MERIDIAN SCHOOL BOARD's Regular Meeting April 16, 2025

001started. All right. We will now reconvene our regular board meeting. Welcome everybody. We will now stand and say the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all again welcome everybody I love it and I get a motion to adopt the agenda I'll make a motion to adopt the agenda. I will second. Okay. All those in favor? I I I get a motion to adopt the consent agenda. I'll make a motion that we adopt the consent agenda and I will second. All those in favor? I I All right. Moving on. Um the middle school student recognition looks like it's been postponed to April 30th and then we will move on to public

002comment which looks like there is so we will jump right into PLC presentations. See who's up first. It is not loading music. Okay. Well, let's just do first. Okay, middle school first. There we go. Yeah, middle school is first. Social studies board presentation. You guys ready for us? So, I'm Marcus Holland. I'm sixth grade social studies teacher. Jacob Dennis grade social studies and Christian Garlet. There you go. So, um what do we want our students to know? We picked a standard to present um the skill standard for social studies that students create a product that uses social studies content support a thesis present the product in appropriate manner to a meaningful audience. That's how it's written as a standard. Um, and we picked this because it is fairly influential in of course social studies settings,

003but really any research type of project, helping them develop thesis, conduct research related to any social studies content, synthesize information, and to present their new learning through a project of some type. Um, which means they're creating a product involving research, analyzing data, evaluating claims, presenting an argument. These skills transfer not only to our class but to or our classes but to um high school level classes eventually and then just general life skills they need. And um as we are tracking through the unit, we use formative assessments throughout that act as checkpoints basically to check for understanding, help us inform where we need to help meet student needs and to make adjustments to our teaching as we need. Um, we will know what they know by reviewing their products summatively at the end with a rubric.

004Uh, and so I'm going to talk about what do we do if they don't know it. Um, on the left there you can see uh we realize that our whole class is struggling with either a new concept or maybe it's a certain skill. Like most recently, my example would be um using int text citations as something we're trying to um build their skills on in the seventh grade. So, um, if we recognize that a entire class is struggling with that, we're going to pause. We're going to insert some scaffolds and, uh, ways to assist them to get them closer to their skill goal there. Um if it's a small group or maybe just a few students that are struggling um working with some of our students with IEPs a little closer to assure their success

005um then we're going to pull that group together and again identify those needs and just work with them uh in small group or maybe even a one-on-one setting to um help them build some confidence and um complete their task. Um, and then all of us here are big on opportunities um for for students if they have a bad test day um or they don't get the score they were hoping for on a project. If they're willing to go back and um put some extra effort into that, we want to reward that effort. Um so a lot of opportunities for improvement if they seek that out. Uh and this is something that's been exciting over the last couple of years. Uh our social studies department has teamed up closely with our ELA department. uh because both

006of our classes deal so much with reading and writing and at the middle school level we're really trying to build those skills more than more than most things. Um we use our wind time which is uh part of our home room schedule and we do that twice a week. Uh and so we've used um our I Ready diagnostic system to help identify specific needs within our student body there. Um, and then what we do is just sort of divide um, and assist those students twice a week. Uh, usually that involves them reading a a short text. Um, and we help them focus on these skills here, finding um, finding good evidence, identifying main ideas, developing claims and arguments for their writing. Um, right. So then I'm doing the what do we do if they know

007it? And uh, so sort of the same thing in the class. Uh if if everybody's doing a great job, we'll provide everybody some sort of extensions um revised work to make further connections uh or deeper deeper connections um more challenging resources or more open-ended for them to find more resources to add into their projects. Uh and then we're also all of us are working with the highly capable coordinator Miss Montgomery to make sure that um that we're meeting not only the needs of those kids that have been identified but also those high achievers who um who also need some extensions. Um, and then the other thing that Miss Montgomery and I have been doing last year and this year, and some of you, I believe it was last month at the beginning of the month,

008you had the the chance to look at those history day presentations before they went to their regional competition. Uh, so we're doing history day as an extension for when for those kids who are at or above grade level for their I Ready testing. So um so they are doing an intense project uh passion project whatever that they're interested in for what whatever the theme is that year uh this year it was rights and responsibilities so they could look at you know Washington state US national some kids were looking at like the pamarabi um we also had Japanese internment so we had local and uh and international and you know whatever they're interested in and they needed at least 20 uh resources for that project. So, it's like it's a big actual research project that they're

009doing. Um and then some of you guys were here for this, but here's some pictures from from that. So, we have the digital divide. We had a performance um a puppet show on Hanford and the nuclear um the nuclear reactors there. Uh, and she Clara is actually going to state in a couple weeks to to do her puppet show there, which has been fun. And then there was another another group of sixth graders of the Japanese internment. They're also heading to state. So that's fun. Where's Where's stay at? Yeah. Uh, it's in the Seattle, greater Seattle area. I think they told me heard when I thought, but it's my son's birthday, so I'm going to miss it. But Yeah. So part of we want what we wanted to show you too is some of like

010the summitive projects the kids have created for us. Um in sixth grade over the course of the year we do various research projects on certain subjects. So here I have a couple of examples of the things I've asked the kids the research just kind of the summitive essential questions. How did the Neolithic or the invention of farming change the world? Does Mesopotamia meet the requirements to be called the birthplace of civilization? And would Egypt exist without denial? And as we go through that, there's um kind of smaller sets of questions that kids need to research through to be able to, you know, find answers to and that present through some type of product, some type of presentation. Um, and these are just kind of examples. I read just a couple like what is agriculture and

011why is it important? Uh, what system are binding the Mesopotamians use or just more specific? And for my projects, the kids are needing to follow a certain amount of steps. So research answers to the questions like the ones I just told you have the approval for me. Did they get past that step and then create a presentation? And what I like to do is give them a choice in how they create the presentation. A lot of them are just going to choose I'm going to do a slideshow and turn it in digitally. But I have a couple of examples here that kids did some hands-on things, booklets, a couple cool posters. Kids get creative with their research. Um every product is going to be graded based off the same rubric, but you get some creativity

012there and the kids seem to enjoy. That's a lot of choice and it's a lot of work. And here's some examples of the pictures and I also use them here since we're at the middle school. Oh my god, I'm just going to my gosh, I'm show you guys. So, I brought them with me. Marcus, are you around? Yeah, I want to do it right now. This one's a little down. I'll just open this one. This is one we just turned in on ancient Greece. I know she did a great job. You guys see it? Okay. Yeah. Can you talk about like I asked a question about when yeah identifying different are your students going like are you working on something to help all the students they all can be a sharing students or so we've

013been identifying students through the ELA through the I ready ELA what is it reading test uh and they've been divided into groups so if they're like three or more grade levels below or two grade levels below or one grade level below. And that program, you can sort of see some areas of need. And so the ELA team, we're working really closely with with them and they have sort of at least for eighth grade, they will put the kids in my group and we're doing the same lesson. So we have two small groups that are working on the same the same lesson um when we're doing that. And I was doing that two weeks of I Ready and then well with those those remedial groups and then two weeks with the history day. Nice. So switching

014that usual groups are usually no bigger than 15. It's pretty targeted inter stuff like can they identify informationational text. Great. Thank you. And the 20 sources we had to find is that like books or movies? Most of those were online sources. I I wish that I had more time to devote to this. Um if I did, I would have made a field trip. We would have gone to the Western Library. Maybe another year. Maybe Miss Montgomery could find some time. I don't know. But um most of them were online or we would use the Watcom County Library system and with their own personal library cards try to identify books that they could they could get. That's great. You got 20 sources. You gota you got to look hard to find that. So I think that's

015that's a great challenge. One of the things too broad Miss Hammock took 45 students close up before spring break before spring break and so would love to have you come down maybe early May and I recognize they're doing something now. Don't make them do something new but let's talk. We had you do that last year. We could talk more. Yeah. Yeah. I know there's not enough time in the day. So I love the collaboration with ELA. So that's great that you guys are doing that. It's been great. And we kind of also instill so during that win time if they are not in need of specific interventions then they have more choice like some folks might be having straight A's and not in need of intervention and they might get to go to the gym

016or like have some fun. So this year we've we've tied in some incentives to where uh students that are maybe like right on the borderline to being at grade level um have been working really hard and a lot of them sort of graduated from their interventions halfway through the school year. Uh and that was really great to see them not only that boost in their confidence but then a little reward to um you recognize their hard work. So that's great. Yeah, these projects are super creative. So on the same note here talking research projects um at the seventh grade level um one thing I do with with uh research projects is uh we always have an essential question that kind of guides us through a unit. So I put a few of those down. This

017slide's a bit wordy for my liking, but um I highlighted just one there in the middle. Um why did people move to the Northwest and what was life like for the early pioneers who settled there? So throughout a unit, we're slowly, you know, unpacking and and and finding responses to that question. And the idea is by the end of the unit, they can answer that question with confidence. Uh and typically that would come through some sort of summitive project. I did bring some examples to pass around uh in a minute as well. So uh this was just one project that we did um in second semester um and students conducted their research. Not only were they trying to I'll go back one slide answer that question, but along the way they had some sample questions

018that they needed to address. Um, so after we had done a brief study of all of Washington's earliest industries and how those impacted the development of Washington, then they got to choose just one industry to focus on and hone in on and conduct their research. Um, and so we had some, you know, some of them use rely on the textbook heavily for research. um but they had to include at least three or more sources. So online articles, textbooks, um things like that. And they're trying to answer these questions as they go. So uh why would someone want to be a part of this industry? Uh how is it important to the development of Washington and how is it important outside of Washington state? So you guys aren't tired of looking at projects already. I got

