001our multi-level system of support how are we giving those students tier one tier two and tier three and then building thinking classrooms is not just an elementary initiative I know middle school did a lot with this as well so we have really done um a lot of work last year reading the book this year now we have teachers actually implementing all the way from kindergarten which is really amazing um to hear kindergarten teachers talk about how much they love the students and what they're interacting with and the level of thought and discussion that again even a five-year-old is having so again same thing that you can see with what we're looking for for Success one of our big things or strategies this year with the help of Mrs pinch we um did the K12 vertical
002math team so we took a couple people from the elementary a couple from the middle a couple from the high we met a couple of times in the kind of fall first semester to look at what is our plan what are we looking to do what do we want to do that team put together a action plan and we were able to deliver our first um professional development to all K12 Math teachers back in it still February but the last PD day with the idea that when we're going to be bringing them back again on March 7th so that is very much a win in the sense of very teacher driven very staff driven and looking at um the data and what do we have to do next um so again we've had a lot
003of professional development around these thinking tasks uh teachers in um Parkview they've looked at that geometry unit realized it was the last subject taught or last unit taught so they have looked at how to incorporate geometry more often throughout the year so that students um can access that quicker we have also used I ready lessons not only to challenge students but to also do some pre-teaching of some Concepts um to get their the ideas already FL before that unit actually starts we do have a math interventionist at Parkview um who does pull small groups to help support some students along with pushing into classrooms as well um then we have just a ton of math resources that we have been sharing we've had some professional development that has happened not only inside the district but
004outside the district we had a number of teachers last weekend um participate in a virtual math Summit so they took their weekend to be able to partake in that so that was really great to see and a lot of positive comments from that and then again you can see what we're looking for as far as our desired results so can you explain a little bit what what they're learning from a geometry standpoint in elementary school well it varies I mean like in fourth grade you're learning things like acute angles obuse you're learning about um different types of triangles and all of those things in kindergarten you're learning about shapes yeah and then you you also mentioned measurement of data is one of the areas that so yeah so again it varies so in kindergarten you
005might be measuring you know using how many um blocks does it take or cubes does it take compared to a fourth grader who might be using a protractor or a you know more of a standard ruler and then data looking at graphs and charts and interpreting what that information says okay thanks any other questions on Ma all right and then the last area is attendance so just like uh Mrs grael we want to increase the attendance rate and we want to decrease The Chronic absentee rate um some of the things we started doing is one we started a surprise attendance day once per month at least um we don't advertise to the kids and we just do a surprise activity and if you're at school you get that and if you're not we missed out
006on it again um I'm not sure that it's necessarily having a positive effect that those that weren't there you know make sure that they're there more often but at least it's a way to um support the kids who have been showing up quite a bit kids love it um we've also done some quarterly attendance Awards just to be like oh you've only had one to two unexcused absences this quarter you know just kind of one of those things or no unexcused absence is this quarter the other thing I do is I send out a five-day warning letter before you get the first 10day excuse letter just as a way I found um our newest kids to schooling some of our newer families don't understand the attendance policies and what that means so this has provided
007a lot of open communication to um explain that to our younger families so that they understand what does it mean when I get 10 days and how how does that all work and what can I use my 10 kids 10 days for and so that has really I think help offset some potential um or more potential issues we still have some chronic but and then we do follow the 10day letter the three-day excus unexcused the five day letter um those are all things that we have to required by law we do do um attendance meetings with the families um those are great can get the families in um as long as they come into the meeting as well and Aon Marsh has been wonderful with trying to help us get those set up so yeah
008we are looking to um increase our attendance rate to 96% and decrease it our absenteeism to 15% where are those numbers now right now we are currently at 95.7 for um our rate and our absentee is 6.8 because that that's chronic right that's chronic so it's going to keep growing we ended last year at 21 questions I'll ask the same question that I was asking of m g uh do do you have you you cited quite a few specifics but is there written thing of of the specifics that will help you uh that your staff is all on the same page that will help you achieve those goals that you could share with Mr Black to share with the board yes of course yeah we have our plan on a page that has everything out
009on than thanks Jody next we'll have Mr D talk about linoln element good evening thanks for having me um we'll start off with reading for Lincoln I took a little different TCT uh other than continuing to talk about the same things that my two colleagues talked about already and we' heard twice already or some with some repetition I'm focusing more on what specifically besides tier one instruction in reading and math are we doing to improve um our performance on forward exam and um that being the forward exam is not just the third and fourth grade tests at the elementary level it's a k through four test because everything leads up or 4K through 4 everything leads up to those moments when those kids take that test in third and fourth grade so I apologize for
010my voice it's a little gravel today um thanks for bearing with me so uh specific to uh Lincoln you can see the charting up there um the strategies I'm going to focus mainly on the strategies um for my discussion here and again basically toward how what we're doing specifically to improve our forward performance I already is a big piece of what we do uh at the elementary level to help kids perform at a higher level overall and then also on the forward exam it's geared very closely to what the forward exam um has our students um complete during that testing period so uh our I ready instruction piece uh for reading and for math for that matter is geared toward uh students's performance in I ready so our kids take I ready Diagnostics in the
011fall again at the beginning of January and they'll take it again at the in the middle point of May and based on their performance they get a suite of lessons that they work through during our intervention time or Bulldog time um so each each student's set of of lessons is different than the next ones um so um we're really focused on making sure that those students are performing or working on those lessons in both reading and math for 45 minutes a week so during their intervention time they work on reading twice a week and math twice a week and that those are 40 minute blocks and then the other uh 40 minute block of the week is uh keyboarding so we work that all into um that intervention block boarding by the way is very
012important with regard to the forward because there are a number of construed response items on that test so kids have to be able to type those out um also students set yearly I ready progress schools in both reading and math um so they take their diagnostic performance in Fall they work with their teachers uh M Miss Miller can attest that Miss wiler can attest that that we get goal sheets at the beginning of the year and teachers go through with their students where they performed in fall and they forecast where they think they can get to by the end of the year and then they check their progress midpoint so that just helps keep cognizant in kids Minds where they need to attain to uh and teacher provide feedback and incentives to them for attaining
013those goals uh students receive incentives uh for completing lessons and quizzes to 80% accuracy and are acknowledged in monthly slideshows for meeting incremental 25 50 75 100 lessons or quizzes P so we make a big deal of that every month uh where we recognize kids who have passed uh at this point in the year we have some closing in on 75 reading lessons or math lessons that they've completed in the year so far to 80% accuracy uh so we make a big deal of that they they get uh their names read on Lincoln live so everybody hears their name they know they know where they're where they've performed um so it's a big incentive for them to work hard in those uh Bulldog times uh students are also recognized for their overall performance in a
