone for joining us this evening. Um, can I have a motion to approve the minutes from the last meeting? So moved. Second. Second. And all in favor? I. Okay. Motion passes. Minutes are approved for this meeting. We will begin with our firstformational item which is um update on the steel standards. All right. Dr. G. Thank you. Good evening everyone. Um I'd like to um welcome um Mrs. Donna Dome and
002Dr. Sha Arie who are going to be presenting the steel standards presentation this evening and they are both from our curriculum department. Thank you Dr. Waters and thank you so much for having us this evening. uh the steel standards which uh science, technology, engineering, environmental literacy and sustainability are Pennsylvania's new science standards which will be going into effect uh July 1, 2025. And with that, Dr. Arie and myself have been preparing for that uh for quite some time now. And we just want to share uh someformational items with you about where we are in that process. Next slide. as a point of information. Uh the these are the Pennsylvania science standards uh since 2002 uh was when they were when they were presented. That's the standards we've been using. Um and in those standards you
003can see on the left uh the traditional learning goals um really emphasizing what students know. And now in 2025 they are modeled after NGSS which Dr. Ernie will be talking about in our science standards. Now we'll be emphasizing doing science rather than just learning about it. Next slide. So like Miss Sto said, we have had a committee working on the um new steel standards for a few years now. So we feel that we are ahead of the game. Certainly not done our journey, but certainly have been deep into the work. So we have um had the ne next generation science standards um embedded in our curriculum for some time. So what the committee has done is they've taken the next generation science standards and married them with the Pennsylvania steel standards to find out where
004the relationships are, the gaps are and the new um learning is. So, what I'm going to really cover, and this is a busy slide, but I'll try to kind of encapsulate it for you, are three major shifts to um from the NGSS standards to the steel standards. And really, they're kind of like what the teachers really need to know on how the science has changed. Um, so the first thing I'll talk about is what we call disciplinary core ideas. So the content in effect is really the same. So there's still um life science, there's still physical science, and there's still earth and space science as disciplinary core ideas, but what new what is new to Pennsylvania is the environmental literacy and sustainability. So those two strands are going to be really embedded into the next
005generation science standards as um indicated or directed by steels. Um the other thing that we're going to talk about is when you look in the lower um right hand corner are crosscutting concepts. These are really um they really marry nicely when you look at the ELA standards and the math standards because they're natural connections for non non-science specific standards to be like skills to be integrated into lessons and you could read them like how do you take a system or a system model and that could be like um the model of the earth and integrate it into fourth or fifth grade um or eighth science. So, it's taking something really big and making it like from 2D to 3D, looking at patterns, looking at cause and effect, um scale, proportion, and quantity. Again, a nice
006connection to math. So, these crosscutting concepts are integrated and connected across all of the disciplinary core ideas into all the lessons. So the kids will see these starting in kindergarten and as they coherently build through 12th grade science. So you have the disciplinary core ideas which are new, the cross cutting concepts which are new and then the science and engineering practices and again these really are they marry nicely uh with the new ma with the previous standards that we uh implemented with math. So these science and engineering practices that are outlined here, all eight of them with crosscutting concepts are integrated into daily lessons. So this the teachers can take the content and make it a little bit more applicable to what we want for our kids to learn through what I'll talk about in
007the next slide is called phenomenonbased learning and um moving away from memorization of facts to sense making. So if you could move to the next slide. So, I did kind of talk about um phenomenon and every lesson in um or every unit at the elementary level moving all the way up through high school really kind of starts with a phenomenon. And the purpose of that is they this new steel standards really wants the students to see how science is connected to their real lives and how they could see it and live it every day. So it really engages the students, you know, it makes them make connections to, you know, why is there a rainbow after, you know, a rainstorm? You know, why why is it that a puddle disappears over time through evaporation? So
008it it helps draw in their background into their natural world. And it's all about phenomenon. And that, like I said, it's really the hook that gets the kids excited to uh learn the science. And it really what it's nice is it it really brings in the kids background knowledge and it really gives an open door for all of the kids because they everyone can make a connection somehow to the phenomenons that are happening. Um next slide. The last shift, the third shift is really a lot of work with the Pennsylvania steel standards to ensure all of our learners, regardless of their ability or disability, have an entry point into the lesson. And you know, they could participate in the learning. It it really is assetbased. So they f the new steel standards focus on what
009the students know and can be able to um accomplish and as opposed to really high high level academic vocabulary or really rigorous concepts really that they cannot participate in. So it's really minds on hands-on and engaging activities that start in kindergarten and really metriculate from K to 12 with the disciplinary core ideas, crosscutting concepts and the um the uh the the sta the standards uh engineering practices. Um so really what is exciting for um us is that we currently have been using the f the foss science uh program. So, we didn't really have to go purchase a new program um because that one was already aligned with the next gen next generation science standards and had already been embedding some of the Pennsylvania steel standards. So, it's really about we we purchased um a couple
010um uh resources um that we did an RFP for one called Mystery Science and the other one called Generation Genius which really kind of complement the engagement for our uh our teachers. So, they could put real time phenomenon based learning uh hands-on activities to engage all of our students um in the time that they have to teach science. Next slide. and the work of our K to2 science committee. Se uh Dr. Arie and I want to thank our 25 plus uh teachers from across our district who've represented grades K to 12 um who've been with us for the last two years um working on our committee uh participating in six full day sessions with a focus on standards, professional development and assessment. Uh these sessions were led by the Da Vinci Center. So we have