019a few more to pass out. deliver. Oh, yeah. That's you probably figured it out by now, but that's a brochure assignment. So, they're supposed to come up with a slogan and have a little fun while conducting their research on that. Great. Because every time I read these, I learn something I didn't know. Um, people outside of Washington relied on their apples. By 1917, Washington led the nation in apple production. Did not know. I mean, I knew he led some degree, but didn't know that really. And the handwriting is so nice. Yeah. Yeah. There's a great there's a great books called uh 12 men and a horse. Oh, about the history of like what kind of stuff, you know, timber industry, where it came from, where slogans came, what mean and and explains the history is

020like how our timber some of the best in the United States. They said, "How do we get this? We got to get this east. How do we do it?" So, they found a guy by the name of John F. Stevens who built Stevens Pass to get our lumber. But to see the pictures in there, there's two of them, I think, from the Well, I'm curious what they found in the list. Yeah, we use um we go to Udub library online and they have a lot of like great pictures from encyclopedias. Uh not as much but they had everything below that. Here we go. experience itself time frame project. Uh this would be throughout. So they would conduct their research for probably three to four days. Um, and then they check off with me throughout the

021process and when they're ready to start the physical project, usually two to three days on that, you know, depending on how much handwriting is involved. So, the kids got great So I um I teach 8th grade which is US history. Uh and these are some of the projects or these are the projects we did I guess the first three quarters most of I guess. Um they did a bill of rights informational flyer. They did American ideals uh Google slides and the class presentation as a group. They presented uh to a group. Um they did an indigenous or settler perspective for a movie poster with um some reviews and they can do like a storyboard to go along with that. Um, we did a westward expansion project and they could choose to either write letters, uh,

022create a video, uh, write a children's book or create a historic newspaper. Um, and that's where I have some pictures on the next slide for this or the or the most recent we did was the reform movement brochure. And knowing that Jacob does this brochure project, I modeled it off of that so that they could use some of those skills. And um because they had already probably done it last year. Yes, exactly. So we did a slogan and they knew what a slogan was and um you know so we we try to I try to capitalize on that if I can. Um so for me similar to what you've already heard um the we use the materials from the class. So we spend um you know the majority of the unit we are learning things

023and we are analyzing primary sources and we're reading about whatever topic in history. uh I have found several topics where you can sort of like find multiple perspectives and try to bring that in and begin to understand that you know there's lots of perspectives in our country and you know Andrew Jackson was doing something great for our country but also the indigenous people validly had you know a lot of pain caused to them because of that. Uh so we read through these sources and um and then when they come to creating the project I want them to use some of our classroom resources they can use the textbook uh and then uh additional sources as well and sometimes the additional sources is more of a extension uh and sometimes it's part of the required um

024they use several class periods to research and create their project. Um, and I'm constantly going around and checking in with kids and um, making sure that what they're doing, they're on topic, they're doing what they're supposed to be doing. Um, if I see that it's maybe too much, maybe, you know, maybe they don't do all of the questions, maybe they just do some of it. Um, and if they need more extension, try to make sure that they they are doing that. Uh, and then I also try to make sure that there is an opportunity for them to share their projects with their classmates. Uh, so they have a real audience. So if we're doing movie posters, I'll put the posters up around the classroom. And usually I'll have like the students need to look at

025each others and give them two stars in a wish. So two positive things and one thing, one place they could see for improvement uh on, you know, if it's a brochure, they probably just do a couple of them. Uh but that way they can, you know, learn what their their classmates have done. Um and hopefully a little extra incentive to make sure they create a amazing project that they're proud of. And there's there's a couple projects. So the the Cherokee Phoenix uh was a group or two people did that project. So you can see um they have several articles on different things. Um then I have a children's book. um that was a long way from home about the Trail of Tears. And then the letters up there were um oh that was the Alamo.

026So there were from the Mexican-American War um people writing back and forth with different perspectives on that and they got into you know making them look old timey and teastaining and wax stamps and stuff. Great. Very cool. Oh, must be Thank you. Yes. Thank you very much. It's right there. As you can see, 15 minutes. Hi, I'm Lindsay Sconus. Um, we've got Shellanei Holly, Heather Compass, Madison McCarthy, Lisa Buckley, and then we're joined by two amazing fifth grade students, PK and Emma. And we are the fifth grade team at Ire. There's been some changes There we go. There's been some changes this year to the fifth grade team. Um I began the year as a lead replacement for Madison McCarthy and now I'm ending as a lead replacement for Kennedy Johnson. And then um Heather's

027going to be leaving soon. Her student teacher Miriam will be covering her. So we've seen a lot of lot of different faces and we've had a great lovely team this year. So our goal was understanding decimal, place value and operations. So we've got some standards there. Reading, writing, comparing decimals to thousands. Using place value, understanding to round decimals to any place, adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing decimals to the hundreds. And we did lots of things over the year, but focus on. So then we have some student quotes. And so Emma, do you likely need more than the words? Do you want to just talk about what you were learning and why it was important what you said? That's one of I think it's bottom. Yeah, right there. decimals, dividing and multiplying and adding and subtracting everything

028with decimals. You can use it in the future of the job applications and random stuff in life you might not expect. art, architects, math competitions, or other jobs could be oops cashier, lawyer, manager, real estate agent, or something that involves codes like software. And yes, we just interviewed some kids and that is what Emma said was why we were learning that why that was important. Um, Ken talked about needing to know decimals in jobs and not and so that was the overall um learning of the unit that we were teaching them. We're moving on to how will we know students understand the content that we were teaching them in the core instruction. So you know now know that they were learning about decimals. The next three slides are going to show you an overview of

029um the data that we collected after students took an online quiz or three online quizzes and um how they performed on those quizzes. Each of these quizzes um come after about I want to say five to seven lessons. So after five to seven lessons, this is what we see. And from this data, we are able to as a whole fifth grade team um decipher how many students are getting the content. So on this slide, you can see that 70% of students are meeting grade level standard on the decimal learning for topic A. Um the yellow is the percentage of students who are working towards grade level but not quite there yet. And then the percentage in orange and red are students who are still struggling with the content. Um and you can go ahead and

030click through the next two slides. So this would be topic B quiz and topic C quiz. Um we have one more topic quiz after this. From all of those, we are able to dive a little bit deeper into those into the data and decide from the data what we need to retach those students who are not meeting grade level standards yet. And from that data, we um form our tier 2 instructional grouping so that we can review the content with students. This is a slide that shows the different types of experiences that students have. So, the three pages that have numbers on them are called exit ticket reflections. And those are um those are kind of like mini quizzes. Each day after a lesson, students take those and we can form we can give them

031immediate feedback on how they perform on those. And then we can also take those quizzes and form small groups with students the next day and um review the content if they're not getting it right away. Ask a quick question. Uh we said a quiz is given after a lesson is completed. How long does it take to give a lesson? Is it daily? Okay. So each of the numbered pages that you see on here are an example. They're usually just like one or two questions that students um they complete and we were able to see if they get the content that we taught that day. And then the other two examples up here on the slide are an example of like one page of a topic quiz and they take that online. Um and then it's

032from those topic quizzes that we as a team discuss how we can better meet students who are not at grade meeting grade level standard yet. So those students who are in yellow or red or orange on the slides that you saw previously. Um so that leads us right into our tier 2 interventions. Um we uh typically take our topic quiz data and determine those areas that students need additional support. Um typically we've tried to support these students in really small targeted groups on really really specific parts of the standard. Um however, if we go to the next slide, um we kind of saw on our topic sequing that we needed whole class intervention and retaching of we narrowed it down to like the really really essential material of the unit. Um and we did a

033week of really intensive reteing. Um but we kind of found that our data still was not reflecting as much proficiency as we had hoped. So you can see on this we had 40% of students achieved 80% or above on the post test and we still had 43% of students achieving less than 50% on their post assessment after the read. So K is here today just to talk about her experience during the tier 2 instruction time. Um so basically in the mics that we're talking about uh the teachers they're very small so teachers make sure that everyone's big on the topic and so no one lags behind. Uh they're also like ensuring that everyone understands the topic, gets the topic and no one's uh talking with others as like it somehow have sometimes happens in class.

034And while some kids are doing that um students most students are doing that already and it basically helps students work at their own pace so they can take their time. So whether they may be like still getting up to grade level or above and beyond it, they're still working to a point they can get challenged on. And I'm going to add a little bit more for PK as well. So we also work with Miss Montgomery who works with our highly capable students. And the students who are already meeting grade level proficiency will also meet with Miss Montgomery and do other projects related to the unit. this particular unit she wasn't able to meet with students as much because she was doing highly capable testing methods. So this brings it to me. So some of the

035like home connection is we've done the newsletters, we've done review pages is homework sent at home with families. We have also assigned um review lessons on our I Ready to for students to continue to work on. We've had schoolwide math nights. Um, we provided learning videos and with all of our efforts, it brings us to the next part. So, based off of our last tier 2 groups, we worked really, really I had to write it all down because I didn't like I had to read it. So, we worked really, really hard this year and our effort is not matching our student outcome for our targeted groups. So this made us very curious and we started asking questions like how can we improve? We know the importance of tier 2 interventions that we need to have

036targeted groups for students. But since we didn't get our desired outcomes um we are going to talk about just three um areas that we really wanted to improve on ourselves. One of the areas was we had questions about actual tier 2 programs. So we know we need this. it's a it's a need across our grade level, but what we don't have a model to use. So then it was like, are there models? What do other school districts use? Um who is successful with those programs? And then it brought us to our own curriculum, it's new, so does it have a tier 2 program or how can we use what we have to help us already? And the second major wondering we had was observational rounds. So, we did one little one this year with all

037of us, but we were hoping or wondering if um we could do more peer observations because it fosters a culture of like continuous improvement and professional development among ourselves and it's powerful to learn from one another. But can we add with that like a wondering was to work with other districts and observe their success along with tier 2 programs at their school for math. Um and our la this also brought us our last wondering was a continued issue and our most vulnerable students are being pulled out of class for extended periods and they're missing significant core instructional time and it's a small amount but it still happens. This affects their learning and their integration with peers. So trying to move away from a pull out model to a push-in model so we could reduce dis