014bulletin board on in the hallway uh the top two point gainers are um shown in the hallway on a bulletin board with a picture and the number of points they've gained since the beginning of the year I tell you that it it slows down dismissal time greatly when those are first published because the the hallway is clogged with kids looking at their pictures so it's a great thing uh moving on to Arc besides the normal uh tier one instruction um I want to make sure that teachers are using their the teacher checklist one and teacher checklist four teacher checklist One deals with the daily structure of Arc that daily structure is proven to help kids learn how to read um you can see see it up there um there's a number of progressions that we
015go through or that should be part of a daily lesson uh for each classroom so we focus on that and making sure that we provide that instruction for kids each day uh checklist 4 deals with um oneon-one or small group instruction and our skills groupings and you can see that there so focusing on that is important um also we focus on classroom proficiency uh within eara and that's monitored weekly and published in our staff newsletter the ladies can attest that every week There's a fresh set of numbers for how we've performed in getting kids to the at or above grade level getting kids into uh the at risk level out of the emergency level and decreasing that emergency level overall so ladies right um they love it um I also published The Arc student conference
016rate now the program says that we should be meeting with students at least once every 13 days for a conference on how well they're doing for five feedback and ideas for how to improve their reading um I'm proud to say that our our average is much lower than that um for the last uh last week we were I'm sorry this is the last week in January but we were at five everything about five days between conferences for each student so that's great the lower we can get that number that means the more times a teacher has contact with a student on how to improve their reading so we're really focused that as well another thing we monitor is our students reading practice um students are supposed to attain four steps a day each step in
017Reading is considered 15 minutes they do two steps in class so 30 minutes of in-class independent reading and they're asked to do 30 minutes of at home reading for a total of four steps each day so we have a log kids uh enter in that log parents initial sign off that log is brought back every week teachers um record that in school pace and we monitor that that amount of reading that has been a little difficult in building that culture we're hovering right around 40% of the kids who are um at their goal for this date um obviously there's there's different family structures and different ways of doing things and it's hard to build that culture and and help parents understand the importance of reading every day so we're working on that and that's an
018area we continue to build on um moving on um we have monthly grade level team meetings where we focus on reading data this is where we come together at a grade level team and we talk specifically about all the data that we can get our hands on I ready um Arc reading interventions overall intervention progress forward item analysis to ensure that our and act 20 I wrote that in there I forgot to put that in my notes we take all that information and make sure that the tier two and tier three instruction for kids who are struggling is appropriate for them and we're meeting the needs of all those kids and moving them forward in their process both through Reading and math so that's once a month that we meet um as a great level
019team to just review that data and make plans for the next month the last thing I want to talk about overall for reading and math is forward prep um we do a lot of stuff with forward and looking at how we can improve and what we can do to help kids succeed um we do overall item analysis Eric Larson from cisa is a huge help in helping us understand how we're performing and what we can do to improve um he I don't know if he creates this or someone with a lot more skills than me in uh Excel but they created an item analysis where it TS out what each kid answered for each question and how that rates with everybody else in the state everybody else in the district everybody else in the school
020and we review that data I do a lot of that data review I try to glean the important things and and carry that information forward to staff so that they can use it in their instruction uh we do something called a heat map analysis where we look at which standards are addressed most often in that board exam and look to make sure that we're instructing on those standards uh very closely for those standards that are used most in the for uh we take a look at student performance specifically on a student by student basis to try to figure out where we can help them improve and how we can help them improve um we Implement changes based on Eric's advice based on what we think is a group um based on what we think as
021a district group um just to try to do the best we can um and we also work on some standards remuneration if we find a standard that we're really weak on we're going in and we're working with students on a group basis or even as a whole group whole class basis to remediate those standards prior to taking my test again we work with students on test prep test prep for functionality how to navigate the test because it's a computer test a lot of kids in third grade it's their first opportunity in taking that test so we work hard to make sure they have the functionality uh we prepped them on the items that they'll see the kinds of items there's many different ways that that test looks to glean information from those students we go
022through every type of problem and make sure kids understand how to complete those problems um with and without technology we do paper and pencil and we do it on the on the computer with uh the tests provided by DPI that are practice tests we work as a group to take a look at what dates times how to arrange kids in small groups based on their abilities based on their language based on uh special ed concerns on a whole plethora of things we look at how to group those kids the best where to structure that testing how to make the best testing environment overall uh we get snacks we feed them make sure their bellies are full we make sure they have gum in their mouth when they're taking the test so keep to keep them
023focused um we make sure the parents are informed that they know that this test is vitally important to us to them to our community to their kids as a whole um so all that is done for both reading and math specifically so I kind of talk to both reading and Ma question for AR reading so um this is the third year that of implementation of the of that curriculum right second full year yes second full year but the first year I think uh Kristen mentioned that you focus just on one and one and two two so and the test is taken at what time of the year uh forward test is the end of March uh into April okay and we get those results then the following October November new slash this year we're supposed
024to have them by the end of the school year supposed to okay all right so so um the the results we got this fall are representing only one full year of of AR implementation in that first year was just the first and and and and second units if you will so we don't have any test results back yet for full implementation is that was that a correct assessment that would be accurate okay with the caveat that last year when they took it at the end of March and April we were only through three units so okay so we aren even so the result we're going to get hopefully at the end of the year here only going to be the result in in this report card was two units in 2223 and three units in
02523 24 okay all right so we still got another all right thanks any other questions before I keep Mr D you uh want to make sure I heard you right you try to keep gum in their mouth while they're Tak that's true Spearman go it just reminded me of fifth grade staying after school to write 100 times I will not chew gum so we don't normally let them chew gum unless it's a gum day or they're taking the so thinking has obviously changed yeah it's there's some scientific data that says if you can keep them busy with their mouth their brain is also thinking and there's some evidence that the experim is actually the best I didn't analis that's what I who's the podster that recommends the cated gum I'm G to move on to