011had a relationship with them and working with uh phenomenon based learning integrating um systems thinking modeling uh real world solutions. So everything that is critical to help our students uh thrive in our complex and in changing world. Professional development continues to be a big part of this. Our teachers in this group presented to their colleagues uh back on October 4th to help introduce the steel standards. Another session is again happening uh next week on uh May 20th as well. And one of the biggest things that we have learned uh from I would say a partner state we've been working uh closely with some colleagues in New Jersey because they've uh followed the NGSS standards since their inception back in 2013. And this is not something that's going to change overnight. This is something that we
012are going to continue uh to work with our teachers, their instructional practices uh working with the standards obviously next year and beyond. So we look forward to that as well. Thank you. Okay. Uh are there any questions from the committee? Mr. Fusco. Yeah. When the Thank you for the presentation. Um when the Hold on. Where did I have the presentation up? The disciplinary core ideas, right? It refers to performance expectations shifting the focus from wrote memorization to sensemaking. Right? Sensemaking is not not a term I'm easily familiar with, but in a science curriculum, I assume what they're saying is wrote memorization to more hands-on learning experiences and I guess I making sense like making those connections, right? What you're talking about tapping background knowledge. Um, but it's a science not science standards paired with our
013FOS curriculum. And so I guess what I'm wondering is um at the elementary level specifically, what does science look like, right? Are they does spots have them doing hands-on activities on a weekly basis, more frequently, less frequently? Um, you know, is are teachers in elementary like required to do science every day? That might to some people sound like an odd question, but in elementary schools it does sometimes get caught up in the math ELA slog that comes with the curriculum expectations for those classes. So I guess I'm just wondering like outside of the standards sort of what does an elementary science class generally speaking look like? That's a great question, Mr. Fusco. So um we have instructional minutes uh generally 30 minutes of um science, social studies, uh social emotional learning wrapped up in kindergarten
014and then 40 minutes for first through fourth grade and then fifth and sixth grade departmentalized teachers have around 75 minutes. But within that block they rotate like I said social studies, science and health standards and some social emotional learning. So on average they teach it about maybe 40% of the year. Um balancing the other content areas. Um when they do present the science standards to the the students um each grade level has three um science kits um that we use from FS and they each of those hits on one of our disciplinary core ideas now which is one is a life science, one is a physical science and one is an earth and space science. What we are doing is we're supplementing the FOS modules with mystery science and um generation genius to kind of
015introduce some of the um engineering standards that are missing in the um foss kits as well as trying to um promote a little bit more of the um sense making and moving away from a 3D model worksheet uh to more of an inquiry based hands-on um experiment where the kids are discovering um making sense and transferring their background knowledge to the standards. Okay. I think um these steel standards and the uh emphasis that we're putting with supplemental materials on the engineering component continues to strengthen something that I know that Dr. G and I have talked about over time, which is the idea of a special that's dedicated to science and technology and engineering at those elementary levels. Um but uh fabulous presentation. Thank you. Uh well understood. I'm sure we'll have a question about the
016um the third component, the equity piece at the end of the presentation. So maybe you want to stick around and answer that one. But okay, thank you. Thank you for the presentation. Um I'm familiar with FOS. We use FS in my own district, but for people who wouldn't be familiar with FS, can you give us just let's just take third grade and tell us what would be the the kits in each, you know, usually they do like one a semester or something like that. What would be the kits, the false kit in third grade, for example, just so that people can get an idea of what that what it is. Sure. So for third grade or you can pick a grade, sorry, whichever grade you can remember. That's okay. Um, so I typically like a
017third grade student will do one that's called structures of life and they kind of play with the life science and play with the habitats. Crayfish is a big hit for third grade students. Um, so did they deal with live organisms. Another one is air and weather. So there is that's your physical science. They talk about temperature. They talk about cloud formations. And the earth and space one is kind of like a solids and liquids. it it's kind of like um and I I may be wrong with the title of that, but it's really more the physical science um the um physical science and they're doing like um a little bit of like chemistry and physical science there. But really it's each one of those science kits in FOS could be dedicated every day um you
018know for 40 the 40 minutes. So the teachers have autonomy to essententralize the content to pick out the want pick out the investigations that are really engaging for the students. Um you know that really kind of make connections to the students background um and really you know are high leverage for all accessibility so all of our students can access the the science standards. But when you start with kindergarten all the way to sixth grade, there's a life science, there's a physical um science, and then there's an earth and space science. So, a lot of them are coherently built on each other. So, prior knowledge is kind of just built. And um yeah, the foss is look, you know, one of the things that we realized is that is you you can you could use other
019resources like uh mystery science and and generation genius to use less resources to get more bang for your buck to uh for the engagement of the kids because one of I mean full transparency, one of the struggles is when you have 30 minutes of science setting up your investigation, you know, getting out your materials and then tearing it down, it takes a lot of With the other supplemental materials, it's you're quicker and you're in it and the kids have more time to actually get their hands dirty. Is Mystery Science and um Generation Genius, are those completely online? Is this something that the teachers are getting a manual for? Is it a kit? I don't know as much about So, great. We we purchased Generation Genius during COVID only because it's all online and um our
020our students love Doug. Doug's a scientist and he pro he presents all of the content in a very developmentally appropriate kid-friendly way. And then the and then the teachers have the ability to read like a non-fiction article connected to the experiment and then there's always an inquiry based hands-on um lesson to it. And then if the teachers want there's an exit ticket or um little quiz afterwards. Mystery Science is more of a um it's kind of like uh it could be a core program, but we only purchased the um really the video components that present the um phenomenon to the teachers. So they could so we could have a consistent presentation of our phenomenons across grade level. So the kids could be presented with the vocabulary, the phenomenon, and all of the crosscutting concepts and
