001I pledge algiance 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. >> Have a motion to approve the agenda. >> So move second. >> All in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carries. Monitoring item. special education review presentation. Mr. Dilly and staff. >> Madam President, as as Mr. Dilly get started. Um I just wanted to make a quick statement and that is is that you know normally I'm not sure if the board was provided that some of these state level reports in the past but it was very important to me and to our administration that we provide transparency um upon some of these department of education reports um so that we can share one uh where we're
002seeing improvement um that uh highlights the focused efforts that we've been taking to address uh defic efficiencies in the past, but to also um identify where maybe we still have some room for growth um and then to be prepared to be able to share exactly what we're doing when we see some of those holes. And so I've asked for Mr. Dilly and his team as well as our prek team to to be able to share with the board um some of the successes but also some of the areas where we know we have some additional work to do. So >> thank you. >> Okay. um start off with our this is the IBA determination 2025 um and basically what that means for us is it is our annual desk audit and what exactly is that
003it's a yearly check of special education compliance and timelines and also looks at our processes that we're drawing within our our department and also around dispute resolutions. Now, why does this matter to you as the board and us as in the special department? It it it's an annual check of how we're doing, what we're doing, is it making meeting the mark, is it not meeting the mark? It's sort of like a check-in with for the state and press to make sure that we are following our IDA um IDA um reports and u anyway direct impact it directly impacts our us through looking at our graduation rate our discipline how many evaluations and compliance. Uh the IVA termination also reflects the our commitment and trying to support our students through our compliance and improved outcomes. Uh
004these this allows us to focus on what is deficient and allows us to move um and create goals around what we need to fix and what what needs to be fixed. So >> when you say evaluations here means evaluations for students. >> We're looking at some of the I actually explain some of this is what the first part of the IDEIDA monitoring looks like or ADA monitoring looks like. Uh it looks at graduation dropout rate and then gets into some of these other factors such as participation rate. um also looks at proficiency rates around our GSA and the ASA which you really don't hear a lot about because that's more of a special ed term. That's our alternate assessment is what that is. So um students and we also look at M just like we
005would normal um with all the kids. So anyway uh just to kind of highlight some of the things that we have here. I want you to notice the things I have highlighted. Uh the 20 the this data is pulled from 2324 which is almost two years old right now. So we're actually looking back. I asked the state department exactly why are we going back that far? Why wouldn't we have something more current? They said they basically said that this is just process the way we do it. So this is sort of where we're at. So anyway, um I want to h also show you the highlights here that we have where ours where we didn't get points. So I want to highlight that and explain that a little bit. >> Can you go back though?
006I want to make sure we answer Mrs. Long's question around evaluations. >> Sure. >> When you when we reference evaluations, we're talking about evaluating students for services and the appropriate timelines for that. Is that correct? >> That is correct. And also least restrictive environment, those kind of things. I just want to be sure that not only I understood but the public that's watching understand >> sorry if I wasn't clear. No, that's a good question. Thank you. >> And I just want to make sure I'm clear. There's there's some here that's participation and there's um proficiency. >> Correct. >> There's two different sections here that we want to make sure that we're >> highlighting. Um actually we lost points on participation which uh I don't know how that happened to be quite honest with you. Um
007that was two years ago. I don't know what we won in that year that allowed us not to uh make that I mean it's participation. You show up and take the test and we move on. But for some reason we didn't have students participate. So that's the problem that we will definitely make sure that we take care of in ongoing years. >> Meaning they weren't um >> they just didn't take the test. >> Is that because and we don't get the points because it fell below 95%. Yes. Okay. So, >> I want to clarify that. >> Maybe I can show here. This is where our target is. So, this is what the state says they expect us to do. That state percentage target. They also give us like what the state's average is, but this
008is what we're really wanting to see how we as an LEA is Berkeley County as a school district compares to what the state expects. So, the only one and we were below by 75 of a point. So it's threequarters of a point and we did not get that. >> So it's very much pass fail. You either you meet it to get the point or you don't and then it's a zero. >> Thank you for that clarification. >> Okay. So that participation rate was one of the things that we were lowing. Uh the other two areas that we lost points in were around our general summon assessment which we are currently working on with um with Dr. Woods and his and as part of that team, uh these are some of the focuses that we're working
009on which also leads over into what we're doing in special ed. Our goals are aligning with his and we're trying to make sure that um our also our alternative assessment children are also getting that same focus on our goals and uh that we're looking at in each classroom. So we're more goal orientate oriented now and we're trying to make sure that we are uh aligning so that we can bring up these scores >> and the next slide will show those four bubbles of information. >> Oh sorry I didn't get to >> that illustrates what Dave just explained. >> Now the this is the gap reduction. Basically, what they're looking at here, it's the difference between how did our special ed students and our regular students, how is the gap too wide or too far apart?
