001So, I'm going to ask Miss Whitmore to uh go ahead and >> she loves that. >> This binder is put together. It might not follow along exactly with the PowerPoint, but um it's broken together by grades. So, you have kinder first, second, and third. So, you'll see a sample of some of the that they're talking about. Um when they get to second grade, there is a portion that shows some data. We've blacked out students names to protect their um identity, but it will give you a little bit about what the teachers are talking about. So um the PowerPoint will just kind of give some bullets. So teachers, as we get to your slide, you come up here. All right. Go ahead. Um so one of the big questions is why did we change to blue
002bonnet? We didn't. Last year we adopted Eureka for math and Eureka was bought out by Blue Bonnet. So we really didn't change. They just got a new name. >> Um when I came on board the uh thing that we were focusing on was high quality instructional materials. You have to pick a focus thing and that was our focus for the year. Um one of the things that teachers were worried about is a constant change within curriculum. So we were trying to find something that could address as many of our needs at one time instead of pulling from multiple places. Eureka which is now blue bonnet in math was something that we felt could do that. Um the reason why we started with math is according to data with the state in the improvement required process
003that was our biggest deficit. So we started with math. Um I think the initial concerns overall is adults do not do change well. Kids are kind of like cats. They just go with the flow. Um, adults, we have trouble bouncing. I'm probably the most notorious when it comes to change. I stress shop. Um, in fact, when I found out I was moving to the elementary, I bought a dog offline, which everyone really enjoyed, especially green when it was delivered to the school. But, um, how we kind of got how um >> how we got everybody on board is in 2024 and 2025. Um I it is not always my place to convince teachers to get on board with things. Teachers need to convince teachers and they're the ones that have to push it out there
004to the kids so they don't need me telling them exactly what to do. So we spent quite a bit of money taking them to the trainings with me. I think it was a team of 15. Um, I did not set with them because if they wanted to openly discuss something, they needed to have that right without feeling like I was breathing down their neck. So, we took some of our stronger leaders, teachers that had taught for many, many years. Um, I'm not going to say mean teachers, but maybe our louder teachers that could get people on board. And then when we came back, they were the ones that pushed it to the other teachers. We would meet uh randomly through the semester to do checkups and I would just ask what can I do to
005make it easier. If it was make copies, we made copies. When the copies became too much, we bought workbooks. Um if they need me to cut things out, if they need me to buy things, that was my job. So, we were able to accomplish that through math. This year, we turned our focus onto reading. And um I'm going to kind of let them talk about what they've seen through that. >> So is it safe to say this is your group of louder? >> Well, to be honest, they're all kind of loud. >> Yes, most of the loud ones are here. >> You don't want to call me? >> No, they're not. >> Of course not. >> Very vocal. >> All right. So, Miss Jenkins and Miss Hurst are going to kind of give us some
006of the initial perspectives and um I'm a very transparent person and I demand that from my staff as well. So everything that they say is from them, not from me. >> I'm Julie Jenkins. I've been teaching for 30 years. I teach at the elementary, kindergarten. I've taught kindergarten, prek, and first grade through my um 30 years. >> I came from Leslie Hurst. I came from Love Cooper uh in Love, Texas. I don't know if y'all are familiar with West Texas. I'm a West Texas girl who was forced to come to East Texas. I'm still getting used to it. I taught kindergarten at Leach for 15 years. Came here, took a year off, and then was hired uh by the district in December of 18 and started January of 19. Um I when I came, I'll
007just go ahead and say my spill. When I came, uh, we were, as far as math went, we were using Envision Math and yeah, we we kind of used it a little bit here and ripped a few pages out here. Uh, then we didn't do that anymore. And then we tried um a few other things. We went to a field guide. We've used the the you know we went to teach resource and went through the you know uh did that but we've never had like a set set curriculum that we stuck with. It's like we've been here, we've been there, we've been here, we've been there and um when we were told about um coming with Eureka Blue Bonnet, you know, I'll do anything I'm asked to do. I'll roll with the flow. You want
008me to do that? Okay. We were like you know, here we go again. Is this going to be a a one and done or are we going to keep rolling with it? And um my next part, I'll talk more about Blue Bonnet actually, but I want you to know um it was a pain in the rear end the first year because it was a lot of work and we complained to each other, but I want you to know it's a great great program. It's the be as long as I've been here, it's the best thing we've ever done and I really really hope that you stick with it because it's great. I think and now and I I haven't taught it as uh we didn't have it with EL last year so we were using
009HMH not so great but I for I'm teaching math this year but I know that it's great all the way around but I just hope that we really stick with this this time. Sorry, I'm just being honest. >> Go for it. >> Well, I'm excited that it's the same curriculum for all, you know, the whole elementary a lot of times. And part of this was kindergarten sometimes chose to do something else because, you know, it there wasn't a lot a long time ago, you know, for kindergarten. Um, and we thought there were some better ones. But I think having the same curriculum for all grade levels where it, you know, you're expected to do this um, and the next grade level you keep going. I think that that's going to be really great. Um, now
010when we first got the curriculum, we were all like, scripted, what? We have to read from a book. They don't think we know how to teach. You know, that kind of came across a lot of our minds, you know, because we've been I've been teaching lots of years. not thoughtful, but in the long run, it's turned out very good. Um, you have your questions there, you've got your activities there. You know, you're um teaching the TEICSS, you know, you're not getting off topic too much, you know, so sometimes, uh, that happens. The preparation, last year was the first math year. Um, kindergarten, there was a lot of preparation, you know, like one lesson, we need cotton balls bagged up, bears bagged up, blocks bagged up. You know, we uh ripped papers last year out of
011all those workbooks and that was you could ask my husband. My dining room table is full and I just go around and sort math papers and I do that for language arts. Now I gotten better this year. We don't wrap the rip the math book, but I still do the other book, you know. But um so there's a what has been a lot of preparation. But some of the stuff for math like we put in sheet protectors. The school bought a sheet protectors. So, the work mats that they use the dry erase um markers on, we're using year after year. And now that we've got our um box of curriculum math manipulatives, the stuff we bagged up, we don't have to rebag, you know, because before we didn't have enough blocks. So, if we need
012five cubes and we need eight cubes and then the next day we need 10 cubes, we're having to >> Yes. set them up all. So, we've gotten a lot of cubes this year, a lot of manipulative. So, that has helped out. But I do think um I think it was rough for first grade the first year because like what we had taught them the previous year without Eureka, you know, like they start off number bonds and we taught number bonds but not the way Lubonet teaches number bonds. So this year one of the um pluses was that first grade said they knew what a number bond was, you know, at the beginning of the year. So that was really good for them to, you know, so I think as the years progress, I think it's
013going to all build on each other and we're going to see a lot of improvement and that's it. >> This is year two for math for >> EL started with math. >> Yes, sir. >> Do you have everything that you need currently? >> Oh, yes. >> We got lots of things. We're good to go now. Yeah. >> First year we kind of scraped and you know we had to rebag, but this year like my 10 cubes are together, my five cubes are together. So next year it'll be a lot of prep work. >> I'm just asking you something to make your job easier. That's all. >> You want to rip some pages? >> David has an office up here. >> I know. Sometimes he prefers not to do that anymore. >> Lamination, but >> Hi.
