NPSD School Board -Education, Curriculum & Instruction Committee Meeting 1-14-25

001you are now live meeting is yours thank you all right I would like to call the January 14th 2025 ECI committee meeting to order 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 and just bear with me while I find my agenda again right uh we do need to uh a motion to approve the minutes from the last meeting motion to approve the minutes of the last meeting second and all in favor I minutes approved for the last meeting okay we have student travel next all right good evening everybody and happy New Year um we have several student travel trips it's nice to be

002a North pin high school student um I know one of the things that you guys were hoping for is that we would increase the groups who were going and I think that's happening um so I'm going to do a quick um overview of the uh student travel items and you can see more details as far as cost and things of that nature attached so the first one uh we have 45 North pen High School uh boys lacrosse student athletes a staff member and three chapon they're going to be going to spring training in C CMI Florida March 14th to March 18th we have 21 cheerleaders uh staff two staff members and two chaperon who qualified for the National High School cheerleading Championship which is in Orlando Florida I want to go with them uh February

0036th through February Ary 10th we are also recommending approval for 5 to 10 North pin High School Key Club student members one North Penn staff member and they will be attending the Key Club Pennsylvania District annual convention in Grantville PA I don't know where that is Orlando sounds better um March 28th to March 30th we also have 23 North pen High School Health Professions Club student members and two staff members they're going to be attending the Health occupation student of America leadership conference and that's in Lancaster Pennsylvania March 26 through March 28th and finally we have 32 North pin High School future Business Leaders of America Two staff members and they will be participating in the future Business Leaders state competition in Hershey PA April 6 through April 9th um all of these different trips

004have a different costs um many of them paid for by parent booster club students and again whenever there's a financial hardship there's always a plan to support those students so again um details are attached any questions no questions on my end um looks like a lot of great things that are happening um and I'm certainly grateful that students have opportunities continue to just want to encourage and make sure that we um not just um that we make sure that students have access and I see that that's noted on here so um we just want all students to be able to take part in all these great things okay can I have a motion to move the student travel to action no moved second all in favor I and student travel will move to action we

005are going to I guess adjust our agenda a bit to ensure that our student representative can provide their update and we can review the calendar is that correct Dr waters you know what if we can do the student report and then the presentation and that way um Hy can kind of jump off when she needs to and then we'll end with the calendar if that's okay okay so we are going to move C up student rep update and it will be great to hear from Haley okay um hi everyone happy New Year um I only have like a couple things um our winter ball is this Friday and I know a lot of students are excited for that um also recently the seniors were able to vote for their graduation date um between Saturday morning

006the 14th June 14th and Tuesday evening the 17th and seniors chose the 17th so we'll be graduating in the evening um and lastly like I asked um this is just like a quick shout out I asked like a bunch of students at school like if they could change one thing like about um like the north pen curriculum or education like what would it be and most students like couldn't come up with anything so I think it goes to show like how hard everyone is working and um just like how great the north pen education system is um hay I was wondering how um just an update on the kind of like how assessments are going this year um and that kind of thing um I don't have any high school students anymore so I don't

007know so I'm adopting you um tell me tell me everything um tell us all uh just how the assessments are going um and everything I think one of the things we put in place last year was um and Dr B couldn't correct me or or Dr Waters some blackout dates as to like when assessments would occur um in terms of like not like right before a holiday or something like that how how is that going and what's kind of the sentiment around that yeah I think that the blackout days are super helpful um for the students who are celebrating I think sometimes when there's like a lot of blackout dates in a month it can push all of the tests to be like in the same week um which puts a little bit of pressure

008on students um but I do think that the blackout days like are still important um um I will say like one thing that some students have talked to me about is that sometimes the difference between a checkpoint and a cumulative grade like um it's like not made super clear like a teacher will be giving a test and then like halfway through they'll say oh I'm actually this is actually going to be a checkpoint which would go in like a different grade category um which is like sometimes frustrating but I think other than that um the black o days have been really helpful thank you for that haey I am somebody who has a student in high school and I've heard this same thing um and it is the kind of thing where I feel like

009the vast majority of teachers are really bought in and doing you know the doing applying assessments and and and enacting our new policy um efficiently and effectively um I just want to make sure that Administration is making sure to do their due diligence uh and follow up um if they are aware or made aware of some teachers that still need a little bit more you know coaching to make sure that you know they're not that they are doing what's expected and not trying to find in rounds and things like that um I appreciate you you bringing that up Haley thank you um thank you Haley and thank you for the for the report um any other questions for Haley okay we will move on then to the presentation Dr Waters yes okay and I also

010want to thank you Haley for the great report and feedback and we have the right people on this call to just make sure that those reminders are given so we appreciate that all right um so tonight I'm really excited to um be here with so many uh colleagues who support the cultural proficiency equity and inclusion work in North Penn I was thinking about this today and I was thinking that when I taught at Oak Park back in the 90s I think I was on like the closing the achievement Gap committee back then and so it's nice to know that all these years um North pen has really been committed to making changes around this work so um before we jump into the presentation I did just want to give you a little bit of background

011information one of the things that I think it's important to note is that um we do still partner with the Delaware Valley Consortium for excellence and equity and even though all of our administrators can't be on our leadership team around on this work many of them still take advantage of those opportunities learning and growing in some of those areas just like all of us on this call do um I also want to note that tonight you're going to be hearing from many people on our exec team who also lead subcommittees we have five subcommittees that we're working on in our district and tonight not all of our co-chairs are here but many of them are here or someone is at least here from each uh subcommittee to kind of share out and just really talk

012to you a little bit about their goal workor as well as areas of focus for this school year um I do want to note that all of our subcommittees are a representative of all different stakeholder groups so we have parents we have support staff we have special education teachers related Services administrators teachers um a little bit of everything and it's really important that we have all of those different voices and perspectives on each of our subcommittees one of the things that we do every year is really just look at who is on each subcommittee and kind of just make sure that we have the right people in these spaces to help us move this work um I also want to acknowledge our consultant Dr Barbara Moore Williams she comes to our monthly executive team meetings

013she also supports um the work that our goal one friends are doing around professional development and she also debriefs with Dr Hart who is my co-chair we kind of oversee all of this together and she debriefs with with us on a reg basis um so I did want to give her a little shout out because she's been very helpful um to North pen and to all of us so without further Ado um tonight I'm going to be kicking it off to my uh partner in this work Dr Pam Hart our director of curriculum and Equity she's going to give you a little frame about what you are going to be hearing this evening and also um we have several people on the call again I'll quickly let you know who will be presenting for goal

014one we have uh Rachel early and Jackie giom Marco for goal two tonight you will hear from Megan shoppy goal three you'll hear from uh Dr Taylor uh goal four you will hear from Dave yum and goal five um Dr kler Who just successfully defended yesterday um will be uh sharing you make everybody smiles when you hear that because those of us who've done it we know what it's like so we're all like yay breaking into a little small for you and and Dr McKenna of course is on here as a support because he also is a leader in the work all right so Pam I'll turn it over to you to start us off uh thanks for that fabulous frame really appreciate it h good evening everyone it's really a delight to be here

015U Mary if you don't mind uh posting the slides that would be great all right thank you so much um so as Dr Waters said uh we are really honored to have an opportunity to provide a highlight of the work that we've been engaged in um over the past couple of years with a really focus on this past year and the work that we're doing this year as well um I thought I would begin a next slide please um although I know everyone's able to read the slide sometimes it's really powerful just to kind of hear it and everyone kind of hearing the text at the same time so our goal around our cultural proficiency um equity and inclusive work um is that the north pen School District seeks to develop a community that values