021disciplinary core ideas in the the program. That makes sense. Um, one of the items that we're going to be trained on on May 20th is mystery science. So, we've been kind of piloting it this year. Um, our teachers, um, we're very excited about it. That's why we brought it on board for a year to supplement, um, the Foss. I think what we're going to see over time is we're going to do a slow separation from FOS as our core and it's going to be more of a mystery science and core and foss as our supplement but we're we're still navigating that now as we um roll out this as a new program for next year. Um I'm just going to thank you Mr. Arie. I'm going to check in with Miss Fish just for a
022moment. Miss Fisha, are all of our microphones sounding staticky or is it No, it's just Mr. Arie's. Oh, okay. Okay. And it just started. Yeah, it's just it just started. I'm not sure, Mr. Arie, if you have your phone near your computer. If you do, you may want to move that away. Thank you, Mr. Arie. That's that's really helpful. Um, Mr. McBain has his hand up. Question. Yeah, thank you very much, uh, Dr. G. And correct me if I'm wrong here, folks, but it sounds like we're finally getting like the science level up, uh, a transition in the way we approach the subject in history. This happened 15, 20 years ago when they promoted, um, looking at big picture items, historical developments, instead of memorizing the exact year or the name of a general that
023led a battle on this hill over there. for the the the better reason of helping the students to see things historically, to understand context, cause and effect, um, and understand how things from a society and economy and a political structure can all influence each other. In math, we did a level up recently as well where we kind of acknowledge that students have a calculator with them. So maybe we won't memorize certain uh functions as as much as we did in the past. And I see this curriculum and correct me if I'm wrong, it seems like this is the level up in science where we acknowledge there are formulas that students will be able to look up and there are things that uh we could have them memorize to become encyclopedias or we could have them
024uh take that scientific interest and sort of turn that into curiosity and get them solving problems which is really what this is all about. And I wonder if um the price of this kind of curriculum is any different from what we've seen before. You know, is is the cost going to go up a little bit because we're buying more um items for the the hands-on learning? Are some of the curricular pieces online newer because the standards are newer and therefore the price tag is a little higher. So, if there's any comparison you could make and let me know if I'm wrong about my analogies too, please. No, I think your analogies are really spot on. I I I think what we're trying to create is a um and promote is the natural curiosity uh of
025our science for our students as science learners using the natural environment and explaining things that happen um on a daily basis around them. um and removing the you know memorizing the parts of a cell you know as opposed to kind of figuring out what happens when uh an a system you know you know gets involved in another system. So it's not so much about the rope memorization. more about getting your hands on um the learning and having the conversation with your your u elbow partner or your um colleague, your student partner in your class so you could share ideas. Um as far as the costs go, what's what's nice is that we can use all of the components within our FOS program um with our with the new mystery science and generation genius. we do
026not have to um spend a significant amount of money um you know building these these these kits. Um I think what's going to happen over time is we're actually going to save money um because the kits buying them new are really um cost prohibitive. So, we're we're using the materials that we have um you know to to kind of build and supplement the generation genius and mystery science um lessons. That sounds great. I'm I'm glad for that. And I know this committee would be open to, you know, further investments uh to make sure that uh what we're investing in in this new program, you know, works well. We don't want to tie hands if we don't have to. with fiscal responsibility. Obviously, I know there's some people uh in attendance in this meeting, too. So,
027thanks very much for your answers. I appreciate it. Okay. Thank you both again. Um I'll echo Mr. Fosco's um comments that I really would like to see um science continue to be pushed to the forefront. kids speaking as an elementary principal. Kids love science and they really enjoy that time to have that this an hands-on exploration. So, I'm glad I to see us leaning into that. Um I hope to see us, as Mr. Fusco said, begin to look to transition into having STEM more integrated um into our elementary schools as well. And I think this work will just help to support um and strengthen that push um from our end. So um uh thank you for the presentation. We appreciate it. Okay. Um and I think Dr. Arie and uh Miss Doom, if if this
028was your only part of the presentation, I believe that you are not required to sit through the rest of this and you are welcome to go on with your day. I'm sure it started early for you. So, thank you for joining us this evening. Thank you so much. Great. If there are any follow-up questions around this third shift with um our um inclusive practices and um let me know and I'll be happy to help answer those as well. Thank you. Okay. Um, next up is a special education update. Yes. So, presenting this presentation will be Dr. Cougler and Dr. Balden. Um, and they, like you said, will be giving an update on where we are in that area. Thank you, Dr. Waters. Um, Dr. Dr. Kler and I are very excited to present our special
029education overview for the 2425 school year. Next slide, please. We are very excited um to continue um this continuum of supports for our students receiving special education um services in the North Penn school district and everything that we do is aligned with the district's vision um statement. Next slide. Uh same thing with the mission statement. It is we always look to our mission and vision statement to ensure that we are focusing on our students that our students and our families are the priority and that we are collaborative. We have critical thinking. um just wanting all of our students uh to be able to achieve at the highest level possible and developing and respecting a diverse approach um to our families and what our students need. Next slide, please. Okay, we're going to talk a little
030bit first from the point of view of the special education plan. Um, as you may remember, our special education plan was um, approved last um, July. It was up uh, sooner than that for the school board, and that was both before Dr. Balden and I got here. Um, so we've been working our way through the special education plan. Um, you'll see in that first bullet some of the um, professional development um, aspects that we've done. That's really the workable portion of the plan. Um, and of course, as we always do, we've done our safe and positive approaches, trainings, our CPR, and our first aid. One thing that we did notice as we were working through the plan is that there were a few clerical edits that were needed. Um, for example, uh, the the system
