NFDL School Board Meeting 9/22/25

001Hello. >> Good evening, Oral Nation. Welcome. >> Hey, everybody. >> All right. >> Good. >> All good. Yeah, >> you're going to be so Okay. >> Yep. All good. >> All right, we are back from close session. Um, our next item is board mission statements and agreements. >> Cool. I'm up right. Thanks. I I'm sleeping here. >> Our board our board mission is we will develop policy that rep representative of our community. Uh, set goals and lead our district by collaborating. And the beliefs are three. Stand up and own it. Courage to grow and we are one. And simply the idea of standing up and own is like how do we have the individual mindset to do the best and be the best we can for ourselves but also help other people along the way

002which then bleeds into we are one and this concept of we need each other to really make this all work. And then finally how do we continue to just embrace learning and understand that every day is a new day and willingness to embrace the discomfort and really learn from what we're doing and get stronger together. >> Awesome. >> All right. Thank you. Um, next item on the agenda is consent agenda. Um, we only have two items on the consent agenda. The first one is our minutes uh from the August 25th, 2025 regular board meeting. Um, and then second item is the treasures report. Both of those found in our board packet. So, look for a motion to approve consent agenda. So, moved. Second. Rick, when you're ready. All right. Humper, >> yes. >> H, >>

003yes. >> Uh, German, >> yes. >> Gings, >> yes. >> Matthew, yes. >> Okay. Um, next item is board members share a moment of pride. So, just got to share any cool opportunities you got to see over the last month since the meeting. If anyone start Yeah. >> Yeah. I had the opportunity to meet with Dwayne of his school last week. Um, I think he's doing an awesome job. just a shout out to him and his team over there for really kind of turning things around with the staff and with students and um my space has really been at the elementary level with my kids. So getting to see the high school and walk around and meet some of the teachers and just talk with him about things that are going on, challenges, concerns, and

004great things that are happening in the that school um was really fun and really a cool opportunity for me. So kudos to him for all he's got going on. >> Awesome. Well, as long as you mentioned Dwayne, this goes back to August, but I did hear secondhand through at the oral open somebody who said they talked to one of our staff members who said Dwayne was the best principal they had ever worked for by far and had been at a couple different districts. So, so that follows up here. >> It's pretty clear when you walk around the the building with them and just like the rapport he does with the students and with the teachers. It's it's cool to see. So, >> y and and that was a veteran teacher. So, that's good to hear.

005I had pretty much a quiet month. I've been to the three football home football games and um and I checked out volleyball last week and enjoyed seeing the kids and the spirit they have. Um you know, a lot of times we don't have a lot of success, but when things happen that excite them, they get really excited and that's good to see. They're not just moping around or giving up and quitting. Yeah. Well, I was able to take in a seventh and then the eighth grade football game last week at Campbell Sport. Not a lot of success, but we did uh scored two touchdowns in the uh eighth grade game and that was good. And then I also attended an open mat uh in the wrestling room last night and I'm feeling it today. So,

006But it was good. There's maybe a dozen students up uh you know, of course kind of self uh uh monitoring themsel or whatever because they're not getting instruction, but uh you know, some of the veterans were helping others and it was it was good to see. >> Awesome. And I've been able to go to the seventh and eighth grade games, football games as well. And there, like Jacob said, the results aren't necessarily there, but the attitude is there. And that those kids are really trying. Spent a lot of time with the cross country team. And as usual, Coach Drews has a has a great morale built up on that team. The boys and the girls, they support each other. It's amazing. And this last weekend they ran at the Hill Topper Invitational which is over

007at St. Lawrence Seminary. Probably the toughest course they run cuz like in the out of the three miles the last 3/4 of a mile there's a huge hill that they have to go up and it just kills them. And uh so the the cool part about it for me was they had the the high school races or meets and then they had a fun run after that. So anybody who wanted to run the varsity three mile course could run it. I don't know why you would call that fun. >> Who's a football and hockey player and not by any stretches he a runner, but he decided he would try to run and he got halfway up that hill >> and coach Drews and three of the varsity members met him, ran him all the way

008to the finish line, >> which is just kind of attitude that she builds was pretty cool. >> That's awesome. Yeah. Uh, so one thing that I had down was just the Optimus Club. I know I think it was this week they did the punt pass and kick competition and just how involved they are and supportive of the school district I think is is cool to see. And then um I get an opportunity I know you got to walk with Dwayne. I get to walk with Jillian on Friday. So I'm super excited and uh just appreciative of her opening the doors to allow me to come in. So you tomorrow. >> Awesome. All right, next item is Horseman High School student council is all the floor is yours. >> Lady, you want to introduce yourself for

009everybody? And I know we did this a little bit last year, but just uh share a little bit about yourself and then get into your work in student council. >> So, I'm a senior at Carson High School. Um I'm student council president. Um, I'm also secretary for our class. I'm in K Club, NHS, and S. >> Nice. >> Busy, busy. >> Okay. So, for student council, um, for homecoming, we it will be held on Friday, October 11th with the theme of set the sky on fire. The dress up days for the week will be movie Monday, Toga Tuesday, class colors on Wednesday, Adam Center day on Thursday, and Oral Pride on Friday. Student council is also working on creating shirts for members to wear during meeting days. The homecoming parade is scheduled for Thursday, October

01010th at 5:00 p.m. And student council will be participating participating. In addition, student council will take part in trunk retreat on Sunday, October 20th. Key Club's first meeting will be on the 25th of the month. NHS held its kickoff meeting on September 17th. During the meeting, officers were introduced and members reviewed their responsibilities and expectations for the school year. In addition, seniors are mentoring juniors as they begin their first flagship learning reading project s the first kickoff meeting for SRE club was held on Friday the 5th. The club has a field trip scheduled for October 15th in recognition of Hispanic Heritage Month which will include a visit to W Milwaukee. On October 8th, SE will held a fundraiser by selling walking tacos. Members will also participate in the homecoming parade and for trunk retreat the

011club will will be represented by two groups. In addition, many students have joined SRE and are mentoring students at both FLC and ELC. Student accomplishments. Last Saturday, our cross country team competed in the St. Lawrence Hill Topper Invitational against some very tough competition and came home with excellent results. The boys varsity team placed fourth overall with standout performances from Logan Putty who finished in seventh place and Case Scrafgo who secured 10th place. Both earned top 10 medals, an outstanding accomplishment on such a challenging course. EB Winger also earned a medal with her strong 14th place finish. Engineer varsity action. Landon Kemick made his cross country debut and plays 15 an impressive first showing and that is it. Any questions for >> busy? Can you tell me what Adam Sandler day is? That's what I want

012to know. >> We just Adam Sandler. I think it's I don't really know him as much, but that's what the students picked as a theme. Um there's many outfits from him that um students will be choosing. So just like I think it's like a a plano Mhm. >> And the oversized fake t-shirt. So, >> I think it's a popular day. I think I'm hearing that more and more throughout the state in terms of people choosing that. >> I think that's our October board dress code. >> Gilmore. >> Thank you so much. >> All right. Next item is our clerk's report. So Rick, when you have a moment, >> uh, so for backpack buddies, Wayne and Janet Shane gave $50 like they always generous. And then Forest Man High School received $8,000 from adoptroom.org. Not sure

013what that is, but that's a huge loan. >> Yeah, I can tell you a little more. uh basically nonprofit. They have they're looking it's basically uh a company building classrooms throughout the you know country and they have to give money back to nonprofits and so they get to choose every so often to donate to certain schools and they happen to think about North Fondac and get $8,000 which is super nice from those those folks uh within adopted classroom. So, another I I think Dwayne uh called me. He goes, "There's people want to give us money." And I'm like, "Okay, great. How much?" He's like, "8,000." Okay, that's perfect. Good. But yes, we're grateful that, you know, people are looking and and checking out for us. So, >> very cool. >> All right. Um, next item

014on the agenda is citizens comments. This is opportunity for citizens to provide any comments to the board. So, I'll pause to see anyone has any comments. All right. None none here today. So we will move on. Uh next item is superintendent report. >> Thanks Sean. Uh we are really privileged to have a group from FLC here today learning center uh to talk about uh a little bit about what's going on in the learning academics area that last year um and the years prior we were trying to figure out like how can we get under the hood of some of the data that we've been talking about in here that our principles kept forward. Uh, so this is an opportunity for us to showcase, but also learn a little bit more about what's happening in your

015world. So, I'm gonna turn it over to Lauren. I'm gonna get your uh Canva up here and we'll go from there. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. I always got to remember like which one >> present. Maybe that. No. Yeah. Scroll. Oh, to the right. Present. It's the far. No. Keep going down under copy link. >> Okay. Got it. Thank you. >> And then full screen. >> All right. There we go. And we're done. >> Perfect. All right. Well, thanks for having us. Uh it's kind of crazy as I was putting this together thinking about all of the work that we have done just leading up to today. So it's been 17 days which is crazy because it feels like we've lived a whole school year life between the first day of school and where we

016are now. I wanted to just kind of give a little bit of the background and just tell the story I guess of the last 17 days so you guys understand uh just kind of again where we started and and where we are now on day 18 tomorrow. So starting all the way back to when we were really thinking about creating a testing schedule uh for our students. Obviously a big piece of that testing schedule is the state mandates within Act 20. When I came this summer to talk to you all about our kindergarten softar, we were definitely thinking about our youngest population and what that looks like for those little kids to have to do some of those assessments so early on in the school year. So with that soft start, we had small groups

017of kindergarten kids come the first three days of school. It went wonderfully. those teachers were able to get to know those kids as obviously individuals but also accomplish some of that testing that needed to get done in a much more manageable way. So just the the start of creating like the assessment schedule was a huge um undertaking and I know Cara with input from from others as well uh developed a really I think just cognizant schedule in terms of like what's best for students and what's best for teachers. So after we got done with all the testing then we launched into I ready and did you have a chance to share with them a little bit >> a little pre but we will do that after this. So >> I will yeah try not to

018go too much in the weeds on that but we our first PD day we had a presenter from Ready come and basically walk us through now that you have all of this data on your students what are you going to do with it? How do you interpret it? How do you really analyze and read the reports so that we can move our instruction forward? All of this obviously tying to the KPI of learning and academics. We want our students to achieve obviously reading, math, science, social studies, but we're really focused this year um on literacy. So that'll be like a bulk of what we talk about here today. Next slide, please. So, similar to last year, we talked a little bit about those personalized reading plans that is a part of act 20 and we

019used next path which we also talked a little bit about last year. We used next path to create those personalized reading plans. So we took our data from Ames web which that's that statewide screener I ready which is our new diagnostic tool and then teacher observations and created 132 personalized reading plans. We do have to just I guess say that that number is a lot lower than last year and a big reason is because they adjusted the norms. So where it would be really awesome to say like we cut that number in half. Uh the norms are really what what play into that. So, we definitely have less plans this year because some of those norms have shifted, but are feeling really good about the plans that we put into place now and moving forward.