016and adapts to diversity we strive to acknowledge respect understand and celebrate the Dynamics of racial and cultural differences through the development of our culturally proficient staff and establishment of structures that promote Equitable opportunities and Partnerships with families and students our school district will create an environment of respect where all members of the school Community are empowered to learn grow and appreciate one another a very powerful goal and we're hoping that as we kind of share our work you will see those goals come to life uh this evening so next slide um I always think it's really helpful to kind of ground ourselves um in our school Community uh we have almost 13,000 students and although the demographics for this past year are similar uh to this year I just want to kind of ground ourselves

017in who our students are you can see um the ethnic and racial diversity of our um student population you all o see um socioeconomically that we have um the students who are eligible for free and reduced lunch um our English language Learners are multi um uh multilingual Learners um as well as students on each end of the learning profile students who receive special education students and those who are identified as gifted as well um really even though they're kind of identified separately there is an in um a dynamic interplay we have students who kind of fall into all of these categories which makes our work um even more important and dynamic so next slide please um to Peggy back on what Dr Waters said uh we've been doing cultural proficiency work for many many years

018and in 2018 um U stakeholders really made a very concerted effort to take the work that had been done and really formalize the work um by establishing some very specific goals um to track progress and to also make sure that we were kind of staying on target with our goals um you can see the goals that are are outlined here um highlighting professional development really focusing on disproportionality uh thinking very critically about um attracting diverse applicants and holding on to them um as members of our um School community and finally increasing um Family engagement the work has been really amazing um and we'll be able to highlight that as we move through one of the things that we recognized about a year and a half ago is while we have been engaged in this cultural

019proficiency work there were also the special education department created a a task force in 2020 to be able to set their own goals and really kind of think about ways in which we can ensure that we have a very inclusive School community and for a number of years uh the two bodies of work kind of worked parallel uh last fall about a year and a half ago we recognized that it would be really important for us to come together and really merge our cultural proficiency work with our inclusive practice work to be able to to see where there were overlaps and where there may be some holes um as well um so we gathered a group of stakeholders um last fall and then again last winter and we recognized that one of the areas that

020was really um missing in our cultural proficiency work that was very evident in the inclusive practice work was really around systems and structures so if you go to the next slide Mary um last winter we expanded our cultural proficiency and Equity work to include um inclusion um and you'll see um Dr um hler and maybe Dr McKenna uh will talk a little bit about what that looked like but this idea of thinking about the systems and structures very critically um through a lens of um equity and inclusion has been a really wonderful addition uh to our work and helped us to be much more inclusive next slide please um so I just want to kind of take a minute or two to just provide an overview of our structure of our work for those of

021you who may be in watching this presentation for the very first time as Dr Waters highlighted we do have an executive committee me uh meeting of members and they represent various um stakeholder groups in our school Community uh and they represent all five of the Committees that you're going to hear from this evening I want to highlight the fact that um our goal for which is really around um Family engagement um there's been a little bit of an offshoot of that particular goal um in our parents and Equity Group um for many years met as a very large group um I had had representatives from various um schools just to think about ideas and activities that were taking place one of the things that we recognized in that large group is that parents had very

022different areas of interest and so this year we've made um I think a concerted effort to really have that big piece of the pie into smaller pieces so we have a variety of um Affinity groups and groups um that really do reflect a lot of the diversity within our school communities um represented get together and uh Dave yam is going to talk a little bit about that I also want to highlight that we do have um this work it's not just from a central administrative kind of lens but each building um has a task force really devoted to um making sure that we have cultural proficiency equity and inclusive um initiatives and a lens through all the work that is happening in those buildings as well so with that frame I would love to turn

023it over uh to my colleagues uh Rachel early Jackie GM Marco who are two of the three co-chairs for goal one to talk a little bit about the work that they've been engaged in so I'm going to turn it over to you lovely ladies thank you Pam um Rachel's gonna talk a little bit a little bit more in just a minute about some of the uh Focus areas that we've had this year uh Dan Mina couldn't join us uh today but he's principal at Walton farm and is also a co-chair for goal one um and goal one is really about increasing the Capac capacity of Staff around cultural proficiency cultural responsiveness and inclusive practices and through professional development we've tried to make a really tight connection there in how staff can um really support this

024in their day-to-day work and so we're going to talk a little bit about some of the professional development that's taken place this year um and what areas we've been focusing on you go to the next slide uh this year has really been a focus on data instru and instruction with an equity lens and Rachel's going to talk uh in just a second about the structure for those sessions but really um grounding the work with some articles and excerpts for staff to focus on and then bringing in the data that they're looking at on a daily basis as a building and supporting their building goals to respond to that um in a culturally proficient way um another component to our professional development sessions this year has really been responding to behavior so providing some scenarios that

025might have taken place uh that people may experience in their classroom or building and really talking through how to respond to those behaviors and prevent behaviors um from happening and so really that's about knowing the data both academic and behavioral and really um looking at the the data the climate culture with an asset or strength-based mindset and that was really one of our sessions was really focused in on that and kind of looking at the strengths of uh the child or children and how to expand on that in order to um see growth so uh you'll see here the five dates um that we have throughout the year really focused around this work um and it's primarily uh facilitated by the building team but our Central administrators are also um in buildings and helping to

026support the work as well on the uh inservice days so some of them have been like full day ins Services others have been early dismissal days um in addition to teaching staff and instructional staff we've also really um goal one has partnered with a lot of our support staff groups um to do the same exact work again meeting with them talking through what their needs are um as a department and then finding the appropriate times for that to happen because they're not always you know H have the time on the uh professional development days that the teachers might have so kind of getting creative and what works for those departments and so facilities Transportation um administrative assistance School nutrition services just really trying to focus on all of those groups to really build the capacity

027of all I'll pass it to Rachel thank you Jackie good evening everyone um so I just want to highlight some areas of focus and action steps uh or we can go to the next slide Jackie did that all right I'm over to data but before we jump into the data that we will be that we have used this year we did want to focus on where that came from so every after every um professional development session we do send out a Google form to all of our participants and we read all the responses um and so that's a practice that we've been engaged in for quite some time that we do find to be very meaningful so based upon um the feedback that we were given last year looking for Trends and patterns we were

028able to come up with the theme of equity Focus data and behavior that Jackie just reviewed for us um so we will be talking about the types of data sets our buildings will be analyzing um through the research um and just to highlight some of the research that we've used so far this year since we've had two sessions we're about to have our third session coming up next week um we've had an article from Tyrone Howard who was a previous keynote speaker um we've also done some work on asset versus deficit mindset and um next week we'll be reading an excerpt from Ruthless equity which is from Ken Williams who is going to be an upcoming keynote speaker for our February 14th in service day so just to highlight that a bit um and then

029um we can go to the next slide it'll provide a good image for the group so here are multiple measures of data that our building teams are able to pull from in order to make their session align best to their school goals and so you can just take a minute I won't read through all of them but they fall in the categories of student learning perceptual demographic and process and in the next slide you can see an example of a snapshot again I know we're doing just an overview but we did want to provide specific examples so this is an example of Behavioral at the building level and then before we move over to goal two we just wanted to provide some teacher examples of teacher feedback I did reference a Google form that we

030utilize for all of our participants both support staff and um professional staff you can just move to the next slide thank you so you can just take a moment to look over them I will not read them all but I did want to highlight some key trends just getting our teachers to utilize a broader lenss for their instruction um the deficit versus asset-based mindset that I referenced earlier um focusing on differentiation of instruction and then also just supporting multilingual learner students all right that's it for goal one thanks Rachel um so for goal two uh Dr Balden and I lead the charge and uh she is not able to be here tonight so I did want to point out that we updated our goal this year to add um the specifics of the supension data

031and students being disproportionately suspended uh we added that after reviewing some of our data from last year um we did a couple things if you want to go to the next slide last year in meeting with students in groups um particularly at the high school to talk about what we noticed in the data so in particular um our class cut data was significantly higher than it had been for certain groups so we met with those students um as a goal group and kind of went through like asking them very specifics as to what was going on why they were cutting how they were feeling what they felt could do different to help them um you know attend class more or be more engaged in their own learning and we took that feedback and um you