038like student disruption with their schedules and increase collaboration with teachers. It would help to um maintain the students least restricted environments. So to sum it up, we have three things. different tier 2 models, how to use our own curriculum more effectively. Um, is there professional development that goes with that and observational rounds both in district, out of district? Even we were curious about the middle school like what is their tier 2 look like for math? We have no idea. So, it's like what is their success? Um, and then uh to work harder at doing more push-in models instead of pull out models. And to remember that this year for math intervention for tier 2, it's a new curriculum and switching students and target and identifying students and then switching and providing the lessons and doing

039all of it as a fifth grade team is brand new. So we haven't done that in the past. We've had like a reading specialist come in and pull kids or work with us. We haven't had to do it ourselves. So we do know that there is room for improvement and we are excited and ready to do that. Great. Are there any questions? I think the idea of collaboration is great and so um love that I know the district is doing a lot of that like with the principles other schools and but just between buildings makes sense also. So yeah using our resources that we have yeah it's that's really smart and just seeing that you want to grow that's super important. So, I just love that you're reaching inside and going, "Yeah, we all can

040grow, right? And how do we do that?" So, using our resources and asking those questions. I love the questions that you're asking. And it's funny because I even had asked had a question written down for you before you even asked it, but I was going to ask it. What is the one tool or program you wished you had to do your job better? And then here are your questions. Right. So you have three of them. Yeah. So I think that's great. Well, and we worked really hard. So when it's just disheartening when we then we identified our students, we taught it and then we're like, oh dear, this is a need for not just some but all. So then we retaught it and then we're like, oh, what are we missing? We're missing something. We

041need to do better. So I want to commend you on I think the collaborative is also great, but I think that idea and we had a conversation earlier about um first best tier one construction. Yeah. And the idea of getting to a place and recognizing it's not hitting where you want it to be and so still coming back and and looking at what can we do be able to make that more effective is we've all had we've all had classrooms where we just moved on and that doesn't help. So, it's good. Do you guys share students? Like if there's kids that are up here, they got somebody in the middle bottom. We even work with Miss Montgomery. So, she'll she doesn't only take highcap students. She takes students that are at a skill level that

042are just whatever skill she's working on for her groups. Um, and then we identify students and put them in groups. They kind of look at the different questions of our topic quizzes and see like where is the greatest area of need and then we as teachers identify like oh I feel really comfortable teaching rounding again of these decimals so I'll take the rounding group and so then it's whichever kids need that support would come to me for that round is primarily what we did. Sounds like you guys need a silk trip day. Oh, to the middle school. Yeah, to the middle school. Like a zoo. Yeah. No, we do. And that was one thing. It was like, what do the other like schools do? What does tier 2 look like for math? We have no

043idea. So, who's successful? How are they successful? What are they doing that I'm not? Yes. Thank you very much. But I know Madd has you, Miss Buckley, and Bre has you this year. And so I got one more coming through. So maybe we get one of all y'all. But this is a great group. So keep on doing what you're doing. You guys are amazing. Oh, and I did want to say my favorite slide was your guys' feedback. And you're so brave for speaking. So thanks for coming. That's so great because I think as adults, we think we know what we're teaching and how we use what how it's applied. But to hear your feedback, how you perceive it's going to be applied later in life is so important. So good job. Good job. I just

044wanted to also say that like I think the fifth grade team did such a beautiful job also modeling vulnerability for our kids and just everybody. I think that it takes a lot of courage and strength to you know to come up here and talk about your practice but talk about things what they've learned from in terms of not seeing the six they hope to succeed in their classes. But I think that's part of the reason why also I'd be remiss to not say that this is also a team that has some of the highest performance in the school, right? Like last year their SBA data beat the state average incredibly high and so I think they have a really high bar for themselves and I think sometimes it's hard to come up and brag on

045yourself and so I'm glad to be here and brag on you and say that you're exceptional. So that's great. Uh, I'm Dave Brandon and I'm one of the math teachers. We'll see myself. I'm one of one of the four math teachers at the high school. Um, I teach algebra. have three sections of algebra, a section of pre-calc, and I'm also the team lead for the fresh success team. Um, so I just from the get-go, I think you'll see something different here. Um, I remember somebody saying that PLC is not addition to the work. It isn't the work. And um I think what you're going to see is using intervention model to work on daily problems daily problems but work on more of the problems that we have. Um just kind of a road map. Um

046I want to talk a little bit about how the PLC process or PLC has progressed in our in our department. Talk about what algebra is doing, the algebra group is doing. I say the pre-alggebra group, but it's a dude. Um, and then the algebra that's we we'll look a little bit more about the intervention that we're doing. I can speak to that because that's what I've been doing. I can speak to that with a little bit more authority in depth and then see what you want to talk about. um when we just start when we just starting to talk about PLC's um kind of the essential ideas about what we do as a PLC and we're four five years time kind of passes and we're about five years I think into to working in PLC

047groups and I think part of the evolution that we've seen is we are genuinely or or honestly we're not working at the depth that the groups that you've seen U the the middle school and the elementary school. Um we are trying to cover a lot more bases and but we're still trying to preserve this idea about collaborative work, datadriven uh instruction and focusing on what we see as the essential standard to be taught. Um we're also just working with kind of managing the focus on these essential standards within all the other things that we're doing within our program. Um, I kind of see us as the last finishing touch. All these things that that students have to have, we kind of need to fill the gaps before they're graduating. So there I would say that

048we have to have much more broader focus, a broader look at what we're doing with our students than individual um standards. Um, a big portion of a challenge that we're working with in our PLC's is we're finding that the cohorts of students and the cohorts of how the programs are working are very dynamic. And so part of what we're doing in our PLC is adjusting who does what in what um in what courses. So um the geometry group's basically working on a catchup in algebra. uh the last two years we have found that we have not just not been able to get through the core content of algebra and so the geometry teachers and the algebra teachers have kind of got together and said what is it that you did not cover in algebra and

049what do we need to do and so they have this fun Friday algebra I'm not sure how all that goes over at least they've got a good name for it um we identified I I I can't tell you the the the topics right off the top of my head but we identified about eight overarching topics that just really did not get covered in algebra last year. And uh the geometry teachers picked that up. They're using the same um instructional model of doing some baseline instruction, do an assessment with those students, and then pulling people in for G3. And I I I can't give you data on how well that's worked for them. Um but I do know that at least we've we've had these students that could see this material. And I can say that

050some of the students I have in my pre-cal class have been through that and they're doing okay. They're they know what they're talking about when it comes to factoring. The main thing they've missed was quadratics. It's the last two units of the algebra degree. Um pre-alggebra the the big drive here is we've had three new teachers in three new years in pre-alggebra. Uh all three of those teachers have not really they they're certificated in teaching math, but they're not algebra teachers. And so a big piece of what the algebra folks have been doing is helping those teachers understand what really the essential things these students need to know. And they're not essential standards like codified standards that you'd see in the common core standards, but we work with that pre-alggebra teacher and say, "What do

051these students need to know coming into algebra?" I I had this slide in my slide last time I came to talk to you two years ago and the pre-alggebra group is a really diverse group. This this uh indi this graphic that's in the upper leftand corner is a class that I pulled out of my just out of my room and those are those are student indicators and these student indicators are students who are on IEPs 504s um gifted students uh what else is in there retain there's one retained student in there um English language learners trying to look at some of the indicators that I tell you what they are. And then I pulled out uh the the list of indicators for the pre-alggebra group and understanding every one of those those students have really

052different needs. And so it's been a real challenge for the pre-alver student to kind of not draw the middle line, but how what is it that we choose to emphasize for these students? try to see what else is and then just like a curricular package. We really didn't have a curricular package. So, a lot of our PLC time has been used helping this teacher kind of identify what good material for the different topics they're going to be teaching. It's not it's not for questions PLC work. We'll say that to you right now. But we've tried to retain this model of collaborative work identifying what students need to know and then a instructional cycle that's based on instruction assessment and reinstruction for me and for the other algebra teacher. Um we what I'm going to talk

053to you about is not grade level standard. And so it's a little bit odd coming in front of the board and talking about our PLC group is working on not grade level standard, but last year it became really evident that solving equations was a barrier to to a good portion of my algebra students. And it really just does not make sense to me to provide instruction to them that they really can't access because they don't have these pre-existing skills. And so I kind of gave an example of of some algebra kind of three clumps that we focused on for students. Um one step undo solving. That's kind of the the idea about working backwards with operations. multi-step undo solving where you work backwards as several operations and then a distribution of variables on both sides

054where you use some of the concepts that are in one step and multi-step solving to and applied to a more generic case where you're doing some of those operations with variables instead of numbers. This all leads to what I would just call solving in linear solving in algebra. And I kind of gave an example of on the over here on the right that there's a lot of solving concepts built into this solving a system of equations that these three uh I call the core skills solving skills um that build upon those skills and you kind of have to have those skills to work with what's on the right. So, let me just take a look because I want to talk about so what the strategy was was basically this idea about in-class instruction on those

055skills for the whole for the whole class and then diagnostic assessments, pulling cohorts out and providing reassessment or reinstruction on those and then doing assessment and seeing if they've kind of met the mark. How well have they met the mark? good enough to keep going. If we could stop and reteach that, we'd love to, but it's not grade level standard, but it's something that they have to have to keep going. So, the the the level of instruction and the level of assessment is there, but it's not maybe what we would do with the grade level topics. When are we getting the grade level standard feeding? That's that's that's regular class instruction. Um this is basically run in parallel to class supporting as yeah the I would say that some of it supported by just what