014So, I'm Miss Parker. Most of you know me. Um, I've been teaching at Huntington for nine years. I stepped away um and came back after I had my baby. But when I returned back to Huntington, I was like, "Oh yeah, I know the drill. I know our curriculum." And then here comes Miss Bill. And she's like, "Wait." And I'm like, "What? What? Excuse me?" Like, "We're changing our curriculum again. Why?" So, at first I was very against Eureka, which was blue on it. Me and Miss Bell and Miss Miller actually piloted um EL last year and so we jumped in full force and I was not wanting to jump in at all. I was like why are we changing again? Can we just stick to something be consistent? Um literally my thoughts were all negative
015about it. I had more thoughts and concerns than I had oh yeah I'm going to do this right. Um, I just wanted something consistent. It was like almost every year, year after year, we were changing and we just couldn't stick to anything. Um, I was teaching the way I thought was best for the students. Um, and you can ask Miss Belle. I was like like this, I'm not changing again. Why are we doing this? I was just so upset about it. Um, she's like, "Oh, we need to internalize." What? That's more work on us. But in hindsight, um once you get the internalization down, it is I'm not gonna say it's less work. It's just shifted in a different way. Um I feel more prepared as a teacher. I know I'm teaching high quality instruction.
016Um once I got over the initial I'm mad, why did I come back to Huntington if we're changing again? This was not part of the deal. Um, and so once I got over myself, my feelings, I was like, "Okay, if this is something we're going to do, I'm going to do it wholeheartedly." So, I jumped in and my current perspectives, I'm blown away. Like the type of questioning it has, the higher level questioning. Um, we don't have to do lesson plans. Everything is laid out for you. Um, you're not having to go to TE's like Miss P was talking about. Go to TE's resource. go to this place, go to that place. Um, so my current perspective is I really love it. It has changed the way I teach in a positive way. That's changed
017the way we do things in the classroom. Um, student engagement, student answering question, higher level thinking, the way they're responding to these questions is nothing compared to what they were doing years ago, even in third grade. Um, so I absolutely love it. Um, I don't have anything negative to say about it. Um, the the speaking and listening portion is really higher level than third grade. Um, the the curriculum, they're actually excited for it. I have a little boy um absolutely hates reading. Did not want to come to my class ever. and we started talking about the solar system and he finally told me, "Hey, Miss Parker, I actually like read coming to reading class now because they have such engaging topics that the students look forward to learning about. It's not just, okay, pull out
018this passage, let's read it and do some strategies over it and things like that." They're actually engaged. They're learning um topics that they're going to keep learning in fourth grade and fifth grade and sixth grade. So, I just love that this curriculum is across grade level. It's something we're doing kindergarten through fifth grade. And so if they move in and out of district, it's the same. If they um it's just the routine is the same. The v vocabulary is the same. The verbiage is the same throughout the whole entire curriculum. So yeah. Okay. And I'm Miss Belle. I am a third grade reading teacher as well. And um Miss Parker is not lying whenever she says she was really upset about coming back and seeing that we had changed. Um So, I was I changed
019>> I was one of the teachers that went to the training. So, I'm not sure if I'm loud or mean or what that means, but um we're going to talk about it later, but um I whenever I went in, most of our focus was on math. And so, I was sitting there and I'm with all these teachers that are going to be teaching math the next year. And I'm like, okay, well, three third grade teachers are going to be doing nothing new. Um, and so Miss Whitmore and I had talked and um, they showed us at that training, it was the focus was high quality instructional materials and they showed us the Eureka TRA um, information for math. It all looked great. I'm not a math teacher, but it looked great. And then they showed
020us what then was amplify for reading. And I was sitting there like, I am so jealous. I don't get to use this because it looked great. And I was talking to some of the other teachers who were in there and they're like, "This looks really good. Maybe y'all should think about using this." I'm like, "I'm gonna talk to Miss Whitmore." So, we talked about it and she said, "If this is something that you're interested in, third grade compiled it." So, um much to Miss Parker's dismay, we went um full force and jumped in. And um the very first few lessons, uh we were like, "What if the kids don't like it?" Because it's a lot. And when she talks about internalizing, what we're doing is we are um kind of moving from our past which
021was pulling um all of these resources from teach resource system, pulling from teachers paid teachers, doing what we think is going to meet the standards. Um hunting and gathering. We would literally spend all of our time pulling information and hoping it fit what we needed, hoping it was what we needed to use to teach our standards to having all this information right in front of us. And instead of doing all that, we spent time looking over the lesson, looking at what we're going to be teaching, um really being prepared to teach. And we walked into those first few lessons and we were like, "Dang, we're good teachers." So, because you could have heard a pin drop in our classrooms and we were reading a classic British tale to our third grade students and uh we
022really thought this is going to just be way over their heads. They're not going to be interested in this. And they were soaking it up. >> And so, our current preparation is much different, but like Miss Barker said, not easier. Um it is not less work and last year it was more work for us. So this year it it is um a lot less. We're able to refamiliarize ourselves with what we're teaching. Um we're able to make sure that we have everything we need ready for our students and um just go in feeling so confident in what we're doing and we have such great conversations with our students um because of it. And like Parker said on the um speaking and listening portion, that's where we're actually reading to them. It's a grade level above.