032know really looked at that to kind of make some change some of that feedback was used uh as we began to look at night Zone and how we could um support students that way um we also took a look and started um some questions with in our own discipline policy as to how we could change that to better meet the needs of students and better support students um because some data that the kids gave us kind of made us stop and pause as to what was going on there and um I know that you know the discipline policy is now there's a committee and people from go to are part of that Committee in looking at that and then one of the things we're looking at this year is um you know going a little

033bit further than just looking at what's happening at the high school going down to the middle school to see what are some things there that maybe we can do to support students to change behavior before it becomes a habit um so looking at creating a mentoring program where we have some students from the high school who have changed their behavior who are figuring it out and are doing better um go back and talk to some of the kids um in the middle school that we've identified through data that might need that support um and might need a little bit of coaching on how they could handle things differently from kids who have kind of walked their walk um when you look at the data for us on the next slide what really stood out to

034me and and our group um when we talk to the kids was school start time was one of the things kids continually mentioned time with their friends um a lot of them had different responsibilities outside of school so they weren't able to hang out with their friends being in an affinity group and being part of you know students who speak their language or understood their culture um really using that rationale as to how they could move forward um and what school was really doing for them in the future so looking at that connection between high school and their future because a lot of the kids weren't able to make that connection and that came through uh very loud and clear to our group in these conversations so um that was kind of our piece last

035year and then taking that a step further um you know letting the students know what we did with that and moving them some of them who have really heard that getting them to now go back and give back to this mentoring program that we're looking to get started in the Middle School another piece that we did is really um taking a look at some of our course selection pieces of things um our high school goals are aligned now um and one of our goals is to kind of change the course selection process a little bit changing those timelines and moving them up and part of the the re rationale I guess for that is really looking at um a pre AP predictability and our past data so that um we can talk to students before

036they leave for the summer um really getting that data into the hands of teachers so when they're making course recommendations they can look at that data and they have that available to them and then um kind of showing families what we're seeing their students are capable of to encourage them to to try that higher course to really go for that so that's kind of the focus of goal two right now um in conjunction with you know some of the other goals I'm going to pause us just for a moment because we're halfway through um and because it's a long presentation just to give the committee an opportunity to just ask some questions about one and two um so that while it's fresh in our mind and we're kind of having the conversations about it um

037because I know I already have a couple questions written down so um I understand I'll I'll start so um goal one just um wanted to know I really appreciate the work that we're doing around asset-based mindset especially the asset um versus deficit would appreciate it if maybe you could send a copy of that article that you are focusing the information around Ken Williams to the committee I think that would be the committee would appreciate seeing that um uh for next year I just had a question in terms we we are doing the calendar tonight are we kind of set up for next year in terms of professional development continuing to make sure that we have the days that we have allotted for professional development that we you know had put in back in 2020 when

038we said we were re reiterating the commitment to the work do we have professional development days earmarked for what we're going to do for next year like I noticed there were like seven days or 60 whatever that you just noted are those in place that was one of my questions um and then Rachel in particular I just wanted to say I had a chance to attend the diversity um the world cathol the other evening and one of the parents there was talking about how much she had seen a change in the literature that was available now at the high school in particular um we actually had a conversation about it because I said I had I remember when it was just one thing and the work that's been done and so I really just wanted

039to it's nice when you can see your work come to fruition and I know you really really worked hard on that um and I know you continue to work I know like each year you're continuing to work hard so I wanted to thank you for that work and just acknowledge it because it is really hard work on you and the teachers to prepare to think about what doing new novels and that kind of thing that are more representative of all of our students um and that's great for all of our students so I wanted to just acknowledge that um ask the question about the PD days as well um and the PD days might be Jackie maybe yes so jump in so that's definitely part of the conversation as we're planning the calendar is making

040sure that we have you know the time alloted and while we may not have on what specific day it's occurring yet until the calendar gets finalized that's definitely continues to be a priority when we're thinking about you know uh the days for next year so absolutely um then my only um question thank you Jackie I appreciate that then I'm going to defer to my I'm sure that especially Mr MCB probably has course selection questions um specifically around the AP classes um and course selection um I can appreciate I I think it's good that we're looking at the course selection process um I understand that P data is a data point that we can use and pssas are a data point that we can use I hope that it's not the only data point that we

041are using especially coming off of talking about having an asset based mindset set right there that is not the only data I hope that we are using to determine if students can take an AP class um and then I also was wondering for students who maybe it's their first AP class or something like that like what supports do we have in place to just like help make sure that they you know that that they feel supported that they know what that's going to look like that they um you know know how to navigate the amount of work that it's going to be if they never taken an AP class Mr McBain can totally speak more to this but I do have a question about those two things around AP classes other data points that are

042used that are not just teacher recommendation slpas and um how we helped support students and I'm not sure who maybe M Dr Nicholson maybe I who would whoever would like to chime in on that sorry I can I can chime in on that Mrs shopy can clean it up if she needs to as she's currently at the high school but I will say absolutely there are multiple data points that are used during course selection um posos is a data point and typically posos um really gives a good idea of what students are capable of um outside of some of the other factors that are going on so we do uh lean on that at times um we also when we are talking with students without bumping up a level put supports in for them um

043we have teachers that serve as mentors and we work with counselors to make sure that we're meeting with students that we're putting um safety nets in during night zone so students have folks to meet with to make sure that they're really thriving in those higher level courses when they select them so to answer your question yes we don't just rely on a couple of data points we look at uh everything throughout the years what we know students are capable of um and we always always try to make them understand that they're capable in most cases of more than they believe they can be with having those safety nets and supports in to make sure they're they're supported when they do make that jump and I would just jump in as somebody who does talk to

044some of the kids about this um when they are nervous or they're like I'm not sure I can do this we usually like sit and talk to them about what they're worried about and then create a plan with them um often involves their family and what supports those students need and what they're worried about so that we can make sure that we're supporting them through the process um and kind of moving forward how we get them there so again we do not only use AP pred ability pest data testing scores it's really looking at who these kids are and why they're not taking them and what do we need to teach them to get them to that next level and working with them on that so that that's been something we've really started I would

045say in the last couple of years to really hone in on with kids I think my ask from goal to also would be if we can provide um the committee usually does ask for the AP data um each year so if we could um be sent that data as well you know how many students are taking the different types of EP um AP classes um and kind of what that you know looks like demographically as well I can work on getting that for you yes not problem Mr fosco or Mr mcbang questions about goal one or two Dr G could I just interject real quick oh sorry yes Dr b no that's okay um Mrs shoppie you're probably the right person to ask this question but it's my understanding that the AP predictability is actually

046used as a measure to to catch kids who didn't sign up for an AP course so of course you have teacher recommendations you have student requests you have grades you have other testing data points like PSAT sat Keystone exams all those things uh final exams from prior courses but the AP predictability can help us identify students who may be are from a data standpoint predicted to be successful in an AP course and they're not taking any and reaching out to those kids to say hey you could be successful here and here's why um so it is never to say a student can't be successful rather it's to identify kids who aren't taking classes who could be is that right absolutely correct yes and that's pretty much how we do it I think improving the course

047timeline helps us have those conversations before the kids leave for the summer so it's not a phone call it's a sitdown meeting it's a what do you need to be successful we think you can be successful and let's kind of encourage to take that class or give it a shot um that's really what the AP predictability piece helps us narrow down as to who we should be focusing on I just yeah just real quick I think ptim probably has a lot more to say on this um and you kind of preempted something I was going to say that leaves me with this question um anecdotally as I like to do um both of my children were in the gifted program um in the district and have taken AP well my daughter did and I'm sure