010and we did lose a little bit of points there. But all in all, even though our overall scores aren't as good as we'd like them to be, we are trying to make sure that we are closing that gap and making sure that our special ed students are getting that same instruction and making sure that the scores are trying to Yes. >> How do they account for even on the previous slide? Well, that's only between one. How do they account for the severity of some of the special needs of the students? Like for example, if in Burky County, we have a higher percentage more severe students than um Canal County for instance. Is there any way to differentiate that? Well, that's actually it's around the what they look at is they look at the GSA, which
011is our general summit assessment, which a lot of our students actually do take that and then they look at our more severe ones. They're on alternative assessment, >> right? >> Which means that their goals are just a little bit differently. They look similar, but they're differently. They're brought down a little bit. And that's also reflected in our ASA. >> But they don't say Canala County, you have 20% special education population. Berkeley County, you have 18%. So, we're going to adjust or weight the scores based on the amount of special education students you have. They don't look at that specifically. They just take your percentage of special education students, not counting gifted, um, because that doesn't count federally. So they look at your special education students taking out gifted and that is your pot of information
012that they're going to pull from. I was I was curious because I'm I'm thinking if we have more students that have more severe disabilities or or challenges than others. Um and they're still they're of course taking the same test. Well, our students may need more help than another where so it's I don't know to me it seem like it's difficult to grade them all like apples to apples >> right >> but that level of detail is not taken into consideration in these measures >> like before um track to the um testing and that we didn't uh rate well on that does does the state look at all the records to see that um the IEPs or how do they ter determine that every student wasn't tested? >> Um so it's when they log in to
013take the test they know who has taken the assessment and who hasn't. They already know who the special education students are. special education students are allowed a certain set of accommodations when they take these tests based on their IEPs and so they take all of that information into account. It's all preloaded out of weas. So if a particular student doesn't test, they're aware that they did not participate. >> Okay. I just wondered how they determined that. >> Yeah, everything's online now. So it makes it even a lot easier for them, too. All right, this is the second part of that same chart. I couldn't fit it all on to the same once again want to show highlight this is actual data from last year in these categories which is five and six which is the
014this is the um the regular uh well the general ed and special ed in this five through kindergarten up K12 and then this is prek K indicators here from this part. So as you can see we lost some points in five all completely here in the five section. And basically what that is telling us is that we are in our least restrictive environment. uh we're having too many children over in that that we really need to look at more inclusive models to help combat some of these numbers and getting them in line to where the state wants us to have them. So we lost three points to that. So that's something actually we're working with uh Dr. Woods again around master schedules. We're taking a look at this and I believe that this will help
015us >> I'm so confused. Yes. >> I'm so confused this all over again. >> Sure. >> I am not wrapping my head around the this results are to what you're summarizing is the solution. >> Okay. In this this is our basically our children that are in kindergarten through 12. >> Yes. >> Section five. >> And can I add in one thing, David? Sure. Go ahead. >> Those are the environments they receive their instruction in. So those three areas that he's pointing to first, that is a measure of are they being served in their least restrictive environment. Are they in general education classes? Are they in self-contained environments only with other special education students? And then the other is maybe if they're homebound, a special school. So this section he's talking about right now is about
016the instructional environment for special education kids. >> And how are we determining least restrictive? Because I guess where my brain goes is if you have a child and I and I'm not I'm not picking on any diagnosis. I'm not trying to I'm just trying to get use a representative example. If you have um an autistic child that is not necessarily um who needs a lot of supports, but you're putting them in a general education class that's technically least restrictive. So who determines the least restrictive? We do that through the IEP team decisions that it's all based on what the child needs. So we look at as we go into those meetings that's a determination that's made there. >> Okay. Just trying to make sure I'm understanding when when you are saying >> sorry if I'm
017I'm trying to be clear. >> I know no and and this is the this is the interesting piece. We're not in special ed 247 where you guys are. And so this is where I'm I'm just trying to make sure I'm understanding because anybody of the public who is who is watching this and they're not going to get it either. So I just want to make sure everybody's on the same page before we move on. >> And the same thing here with six. Uh but six is a little bit different. It's prek and uh we're going to jump to that explanation here in a little bit unless you want to jump on that. >> I can I can explain it while it's >> because we have to really look at that differently. So prek also has
018some expected environments and it's similar to the K12 um program. So the preK looks at are they in a GE classroom. So it's typical peers and students with special education needs. Then we have um seven within Berkeley County what we consider special education environments. So it's only special education students in those environments. And then um there's a home option as well for services in prek where you have to do some push in. So when you look at your percentages, we are doing pretty good with our GE environment for preK and with our home environment, but we did lose our point in the separate classrooms. we had 14 and a little bit more percent in um self-contained classrooms and the state wants us to shoot for about 9%. And I believe uh Mr. Wright, you asked
019about this two years ago when we were at the Hedgesville giving our monitoring wanting to understand um what that looked like and if we were going to keep those special ed environments and we have because we believe we have students at that level of need, but it does put us out in that one point. Well, how with the number of students that we have in special needs, how does the state feel that we can get to those smaller? >> So, the state bases their expectations on what the federal government the federal government says, okay, here's what we know. Here's what we think you have. And so, they this is all about how we align federally. So we give it to the state, the state gives it to the federal government and that's where your marks
020are set. So some counties in all honesty don't even have the special education environments. We feel strongly that there are students that need that level of support. >> What does W comma Y mean? So when you when you're looking at an IEP and you're making those placement decisions that you were asking about, they associate the placements of preK students with letters. And then if you're looking at an IEP for a K12 student, those are number LRE. So, it's just how the state is saying, okay, when you look at a prek IEP, if that student was assigned the letter W or Y, they're going to fall into that separate class self-contained environment. >> What would constitute a child getting a W for either or being identified with a W? Um it the level of need, the
021level of support that that child is required is requiring. Um it it really just depends the they get we do the evaluation. Some of these kids will come with some extensive medical records as well and we look at the service level that that student needs. Um and if they need a smaller environment because >> it would be something beyond like speech. Yes. >> Oh, absolutely. >> That's I think that's the point. I think that's absolutely >> Yeah. I think what the question is is what you know what level >> what level would an LREW or Y student be? It would be a self-contained student most likely. >> Yes. Okay. And and I want to say and I don't want to go too deep in because I don't want to muddy any waters. When we evaluate