020So, after those plans were created, our teachers are now going to basically carry out those plans and what that instruction looks like during win time, which is what I need time. Aaron and Pam will talk about that specifically in a little bit and they'll share kind of the ins and outs of of what that looks like, but there's just some really great exciting work happening um within that space. I just wanted to add too that we um created reading personal reading plans for the students in K3, but any students that were on that bubble. So, we know that the norms were the norms uh have lowered the number. Any student who maybe didn't necessarily need a personal reading plan, but we wanted to keep track of also got a reading plan. And our fourth and

021fifth grade students have reading plans, not personal reading plans. So, all students in the school who are in a tier 2 intervention have a reading plan, not necessarily just the peer piece. I think what's so exciting this year because a lot of this is the same work that we were doing last year but it's also so different. What makes that different a big piece of that is I ready which you'll see here in a little bit. Last year we did not have a diagnostic tool or an assessment tool that really pinpointed what we needed to do as educators and where we needed to look in terms of like that starting point and closing gaps. So that's a huge difference this year compared to last year. I would say having Carara's guidance, Jen Towel's guidance, True

022Literacy Experts like in the room when we're talking about what we need to do for kids. That's also been a huge I guess shift from last year. So, it's a lot of the same work as last year, but it's just a lot better. Next slide. So, that kind of leads us to uh what we are establishing for our SLO this year for Friendship Learning Center. So there's going to be two different graphs that you'll see here. I will be completely vulnerable and just um owned that like I Ready is new for all of us, building principles included. So really wanting to make sure that we have a solid understanding of what these numbers mean. So we have just done a lot of digging. We've had a lot of conversations. We've consulted with some outside uh

023people as well to just make sure that we're looking at the right thing. So the graph that you'll see here is what's considered like the standard view for I Ready. Uh this view shows students progress towards grade level standards over the entire school year. And this is relative to like the full year's curriculum. So it's a snapshot of where kids are at right now. And in the fall, I would say it's normal to see, you know, many students in the yellow because they haven't necessarily learned this year's material yet. So these numbers will obviously grow and change as we move throughout the year. Yep. Um winter to spring. So the numbers over in that fall column, this is the percent of students who are already proficient or like at grade level. So for example, kindergarten

02411% 11% of our kindergarten students are already showing like proficiency or mastery with kindergarten grade level standards. So that's what those percentage points uh on this uh graph indicate. The yellow is one grade level below and then the red would indicate two or more. We wanted okay we wanted to really get uh laserike and specific with what we were identifying. What's really neat about I Ready is it not only will provide all of us with a typical growth goal, but it will also give us something called a stretch goal. And I'm just going to pass this out um to each of you so you can see an example of what our parents will see and what our teachers see in terms of that students um data. So you'll see on this like snapshot or this

025diagnostic result that students are given both a regular goal or a typical growth goal and then a stretch goal. So when we look at the different breakdowns of data within I Ready, I Ready will give us what they're saying is a typical growth goal and then they'll give us a stretch goal uh for grades three four five. So that's that chart um on the upper kind of lefthand corner. That's important because we wanted to make sure that we weren't just pulling a number out of anywhere when we talked about like what were we going to set as that percentage for our students. So for example, 48% would be that typical growth goal and 60% would be the stretch. Saying that right? Okay. >> So then uh what we did from there, Cara and I really

026looked at the different domains. So the different areas. So, for example, you can see here on this child's report, uh, this is a third grader and there's multiple different areas that they were assessed on. So, phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary, etc. We looked at our numbers in K2 and noticed that phonics was one of the lower areas for our kindergarten through 2 grade students. So, that's the area that we really want to pinpoint this year with our students in grades K through two. in grades three, four, and five, one of the lower domains was comprehension withformational text. So, that's kind of our focus area for grades um three, four, and five as we look forward uh to the next to the next school year. Anything you want to jump in on? >> Um just that parents

027uh had the uh uh the Ames web data sent home. This is going to be shared at conferences because we know I ready is a new tool and we want to be able to explain it to parents and have that in front of them um instead of just sending it home. So conferences when they come up there they'll be like this at conferences and you might be thinking why 60% with K12 and why 55% and 345. Uh we really wanted to there's a sense of urgency with K12 in terms of phonics. we really need to have that solidified uh before we move on to the comprehension pieces in grades 3, four, and five. It's a little bit harder to say that we can solely focus on comprehension because we're still closing some of those gaps

028within phonics. So, that's why we put that uh percentile just a little bit lower for students in 345, but also trying to remain within what is considered typical growth and then that stretch growth. like we want more than typical which is why we shot a little bit higher in both areas and that typical growth is 100% from wherever students test in the fall and it'll keep going back to that typical growth. So mid year when they're tested it'll go back to that baseline and then end of year it'll go back to that baseline. Um so we're just looking for 100% growth in the year. We're looking for more obviously if we want to close gaps. Um, >> why is there like the spike in third grade on both those? Like what's the >> why third

029grade? >> Cuz that one was 37. I think the other one was higher, too. >> 49. >> Yeah. We have a lot more students in the green um in third grade. Maybe grade seven grade teachers. >> Well, that's I didn't What's the >> Yeah, >> I don't I mean I wasn't here. I don't I don't have a solid answer for that. I mean, I think we are starting to see >> within each of our grade levels that like that area of green does grow the longer that we have them, >> but also not always in all cases either. >> I think also too, we got to see a couple years of this data with an I ratty, right, to say like is that going to see are we going to see the same thing next

030year in that same grade or is that the third graders going from third to fourth and you see a higher bubble at fourth grade. So, >> and I will say districts who've used it already, they they're they track those grades. So there are grades that are just generally higher too. But I mean Erin is there you you taught these kids last year like do you have anything to >> I mean I from the beginning of the school year last year to the end I saw significant growth in my students and I don't know if that has to do with CKLA being new. >> I don't I don't know what it was really but from beginning to end of year it was >> pretty tremendous growth. I I guess I don't know the reason. Well, and

031I didn't know like if we did something fundamentally different two years ago when they were first graders and it's just starting to, >> you know what I mean? Like and that'll just keep pushing forward with that group and you'll see the rest come behind as well. I don't I'm just >> I know like in the curriculum that we had before CCLA it was lacking like in funological awareness like we didn't have a lot of that with Lucy which is what we were using before and um Cala is hitting that pretty hard now. So maybe that's >> the foundational skills. >> Yeah. So the percentages that you see there are different from the ones on the first slide because those are the percentages within phonics and then within that comprehension offormational text. So that's what the

032SLO will be kind of centered around is really moving those numbers forward in those areas. >> Okay. Next. >> Uh so universal tenants. So, as a district leadership team, we felt uh that it was important to kind of clearly define what those instructional strategies and practices were. So, when we walk into our classrooms or when we're having conversations with teachers around educator effectiveness and setting up those evaluations for the year, we wanted to make sure that we had consistent language as building principles. We wanted to make sure that we were all sort of looking for the same thing and that also our teachers uh knew what some of those things were and how they kind of move throughout that rubric. So that'll be tied, I'm sure, to some, you know, discussions that we have later

033on and other principles will probably touch on this too. But as as building leaders, we were we got together this summer, we worked on this rubric and then we've selected uh for our building one focus area to really double down on. And so one of the things that we decided uh this year would be opportunities to respond. So how are students demonstrating what they're learning or what is that evidence of learning? And then that also ties to engagement. And a lot of times last year teachers would say sometimes CKLA seems so heavy in the teacher talk and we're talking at kids a lot. So we really want to make sure that we're intentional with getting our students engaged in the learning and being able to demonstrate what it is that they're that they're learning or

034doing within a given class period. >> Can you give an example of like an opportunity response just so they understand what that would look like if they came into a classroom and and saw that? >> Yeah. So instead of uh Mrs. Luther asking a question and having like a couple kids raise their hand, she might say, "Turn and tell your neighbor." Or um if all of his students have whiteboards, they might write down their answer and show it. So everyone in that moment is accountable to what it is the teacher is is asking of them. This example, uh you'll see this a lot in both math and ELA at the elementary. Our teachers are really great about getting those little bodies up and moving and going to vertical spaces or boards and telling kids to

035write out their answers or write out their thinking visibly um on these spaces. And then there's also, you know, just neat collaboration that takes place uh when we're doing that as well. you know, in fourth grade, um, during writing, of course, anytime you ask a kid, you're going to write a memory about something that happened to you, and they have no idea. So asking them to get up to the vertical work surface, work in groups of three and just like write down an idea on the board on the glass, change, switch, switch, and then um you give them like maybe a couple minutes. Then they rotate and they can see what this group had, add their ideas down, rotate, and then all of a sudden now there's like six walls of different ideas for kids

036to capture. And that momentary panic of I don't know what to write about >> suddenly goes away. And then they can also share out. And so that's that's been helpful in getting kids up to during CKLA. >> With the littles, like you tell them, you're going to write on the window or you're going to write on the door. What? So like the ones that you don't really hear a lot of feedback from, like when you're whole group, you don't hear a lot from them. All of a sudden they're told they can write on the doors and the windows. They're I'll I'll take the marker. I'll write something. So I mean it gets everybody involved. >> Nice. This framework is directly tied to to the goals that we'll be like setting with teachers when we walk

037through that evaluation system and it's just it's nice as building principles to have that common language too and to all be working towards the same thing. >> Right. And that also fluctuates like as I said before it aligns back to year effectiveness. There's standards in there three and four which is about instructional delivery and then also assessment. all those tenants align directly. And even if you notice like it's really hard to see right here, but under each of those criterions, there is like the breakdown of what standards are actually being had or or hit or align to. So it flows together really well. Good to go next. All right, let's do it. >> So after we've uh selected our SLO, we have to determine what we're going to do to support that. Like what are

038we going to put our eggs into? Uh and these are the things that we decided would help move those markers on our um SLO um pieces. So for K2, uh within the tier one instruction and within tier 2 interventions, we're going to focus on word cheating and blending segmenting routines. In 35, do you want to know what a word cheating or like? Uh, so word cheating is taking a word like cat and then saying change cat to bad or change the first part, change the c to b, what word did you make? Change that to change the t to n, what word did you make? So they're either writing it or they're saying it depending on the focus of it. And then blending and segmenting. You'll see this even in kindergarten starting next in the