048my son will they also have both were um opt out students right so there is no pabos data really on them so I I I I'm glad to hear that it's not prohibitive in any way but you know even though that's maybe a small population of students in the district I just want to make sure as our radar up on those students as well um because my they are absolutely need to be we look at small groups this is conversations about small groups of students I just want to make sure that we're thinking of all of them as we move forward with these uh procedures yeah I I pointed out those two pieces but we use a lot of different measures to really look at um students who should be taking these courses and aren't

049and why not and trying to encourage students to give it a shot all right I've been played up as if I have all the questions here and I really don't folks I appreciate your work um and I wanted to mention how difficult it is to find good information in the first place right so uh AP is provided by the College Board the College Board will often send school districts information a list of students um and then behind every student's name a graph filled with every AP course offered by the company um with check marks next to the names of students who they feel uh would probably do uh well in that course and I've seen those measures uh for my own students of all track levels at all um uh over the past several years

050and you know the College Board is sending that information as a result of being a company that benefits from more students uh taking their courses and fulfilling uh various requirements and taking their tests and their assessments things like that um so you know it's really important that we're leaning on information that is uh student specific and student centered uh not from necessarily uh outside companies but those accredited uh you know uh information gathering um organizations and teachers are obviously an important part of that um have we considered at any time allowing students in ninth and 10th grades particularly as they begin to kind of narrow their focus in their course selection have we allowed those students to um have a taste so to speak of the courses that they might be choosing so is there

051um during the course selection process is there a time when a student say in 10th Grade can spend 15 minutes or 20 minutes in another classroom during their social studies class if they're looking ahead at their you know junior year class selection I know that's logistically a nightmare but um perhaps the schedule allows it is there also a time when uh students can go and ask questions of the teachers who typically uh teach those classes right uh hi Mr such and such I'm coming from Mrs such and such's uh 10th grade class um would would I be able to see the last assignment you guys did to take a look and see what that looks like so what opportunities do we have for students to sort of self- advocate and continue to uh look ahead

052uh for themselves and help them make their own choices too thanks who would like to speak to that so I Haley were you going to speak to that specifically your experience um yeah I was a little bit yeah go ahead um okay so um with my experience like as a ninth grader um I was able to go to the high school in the morning um which I think really helped me like with the shift between nth 10 and 10th grade um but something that I found super helpful during course selection was um I was in the gifted program and I took the gifted seminar class and Mr pachera was my um teacher and he arranged for us to have a meeting with like current 10th grade students and they got to like tell us all

053about the classes that they were taking and we got to ask questions about specific courses and I think that was definitely like what really helped me start to plan out my academic like career um I do think that if we could maybe expand that Beyond just the gifted seminar class that would be super helpful to students um and then also I am going to hop off now so thank you guys so much and have a great evening you so much that's great feedback yeah great feedback on that best student rep ever I was just thinking that I'm so fortunate that we have her she's amazing um n I'll piggy back although haey did a phenomenal job I can say this is probably one area where we can continue to expand however through throughout the course

054of years we have had pockets of um opportunity for students to visit with teachers to visit classes to um take a look at that we've specifically narrow it down to the folks and to the students that maybe haven't taken an honors or an AP course that were thinking about that um allow them to see what the classes like feel what the classes like speak to the teacher um it is probably an area and we can start talking about that how we can expand that to more students um but it is certainly something that we've done in the past and thanks do I should say yeah I know logistically that can be an absolute nightmare uh especially for trying to empower our ninth graders who aren't in the building uh to have that same experience so

055I I love the fact that you guys would would take a look at that and any small steps would be appreciated I think um my only other note regarding go to is that while we are talking about AP classes and and those sortes of things that just remembering that there are students who are not going to take AP classes and we're still responsible for making sure that those students have a pathway to what their next step is um I happen to have a niece who wants to be an ultrasound tech like that is what she wants to do she wants to see the babies and be well you can go to a monco program for that um you do not need to go to a four-year college and get $150,000 in debt to be an

056ultrasound tech um and she may you know change her path or something because she's a ninth grader right now but this is what she thinks she wants and so just continuing to kind of I'd like to see that goal also expanded to really think about all of the students Beyond those who you know we want more students taking AP classes but like how are we ensuring that our students have Equitable access to the planning of their future what their path is going to look like um and what systems I I think one of the um I can't remember who was talking about system systems and structures that we added on to a a goal around systems and structures I love that we did that what are the systems and structures that are part of the

057course selection process that will help ensure that kids have a pathway they know if they want to take dual enrollment classes at monco um my kids went into college and they're already sophomores at this at at this point after their first semester because of dual enrollment um so I just want to make sure that we expand Beyond kind of what um you know Mr Fusco was saying like and Haley was saying we want to expand these things that are happening really well but make sure that all we are including as many students as we possibly can including dual exceptional students as well um and I see um mrop or um Dr Nicholson and Miss Shae am I pronouncing your name right Sha or chopee shopy but don't worry about it however is fine I'm good

058no names are important shoy Miss shopy um if you I you were going to chime in on that I think I was just going to say um I kind of glanced over it but one of the things we've really focused is on is making sure kids who were identifying that they didn't see that connection to their future um got in contact with our future plan center and really working to make sure those kids have that future goal and that you know really hooking them up with a program and having Mr Fry kind of dig in and work with them a little bit more than our other kids so it we are doing that um kind of along those lines because we were noticing that came up a lot from certain kids and they just didn't

059see a future plan great I'm glad we're utilizing that yes and and I'm just gonna lower my hand because Mrs shopy did a great job of covering what I was just about to say okay great I think we've done a great job of covering goals one and two I appreciate the Pauls for a moment because I was not going to be able to remember all that the wonderful things that goal one and two said um and be able to ask those questions so I think we're moving on now to goal three we can put the presentation back up all right thank you Dr J um Nick Taylor I'm uh I'm uh the co-chair with Dr Mia Kim who is the director of human resources on goal three and so uh goal three is about um

060increasing the the uh recruitment and and retention of uh diverse um staff here at northp uh School District uh could we go to next slide please so like Dr Hart referenced earlier um our our student demographic has has grown more diverse um and so there's a body of research right that that uh discusses the importance of um allowing for student populations to have some cultural synchronicity or math in with um with the the staff so like the student to to teacher or student to staff populations the more they mirror the more that um we see positive educational outcomes for for all students and so with that um in mind and with our um the equity work that we do here in the district it's really important with Goal three that we we um focus on

061trying to increase um the recruitment of uh diverse staff so we attemp attend um we attend fairs and also uh recruitment fairs especially the DVC which is the Delaware Valley Consortium of equity and Excellence who hold fairs uh as well as mciu uh when they hold job fairs we'll go and and we'll talk about the great Equity work that we do in the district as we try to um attract um more diverse candidates um also we um I'm sorry could you go to the next slide please also we um we diversify our uh interview panels um and this is something that's been a practice since we've started our Equity goals back in 2018 and because the research supports that um the the more representative the panel is the better the the equity lens that needs

062to be applied with making decisions on attracting candidates especially when they're going through interview process interview processes um a big thing that we do also for goal three uh and especially in terms of attaining diverse candidates and even trying to um recruit diverse candidates is making sure that we support the formation of affinity groups again Affinity groups being people with um you know individuals of similar backgrounds or interests who can share can can collaborate share experiences and develop goals and just kind of affirm um you know the their um their belonging within different groups and so we've done that um for the past few years now where we've gathered the diverse staff that um work within our district and have them meet and and you know just collaborate just discuss establish networks get get communication