031um, allows you it automatically inserts all of the professional development as all the school years. Um, and it automatically lists a number of providers and it appears that accidentally that all of those things were left checked. So, we do have to make a few clerical edits. Um, we spoke with the Pennsylvania Department of Ed and they suggested that we just inform our community here as we're doing and then we'll um put the updated plan uh back up onto our website when that's complete. So, you can expect that in the next month or so. Next slide, please. We also wanted to give an overview of the additional professional development that we've done over the course of this year. We're really proud of the work that our um special education supervisors, our BCBAS um and some uh
032additional um outside speakers have done in supporting a lot of our professional development for a wide array of staff this year. So you'll see in the lefthand column what we've done for some power professionals and RBTs and then in the right hand column some professional development that we've done for our professional staff. Um, we also took advantage of the asynchronous snow days by um having our power professionals and RBTs work through um some of the uh webinar resources that Patent puts together and they're able to earn a certificate for all of the work they complete for that. So, we were excited for them to have the extra um opportunity to work on that. Next slide, please. want to give you an overview of our elementary numbers at a glance. So you can see some of
033our key information there, our number of students, um our number of special education teachers, par professionals, our specialized classrooms that we have across our our schools, and a big number for us is that potentially we have 171 students coming in to kindergarten who were receiving early intervention services. So we're excited to welcome our newest little friends. um as we start the school year next year. Next slide, please. Um another thing that we've been working on over the course of this year is expanding the elementary continuum. Um and you'll see the the picture there is from one of our classrooms. It's a really cool resource that a teacher has. And I thought this was a really nice visual for some of the work that we're doing. You know, all of our students are are performing at
034different places in not only just their their overall educational experience, but in particular areas like, you know, reading, math, behavior, social skills, all sorts of different things. And it's really important and also required by law that we have a continuum of services available for them. Now, each IEP team will make the decisions that they feel are most appropriate for the students, but we wanted to put some um some specific components in place um so that teams wouldn't have to make decisions without having some sort of framework to reference. So, we have worked over the course of this year um by we I mean myself and the elementary special education supervisors along with Dr. McKenna and our elementary principles to look at our master schedule and figure out ways and people that we can designate for
035students who may need to have their full ELA and or maybe their full math instruction in a special education environment. Um recently we've been working with the curriculum department and talking about some aspects of that too. So it's been really great to be able to really put some structures in place for that. The other thing we've done is uh make sure that our principles and special ed supervisors are looking to designate a specific special education case manager or two um in each school for students who may have more of a focus on social, emotional, and behavioral needs. um because we want to build the expertise of a team of teachers who um can focus particularly on those areas through professional development rather than have one zero one two children across almost all teachers case loads.
036We really wanted to make sure that we could connect um those students to a case manager to build expertise so that our students are more successful. Next slide please. Oh, and Dr. Bowden, I think you're muted. I am muted. Thank you, Dr. Coopler. All right, here's our secondary numbers at a glance. As you can see, um we have our three middle schools and our high school and we have a very large number, over 1,200 students that we are able to service. Um almost 100 special education teachers, a large number of paraprofessionals. Um and all of these um individuals help to support our students. And we um have our specialized classrooms where we service our students over and we have 17 specialized classrooms across our secondary buildings where we service our students. And look at our
037wonderful staff there. They're so happy to work with us. Next slide, please. So, secondary is expanding um our continuum of supports for our students as well. And a couple of things we did this year um we updated our curriculum resources for our specialized classrooms. all of our students um all of our uh staff members who um work with our students, our professional staff members who work with our students who take the PASSA um have um taken our um the DM dynamic learning model um map training um which is required um for um by PDE for our students. So we've been working with Patan and our IU for that training and within that training um we are able to understand better what our students need and how to align their instruction um with our with state
038standards but individualize it for students needs. So, we were able to update our curriculum resources and those curriculum resources are not just academic reading, math, science, and social studies, but also looking at the soft skills that students need um daily living skills, life skills, and um social skills. So, within those curriculum resources, we were able to um provide more support for our staff moving forward. Um and we are providing training. We're working with our principles to meet our students needs and even looking at scheduling um to see what additional supports during the day can be provided to our students so that they will transition well to be independent individuals um when they graduate from the North Pin School District. Another thing we have done is enhance our transition process. are we are excited about all
039of the early intervention students who are transitioning into our district next year as our new kindergarteners. But we also have transitions throughout the uh the students time here in school. Students transition from elementary to middle school and middle school to high school and we've been working collaboratively with our special education teachers, our supervisors and the curriculum department. um just a great collaboration to make sure we're mapping out plans that will best meet the needs of our students and part of that is looking at our data and ensuring that our staff are equipped. So we have enhanced our process for that and we're very excited. Next slide please. So as Dr. Balden said in the beginning of our presentation, all of our work ties back to the district's uh vision and mission, but we also wanted
040to highlight that we do have core values in our special education department. And these are our five core values along with um an explanation of how we embody those core values in our everyday work. um as we lead our teachers um across their classrooms and as our teachers support our students. So we thought this was a good slide to end on. Thank you. My dog is barking so I was holding a movement. Um Mr. Fusco, I'm sure you have questions, so I'm going to have you jump in because my dog's barking. Okay. Um, so my question that I'd like to ask is about the uh elementary programs. Um, you have 19 specialized programs, ASES, LSS, MDS. Um, is it it's 19 total between those those three categories? Is that correct? Yep. Yep. So, we 19