039next unit, they're going to use their fingers to blend out uh or to segment a word and blend it back together. So like at cat. Um so they're using their fingers. Do you see how I'm mirroring it too? Have you been doing it the right way? It's hard as a teacher to mirror it the right way, you know. But um so that's those uh what Erin was saying with those funological pieces. The hearing um goes with the seeing and the and the speaking. So we have to make sure that kids can hear what the sounds are. And that's that phological piece that CLA really hits on. Um, and if they're not, then that's what we're incorporating into our interventions to support those kids early on so we can close those gaps right away. So then

040in 35, um, remember we're focusing on comprehension. So planned and purposeful interactive readalouds, um, and those are going to be with explicit vocabulary instruction. So, we know that our um when we have heavyformational texts, we have to show kids how they can read those texts and what they're looking for and how to decipher the root part of words and the prefixes and suffixes. So, um putting a little more emphasis on being planned and purposeful with our readaloud pieces in CLA. Um and then having the evidence of learning throughout lessons will help us guide our tier two and instruction too. One piece that I feel like I have been a huge um driving force in is just going back to that RTI process. So I Ready does a really great job of showing us our triangle

041and seeing what students we need to service and what students uh we can hit in tier 2 and tier three. So Lauren and I um are really just trying to uh write the ship, you know, having the triangle the right way. And one of the ways we're doing that is through um this datadriven collaborations. Uh and that's happening in academic team meetings. Uh it's happening in CT meetings on Wednesdays and then in our grade level team meetings are meeting every other week. Um we're going to be kind of looking at what can we do to support all students within the tiers and coming back to that too. So it's not just setting up our groups but okay now what do we do with the progress monitoring pieces of it? What are we noticing kids are

042doing or not doing? How can we change our instruction to support that? >> All right, let me uh go from here. Fourth grade, we're ready to go. >> Second. It's thinking. It's thinking. >> Yeah, it's it caught something from my clever touch. >> I'm not lying. >> Okay. >> All right. So, winning the fourth grade team, how we're handling our win time. That's the fourth grade team there. You can just go ahead and click click. Why don't you click one more time? One more time. Let's do it. Some of this is a repeat of what um Lauren covered and um Cara covered. But why the why behind the wind time is to make sure that all students can succeed and give purpose to all the data that we've collected. What is wind time? It's data

043driven instruction and it's specific to um students instructional needs. So um this year fourth grade team and all the teams we focused primarily on using the data from I Ready um and then we came together as a fourth grade team but then we also worked with the reading team ML and um special ed to figure out how we can work together collaborate and share um our students and um our resources to work with as many students possible. So um we took the we looked at the diagnostic results from I ready on the left hand side is um reading on the right hand side the smaller little um image is from math. So first we focused on those students who performed lower in phonics and we set up groups specifically um for those students to focus

044on phonics. Um so there's two teachers that are using um you fly to provide um um instruction in phonics and then um >> can you tell us what you fly is just briefly like what from what you know >> yeah so you know it says curriculum developed by University of Florida um it's a super all it is is a manual all the other pieces are your own as a teacher and it's a really um vetted way for us to close gaps using phenemic awareness, phonics, those blending and segmenting routines, word chaining, uh those like high frequency words that kids need explicit instruction around. So, it starts at there's an assessment that they give to to the students on where they should start the lessons and then they just continue going from there and doing quick

045checks to check to make sure they're making um growth on that, too. So, it's a really really vetted uh phonx filler intervention as in like a bucket. When the phonics bucket is empty, we're using that to fill Thank you. >> Or at least put some dirt. >> There's a little home connection piece at the end of it, too, that you can send home with them to reinforce like what did what did your child learn today? There's a short little reader that goes with the lesson that they can connect with at home, too. >> Thank you. So, we start with the foundational piece in reading and then um moved on to those kids who were two or two or more years behind in um reading comprehension. And then on the right hand side um again looking

046at that numbers and operations base 10 kind of like the foundational skills in in math and set up group from there on the next one. >> So can I just two seconds like these are I'm just going to check with everybody. This is two years behind three more than three years behind. >> Okay. >> This is at least two right two years. >> This is one year behind. And then >> I'm going to clarify that green. So they um when they take the I Ready Diagnostic it starts with vocabulary and if their score is um high enough then that surpass level means that they were not assessed on the high frequency words. So it might be something like if you see some of those students who are testing in the red. We have other diagnostics

047where we can assess them. It's a like a paper a paper diagnostic, but it just says like those um we use dibbles to to see um what their phonics assessment is is when the I Ready skips it essentially. So the surpass does not mean that it was assessed, >> but you can see any student based upon the results based on on those colors too which are coming through. So >> you can dig down a little deeper on the student level as well. So this just shows like how we collaborated all the pieces of the pie working together to create our groups. So for fourth grade we have two 20-minute rounds that um we pull different groups. So we again there's um the multilingual team that's working with students. Um our reading special polls at a

048different time. Um, another member of the reading team is working with groups and, uh, Tammy Raidman, who's also a fourth grade teacher, she is pulling math groups. So, we have a a mix of reading and math in fourth grade. I think there's one more. >> Okay. >> All right. So, this is an example of our crazy um, schedule of students that are being pulled. So, you can see the key up there on top, the teacher, and then um, the different groups. So, and see Mrs. Krider, her focus is phonics. Mrs. Winsel, so on and so forth. Um, myself comp um Morgan Dyke, fourth grade, comp and vocab. Tammy's math. Morgan Fley is ML. Then Margaret Logan is the tier three. And then Renee is part of the reading team. she's focusing um on those students

049who are say one year behind middle level in theformational text and vocabulary. So that's her primary focus because we could see when we were looking at the results from higher ready that there was a significant number of students fourth graders that didn't perform as well informational text. They might have been at fourth grade ready in comprehension, but they might have been second grade performing in second grade informational text. So, we were looking at those students, too. So, there's that first block of um groups and then in the second block, um teachers are pulling groups within their class. So, um that's going to vary. They might be focusing on uh fluency and comprehension, um math, um and then they might be taking one day to take the time to look within I Ready to see which

050students aren't meeting um their instructional um the online instructional lessons where they're they're like missing two lessons and then they're going to close off from that domain. So, taking that time to sit down with that student and figure out what's going on here, how can we move forward and um set some goals and what does that all look like right now? It's all new. But >> so can I ask a silly question when >> So this is describing kind of the schedule of >> how you're doing this. But what is this that we're doing? Is this the testing or the instruction? >> Oh, sorry. The small group instruction. >> Okay. >> So interventions, tier 2 intervention, tier three intervention. >> Got it. So you're actually taking a small group and working with them kind of

051>> small plate. >> Y >> very targeted. >> Oh, I love >> No, I probably I just missed it. So >> So this is outside of like your core instructional stuff, too. So this is outside of >> and the reason the schedule's important is because it's like tough to fit in with the day, right? Like we have other stuff and so it gets complicated and that's what this is describing. >> Yes. So I have a question kind of along the point that you were just making. So when they're doing this time, >> what are the other kids that aren't in when doing? And then are they missing out on other things? You know what I mean? Like what's the two papers? One is that all of these students are being progress monitored weekly to make

052sure that their intervention is effective and helping them move that marker towards proficiency. So that's happening every single week and all of that data gets pulled over into Next Path. So it's an easy one-stop shop for teachers when they go to look at um at their student. They can see where the trend line's moving, if it's moving towards grade level, if it's not, what do we need to do to fix this? Um so that's happening. And then what Pam said about the I Ready paths is so important because we are not just sticking children on a video game on the computer. This is a personalized instruction pathway where it's starting them where their diagnostics said that they're lacking and it's trying to close that gap. We as teachers are are monitoring that and we're providing

053um like face to face small group instruction to help support that too. So um I just wanted to add those TVs. Great. Yeah. And then also um in addition we the fourth grade team we did also try to look at okay if this kiddo is like performing at a first grade level in phonics and maybe comprehensions at one or two is there also an opportunity for us to say double dip where they're getting in that first chunk they're getting that intervention in phonics in a small group but then that classroom teacher in that second part is able to weave them into a comprehension group, too, because they have a bigger stretch growth than maybe a kid who's already at third grade level. >> So, we we looked at that as well. >> Okay, I'm just

054do my best here with Okay, we got this. Yeah, >> let's go. Okay. So, I kind of focus mine more on like what's going on inside of my classroom and all of the other second grade teachers are also following the same model, but um this is just little sneak peek. So, this is one of my small groups at my tables. Um we are doing UFly. Um this is they're they're working on like letter recognition, letter sounds, um even handwriting. Um, so this is just a little sneak peek of just a picture. That's all I have. >> They look very engaged. So her. Yeah. >> Um, and then I just kind of have a couple of interventions that I'm using in my classrooms as well as some of the other second grade teachers. We talked about

055UFly. Um, I have some kiddos in my room that do not have a personal reading plan and they um tested proficient in their all of the categories for phonics. So I but they were also testing at grade one so they were about a year behind. So I didn't want to just say hey great you're not you don't need UFly. We're doing guided reading groups as well um because I looked at the different strands of things that they are kind of missing and it was a lot of nonfiction comprehension. So those are some things that we're working on in some of our guided reading groups. And then >> I'm sorry for interrupting. Can you tell us a little bit about what does a guided reading look like? So we actually a couple gosh not a couple

056years ago five years ago we purchased um some leveled books from Fountain and Panel and inside they have beautiful books that are very appealing to the kids. They really like them. Um inside of the book bag, so there's six books in there. Inside of the book bag is a little folder for the teacher that walks them through the whole lesson. Um, you focus on writing, um, reading, comprehension, um, high frequency words, um, am I missing word or missing? Word work is inside of there. So really the guided reading groups still hit everything. Um, but when I use the guided reading, I focus more with the groups that I have right now focus more on the comprehension, the the writing piece of it. Um, so it's just uh I don't know that I want to say

057like a higher level like it's there's just more involved with these guiding guided reading books. Um, just higher level thinking questions. Um, and then I use Heerty. Heerty is kind of like UFly in a sense. Um, just the blending and the segmenting again and hearing all of the sounds and and being able to put all of the sounds together to make words. That only takes a couple of minutes. So I'll do that right before with one group. I'll start with Heerty. It'll take a couple minutes. Then I'll move into UFly with that same group. So just kind of using two um >> resources for instruction. And then one thing that I just kind of thought of when we had our trainer come at the beginning of the year, I was like, well, what about the

058kiddos that are exceeding ex like they're they're beyond proficient? they're maybe thinking at third grade levels like I don't want to just say hey I'm going to meet with all of these kids every day of the week but I'm not going to get to see you very often like they still want to see their teacher they still want to do that you know so I kind of have been thinking about an enrichment group um we have our encore teachers that have a schedule they move around the building on their um what are they off day >> they're open encore day so I thought that I have. I don't have it in the works yet, but um I want them to do like higher level book clubs with those kiddos or Scrabble or Zingo or Rackco,