056is built into the grade level content that's requires those solving skills. Some of it is explicitly pointing it out. We have a really wide ability, wide range of abilities in our classes and most of those those students can use that refresher. Most of them are able to kind of go along with it. But there's you look at students work and you can tell that they just don't know what's happening solving and the assessment you know like directed assessments towards that would support that. Um I said you know 50% of our incoming students are below grade level standard in math and that gives us kind of an idea about what that cohort of students is able to do in terms of assessing the the grade level instruction. Is that coming from the middle school to the

057high school or is that just the students that I have and you know some of them are from the middle school some are from other schools some other districts. I couldn't give you a breakdown of you know who's from where. Um, so and then the graphic of basically where they're at. So, you know, I'm coming to you and saying we're doing an intervention cycle that's not a grade level standard, but in my opinion, we really have to do that. We can't look these students in the eye and say, I want you to learn this, but I know that you don't really have the skills to learn it. It's just it doesn't make sense from a structural standpoint. It doesn't feel good to me. It it really doesn't build relationships to our students. Well, otherwise they'll

058never get it. And you know, I mean, no, you know, if they don't know the basics of it, you know, it's like Well, also explains too why um you're spending time in geometry teaching algebra. Yes. So, yes. No, this this this solving is a really core skill. I would say that probably half things that we ask students to do in a math class has some sort of here's an equation, tell me what numbers make that equation derivative. And if you don't have that, it's it's really tough. Um I you know, Dr. Robert, you you said when do we get to the core instruction and when do you get to grade level instruction? And so I called this program within a program. We're still running uh grade level instruction just off to the side. We're trying

059to catch people up with the solving the that's why I asked you want to make sure we come back to what you're doing to to support. Right. That's what you're describing to me. Um considering this as one of many things that we're doing for students, I organized this into basically three clumps. kind of the three clumps that I told you about single sub singlestep undersolving multi-step undersolving and distributed balance solving um we incorporated that that practice is really well incorporated actually into the grade level content and the assessment these were just two quizzes that we gave for each of the topics and looking through those quizzes I just we set we set a standard basically that you need to be about 60% proficient at doing these problems. You need to be able 6% of the

060time, you need to be able to do that problem. If you're not able to do it 60% of the time, we're going to put you into the targeted instruction. And and then the follow-up assessment in iteration was cycle. Some of these students, some of these students went through that cycle three or four times. Some of these cycle some of these students went through the cycle three or four times because two or three of the times they weren't there. Um, a lot of these students, you know, I go back to the slide. This is not exactly representing my my students. A lot of these students, the typical intervention cycle as it's designed is tough because they're not there or they're just not ready. They're for one reason or another, be it emotional reasons, be it where

061they are in their life, they're not ready at that point. So like I say some of these students took multiple cycles to go through the instruction itself. Um it's mentioned that mentioned that it's in the regular instruction of course T3 was used for it. Some of these students that also have study skills classes have the study skills teachers work work with them on these um intervention skills. I put after school in quotes. Basically find a time you know we say if you can come in before school I'm here. If you can come in at lunch I'm here. If you can come in after school, I'm here. I can't say that our PLC process is as tight. I can't say here are the four questions and and it doesn't look as tight as it might look

062for other PLC groups, but I can say that we really really push on these interventions when we could make it happen. And then I kind of kind of proud of this part. Um, we've had several parents that we've just been able to partner with those parents and provide them with materials and they've done some work for their students. A lot of communication with student parents about, hey, when can Billy come in and get some help? And it's it's just been a lot of muscle basically. It's been a lot of rubber on the road trying to get those students uh to where we need to be. That statement, you know, every student could learn. It's not in the same day, same way. that that has really become evident to me that these students want to do

063it. It's just there are things that are in the way and the number of things are in the way is the number of students that we have in intervention cycles. Um we I've really finished the this kind of this project. I've we've finished the oneep undo solving and the balance solving. We haven't done the multi-step undo solving. That's kind of in process. we've kind of given the first quiz on that and developed who the cohorts are. Part of that is because we're looking at a different um catchup intervention process with the math nation. That's something that we want to start doing. And so once this gets closed, we start working with the math nation. In terms of results, I had spreadsheets and there was lots of color. I don't I don't think it was as

064easy to interpret. Basically, 22 of the 29 identified students moved to standard. So that was being able to solve a problem like 5x= 30 um less than 60% of the time to more than 60% of the time. And then just looking at the entire cohort, just the whole classes um just from the instruction that we did in class, 26 of the students of those um those identified students showed significant improvement skill. And some of those students didn't quite make the standard. Um, and some of the students that were already high in the standard showed improvement with the battle solving the numbers were similar. 18 of 23 moved to standard. The interesting thing and I don't have I can't show you this. What's interesting I think for a teacher is looking at those five students in

065the bottom here. of those 23 students that were identified for intervention and balance solving, five of them really didn't make it. And when it's the interesting part is when you start looking at why did those live streams not make and again there's there's as many reasons there as as there are students that think they did. Um pluses the you know there's pluses and minuses here. The pluses I like um PLC as we as we started doing PLC's PLC was a binder with lots of checklists and lots of uh procedures and I think that we have incorporated the PLC process as part of what we do and it doesn't look quite like those binders look like but it is based on collaboration with our peers data driven instruction and intervention instruction. structure. It doesn't look quite

066like what we think PLC's look like, but we've had dozens of students that they would have failed algebra. There's no way that we could have legitimately pass these students on to geometry if they didn't have these solving skills. So, I'd say dozens of students that would have failed are not going to fail. We have students in our schools that just get missed. We have for a whole variety of reasons. And this process identified those students and brought them into instruction. When we provide whole class instruction, it's easy to miss students. And this process of doing an assessment of the whole the whole cohort has helped identify those students. And I'll go to the last one. just this has been a great way for me to meet my students where they're at. Those students have come

067into algebra with a not a great look on their face and I can genuinely say that a lot of those students are I I think they actually appreciate the work we've done and I think that that's a huge piece for those students in school. Um that last piece, relentless, compassionate, customized instruction. That's really what is required. Um we have we have curricula and it's nice because you can review what it is. You can make the photo copies, you can present your lesson, and you're going to get 75%. But it really just has taken just persistent, relentless. You missed the last T3. Why don't you come in after school? Oh, you can't make that. Great. How about the text T3? Just being persistent about that. And that's I I think that that's there's some value to

068that. Um downsides, it it doesn't look like PLC work in some ways. Um it's not nearly as microscopic in depth in depth. This is much inchwide mile deep instead of in depth PLC work. This example that I talked about with algebra and with geometry, it's not grade level work. And I don't like that. But I think as a professional I I think I've been a I think I can justify saying here's a skill that my students don't have. I have to teach them that before we can move on or before they can really access the grade level content, they need to know that uh data and its lies. Um the just the data really doesn't present what's happened here. I really do believe that the most value that's come out of this intervention process is

069this last piece. Those students that have been chronically left behind and not by ill intent and not even necessarily by someone's mistake. You move schools, you're at a different school, you kind of are behind. Um you skip the grade. You missed you didn't do well in eighth grade algebra. those students are really easy to leave behind. And I think uh the the hugest piece of this is that it's brought those people into the instruction. It's demonstrated that we won't give up on them. I I think that's a huge piece. Um something I don't particularly like and it kind of fits in with data in his lies is the the assessment pieces that we're doing. We're doing lots of fudging, but we have teachers do quizzes with a student. Um, these are students that are in

070an algebra class that struggle writing letters. And so we have students that we have teachers sitting with that student doing those assessments. Is that a valid assessment that they can do that? Not sure. Um, I would say that at least we've provided the instruction form and we've tried to customize our instruction form and we can certainly say that there are marginalized populations u particular our ML population in my class in my classes they're still really underperforming and that's that's a problem and providing instruction for ML students is that's that's actually the number one focus of our freshman success team right now and that's also a project that we're working on with the um the ML PAR and the special ed teacher that's teaching pre-alggebra and I hope you have many questions for me. I I

071I would point to this as this doesn't look like PLC because it's not that indepth deep look at a single target and I I would recognize that and hope you have some questions about it. How many kids are typically having per class? Um I've got 32, 22 and 26 or 28. Um you ask about class size and I come back to this one. the 26. This is the 26 right here. And I'm not going to be able to tell you numbers right off the top of my head, but I think I've got five students with IEPs of four students on a 504 and three ML students that are ML1 in that class of 26. That's a that's a wild class. It's a But you know what? It's actually one of my favorite classes because everyone

072in that class knows that we're all working hard on this. Yeah. Um it's I've got I've also got um a certificated special ed teacher as a he's not a co-teer, but he's definitely working as a PAR plus. Uh there's a pair two pairs that come in and out as they're able to. and I had the fortune of having a student teacher, a special ed student teacher in there for about a month. She just left and right. So those those are the 32 is pretty big, but again, you know, sort of ride the wave. Um the the 22 that's the middle class that's runs pretty smooth. And then this this also this class that has that's really loaded, it's sixth period. It's so hard. Every every class begins with, "Hey, who needs snacks? Who needs sugar?"