041total classrooms across our buildings. So, how many of each? We have two emotional support classrooms, one life skills MDS classroom, and then the rest are autistic support classrooms. So, okay. So, was that 14? Wait, I'm sorry, I missed the numbers. Uh, it 16. 16. Autistic support. Autistic support. All right. Um, so that would be what? All 13 elementaryaries and the three middle schools then. Is that counted as elementary because it's Nope. Just just across the 13 countries. Okay. Um, so if you are a student, well actually maybe come back to this question. Sorry, I'm kind of just I didn't have a chance to look at the presentation before the meeting. So scattered here. Um, if you are a student who you talked about ELA and math being delivered uh designated special education teachers to provide
042full ELA and math instruction in a special education environment. Is that available in every elementary school building? Yes. So teams decide what students need uh no matter what and have to make those recommendations. We're just looking at putting some um criteria around helping teams make the decisions and making sure that there is always a teacher available to provide that instruction. Um it, you know, teams might have to adjust and and switch schedules and do things in the school year as needs come up and we're just making sure that moving forward next year there there is already a designated time block teacher and that's all taken care of. So this might arguably serve the role in another district as like a supplemental learning support type environment. So yeah, so uh technically this is considered learning support
043services and probably the amount of time that a student would spend if they were doing their full block of ELA or math, even if it was just one, it would probably bump them just under 80% of their school day um in the gened environment. So yes, that would be considered supplemental. Okay. Is there any would there be a student that could potentially receive both in that type of environment? Yep. Okay. Because I do feel like that's something that has been sorely needed like when we we've our continuum I think has provided proper level of service an appropriate level of service to autistic support students and emotional support students because of the intensity I think of the of the need sometimes. I think with our learning support students that you know have that specialized need but
044could still function probably more effectively in a smaller environment. I think this is moving us in that right direction, right? Because, you know, the reason there's a continuum is because disabilities have a continuum as well, right? Some are more severe than others. Some need more help than others. And um I do think that having the opportunity to have students be able to receive more specialized instruction when it suits their needs. That's not to say that every student needs to be, you know, moved into a a smaller environment. If they're functioning in an inclusive model and and that's working for them, then obviously that's fabulous. Um, but I do think that this is an important piece of that continuum that that needs to be there. I'm glad to hear that it is available in every building.
045Um, yeah. So, oh, you know what? I have one other question about the PA lab for the high school students. when we saw our presentation the other night at our work session and they were kind of showing, you know, the potential for that space and I believe it was the Pays Lab that they were referring to. They talked about like a laundry facility, sort of an apartment setup, a kitchen. Um, but I was wondering about other like soft skills. Are those offered in like the pays lab to to start getting students sort of you know introduced to skill sets that might translate into work opportunities um for when they are actually doing a step program or they are actually doing a work placement program that it might fit you know what I mean like if
046punching cards or you know plugging in devices or you know simple tasks but you know is that also available on our Pays Lab in terms of job soft training skills. Yes, we we do have the soft training skills in the PAS lab and also with the expansion of looking at the uh the DM the um training there is um what's called the EES essential elements that addresses some of those soft skills. So, we're expanding more, but yes, we do have opportunities. We do have the the job coaches that work with the students as well. So yes, we are doing that in the pay lab and some of it outside of the paid pays lab, but we are looking at expanding that to the greatest extent possible moving forward, especially with the new high school building.
047That's going to create more opportunities, but we're not waiting for the building to be completed. Go from the special ed department is working with the architects and the teams to talk about the needs for the secondary education. So um myself, special education supervisors, um, and our department head, we we have collaborative meetings, planning with the architects and Dr. Nicholson. Um so we have been having consistent meetings um and uh to identify what is needed for our students placement of classrooms supports um and just um expansion of the continuum where we're moving the direction we're moving it as a district but myself and special education administration have been involved in supporting. So these are updates I know that I personally am very excited to to hear. We've got a lot about construction and spaces, but in
048terms of what special education or the science department, the math department, our STEM vision, like I really am interested to hear the conversation that you all are having with architects to say, "Hey, this is what we'd like to see actually fill those spaces, right?" So, I know Dr. G and I have talked about that and I think hopefully maybe in the fall we might get some sort of presentation on that. But um really interested to see how like the steel standards, how you know our our expansion of the continuum and and our focus on special ed over there is being articulated into design plans for the high school. So just absolutely folks radar. Thank you. We look forward to that um conversation. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. Could you share and I
049know this is preliminary um so you can keep it as streamlined as possible some of the um things that you were looking at in terms of the middle schools in terms of sensory labs as a possibility in the next couple years. Yes. Um actually I I have a follow-up meeting next week um to uh identify what we're the um the timeline for um the sensory room. So there are sensory rooms in um our middle schools, but what we have not had is um equit equitable um sensory room. So we um with some grant funding um we are looking to um have support for to create sensory rooms that are equitable across our three middle school buildings and provide training and coaching so that our staff know how to effectively utilize those rooms. So, we've already
050started with tours to look at the rooms and speaking with um administration um and even some of the staff who will be using those sensory rooms. So, we're we're at the beginning stages. We um the goal is to have it up and running sometime next school year. But it's not just creating a room that students will you can say, "Oh, just go in the room, use this sensory room." But um we we need to make sure that all of our staff know how to best utilize those rooms to support our students. Thank you, Mr. McBain. Is there any question? Are there any questions from you or from either of our student reps? You don't have to have a question, but does anyone else have a question? I do not this evening, but thank you. Okay.