022a student, we're looking at five different domains when we do that evaluation for a student that young. Um, and so those are going to be kids that have developmental delays across multiple areas and pretty significant delays like maybe 50% 70% in some areas. They are really going to have intensive needs that need to be addressed. >> Well, plus there not just um developmental delays. There are also some severely mentally impaired. A lot of times with our prek we do try in the very beginnings we have a designation called developmentally delayed so it's a TD >> and a lot of times that will be their designation unless they are more severe and they need the extra help. So we try to because it sometimes it's not fair because they might not have had the exposure to
023curriculum you know everything that we expect children to walk in and be. So by labeling them early with that DD, it kind of allows us to have a little bit of time and seven seven years old now that they can have that designation or >> up through. Yes. So that gives us a little bit of time to work with those children to see if we can't make them go back into the general population. >> And to your point, the u cognition is one of those domains. >> Okay. question are when you and I'm just I'm just trying to understand are are we saying and I'm going to go back to that 6B um as the example um that the state based on federal looks um they want us to try and have our students fall
024in that type of percentage without ever understanding our population or understanding the individuality of these children. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Yes. >> Get behind me, Satan. Um, >> not you. Not you. I'm um that pisses me off. Not you guys. That pisses me off because and I and I have no problem saying that word on live TV. Um because the reason why I'm saying it is because these are children. These are not numbers. These are children. And if we need to identify a child and be above that percentage, then that's what we are. Period. Because we need to be able to help the kids. We're where they are. >> And that's I hate this point system. >> That's why we're where we're at. >> But that's also why we want to share this with you
025all so you have context and that um you know because what you're going to find is that when there's a certain percentage at the end that we have to meet and if not then we're identified at the state level. So we want to be able to just make sure that's all transparent and that that you all have that information. Could could you also sharehead if we look at like 5 A, 5B or 5C as an example >> where um they set the the goal of for example with 5A is 69.11 and we we scored a 62.07 correct. What do you all attribute to the the the things that are within our realm of control that could have given that could have earned us a closer score to the 69? I guess that's the question I
026think just to just so that it's relatable to the number to practice. So say I think it comes back to where we're trying to uh we pull back our kids a little bit sometimes into more of a self-contained environment. And if we would push them more into more of a general ed classroom with maybe co-eing instead that might be enough to give us a few of those points that we would need to. So I think it really goes back to the like I said before working with Dr. was in the scheduling as we were looking at each school. This may be a way that we can address that problem. We might not always get to where we're supposed to be, but at least we're trying to include those children out into the regular class. >>
027Actually, we're 57 though, right? >> Yes. >> Okay. If you're looking at somebody, >> can you say that again? >> We're at 57. >> We're 572. >> What's the 62? the state. >> Sorry, I didn't have the I didn't know what the header was. I apologize. This is our state. Well, like that that the >> they do that in collaboration. Yes, they do that in collaboration with the states and determine benchmarking. Um and they do it with groups of states. Um it it's a bit of a mystery to me some of it, but they do do that in conjunction with the um federal decision makers, which I hear there's fewer of those these days. And they um then >> insert >> then they did then then they um set that number for us independently and
028then the state hits a certain point and we do we haven't always been where we currently are. We had actually done a really good job um years past of >> getting that a little closer. Um, but I think some of its instruction and I I really believe the work that we're doing as David mentioned before with the master scheduling conversations as well as our new focus on the instructional framework and making sure we're going back to teaching the standards and those expectations as well as making sure IEP teams understand the importance of having our special education kids exposed to that general curriculum in the general education environments. I really think the work we're doing um is going to bear some fruit. >> Yes, it's very >> back to uh the number of um classrooms they
029want us to bring down to from 14 to nine. I I see our population increasing as far as special needs students in prek. So, how is that ever going to be possible? Plus, uh, and maybe I'm jumping ahead here, but we have, um, somewhat certified staff in preK and not just preK elsewhere. Uh, I don't, and I'm I'm certainly not blaming the results on that, right? >> But >> we may not ever get to exactly what we want. I mean, it's a goal like everything else. This is a goal. This is where we want to be according to where the the federal guidelines have led us to. We're doing what we can to try to accelerate those children. Now, honestly, if a child way I feel about it is if a child is in need,
030we put them where they belong. >> Whether we getting that magic number or not and that's what it should be about. >> Exactly. not >> the magic cucumber that >> but we're in all transparency. We have to show you exactly what we're >> what we're up against. >> Well, I'd rather have a have a bad score honestly from from from them and and us actually teach our children and equip our teachers on how to best support our kids. I'm sorry. I I just I'd rather do that than than try and focus on reaching 69.11 >> for them. I don't I don't care about them. Like Kelly said, we have done better in the past. Uh like I said, this year wasn't a great year for us, but as you can see, in 2023, we were
031at 60.75, 64.87 last year, and this year we had it there. So, we're trying to figure out exactly what went on with that year. But with the participation rate schooling down and seeing some other things, there was something definitely going on in that year that caused some issue. So, um, >> do we know what definitely went on? >> We're looking into it. >> Okay. >> Yes. This is just to kind of over to go over exactly what we were talking about earlier. Now, um, actually, if we go back, this area here is around our um, arosis or our childies. So anyway, um this is an area that is prek and their learning objectives and we'll go into more of that here in a few minutes, but I just want to kind of point out when
032we did get zero out of three for that, but like I said, getting a little bit more into the weeds on that here in a few minutes. Uh the second part of the of our compliance part, as you can see, um we actually did pretty well. uh we've been concentrating on doing a lot of the compliance issues that we are trying to out in the department and trying to we have more direct control over some of this that's here. So as you will see we went up each year and have done pretty well actually this year in this year. So, we just had some timeline issues around IDEA. Um, we lost a half a point for that. And the non-compliance findings, that's usually around state complaints. And usually we don't always agree with what the
033state is telling us that we need to do, but this is some of the outcomes from that. It's not that we don't follow the rules, it's that sometime rules a little differently. And this is where we end up with parents. They have this kind of they have advocates who come in and they complain. So we have to look into that and try to make sure that we're doing the right thing. So if we're not doing something right, we fix it. And sometimes we have we take a hit and that's what we did here. One thing that um I mean some of this data is confusing to us board and we've been involved in a lot of this for and so I can imagine how confusing it is for the public. So then they feel that
034we are very much out of compliance in many um aspects but actually we're doing better than >> we're actually going quite well and our compliance is which is where we're at right here is actually 1.5 points off so that's not too bad. So on the um non-compliance findings, it was the other one. Um so there are violations found through >> the other way. Investigations are are logged in the ADA directly credit. So the way we're logging it should be logging in a different way. >> No, it's more around um how we're like for I'll see I'm trying to think of a good example. Um it's basically if uh there's a state complaint and they come in and they look at what we're what we've done what what led us up to this process whether it's