063um established because a lot of times because we're a bigger District right um you know you're working in one building we have 17 others you don't always obviously see the other people so uh Dr Kim and I work um with trying to establish those connections get those networks going and so we've had a couple of affinity meetings um the past two years so one we held in my building here at Penbrook um then we held one last year um at nap Elementary and so um we have one that's going to be coming up soon we haven't found its details just yet but we're going to get that set up and then one of the big goals with that is to make sure that um we're equipping um Within These Affinity groups for smaller Affinity groups

064to break out and making sure that we can have staff members kind of take the lead on that so that way they can always know who to reach out to and just again augment the network of of people who belong to different cultural groups because that's the importance of um of uh having Affinity groups and and again the research is very overwhelming on how that helps with the retention of our diverse candidates but then also how it attracts diverse candidates um we've also attended um religious uh centers like we've attended you know Christian church and Mos to show you know the importance of of our um of our work and trying to increase representation because we know that that's very important for external uh stakeholders you know community members parents so on and so forth

065as well as internal so staff students Etc um can you go to the next slide please so this is um for our goal three work this is what we're going to be continuing like I mentioned earlier oh something I I forgot to mention that we um the research is very important about grow your own so in terms of trying to uh increase um and attract diverse candidates to the field of Education the research shows that it's important to start within um um the the earliest education experience you can the better right so um we held an event where it was called consider becoming an educator so we had a panelist of of a different um minoritized members of our staff who spoke to students from student ambassadors to to some of our culture clubs to

066um some of our students in our um our do enrollment uh education courses to to talk about like you know why we got an education and and how a lot of times um our lived experience as people of color and how that drove us in the education to mitigate um some of the I think the the negative lived experiences that people color often times refer to in their own educational experience um to to highlight the importance of why you know they are are needed group you know because again the bottom line is it's all about increasing the students educational and social uh experiences and making them worthwhile and so the more we can diversify our staff especially because our student population's grow my diverse we're growing more diverse excuse me you know the better that

067is so um we're looking to host that event again we don't have the details planned out but we definitely will get that planned out um probably around the same time that we did last year around April time um and uh for our goal 3 work continuing to attend the diversity fairs um you know continuing to expand um our connections with external stakeholders reaching out to different groups uh seeing how they can play a part in in highlighting the importance of diversity within our district uh and then also um Gathering more data about um the sense of belonging that our staff members have so we can use that to inform you know our practices to improve um their experiences thank you Taylor how do we gather data on our staff memb sense of belonging so one

068of the things that we use now is the Handover data that um is collected uh excuse me the Handover survey that's collected so using that data especially with staff members um for looking at some of our our diverse staff Dr Kim and I will be working on getting um uh like a form sent out to get that sense of uh belonging so asking qualitative as well as quantitative questions to to gather that piece again to shape uh um the the practices right to improve our practices and our decision-making and how we can improve the Recruitment and Retention and do has there been anything this year specifically for new teachers that are coming in the district to kind of support I mean I would say all new teachers um to ensure they're connected to somebody that

069they um you know have a me I mean I know new teachers typically have mentors but uh specifically have have we been intentional with the new teachers that are coming in the districts because as we know the you know within five years you're either you're either going to stick it out in education or you're not and that's we're all teachers um so um I'm just wondering what we what we have done thus far this year because it's January for new teachers and if not I mean I'd like to suggest recommend that we move forward with getting something planned for new teachers um to see how they're doing to check in with them um to have I saw that you had multiple times last year that you gathered the one thing I noted about those dates

070was that it would be nice if they were earlier like something in the fall like something in October something at you know mid year um maybe bumping them up a little bit earlier yes great points great suggestion and I I so the short answer your question is um in terms of our goal work we have not done that in terms of being intentional with reaching out to new um staff who um uh are diverse but it's definitely something that uh we need to make sure we are more intentional moving forward I'm sure uh because Jackie uh facilitates our induction program she may be able to speak more accurately to that yeah I was just going to add um through induction as you mentioned they all have mentors but really one of the things that we

071emphasize especially in the first part of the year is getting them connected to the right people so we have a session where we connect them with you know learning coaches and school climate coordinators and just helping them like identify you know names and faces of people that they should be connecting with um and also even just holding an administrator panel so that they can kind of the questions answered that they have um Dr Barbara Mo Williams comes during orientation and does a session with all of the inductees um so we can definitely look to partner and uh have a more tight connection with um Nick and in the goal committee but um I feel like you know the feedback overwhelmingly from the new teachers we survey them every single meeting every month when we meet

072with them is that they feel very supported and they're they have like rave reviews for their mentors um and so I'd say that's definitely a strength Dr G if it's okay I just wanted to add really quickly um one of the things I knew I was hoping Jackie would chime in because I know she does a lot with induction it's very incredible the way um that's been run but I did want to just mention um that Pam and I recently did meet with Dr Kim and Dr Taylor and we were talking about the idea of like even though teachers that are new have a mentor that sometimes a teacher of color also just needs that informal Mentor that they can maybe check in with who looks like him or her and so that's something that

073um we did in the past in North pen and we did just recently I think just last week have that conversation about kind of bringing that back so that people at least know who they can reach out to and so I I glad that you brought that up and it is something we just very recently talked about and are looking to implement as well thank you that that was all really helpful information I think we are moving on to goals four and five now were there any other questions about goal three um with from any of the other okay goal four and five okay good evening everyone um my name is uh Dave yam School climate coordinator uh I'm I have the pleasure to try chare goal four with uh Dr Marjorie die and Miss

074Regina Powell um go four focuses on um increasing student staff and family engagement and cultural proficiency efforts um if you want to move to the next slide so some of the uh areas of focus and action steps are uh we have a family engagement series um so uh last week we hosted a diversity World CA as uh Dr Jade mentioned and we had a a really good turnout and we were able to uh break into small groups and really hear uh parent feedback um suggestions um and so we really had a great time just being able to hear their experiences and kind of share um you know what we're doing and what suggestions we can take um another thing that we do is a grandparent kinship group um we also have a book discussion and

075our author parent night hosted by uh one of our North pen staff members Jamal Johnson who is fantastic um another event that uh we take great pride in is our black history oratorical competition that happens every year in February at the northb high school uh We've recently just sent out um uh like registration for forms and also uh volunteer um signups so that's uh very uh big order to take on but um without all the these volunteers that step up and the students that speak at these competitions it's just a wonderful event um another uh thing that we are piloting this year is um our korean-american Culture Club for fifth and sixth grade students uh and will be beginning in uh February of this year um this is a little bit near and dear to

076my heart uh I was fortunate enough to be able to attend a um aapi um needs assessment for Montgomery County where I was a panel panelist with uh about eight other uh uh parents or community members and something that really came out from that uh uh panel group was that a lot of our students of color um or of different cultures were feeling like they did not feel a sense of belongingness uh when it came to being in you know the elementary schools and sometimes our middle schools and so um something that was really that really convicted me to kind of uh start this was to kind of create something for our elementary school students because typically we do see some culture clubs in the middle school and the high school but um I felt

077like you know targeting our elementary school students would be uh really beneficial to bring um students together so we did s send out a um a flyer and a signup sheet uh last week and uh with we kept the number at 30 uh students and within uh 24 hours we had over 34 uh registrations um and so that was really encouraging we're really happy to see that and it also showed that it looks like there's a need that um you know our students and our families are really uh wanting to see uh amongst our students um another purpose of this Culture Club for uh Elementary School students is if this is successful we're hoping that we can create other culture clubs um we can uh really hope that you know whether it be staff members

078or parent volunteers that would be willing to step up to kind of um spearhead this uh it would be a great opportunity for um I really like belonging this and just ensuring that we are supporting our students and families in our community um if you can go to the next slide so the way we collect our data is through exit surveys and feedback um and for our uh two big uh things that are coming coming up uh you know number of participants and also will'll be um asking for feedback uh in these uh two events that are coming up and I believe that's it for goal four okay we are we have one more goal after this are there any questions about goal four or comments no uh the only comment that I have is