073It really um but like I say, I actually when I first had that class, I was like, "Oh my gosh, this is going to be this is going to be really hard. It has been really hard." But um it's a good class. They're really They work really hard. I'm proud of them. I would just like to say also, sorry, Char, it really shows that you care. like this really shows how much you care about all these kids. Yeah. And I'm sure a lot of the hopefully all of our teachers at the high school care as much as you do. But I think that's the biggest takeaway that I've got from this presentation is yes, it doesn't look exactly like I or middle school because all these teachers are working together. There's all these data points

074and they have the kids a lot more together and all that type of stuff. Especially like you can be in a fifth grade class, you get four, you know, that's your kids. Yeah. Like it that's what I've taken. You guys care and you're not giving up. We're we're pulling together a lot of pieces. There's there's in the in the nine years that those students have had before they get to us, they've gone to a lot of different places and and and I say like from a from an understanding standpoint and we're really trying to pull a lot of different people together to a a common place. Um yeah, it's it's been a lot of hustle, but um you know, work smarter isn't really good enough. It's kind of work smarter and work harder. Um, so

075thank you. Seniors in algebra at this point. I have one senior. She's being retained. She's in the special ed program. She's she'll be retained, I think, for another year. Um, she she was in pre-alggebra last year. Um, she learned a lot in pre-alggebra. I don't think we have the option to do pre-alggebra again. We're really kind of teaching pre-alggebra uh while we teach algebra tour. Um I have oh I can't remember exactly. I think I have two juniors that are um they are I'm trying to trying to put this in in a appropriate way. They are students who are coming from school systems that are much less um effective than ours. They're 11th graders that are learning elsewhere. And a huge part of that is that they are that they're ML students and we're we

076struggle to provide very little instruction for ML students. Yeah, that's that's the straight up of it. Um you know, I'm learning to espend. I'm learning every little bits. Samar dippader multiplicard. No, it's not multiplicard. I'm on the little spot so I can't tell you. But you know, even those even those little bits like they were students that were in my undo solving. I had to learn those for undo solving. You have to know DVD and multiple car. Those are opposite aa aa think opposite. It's not that I can tell them to do that, but they get it's it's it's that they see me like, "This guy's trying to learn Spanish, so he can teach me math." And that really that really pulls them in. Um, at least it helps pull him in. That I can

077imagine how those students feel being in a class that they really don't speak the language and their teacher doesn't speak their language. I can imagine that being very tough to maintain some focus and maintain some okay, I can do this. And so I think those little bits help helps with bringing those students in. John, thank you. Want to commend you on the relentlessness piece of it. Yes. And and also of the vulnerability. It's got to be difficult to come up here and say, model and we've invested a lot in the model, right? But I also super interested in in the long-term results. How do these students do as they continue to progress, right? And so those are things we look at. That that's a that's a tough question because I'm a true tale. I'll I'll

078say it like I see it. That's a tough question because we don't have good longitudinal data sets that are We don't I think with I Ready it was tough to look at I Ready and really pull good aggregation out of I Ready. With the ESVback testing we get four levels. Well, we get some numbers out of it but we don't really get unteniff differentiated assessment out of the SBA testing. our testing. I mean, we're so good and all, but our testing is calibrated to us and so we don't really have good longitudinal data about how these students are doing. I'm thinking I'm thinking, well, it's a contrasting students we lose. Oh. Versus what classes they take, their experience, their successes. That's what we Yeah. what their experiences are going to be. between I think actually

079I think Dave Shik I'm going to so it's never very great when you quote a statistic with I think it's about he tracked his pre-algebra students he tracked his pre-algge students when he was teaching pre-alggebra uh I think that his number was about 50% graduation that's that's a tough number of children sorry to tell you that that's a tough number that when we can when we can say we've identified a pool students and we know that they have a 50% graduation rate. But is that is that math? Don't know. We know we have gaps that we're trying to close. That's that's our focus, right? And when you expand math to graduation, you bring in a lot more variables. Absolutely. I'm thinking along the vein of in math, how successful are they able to progress? And

080and I also think we need to remember that we're also where we are because that's where we are. Yes. So, we'll continue to build on that. We also want to thank you for representing that. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Sure. Absolutely. I'm a I'm a truth teller, so I don't I don't really mind standing up and saying, "Hey, this is where we're at and this is what we're trying to do. It's not all roses, but we're trying I won't say pull the weeds. That's bad analogy. It's not all roses, but we're trying to do the best we can." Thank you. Well, thank you so much. Hey, time to smell some roses. MP3 steam team. Hi. Well, we don't have props or kids or giant grade level team, but we represent the MP3 steam team. I'm Sarah

081Waro. I teach art MP3 on Heidi and I teach the science. All right. And here's the rest of our team, but we are just the two you get tonight. Thank you. All right. So, at our little school, no two teachers teach the same subject, but the one thing that we do have in common is our students. We share kids, and we chose a standard that we all share as well, which is speaking and listening. So, that's been our schoolwide focus this year. And with the help of Rebecca Cartik, we created a data tracking um sheet that includes four speaking and listening skills that we broke down to do one each quarter. Like that was a a doable thing. And so the first one first one which is what we wanted our students to be able

082to do is engage in collaborative discussions responding to one another um building on each other's ideas asking relevant questions responding to different viewpoints and showing respect as you're um having these conversations. And so um in my class in art, instead of always just creating, we also talk about art and we look about art at art. And so um I have what I call masterpiece Monday where we're discussing various artworks that um are exposing students to artists from past, present, across cultures ac across countries. Um and at the beginning of the year using that data tracking sheet we found that about half of the class was participating at a um satisfactory level. There were two the ones in blue that were really kind of above and beyond what I would expect. But then there was another

083half that wasn't participating at all. Um and so over the course so you can see this was September data and then over the course of the first semester we just employ different strategies for student engagement and by December everyone was participating at that level that's come back to me in a moment that's kind of across the board anyway in classroom and everybody gets back to school and everybody's just excited to see each other and write for the first little bit. Well, the ones that were in red really across classes were not participating. Those were I mean because we share students, those were the same kids from one class to the next. Yeah. And so we really wanted to pull them up and include them in the conversation. Yeah. A way to get them engaged. Yeah.

084Yeah. Yeah, I mean we are kind of unique because we all have the same kids 1 through eight and we also are unique in the fact that we will have those kids for eight years. So we get to see them develop from first through 8th grade which is very unique. That doesn't happen very often in very many situations. So I deviated from the speaking and listening because in our class we're um very project focused. So I just picked two of the state standards that we were working towards which is developing and using a model to describe how the total number of atoms does not change in a chemical reaction and thus mass is conserved and structural properties of matter. Each per substance has a characteristic physical and chemical property that can be used to identify

085it. So um switcher so I gave uh how I assessed their knowledge. I gave a pretest with um only fire knowledge, no instruction at all. And that was the first score. And then the second score is the post test. And um we have one student, the percentage of improvement was 3 to 54%, there's one zero. That's a non-performing student. And her mother is aware that she is non-performing. She's significantly below um grade level. this was a seventh grade class and the two other students that did not improve um the one percentage 60 76 to the 73 was just a single question and the second student that um had a 19% decrease um she actually was working at a higher level trying one she did not follow the directions of the question and two she was

086working at a higher level trying to identify the molecule itself rather than the individual elements which was what the question had asked. So, she was trying to work higher than she was actually supposed to, but that's another piece. So, you need to follow the directions, which she does not do. So, and then one student, of course, just did the pre-EST and was not um available to take a post test. But, um overall, they did a really good job. Um like I said, it's really interesting when you have them first through 8th grade. you kind of um you can have a student in maybe first and second grade that's I would say maybe lower performing, but then suddenly they come back in third grade and they're at grade level. So, it's just kind of a really

087unique um situation that we live in is that we get to kind of travel with these kids over a long period of time. So, you might look at somebody might look at these and be like, "Oh, those scores aren't very good." But I look at them because I know the kids that took the tests and I think, "Oh, that's actually a really good score and I'm impressed and I'm really proud of them." And then also I feel like um over the fact that we have them for such a long time. I try to instill some of those just more um I call them good student practices and um just doing your best work, learning for learning sake. I like to send kids home with research questions that they have the option of taking or not

088taking. And sadly, my board's not very full this year. So maybe they're getting tired of that. But um I try to provide them with opportunities to pursue learning on their own for the sake of learning because I think that's just something that helps them um as a lifelong learner and as they move into high school, college and beyond like employment and things like that. So, some of these strategies that we worked on with the whole team and probably schoolwide as well. Um, not just a whole group instruction, but giving students opportunities to work in small groups, having individual think time ahead of ahead of a discussion. um strategies like numbered tips and cold calls, sentence stems, um and pushing kids to not just simply give a comment, but to actually contribute to the conversation and

089defining what that looks like for them as well. And then um any students that don't know it, we only see them twice a week for an hour. So, we really rely on parent collaboration and reaching out to families. When there is a standard that the student is not meeting at school, we have to partner with them, which is why we're a parent partnership. And um not necessarily in art, but in math and science, they have those classes at at home, too. And they have home curriculum that they're working on as well. So, um if they're not necessarily meeting that standard with us, we'll reach out to parents. What are some numbered heads? So, if you're at a at a small table and you're at a you're sitting at a one, then you might call out,

090you know, I'd like to hear from the number one or, you know, you get to choose, then you can kind of be strategic in that as well. If there's someone that you're not hearing from, you can ask that number to participate and if they are still unsure, you can offer them the the chance to meet with their their other numbers. come back together your head and then try again. I mean, I require my kids take all their work home because I was an MP3 parent and I didn't know what was happening there. So, I was like, "What are you doing?" So, they try to slip it in the recycling and I'm like, "You have to take it home. That's like my requirement because I want their parents to see what we're doing." So, they can

091kind of build on that or discuss it at home as well since they are their primary instructor. These are just some examples from my surface Mondays. Um just different examples of the art that we're looking at on a weekly basis and then some of the questions that I'm asking them um to think about ahead of the discussion. So, the examples that I've pulled were from some of my lowest and highest performers just to highlight that the um the students that were in the red that weren't raising their hands at all to share anything really had some excellent ideas to share and then through some of these strategies were able to get their ideas out out there. And then one of the highest performings uh in the middle in the middle middle column number two two

092things I like about this artwork how detailed it is and I can't wrap my mind around it. So I felt like even my my highest performing student has some kind of challenge in this this activity. And the last one that doesn't have anything filled out was a skit that they all had to perform with their table group. So they were a newscast, they were a couple anchors, there was a reporter on the scene and an eyewitness. So they got to write the script for that piece of art and then perform it for the class. So just examples of how they um they were all able to meet standard by the end of the semester. Good. I mean, relying the communication portion that you guys have to do deal do deal with with the parents. It's