035a say is a parent who feels that their child aren't getting the services that we thought. So state will come in they'll make a judgment on how we've handled that and if we've done what we're supposed to do um and fix the sometimes they'll say well you know you shouldn't have done that. So therefore that mistake will cost you this. >> The other thing that is irritating about the process that the state goes through to do their evaluation is if they see something that was done incorrectly um and but that they also see that you've taken steps to fix it, they still ding you. Um, in fact, I don't know if you'd be feel comfortable, but could you share with the board the comment from the evaluator that was made made to us when we
036were going through the process? >> Yeah, it didn't make me very happy either. They said basically that we have to find something. We're looking we don't there might not be anything there, but we have to find something. That was the comment that made us >> and and I did and I did voice that frustration um at the state level as well. Um because again, you know, part of it is is compliance, you know, making sure that we're compliant with what the the law and the policy has, but then it's another to, you know, nitpick and then when you see that we've corrected something or um because you have because you're because you are doing things mostly correct, then we're going to go make sure we find something that you're doing incorrect. So, >> correct. And
037that's very frustrating for coming everyone talk. It just feels like you're being targeted. So just >> Okay. Um so anyway, we ended up with 77.56 which puts us below the 80% threshold which puts us as needs intervention year one. So, >> we're hoping we're hoping that our scores from two years ago, next year, which would be a year ago, uh will be better. I think that some not quite sure what went on in that two years ago exactly that caused our issues, but as you saw, we were moving up and then there was that drop. So, we'll definitely look at what we're doing. Actually, some of the things that we're doing currently with Dr. woods I think will strengthen a lot of the things that we have to do and so I think we're moving
038in the right direction. >> Well, and I think the other thing that I wanted to share is that you know incremental improvement can make a hu huge difference in this uh designation. So if you go back to that scorecard, um that's how this this number, you know, was delineated. Um and so getting a point um getting two and a half points difference um where maybe we got a zero would bring this up to 80%. And I think that it what what this tells me is that um that we're in the we are going in the right direction. Even though we have some deficiencies which have given us identification um that these are very fixible solutions to be able to meet the 80% threshold that the state requires. Um and >> we were very close last
039year. I went back and looked. We were 79.5 last year. So, >> and hopefully they round up. So, >> so anyway, um what I'd like to do next, actually, I'm going to turn it over to Kelly. She's going to talk to you a little bit why prek matters in this whole process. >> Before you go further, um inter determined that we need intervention, meaning that several times a year. >> Well, basically, I asked the state department that very question. I went to them. I said, "Well, what does this designation mean?" And uh the explanation I got was very uh general. Um they said, "Well, if you need help or helping get a plan put together, we are here for you. If um if there's an issue in your county, this may cause an audit quickly
040happen." So, uh that's basically how they explain that that designation. It doesn't get intensive until you have two or more years. >> Correct. >> And really, I think it's even I think it's even more than that. It's like after year three. >> Three. Year three. Yes. >> Right. >> And Sarah's here with us too, our director of PreK to partner and help support any answers or questions that we might have. um why prek matters. So obviously early interventions that's the foundation for what we're doing. Um our prek indicators are heavily weighted. Um there are a lot of points involved there. And then of course the state monitoring to points those things out. Um, before I go to this chart, what I would like to do is go back to this and point out this is
041on I'm sorry, I don't know what your slide number is, but this was the one where we were just talking about different environments. And I want to focus on from 6A to 7C. These are the preK indicators that we're talking about. David has already really covered the environments and what occurred there. The prek outcomes are something that we have been focusing on in our work with the state and the annual desk audit. So I'll start with 7A. When you look at each indicator, this indicator A is about social emotional um issues for the student. So it measures it two different ways. It wants to know has that child made any growth this year in social emotional outcomes and what is their achievement? How close to their um typically developing peer have they got how close
042are they to that age range? Yes sir. >> How how's that measured? So, it is measured through the child outcome summary evaluation and I'm going to talk about that a little bit more and the work that we've been doing on that. Sarah and I started partnering on that last year and really hitting some of that and so hopefully I'm going to be able to show you guys some movement that we've made based on um our partnership on working toward improvement there. >> Thank you. >> Um the next one 7B same thing but this is about knowledge and skills. So, how much growth did that child make and how close did they get to that age expectation by the end? Same measurements for appropriate behavior. So, just so that you guys can see those outcomes are
043looking at three different areas of growth for those students >> from the same assessment. >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. >> They measure that assessment measures those three areas. >> So, like the indicator 7C is not like from a wee database. It's all from the assessment. >> Yes, sir. >> That's done three times a year. >> And again, you have your state outcomes. And then you have the percentage points. They give more weight to growth. It's worth 75 um versus 0.25 for getting closer to their age um their age expectation. So, it is weighted a little differently between those two areas. As you can see, unfortunately, we um were not able to um earn any points there, but you'll see that we did have some growth. It just didn't quite get to that state number. Do
044you guys have any questions on this or any additional questions on this part? Because I want to make sure you understand this part of the chart before we move to the next. Okay. Okay, so this chart was created in order to compare the child outcome summary results with the ADA expectations and to show you a little bit of the growth that's been made. So your first column that's in gray, it's looking at the social emotional, the um knowledge and skills and the behavior. The first is your growth. The second line is your age expectations and then back to the grade. This is what West Virginia's percent where they expect us to be. The light blue is where Berkeley County landed in the assessment when that was done. Across the top, as David mentioned, the the
045top number there is the school year in which they took the test, but this is where it was reflected in our reporting data. The third column for each section, this is comparing did we grow or did we lose um growth from year to year for us. This is our comparison. So we can measure ourselves and what we did. So in 2018, I only did the trend data back for these six years. So that's why I blocked out growth because I stopped comparing it at 2018. In 2019, we stayed pretty still for social emotional skills, but we lost some points um in our growth, which is what they weigh more heavily and getting kids to age expectations. The same here, our growth was lacking not too bad. One point difference. Um in 2020 scoring, West Virginia
046did not ask us to meet an expectation. This was all during COVID years and they removed that but they did give us our scores for what we filled out for that and it wasn't a bad year but I caution us with data from those particular years especially considering that the state wasn't measuring anything new. So, in our 2022 annual desk audit and we start comparing again, we're at the heels of that. Um, this was taken in 2021, the assessment that they're using. So, little growth, little loss, a little staying the same, but we're still moving on. We're getting back into the process of taking these evaluations. Our 2023 data sort of up and down, not a lot of consistency. And then we move to and this is sort of the start of of our history.