079that I would like um I I was able to attend the the um the World Cafe with parents last week I thought it was fantastic it was so well-run um and of course Dr barara Mo Williams the great facilitator but I also also really appreciated the presence of um I know Dave you were there like many staff members were there and um I just I think parents appreciated that um the facilitators were fantastic um I am hoping that we can get together a student group to um for our committee to be able to do a World Cafe with we did this a few years ago at the high school library and I just thought it was really impactful and it's helpful to keep us close to the work and understand what our students needs are

080so um if we could arrange that um i' like that to be able to be arranged within the next couple months or so at some point um and I I think I mentioned that to Dr Waters as well but I guess that will fall within goal this goal so I'm just mentioning that um recognizing the three of us are Educators we are going to need to figure out a time and we I I will work with the committee to figure out their time schedule and then um you know we'll work with you all but I I remember I recall the last one we did which was might have been preco and I think it was just really impactful for me as a board director to understand and hear the voice of our students and um

081I'd like that opportunity again as well I absolutely agree I was able to attend that as well and you know just hearing you know we had various students from across um North uh across the high school and you know I really feel like it was really impactful and being able to give a voice to our students so um yeah I can definitely make myself available to kind of um get that rolling again great thank you I appreciate that okay and my fellow committee members if you all can just communicate with me about what your availability might look like in terms of time um and then uh we can get that set up because I think that would be great and we can obviously invite other board members but I specifically went the ECI we're going

082to work around the ECI committee members schedules first um okay goal five okay thank you Dr G so goal five as Dr Hart mentioned um was a newly added one and basically what um our Tri chair Dr broerman Dr McKenna and myself what we do is we really try to look at all of the systems and structures we have in place and think about um what evidence-based practices and inclusive um overlays we have or can or need to apply or adjust in all of those situations um so the three of us have broken up a little bit into our subgroups and you can go to the next slide and these are what our subgroups are doing so my subgroup is subgroup a we're working on um looking at the work together Wednesday sessions that we

083plan for elementary Dr Hart and I um plan them and our special education supervisor plan for the poers and specialized classroom teachers so we look at those and we ensure we're thinking about an inclusive mindset this year we're using a book High leverage practices for inclusive classrooms that's informing our work um so we're really glad about that but we talk in our subgroup because we want the perspectives of others we also look at all of our power power professional professional development sessions and especially those that we have um opportunity for on our cultural proficiency equity and inclusion PD session days to see if there's an additional twist or a Different Twist that we can put on it while we're still focused on our goal but so that it's really really meaningful for the the critical

084work that they do supporting our students every day subgroup B is looking at the overlays of existing structures that we have discipline mtss supporting multilingual Learners gifted programming and and our inclusive practices and really thinking about um that we have a reference point a a toolkit so to speak um for the specific processes and procedures that we use in each of those so that we're considering all angles and being inclusive with those practices and subgroup C this year lines up really nicely with our District's responsibility to create a trauma informed action plan so the people that are in our committee in subgroup C are focusing on how they can um again not just contribute to that plan but really be contributing in a thoughtful way where we're thinking about inclusive practices from all angles um

085much more than just special education so that is it for group five for goal five questions for goal five they said special education and Mr Fusco doesn't have a question how did that happen I think it's a matter of um you know I've been a part of this work um not a part of it I've I've been a party to it more than anything um the work has been done by this group for uh a number of years now and probably my lack of questions is just reflective of the confidence I have in the work that's being done and the results that I have seen not just as a director but as a parent and a Community member um so uh no I don't have any specific questions at this time um but I I

086do thank you all for the work that you're doing um I think now more than ever this work uh needs to continue it needs to be um defended um in a lot of ways and uh I just appreciate the the time and effort that you all have put into this the dedication uh because I do believe that you know the district has evolved quite a bit in the seven years that I've been on this board um and it is not my efforts that are that reason for that is is those of you sitting here before me talking about the work that you do every day so thank you um Dr G yes I'm here I just wanted to let you know there is one more slide um oh wait did we sure Dr Hart yeah

087I I just had I just had one additional slide and we we've taken a deep dive I just wanted to take a moment to share that even though we have and we spoke a little bit about this earlier we've talked about this goal work and isolation there is a huge interplay between all of the work that happens uh one of the things Dr G that you always remind us of is like student advocacy and making sure that students needs are are being met and so I just want to talk a little bit about just some and you can see on the slides I won't talk about all the the Partnerships that are taking place but I do want to just highlight one particular event that took place that has like fundamentally shifted what's happened at

088the high school and that is a partnership with school nutrition services so um about a year and a half ago I did a listening session with members of the Muslim Student Association and one of the things that came up was the students concern that they were really not able to buy lunch at school because even um something as simple as the cheese pizza very often um the cafeteria staff members were using the same pizza cutter for like pepperoni pizza as they were cheese pizza and they weren't able to eat it they also went on to share that like the parmesan cheese has an enzyme that is not Halal and so students even if they were using a different pizza cutter could not eat that pizza that conversation kind of um evolved D into students meeting

089with um members of our student School nutrition services with with Melissa Frolic and they kind of talked about just what they were hoping for the team was so responsive to the feedback that the students gave that long story short we now have an entire vegetarian line at the high school with different sauces and foods and the school nutritional service is actually working with a chef to make sure that the food is is representative of the students at um the high school we also kind of prompted us that prompted us to do a service a family survey to All Families trying to get a sense of what are some foods that we were like hoping to have in the cafeteria as well went to All Families translated so that everyone had access to it and over

090the past year the team has really worked closely um with chefs um and even kind of going back to some of the student groups asking for feedback regarding the choices that they're making so feels like a small thing but those moments around student advocacy the idea that we are constantly evolving to meet the needs of our staff and students with something as essential as food I think really captures the strong partnership the commitment um and our commitment not just to one another but the commitment to student voice to make sure that we're not just doing things that feel good for us but are really making a difference in the lives of our students and families and so I love to end on that um because I think it does really capture um just the the

091interplay that happens um but also some of those informal conversations that really fundamentally shift the experiences that students and families have in our school district and that's that um thank you Dr heart I think that was a great way of encapsulating the entire work um and I would say it's not a small thing it's a big thing to a lot of families um kudos to Melissa you know board members know love know and love and respect her but I'm so appreciative this is the kind of when we talk about systems and structures this is the kind of work that I'm so proud that we're doing in this district and Mr fosco kind of mentioned it that we as a board are able to have confidence in the in our executive group that's working on each

092of these goals that is not new work that's been in place for I mean I don't know Dave could probably say he's been doing this work for eight or nine or 10 years um but to see how the work has grown um we are just so grateful for every single person that's on this call at 6:49 um at night to share the work that you are doing every single goal is so important and the leadership that you take in that goal um and the place that you take it to um is impactful for all of our students so thank you every one of you um who are doing this level of work um and uh continue to ask yourself hard questions who benefits from this and who does not I think about that story that

093you just told and I think it may have started as a listening session with our Muslim Students but now any student who is vegan is benefiting from that right every student that is vegan is benefiting from that one conversation so um just uh thank you to this group it's this is really important work that you're doing um continue to do it um stronger than ever we we're very grateful for the work and for um our superintendent who supports the work and all of the leadership um that support it so thank you all for taking the time we joked earlier that we had a 10- slide limit with Dr Waters for most things but this was um just another great you know I'm going to be texting my other board members saying you have to watch

094the video from tonight because it just will make you so proud to be a North pen Community member Dr G may I just say one quick thing um just for your comments and also to um Christian's comments um I I know um I think I can speak for all of us when I say how much we appreciate that we many of us go to conferences and different places and often people say like how are you doing all these things and I'm like well our superintendent is a part of our executive team and our school board has been very supportive of our Equity work and so it it is a partnership and we appreciate all of the support so thank you and thanks to all of you who jumped on and presented tonight you're welcome to