026attendance because I covered a lot of this math stuff with the reading so attendance um a lot of the things we're working on to improve attendance is month monthly grade level team meetings focused on School attendance data to ensure RTI tiered interventions are effectively and efficiently progressing for those kids that need that um we have weekly information to parents in the Lincoln logger regarding the importance of attendance they get a monthly uh uh data shot on how we're performing overall attendance and highrisk attendance and there's some explanation of each so that parents understand so they have a running idea of how we're performing uh weekly I monitor uh excused and unexcused absence that's usually my Monday morning routine which takes an hour or so to complete and then to do the letters in edge of
027climber and get those sent out uh to parents based on um based on um State and and our policies here in the district um we set up meetings we make calls to parents uh regarding those attendance thresholds um parents of absence students who have not called in get daily calls when their kids are not here find out why they're not here our school counselor Mrs Tate does an outstanding job of helping us with attendance she identifies uh high-risk students she does some charting with them uh kids actually get to when they come in if they're a kid identified as um high-risk attendance they get to put their sticker on a chart they get a bulldog Buck for being there so it kind of incen incentivizes them to get there every day and we have seen
028some improvement overall in uh those students coming to school um so she does that um and uh that charting really seems to help those students internalize it's important to be here Ain Marsh another shout out to her she does a great job on following up on those extreme chronic attendance cases helping us find out why students aren't coming what are the roadblocks how can we get over those hurdles uh both with parents and with the students uh we have an engagement calendar at Lincoln where we have events scattered throughout each month to help kids hone in on really wanting to be there for those events and those activities um they're usually on Fridays because Fridays are not usually good attendance days so we kind of gear those towards Fridays um our Bulldog way uh which
029is our Lincoln Behavior plan emphasizes attendance within the respectful responsible and wise framework for each aspect of schools students learn what's respectable what's responsible and what's wise in those areas attendance is one of them uh making sure that they know that that's a responsibility for them classes are recognized weekly for best attendance with a reward uh on Fridays uh with an extra recess on the Green Space we call that during our elt or Extended Learning time um so kids who've uh been at school every day of the week they get a little extra reset on Friday while teachers work with those that have been absent to catch them up on work it's kind of kind of helps us in both aspects U with those uh that are absent and then those rewarding those that have
030been at class and then again our overx uh our Extended Learning Time rewards students with that perfect attendance each week with an extra recess on Friday afternoons while the rest of the kids catch up with the teacher so a lot of stuff going on questions I have one other question regards uh implementing a new reading program especially at the elementary level you I mean all of our elementary teachers have been doing this for a while when you've gone through an implementation of a new reading curriculum how many years until you see some impact from it uh well I think we're already seeing some of that impact if we look at our um I ready scores we're with the January um testing Diagnostics I should say which are taken about three weeks before the midpoint of
031the school year um for Lincoln anyway we were at prepandemic rates this year all right which is nice to see because it took a big deal right okay other questions I really like your Matrix I thought this was really easy to follow so that was good I like the Matrix and I know that attendance is Ved your existance at Lincoln we talked about it yeah we have um now is there any one thing that maybe just a couple things you can kind of point out that you think might be causing attendance issues is a transportation is a lack of understanding when they need to be SCH I think it's a whole host of things um what we're trying to do is make sure that parents know the import of attendance um that to me is
032is really the only thing we have perview over policy is on on you guys um the laws are on the city the state County government whatever we really don't have purview on that what we have is to affect positively parents understanding of how important attendance is for their kids so that's what we have to do Miss Kirk thanks thank you next we'll have Mrs pinch representing the Intermediate Middle School under the same concept of Court fer school key measures of success strategies and the desired results which ism is driving for Pinch hello everybody um what you're going to see on my slides is a lot of duplication in some cases because we are being consistent across um grades K through in many of our strategies but I do want to highlight what looks different why
033is it different and how we're making progress at the Intermediate Middle School so in terms of English language arts um we are really focused on tier one instruction why are we focused on tier one instruction because we know that our students that are performing proficient and advanced are hovering between that 50 to 60% Mark we're not satisfied with that um because that tells us that that initial instruction that students are receiving there's a variety of questions we need to start asking yourselves in terms of why is it not sticking with them why is something that is learned in the moment maybe not transferring for years to come so what we've focused on is we have focused on our small group conferencing which gives us the opportunity to once again use what Mrs Grull kicked off
034our presentation with which is that flood model where our special education staff our English learner staff our interventionist our alted person they are all taking time to go ahead and work with small groups in targeted areas in terms of what they need based on building those reading skills and we have found it to be extremely impactful it allows for that continued collaboration among our team members to talk about what's working it also allows us to borrow ideas from grade level to grade level obviously every grade level at the middle school they have their own unique needs a fifth grader is very different from an eighth grade learner but if there are things that are working at fifth grade why not borrow them if it's something that is age appropriate developmentally appropriate for an eighth grade
035student so that is really working quite well what we noticed at the end of both first and second quarter by utilizing the flood model is that the students that were identified to work with those different targeted uh teaching staff made great gains so for instance at the end of at the end of first semester students receiving either support from our interventionist or support from our alt ad person that number of students that needed that specific targeted invent intervention significantly decreased and we were able to go ahead and take a look at which students need more and which students are able to then join back with their classmates because now they're moving on that eara level all the way through um to date where we're at with School Pace is we have 56.2% of our students
036who are on or above Target in terms of what their reading level is and that's significant because at the Intermediate Middle School level students are not going to progress as quickly through those independent reading levels as they would in elementary because in elementary they are setting those foundations and it's expected that they're going to move faster quicker right at the Intermediate Middle School level it's expected that there may be going to move one one reading level we know though for our students that are not at grade level they need to be able to move more quickly so it's nice to see that that's been the trend when we look at our I ready data what we really are focusing on at the Intermediate Middle School is glow and the reason why we're focusing on growth
037is because if we can ensure that every student is growing that we know every student's achieving it means that our Advanced Learners aren't having to slow down our proficient Learners are getting those stretch goals to hopefully get to that next proficiency level and our students who are currently below level are moving and gaining so when you look at that number of having a growth score of over 160% you might be like isn't that like way out of league and the answer is no um actually it's expected that a student in a full Year's worth of instruction is going to gain at least 100% through I ready because that would make sense they're starting with us in September they're expected to be by the end of May at the end of fifth grade as a fifth
038grader in order to be able to be successful then as a sixth grade student so if you're looking at the 160 and saying is that realistic it absolutely is last year when we did our plan on a page we noticed that we were able to gain over 157% worth of growth which means that we're doing the right things it's a matter of putting everything into motion so that's why we are focusing on the tier one instruction other things that we've specifically done this year is I know that all of the elementary principles SP to creating those habits at home in terms of our readers and having those positive reading habits at the middle school it looks different um middle schoolers may not always be the most responsible to bring home a reading blog and actually