023So, they're hearing information above level and then whenever they go to do their own work, it's on a third grade level and it's similar um it's similar vocabulary and the entire um topic is the same. And so, they feel very confident reading on a third grade level in class even if they're not actually on a third grade level. So we have seen um such a huge improvement across the board with our students. >> EXCELLENT. >> All right. Uh I'm Cali Batty. I am a second year teacher. Um and I'm an alterc teacher. So when I came into this, my outlook was a lot different because I had no experience in the classroom. It's very, very limited. And so when we were going over this in first grade um and they gave me my math book,
024I'm like, "Hey, I can do this. It tells me what to do. I can do this." So I actually enjoyed that. When I was teaching reading last year when we were self-contained in first grade, it was a lot harder because the curriculum didn't have what I felt like I needed to be successful. Um, and so into it for my second year in first grade. It's been even better. So, the school has actually bought some slides for us that somebody made it up. >> Just kidding. Sorry. Anyways, so they bought the slides for us and so that helped with our internalization process. So last year it was going through a lot and like marking on the books. Um and then this year we were able to keep those books and kind of look back at them
025and compare them to the slides that we were given. So that helped with internalizing that. Um and I actually had some work samples on the slide. Um but I had a student that started this year and she was homeschooled last year. So when she came to me, she did not know what a number bond was. She did not know how to count past nine. Um, and so I made her redo um a graded paper from the beginning of the year and I rewrote in all the answers so that you guys could read them better and put the dates on there. Um, and she actually redid it the other day and made 100 on it. So, she is now recognizing numbers past 40. um she has learned how to flip in her math workbook and follow
026along with instruction. She's participating. Um and so I've seen great great improvement there with that. Um and basically with the slides that you guys can see in the book. So when we're looking at our lessons, it looks the same. So our our book will have like the first activity which is just the fluency one, two, and three less. And so in our slides that pops up and I'm able just to say like what's two less than five or something like that. And then the next one would be like counting by threes, but that's kind of boring. So we're allowed to do things. So I'll pull up YouTube videos and it's songs that they remember. Um and a lot of my kids really like those and their parents normally message me and ask me for the
027link so they can listen to them at home. Um and then it has the problem set and everything there with that. Um, and then the other thing that I had there, um, I actually had to do a lesson plan through my alter program. And when I had to do that lesson plan, it came out to be a little more than six pages, but not quite seven pages. And so, if we didn't have the book that we were given, that's what we would have to do for every lesson. So, I couldn't imagine doing that because I feel like I'm still barely a teacher sometimes. So, when I had that, I was able to pull up our link online and have my math book open and I could literally just pull everything from my math book and
028plug it in with the time minutes that it wanted on my lesson plan to make a 100 on that. Um, and then also I think honestly it helped me I had almost a perfect observation this year with Miss Whitmore and I don't think I would have had that without the scripted curriculum that helped with that. Not because I'm incapable of doing it, but just because it's a guide that helps us a lot. And so with that being said, it's been great for somebody with no teaching experience. >> I appreciate that perspective because Dr. Thorn had mentioned that to us regarding it was whenever you say script, you know, my question was, well, are we taking away from our veteran teachers ability to know where they, you know, can engage students here, engage students there? they
029have to follow this script and she's like no but it is helpful for someone from first year there it is >> and we're given flexibility with it though as long as we're kind of following and hitting the points we're given flexibility on how to keep it engaging and things like that but it's it was a game changer >> I'm Mackenzie Hoffford this is also my second year teaching I was fourth grade last year second grade this year so going from not having blue bonnet last year to having it this year I feel so much more confident as a teacher I I am not having to go look for what I'm teaching. I have it all right there for me. All my materials. We have boxes and boxes of materials. And so, it's all just right
030there and I have my questions. I'm not questioning am I asking higher order questions. It's all right there for me. So, it's just made me so much more confident and I feel like it's made me a better teacher because I'm not Am I doing a good enough job teaching these kids, but I'm just focused on this is what I'm supposed to be doing. I know I'm doing what the other teachers are doing. So, I'm just giving it my all. And I also put a work sample in there uh in the second grade tab. That was one of my students that at the beginning of the year, I was really worried. I was like, "Oh my goodness, we have a lot of work to do." But then if you look at the next work sample, it
031is a 100 and she is just really rose to the challenge. I was I was really concerned, but she's really doing such an amazing job and I feel like this curriculum has really helped her. It's not. It's challenging. It really is challenging, but it's helped her so much. Just >> just give her best effort every day. And you can see that from her work. >> Perfect. >> Thank you. >> I am I included a lesson plan that I internalized. It's the if you find the second grade page, it's right there. >> Uh I came uh as I said when I was hired in uh 18, I was hired to teach first grade. I taught first grade until this year and I moved to second grade having said what I said earlier about using this curriculum,
032that curriculum, whatever. Um, so we started with this last year and Mrs. Whitmore, we had to internalize the lessons. We had to submit them to her, show her that we had gone through each lesson, uh, you know, pulled out the point, you know, and you can see how my internalizing is a little bit different than it was in first grade because I'd never done it before. Um, and she said, "You can do it, uh, you know, internalize for a week. We'll turn it in." I couldn't internalize for a week. I had to do it day pretty much either two days at a time or a day at a time because it was a lot of work. Um, and you think, first grade math, come on. But I'm telling you, some of this stuff, I don't
033get it. And I'm I'm I'm an old woman, but I don't get it. Anyway, but I have it. Don't worry. I am teaching them. I am uh so having said that it was a lot of work. We internalized and you know they they give you if you you can look on my page there's places where it will tell you oh you're going to spend well I don't have my reading glasses on but like eight minutes here. That's the part that I had a problem with because sometimes I don't stop. Um and I'm like oh that was supposed to be 10 minutes and I'm 25 in. Um, but there are things also on these lesson plans that I'm like, I'm not doing that. Um, it's more important that I or on these lessons that I focus
034on this and not so much this. They have a way of counting that I do not understand. It's the uh say 10 way. I don't get it. Um, I don't get it. So, we count normally. Anyway, I don't buck the system, y'all. I really don't. I I am compliant. But anyway, so the biggest point I want to make is I taught this in first grade last year and then I moved to second grade and I want you to know they know. They know they get it. And when we started this as a as a first grade teacher, when I started this last year, holy smoke, these kids didn't know. They didn't know. And that's not that's not on Julie or any of them. That's on They had never had this kind of intense. I'm going
035to tell you, the stuff that we have piled on these second graders is insane. I I've never I mean we were before Christmas completed tripledigit addition and subtraction with regrouping and we lost our hair and wanted to but we made it. It was hard. We piled a ton on them in a in a little amount of time, you know. But I want you to know what they're learning now that kindergarten is doing it. I'm sure first grade saw a difference. Uh, and and as from going to first grade to second grade, it's working, y'all. It's don't fix what's not broken because it's not broken. And it's a good it's a good program. >> And uh, >> that's great. >> They're getting it. And and they're getting stuff that I'm shocked that they're getting. >> So,