051Um, we thank you for the presentation and we look forward to continuing to see how our services are expanding and we're meeting and supporting the needs of our students and what professional learning as well looks like for our teachers. So, um, thank you again both for joining us. Thank you. Thank you for having us. Next up is the student representative update. Um, I can go first for the student rep update. Um, first of all, I really enjoyed hearing about the special education and how we're really starting to meet uh specific needs of students. I think that's incredible. Um, I don't really have anything to add. Um, students had our senior prom last weekend and it was a really great time and we're pretty much just gearing up for graduation now. Yeah. Oh, sorry. Oh, go
052ahead. Um, yeah. So, I really enjoyed the um first presentation about um really like incorporating like just learning how um changing how we teach science to especially elementary school kids because I know it was my favorite subject when I was in elementary school. But just really like amping up their curiosity with like learning how to like sense make. I think that's really great. But yeah, I have nothing to report as well. Thank you. Okay. U Dr. Waters, I don't see anything else. I don't believe for other business. Um Dr. G, there is Yeah, nothing for other business. There are a couple of Oh, student travel. student travel. So, if you're ready, I can do that one. Yes. All right. Before I do that, and Haley, I know you have to jump off soon, but I
053want to say have a great time. I want to see pictures. Send me pictures. All right. Let's see. Um, before they jump off, what what are we doing after school? I would love to hear that. Um, I'm going to study uh political science at Princeton. Congratulations. Yay. Um, I'm going to be majoring in biochemistry at Nor Eastern. Good job. Congratulations. So proud of you guys. That's wonderful. All of the wonderful things our students are doing. Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. We are very proud of you and wish you both the best and can't wait to see you at graduation. Yeah. And Dr. G, this will be it for them because we're we don't have a June or July ECI meeting. So I know. Well, we thought it would only be nice to let them graduate instead of
054coming to an ECI meeting. So, um we really wish both of you the best. You have been great student representatives and um we just know you're going to go so far in your future and um we're very fortunate. When people want to know the evidence of how our students are doing, there you go. Princeton Northeastern Biochem Political Science. Excellent job, girls. Yeah, congrats. Looking forward to seeing you both at graduation. So, and if you two need to jump off, it's okay. I know you have some other things this evening. So, thank you for your reports. Okay. All right. Student travel, Dr. G. Yes, student travel. All right. And feel free to summarize. You don't need to read the entire I'm going to do that for you. Um, we do have three items um for student
055travel. The first is recommending approval for three North Penn High School health occupation students of America students and three chaperones to go to an international leadership conference. They'll be at the Gaylord uh Opriand Hotel in Nashville uh June 19th through the 22nd. The second trip is approximately 28 students from Penrook, the Technology Student Associ Association and a staff member, some other staff members. They will be competing at the National Technology Student Association, also at the Gaylord. Um, and that's June 27th through July 1st. And then finally, we have one Future Business Leader of America, and that student and staff member will be going to Anaheim, California for the Future Business Leaders National Competition June 28th through July 3rd. Okay. Any questions about any of the student travel? Okay. And I have a motion to move
056student travel forward. So moved. Second. Okay. All in favor? I. Motion passes. That will move forward to our next action meeting. Next we have plagiarism software tool RFP update. Yes. So, this is just another update. We're recommending approval to move to board action meeting this week also to award a plagiarism software tool. Um, and that tool would be to stick with our current vendor and continue to use Turn It In. Um, they meet our needs. They have teacher level data. Um, they were able to just continue to illustrate how their product works really well and particularly with AI. So, we'd like um you to also move that to action as well. I have a motion. Second. Second. Any discuss? Any discussion? I am just curious. Yes. How does it know if what the student wrote
057was plagiarized from AI? So, Dr. Hart may have a little bit more information, but I know that Turn It In when you put the work through, it is able to tell if it was truly written by a student or if it was AI. I I don't know how it knows that, but this technology can pick that up. And it absolutely can. I can actually chime in on this because I've used it um at the the college level. Um, and that is that it really does scan the work and tells the teacher if it is 100 if it was 100% written by a human. It literally can say like 100% human or like what percentage chance it is that it was written by AI. I mean, that's the streamlined version of it, right? Um, Dr. Hart,
058I don't know if there's something specific that you know beyond that basically saying here's how it was written by. Yeah, I think it could tell by the the cadence of the writing, the language. Um I I do have a question a followup question to that um to Mr. Fusco and that is um it's one thing for us to have this tool that um that can catch students, right? But I am wondering to what extent we're doing work in whether it's I mean across classes, our English classes, our social studies classes to support our students in knowing and understanding how to effectively use AI. You know, I say to my students like use AI to help create an outline, give you some ideas of an outline that you know here here's what my paper is going
059to be about. Here are my ideas. help me kind of think through and give me an outline, but not to write my paper. Correct. And I think we're doing our students a disservice, especially this generation, because they are so they want technology to do everything for them. I don't want to just catch them. I want to teach them what they need to be doing when they go into college, right? How can I effectively use AI? So, I'm wondering what work we're doing around that. I don't know if that's a Dr. Hart or something. I'm wondering where that work is happening and to what extent it's happening. Yeah, I'll start and then certainly Dr. Hart can chime in, but I know that Mrs. Early who oversees um the humanities uh side of the house, she does