059something to like, you know, just higher level thinking um because they deserve, you know, something a little extra too. Um, so Carol already said this earlier. The interventions that we are doing inside the classroom are adjusted to student need based on the progress monitoring scores that we are doing weekly and the I Ready student scores. Um, this is just a picture of my schedule that I have in my classroom. So I have my two UFY groups. Those are my kiddos that I hit hard uh a little more frequently than others because those are the ones that have a larger gap to try to close up. Um some of the kiddos in there are also in tier three instruction with Mrs. Logan. So I have it timed out on my schedule. So when they come back

060from tier three, they still get to sit down with me and do tier 2 just so they get a lot of extra. Um, so I meet with them Monday, Tuesday, Thursday for 20 minutes each group. And then Wednesdays are the days that those UFly groups on the top are progress monitored with Mrs. Long. So while Mrs. Long is working with This is really confusing. It all makes sense in my brain. >> So on Wednesdays when those kiddos on on top are being progress monitored with Mrs. Long. She's the one that's doing all of our testing for us because we don't want to waste time just testing, testing, testing. We want to give them instruction. So, on Wednesdays is when I have my um three guided reading groups and then I have my GT kiddos and

061then I have one little friend that I mean I have more than one little friend, but he's my friend that I could help with in math. So, those that's kind of where my Fridays are thinking right now. Um, but that's just an example of my daily schedule in a week just in that 40 minute block. Yeah, it makes sense up here. It does. >> And and I think you say it so well, 40 minutes. Yes. >> And you've got a full day too. So like that's impressive >> the systems you all are building. So >> um so to answer your question, what are the others doing during the tier 2 reading group time? So this is just a little picture. My kids like the lights off when they're on. Um, but they go on Pathways

062and Pathways is tailored to all of their specific learning needs. Um, two days a week they are doing math and then the other two days a week they are doing reading. They are not on their computers for the full 40 minutes. Um, 20 minutes each day. um 20 minutes of math and then after the 20 minutes they have uh choices they can read from their book bins because I feel like that's one thing that is kind of missing in our day like they before we had Cala it was get a book bin you get to go shopping in our classroom library pick out all the things that interest you missing that piece in our you know tier one instruction so they get really excited when I say you can get your book mint so they

063read for enjoyment during that time um they can read library books books from our classroom. Um, they can have book clubs with one another in the classroom. Um, sometimes I use the leftover 20 minutes as a time to catch up on the tier one instruction. If they didn't get a chance to finish up what we were doing that morning. So, it's kind of like I don't want to say a study hall, but it's it's if you didn't get your work done, this is your chance to to finish it up. So, they're not just sitting on computers for four minutes. 40 minutes, otherwise they'll get bored. So, And the IRA um person said that research shows that we should have 40 minutes per subject per week. So that's why most teachers are doing two days math,

064two days reading. Um making sure that any kids that are in that tier three or tier 2 instruction are still having the opportunity to go on their pathway. Um it, like I said, it takes kids all the way through. So it doesn't matter where they're starting. If they are uh more proficient, it'll continue to push them to be a year's growth from wherever they're they're starting to. So we know that that pathways is super critical for um getting that extra practice for them in that time, too. Good. >> Do you have any other questions for Aaron and Pam before we move on to the next part? >> So, you're using this writing for the first time this year? >> Yes. >> So, how's the how's it going? Is it burning it wise? And do you

065feel that you're going to be pretty effective with it by then? I think right now it's a lot. >> Yeah, it is a lot. >> It's a lot. >> My brain's kind of on overload with it, but I think it's going to be great once we kind of get the hang of it. Um, and once you get used to like where the areas you're accessing, what one thing that I think is amazing is I can it will create uh reading partners for me and it's based on their Lexile levels or how they performed in the diagnostic. That was something that I used to over way overthink and take too much time to figure out how to group and now it's all right there. And um to the point of that having those conversations um I

066can even think about how I'm going to set up my classroom in little pods so that those groups are together and it's not like the highest with the highest. They split them. it looks like maybe high and then they go down and then they take this middle and group and bring them up so they're paired this way and um so just to facilitate those conversations to in class that's been really helpful and then there's all kinds of um instructional resources if you can see a student is um doesn't know their long bowel teams I can go in there and get instructional materials to quickly teach that. Um, but I like have to go there a different way. I don't have the path to get there right away yet. So, and if there's something on Pathways,

067which is the the computer program that they do, um, based off of I Ready, if there's something in Pathways that they're flagged like, oo, they're struggling with this, they're they can't get past this, I Ready will give us lessons to use with that child to get them past that hurdle. So everything that's new is always a lot at first, but you learn it and just keep cruising. So >> do it. Yeah. You can even watch the lesson that they're doing, the one that they got flagged on, >> so you can see like maybe what might be tricky for them and then have them sit alongside of you and watch and then, you know, oh, okay, wait one second. Did you read that all the way through? Or, you know, whatever it is. That's been helpful

068to be able to preview what they're doing to be able to help them um just slow down and take a look again and because usually it's just something little makes me think of like a bank bank statement like you know how much money you got like we know our data but like how much are we spending on Starbucks how much you know like as we start to like go into it a little bit more so we know what we've got our data is showing us what we have and now we can start to dig into it a little bit more. um as the kids start using pathways, they'll start telling us more more accurate data throughout the year, too. We don't have to wait for that next diagnostic piece, which is nice as well. >>

069Great. So, um just to tie it back to our culture playbook a little bit, we are um a culture of belonging at FLC. Uh as you can see here, we have plenty of time that we are collaborating. This actually was today. Lauren and I had every single grade level team in this building or in that uh room today. Um really just honing in making dotting I said this wrong. I said dotting our tees and crossing our eyes by the end of the day today. Um but we are really just going through and making sure our interventions and personal reading plans all make sense and are purposeful for all students. Uh and that happens during our grade level team meetings. We also have those CT times and staff collaborations too. Uh I mean every team here

070is just wonderful. Like coming in from someone who didn't know the district well. I've uh really really enjoyed getting to know all the grade level teams and their dynamics and um I mean everyone really just puts students first which it makes my job so much easier right if you're they're all willing to do the work which is great uh they have systems in play and then I just can add my two cents which is awesome so great so then based off of that we are um really diving into next path that what Pam was describing with like the sticky notes and stuff like that's how we used to do it how we used group kids, how we used to track things. Next path kind of does that all for us. So, um we are going

071to be meeting two times a month where we're going to be looking at that data in academic team meetings. Those are um a committee that has a grade level represent representative and then all the other uh teams in the school too uh to see how we can support students in their growth as well. So, not only is grade level our grade level teams looking at this data, we're almost taking a step back and looking at it as a whole school too and seeing where those gaps are, we can fluctuate supports where we see those like again we see a third grade has a huge jump. Do we have some more support we can give some other other grade levels and kind of um follow the data essentially. So that happens during those academic team meetings

072and then those CT times on Wednesdays are where we're going to be able to kind of do that co-planning where we're going to be able to support the tier one instruction and then make sure two tier instruction is solid two two tier and two tier three as well. >> All right to wrap up uh this is a mural that Mrs. Harbath had all of our kids create. So that is all 66 of our amazing FLC students and above it it just says we are one and I think hopefully like throughout this presentation um you heard just the collective effort that all of this takes and I think that you know that starts at the top too just uh with Dr. Fino and the leadership and the clarity that we all have as building leaders as

073we go into this work and then um you know again the partnership with Cara and Jen Towel and Margaret and just the the expertise in that literacy space and teachers like uh Aaron and Pam and all of the teams. I mean, like Cara said, we have amazing staff who are so willing to do this work. And I'm sure you're exhausted and just hearing that like that's 40 minutes of the day in the life and then there's all the other falls out. Yeah. Um, so I'm just really fortunate for for all the individuals like here in this room and that includes all of you too for your support and really optimistic for the future and just excited that I know we're going to accomplish great things this year. >> Questions for the group? No, I guess

074my, you know, my background on putting new systems in there was always you could go into every time you did it, you knew who was going to be your supporters, who was going to try to attract you, >> but it sounds like you've got everybody on the same page and everybody's buying in. Is that fair statement? >> Yeah, I think so. I mean, we've kind of been laying this groundwork for a while and you know, part of why we asked Pam and Aaron, too. they've been a part of our academic team for a couple years. And so they've started with the wind time and supporting um students even outside of their classroom. And so there's there's been a lot of these things I would say that have been laying the foundation and and but yeah,

075now it's just really fine-tuning it. And yeah, I I would say everyone's on the ship. >> Yeah, it just it blows my mind because we the presentation was 40 minutes. No, and that's how much you get done in that amount of time. >> You know what I mean? So, like it just kind of shows the appreciation. And then I had underlined in the beginning just as both of you were presenting. We've got some great people. >> So, you guys do a great job. So, thanks for cutting some time out of your personal time as well to share your story with us. >> I don't know. None of my kids got lost today. So, >> there you go. That's a win, right? >> That's a win. >> Thanks for putting all this together, too. I know

076this is a lot of lift in addition and then coming to the board like John was saying I really appreciate you taking the time to share your story. Uh, and that's the whole point of this is we really want to get more story out so that I mean they hear the general or the you know 30,000 foot view a lot and to hear what you all are going through even in that 40 minutes segment it's like that's the real and we you know we need more of that to be shared out and honestly with our public too because they have no idea what we do every single day and it's amazing and it just shows how uh you take the profession to another level and I can see that in the systems that you're building

077and what you're working through and there's a a drive for it. I mean, just the way you're explaining it and like you want it, you want to go get it. So, that's exciting for me too for all of our kids. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you for the question, too, because you take some of it for granted, but you should know the lingo reading. So, thank you for asking. >> If you want to stick around, you're more than willing to stick around. We're we're going to do some I Ready and some policy. But you also have the ability to >> Thank you everybody. >> Okay folks, uh we are going to actually jump into some Ready uh world just a kind of a >> show you what that looks like uh a little

078bit. This is again just a quick drive through of what you're seeing. And I'm going to start out with just like what does the assessment look like from the eyes of the student. Okay. Um, and this doesn't paint every picture, but it kind of gives you a little bit of where things are happening. I'm only going to pick a few grades here to kind of show you what this looks like. I'll take grade two. Uh, so the student starts out, they have, you know, everything's read to them in terms of directions, so they know like, and that's where you hear, you see them have the headphones on. Everybody's got that ability so they can listen to that as they're walking through uh the actual activity. And then uh obviously with the help of whoever the

079teacher is in the room, they're going to say like we're doing the reading right now, so please choose reading. We're just going to go with that direction. And it's built for the level of students. So you're going to see like cartoon characters at that second, third, fourth grade level. And then it gets into more of a a different level once you get to that. So then uh >> it's coming. >> My name is Flory. We are going to answer some questions today. >> But wait, but wait, what kind of questions? What if I don't know how to answer them? >> That's okay. I will teach you. Let's start with this question. Speaker buttons play words or sounds. Tap on all three speaker buttons. whistle. >> Phone car. Now tap on the picture of the car.