036But anyway, >> okay. Um, so there's a lesson slides and an internalization. You can just quickly click on if you'll start with the internalization, Mr. Bear. Um, so when we talk about internalization, this is kind of what it looks like. It's also in your binders. Um, but this is just us going through the lessons to be prepared as um, educators when we go up to teach. This is what takes the place of us spending our time making a lesson plan. Um, and it does take a lot of time to go through, especially whenever you're learning to internalize, but it gets um, so much easier and it makes you so much more prepared. Um, so >> so once you've done this say this year, you'll be that much farther ahead when you come back to it
037next year or does it change? >> It does not change. Last year we were piloting Amplify and we um because we were not um under the same grant that they were for um Eureka, we were printing everything out. We didn't have the workbooks or the teacher manuals. So, we printed everything from online and um so this year now we have it provided from Blue Bonnet and all of our resources are provided. So this year we are reinter internalizing in our teacher manuals but we'll be able to have them next year not next year. >> Yes. Yes. And so we'll >> talk about what worked well, what didn't work well. >> Exactly. >> Yes. And we do jot down some like misconceptions and things like that as we're internalizing. We're like last year I know our
038kids struggled with this so maybe we reward it. Maybe we do something a little bit differently. Um so we do that when we plan together as well. Um, but then the other one, Mr. Bear, the slides, that is directly from Blue Bonnet. Last year when we piloted um, Amplify, we made our own slides. We made them really cute and uh, we were super excited. >> They don't match the theme and the topic. >> It It took a lot of time. >> It was a lot of time and we did love it. But this year we decided we're just going to download the Blue Bonnet slides and use them and see if our kids are as engaged as they were last year. And it has not taken anything away. So we um it's really quick to
039just download the slides and our students are able as we're teaching we're able to um click through. We all have uh presentation clickers and uh we click through as we're working and it's right on the board for them to see. So they're able to follow along. They're able to um a high quality image with what we're reading if it's the portion where we're reading. Um or if it's like a worksheet, it's already on the board. So, we don't have to like go find the worksheet, put it on the projector or anything like that. Um it's just already up there and then we can write on our TV um or have kids come up and write on the TV. They could have their workbooks open at their desk or at the rugs. And um so being
040able to internalize um as we go through our internalization, we look and see what is the objective of the lesson. Um we look at the activities that are on there. Can we do these activities within the time allotted? >> Sometimes we'll take longer like Miss Hers was saying on an activity. >> Um we know our kids at this point so like well that's going to take longer. We might shorten another portion of it. And so we take the times they put into consideration, but we don't follow them strictly. And so that's kind of at first we were like, I'm not get everything. This is too fast. But once we figured out we don't have to take 20 minutes, it's going to only take 10. And so that's helped a lot just after internalizing realizing, okay,
041the pace can be quicker in this area or slower in this area. >> And we do that when we plan. So we've internalized on our own and then we come together as as we plan. and we do it as a team and we look at all the activities and then uh we pull our resources last. So >> Sure. My name is Bailey Yut. I teach second grade EL I teach first so it is I'm in my ninth year in educational I believe I've taught prek first grade behavior intervention and read done reading intervention so now I'm in second grade so some of the student impact I was going to talk about um for kindergarten one of the big things in the foundational skills which is like the phonics part of the curriculum is um We're
042teaching the sound before the letter name which is totally different than I've taught in 30 years. So instead of saying a apple a or turtle t they see we don't even say letter t when they see that we say what is that symbol and they say t. So it's been a game game changer as far as student impacts because they're able to blend better. I don't know why people haven't come up with this before now, but you know, um it is harder though because a lot of kids come in knowing, you know, this the the letter name and stuff and we just say, "Oh, don't say the same. Don't say the letter yet. We're just doing the sound." But we've kind of tweaked a little bit. We did all the sounds, but now we feel
043like they're not going to be able to name the letter, you know? So, we're kind of really working on that right now because it's kind of slower with the letter naming. But as far as um saying the sound first and not knowing the letter name, it has been a game changer for blending words. They're able to read better. Now, you know, there's still kids that struggle, you know, but there's a lot more readers than they have in the past. Um so that's been very good for the kids. Um some of the activities for the curriculum, they're good. They're there. Sometimes I wish they could change it up a little bit. Sometimes it seems like we do the same thing over and over when there's other ways. So, we pull in other things to do with
044them, too, to make it a little um more engaging for them, I guess. Um also the um stories kindergarten doesn't one of the um things we don't really like the stories in the kindergarten. They're all in slideshow, which I know third grade loves them, but as kindergarten teacher, I like holding the book. Sometimes sometimes a book is more engaging. There's 25 pages in the book you're reading from and there's five slides and the teacher's reading the slides which is okay but sometimes I wish like there's more pictures to go with it to keep them you know it's hard for a kindergartener to sit there and listen to you read you know and not have like turning the pages so we have been blessed um Miss Woodmore we asked him like for fables and stuff um
045we asked for like the book of chicken little instead of you know having five slides pictures you know the But those are basically the same, you know, story, maybe sometimes different characters, so we'll have to tweak the uh questions and stuff, but so we are getting some books to go with them. Um, but that's one thing that, you know, we wish live on it would change a little bit for kindergarten is, you know, not everything, you know, on the screen. We like them to because they need to know title, author, illustrator, you know, front of the book, back of the book, and when you're not holding the book, it's kind of hard, which when we get to our phonic readers, phonics readers, we do, you know, talk about that. But that's something easier in the
046beginning of the year, you know, that you can talk to them about and get them to know um quickly. But there's um I'm excited because I think the kids are going to be, you know, prepared for the next year and I think as it goes it's going to be a good thing. So you have anything else? >> Sure. >> Okay. Um if you turn to the second grade portion, um I am the fourth page back. I brought with me today some data for you to look at. So, I taught second grade last year as well. Um, we started off the year with HMH. And we started in August, about October. I went to Miss Wmore and was like, "This is not enough. This isn't working. They're not progressing the way they need to. It's not
047in depth enough." She informed me that third grade was piloting Amplify, and she gave me the go ahead to pilot Amplify as well. So, I went forth with that. Um, it was a huge step up from HMH. It was significantly more than what we needed. Um, but as far as phonics goes, it's still not enough. So, I brought today some data for us to look at. Um, like I said, fourth page back in the second grade section. That's going to be our beginning of the year I Ready test. That's where we're going to pull the majority of our data from. Um, on that page, you'll see five groupings. Group number one, those are students. These are all 41 of my students that I'm teaching this year. Um, as you see in group number one, those
048are students that are in need of emerent intervention. So, coming into me this year, they're beginning of the year testing. I had 32 students in need of emergent intervention, meaning they were not ready to come to second grade. Um, it goes up from there. The group two are students who need intervention. Group three are students who are on watch, four are students that are on target, and five are students that are excelling. So, out of my 41 students, I received four students that were ready for second grade. Um, and that was, like I said, with us using HMH last year. If you flip back to the next page, that's going to give you a little more um in depth to that data. It's going to give based on grouping, it gives you, we've blacked out