039turn it back in the next day so we do use a platform known as beanstack and what we have currently running is a bean stack challenge which for middle schoolers also pequs their interest where they're looking to complete a bingo card um for completing their reading steps at home and then also doing those comprehension pieces which is what we want to focus on at the middle school level because they should be turning that corner of learning how to read and now really reading to learn and really dive into both non-fiction and fictional texts so um many kids are very excited about the being stack reading challenge it does help that um Katie kesi who was here earlier with the library plan has a lot of great incentives planned for kids that are going ahead and
040taking on that challenge as they come through the library every single week to check out new books it's awesome to see students checking out multiple books because they are now developing that reading stamina to be able to do so um another thing that we did differently this year is we went ahead and we kicked off a one book one school event so for those of you that have students at the middle school um we had our English language arts team select a title that they thought had some important themes for middle school kids to really you know gravitate towards and then we were able to host an event at school as a celebration and we had a lot of good feedback from our family as well as our students in terms of how they were
041able to connect with the main character those that were able to join us at Stage Coach pass over at the Intermediate Middle School there were a lot of fun activities planned all surrounding that book so when it comes to ELA we are going to stay focused on that tier one instruction to make sure that we're following it with Fidelity in terms of that framework and then really leveraging the small group conferencing and we adjusted our schedule this year to make sure that it was at all hands on deerr so that our grade levels weren't competing with each other because obviously our Specialists that are supporting in those different areas they support multiple grades often times so we don't want to have them only being able to support one grade versus another any questions at all
042with English language arts I will tell you your tier one program I think does work over there in the Middle School my son has been in the tier one a couple of times but he gets really excited when he gets back with with his group of people so and he I mean it doesn't you would think that it would like upset them because they you know they're not with their group but he he he enjoys it it's fine that's that's great to hear and that's another reason why um it's been so impactful too because it's seamless students float in and out of those groups as they need to based on what their needs are and it's all different is it all different grade levels within those groups it's all different reading levels within those groups
043but it's all happening at the same time so they may be meeting with this teacher to develop these skills but when they progress to a different reading level they might be meeting with a different person who's going to provide that facilitation for that small group so it really is seamless it really does honor how a middle schooler needs to think um because it gives them those kind of intrinsic goal goals and goal setting for them to be able to maybe reach the next level um because peers are definitely an important part of their lives y any other questions or comments in regards to what's happening in English language arts all right on to math then um math same thing we're really focused in on the tier one instruction to make sure that we have those
044solid instructional practices happening within our math class classroom um similar to Mrs Peterson we are using I ready lessons to both pre-teach and support any of the topics that students are learning and we also know that I since it's not the most dynamic of all platforms um that we need to make sure that our staff that is facilitating that instruction has their best tools available for them to really engage our Learners um middle schoolers are very good at being able to look busy and look as if they're paying attention in the moment um and what we really want to do is promote their thinking and it's challenging because um being in the classroom if you're in a math classroom and you ask an open-ended question and students are giving you no reaction it is really
045difficult to wait them out um and in fact most middle schoolers are really good at that too and they'll continue to wait you out as long as possible in hopes that you just move on um so our Focus has really been in engaging students with those purposeful questions doing those thinking tasks within the classroom I know that many people have mentioned already the K12 math team and the opportunity we had at the most recent um professional development day it was all based upon thinking um because we don't want to create barriers in our math classroom where if it outlines this is what you need to do and students are like well I don't feel confident with that or I'm not sure about that yet it can unintentionally be something that is a barrier to them
046where they don't even want to start they don't even want to initiate the conversation so we've really looked at what are those High leverage routines and how can we create situations where everybody has access to the information but the sky the limit and we're not going to create a ceiling for them that doesn't need to be there so one thing that we're doing is we are working with number talks as a way to engage students um we know that showing work sometimes can be a battle and what number talks does is it engages students through some questions where we're asking them not to do any thinking on paper we're just asking them to have conversation and do some thinking and then um we actually as the facilitators and the the teachers then act as the
047scribes to go ahead and write down what those ideas are and does this make sense um because if we're really holding students to the line of can they use math to make sense we know we're doing our jobs well so um that is really what we are focused on when it comes to math at the middle school um right now um when we take a look at our I ready data we have 83% of our students that have already met their typical growth score so they've already gained that 100% so we are again focusing on that growth aspect because then that means that we are going to be moving on all Learners um what I did bring along with me tonight and I know Chris you've asked a variety of times to have some more
048specifics um in the area of math and I'll just leave it at the table if you want to pick it up um it's one thing to go ahead and say we're really working on that engagement piece and making sure that they're thinking even for staff sometimes it's like well what do you mean by that like I do that all the time so what we did provide um all of our math instructors was during our most recent PD is just a look for sheet in terms of if we're hitting the Mark here's what students should be doing in the classroom and here's what our job as teachers is in the classroom to make sure that we're hitting that Mark so I'll leave this for you if you are interested in picking up what that really does
049mean any questions in regards to math and where we're going okay last one is related to attendance um as everyone has said already we need to have students there with us because there are things in the classroom that we can't replicate through Google Classroom even though they have access to a lot of resources whether they be videos or notes or any additional resources they might need to support their their learning so again we want to be dynamic with it we want to make sure our instruction is on point so that students are excited about coming back to school with us every single day and part of creating that excitement at the middle school is um We are continuing to use the same structures and strategies we have in place throughout the district but we've also
050taken the approach um when we looked at our student our school report card we know that both growth and our Target groups were areas specifically at the middle school that we could improve upon so our student services team in coordination with our alted instructor Mr picker they sat down they looked at who was within that Target group at for attendance purposes to start with to say how do we get these kids to school because that was a big question because we know that they're missing out on valuable opportunities to be able to work with their peers and to be able to have that rich classroom experience like all students have each and every day so what they've created is they've created some different attendance circles throughout the year where they're meeting with small groups of