047I think this was the first year that um special ed started getting involved in um prek a little more a little more thoroughly if you will. So when we compared our data, we had had lost some points in particular in growth um that 2024 ADA our scores weren't weren't where we wanted them and that was based on 2023's participation. So this is the point where Sarah and I really started partnering and talking about what can we do? We really have to focus on this. This is the focus of our targeted support plan that we're required to send to the state to make some gains. And we looked at a lot of professional development activities in order to help support that. So hopefully when you look at school year 2025's ADA report, which is the 2024
048data, you can see we did start to make some gains back in growth. Now, we weren't at the state level, but now we've started to see some greed. So, we grew in four out of the six areas last year and um our losses weren't as significant as some of our losses from the previous years. So, we really did feel like we made a lot of gains and we're really excited to see the results of our data which isn't available yet from the end of last year to see if our trend is still going up. Are all of our prek teachers uh teaching the same curriculum? >> Yes. >> Standard? >> Yes. They'll teach the creative curriculum, the West Virginia preers. >> We're sure of that. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. >> We do walkthroughs in
049um those in our classrooms to make sure that and they're required by the state. you need to have the walkthroughs, but it also gives us information, some spot checks, able to go in and look at um the instruction, the activities, the stations. So, there is a lot of consistency happening. Um I think right when I was uh coming in and becoming more involved in prek and I think it's the year Sarah joined as well, we didn't consistently have um the materials in every class, >> but that is in every class and I think last year was the first year that we implemented and had all that training. >> So what about the supplemental materials? We do not have any supplemental materials right now. >> Okay. Well, that's important for us to >> Well, I think
050you also have to think about the appropriateness of what supplemental materials are for prek just because and I and I may be wrong and if I am, I want to give you full permission to tell me, do Dr. You're wrong. But supplemental materials is sort of subjective in prek because a lot of what they're doing are hands-on activities. they're very very monosur style um where they're social play. So it's it's it's about having those resources in there. That's really what supplements the learning experience are the the manipulatives and those types of things. So I just wanted to clarify where in kindergarten through well we talk about supplemental materials to to supplement what the students have at the core level to target deficiencies. It's a little bit different model at the pre-K level. >> Well, and
051I will say our prek teachers are phenomenal at once they get that group of students in front of them to I know what I need to use for this kid or I know what I need to use for that kid or they have so many different I'll call them resources if you will, but it's not in the same way you're maybe thinking of the supplemental resources we're talking about with the identified curriculum, right? but it's just the activities that they know are going to be engaging for their students and our our teachers are really topnotch when it comes to making sure that they have those things at the ready to help support their kids. >> Go ahead. >> All right. Any questions about this particular chart and the data that it represents? I I I
052think it would be helpful to take a look at the 2023 school year and are there any assumptions that can be made as to why there was such a significant drop to the in the in for that for that for that school year's data reporting because you know >> year >> Yes ma'am. I mean, have we have we been able to make assumptions as to what the root causes of those significant drops are compared to what we're doing differently to address it? >> It would be speculative at best if I um to share um some of that because as I said, I was just starting to come into some of that information. I think there were several things maybe happening at that time. We um it was a little bit on the heels of the
053audit that we had and I can talk a little bit more about the audit and some of the things that the audit found and I think there were some maybe practices that were starting to catch up with us by the time that we got to that data. And so it has taken a lot of focused um support to start moving past that. And of course, those practices weren't everywhere, but there is some information um on the next slide that will talk about some of the contributing factors to I think what impacted and began some of that decline. Could could I'm going to ask a question here. Could any of um hope scholarship be attributed to some of the numbers? And the reason why I'm asking that question is if we look at people removing their
054children from from the public school, placing them into private school or homeschooling or whatever that looks like, could there be an adjustment then to numbers? >> Well, that could indicate >> I I see what you're saying, but um children in prek don't qualify for hope. It's only when they enter kindergarten. But I Okay, to that point, I would say usually when you go into like private schools, when you have more than one child enrolled, you get a discount. >> Oh, I see what you're saying. >> And could there have been the ability for some people to start looking at that, especially if they have multiple kids in their house? I'm just asking a question because I don't know. It just is weird to me that 2023 is the year that there was a distinct difference.