093probably a lot of work and it's commendable. I think it's pretty awesome what you guys do. all the feedback that I've gotten about MP3 is it's a really fun place to go and be and you guys are all great. It's got to take a lot a lot of work and than you know just teaching the kids all day every day. So it was very awesome. Thank you. Oh, move on. Some middle school reports. Thank you. Thank you. Bye. In our lives. One of the great things about going towards the end, everybody hopes that you have a super short presentation. Just kidding. I got 40 slides to go. Let's see. There's a clicker. Clicker. We'll take you there. Fantastic. All right. Okay. Here we go. whether you're ready or not. Um, want to be able to

094share some of the things that we've been working on and thinking about this year as we as we've uh started the year and three quarters of the way through now. So, um, there should be some common themes that you see as we as we go through this. Um, so here's here's currently what our numbers are. We're at 352. We're down just a little bit um, since I've been here. We've kind of done the roller coaster. A little bit up, a little bit down. Um 22 uh gened teachers. We've got two that are part-time, so really FTE. Um three special ed and eight Paris that uh are associated with with different funding and supporting different groups of students. Here's our breakdown of our students. Um, we've got students that are identified in ELLL, about 17%. Um,

09530% are low income. That's probably a little bit lower maybe than what's happened in the past, but um, anyway, that's what that number is according to OSPI. And then down at the bottom, if you look at students with disabilities in 504, so you think of students that were providing accommodations, modifications, things like that. um to the work that our teachers are doing with um students in those areas. Um thinking if if we start to uh kind of group some of the things that we've done here uh based on the strategic plan and think about belonging um two things that we wanted to start two classes that we wanted to kind of implement this year as a leadership class and ASB and really trying to get the students involved in in the school and part of

096that um creating that culture of belonging. So we will go see if I can do this asking how how the kids feel about it says um developing their own engagement and ownership of day or middle school when we're going out for bond. Yeah. And they you know the whole perception of the school needs to be rebuilt. Yeah. So how does how do kids like voice their opinion on that? Yeah. almost think of it I mean my thought with that is it's that team that you're on that being proud of the place that you are and coming in as a as a learner and there's another slide that I talk about that um for both the students and the staff we're all we're all learners in this you know if you if you've got that idea

097a lifelong learner then that's what we're trying to build on so when it's their middle school it's it's their um engagement in that experience. And so the facility is just the facility, you know, whether it's, you know, top of the line or something that's that's not there still doesn't mean that you can't be an active learner there. So that's kind of the mindset that we're trying to grow is is from that side. That's great. Yeah. Um Oh, okay. Joe. Yeah, mine's gone. It should be legit. Did I break it already? Oops. So, um, as we get the TNN inn, our leadership class puts this little, um, Trojan news network together and, um, it allows them to be able to share some things that are growing on. Two things. um look at the meridian mindsets that

098come up and then also look at see if you can uh see the connection between the camaraderie and the relationship between students and teachers. And then we got the crew here. Rory from Dennis, Sabina from Miss G's, Harper from Dennis, and last but certainly not least, Nate from Dennis. We are hippity hyped to tell you everything that is happening this week at MMS. First order of business, we got to send some love to our staff of the week. Congratulations, Mrs. Rogers. We appreciate her. She's real. She's super good at music and looks really great at teaching. He also has really good tattoos. Spring break is coming up next week. Make sure to go enjoy the fresh air with friends and family. Now, the moment you've all been waiting for. week. Let's check out the drip.

099Please welcome to the screen, Miss Becca. You slate clean. Another connection then with some of our staff. They're all wearing glasses. Who are they? Or somebody sports. Woohoo. It's spring. You're outside. Even if it's raining, it's good for you. I appreciate that. Joe, how do I get back? Escape. So, you can see that uh it kind of goes through and then then it's able to highlight, you know, some of the student activities and things like that. But again, thinking about that relationship and the connection with students, staff and all kind of being here together and creating that sense of belonging. Um, communication. Here are some of the the ways that we attempt to reach out to parents um through the conferences uh starting out at the beginning of the year, our welcome back night, you

100know, when everybody's back and it's so exciting. Everybody get to see what kind of new sneakers that they got on and and so that's always fun. um fall conferences, being able to collect some of that feedback from the parents and on how we can best support um students. And we've changed that a couple of years ago um where um these conferences instead of kind of being partway in into the school year and talking about the kind of the academic performance, backing them up and really asking the parents and the students, hey, what do you need to be what what do you need to do to be successful here? So thinking about that parent square is obviously a great tool ML family night or CE survey. One of the things that we've um adopted this year

101that's new is are the student planners kind of the old school daytimers you know that really trying to allow the students to be able to connect what they have to do when they have to do it that sense of responsibility when things are are due. Um, so that's been positive. When you've heard a lot of conversations tonight about interventions and so what I need is is our intervention. Um, targeted supports three days a week. So we have two days a week that's really on math and and reading and then one day a week on the I Ready. going to try to leverage the I Ready to be able to the way that that's built. It uh creates that level of engagement where those students are. Excuse me. So, you've heard a little bit earlier in

102some of the presentations where you know if a student's performing at a little bit lower level, it'll have the appropriate level of challenge for them. So, we try to leverage then that as a as an intervention. Also, um you t you heard from our social studies team talking about that cross content. That's super powerful. Um being able to have kind of two departments working together to support kind of one one common goal. Our math and science uh teams also work like that. Um one of our goal there is that every student is accounted for. So every every one of the students on our roster, somebody's looking at that name and identifying where they need to go so that that we know how we're supporting them. Um wellness, thinking about that from that safety side, the

103security campus, the fencing, the our um SRP. So um the the work that we've done as a district in a building to be able to think about our safety procedures. So that's consistent across the county now and um it's it's a really good program. Um physical the healthy habits and um are it's amazing if you if you get a chance to come in and watch in our PE classes. I mean they are the students are so active and it is really good really good for for all the students to to be able to have that structured movement. um the social emotional counseling clubs. We've got students come in at lunchtime, meet with our counselors, uh mental health and counseling support and additional home room time. We've added this year that we start the beginning of

104the week with u students meeting with their home room teachers and we end the week the very last thing meeting with those teachers. So trying to kind of book in that where we're really checking in as those students are leaving us and going out on the weekend somewhere that the last thing they see is that home room teacher and have an opportunity to make some more connections. Um now thinking about the learning we know about the SBA for ELA and math the um science assessment the walk tests and the one that's one all of those are are one time per year. um I Ready, we really want to use that as a diagnostic tool to identify where those students are and then allow our teachers with their skill be able to assess students on the

105specific details and concepts that they that they need support in. Um we have those diagnostics three times per year. The school improvement the was the school improvement framework kind of allows you to be able to see where your school measures up with other schools in the state. So, we try to use that information to really identify growth um for our students that uh that we've been working. Here's some of this old data, but just to go over real quick. You can see those a couple of those lines there. And those are you want you got to make sure or you want to make sure that you're above those lines, otherwise you're in improvement. And so, we had one of our areas previously that was below. And so, um, we've definitely still got a lot of

106work to do, but we have, um, you know, moved above those lines. You can see this trend data over time where we had the the little dip. But the exciting thing and and I shared this last year too, but that exciting thing is where you see that growth from that middle quadrant um to that third year in each of those in each of the areas. So, that's um, you know, super positive, too. Um here's some of the I Ready um diagnostics that we're that you're able to look at. You can see fall and then the most recent. So this is for math and [Music] um so you can see in all three of grade levels that there's this this this gradual growth that's happening um from grade levels behind to on grade level targets. um

107our reading um isn't quite as good. We got one little blip here in seventh grade. We got to figure out kind of what's going on there, but um the reading data is fairly similar with what we had last year. And then there was this big bump between winter and spring. And so I don't know if there's just a weird time of year in January that makes it a little bit tougher to to take some some tests and assessments, but that's kind of what we saw there. So kind of in conclusion in reflection, we want to be able to think about how we can create a fun learning experience. That's some of the data that we've got with uh from our students on the CE. You know, how do we make learning enjoyable? Um, and it's

108not just playing games, but really thinking about that, um, you know, as as building success. Um, how do we build that hope and confidence? And so, we know for our middle school students where students start to identify, I'm this or I'm that, you know, that I'm not good at math. I'm not I can't be, you know, and so, how do we break through some of those barriers and continue to build that hope and confidence and create that belief that each student can can be successful? And then how do we create experiences that students um can build a a mentor relationship with adults and staff in our building? So, uh you're going to see a little bit of that. But so that those have been our um kind of our goals that we've worked on this

109year and we've had some success with that. It's it's been enjoyable to see. So pretty cool. Awesome. Very cool. All right. Got it. Yeah. Had me scared there for a second. The reading one. My mind goes like maybe they're home like during Christmas break and like on their devices on their TVs and coming back. It's hard to get back into it. Yeah. the maybe some of that we've seen with the I Ready that the reading is a little more work in that D there's just not as entertaining and then so there's a lot of like animation and things that happen in the math version so kids go oh yeah you know because it's it becomes a game for them so they're a little more engaged in that but we've got also um EURla, which is

110another um reading kind of a comprehensive task force that allows us to be able to see where some of those students who we've identified as below grade level. We can really get a little bit deeper and more detailed information and provide some more support. Very cool. Thank you. All right. Thank you so much. All right. Good seeing you. Good to see you guys. I'll be back next week. I can't wait. Are we waiting? Everybody here today. Three of three of you guys I paid. The other two just generosity. Okay, everybody's leaving now. Yeah. All right, moving on to new business. Uh, memorial plaque approval. The memorial plaque approval was a topic that surfaced when coach came and shared about honoring a former softball player who was terrible. And if you remember that was deliberate public