080Tapping on a speaker button plays words or sounds. Tapping on a picture chooses an answer. Look at the pictures. Choose the picture of a dog. If you're done showing how to take the test right now before the test even starts done button. >> If you want to choose a different answer, tap on a different box. >> Great job tapping the done button to move on. This next one looks tricky, so I'm going to show you how to do it. What is this a picture of? Watch how I answer this. First, let's listen to the answer choices. Zebra, lion, giraffe. Next, let's choose the best answer. I think it's this one, zebra. So, I'll tap on the white box around the speaker button. When the answer I want to choose is orange, I click done. Now

081you try. What is this a picture of? >> So it goes through a lot of >> turtle. >> I'll see if I can move here a little bit faster. Um, >> find the word helmet. >> And again, if you get something wrong, the question goes lower. All right. When you get something right, it takes you to another level in the set, >> back and forth between it. So they're saying helmet, I say helpful and see what happens. Um you just keep going on, right? What does unable mean? And then I say, "Oh yeah, it feels like not able uh to do that. Move on." >> And this is not how fast you get a break. >> There's breaks intermittently. So >> then we'll keep going. >> So a little gamification three times off it. So,

082that's second grade. Now, we'll move up to like uh let's go sixth grade. See what that looks like here. They do a similar walk through. Uh let's just go math for fun. Um as you can tell, less cartoony and a little bit more what to expect. giving all the, you know, base. Again, that's all red for them anyway. Um, throughout the process, um, you can do torturials of everything or you can just go right on. Again, they just go right to the the heat of it. Um, anyone want to guess? Are we going to get this right here? Uh, sixth grade level math. All right. Let's go with this one. Right. Um, so you keep going. I mean, the same thing. I'm not going to go through all this, but it just keeps going. And

083that, you know, through the percentage of the the test, again, it takes anywhere from, you know, 20 to 40 minutes to complete this initially, and it's three times a year that they'll take that. Okay. Um, I just wanted to show you a little bit behind the scenes of what they're actually getting into. Okay. Uh, next, what I want to show you is like, so they take the test. >> Oh, sorry. are multilingual students. Is this also yes Spanish they >> so all the so if they're multilingual all the directions are read in Spanish you know so that they have that but anything like passages those are not you know so that's or you know specific to like something that a problem like a math problem they're not reading >> okay >> so it is limited

084to just the directions of what it is >> okay >> and we go ahead >> you have staff then that are helping them through that or how does that work the point is to try to like see where they are literally at within it and and that's the hard part, but we also then get a gauge of >> how far do we need to go to help and assist those students. >> Sure. >> Okay. >> Um just so you know too, we do access testing for all of our ML students and I'll I can break down that sometime, but that's a separate test for ML so that we know where they're at too. And there's a continuum everywhere from one to six. six year to the point of exiting one you're just an incoming non-English

085speaker coming into the and lot a lot of stuff behind that I'm just giving you a very simplistic okay uh and then we were uh here before and this is where you can do multiple different types of results we're looking I'm looking specifically I want to see what map and the diagnostic reads and I can go from my level where I can show the whole district. Okay, here we go again. Wonderful. Um, get back in here. Okay. Um, analyzing performance either reading and math. I can go to that, check out specifically where we're at as a district. I can go to specific schools. We can even teachers will get just their course. So like just their grade level, they're only going to see students in their classes. Okay. Building principles will see their whole building.

086District administration will see it all. Tara Hartov sees it all so she can best help and support. Um we have a couple other people who see everything across the frame. Um I shared a little bit this before, but just showing you know kind of what Lauren and uh her team was talking about where that proficiency line is. again, uh they're a year over a year ahead of grade level at grade level, a year behind or one grade below, uh two grades below, and then three grades below. And this is a district response. And then as Lauren was talking about before, you can see this in terms of where we're at right now. Proficiency within the district in math is 23% proficient. And that means again, we've got fourth graders coming in. They haven't learned fourth

087grade material yet. So, they're probably not proficient in that area yet. So, they're waiting for the they're most likely in that yellow zone. This is if we have typical growth, it would be at 40 47%. And then if you go a step further, you get into the stretch growth. Uh, as also Cara was indicating, you know, that 45 minute or 40 minutes a week per subject matter, you could um potentially see that. But what you notice and heard from all these teachers is that they're not just doing that. They're those groups that they're pulling them out of what they're focusing specifically on some of those categories. So it's not just the asynchronous learning that these kids are they're getting double triple hit with multiple different strategies and work. And that's so impressive that they're doing

088that and the way that they have a system built up that 40 minutes of power hour. And then in addition to that, they get, you know, their own asynchronous on top of that. Plus, they get CKLA and bridges for that day. So, there's a lot, but this is again new as of this year. We're putting this into play. And that's what's so exciting about this that and you can see it too that they know where things are at. Even Pam said, I can put groups together and just do this. I know where the kids are at. I don't have to search for the Lexile. It's all done through the tool. So, um I'm super happy with um like how our teachers responded. You could also look at uh specifics. So, like they were talking about

089the pathways, the asynchronous path and how that works. Um I was going to go into this with you before. I'm going to pause on this. In your packets on I Ready, I put something very similar to what Pam had. It just shows without the names of the students. even shows grade levels like where are things at specific to the topics. And this one specifically reads like the K just kindergarteners itself. They're just kindergarteners across the board. So these are kindergarten students. And then they have where they're at in each of those levels. Again, the colors uh differentiate where's things are at specific to what's happening. PA phonx PH phonics, you know, and then they get the comprehension over side. So you can really drill down specifically how you can help or assist those students. And

090as Pam said too, in addition to just the asynchronous, they will also produce lessons for the teacher that I can go in, look at the lesson, mimic the lesson, and then help that small group out as well. Um, in addition to everything else, uh, this other the second page just talks about per class. This is more of like the proficiency scale again, and then per grade. So you can really uh break it down. I just did not include names or for confidentiality purposes on on this sheet itself. Okay. Um flipping into the pathways themselves, you can actually watch um or at least get an idea of where things are at in terms of what's what are they learning. And this means that personalized asynchronous learning. I'll just show you this from this level from reading.

091Um and we're going to go into Oops. Sorry everybody. Uh, friendship learning. And we go down here and then they have like a whole bunch of different things. And these are the kids specifically in funological awareness. They are going through and this is piping in for them in their asynchronous learning. And I'll just give you an example. Let's see what one of these looks like so you can see it. I think mind you I think this is kindergarten. So [Music] thought organies are baked and bacon is not investigate >> your learn is so much fun. Let's fix the next thing. Here comes our shapes. >> Get ready to play. Put sounds together to hear words. >> Agent X, tap any shape to get started. Bat, cat. >> More shapes are coming. >> Agent X, put

092them together to make words that rhyme. Tap any sound shape to see what happens. back. >> This is what Cara was alluding to, but in a program versus them doing it. So, >> and >> are you sure you want to exit the lesson? >> Yes. Um, but again, I'm just showing you kindergarten that goes all the way up through 8th grade. Um, and then also for our students in special education high school, they also have access to all these things to help them. um and they might be two, three, four, five, six grade levels below the proficiency level for that. And then how do you work that back up? And that's where case load managers and other people are working specifically on intervention when they're talking about their 40 minutes. Those case load managers at

093the high school are using that intervention time that they have or resources we call it to really double down on that and not just f in the past we focused a lot on homework. Get your homework in homework. Well, if you don't know how to read or if you don't have the level of understanding in math that everybody else does, good luck with even beginning the homework. And so, how do we get them with the skill sets so that they can actually find success in some of these areas versus just continue? Oh, just keep doing the homework, keep doing the homework when >> they're not gaining any ground at all. >> Okay. Um, I'm just trying to think if there's anything else I want to really show you. >> Does Karen just cover FL? >>

094No. No. So, Cara watches over everything. She's been uh a little bit more in FLC because of act 20 right now, but she's working over at BAMS. She's working over at um high school level too. Jen Towel takes a lot though of that of BAMS and the high school level just so they can split up a little bit of the work. And Jen Towel has been over there for quite some times already. So, she's helping out that. Cara's helping direct foster what we need to do. give some, you know, direction in terms of what is next. And that that team together has been phenomenal. And then they work with each of the building principles. So, just like they were, you saw Carol working with Lauren, they're doing that same thing with Jillian and Dwayne and

095trying to figure out like how can we foster the best way to help our students and then it's coming out in either CT or PT time. So then we double down and we get even a better product at the end of the day. Um there's only other one other thing you can do on this. Uh I mean not there's many things you can do on this but like if you look at assessment in they can create literacy tasks specific to particular students as well. Um and so I can do it specific to progress monitoring and I can work just specific to friendship. And then what our teachers have done, kind of like what Pam's saying, is they start creating uh different task libraries that the students can focus on, but it's also digital, too. So,

096they don't have to sit down and go, "Okay, we're going to go over this now." They just put those things together based upon what they're seeing. And this is even for once we get into it a little bit further, the enriched students who are doing really well that, hey, maybe you can do stuff at like the fifth or sixth grade level when you're fourth. And putting those things packeted together so that enrichment level keeps going as well. Okay. So, in January, our students will take that assessment again, but I don't know if you heard Cara, it's not just we're not just waiting for January to happen with the intervention. Like, we're using that asynchronous. We're using that to feed off of like, okay, what are we noticing from that asynchronous learning? But in addition to

097that, we're doubling down in what you're seeing with those 40-minute gaps of like getting specific with each one of those areas. So, we should see some growth because of how laser-like we are. Um, I can't say how much, but there should be something from the beginning to this time when you when we check back in in uh January with this. >> Any questions about the I Ready program? Uh, I gave a handout. It's like the KWKT. We've given that to all of our staff. They have awareness of what it is. It even tells you like timings of when this happens, what it's used for. Um, if you want more of a look at I Ready, let me know. I can probably get you a demo account. You can go on and play a little bit

098more without like all the students names in it, but it just gives you a sense of what's happening there. Some people referring to Next Path and we we don't have time to go through a lot of it tonight, but I can kind of just give you a quick scan. This was what educ was before. So all of our data like IR student management system instance all the stuff gets dumped into next path so you can have a really pretty easy way just to view data quickly and I'm still working with them to get a dashboard set up for you all so it's an easy quick look. So, remember when we were uh too far into this that I can't Okay. Uh remember uh we were looking and trying to figure out like, okay, how do