049a large portion of their name by individual student. It shows you exactly where our struggles lie. Um, it goes over phonological awareness, uh, the phonics, high frequency words, and vocabulary. It shows you what grade they registered in. If you will look down that list, you're going to notice the majority of them are registering in kindergarten and first grade levels. Um, and that was at our beginning of the year. If you continue to flip back, you're going to come to another chart that looks similar to the first one that you saw. That is our middle of the year testing. So that is the testing that we gave right around Christmas break. This is with us sticking with blue bonnet not veering away at all. Um I have taught other grades and I've used pre curriculums previously
050that was not blue bonnet and was not hm. So I was able to kind of pull from those um and implement some of those strategies that I learned using other curriculums and teaching other grades. But we did not veer from blue bonnet. With that being said, at my middle of the year, I still have 23 students out of my 41 that are still in need of severe intervention. So, we got together as a first and second grade group because that's where phonics you mostly see it. You're going to see it huge in first grade, huge in second grade. And blue phonics phonics is severely lacking. It's very mild. It skips through a lot of things. It doesn't go into depth. If you have never taught phonics before, yes, you can read the script, but you're
051not going to be teaching phonics in any manner that you need to be teaching it. It doesn't teach coding. It doesn't teach encoding. Um, so we're it's still severely lacking. So, we met together as a first and second grade group along um with Dr. Thornton and Miss Woodmore, and we decided that we were going to do a mass intervention from now until the end of the school year. We're going to currently use Amplifi, I'm sorry, not Amplify. We're currently using UPY um to provide that for those students to help get them out of in in need for intervention. Um we are hoping and looking at some other alternatives for next year to kind of pull us out of this situation a little bit sooner. Um if if you flip back a couple pages to where
052it says reading levels, excuse the handwriting, these are all my personal notes. Um, when a student enters into second grade, well, let's talk about leaving first grade. When a student leaves first grade, they're an average student, so an average C student should reading be reading about 50 words a minute. Um, so that means they should be coming into second grade, an average C student should be reading about 50 words a minute. And you can look at my date. It's 9525 on each page. I believe that was whenever I first tested their words per minute, so their fluency at the beginning of the year. I had few that were even close to that 50 and that's an average C student at the beginning of the year. They should come by the middle of the year where
053we're at right now. So if you look at the 22 26 that's the most recent fluency we've done according to blue bonnet middle of the year second grade should be reading if an average C student should be uh reading 91 words per minute. So that kind of shows where we're at now without that emergent intervention that we are implementing currently. >> Made great increases. >> Some they've made great increases. >> Um so I mean we are seeing improve where they should have started >> right if they were where they should have started >> all would be better. >> We'd be closer to >> we would be closer to where we need to be. Um but we're having to fill those gaps right now. And in I know kindergarten is doing everything they can do and
054in first and second grade we're really making pushes as well so we can ensure they're ready to be successful in third grade you know and beyond. So that's what we're doing currently. Next year um we hope to receive um additional supports for phonics just because we do not feel that the phonics portion of blue bonnet is what it needs to be. um it doesn't provide the aid that a lot of these students, a lot of our lowincome students need because sad to say once they leave us, you know, we can send papers and passages and everything for them to read and do at home, but what they receive in the two hours they're with me during the day is what they receive for phonics for the day and we need that to be strong so
055they can build that strong foundation. >> So, additional supports, what do you mean? >> So, like right now we're using an additional support called Youth Liy. It's just a supplement. Um, and it's just a heavy it's solely phonics and that's what it is for intervention. Um, I have used curriculums in the past that I really have enjoyed. Um, such as Sax and phonics. I don't know if you've heard of Saxon. It provides additional supports. It it teaches coding and coding which is a lot of these skills that students that have dyslexia whenever they go into that dyslexia class, they are learning those skills in order to be successful in the class. And I don't know if y'all seen our data. We a few students who are registering showing that they have dyslexia when in reality
056it's probably just lack of a solid foundation. It's lack of phonics skills. So, we need to implement something in there to help our children be successful readers because that's going to go past just reading. It falls into math and everything. I know Leslie and I've been talking and they're getting further into word problems and they can do the math but they can't read it. They can't read the word problem. you know, and that that's an issue. So, um there's all that data. There's a lot to it. So, if y'all do come back and have any questions or want to discuss it further, I'm always happy to. I love data. That's what I'm here. >> Thank you. >> So, I don't really think I have to say much more because know more about it than I
057do anyway. But um one of the things last summer or when we started this process, we had to create a mission statement that just fund our campus and um we came up with this and we're just holding fast to it because the job is never done. We are committed to providing a safe environment where every student is given the opportunity for high quality instruction that promotes lifelong learning. I said at a training in October that my job is not to get them out of third grade. That is not as elementary principal. That's not my job. My job is to watch them walk across the stage as a high school graduate. And if we are not setting the foundation, then there's really not anything they're going to be able to do in middle school or in
058high school to correct the problem. So, um to my knowledge, unless they have a secret, they're uh everyone is working super hard to make this successful. Myself and Miss Stevens, the assistant principal, we are in and out of the classrooms, uh trying to provide support. If the support is sitting at the back of the room um to get a kid to focus or taking a kid for a walk or cutting out squares and sorting them by colors, that's what we do. Now, this is only speaking from perspective. Um I can't speak for Miss Powers and I can't speak for Mr. Stove or Miss Ford. Um but for us it's working and we had to do it. It did bring us out of IR in a nine month time span. Now we have a lot of
059progress to make and we just took our first CVA way earlier than expected and we had higher scores than we did on the April STAR test. So, we think we're moving in the right direction as far as reading as we did with math. So, that's our presentation. It was a little lengthy. >> I apologize, but Dr. gave us a little outline and we felt that y'all needed as much information as possible. >> Maybe um reference that the kids are dyslexic mainly but they may not be dyslexic because they can't read. So are these children still required to receive now dyslexic services overloading our >> interventionist that's what I'm hearing across >> across the campuses these interventions will get overloaded >> which could be corrected with a proper foundation >> yes >> excellent point um he
060makes an excellent point that our referrals are uh dyslexic uh dyslexia was changed in the way that uh we serve them and it falls under the special education umbrella and um there's nearly no way if they have a deficit in reading it's probably lack of exposure to a strong phmic uh program um they will qualify and then all of a sudden it's not that we're misidentifying we're identifying weakness not because they're necessarily dyslex so it we're in a very much a catch So, we're working on strengthening that program, which in turn, well, we hope to see a reduction in qualifications for dyslexia as well. So, you guys did an amazing job because it's all that and they've worked very hard um in the curriculum. Um all there's have been ups and downs and there's great