111comment. We discussed it and then I was given direction. So, I worked with the athletic director, but we never formally brought that forward to have approval from the board. So, that's the that's the reason it's on the agenda. We want to make sure that we have a formal approval. So, what I'm asking is for the board to approve that and vote on tonight. continue. We need a motion. So, so we make a motion to formally approve uh to hang a memorial plaque honoring Angelo 12 batting cages after the presentation during public conference. I'll second. Okay. All those in favor? Thank you. Okay, moving on to old business. Uh second review and approval public works contract for the district telecom generator. Please get a motion to approve. I'll motion to approve the uh public works contract

112district telecom generator. I'll second. Okay. All those in favor? I I abstain going against you all. Nobody wants unfortunately he's only pay the boost to strike. Right. Second review and approval for policy and procedure 3205 sexual harassment of students. Get a motion to approve. I'll make a motion to approve policy and procedure 3205. Second it. Okay. All those in favor? I second view and approval policy and procedure 5011 sexual harassment of district staff. Can I get a motion to approve, please? Uh, all motion to approve policy and procedure 50 uh 11. I'll second. Yep. All those in favor? That's all right. All right, moving on. Budget and finance update. So, Daniel, do we have you here? Yep, I'm here. I know you can hear. Can you guys hear me? Oh, here. Let me adjust this

113a bit. Can you hear? Yep, I can hear you. Can you guys hear me? Yeah. Yeah. Daniel, why don't you let me start frame with and then have you have you kick in on on the pieces that we talked about. Is that all right? Yep. So, typically when we have PLC reports, we don't have Daniel presenting a finance update, right? But we have um what I think is really good news and that is that we as a district are not going to pursue a informal reduction of force which for us in in the cultural realm is super important as leaders of the district to not put our staff through a situation where we have to continue to you with an educational plan in a worst case scenario because we just don't know what the legislaturator

114is going to approve for us to be able to spend. But working with the executive team, working with Daniel, identifying through the work Hurts done with the the HR budget, um we were able to identify Monday that we will still have reductions to make, but we'll be able to to pursue some scenarios depending on what the legislature does that will not require us to do a formal reduction course. What that means is we're required by state law that if we have certificated staff, teachers or administrators who will be laid off, we need to bring a plan to you, the board, and the board needs to approve that plan. That happens through two cycles. Then we need to deliver a a message to the affected employees. So, if that was all going to happen, we would

115have been presenting that plan to you tonight in a worst case scenario, which then meant that the affected employees would be under this cloud of potential reductions probably until miday. So, we feel really good um especially in the context of looking at um financial circumstances for districts across the state. And so, Daniel, I asked Daniel to be here to share about the processes to give a little bit of context. Um, we know that districts are struggling. Um, I've shared with you in different conversations about how a prototypical model isn't designed to to teach students equitably or fund education equitably. We have a problem with the way education is being funded in our state and what's happening is not sustainable. Um, and still we're doing better than the other. So, pretty proud of that. So, does

116that work, Daniel? Yep. Yeah. So, uh, part of why I'm here is because that's I mean, it's a pretty bold statement right now to to say that we're not um doing a reduction in force uh with the financial climate uh across school districts statewide. Um I think we're we're probably in the minority there. And uh so I want to provide some background of of how we came to this conclusion. um you know provide some some peace of mind that there really has been a lot that has gone into this and and I think it's beneficial to um provide a little bit of more information on what we've done as far as um our focus and importance on financial stability and uh what we've uh what we've uh worked through so far in the 2526 budget

117process. And then finally, I'll I'll kind of lay out the steps that we have in front of us before we uh adopt a a final balance budget um at the end of June. Okay. So, uh James described, you know, what a formal reduction in force is pretty well and essentially that it's the legal requirement um for the May 15th deadline. Um it it basically applies to um permanent teaching positions and we are um happy to say that we aren't we will not be reducing any permanent teaching positions next year. Um so so essentially it does apply to the the permanent positions but what it does not cover the reduction in formal reduction in force is provisional and leap replacement certificate positions as well as director and classified positions. Uh so there there's still possibility that

118some of these other positions uh may be subject to staffing changes. Um but none of those are uh required in the reduction in fold uh reduction in force um legal requirements. Any questions before we move on to financial stability? Daniel, so how far in advance do you have to give um that staff notice? I mean, legally we have to give them notice on May 15th. So, but essentially when you back that up, um because we like to do two readings. So, anytime there's reduction force, uh there's a board resolution authorizing reduction force that has to um take place. And so so we would have had to do a first reading in this meeting, a second reading um at the end of April and then we and then we would be working on the specific letters

119that would go out and typically we would send those you know a few business days before the May 15th deadline. Um, so one of the the complications uh working with the May 15th deadline is a lot of times there's a quite a bit of information that isn't known yet and that that is the circumstance that we're we're in right now and I'll speak to that u more as I walk through the budget process. Does that make if I can I'll throw out one other piece. So there are the two two two meetings for the approval and the letters, but then there are conversations that happen and and Kurt does a really nice job because we want employees to hear from us, not just get a letter, right? So there's also time to coordinate and meet

120and have conversations. So it's more than just those pieces, but yeah. Okay. Thanks. Yeah, it's kind of the certificated well legal requirements just certificated teachers and administrators. Yep. And you know, part of why we don't want to go out and just put like a full-blown list of potential reductions for all staff is is there's so much unknown right now. And I really don't like to put information out there that I'm not 100% sure about. And so, so basically, we've we've gone through a lot of steps to to ensure that we've met the legal requirement and we'll continue to do more work to to refine what our budget plan looks like. Um, so jumping into financial stability. Uh so as you're all aware by now statewide there's there's a financial crisis in school district funding. Um

121it's impacting Meridian as well as all the other districts across the state and essentially this came about for a number of reasons. Uh, one of the reasons that doesn't necessarily impact Meridian um is a loss of enrollment. And you know, because our programs are pretty sought after, we haven't had um a reduction in enrollment to the level that some other districts have. And so that is because enrollment is the main driver for funding that is uh impacting a lot of school districts. Um something that's impacts all school districts is the the drop off of the temporary pandemic revenues. Um we had a pretty good strategy to deal with that. And so I believe that's another reason that we're in a you know fairly good financial position considering the climate. Um and then and then you

122have stagnant ongoing revenues. There's there seems to be legislative fatigue and funding school districts in recent um legislative sessions. Uh we'll see where this one ends up at, but that's that's kind of been the the ongoing climate um in recent years. And then of course everybody's aware of um inflation and the rising cost of expenditures right now. Um so we the school district has um you know we do uh make a lot of purchases that inflation directly impacts as well as a big portion of our budget um is for uh staffing. And then we have contractual obligations where those um agreed upon those association agreements um continue to have um increases. So, a couple of things that we've done in Meridian to address the financial climate is we've really doubled our efforts in monitoring um

123the financial position of the district. uh last fiscal year. Uh we had I would say pretty early awareness of the magnitude of the situation and we began to take action. Uh, one of the things that happened is we would we would discuss our strategies um um in in our executive meetings and it was really formulating a plan last year and then when it came to the budget process, we had u mindful budgeting or for uh basically a year ago now or the 2425 budget and as as As you probably recall, we had a $2 million shortfall that we were able to address uh through attrition uh reassignment of roles and other budget reductions. And then so after we had a pretty conservative budgeting, you know, essentially only accounting for the revenues that we were sure

124we were going to have and making sure to account for all of the expenditures. um that we could foresee at the time. Um then that brought us to to fall of this school year, fall 2024. And uh one of the things that we did is we developed um a number of new written policies that would help us um hold to basically hold the line on the um adopted budget expenditures. And a big part of what that entailed is um specific procedures for tracking the additional enrollment revenues and any post-budget additions and then making sure that any addition that we made um to address student need fell within the additional revenues that we had. and and we were successful in this area and uh were able to to maintain our expenditures within the revenues that we

125um were receiving for the school year. And I think a big part of why we were successful was that we had a very consistent um tone at the top that this was the budget approach that we were going to be taking. and and we spent a significant amount of time evaluating, you know, every expenditure that came up or potential expenditure that came up um that we hadn't foreseen within the budget process and then evaluating those to see if they were um of high enough need that it warranted. making the addition and um you know accounting for that out of the additional enrollment revenues that we received. Uh any questions on kind of our financial stability focus? We're good. Okay. Uh so that brought us to um early January when we started the 2526 budget process

126and we started the budget process earlier than we ever have in any other um any other school year. Uh and we narrowed our focus down in the beginning um to the expenditures because we knew expenditures are the most challenging. um area to budget for and and we knew that we would get uh better information on on the revenue projections as time went by. Um so one of the first things that we did is we formulated a plan and and we wrote out procedures of um how we intended to um have an ongoing budget approach for this year. and uh future years. And we could adopt an approach that um didn't fluctuate based on, you know, financial climate a and one that that we could be consistent with. And one of the first steps in this

127plan uh was to get input from our district leaders. And so we got we got input on what the shortfalls um of their uh respective expertise areas were um as well as um any specific rises in inflationary costs. Um so this is this is a pretty pretty big one this year where we're seeing utilities um various supplies for maintenance, custodial, transportation, food service, technology, and classrooms all going up as well as um our purchase service contract rates. Those are going up um across the board. um and the rates for Wacom Discovery and then the need to uh budget for an additional slot there as well. So from this information uh the budget team worked uh to prioritize uh the pro programmatical support requests and include any necessary expenditures um or rising costs within the budget.