060work very closely, you know, with the English teachers and department chairs around this. And I do know that um just some of the work that our technology department is doing with AI and kind of bringing that all together, making sure that students do know how to use it as a tool um but not as something like you're saying where just doing it for them. Um and just making sure that they understand, you know, the benefits of it, but making sure the work is still theirs. Um but Dr. Hart, feel free to Yeah, I mean, I think that you've captured that, you know, really beautifully and succinctly. Um, one of the areas and we've been talking a lot about this and I think Dr. G your um, reflection of this is a tool and how do
061we ensure that students leave North Penn High School um, kind of transitioning to the next phase of their life able to use it as a tool and that's a lot of the work that we've been really focusing on um, in secondary um, conversations with principles and teachers as well. Um, some departments spending a little more time on this area of focus such as in the humanities but all areas we're really focusing on. uh Mike Badai has done a really nice job in facilitating a number of uh professional learning sessions um with staff. Um and so part of like our work and one of the goals we have for this coming year is how do we use AI with our colleagues to use it as a tool um for their work to help with some efficiency
062and then also exactly what you're saying. How do we provide some guidelines as well um as students are kind of engaging in writing as well? We definitely have um some work uh we've done as a committee um just around sort of like our ethical considerations kind of sharing with students um but I think that those parameters are a good place to start but the actual teaching is really work that we're engaged in now kind of getting ready for the fall um and we can continue that conversation because I do think that it's super important um having my own college student as well and recognizing um that it's encouraged in college to use as a tool um and we do want to make sure our students are able to use it really effectively and there's the
063just the right time and place and there are definitely teachers that have incorporated into their instructional program. Um, but it's not everyone. Um, and we recognize it's important to make sure that there's some common experiences across all content areas and teachers as well. Yes, I think for the fall it would be great to have um some type of presentation about that back at ECI just about kind of how we are everything that you describe that consistency and that commonality um across classrooms that that this is we're going to make sure all North Pen students know and understand about how to effectively use AI as they're transitioning. And I mean, and to be honest, it should be starting in like I before they go to the high school because remember our high schoolers are ninth graders.
064So we need someone to be talking to our ninth graders about this as well. Um so just something to continue to think through. Um so with that though, um we do have a second and a motion. Um all in favor? I. Mr. McBain, are you and I for this? Yes. Sorry about that. Okay. Okay. And so the motion passes and we will move that forward. Okay. Additional topics. Don't believe there are any. We do not have an ECI meeting in June as our students will be graduating and our educators will be very busy with the end of the year events. So we will not have an ECI meeting in June. Um, do we have anyone to address the um committee for public comment? Uh, yes we do. Okay, let me read the um guidelines then.
065Individuals attending this meeting virtually and intending to speak to the committee should be aware that they are being recorded. In order to meet the requirements of Pennsylvania sunshine law, it is necessary to record the names of all citizens who speak to the committee during the meeting. To assure compliance with this requirement, it is essential that those planning to address the committee raise their hand electronically and state their name and municipality. Members of the audience are asked to limit their questions and comments to matters being discussed at tonight's meeting or matters that may come before the ECI committee. To allow time for all those who wish to speak to the committee, the chairperson may ask an individual to yield to the yield the microphone to the next speaker. Um, we have Mr. Jason Laneir. Mr. Laneir,
066you may um unmute your mic and state your name and municipality. And could we have the time up, please? Yep. Uh, Jace Laneir Lansdale. Uh, kind of take this reverse order. Um, the special education thing. I not sure what to say about that. I mean, it is a little bit alarming the number of new kids coming in that have uh that require special education. Um, but aside from that, just the vision statement, I I got to tell you, it's it's like there's there's some coded language in here or it's odd language. What why not just spell it out directly? I mean, you have things in here for, it's written out in the vision statement, academically and emotionally equitable opportunities and respect for human differences in yada yada yada and contribute to the local and global
067communities. That's a what does all that mean? What is an equitable opportunity versus an equal opportunity? really it the there seems to be a confusion in in in uh um combining those or replacing one with the other. That's that's what it reads to me. And they are two totally different things. One is sort of a equal outcome and one is sort of the opportunity to to uh to uh benefit as as you can. Um, putting that aside, the science thing, it would seem to me and I that this would has been being going on in the sciences since time in memoriam. I mean, we did we did physical science like this in in school and I went to a public educ uh public uh uh public education facility. Um, so no doubt no doubt that
068this has already been done. Why are we renaming it and adding all these things uh that are supposedly going to make it better? Is it really going to make it better or are we trying to actually conquer the problem of of lower proficiencies? And again, you have these statements in here. There there's two things, right? There's a lot a lot of talk about equitable this and equitable that. And again, how do you make science equitable? It's either that there's there's a an ability to understand something or there's not. No matter no matter how much uh you teach some who doesn't understand uh radio physics, they're not going to get it. It doesn't matter how much you you you talk to them about it. It's just not going to happen. And especially here there was this