099we see all this stuff on the regular with our with our principles? They come and report out like, oh, this is what the behaviors are. This is what the agency. You can see all that really simply uh through this. Let's see. Hopefully, I can get this. Um okay, here we go. So, there's a lot of different things. You can create data walls. You can do anything. Um, here's a quick thing and I've got it I think set so that students names are not on here. Yes. Good. So, um, when Carrie would come in and talk about absences, this is the whole district at a at a really quick glance. And what's really cool, I think, about this is on the side here, they show you percentages like in general, like 91% of our kids are

100not at risk from absenteeism right now. Um, average daily attendance overall 97.3%. which is pretty awesome. Um and then uh they talk about different things of disproportionality of students of different race and how that affects uh students not in the majority race are 91% at target compared to 92% for whites. So that's not a huge gap yet. But again, this is in real time. So we're getting this dumped in every night. So people can see this and it comes back over. I can go the other cool thing is I can make it specific to just to friendship if I wanted to like I can go into like this area and that I can see all the students specific in that one pocket and I can go and make sure that that student's okay if I

101want to check in all the names here are like fat tiger or fair tiger and other things like that. So, it's not student names, but this is our real data, which we have a a setting on. It's a bul toggle. It's called the Yeti tag, and it just takes all our names off of it, but you can still see the the data that we're playing with. Um, another really cool thing, and this is just quickly, uh, this is all the behaviors from the middle school and high school in the last, you know, 17 days. So, you can kind of see really quickly at a moment's notice and a glance of like what's happening. Um, I can, this is where it gets really fun. If you really love data, like I can tell you where most

102of the of the incidents are happening for any kind of behavior, it's in the classrooms. 48 of those were occurring there. Okay. Uh, incident by month. What are we seeing? Well, September is the only one we really kind of been in. So, that's the majority of them. Uh, incidents by weekday. Thursday seems to be our hot hot ticket. Why? I don't know. But maybe there's something that we have to think about. It even gets down to the hour of the day. Like when is the the peak period for incidents to happen? Well, according to our data right now, it's about one 1 pm after lunch. All right. Uh and then uh you can say instance by school. So you see those different uh flexs from Horseman and Bessie Allen right now. Instance by grade. And

103then I can go in any one of these two. So, um I can see specifically who were those offenders at that time within that incident. And then every single one of these are the actual descriptions of all the events that were taking place within that because all that stuff's cooked in from Skyward or cumulative or SMS and it just rolls in which is pretty amazing. Last thing about this and and I'm I'll take another whole time to share you a little bit more, but this is what uh uh Lauren was talking a little bit about with I Ready like all the stuff comes in from I Ready. So all the assessment comes into Next Path 2 and we can see specific to uh percentile let's just say quickly here uh and I think this is

104going to be all of it. So I know this is kind of hard to read to a little bit but um the measure this is the fall data. So everything you just saw in I ready it's right there in the district but a little bit more platform it shows each of the school breakdowns. So you can see that it shows by grades and then I can go on any of these toggles on that green and say who are those 28% of students or who are those students who are in that yellow zone in the red zone. Um and then you get a nice little overwatch here. 585 students perform below target in all winters. So they're below that proficiency. And remember, this is the beginning of the year. So you have students who are just

105starting fourth grade who never been in fourth grade before. So that number is going to be higher. And over time, that should obviously change. And we have a disproportionality too that we have to notice, meaning there's a gap between students of color and then students who are white uh within this frame. So just when we get the I ready testing done in January that'll all update on >> Yes. So you'll see you can say this is what it looked like in the fall September. This is what it looked like in January and shows it all. >> So the narrative on the right might actually describe that. >> Absolutely. >> And that's what we don't have yet is any type of growth or any type of >> you don't have trend yet. >> Right. Yeah. So

106really nice tool. It's very user friendly. anybody can pick it up and really start something. And these are all data walls that have already been made by our like elementary other places so you can see data really quickly. Uh Lauren was talking about progress monitoring certain students. They can camp those students in specific to the monitoring that they need and then find out what they need to do to help that student with notes saying, "Hey, they need to see Mrs. so and so right now or whatever it might be." But they keep track of all that record. Those data walls are basically like template reports that >> someone had created created and then they publish that so others can see. >> Yes. >> Okay. So if you and they can make shortcuts to go specific

107people from a full grade level to a full school to just a few people to as well if they only wanted us a few people in that zone because there ever a risk of having too much >> data in front of you. >> Yeah. I mean I've seen that you know before too. It's like >> sometimes you have so much that it's actually hard to focus. So is there I mean we're early or whatever but especially when you have people creating their own reports right the most of the reports are created by the building principles or our so it keeps it like within >> yeah it's kind of >> it's not a fire hose it's okay this is we see the base we see the what we need to do and without going overboard I

108agree with you like you can get the reason why I like this though it's fast it's right on your fingertips you can see it really quickly it's a quick quick snapshot and you can move forward. And so my my hope is I'm working with uh the CEO of this uh product and we're trying to do something for the board so you guys can just open up the one page and you can just see like here's where our attendance is at, here's where our behaviors are at, here's our so that we don't have to have the staff member come in or the principal come in and say, "Hey, we're here here right now." You can just look at and get a good sense of what things are happening. >> That makes sense. Well, I think that

109from my perspective, it'd be nice to have that and then have those be somewhat >> I don't know, like not static forever or whatever, but like we can see it over time so we're not absolutely >> always seeing different, you know, >> right? I mean, would it be cool though if I could come in every single board meeting and say, "Hey, here's where we're at right now." You just look at it for 15 seconds and say, "Hey, everybody, here's the public. This is what's happening." >> Right. So, and you and you would see the changes over the time. >> Yeah. based on September versus November. >> Yeah, I like that. Okay, any other questions about next path? Again, we've got some really good tools in place that helps our staff and everything else move along

110pretty well. So, um that kind of concludes in the academic and learning segment of our to share out. Um, I kind of want to get some feedback at some point in time like how that delivery was for you all cuz obviously we have other principles who will also be coming forward. But it goes it went right with that template that I shared with you. So I'm curious at some point like was that more of what you'd like to see? Is there other things that we're missing that you're not seeing yet? I mean that you'd like to know more or are we on that same page of trying to get a little bit more under the hood for y'all? I think it was a good start. I think, you know, excuse me, so early in the

111process for the data. I mean, once we get into it, I'd like for them to go through a little more examples of how they're exactly using it. >> But it's a little too early to do that. So, >> but uh and then if they could either before or after they could send us the presentation electronically, >> we are going to get that to you. That's Yep. Absolutely. I'll get all those to you. Can that load on our new >> We'll just load it right up to that. All those documents will be on there as well. >> Okay. >> Yep. >> Which again, that's just a good moment to pause here. We have a new >> service for communicating back to y'all um and to the public for that matter. It's really easy. It's quick. It's

112designed. Now, I mean, getting to know how to put them the pieces together, but Natalie's done a great job of like really uncovering that and making that work. And I think it's really clean and it'll be a great efficiency for our our public to just to see it quickly. So we can take all the documents that we had, put them on there uh and make sure people can see that as well. So Lawrence Word and others. Okay, cool. Cool. All right. Um engagement communications, it's the second read of those policies. throwing out there any questions at this point based upon what we walked through or what was there. >> Okay. All right. Um moving on to financial operations. Maria sticking it out. Just hanging in there. Welcome. And in your folders, there is information. So,

113you've got both the budget adoption materials as well as uh the overall numbers behind it too as well. So, Maria, the floor is yours. Talk to us. >> All right. Um well the purpose of this meeting or of this um segment is to adopt the initial budget. Um it is definitely in the beginning stages. We don't have a lot of the information yet and I just listed the bullet points on the memo that you have in front of you. The key pieces of information that we're still missing. um final equalized aid certification that doesn't come till October 15th and that directly affects our levy. Um so the numbers that you have in front of you they will definitely change. Um our equalized property values the the final number will come out on October 1st from

114the state. Uh we have our July 1st estimate which uh they estimate that the property values will go up by about 7.4%. So definitely more than what we projected um back in the fall and spring. Um the voucher information as well as open enrollment and our third Friday count that will all come in October as well. Our pupil count was on Friday. Um and then and Kayla does that does a phenomenal job on that. Um her report to DPI is due on October 3rd. So we should receive those results soon after that. Um, once we have all that information, uh, I'll be seeing you again on October 13th at our annual meeting and then we'll do a a deeper dive into all of the numbers, um, all of the broad news, the expenditures, um, all

115the enrollment information. So, a lot more information coming. This is more of an overview and a highlevel view of where the budget is, what it's looking like so far. Um, so just to back up a little bit, our U numbers came back great. Um, we ended up with about an $800,000 surplus. Um, and that's due mainly to insurance and the programs that we put in place, both Smith RX and Garner. Um, and then we had quite a few people move over to family savings plan. So they they took their family and um off of our insurance and put it on their spouses. So that has also um really had a positive impact on our on our insurance. Um uh so the insurance as well as some staff cuts or staff um that left that we

116didn't replace at that time also impacted the budget and added to that surplus. So at the end of the year uh we ended up with about a 22% almost 22% fund balance which is awesome. Um I didn't even apply for a line of credit this year because I'm feeling very optimistic. So um yeah, we're trending really really well. Um let's see. So now diving into the 2526 again we are waiting for a lot of information. Um so on this document you have kind of a history of going back to and then um the following two years the audited two years technically 2425 is unudited until December um and then the proposed budget is in the final column. Uh I know you haven't had a whole lot of time to digest this but um just a

117couple things I wanted to point out. Uh in our revenues um there is quite a big jump. Well, first of all, in the 240, if you look along the left side, 240 where it says payments for services, you're going to see in the first three columns there is a a a big number. That was explorations and now we don't have explorations. So that's why that's a zero in that 2526 column. So we're losing the revenue there. But on the flip side, we're also not spending that money on the expenditure side. um fees. So, in the 290 row, um fees went up quite a bit because we doubled some of those fees both for oral zone and um our school fees and our athletic fees. Uh our open enrollment, that number is down by where you

118see 340. So, our open enrollment tuition, the state is giving us more. So, that's why we're seeing quite a significant jump in open enrollment revenue. Um, what are some other bigger ticket items? Um, there was some talk at the federal level about our grants, our federal grants. Um, we did take a little bit of a hit. If you go down to 750, uh we can take a little bit of a hit. Well, about 50,000 in title one. So, um and that's our that's what Margaret does. That's our reading. And >> and this comes back to the federal government gave $52 million to the state for this specifically, but that's in last I think it was last year 70 75 or whatnot. I don't something to that degree. So, it did cut a little bit, but

119there's also talk about a block grant coming back. Um, so that's still not heard of yet, but we don't know when that potentially could play back into that as well. So, just a little update on that side. >> Um, the federal 780, the federal revenue through the state >> 780 that is our um schoolbased services and Medicaid. So, normally it goes into special ed, but when it's in on this 780 row, that's in fund 10 in our general, and that is prior year. So, if we if we get $200,000 this year, but it was from prior year, they have us coded in fund 10. So, I don't know if we're going to have any prior year Medicaid payments. So, I'm leaving that zero just to be conservative on that number. Does that make sense? Okay.