051students to do some goals setting and really figure out what are those root causes what are the barriers that are impacting them that don't allow them to necessarily be at school as often as what they're expected to be so there's been some good success there um knowing that it we're just coming off the winter months we are kicking off next week a March Madness attendance incentive kind of going along with the basketball theme where we will have some individual and some group responsibilities where all of our students are in their home rooms and they're going to see if they can advance to the next level but based upon their overall attendance knowing that medical appointments are going to be Exempted um that is not something we're going to count against any student and then also
052students that are there for 17 out of the 19 days that we're running the challenge they'll be able to be eligible for some raffle prizes so we're trying to do some different things in terms of attendance overall attendance at the middle school has been fairly strong but we have seen a little bit of a dip I think part of that is due to that illness Factor um today in fact we're hovering at 93.9% which pains me to say that we're below that 94% Mark but just a tinge below um so as you can see our overall goal is to make sure we have 95% attendance and then through the use of those attendance circles and that specific goal setting in those small groups making sure that those that have been students that have typically been
053chronically absent we're decreasing that percentage overall and just uh striving to understand the absenteeism thing again it sounded like earlier and I want to make sure I understand it the 95% um the 5% that's absent that does that does or does not include um students that are out with a fever and have you know have been have a note from home that in other words you don't really want them to come to school because they're going to infect other people is that 5% include that or does uh is that uh in the 95% if it's if it's excused with a note from home if it's excused students are allowed those 10 days every year for excused absences and then if there is a a medical situation where they have to be gone from school for
054a longer period of time and they have that documentation from whoever their care provider might be those do not count against their 10 10 excuse not in the 5% corre is that's people that are missing for evidently no good reason so I will leave this at the table if any of you are interested um another resource I brought is last PD it was all about engagement so if you're good with QR codes there's lots of different strategies that our team members are also employing in their classrooms to make sure that every day is worthwhile than you last but not least Mr Yi will talk about our high school in the five areas of core Focus schal key measures of success strategies and the desired results Mr have 15 slides to go through serious can we
055take a break did you bring coffee coffee passing on gun hey passing around is the high school plan on a page action planning template I'm going to take a little bit of a different approach knowing I'm the last person and you guys are all glazed over like donuts so I will uh give a a 30,000 foot view on some Educational Learning and achievement pieces just want to to say give five minutes to come up here and talk about about instruction is like turning a fire hose on you guys and you just had a handful of people do it what I would say is if you ever have questions about instruction come and meet with us so there there's no secrets the principales here are always willing to have people come in but I could throw
056stuff at you for five minutes and it might sink in and it might not you'll probably have a thousand questions so what I would say is when you do have questions or anybody else in the community has questions call us come see us invite us to instructional committee you know but we're always happy to come in and talk about these things to try and give you a full picture of what takes place at a school in five minutes is impossible you know and they've done a great job of setting the table and I'm glad I get to go last because they they touched on most of what we do but I think people sometimes forget that every day at a school is an evaluation process we we are always looking at practices teachers are always
057evaluating their content how they're teaching we're always looking at the results it's a NeverEnding process you know so when we talk about the school report card or an I ready score often times that that could be lagging data where we can't do much about that score could be leading data where we can try and get ahead of it and and put things in place but that is our job we're always doing so to to give strategies you can always give you strategies if you're look in the plan on the page and the action plan we're always looking at those things and and I would like to thank the elementary principles and an at the middle school because they do set the table if you look at all the stuff they do we can see those
058things when they come to the high school and we are a different animal at the high school you know our focus is really College and Career Readiness reading matters all the pieces of literacy matter math matters we're four years away from those kids leav you know public education and we have to get them ready for college or career so it does look a little different at the high school but now I want to speak to the fact that when you look at the high school data oftentimes it's with the the first referral point or the first data point is the school report card while we get that information in October for the previous school year so when we look at how we're impacting those grow scores or those Target group scores that's all leing so
059in the example I have up there and what's in your packet you're going to see some Band-Aids that we put on in the moment you know when we get that score in October was our last year's results so we might look at our practices in that moment and look at those kids in the data points and go hey we know growth was was not where we wanted it to be we're flying the plane in that moment we've already started we're in the middle of units we have instruction PL Staffing is planned coall classes are scheduled so we're putting Band-Aids on things from time to time what you'll see in that packet is really we're always thinking what's next what's in the coming year what big ticket items can we evaluate put processes in place and
060plan for know but when we look at this year's report card were we satisfied absolutely not it's terrible and grow terrible and Target so we put some Band-Aids on we put some tier 2 intervention practices in place we a ton of act and prea teaching sessions but it's really about how we're going to fix those things long term so if you look at what I have on the slide and and really what's in the paperwork in front of you a lot of the work this year is identifying the main problems identifying and taking a hard look at all the data all the instructional practices and we think we found some things whether it's some adjustments to ELA curriculum some special ed practices blessed that Ann and jod are leading a a math vertical team to
061iron out some of the Kinks we have K12 in our math alignment but it's what I would tell you is right now we're really focusing on how we're going to make the big adjustments long term beginning with next year and we might not see those results for a year because we get that school report card and it's a year behind so next year's school report card might see some minimal growth we hope but it'll be the following when we make some of these bigger changes so our core Focus again is identifying the problem you know we're doing an audit of ela our Ela team has been fantastic and looking at some curriculums to potentially adopt we looked at our special education instruction as a whole are we doing the right things for our kids whether
062it's placement writing of IEPs uh co- teing model all of those pieces and like an had mentioned implementing High Leverage instructional practices do we have common practices across our school and that make a difference in the kids that we have in front of us and is it consistent across the board so our goal you know we're going to audit our curriculum we're looking to adopt an Ela curriculum I'll be coming to the instructional meeting I think March 11th maybe it is uh We've started the work of across content literacy plan making sure kids can speak read and write in every discipline so if they're going into the trades can they speak read and write in that field you know if they're going into the medical field can they speak read and write in that profession
063in that discipline so we want to do that across all contents for our kids again we're auditing our special ed practices uh both internally and potentially with the help of an outside source to look at all the things we're doing key measure of success for us the the school report card is a an interesting thing because we're measured on the prea and the act one of the big steps we've taken this year is to actually talk to kids and emphasize the importance of the preac sometimes that's a hard cell to convince a freshman that that's an important test that it helps them in any facet of what we're trying to accomplish so step one is to make sure that we're having those conversations we're providing them with the opportunities to grow in that area and