128Um and then and then what we did is we identified what we felt would be the projected worst case scenario reduction. And we identified that to be $1.5 million. And this is this is kind of one that I'm just able to get a feel for. And typically we land pretty close to to what we think it's going to be, but this was this was kind of a number that we were sure would be our high water mark and that would be the most possible reductions that we'd have to make to to have a balanced budget next year. And so from there we uh the budget team started formulating various scenarios um to accommodate potential worst case um reduction of 1.5 million. And uh as we were developing these scenarios we had a few focus areas.

129uh one of them was to maintain direct classroom instruction and then also whenever possible to preserve job security and this is um as you've heard me speak before uh we've always tried to take the approach of once we hire you at Meridian um you have job security and we're going to do everything we can to to maintain is maintain your positions um And so to come up with the um so part of that those scenarios um used similar approaches as we did last year in the budget process where we uh identified any areas of attrition where staff were leaving. Uh then we reassigned did some reassignment of roles. So if there was attrition in one area, maybe we would move uh another employee that was also qualified to cover that that uh position and then

130kind of went through the dominoes there. Um, we also did some reductions in uh went through all the M socks, the the non-employee costs and made reductions in any areas that were underutilized or areas that could uh basically uh absorb a reduction and still survive. Um and then lastly uh we we made in some scenarios we made some produ um reductions to provisional or lead replacements. Uh um and again there's no uh reduction in any um any of our contracted certificated staff in any of these scenarios um that we're relying on. So then we took the scenarios of the the 1.5 million reduction and it established a a full comprehensive draft expenditure budget and then I turned and then we turned our focus to the revenues and essentially what we did there is we estimated

131all the revenue streams um based on what current funding levels would be and assume that we wouldn't receive any additional funding And then as there were was any new information uh from the legislature where we could count on any increase, you know, we would work that in. But for the most part, the level we're at now is just holding the line on current funding levels. And then we um then we identified areas of any potential increases. And this is just kind of a for our information at this point. Um so some areas that we're watching the legislative session that could provide us some additional funding. Um but nothing's guaranteed at this point. So we took uh that comprehensive draft expenditure budget with the worst case scenario of 1.5 million and then we uh compared that

132to the current funding level revenues did the balancing and found that our revenues exceeded expenditures by 200,000. So essentially what this meant is we know we have some scenario a few different scenarios where we have a working budget um with shifts and reductions of about 1.3 million um and in those scenarios we can guarantee uh no formal reduction in force. Any questions on kind of the budget process so far and how we got to where we are today? Feel good. Okay. Sweet. Okay. So, so next steps. So, essentially now what we're doing is we're waiting. So, we're waiting for the legislative session to close at the end of April. And then after the session closes, we're able to gain an understanding of any additional funding that's been approved and and then we'll start making estimates

133of those revenue impacts and then we can begin refining our budget expenditure plan. And so at this point, those are all still going to be estimates. It takes uh takes about four to six weeks after the session closes to receive um the actual revenue projections. Uh and so so we kind of have to work through a few more scenarios until the end of May. And then in the end of May, we'll we'll know how much money we're projected to get next year. And then we'll determine our final expenditure plan based on those projected revenues. And then all through that process, we'll be checking in with the various leaders in the school district and how any shifts or reductions might might impact learning and and all of our program supports. and we'll try to try to

134develop the best scenario plan and then we'll adopt a uh balanced budget on June 15th or June 25th. Any questions? So, Daniel, one quick question. in planning ahead. Will we have a budget hearing on on that adoption night or will it be the preceding date? Um, I think it'll likely be that adoption night. I mean, unless they're unless we're able to get those projections, you know, on the earlier side, we're probably going to need that time to to work through the final scenarios and come up with that balanced budget. Okay. Thank you. So Daniel didn't say it, but if we get funding from the legislature, that shrinks that 1.3 projection, right? And that's where we talk about different scenarios for the expenditures. Yeah. So essentially with the scenarios we have, things can only get better.

135But, you know, none of the there's there's a few different areas where we could receive funding, but none of them are guaranteed at this point. So, we we could we could receive some additional funding um with our levy authority. Right now, we're roll we're uh projected to roll back about $66,000. There's also some potential to to get some local effort assistance money again. And and then there's also some special education funding bills that are still out there um that could provide us some funding, but those the House and the Senate bills for those vary quite significantly. Uh but but all those things would help and they would make it so we wouldn't have to reduce as much. They come through. Yep. All right. Well, thank you. Appreciate that's it for me. Thank you, Daniel. Appreciate

136Daniel. You got it. Thank you. Good work. Great. Yeah, we should have got my longer thinking. Still got the super intense report. All right. So, I'm going to fly through these because it was spring break and there's a couple things to report on, but not a lot. Good. We are in day 93 of the 105 days and you were correct. April 27th is the projected end and it is still possible. And one example of how we could see an extended session is the distance between the House and the Senate on the special ed bill. They're $800,000 apart. So if they don't figure this out, they have they have to pass the budget. So 800 million, right? What's that? 800 million, right? Oh, sorry. Sorry, sorry. Billion to 200 million. 800 million. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah.

137Going to 800,000. Yeah. Sorry, that that's a walk in the park. Yeah. Yeah, you're right. Um, so just a a couple of uh celebrations. The classroom visits have been a lot of fun. I mean, it's uh I was never an elementary teacher. I was always middle school and high school. and um being able to go and visit with with students of all grade levels has been uh fantastic. So, we have the classroom visits and and I'm visiting a classroom of each of the grade levels this year and and um and we're talking about different pieces around the strategic plan, but we're also engaging with the thriving futures by participating in the activities like the math night or the freshman orientation tomorrow night. um I'm able to see students and parents in a different different capacity.

138So these have been these have been so great. The next one coming up is um after 21st. So that's nice day. Um we've had a lot of student successes and um you know we had students engaging uh with fourth grade from withex salmon enhancement working in 10 mile creek. They do that every year. um our student advisory group districtwide um met at the middle school uh at Logan and Kennedy um really worked with the students around support and had some great comments on that. Um we've had some students who were really doing well with NCTA. um some of our students who uh Kate and Lucas who go down to Mount Vernon and participate in money and business, they actually engaged in a stock market challenge and their their team won uh in the state and

139so they went and competed and and they got um they got a lot of kudos for that. And then Liz Padilla um is outstanding student of the the semester or the quarter for their money program. We got to meet Liz, right? Yeah. Yep. and she's the one who came in smoke, right? And then the other piece, of course, I'm sure you're aware, um, our golf teams are pretty amazing right now. So, our boys won Everett Invitational, our girls won County Championship. So, um, you know, all our coaches and Bryant are kind of tying Sony hardware. So, that's awesome. They're working hard. So, that's great. Um, I want to remind everybody it's still still kindergarten registration. And so, um, this is example of Lisa's campaign. You know, we've got kindergarten experts. So, it's our our students

140who are saying what they're expert at kindergarten. Just reminding people that we're ready for more students coming our system and privilege. Is it also TK registration then? At the same time, it is. We're being cautious because we don't have any guarantee that TK is going to happen, right? But um we do have a new a new version of the TK bill and we do expect there to be something passed through. We have to wait. And so we have um actually uh Trisha at at Irene Ryder um was working with Lisa and trying to get a message out that tells people to hold tight. You just have to wait till session hard because we're trying trying to let people know and at the same time what we guarantees. And then the other one I wanted to

141um share with you is here's a um hold the date for May 2nd. We have another culture fair that's happening. would love all of you to um be there to be present to see what goes on to support our mult multilingual um learners and their families. Um there's been a huge increase I think um has done a phenomenal job as as well as a sponsoring that work. And so this is a big part of the goal we're trying to do that to help our families feel better supported. And um you know here's more legislative. So the big ones recently have been that u you know the House had a budget, the Senate had a budget, we also had the governor's budget and essentially about two and a half weeks ago all of them have been

142combined into one budget. Um and so they have uh committees that are working behind the scenes um to work out a plan. Um part of that plan is also revenues. The Senate was vying for 17 billion and then the House for 13 billion and both of them had versions of wealth taxes to which the governor said, "Yeah, yeah, I'm not going to sign that." So now they're scrambling and what I've heard is they're checking the couch cushions to see where they can actually charge taxes to be able to increase revenues to be able to pay for things. And the the frustrating piece that I will share is that there are some sentiments being shared that statements by legislators are such that we don't have the funding to support education. So, we need these new taxes

143even though the revenue forecast shows that we will as a state increase by $10 billion in the next quarter and qualifying as a need for education, that funding, if they're successful on those tax rates, will go into the general fund and is not earmarked for education. So, it's more of the same slide of hand kicking the can down the road and it's frustrating. So, so we'll see where things come together. I'm sure we'll spend our money wisely. Yeah. So, vote like you were saying to get changes, right? But but I guess in in our context, we know that there is a provision in the state constitution that says you're supposed to take care of education first and everything else after. And I recognize our legislators have a lot of demands, but what they signed up

144for is the constitution as it sits and they're not doing their part. So, but we have to wait. uh they are not public with the negotiations on the budget and um we will see how things play out and and hope that they're done by the 27th of April. uh big three I think really the only thing that's left in the big three is um trying to come to a landing place on special education funding and then there is some um materials and uh some MSOC um funding that they're trying to identify and each iteration it keeps getting whittleled down for less and less and so we'll see what what materializes there and then finally my upcoming dates um I'm going to participate tomorrow night with uh freshman night and then Um, our team is going

145to Belleview for the Limitless Learning convening for the spring convening. Then we have senior presentations next Thursday and then another board meeting here on the 30th. And uh, a reminder, we will have another executive session and then we'll go right into the regular meeting and then the cultural affairs on the second. I'm actually not curious to go to a class. Just drive back. I can zoom in. Yeah. While you drive. What? Zoom in while you drive. No, I'm I'm I'm in Kent for a class to work, but I can I'll be sitting by that time. Okay. No, we don't have any information from our student board representatives. Any information for our board directors will not be here yet? Nope. Okay. Well, we can sign some official documents and journ