061things and there's hard things and thank you guys for sharing your hearts. We appreciate it. >> I know it's been a long day. Thank you all for being here, taking time out of your day, pray for your families. Thank you all very much. >> So, while as they're somewhat exiting, um we don't have a recognition, but we actually have one. And uh the principles think I'm crazy, um but we got we got to bring our kids to school. We've got to get our kids to school. We're going to do anything we can, the good, the bad, and the ugly. And I said to principles, and I know it's not the answer, but come up with some stuff. Come up with something to get our kids to school because they need to be here. the attitude
062we believe since co has changed sometimes school can be it's not really required it is it actually is but you know the attitude is a little bit different after they stayed home for years it felt like um but so anyway uh we know that we're never going to get pre-COVID percentages but we were really working hard and our um our principles uh humored me and they're doing some things and um it has made a move for some it will never make a move for all um our 18y olds that don't feel like they need to be here are just not going to come when they don't want to show up or are um our babies that um are that can't drive themselves. They're four, five, and six years old. If mom wants to get a
063haircut and they're going to take the day to get a haircut, there's not a whole lot that four, five, and six-year-old can do. So, um say all that to say, um sometimes you got to go with rewards. And uh we wanted to recognize and this is going to be this amazing coveted trophy. I think it was maybe in the trash or nearly next to the trash because it was broken. Um, but this is a repurposed uh award, an attendance achiever award. It's repurposed. My husband attempted to fix it. Don't disregard the basketball and just we're going to call this the the coveted gold medal. First place attendance achiever award. >> The slam dunk. >> Yeah. slam dunk of attendance >> goes to our this is for the last month our intermediate school had 94.63% 63%
064attendance and that number hasn't been seen in a long time. So, Miss Bour, we would like you to take the coveted award. Come on up. You got to come TO What are we doing? >> Okay, here. You got to hold this. This is so critical. >> Yeah, it's real. >> It's real. >> It's solid gold spray paint. It's so great. Congratulations. Thank you. Um I'll tell you what it and we had to say do it on the do it for free. What can we do for free? And uh this year, unfortunately, our fourth and fifth graders weren't able to have recess together. So guess what? They're coming to school. So every day they have they come to school. What is it, Miss Ford? They can >> Every day they're here at school, they rally for
065recess. >> They're rallying for recess. So if they show up, they get to have recess together. It's hilarious. So it's a um a great strategy. I promise you that uh we're doing all we can um on all ends of the spectrum to make sure our kids are here and that they know it's important. So, thanks for uh working through that. You need to bring it back next month as we this will be a traveling trophy. >> Okay. Thank you so much. We appreciate it. >> I'll move us to district spotlight a special services. >> I think I will go ahead and speak for Mr. Beard and say Miss Woodmore, you won. >> You won. So, it very very hard to follow. But just real briefly, as with all departments and campuses, we we continue to
066be extremely busy this time of the year uh between testing students, art meetings, um and by those initials, annuals, briefs, all of us attending to our case loads, visiting campuses, making sure we're in compliance with federal and state guidelines. And of course, you know, this is the time of year that we start prepping for next year as well. Uh year to date, uh reads, which are reviews of educational uh existing educational data, there's been 46 47 re-evaluations, 62 initial evaluations, and that's not counting all the briefs, amendments, etc. that take place on a weekly basis as well. uh we continue to buy uh provide speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, dyslexia services, and VI services to a broad number of students uh across the district just according to their IEPs and if that's what they
067need. Uh we service over 126 students with transition st services which start at age 13, follow them through graduation and beyond. And these service these services encompass job training, different skills that uh our students work towards to help them find and and and retain gainful employment beyond graduation. Um, we also serve a large a large population of students uh with specific counseling services um through special education including classroom observations and cases of students that need to be evaluated for behavior intervention plans and many other things that come up as far as student needs throughout the school year. Uh, this last year has been interesting to say the least, but I have to say that I have been truly blessed by the people that are around me. And I'd like to take this opportunity to brag
068on my staff who work relentlessly to make sure we're providing the best services possible for our students and basing those decisions on copious amounts of data that we interpret and and definitely some unique situations that we have to take into consideration. Um, a lot of time Due to the nature of the job, we run into some interesting issues that require some out of the box thinking, but our staff does a fantastic job and they keep our students their first priority. I also want to say thank you to our special education teachers in the district. Uh teaching special education is a calling and often times it is not for the faint of heart. Uh you you see some stuff. I I want you to think to thank them for for loving our students number one and
069providing them what they need regardless of all the many different classroom settings that we have according to ability levels and things like that. It's a difficult job. They do it well and they're greatly appreciated. I would also like to take the opportunity to thank Dr. Fishetti, Dr. Thordon, Mr. Clifton even though he's not here tonight for their support and availability uh for allowing me the grace to process and talk through things and the collaboration that we have on issues that we work through together. Campus principles, thank you for trusting our department to work through difficult situations and working collaborative collaboratively with us to solve problems that meet needs on the campuses. And I want to take this opportunity to say a special thank you to the board of trustees for your support and our continued
070efforts to constantly improve the department and make it the best we can for our students. >> Thank you. >> Technology is going really well. This past month we made a change on by adding a email fishing filter. I don't like making changes mid year like that, but it was necessary and it has been catching about 500 fishing emails per week that are coming into our district. So, it was a very good move. So it's it's still has a little learning curve for our end users, our teachers because they get a report of anything called and you can request access and sometimes they're doing that not realizing what they're asking for. So we have to go visit with them and make sure that that is a valid email they wanted and it's and it's proper so
071we don't end up with a a Beyond that, we're we're doing some uh cross training inside our department so that trying to get everybody to know everything so that you know if one of us is out of pocket, someone else can pick up slack. So if I'm if I'm out of town or whatever, knows what to do with everything because I've been doing this for over 20 years here in Huntington. He's only had a few years. So it takes a little time to train on everything that we have. So, we're just trying to get that done. We're also training a a very new to a technology job and he is he's fixing all their Chromebooks and we're expanding him into projectors and computers and printers and as as we're going. So, we're just trying to
072broaden his horizons and what he can do for us. Other than that, technology is running really smooth right now. >> It's great. >> Thank you. Thank you. Financial reports. This is discussion only. Any questions for Dr. >> Mr. Clinton? Is it Tesla the uh business conference um but he uploaded in board book um the information for all financial reports. No action needed. Right. >> No action needed. >> No action. No. Any questions or questions for Dr. PS? Okay. I'll move six consent agenda. I'll entertain a motion consent agenda. There's no discussion or questions for Dr. Make a motion. Second. >> I have a second by Mr. Robertson. All in favor? Motion carried. I'll move us to seven. A consideration action upon Senate Bill 11 resolution daily period of prayer and reading of Bible or other