064making sure we don't undersell the last couple of years we've made a huge emphasis on the ACT and our scores have been above State average of the last three years we' continued de climb act we were kind of like it's there it's a necessary evil it's a test we have to take I have a hard time selling that to kids that it's super important all the time but it is because it shows up on that school report card and we have to answer for it Brian could I interrupt you there and ask you something about that uh am I correct in saying the prea was never designed to be an assessment test but rather to be a practice so that kids could uh learn to do well on the ACT for things like college entrance
065uh our our state is made it an assessment test tell tell me how that uh feel like you're set say something stupid um you're not you're not wrong the so we we've changed from the aspire to the prea and they move to the prea because it models the ACT but it's really not different so you're asking freshman and sophomores to take the ACT exam um it's it's comparable across the state so I can't say it's it's invalid because it does compare us to other schools it's a difficult test it's a test that's meant to make things difficult for kids it's on a bell curve so you know you're going to have a group that do well you're going to have a group in the middle you're going to have a group that are on the
066bottom and our philosophy is to get kids ready for College and Career not to always be really good at that test could we spend more time on getting better at that test th% will we do some of that yes will we change from our philosophy of doing what's best for kids being College in Carew ready absolutely not I don't think anybody in our building or our community or the parents I talk to want us to teach to that test because we still have a a priority to make sure kids are well-rounded critical thinkers when they leave the building we could spend a ton of time getting really good at taking that test and we could change schedules and modify classes to make sure kids are are getting good at that but I don't think that's
067the right thing do we have to get better at math and reading and English th% but those are the only two things measured on that test science isn't social stud isn't foreign language isn't PE isn't so it's it's a really unfair measurement to our English Department and our math department who do really good things when that's the only only piece there and there's so much more to the kids we're sending out whether it's technical education the youth apprenticeship program all the other things we do I don't know if I answered your question but it's it's a fair measurement across they change it and my guess is it'll get changed again at some point but it's really yeah in preparation to take the act as a Jer well even the act that was meant for college
068prep and now we're making everybody take the same test when they may be in a different uh career path and you know the reason I bring that up is because on one reason it's good for us to hear from you guys as to what what's going on is part of our role as the board is to advocate for our district to the legislature and if there is a problem in the test which uh you know we need to do that we you know we advocated last uh uh what was it a couple years ago or year and a half ago about about the uh Revenue limit um needing to go up and low and behold you know other some other districts did and that that happened I'm not saying that that it will but if
069we know these kind of problems that's the good the good thing about you know hearing these reports directly from from you guys that are yeah the front lines of this stuff and we appreciate that I don't think Now's the Time to for me to go on my rant about the act and act and the scho board will sa for day yeah and again it's I don't want to sound like it's not a good measure because it's a it's a consistent comparable across all districts so we're not satisfied with the scores in it and that's why there are there are things we have to get better at within what we're doing at the high school and those are laid out in that paperwork you have again our desired results without taking up too much time here
070we want to increase our our tier two and tier three and for you guys just I know these are you probably know but tier one instruction is just what's being taught in the class tier two is hey a group of kids don't get it they get some specialized instruction tier three is hey we're going to have some more intensive interventions in place for this group of kids who don't understand these skills so tier two and tier three what are we doing for kids who don't grasp the content who aren't good at they're not at grade level reading they're not at grade level math what are we doing for those kids uh improving our test taking skills on the preac we're going to learn to play that game a little better uh and get kids comfortable
071taking that 4-Hour test as a as a freshman in a sophomore and then for the 24 excuse me 25 26 you'll see in there the things we laid out from the the looking at our Ela curriculum the math vertical team work that they're doing into some special ed audits in place I know that's a whole bunch of stuff but there's a lot that goes on in our schools every day any questions you have I just no I just had more a comment because I know a lot of focuses on the school rep record and I feel like there's some kids who are meant to go to Stanford and there's some kids who will do really well in business and pouring cement so I feel like we've really put put a focus on our trades and
072I've had boys go through the umth apprentice and the teched program and I feel like we just do so many things right and it's hard to kind of stomach that sometimes because I feel like yeah but we didn't want to be a harbard right like we are in a community that's putting kids to work and I have two older Boys on that path so it's frustrating I get it but I just wanted to convey that like we're not here to uh yeah you know chew people up and spin them out right like it's it's really custom and tailored and I think you guys do especially in the high school a really good job of that yeah the only thing I'd say is we do want to be a Harvard yeah if you want to go
073to MIT or to Harvard we'll get you there if you want to go be the best you know Tradesman bumber we'll get you there too we and we'll get you anywhere you want to go I guess what I'm saying is some years you don't have that every year right like my daughter's class does really well academically and I feel like a lot are headed four six eight years of college and then there's some it's just hard it's just hard it's hard because we do it really well customizable yeah it is my if you ask our high school teacher some of them sitting here the school report C and I think I was probably a monster still maybe just looking at everything that we because it's when you have meets few expectations I don't care what
074you're doing or not doing that's a there's a red flag sitting there in front so we have to address some of those pieces while keeping the balance out kids are still the most important thing and doing right by them to make sure they have the option to go be a doctor and go to the the school of their choice or to set them up for any trade outside of that I agree with what you're saying 100% John kind of a loaded question but I'm gon to ask it in um you can snap your fingers tomorrow morning and just fix one of your problems what would be the number one problem number one issue with kids in education that you would be able to correct with a snap of your fingers education hasn't changed much 100
07550 years based on policy guidelines we have to follow rules and it's probably not the best interest of kids to be in the system putting kids in a desk for eight hours a day and asking them to do certain things makes no sense but some of the laws we have in place with credit attainment and hours and minutes and testing we didn't have to have tests we if we weren't Bound by preac and act and 500 I ready scores and reading laes and all these things that they tell us we have to do and teachers could teach and be in front of kids and mold them and shape them and that's what we would do and it would look a thousand times different to answer your question thank app thanks so board members this opportunity
076I know it's extended beyond what we anticipated out but the hard work and effort of our admin team and the staff involved that the CER level of support staff and all operations of our district I hope you got a strong sense and feel of what what goes in not just for tonight and sharing and and talking about but it's an everyday process from the ground up uh to support student achievement student growth and our desired results and what we're looking at we should be very proud of the individuals that are dedicated to support us and also knowing that there's opportunities for us to continue to grow and improve upon and we're continually not satisfied with results because it's important that we can continually grow in the direction which we feel is appropriate for our district