095stay for calendar but you don't have to so if you want to go have a great night all right thank you everyone and calendar is going to be quick because we actually have all looked at it reviewed it and um so yes you can just tell us about the calendar all right it's gonna be really not need to go day by day we has had a chance to kind of take a look at the calendar we know how hard you all have been working on it okay so yes so really quickly with the calendar um Pete and I in collaboration with Dr Hart Dr McKenna Dr Bower Jackie GM Marco um we've met with NPA leadership um so we were able to kind of share some changes most of what you'll see on the calendar

096looks very similar to the last couple years so Pete is just quickly going to highlight a couple of things that are a little different and Mary if you could put that calendar up we'd appreciate it yeah thank you Mrs fish so as uh I've noticed here we'll make this very quick so there are some minor changes uh the probably the largest if you look to the middle bottom um of the calendar where you see the months and the student days and the teacher days some of you may remember that last year mid school year um the legislation changed the uh necessity to do a certain amount of instructional hours and instructional days so in the past we needed to meet the 900 instructional hours at the elementary school 990 instructional hours at the secondary level

097and 180 school days uh this past year that changed to or so it's the 9990 or 180 school days um with the ever competing priorities of uh professional development with mandated professional development that that keep coming along uh we took a look uh Dr McKenna and I at our instructional hours and realize that we could very easily add a an inservice day a professional development day for teachers while reducing the number of student Days by just one so you'll see on this calendar it's proposed as 179 student days 191 teacher days which gives us a little extra time to meet with our teachers um and make sure that they're ready to serve our students um in the ways that we need them to highlighting the major there's not a whole lot from uh this past

098school year or the current school year to this forthcoming school year you'll see that we've uh continued with our priorities of um meeting all of our cultures where they are and honoring their cultures with uh certain days off throughout the school year some of them as uh professional development days some of them as days off for all instructional staff and students um you'll notice I think maybe one of the larger changes that we've proposed is in uh early January so this of coming school year the winter holiday would begin with an early dismissal day on December 23rd we would be in school for Monday and half a day Tuesday we'd maintain the early dismissal uh the day before break begins when we come back we traditionally have come back on January 2nd um but with

099that being one school day um and then back to a weekend what we've proposed is that we are going to use that day January 2nd um as what we are calling an asynchronous inservice day so we would take all all of the asynchronous learning that our staff uh need to participate in during the school year so that might be Title 9 training that might be school safety training things that are done online throughout the school year anyway um usually in bits and chunks and it'll be assigned on that day but teachers and and professional staff uh support staff that need to um have that training done they would have from August 1st until January 2nd to complete that training we'd like them to do it earlier and sooner rather than than later but if they

100do it before January 2nd they would not have to uh work that day and even if they did they would be doing it from home so the due date for all that training be a solid day of training would be January 2nd but our staff would be home and if they did it anytime between August and January 2nd they would be done for the the school year uh the I think the next big change that we've made is in February we have traditionally had a professional development day on the 13th um having heard from uh many of our members we've changed uh that February 13th date to what you'll see as February 17th is the day off and that is actually Lunar New Year for this school year so many of our uh staff students

101in the community celebrate Lunar New Year um with it being the same as our typical 4-day weekend for students um in February instead of a Friday and a Monday it will now be a Monday and a Tuesday uh finally I think the uh last real piece to kind of look at is the last student day right now now um the last student day is proposed as Monday June 15th there would be one professional development day on Tuesday the 16th um we were hoping to shorten the school year as best we could um but also knowing that even if we got that last school day to the week prior um if we have a snow day we would push into that following week anyway so we are looking to have an early dismissal day on the

10215th with the knowledge that um our fearless leader Dr Bower is committed to potentially up to two um and if needed more Traditional School uh snow days where everybody would be at home and get to play in the snow and clean the snow and all the fun things we're all used to um so the last student day is the 15th with the potential for snow days pushing that Beyond um into the 16th 17th or even the 18th so with that said um are there any questions I think I covered most of the major changes everything else is pretty status quo from the last number of years Mr McBain thank you very much for this work again I know it's really really tough to uh juggle so many different factors from one year to the next

103and the calendar always seems to give you something different and new and exciting as a challenge from from one month to another so I appreciate that um on the topic of that very last student Day June 15th it's kind of like a dangling Monday right especially as a half day uh as an educator I you know just in all honesty it gives me a little pause that you're not going to find um a lot of students uh in class that day if I'm honest we might end up with a lot of families who have decided that um their uh vacation plans can begin and and there's a lot of uh experience amongst teachers I'll say um but in these cases we won't see a lot of students in class and and of course each family

104is is GNA make their own decision that's fine by May is there any way we could try to ensure and again you're the expert on this not me is there any way we could try to ensure that a student day wouldn't be uh left off to in that particular spot I mean if you're going to rank the number of or the places on the calendar where a student day would be seen as by students um as a day that didn't quote unquote matter so much right that that's a tough thing to come back on a Monday for a half day um and I wouldn't want to if there were adjustments that could be made to the calendar I wouldn't want to um have that be the plan and hope that it feels better because we

105have snow if that makes sense yeah Mr McBain um that is definitely there are solutions in here uh but they would disrupt the status quo in terms of whether it be an extra day the week of Thanksgiving an extra day the week of Spring Break um one of the other cultural holidays that we have an inservice day on um the thought really was like we we have had a plan to back it up all the way to Friday but then that same rationale comes into play if let's say we get a foot of snow on January 15th I'm not going to want to call a snow day uh because we don't want to push to that next Monday right so kind of the thought was we were doing all this bobbing and weaving and trying

106to make it work when the reality is we may not end on that Friday anyway um it may push to Tuesday or Wednesday uh to kind of negate the whole conversation so I do think the calendar speaks well to our priorities um and supporting our families not every holiday is acknowledged that's impossible um but I I really think the calendar has evolved over the last specifically seven years or so um so if it is the desire of this committee we could certainly bring this forward with some changes uh to the Action meeting we weren't planning it for next week more for February um we can just lean on Dr G to advise us and then we'll High those changes come February when it comes before the board for a vote so just let us know

107um this is kind of the status quo calendar with those changes that Dr Nicholson outlined but it's still up for subtle changes if you'd like I know there has been um I could just speak to this probably 12 iterations of this calendar um and I know that there were I I know that there were several that that's pushing to the next week was a constant conversation um which I know Dr bow spoke with spoke to better than I I could um with the state holding us to that one you know 900 or 180 um if if we want to be able to honor dwali and Eid and the Lunar New Year and I it's going to be I think really difficult for us to get to a place where we can get to Friday and

108to Dr Bar's point we still will probably end up with at least one snow day and we'll go to the next week anyway um so I don't know it's it's It's Tricky I sometimes wish they would the state would at some point like give us a pass on the snow days like it's not like you're going to have 10 of them I wish wish at some point the legislature would not make you make up the snow days in some way but that I I haven't heard that there's been any talk of them changing that part of it um Dr bow you haven't heard any part of them considering that in their conversations right they talked about giving us the pass on the snow days no there are some Provisions Act 80 does allow you in

109emergencies to use days um one thing that we haven't had extensive conversation about maybe if we had if we ended on that Friday if we had a snow day because of that um legislation that Dr Nicholson outlined maybe we wouldn't have to make it up because we would still hit the hours um so we could look at that um again we're we're talking like Mr McBain said we're talking three and a half hours right it's a half of a day right so we might still hit the target if we're able to get it on a Friday the question would then become okay where's it coming from we got to pull a day um and it's a student day not an inservice day and that kind of gets tricky but um let us do a little