073religious texts. I'll tell you a little bit about this. This was uh we need to make a motion in regard to a resolution that was uh developed out of the 89th legislature, Senate Bill 11. Um what it does, it requires a daily period of prayer um and reading of Bible or other texts. So um this there's lots to this um and so I did a little research and I wanted to kind of share with the board what I did. Uh talked to religious leaders in our community uh read a little bit of definer details. I actually gave our board homework to read the FAQ in regard to this and u what we currently uh have are multiple opportunities for moment of silence and see the poll and fellowship of Christian athletes uh fellowship of Christian
074athletes. We have uh people that do take part in reading the religious texts during the uh lunch periods and things like that. That all continues. This res resolution says we must add a period of prayer with parental consent and there's some different um uh stipulations with that. Currently, we can continue to proceed with um our availability and our to our freedoms to do the things that we want to do without having to get parental consent for um these uh activities. If we uh chose to this it would be a non-negotiable daily time period with uh permission slips and all of those things. So do um it per per some of the religious leaders in the community that I've spoken to. We have a very conservative uh board and uh faith leaders on our board as
075well. Um I feel like we are addressing those needs now. Now the beauty of this we have to take action on this resolution tonight. That doesn't we can never go back and revisit it. If we want to revisit, we can revisit it anytime we want if we want to add this. So, we need to make a a talk about a resolution tonight and um and it would be a no action on the particular proposed resolution. Um and we can revisit it um in the future if we have further questions or community concerns. I think it's important to note here that this doesn't just specify one religious group that needs to be said. >> People have the inalable right to believe in worship however whatever they think fit and not all of us may agree with
076that. Whenever you choose to include this period which then becomes similar to an instruction period, you are then open to allow all of such things whether you like it or not. So that's one thing that we've taken into consideration. Somebody we've read this I know there's a school district down closer to Houston that approve it. They have no idea what they just done and you know this thing gets doctorred up through amendments and things like that to where it becomes something that we can fully support and we can also like Dr. said we can revisit this. >> We can revisit. >> Does anyone else have any questions um on the board or comments for the community? >> So the what we need to do is uh >> oh go ahead. >> All right. We haven't
077considered Senate Bill 11 Texas Education Code 25.082. 823. Specifically, I move that the Huntington Board of Trustees take no action to adopt a resolution permitting creation of a policy requiring every campus of the district or school to provide students and employees with an opportunity to participate in a period of prayer and reading of the Bible or other religious text on each school day. >> I have a motion. >> I have a second. All in favor? Motion carried. to be consideration and action if any upon the 2026 2027 school calendar. >> So um so I can kind of share a little bit you have a copy of the school calendar in front of you. Um we we set forth two versions uh to which the teachers uh did a survey and Dr. was the response towards
078this particular calendar calendar I think it was an 85% approval rate or something like that >> 83.1 um what you notice in this calendar we felt that one day with our new teachers uh in July was not enough so we have we've extended that to a two day we call it redevil academy it's the new our newcomers so to to take it all in in one day is just a lot so it gives them an extra day um The yellow that you see are all the times that our students are not in school, but that we as staff are in a PD of some type. The blue are beginning and endings of nine weeks. The red are the same holidays that we've had. When I got here, I heard don't touch this. Don't touch our
079calendar because we love it. So, basically, this is a don't touch this calendar with just a few minor adaptations. Anything else, Dr. Thorton? to this. >> Any further questions or comments for Dr. school calendar for 2026 or 2027? >> I will entertain a motion. >> Make a motion to approve the 2026 2027 school calendar as presented. >> Have a motion. I have a second by Mr. S. All in favor? Motion carried. I'll move to seek consideration and action if any upon resolution regarding public information act 2026 2027 school year. >> We vow that when you calendar. We would also pass the public information act. Um we passed it already this year for our 25 26 year uh calendar. And what this means is we get a lot of PI requests and they have to be
080completed within a certain timeline. What this resolution does and I hope I don't know if we have a paper copy but I believe it's been uploaded on board. It's on board and basically what it says is there is a handful of days that are exempt from that 10day period. So, when we're on vacation, uh it's say we get a a public information request December the 15th and in 10 days we're supposed to have that completed, but we're not here. And there's maybe people that need to help fulfill that request that aren't here. We have set forth, we are allowed um to set aside a number of days that that those days don't count in our timeline is basically all of that is is it gets us gives us a little bit more flexibility around the
081holidays that we are physically not in attendance to help um fulfill our requests in a legal manner. That's what that resolution is. Um our attorney drafted that for 2526. I took the same resolution and just did 26 27 year dates. So really that's what it is. It's to help us fulfill public information requests um with the calendar that we proposed. >> Any questions or comments? >> Motion. I make a motion to approve the resolution regarding public information 26 and 2027 school. Motion by Mr. >> I have a second by Davis. All in favor? >> Motion. I'll move us to D consideration action if any upon house bill two teacher certification plan requirements >> and we do need to take action on this this out of house bill two and I'm let Dr. Thornton um speak
082on this for a minute but we the state has charged us with having 100% certified teachers by the year 2030. So house bill two board requires that all curriculum staff uh core curriculum be fully certified by 2627. this waiver and this plan that we've written um allows the district to apply for a waiver delaying the full implementation until 29. >> So um that's what we're asking you to approve. Um if you look through the plan, the plan was very specific. We were given a template to complete. So um on page four you see that we have currently 16% of our teaching staff in core curriculum areas are uncertified. And by uncertified I mean they're either uh they're in offser programs currently or there's a couple total of three that are excuse me a total of
083two that are um teaching outside of their certification area. Um majority of those are in the K5 area and those teachers in K5 are reading and math sometimes teaching both subjects and then secondary the majority of our teachers are in math and social studies. So, um, looking down on page five, just going quickly, we also had to look at our hiring trends. Um, in a three year, the previous three-year period, we hired 6.7 uh, teachers that were uncertified to the district. So, um, I just want to be honest that really that's a large number maybe for our district, but really when I look at other surrounding districts, it's small. Um, so I I thought it was a large number until I looked at area in other districts in region seven and even more specifically in
084our area and we are really under under theirs. So I felt really good about the percentage of teachers. We also as principles and I have looked at our offsert teachers and where they are in their programs and I felt pretty good about the majority of our teachers and that we can move them along. uh talking to Lori and the principles, we are working and Matt, we're working on a protocol that we don't have in place right now that specifies this is where you'll be as an alter teacher at the end of your year year one and this is where you'll be at the end of year two. So, we're working on that and put some strategic plans in place uh to submit for that waiver. To be clear, the waiver is part of this plan
085that buys us another. >> Yes, sir. That is it. This is the plan that I have to submit to. >> Any questions or further comments? I'll entertain a motion. Make a motion to approve the teacher certification required by I have a motion. >> Second. >> I have a second by Mr. Robertson. All in favor? Motion carried. I'll move this to E. Consideration action depending upon whether the budget can support purchasing buses equipped with threepoint seat belts as required by Texas transportation code 547.701E one. >> So this uh was also uh introduced this year for us and uh uh Mr. Ricks is here to really the consideration that we have to consider tonight and the board will be uh basically voting upon is is it feasible? It's a feasibility question. Is it feasible for us to