077as a whole so hope this has been a great learning opportunity thank you for the staff and our ad team that were present to support this because this just didn't happen this is a lot of work that was put in thought processes to share and communicate effectively with um with the board and our community as a whole so thank you for that opportunity and Just one thought to put out to the board maybe um as as it goes we got like all schools at one meeting and therefore probably couldn't dive as deep as as into that but U uh maybe in the future we should set up a rotating schedule so there's one or two schools at a time um coming into to report the you know the types of things that you did and
078maybe we could maybe it could be Ryan was talking about it's hard to squeeze it into five minutes maybe if we had more time it would be easier to to uh get a better grasp in the future we had it into a rotation over the course of a year um we can hear from every school absolutely any thoughts about that agreed I like I like how Brian laid it out on the plan on the beage and I know the other admins talked about their plan on the beage too would that be like a bird's eye view for us to understand like because this is very detailed I think um Kirk had a lot of data too but every every single person throw a plan on a page and I don't know what that is y
079that plan on a page is an internal document in which building principle and The Guiding Coalition and all staff are engaged in when they look at and set their goals uh for the next academic year and they progress monitors as they move through so it's that living document so actively okay are we ready to move the agenda so um the uh we are ready then for the first reading of the revised uh policies uh these are these are in the 800 series um and we've almost completed the manual since we started this procedure of reviewing all policies at least once every four years and we're we're about at three years there there's a handful more that you'll hear yep coming up and um and then we'll decide whether to start all over again but U
080uh I turn it over to Scott to lead us through these revision okay thank you so again this is the work of our policy committee uh we recently met uh back in February I believe early February February 6 to be exact and looked at the 800s uh within your your score sheet I'll quet there are the recommendations of whether there were changes or updates specifically are we comfortable we're getting pretty good at this far as using a process of just touching base on those highlights and if there is something specific that an individual wants to to bring up and a discussion or send back to the policy committee we can certainly yeah just to do that if there's any policy where there's changes recommended or whether it's not and you want to stop and question
081that policy we get into it sure perfect so I'll look at uh the ones that where we do have some changes that are recommended for cons consideration and the first one is 8221 videotaping Board of Education meetings and that's on page 36 of your of your packet So within that it simply brings forward what we're currently doing this policy was reevaluated on in March of uh 2021 when we started recording all of our or meetings for recording on our YouTube channel it just specifically highlights the process and how and where the stored data of our meetings are recorded accordingly within so knowing that the YouTube platform is our primary destination within that so a question about that when this was first revised I'm assuming that and maybe Joe can answer this question we were storing
082that information on tape or dvd now are we storing it digitally on a server it is on our web page through the YouTube platform so actually if you go to our web page and look at it you can see meetings from quite a while when we started this process that was something we talked about okay um review the policy that even though it says kept for one year they're still on there year okay it's not a question of storage space and you know bunch of videotapes know so okay okay uh the next with an updated uh change was 822 access to public records and that's on page starts on page 38 uh simply as we've talked about other titles within specifically within our director of business services at one time it was called Director of
083Business and Human Resource Services so bringing that dat excuse me that name up to the appropriate title of director business services and that continues to follow through on page 39 in the guidelines accordingly with the recognition of the title change throughout I will note on page 40 uh there was uh number five letter a uh in the request process for copying and locating uh Records that earlier in our policy development we increased the cost of 25 to 25 cents per page from so we align that per page number accordingly as well uh page 46 um 830 uh use of school facilities you would turn to there it just notes that the exhibit one is not continually part of the referenced material accordingly with it on to the guidelines of that in 8:30 uh it notes
084the processes that are basically now in practice all right from that request of uh facility spaces the vast majority of our processes are now online and submitted electronically um as well different not of uh changes to the individual who would be responsible for that and the processes and how it aligns you know from this that online process with here there any specific questions about that and that continues on for page 49 50 and 51 and 52 with the updates to op facility requests okay uh 833 which begins on page uh 56 is tobacco use on school premise so if you look to page 56 updating the current policy on electronic or excuse me tobacco we're recommending a a title change to that policy tobacco electronic vaping we had a discussion as to what that is
085how that plays in you know it can it can look very different from devices so on and so forth settling on that language of electronic vaping VAP being electronic there is a generated heat source that amplifies the substance within um much like a cigaretter is heats up to admit out the processes that you are a person is taking in so updating of that name to add that as well the administrative rule in 831 again same thing adding the electronic vaping throughout the uh guidelines to recognize what that would look like um to bring that policy up to to Accurate measures with that overwhelming with electronic vaping that comes into the language on page 59 if you're to look there on number two uh it references consequences failure to comply students who violate the district's policy
086may be dealt with by the principal his or design in the following manner accordingly throughout all right any further questions on De which is now V policy 832 on weapons begins on page 60 are there no changes recognized within in the guidelines on page 61 there is reference to letter B number three um of the No Child Left Behind Act is federal which no longer exists as often Federal initiatives and expectations and Law changes so the committee felt rather than having a specific um item in there of No Child Left Behind um citing that as by current federal law so that way we can continually refer back to whatever the current law is as it relates to uh weapons and schools and how that applies to the appropriate or inappropriate use of them on school
087grounds questions on that right page page [Music] 63 no changes to that gifts to the school district for that page policy 851 One commercial promotional sponsorship deals no changes within the guidelines and or the policy 852 there was suggested recommendations on that's starts on page 67 and this this is uh what I'll say old language that cites past practices of collective bargaining and how that applied into the expectation of the distribu tion of materials on school grounds we do not actively Collective bargain um as a district so that we just simply removed that and then we did have a side by conversation many boards take on the process of evaluating policies through the years but they never get to the end and if you look at this one it was H 2000 of when it
088was adopted and so us getting through the policies on a on a timely basis that's the intent so items that are before you move from that page I have a kind of a question or com comment um I would make the suggestion the third paragraph okay we remove it because we haven't followed that policy in the past we currently don't follow that policy we may as well remove it that third paragraph board members this is a discussion and that's something I I'd be to send that back to committee on that one we need to be consistent and if we're not going to follow a policy there's really no point of having it so are you saying that there is there are materials being distributed in school mailboxes that doesn't have anything to do with mailboxes