055Well, if you can't enroll a child with a whole scholarship or preschool in u there's other facilities that I don't know how that contribute to >> because I'm saying if there if I have a child that's in fourth grade and a child that's in second grade and then a child that's in prek, I get a discount for that child in prek because it's my third child. But I've been able to use the hope scholarship in the other two and it now affords me the opportunity to pay for just one child in it >> just >> as a state I don't know >> I'm not sure that we can correlate those reason >> it's just the thought that with >> um because prek is not required and I would say our prek numbers in terms of
056enrollment that piece of it has been pretty consistent with some growth over the last several years so it would be a little difficult to to make that correlation, but I definitely understand what you're asking. >> That's where my brain goes just because of the year. Sure. >> I think the bigger challenge that we see I think it it may be a a cause probably not the leading cause. I would say that when we see um enrollment challenges at the pre-k level, a lot of times it's probably it's more more than likely based upon the availability of seats in certain places where families want to go. Okay? >> And if they if they can't get that seat at a certain location, they may not enroll their child. >> Okay, I can see that >> because of
057legitimance. >> Okay. And that's actually one of the reasons that this this school district um is choosing to look at the prek school model because we can open up more seats in more geographic locations that help accommodate families. >> So, >> and that does happen when because right now we're full pretty much from the north end all the way down Pike Side in our program. We're everywhere. We're at Yeah. Sure. So, these were some buckets that we placed um the results of our spring 2022 um Department of Education prek review. So, these were some of the things that they found during that review. um they felt that and this based on my previous explanations probably not going to make much sense but there was an over reliance on separate prek specialed ed classrooms and classrooms
058labeled universal prek so what was happening they weren't classrooms that we intentionally identified as a special education environment however the state says it's 50/50 you can have say five kids that have if you have five kids with special education needs, then you have to have at least five typically developing peers to make that a general education classroom. And the way some of our students had been placed, we had tipped the scales and maybe we had seven special education students and only six general education students or 10 special education students and four um typical peers. those when they're reviewed become special education environments even though that wasn't the intent. >> And sometimes to a contributing factor to that is speech in prek is considered special. So therefore if a child always is sudden found that they're
059eligible for speech they are count as one of those numbers of special a class. >> So have we changed what we're doing with that? >> Yes ma'am. Yes ma'am. Um we have started making sure that the classrooms were more balanced and um met the state's expectation for general education environments and the distribution of students has changed and that could be a contributing factor because that was a big change. Um so that could be part of our 2023 different look. That was that was a pretty significant change for how we were placing kids. was required. I I don't think it was intentionally being done the wrong way, but it's absolutely required that we place students in the way we are currently placing them um in order to maintain compliance and policy expectations. But it was definitely
060a shift. Well, I think that even with the the evolution of what we've also done with the second ECAT, it help it it almost makes us take a look at those ratios also to ensure >> or before we may not have been we may not have been paying as much attention to it because we already had two ECATs. >> Yes. >> Another good point. Um, so we also had some gaps with our transition planning that we've tried to work on making sure we understand our inclusive practices and making sure that we're meeting with um, kindergarten and having those meetings. Those were some things that weren't consistently happening. I think they happen in pockets. um the instructional alignment again making sure that we didn't have creative curriculum kits in every single room when they completed this
061audit. And that was what I was talking about earlier that we made sure that we got the kits and the professional development that went along with that in order to support the teachers to make sure that they had the resources that they needed. And then looking at um certifications and support and the types of trainings we're doing. Um, I do feel like having Sarah join our prek team was really crucial because Sarah came from Marshall's programs and car Sarah, you could speak to this way better than than I will, but a lot of support as a former classroom teacher who also had a lot of knowledge on some behavioral supports, did a lot of work on some of those um, instructional pieces, the classroom management supports to help many of our teachers as well. >>
062Do you think um that the discipline issues that we have in prek affect some of these outcomes? >> I would say sure to a certain extent that's going to have an impact um just like it would in any other classroom. I don't think it would be fair to say no because a disruption does mean that attention is paid to a certain extent. Now I will say because of the tools that have been provided um because of some of our excellent teachers who mentor their partners next door in classrooms. I do see um a lot of improvement in that. I also think that um we're always going to have a learning curve. And I will say, and I don't know, we have two excellent pre-K teachers in the in the room tonight, but um as someone
063who's been in special education for a long time, I am seeing some some pretty high need kiddos walk through the doors in the last year and a half to two years. Well, I do know that we have a lot of discipline issues in prek and I don't know how it cannot affect those outcomes that we saw on first slides. Yes, I I will say percentage-wise the percent of of those issues is pretty small, but those are the ones we hear about and those are the ones that that bring the most attention. So, I think it's fair to consider all of those things as part of why we've had some impacts there. >> I didn't mean to throw you off. >> No. Oh, no. Ask away. I'm a talker. It's fine. Maybe. Okay. So what we're
064required to do with the annual desk audit that we get from the state every year, we're required to have a targeted um system of improvement plan provided to the state to say what are we focusing on? Mr. Dilly asked us a few years ago to start focusing on prek because he noticed some of those trends starting to happen in our data. And so for the past three years, I've written a targeted um plan to address our prek outcomes. And one of the things that we did was focus specifically on the training for those child outcome summaries. That's giving us all those number seven indicators where we have zeros. That's one of the things that um Sarah partnered with me on as well. and we did some training to talk about that. Make sure that the
065teachers understand um what that scoring means and and what leads into it and understanding what it is they're looking at. Um so last year we started gathering some resources. We provided some decision trees that the state had provided us and then this year we've taken it a step further. We've required that all the teachers take um a training in and we provided them time in their professional development days. We didn't ask for it to be done outside of hours. We we gave them the time to do it. But to go through Canvas provided a course on the child outcome summary and then Sarah, I think I saw you bring it. we worked together, but Sarah definitely took the lead and did a really good job on putting together some additional resources so teachers could really
066dig in and understand what that behavior might look like to um when you're giving that score to the students. So, we're hoping that all of this really focused work will um help teachers as they're making those decisions. We don't want anyone to inflate, but we do want to make sure that we're getting at least an accurate baseline data as we continue to try to build. And if I can give an example of that, like I had a question today, if teacher could give a child um a score of all sevens if they still had an IEP and this was a speech student. So they were um on par for developmental growth um for age expected skills, but they had articulation issues, so they still required. So that teacher was afraid if she gave the child