086purchase all new buses with three harnesses. I'll let you take them. >> So, according to my calculations, >> uh, at current prices that I've gotten recently for a new bus to replace every bus in our fleet that doesn't have right now, we only have two in the district that have three-point harnesses, and those are both special needs buses. And we have one special needs bus that doesn't which right now is under the law. It's legal. It right now prices it would be about 2.8 million. Uh retrofitt fitting all of our buses right now would be between 650 to 693,000. >> so the consideration tonight is is it feasible? I think it's the first question and Matt wanted me to be very Mr. Clifton wanted me to be very clear. Is it feasible for us to
087>> Yeah, that's the only step of this that we have to do. >> All we have to do is address is it feasible for us to consider to purchase all new >> and I think you need to know too going into this uh this is step one of a three-step process that there's a 2 a2b. Um we're going to see this again next month after the we decide whether it is feasible or not. We all know the answer to that. Um they will then begin the data collection and all that data will be submitted through a portal to where it all goes back to one spot. Then they figure out what they're going to do and we don't know what that is. You know they made this requirement zero funding to it. Uh I spoke
088to Mr. Clifton at length on this a couple weeks ago last week. Um and he was uh a little bit so there may be some possible grants to follow. That's sheer speculation. They haven't funded a lot of what they required. I mean they didn't fully fund safety. They didn't fully fund all this other stuff. So um tonight is just step one. We will see this again on the March meeting to where we were then get these a little bit more narrowed numbers our totals. But he's right on track with what that's our numbers. That's legit. >> We just ordered five brand new ones and they knew this was coming down the pipe and they provided they didn't provide the seat belts. They didn't provide any funding to this and they put it all on the
089districts and we don't have that kind of money. >> Well, we've got one bus that can't be retrofitted for sure and they already manufacture how far back they'll go. >> So, it's a big mess for us uh as a district. We're not alone in this as we saw with the safety stuff. >> You know, that's at today's prices for Mr. Rick. So, a requirement for everyone. What just happened seat belts? >> Yeah, they control all that. So, >> only thing now is uh step one for tonight, but you'll see. >> All right. I will entertain a motion for step one. >> Well, I make a motion that it's not currently feasible for the district to purchase buses with seat belts. >> I have a motion by Mr. S. >> I have a second by Mr.
090S. All in favor? Motion carried. I will move us to eight superintendent reports. >> Okay. Uh I have a couple of slides, but uh really the first monthly expenditures those are if you have any questions, you can let us know about that. But that's an upload there in board book. The um I've been attempting to kind of share via the community, the board, and everybody what's happening in regard to our school district, which by the way, we're not alone. Mr. Clifton called me after his meeting in Tasbo today and said, "You can't believe the drop in enrollment in some some of our the school districts that he's been working with." But um we are that's where we are and we're um trying to address that and and work head on with our numbers. But our
091attendance, if you can go to the next slide, Jeff, our year-to- date attendance to point to to date is 93.76%. And our enrollment as of the 13th was 4,486. I say all that to say, um, if you can flip through the next one. I wanted to explain the difference on enrollment versus a refined ADA. This is not something that's super common or knowledge. I say that it's common knowledge in in in the budgeting world. It's common knowledge uh in our pings world, but not everybody recognizes that we don't necessarily get funding on our exact enrollment numbers. So, what are enrollment figures? Those are basically the number of students enrolled in HSD by grade level. Our current enrollment, 1486. It's pretty simple. Next slide. Refined ADA. This is the average number of students in attendance each
092day over the school year. So you take how many kids showed up, the average each day, and divide it by um the number of days in a year. And that figure is what we actually get funded on, not our just our blanket enrollment. So um that that is our basic funding. That's tier one. That's our tier one entitlement. So if you looked as of um my report, the last report I have, Miss uh Casey does these every Thursday is February the 2nd to the six. Uh at that time, our average enrollment was 1484. But our refined when you take all the days they've been in school, divide it by the number of days that they've had the opportunity to attend was actually 1,371. So you see the difference on funding. Then you take that and
093that's what the basic aotment is multiplied by. I wanted to share that because it can be deceiving to say, "Oh, well, we're we're almost at 1500 students." That's not what we get funded on. So, I'm >> kind of use using the this opportunity in my superintendent report to share when we make budgetary decisions um for next year as this is our why. I'm just trying to give you a solid foundation as our why. Uh next slide. Oh. Oh, mine didn't turn out so good, did it? Anyway, we have, sorry that looks funny. Um, we have as a campus and a district, we've been having planning meetings for the 2627 school year. As uh Chris mentioned, this is the time that we start planning for the next school year. Uh, we have looked at master schedules.
094They spent hours with us, four principles that every principal spent hours um with Mr. Clifton, myself, Dr. Thornton, and Mr. Wasnat. And we went through um enrollment figures. We went through the what we currently um where we currently are. Do we need the same number of teachers next year if we stay on this path? We know that it can fluctuate somewhat. Um but we were figuring out where because of the declining enrollment where we can have some attrition uh reduced staff positions by attrition only. I want to make sure that that's super clear. It's by attrition. We do have people that have already shared they're doing different things next year or their husband is stationed in another state and things like that. known that for a while. So, we are working definitely through the attrition
095piece um and working through that additional sources of uh reduced expenditures. We're just trying to talk about uh we're reviewing instructional programs. We have a lot of instructional programs outside of the bond some of that supplementary programs. What's the usage on it? Do we really need it? Do we have another program that's actually covering it? So, Dr. Thornton's really looking at those usage um those usage charts. Um, we're talking about possibly reducing frequency of professional conferences to maybe every other year, saving some of that. Uh, we're every every penny counts. So, talking about maybe some reduction of meals or snacks at faculty meetings if we've done that. So, just little things that we're trying to do to be very um uh good stewards of what funds we do have, even though that will look different.
096um our tax levy information that we got um declined as well as our enrollment is declining. So, we're having to respond to that. We I wish we could live in the good old days. Um so, we're just having to respond to the information as we as they as it comes about. And I just want to share that that um we're looking at everything. We don't just uh and we're trying to stay away from what touches kids the most. We want our program for kids. That's why we're here. So, we're going to work on um um squeezing and and asking our admin to if as Mr. Clifton says, wait a day. If you don't, you know, you think you need it and then wait a day and if you still need it the next day, then
097go ahead and purchase it. But just be very aware of um what we're doing and and trying to be very conservative. So, just giving you a bit of a background um on the status of the school. So, uh that is that and uh then personel will our close session. That's it. >> I will move us to n executive session during the course of meeting it on the agenda should be held close meeting in accordance with acting chapter 51 chapter now. Thank you. bring us back into session. Move on down to item number 11, consideration action if any resulting from executive session. >> I make a motion we approve the personnel report is presented. >> Have a motion. >> Second. All in favor. >> All right. I move us on that item number 12. Get a
098motion to adjurnn. Make a motion to agenda. >> Second. >> All in favor?