089that's just materials of a commercial or political nature are not allowed in our school so it could be a t-shirt it could be it buttons it could be yeah anything being distributed with in our our buildings and we we don't follow that I don't want to make a big deal about it but if we're not going to follow the policy there's really no point in having it well the the procedure if this board can make changes or you can send it back to committee it doesn't doesn't have to be that now that the committee has reviewed it and brought it to can I would support striking at all yeah and I'll make the motion to straight I'll secondy that okay any other discussion on that um well uh actually we can't do anything right the
090first reading a recommendation for next time I see we send it back I see we s if you make your motion that that be recommended um to go in for a second reading it doesn't change it so I'll I'll in favor of that uh being recommended for a second reading uh please say I I I I those say no okay so that will go into the second reading and we can adopt it I have a question on that at the second reading can we request to go back to committee yeah request it at any okay discussion page 70 no changes to school visitors uh public complaints no changes 703 no changes to any of them within that we did have a discussion on 8813 on just the Wednesday Sunday night activities and public schools and
091and what that means knowing that occasion there are times of what uh there is changes to the um as recognized through building lead leadership and communication with parents of course L within that uh the remainder 882 the school police LS on officer program board members that were part of our organization within the last couple years we spent uh time to address that and bring that forward to the board's discretion of that and the BLS and officer job description that was presented at well again this is always a lot um as we get into this process the committee these policies out asks questions relevant individuals uh to the administration or the guideline usage of the policies are typically present to carry that through we have one that we will potentially recognize with maybe a different will
092come at our um second reading there on that any final thoughts or questions the first reading hearing none uh we'll move the agenda to the review of the director special education and people services employment uh board members much like our our process in which we embarked on about a month ago included for review is the information that I'd like to present of uh the notice of the potential posting that we would look to uh put out tomorrow um just a review again of the job description of what our director people services and education entails to revisit that again for your familiarity um next again as we established with our teaching and learning is are the desired shared values that we're looking for within from experience driven leadership knowledge of state and federal law a collaborative
093approach effective communication Visionary leadership with the bed points that support um the background knowledge of each of them within again feedback was gathered to support where we landed with our shared values and when we get into that interview process these will be the guiding elements that we look at um to help support us and make that best decision uh the third page is the director timeline that we're that I'm recommending for the board to consider uh noting today is the 26th uh we're reviewing the content from materials and information that shared this evening posting tomorrow and then of accordingly uh the opportunity for individuals that are seeking just that the opportunity would be able to submit materials content to the district for review prior to initial interview process um tentatively looking at that April 2nd
094time frame again tentative uh as a date there third fourth background checks reference checks followup inquiries Board of Education candid interview spending time with our board to to review as well and then again potential offer in that April regular meeting were there any uh thoughts questions to the process in which has been shared for our director of people services and special education did you want us to put that April 7th on the calendar then like we did Monday I would say yes tentatively okay I didn't have that done so that's fine if we're if we're able to follow the similar pathway um I I think that there was value added to the process that we just completed for teaching and learning and if we could follow that similar um process that would that would be
095good for all so are you putting five o'clock down again five o'clock would be our attend time yes and again I asked for just a little bit of flexibility there should something change with uh with that process but a placeholder on that date that that is appreciated gu yeah a lot can happen to disrupt that schedule yeah so we'll see what uh where we land any other questions for Scott on that hearing none uh I think we're ready uh to move the agenda to um the last item in the public agenda which is uh to uh solidify our questions for the Schoolboard candidate forum and thank you board members for everybody submitting two questions um to get to the heart of the matter it looks it looks to me like um most questions are unique
096but there's two of them that are two uh categories of questions that are close enough related we may be able to uh combine them into one question so there's 14 things because everybody submitted two but um if I'm reading this right there's three of them on Co what are your opinions on the co shutdown where take it off pardon take it off we're done and over with well no we every every board member was able to submit two so we're not going to tell somebody we're going to cut your question but I'm just saying because it was repeated three times can we consolidate it to one question yes and will you trust Scott to word it the right way so that all three of you that had it will be happy with the result okay
097um so we'll take uh you know the what are your opinions where did you stand and what is your position Etc and ask lock down we'll create one question for that um there's another one um on biological boys and girls Sports and and Title Nine and I think there was at least three or four there's three on that um and um can we combine that into one question regarding uh yeah the Title Nine uh changes and bio boys and girls Sports okay so Scott are you comfortable with that you and me work that question out we can the if they're similar in nature we can frame something that uh represents both that U any others Chris I don't see any others that are duplicated okay so it leaves one two three four um five six
098seven eight looks like uh it looks like there's only eight questions left and it seems like in the past uh it looks like there's only eight questions left and it seems like in the past round nine or 10 is where we at and we talked about last time then allowing the um audience participation to submit questions in writing um on on cards and our our neutral moderator if he can have a a neutral helper pick the the most popular uh two or three to have U additional questions and then um that would make about um 12 questions and that that would be a pretty full for so are we gonna add the new questions to the existing questions pool that's my understanding of what we were doing we not coming up with a whole new
099list of question I think what we decided to do is take these questions make sure every board member got their questions and then um we'll leave it up to the moderator and his assistant to um to take um the questions that come from the audience and take um I would suggest three the three from there that way um they can look at what are the most popular questions that haven't already been been asked but but that's not my question my question is is that we've got the existing set of questions that we've been using and this exercise was to add to that pool no was to was to eliminate that pool and do this instead is what my understanding was I did not get that understanding at all okay no this was going to be
100if that was the case then I would not have would be time for all of that if that was the case then I would not have suggested we only do two per person um and it's not that all these questions are going to be asked it's it's that all those are the available question questions for the moderator to to uh I think what what we wanted to do correct me if I'm wrong board we wanted every board member to have U questions that were definitely asked at the at the at the field and then we wanted audience participation but did I miss something here in what we talk that sums it up so typ typically um from the past few years when we've done this we start at 6 and if we go to 7:30
101with intros and the time allotted within that framework it's been eight or nine questions that that the group gets through all right and in the past the cidate formed questions on the back uh attorney Thompson he selected which ones were there for the members to respond to so if it truly is the entertaining the handwritten ones or questions of that evening and if it is the questions the board put forward you're this becomes you're not gonna get here Danny in the back my question is there anything on this second page these are these are all your questions are very