067a six instead of a seven that child would lose their IEP. So just really clarifying for teachers and for SLPs what these scores mean. >> Very important. One other thing I'd like to share is that I think you've heard Mrs. Durano and Miss talk about the the work being done with Mrs. Wolf um in the the prek office, the special ed office. And I think um I I've got to have a moment here to say this is this was one of the reasons that um the restructuring was so important that we that we just went through and and the moving of offices because now those two are in the same hub whereas before prek was at Pikeside and special ed was at 401. being able to to bring these two leaders together so that that
068that work can be done more collaboratively on a moment's notice, logistics, it really does help the the work that we're doing. And um and of course as they see challenges and they need to um intervene, whether it be Dr. Woods or Mr. Molynax or with other other folks we have at our disposal for resources, it's it's all part of the the rationale of what we're trying to do to streamline these processes. Um because if we can be streamlined then we're going to do a better job of meeting the needs of our teachers in our classrooms. So when they need help we can triage it. We can support them. So and that's what we've been doing. Um and I want to say that that Mrs. Durano and Mrs. Wolf have been fabulous um uh this year
069when there have been challenges brought to our attention um in our pre-K classrooms. going out and being in those classrooms, talking with our our teachers and problem solving some of those issues as well has just been um very very important. And um one of the things that that I continue to talk about is as a public school district, the need for us to make sure we are customer serviceoriented. Um and I think that that's why we exist here at the district level. That's why that's why I'm in my role. That's why Dr. Wood is in his role. That's why Dr. Julies and his role is that we have to be customer serviceoriented toward our students, toward our families, and toward our employees is to make sure that we're meeting those needs. And so I'm very
070appreciative of the work that that you all are doing to address, you know, the things within the desk the desktop audit um and to have a a true plan of action. >> Thank you. Um I really covered three first, which was the COS. Um we are trying to make sure if we can um since this is a plan I have to submit to the state if we can decrease our placements a little bit because that's somewhere we're out of compliance. I have to have a plan for that. So while 3% certainly wouldn't get us all the way back to 9% it is just making sure that we are looking at those environments. And then I don't know why I feel like I have to be up here like Vanna White. Sorry about that. Um but
071then also trying to get us a little bit closer through our use of creative curriculum and um the ECPDIS that Sarah brought to us um with Fidelity, I'll say um to try to close some of those um gaps and get our kids a little bit closer. >> One thing I want to correct what I said when I mentioned the uncertified staff of food. I'm not blaming them. Sure. I don't want them to think that that I think they're any different than certified prek because I'm sure they're working their tail off to make sure that they understood that. >> Absolutely. And you're right. And I think prek is something that not everybody understands. So it is left up to um since not just because they're here, but I think they're a great example. Marlo, for example,
072they have the classes out in in their pod, but they really do depend on each other and the veteran teachers recognize the value in supporting the new teachers that come along to try to build capacity and to try to help them in order to support the students because that team knows if it doesn't go well for the new person, then not only are the kids, their kids impacted, but then maybe the other classrooms of kids and the teachers. So, I think that our prek teams in most places and in particular when they're all together and they have the shared resources of each other do a great job trying to informally mentor the newer teachers. >> Well, that and that is pretty impressive actually. When you go into it, it's its own unique >> it is
073>> environment there. >> One of my favorite teachers works there. Um anyway, that's my last slide. Um with regard to the prek stuff in particular, I'm not sure if there's any other questions for the team. >> Yes, sir. >> What determines a special education student take the GSA versus the uh ASA? >> Is this a part of IEP? >> Yes, sir. There there is a process and the state actually in the past few years has given us some pretty good guidance. The state thinks that only 1% of our students should qualify for the alternate standards instruction, which of course leads into the alternate assessment. And so they have given us sort of a checklist to go by and have conversations about. But they do allow the team to make that final decision based on multiple
074areas of assessment, knowledge of the student, observations, um just a really robust team discussion in order to make that decision. But they have given us guidelines to make that call. >> So So what's our percentage then? Is it >> we were a little bit over? I think we were 1.4 something. They like to throw in extra decimals. Um, and then we have to just write a statement usually asking for a waiver. And when you're that close, they're usually pretty generous with that. >> Is that about 300 students? Then >> 1% would be 1% be around 200. >> 1% would be >> of our student population. Oh, 1% of your special ed students. >> Oh, 1% of your special ed. >> Yeah. So, it's 1% of of our >> Thank you for >> 3,800ish. So, you're
075talking about what? 380 kids. >> Yeah. >> 38 kids. >> Yeah. No problem. >> I don't speak. >> So, it's not many. >> No. No, it is not. Um, and I think that's a good question. And in some places depending on the grade level that might have an impact on some of those assessment results. >> It also look for like compared county to county when we look at the general funds of GSA as a whole like say two years ago I think we did um we had to look at that from the special education portion take the GSA. Now, I will say one of the positives in our data is that that gap the past few years, we've actually gotten a few points in there. We haven't lost as many points in the gap between
076our special education learners and our um general education learners. So, that gap has really been a positive for us because it has been um pretty close to expected percentages. And and a good great example of that is like Orchard View and South Middle School. The reason they were identified as an ATS school in the first place was because their subgroup uh GSA performance for special education was the indicator there. Can you know where we rank percentage-wise for special education students per county? Like the number of identified like the percent where we are out of the 55 count guys >> per per percentage of special education students. >> I don't it's a math problem. I can do I can do that one. Um but we're at about we're usually around the 18%. The past few years
077we've been around 18%. National averages used to be 12 to 13%. They've recently redone that and they think it's a large part in result of COVID. Um but it national average is now about 15%. >> So Berkeley is a little bit over that. I was going to say just another fun fact for you. uh did the numbers look at the numbers overall if we special was its own county we would be ranked about 15th in the state as as count >> if so >> that's been so far our our >> number questions for Mr. Dilling Mr. Rank, >> I want to thank you guys for putting all this together and tolerating all of us for asking all these questions. Um, >> we just want to be clear. We want to be transparent as we appreciate
078your time. >> Do the teachers have anything to >> share? David, you put them on the spot. >> No, I'm only asking. >> You were asking about what the fidelity looks like as far as our curriculum prek. I can say through I would say significant effort by Sarah we have been given training. So when I first came and so I started as a lead teacher, this is my sixth year as a lead teacher. I was told, "Oh, that's creative curriculum, but you don't need to be any." >> Well, that see that's what I was thinking. That's what I knew, >> right? However, over the past um two years in particular, we've really been given an opportunity to be educated as to what creative curriculum truly should look like with Fidelity. And so when I write
079my lesson plans, I have a lesson plan at a glance that I send home to my families so they know exactly what we're teaching in the classroom. I have a lesson plan that encompasses West Virginia State standards. Um the accommodations I give to my special education students, goals that I have that I'm working on for my entire class through our next LRS timeline. Um, and then I have a three-page creative curriculum uh lesson plan that goes along with that to make sure that in each part of my day creative curriculum is being followed. So, I I will say that and I think that I'm not the unique. I think that's pretty normal. And so, I will say I think your prek teachers are working really hard. Um, we teach a a vast um ability level.