120>> Um All right. So, down in the expenditures, um not a whole lot of change since we've talked last. Um you know, again, a lot of changes are in the health insurance arena. Um and then some in staffing as well. Uh there was also some you'll see some anomalies um down by 490,000. You'll see that that decreased quite a bit and that's simply a coding change that EPI had us do. So it's shifting it up into 430,000. So we also have that to deal with. Um let's see. I know again I know you don't you haven't have a lot of time to digest this. Are there any questions or any >> I just want to make a statement for the public, you know, with the state budget, which we did not know what it was

121prior to coming into uh the end of the year. Uh and the state budget wasn't determined till July. Uh and that was one of the things we were referencing throughout the whole referendum process saying we don't know. It's an unknown variable at this point in time. But some key things happened for our population and for our district in that and Maria indicated one of them open enrollment dollars went up and that obviously helps because we have a plus side on the open enrollment side for our district. The other big one was special education for the first time in the history of our state. It was the biggest increase in terms of um that percentage of what they were getting to special ed. We went from 32 >> 42 >> which is more like 40 but

122we'll say it's 42 and then the following year it's supposed to go to 45. So because of our population because of the amount of uh students with special ed needs in our district that significantly helped us too. We did not know those two things were coming. Plus per pupil is again increasing based on the $450 year $325 raise per pupil um put into play. So there's multiple things that did help in that state. And I think the other thing that Maria was trying to indicate too is that insurance is up and down and uh it just happens to be we're in a spot now based upon what you all heard the last time we had USI and Alex in here. Um we we're finally finding some wins in that spot. So that's I'm just trying

123to explain the surplus for the public because that is something different that we have had. >> Yeah. And this budget actually built in a 10% insurance premium increase. Um we don't know we don't have that number yet from USI. Um if it should be in that ballpark and we do need to have an increase because we are still um we have negative reserves. So we want to build those reserves up um before we do any cutting of premiums. So there is a 10% increase in there currently. >> The only other thing I didn't mention, I'm sorry for not saying this too, is that, you know, we had to um cut 16 staff members, which also puts us in that spot because we did not know what the state was going to bring at the other

124end of it. So we are again making the most with what we have, but also understanding that's where some of this other stuff is coming from. So people know. >> Yeah. And it's fair to say that we're adding some staff in areas where there are gaps and needs. >> Yeah. I think we have to look at what the needs are within our district and re-evaluate what that is and then do the best we can so that we're making decisions for our kids. >> All right. Some some other key um numbers that I want you to be aware of. Um this also this also so if you on the second page second page third page at the top um the um revenue or the the under capital projects 46 and 49 um those numbers really shift

125from year to year and that's referendum. So, you'll see a significant decrease and that's because we're using the last 100,000. Actually, we just spent the last 100,000 of our referendum money. So, we're done with that. Um, and then 46 that is uh we're keeping money in there for capital projects. So, if we have a large surplus, we can shift money into fund 46 and hold it there for a roof or for a track or for any building upgrades. Um, and it's a good place to house that money rather in fund in our general fund 10 because then we can be aided on it if we have it in fund 46. So, so we try to take advantage of that. Um, >> and so, Maria, we're we're consciously then putting some funds into it. >> Yes.

126>> Like based on how it all plays out, we're going to decide how much that goes into that. >> Right. Well, I moved about 700,000 into there. So, >> we're we're trying to build that up. We know that we've got roofs coming up. Um, we know that we've got windows coming up. Um, so it >> looks like the fund balance went down, though. the fund balance in >> 46 and for well it combines 46 and 49. So the fund balance would go down because we've used the referendum money. They're combined. So the fund balance should go down. Really what's left in there is the fund 46 money. >> So >> 49 is the >> 49 is referendum >> is reference. >> Yeah. So if you look at 2223, that fund balance was $18 million because

127that's where all that referendum money was. And then we spend that down. >> So but the 714 is that's the fund that we would add to what we had. >> Yes. For the most part. Yes. That's >> So that 714 is what we have set aside for >> Yes. >> capital. >> For capital. >> Mhm. through last year >> through June 30th. Yes. >> And we do that transfer at the end of the year >> because we had 805. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Right. 805 is what we ended with on >> and then because we you just said we spent the last 100,000. >> That's why we're at 714. >> Yeah. Got it. >> Y point is we didn't really add to it this year with any extra money. >> We did. Yes. We would

128have been at 100,000, >> right? >> If we didn't because we had 805,000 left after last year. Tell me if I'm wrong. >> No, you're >> we had 805,000 left end of 2425. >> We spent a hundred. >> We Well, we didn't yet because we spent this year and then we put >> that 805 is what that seven whatever we put in. So now we're at 805 still and then we spent a hundred or budgeted to spend a h 100red this year from what Maria just said. So >> otherwise it would be zero. >> Otherwise it would have been >> if we didn't put the money from last year would have been 100,000. >> Yes. >> The line from my understanding the line on ending fund balance for 24. >> But then that would be

129at zero because the 100,000 we spent gone going. So the only revenue this year that's going in is really interest. So that's that 9,000 >> and then um you can see under the 200,000 support services that's the 100,000 that we're spending and that's from fund 49. So the rest that's in there now that 714,000 that is strictly fund 46. >> Yeah. Right. But what I'm saying is we didn't I mean we didn't substantially add to it this year. Right. Because we ended with 805 we spent 100. So we'd be down 705, >> but we got the 700 in before the year before end of it. Otherwise, we would have started with a 100,000 on that line where it says 805749. >> No, right. So you you added to what this last year, >> right? I'm

130saying we're not adding anything to it. >> No, I don't have anything budgeted in for 2526. So, I guess my question is going down to the bottom and do we have room since we're going from 8:15 down to 736, can we add to that and start building to put more money back into that? >> Yes, >> definitely. I we don't do it until the end of the year when we know for sure what our surplus is going to be. >> No, I'm saying instead of 1170 73, Drew's 117 7.3 Why not up the levy? Because we're we're dropping the mill rate from 850 to 736. >> That's the recommendation. Yeah. Yes. >> And my question is since we've got so much room there, why don't we bump that up? Throw it into that capital project

131fund. So we build up that surplus even more >> purposely build up not just you know what I'm saying >> you mean >> raising the mill rate back up to >> pick a number right maybe not the 815 but the 8 or something >> um so if we do nothing if we just levy you know just straight levy it would go down to 643 Right. >> This is kind of in the middle. And when we talked with when Matt and I talked with Mike Clark, he said he would really like to see us be at like 750. Um the state average is $7 today $74. >> That's the state average. So we're still above the state average. Um it's definitely up for >> I'm not against going higher at all. I mean like it's just

132again it like you said they're building up keeping it and sustaining it at that too so we're not having such a big gap to as well and if we have to go back >> because we're going to I mean the chances of a referendum passing are in the next several years I think is slim and none. So we've talked about gaps that we see coming up. We talked about buildings that seem good maintenance. I would re I would guess have like to have a discussion instead of going down to 7 from 815 to 736 or if we went to 775 or something or even $8, we're still lowering the number in your answer. I mean this morning you mentioned also talked about the impact of the view of the public with doing that. Um so

133we're already overing in what you're proposing but but what do you say again about that? Um >> um well, it it it shows that we're making an effort to um lower the impact of the taxes for the community as much as we can, as much as we reasonably can while still kind of smoothing that curve, that tax rate curve. >> Is there So, can any of the We we're projecting that our fund 10 balance is going to go up as well. >> Yes. Right now it is looking like uh about a $500,000 surplus at the end of the year. Um that could change, but you can certainly then put some of that into fun 46 >> because that's what you did this year. >> Right. Right. >> Right. It's just I just we don't do

134it until the end of the year >> and we have until July 31st actually to do it. keep it there until you >> which really >> which makes sense because we've collected that money already >> and now it's going into a place where if we have to do a larger >> project there's not an ask to the community for >> right >> more money and I als I mean we I mean nobody wants to pay more money right but the fact is we've talked tonight about significant staffing gaps And so if we wait till next year, we'll be at 7. Say we're at we keep it at 7:36. We might end up going to 850 or something. >> Which mean what a yo-yo there. I'd rather see it stay somewhat consistent personally. What >> do

135you have any of the >> like so for the 25 26 plan? Mhm. >> I'm assuming all of the current or expected staffing requirements are built into that. They are >> correct. >> Those positions that you just talked about. >> Yeah. Other than the one that we talked about with PE, >> It's in there though now. Okay. Yeah. >> Everything that I know >> physicians. >> No, that is not that's for the that's for the 26 27th school year. That would be >> right. >> Yeah. that will add significantly >> to this. And I guess before we keep going, the other question, you had put these curriculum dollars >> out there. Are those in the budget? >> Yes. >> So these are all in. >> Yes. >> Um and increasing the levy is not going

136into fun. That's only over levying in in referendum debt in fund 39. So, >> but that that's fine because I guess what I'm trying to avoid is a yo-yo. >> I understand that was that's been our philosophy and our practice for years. So we're dropping significantly and I think next year we'll have to so we're and I understand it'll go to 46 next year if we have to raise the or keep say the levy the same then we'd have that money available for fund 10 instead of 46 right >> yes >> doesn't it only go you said it goes into fund 39 right >> referendum proceeds go into fund 49 9. Um, but we won't. >> No, no, but you said we if we overlevy, it can pay down on debt. >> Yes. >> 39.