069last on the last slide or second to last slide there's this traditional contemporary and future. And this is really kind of alarming in my mind. It's like you talk about education going to being for something of of scientific interest to finally in the future being about student advocacy and justice. So, you're gonna ruin science for the name of woke ideology? What is going on with this? You kids are going to lean less in the scientific community. They're going to know fewer things, but they're going to be social justice warriors. That's what this education of science is going to be. You got to you got to fix this. Dr. Hart, can I ask you a question? Do we tr or actually maybe Dr. Waters maybe will appropriate for this question. Um do we track the programs
070that North Pen graduates go into in college? Like is there any system for kind of like following what majors when student declare them? Yeah, my understanding is they do like surveys and things when students go off and try to get that information and then you know, however many students choose to complete it, they have the current email, that kind of thing. A lot of them will send it back, but then some don't, but they do try to get information about, you know, what they're doing, how they're doing. I I I've only ever been able to say this anecdotally. Um, I would love to see some data behind it, but having a North Penn graduate at this point who herself has gone into a science field, having one of the two reps in this committee going
071into a science field, I I feel as though I know a disproportionate number of like 19 year olds right now who have gone into science fields that graduated from North Penn. Um, I would love to actually see just how robust that number looks, uh, to put a little meat behind this statement. But one thing that I'm I'm very confident about is that North Penn is doing a fabulous job producing young people who want to go into these fields that want to continue exploring biochemistry, chemistry, biology, you know, engineering, uh, mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, you know. So to Mr. Laneir's concern that North Penn is ruining science, I think he can relax on that one, you know, just relax. Um, in regards to the the mission statement or the vision, the idea of an equitable opportunity,
072I think special education is really the most obvious way you can point to equity. Special education in its name just is equitable, right? It's it's unique to the individual needs of a student. who has a disability that requires extra intervention from an educator, from specially designed instruction, from environmental accommodations or augmentative communication devices, things we spend more money on for that student, right? That is what we talk about is providing equitable opportunities for them, right? An equal opportunity would be them just sitting in the same class with, you know, non-exceptional peers and just telling them, you know, good luck, right? That you're getting the same thing everybody else is getting. Good luck. Right? When it comes to special education, if Mr. Laneir can't understand why equity is important here, he's not going to understand it
073anywhere. So, you know, I would suggest that he u look up the meaning of the term itself uh before asking such an inane question about special education. I would only add to that um Mr. Fusco so eloquently stated, you know, most of the things that I I would have stated, but um you know, every student deserves an on-ramp uh to be able to learn and every student deserves to be in the science classroom. and um our students with special needs deserve equitable, not the same, not just what everyone else has, opportunities to have access to the science curriculum. Um and I think it's a disservice for people to think that they can't access that curriculum without the right supports in place, which is disappointing. Um, and as an educator of 27 years, I believe in
074our students and I believe in what our teachers do for our students. So, um, and I have three North Penn graduates who went from K to 12. Two went into science and one is in law school. So, and as Mr. Fusco said, he has this he also has a college student who also went into science and is doing extremely well. So my I feel like the North Kid science program, North Penn science program seem to work for our students. We're just a small focused group, but I also know that we shake the hands of all of the graduates. Um and as I'm shaking the hands of graduates on graduation night, I always try to say, "Oh, where are you going? What are you doing? What are you up to next?" And it is everything from
075the Navy, the Army. Um I'm I'm going to go uh be an engineer. It it's you know Princeton as we heard our students saying here to Harvard and Yale and it's pretty amazing everything our students are doing. Some going right into the workforce and they're already going to be going into welding. They've been to the vocational school um and they have great careers ahead of them. So, um I think I am pretty proud of our science, technology, engineering program and the partnerships that we have even with the vocational school. Um and I I guess I would leave it at that. I'll just add too um if it's okay like Mr. Laneir, I know Mr. Fesco did just give another example of equity versus, you know, equality. And I know I think it was just at
076the last work session. I think, you know, he mentioned that he's talked to Dr. Hart and still doesn't know the difference. But I will say that I know I've met with him about it. I know Dr. Bower has, Dr. Hart has, and Dr. Hart and I did a presentation um that, you know, he attended and we explained it there. We had visuals. But again, we're always happy to talk to you again about it, Mr. Laneir. Happy to do it. Just give us a call or an email. Perhaps we should start giving him performance assessments after these meetings. You're muted, Alicia. Thank you. I was trying to find you all to unmute myself. We are at the end of our meeting. Um, and so we have student travel that is moving forward as well as the
077plagiarism software tool RFP. Um, and so again uh the next ECI meeting dates um will be scheduled as listed. I believe we will be looking at an August meeting. Um and without um any further ado, can I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? So move. Second. Second. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Meeting adjourned everyone. Thank you all for joining us this evening. Take care. you everybody.