080you know, we have some students that come in reading and we have some students who are not yet even speaking and are functioning at about a 1 to two year old level. And so the pre-k teachers really are covering quite the gamut of skill level in their classroom and um trying to meet each of the needs of those students. But I do think that creative curriculum, we certainly have really risen the expectation as far as fidelity with our curriculum. Well, and that's what I was hoping to hear that funeral doing the standard curriculum and what we're supposed to be doing. >> And also, just cuz I'm a little silly, I love sharing my lesson plans with people. So, if anybody wants to see one, I would be super happy to email you because I worked
081really hard on it. So, for Dr. when he came to visit me. >> I I I made him go through the entire thing and I >> So sorry about that, but it was so fun. >> He likes it. >> But that's why I asked about that. Figured you'd have a different point of view, so I wanted to >> Yeah. Good. Thank you, Mr. >> I'm not and I'm not going to sugarcoat it. I do think Well, the restructuring has been challenging for the classrooms again just trying needs of such a vast need that come can be in our preschool classrooms. I can only speak for Marlo, but um we've worked really hard as a team to try to make sure that we're meeting all of the needs of our students and we've had we have
082asked for extra support and we've received extra support which we do appreciate. >> But I do think that the preschool teachers are trying to adjust to this new norm and it is it looks different. Yeah, the change is very difficult, but once it gets to where we need to be, um I think everybody will be on the level playing field and realize what they the challenge was for the best >> hopefully. And I do hope that we continue. Also, Kelly puts up with Katie and I this summer were part of your prek testing team because we just love prek that much >> so much. Um, and we really tried super hard to determine the to really pinpoint the need of the students so that their placement was appropriate to give everyone the best opportunity to
083grow in their proper environment regardless of whether that was ance classroom or a GE classroom. >> Um, one unique thing with prek is is we're the only on unrequired grade level in the county. And so when you look at your >> with a lot of requirements, right? >> Yes. But I'm just saying when you look at that parents don't have to send their students to prek. So we we have, you know, and I'm not going to get the number right, but we have 400 special education students and we only have 600 non-special education students. And so what our classrooms look like and what our numbers look like in comparison to the rest of the county because there's such a vast number of students it sometimes our numbers are a little bit higher but they are
084very much needed in order for all of the students to excel to the best of their ability. So, I appreciate the board appreciating the fact that our numbers might be higher. Um, but especially with the new um structure, I would advocate that those classrooms are vital and trying to diminish that would be detrimental to the entire prek program. >> Yeah, I agree with that completely. >> I want to say thank you for the two of you for coming. >> Yeah, >> I saw that special ed and I saw y'all were going to talk about prek and I was like, what is this nonsense happening? I think >> like you were here to defend things. >> I just want to I like to know, >> you know, I come here and my children go to school
085here and I'm really proud to be a Berkeley County teacher and so I just I like to know what you guys are up to. >> Thank you for coming and sharing your perspective. You know, that's it's it's pivotal quite honestly for us to hear it. Um it helps us you know look at decisions that we have to make and you know it reinforces that well when we talk about teachers when we talk about support staff that there are individuals behind those words and I thank you for coming to so >> so sorry I'm going to stop talking just one second but I do have to say prek teachers also are super hard workers and so when they do ask for extra help it doesn't it's not because they don't want to work hard is because
086they care about the students in their classroom. They may not know how to ask for it appropriately all the time and sometimes it might sound like we don't know the proper words to request the help, but if the help is being asked for, it is desperately needed. And so we do appreciate that it's being thoughtfully considered and help is being given where it's where it's required because none of us would be in prek if we didn't love our youngest learners. And so we are very thoughtful and very hardworking and we really do love the students in Berkeley County. >> Oh, go ahead. >> Oh, no. I was just going to say that I think um it's admirable that when you ask for help um not that anyone thinks that in your job or you don't
087know what you're talking about. But if you don't ask for help, then you never know what you don't know. So, but you're advocating not only for yourself, but you're advocating for your students. >> Yeah. I was going to say that um I um you know love getting a chance to go into our pre-K classrooms and read occasionally and I got to read in her class last year. But the one thing that um in my almost 20 years of being um a public educator that I've also realized is that I can't be a prek teacher. Like I I cannot do the job. I don't have the skill set um or the patience. Um, I love all kids, but that it is a special calling. >> So, thank you for what you do. >> That it is.
088I've watched my daughter be a pre prek um assistant teacher with Head Start, and I'm going to tell you, I've I've never seen my daughter work so hard. Um, but the the passion that she has, it's there. And I um go middle school every day of the week. I'll let you guys take care of the prekers. You probably get some pretty good stories. >> Yeah, I have. >> Well, thank you all. >> Very much appreciate it. >> Our pleasure. >> Any board member have any other questions? >> Hearing none. I can have a motion to adjurnn. So move. Second. Second.