110more homework and we can come back to the group um we we still do have another ECI meeting before this would go to action in February anyway right or maybe not when is the next DCI meeting Tiana you're you're correct Dr Bower um the next one is February I believe it's that first um the 4th February 4th Mr Fusco did you have a I'm just curious and I probably should know this but I don't um the week in the last week in November for the Thanksgiving break where the students really have that entire week off as any of that time used for teacher conferences I think that's conferences I think that's why they have it is it all three days that they're used um no one of the three is a flex day typically um

111so it's two days of conferences and a flex day typically if if I were going to have a a hanging chad type of day maybe the 24th makes more sense I mean you're still going to have probably students you know come or not but that like seems like that might be a tradeoff just as a perspective I'm just going to say this because I don't think this merits a conversation about changing anything but as a special educator continually asked year after year to work esy um when you're spending your summer continuing to to serve the district and the kids you really have a very small margin of time in which to actually take a family vacation for a week yourself now granted our schedule is a little bit I guess more flexible because it does

112have a spring break but those Mondays last days even for teachers that can kind of complicate that process too because you know I know I personally have said I'd rather just take my vacation you know and find something else to do in the summer just a little you know Food For Thought from a special educator um on that but otherwise I think it looks good I know this is a very complicated process and you're always to get folks that you know think we should before Labor Day or after Labor Day we're ending too late we're ending too early we should have a week for spring break we should have a week for spring break you're never going to make everybody happy yeah and just to be clear I didn't want to make it sound like

113we should take away one of those holidays uh certainly we're going to keep those holidays uh but there are some choices we've made where we have uh days off which are not holidays and um you know I just wanted to make sure that we explored those situations and I you know me I'm the last one to get into the Weeds on certain things but if as a teacher I can see something going wrong and we can avoid it uh I would you know I I trust you guys after a second look there um and I thank you for taking what is not really a second look but I'm sure like a 13th or a 14th look and uh once again thanks for that folks one one last idea to consider and again we can bring

114this back certainly would be if we utilize Mr mcbain's rationale like can we try to get it to end on that Friday I know we want that full week of spring break we could utilize like Monday Tuesday of that week as a real snow makeup Day meaning we have that spring break and if we get snow we would take away the Monday or take away the Tuesday some districts do that that's another idea um but we can take a look at the hours and then we can take a look at that snow day model if that is a desire of the committee um but we'll bring it forward again in February and have some conversations with you Dr G before then and then kind of February we'll kind of present the final you said 12

115version it'll probably be the 15th at that point um and then action in February I would say just preference on my would be your first suggestion of trying to get the exception than to say to families who kind of make plans Monday you know Monday and Tuesday you're off and then there's a snow day let's just say in the middle of March and now oh no now you got to go to school you know what I mean I I think that and then I will say I've I I really we went to that full day that full week of spring break I think having that we that winter week and the um the week in the spring to give the kids a mental break um is really important we talk about mental health a lot

116we talk about and being able to stop and kind of take that breather um I think is important for our students especially given the amount of work the middle school and high school um I I do think having the full weak in the in the winter and weak in the spring as Mr um Fusco mentioned I I would lean more towards the November the 24th or something like Thanksgiving because one month later they're going to have a week off um kind of thing but I trust that you guys will go back and look at it and um again I knowing that this is like your fifth your 14th iteration if you can't get it to the Friday you just can't get it to the Friday like you know we we trust that you've looked at

117it um and so we'll look again in February all right um Mary I believe we are at the point that is it for the agenda unless there are any additional topics from anyone that is all we have tonight okay Mary uh do I need to read the disclaimer is there anyone on the call who has um or like for public comment H yes we do have public comment okay let me read the disclaimer then um tonight's meeting is our regularly scheduled committee meeting in order to meet the requirement 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 comp iance with this requirement it is essential that those planning to address the committee State their name and municipality members of

118the audience are asked to limit their questions and comments to no more than three minutes this limit will permit time for all those who wish to speak to the committee whenever members of the audience exceed this time limit the committee chair may ask the individual to yield to the next speaker can we have we have um yes uh we have Mr laner Mr lanir Excuse me when I um unmute your mic you will be allowed to uh begin your public comments uh Jason ler Lansdale um I was going through this and I was like okay there's there in this presentation they're going to actually um present some data that that shows the necessity of all of this diversity equity and inclusion and cultural proficiency and yet they're you seem to be very scant on data

119and just sort of giving the demographics information which is not that any of this is is needed to to get that information that's sort of it is a standard which has been in uh known for some while or I guess it changes uh year to year but it's a standard so so what is what is the actual objective data that shows this is beneficial not the subjective um one-offs in terms of people being really happy about having uh different meals at lunch which okay that's fine whatever but why it is important to do these things which are stated in the goal making uh that is to have uh teachers of of different races or ethnicities or what have you is important for changing the the are achieving the goal which is stated in in in

120the uh presentation is this working because if it's not working why are we doing it we seem to be spending a lot of money doing these sorts of things and if if it's objectively not being beneficial and where and it's just a lot of you know uh backs slapping and and and uh congratulations on all these sorts of things which isn't actually doing any marked improvement then why are we doing it is I mean this seems to me it seems to me and and I could be wrong but there's doesn't seem to be a lot of data that to support that it's nothing it does anything except for sort of uh subjective um one-offs on on people having uh a positive experience on something are they are they doing better in education is it is

121it are these the the goals being achieved in terms of uh disciplines I would like to know if it is working then how is this being achieved because there are certain things in here which I don't even understand what that means I mean the there's some some some verbiage what what what does that actually mean other than it's like Equity Focus data and behavior what what does that mean I've I I've been asking this question for a long time and and uh I asked um I think it was Dr Hart was was going to get back to me at some point about one situation or one uh one um one place one school district where this this sort of thing was implemented that showed a marked uh Improvement in all of these things that you're

122trying to achieve and that was number of years ago still haven't heard anything and I I kind of feel like this is just sort of virtue signaling that you guys are doing here and I'll leave it there thank you Dr G I believe you're muted thank you do we have anyone else for public comment that is it okay can I have a motion to adjourn the meeting I don't believe we have oh we have student travel going to action um so student travel is going to action um and we will get just a second look at the calendar next month um and do we have any further questions oh Dr Bower you have your hand raised were you gonna say something yeah I'm sorry Dr G I just I feel compelled to um the public

123comment seemed to imply that Dr Hart said she would do something that she did not and um after working with her now for going on four years I don't have one example of that so um just wanted to say Mr lanir if there is something that you would like uh from the team here I'd be happy to get that for you just shoot me an email you know where to find me um but that is all can I say well I appreciate Mr L's interest in in seeing the data I am always interested also and seeing the data and outcomes I mean the things I heard us talk about tonight were Mentor programs book clubs dis reviewing discipline policies an internal look into our own data at the building and District level looking at indicators

124to help understand why Behavior instance occur like these are all I mean do you do you actually need a reason you don't understand why these would be helpful for us to better understand our operation and to improve it um there obviously is data right and I I certain that this administra team that has gone to extreme lengths in the past to try to answer your questions Mr lineer has made this data available to you in some form I have no doubt as I said earlier it really is important that we strengthen our resolve uh uh to move forward with this work right we have students right now immigrant students trans students special education students that are very fearful of what is coming down the pike and uh one last Point Mr lineer you continually continually

125say that we are nine Democrats of one mind and we should have a republican join us to share in our thought process well it's not just politics that the World Views that that a lens needs to be viewed from the world from right culture background identity all these things matter too and they all have a seat at the table and we just want to make sure that we're creating a platform for their voices to be heard and for their needs to be met so that they can achieve you have to reach kids to teach kids right and that's what we're doing so thank you that's all well stated Mr Fusco thank you uh and thank you Dr Bower for your response um I think at this time we can have a motion to adjourn the

126meeting second all in favor I meeting adjourned again thank you for a great meeting I hope all everyone has a great rest of the week