137So, it doesn't go into 46 anyway. Correct. >> But it pays off though. it it if if we have to go to referendum anytime in the in the near future, having a fund balance in fund 39 just helps reduce that ask and then helps reduce that the increase in the tax levy. >> Okay. So you can put it into 39 in anticipation for a future referendum. And that that >> that would be >> primarily for capital >> project stuff, >> right? Well, >> yes. >> For capital projects, >> capital repairs. >> Yes. New building. So, so if I understand way I think of it, it's if we overlevy more this year, that doesn't help fund 10 goes into future thing. >> Correct. >> But now next year we keep that levy the same and now

138that extra that went into the debt can go into fund 10. No, once it's in. >> No, the the extra we would get next year, the following year by having a higher levy >> would go front 10, right? >> No, none of the over levy goes ever goes to 10, I believe. >> Well, I mean, it wouldn't be over levy. It'd be covering expenses like four positions or something like that. >> What you avoid is that yo-yo. >> True, you do. But fund 39 is the only place that you can >> prevent that yo-yo. >> Right. So our fund 10 is in good shape this year. So if we overlevy that would go into 39. >> Correct. >> So now next year that extra money that went into fund 39 could be used for actual

139fund 10 expenses. But there isn't any extra money in fund 10 for 39. >> But it can't go from 39 to 10. >> You're going to your fund 10 expenses are going to go up next year, right? Possibly halfway significantly. So the levy would be the same. Say we levied the same this year and last year or next year following this year we'd be in order to keep that mill rate fairly consistent we raise raise raise it up this year that would go into fund 39. >> Correct. >> Now next year it would stay at the same level but it would be actually funding expenses that we add in fund 10 next year. So the let the mill rate would stay similar. The money the extra money this year would go into 39 and but

140that it would cover the expenses the following year that are actual fund and expenses. >> They're they're two complete fund has it own levy. So you have a revenue limit. >> It's so what's our revenue limit compared to what works? I didn't that's one document I didn't bring with me >> compared to what we're loving in 10. >> I didn't bring that with me. Um >> I mean we're we're loving significantly less than 10. We're down whatever that is. 600,000 700. >> Yeah. I had that on my um >> six six or 700,000. >> Right. 600,000. And what I'm saying is next year, so our levy, our revenue lend has to be higher. I'm assuming it has to be higher than it was last year. >> Yes. Well, it should be. Um I have the

14120 less kids built in. So we'll see how that all shakes up. But yeah, but yes, it should be it should increase, >> right? So next year we could levy in 110 like 3.5 or something ballpark number which would be 700,000 more than we are this year. >> Well it depends on what our aid is. So if our general if our if our state aid comes in higher then we have to levy less. So >> Right. But then we have more money in the state aid. >> Correct. But then your levy goes down because you're you're getting more state aid. So now this year, if our state aid goes down, our levy is going to go up. But we aren't going to know that until the middle of October. We can't just levy just to

142levy. It's it's got to fit within that revenue for fit within the revenue. But since we're I mean since we leed 3.4 four almost 3.5 last year. I'm assuming that's going to that revenue limit's got to be up in that range again this or does the revenue limit ever go down? >> It hasn't for us. No. No. I mean if you it can if you have less kids. >> So Maria, can I just ask? >> Yes. >> This might help. We are fully levying based on the revenue limit or we're planning to for the general operations levy. >> Yes. >> No, we're not we're not letting to our revenue limit. >> Yes. >> When when combined with the state aid, it's equaling the revenue limit. >> That's why that it doesn't help to overlevy >>

143fund 10. Why? >> Because we can't. >> I know you can't overlevy it. for what we what I'm saying next year. I think our fund 10 levy is going to go our fund 10 expenses are going to go up next year I think significantly. So rather than go from a 7.36 mil rate to a whatever it turned 8.5 8.15 or 8.3. Why not put the 7.36 up to a bigger number? you're not jumping as far. >> So, you're not yo-yoing. You're not going from 8:15 into 736 up to 840 or whatever. >> That's that is completely a a board decision. That's that's I I can give you the recommendation, but >> we already are doing that. >> We are over, >> but it's going into the referendum debt levy, >> correct? >> Which is which

144is where it has to stay. The only thing it can do is allow us if we have a big expense to tra to transfer less of fund 10 over to 46. I understand. >> So Rick, are you just saying, okay, we've got 815, 815, 815, 736. You want to smooth that. You want to smooth that curve so that there's not >> If I thought we were going to stay at the funding level, we are fund 10. then I'd say let's go down to the 736. But I think our fund 10 is going to go way up next year. So rather than so I say put that 736 back say to eight or something like that if it's under the revenue limit which thinking it would be but I don't know then the next year when

145we do that aid rather than using that for the to fund the um capital projects that extra money is available for fund 10. >> Yeah we don't have to transfer into fund. So then you can use that extra in terms of >> right >> again if you were looking at adding staff or whatever or whatnot. Yeah. >> But that doesn't have anything to do with the levy at all. The levy is what it is for fun 10. So that's not going to affect our surplus or deficit >> this year. So this year we're putting an extra levy onto the >> you're putting it somewhere over levy that 836. We're just asking for it from the taxpayers. That's not coming out of our budget. >> So, which of these categories on the the last lines here

146is that 836 >> is the what? >> Where's the over for 836? Which levy does that mean? >> Referendum debt levy. It's >> right. So I'm saying So I'm saying to even things out >> instead of having that be 3.875, we we make that more. >> Yes, you could do that. >> Okay. So now next year we take that eight, we reduce that number and that would give us more money available for the fund 10 levy if we add those expenses in fund. I we should get together and meet maybe >> because I'm saying that so then what I'm saying is next year the the referendum debt levy number would go down and the general operation levy would go up. >> Oh sorry Rick I don't think the referendum debt levy doesn't calculate into the

147revenue limit. revenue limit is only fund 10 and fun 38. >> We've got to have a ton of room in on the revenue limit. If we levied 3.5 last year and we're down to 2.8 this year, >> 2 the combination, right? The combination of the 2.8 >> only went up 300. State aid only went up like 300,000 and the people the students went down 20. >> Yes. >> Based on your calculation. So combination of what we got more in state aid and the reduction in >> the state aid wasn't much. I mean it was like 300,000 >> the the combination of the general and the nonreferendum is the max that we can levy. >> The general and the nonreferendum. >> Yes, those two together. So what I have to do is subtract the non-referendum debt.

148So, our our leases, our things that we don't have a bond for, >> but >> and then you back into the fun 10 revenue. >> I'd like it'd be interesting to know what the deadline or the revenue limit is because both the general operating level levy and the non-referendum both went down significant. Well, nonre not significant but >> we went down whatever that is 500 almost 700,000 >> and some of it remember that property values also plays into levy so >> there's a lot of factors that go into it and we can if you want to step in I have the worksheets >> I guess my point is the discussion I think we need to have is are we willing to just leave it at a low number and then next year have raise it

149significantly higher because we're if we I mean if we're having class sizes of 40 45 kids I think we all think that's unacceptable. So rather than go from 8:15 to 736 to 850, why don't we try to smooth that out? >> It's not our expenditures aren't going that that does not determine the levy. Our expenditures don't determine the levy. So we could have a million dollars more in expenditures. We still only can levy a certain amount >> for the revenue limit, right? >> Well, depending on what our equalized is, >> right? But I'm saying we're 700,000 lower than we were last year in those less. So, I'm assuming none of those limits went down. But maybe I mean, maybe the revenue limit went down. >> Yeah, I have to I >> mean, since it never

150has, I'd be surprised if it did, but I just one of the things that I had asked Marie about in her response repeating what Mike Clark had advised guys was if if we need to go to referendum in the near future in the near future it shows that the district is listening to taxpayers and doing what it can to lower the tax impact. That's why he recommended not going all the way to 636 or whatever but over living up to the 7. Well, I understand what what he's saying right now. I'm saying >> I don't think a referendum is going to pass. >> So, we should be financially planning on how we're going to cover that without yo-yoing the middle rate, >> but we're already covering that in the proposed budget and still over to

151the 736. All these new teaching positions that we might be doing are in in this budget. Um I don't know what significant increases we would have. You know, we have the normal increases every year, but and we're still showing to grow the fund 10 balance by almost 600,000. I think we're well I mean I'd like to see the numbers but I think we're next year I mean that's why having a fiveyear budget would help but I think if we we're going to add these positions I think and that adds insurance that adds everything I think you you have a chance to lower the taxes but not and still cover yourself for the future. But maybe that's just me. I my I I do see the effect is I also don't want to if we do

152go back at some point in time which most likely will have to have I mean to be real depending on this there's major things shaken up at the state level in two years from now um I don't want to have that gap so big though too when we have to go back you have that gap between the two like the closer we can be versus because it can only as it can be lower and lower or else we can stay you know closer to that level so that we can stay consistent with people. I mean, I know it's it's a cost, but at the same time, I think long run, long game, it could >> Well, I think that this budget does that, though. >> Mhm. >> Because the math would say we only need

153we go to 64 to4, we're going to 736. So, we're we are doing that >> and then the question is what's it going to be next year? >> Well, there is another opportunity to revisit it next year as well, >> right? What if it goes to 850 next year just because of stuff that is being recommended? So now we go from 8:15 to 736 to 850. That's why and I have no idea what with the plans that we're talking about what that would mean for the following year. But we aren't going to be able to bring I mean it would only be able to go up to >> 50 if we then >> choose to over levy in the referendum debt again >> right >> or like by a bigger amount more >> right >>

154because we aren't going to without going to referendum we're still going to be >> well I don't know what the I don't know what the revenue limit is I mean that's the kind of key But I I guess if you guys are comfortable that's fine. >> Yeah. I don't know if I'm not clear on what you're I mean our expenditures are not you cannot levy more because your expenditures go up. So it >> No, I get that. I I understand what you're saying when you want to smooth it because if you do go to referendum then you know you don't want to go from six $6.50 up to $8. That that's just that's tough. But um I mean this year and next year we shouldn't need to go to referendum and after that we you

155know depending on what state aid is you don't know what that levy is going to be. So, >> so maybe the question that you're asking is did we do enough in the referendum debt levy category to protect us for for the future. So, it's really a matter of did we do enough to hedge that or smooth it. >> I mean, you look at the levy for 2010 went down 7600,000 almost 700,000. So that tells me the revenue limit would support us having 700,000 more levy and content. I think the the other components of the equation are probably important to to understand with that question because we can only see here just in this paper that it goes down 600,000 but it's based on those other variables that are in it that make up the revenue

156limit right if I'm understanding it correctly. So, so we really need that other >> piece of the equation to see what happened there, >> right? But the revenue movements never gone down >> for us. No, it has not. >> Right. So, but we aren't underleving this. That's getting into the revenue limit. >> No, I'm saying how can that be? You're not telling us this is the revenue. The revenue limit is the A plus the state only up 300,000. So it's still 400 short. >> That is but our revenue limit is our equalized aid which is on here in the revenue plus that levy that is our revenue limit. I mean, there's other >> You're saying you're you're saying we've the operational levy and this non-referendum debt levy added together hit up our hit with those

157other things make it up to the revenue limit or at the max revenue limit. >> There's there's like transfer of service in there that's like >> but you're saying we're at the max. >> Yes. Yes. We have always levied to the max. Always. >> And these 815s, the last three, four years, those are all over also, aren't they? >> Yes. 139. >> Yeah. >> If you want to get together, Rick, I can show you that worksheet and what goes into it. It's >> and for tomorrow tonight's purposes and the initial adoption. This is not like concrete like we have to do exactly what we're saying right here right now. So it's more of just review and saying here's what we know now and there's still things that have to get laid into it as well.

158>> Yes. I I mean there's another shot at this on October 13th. So, this is the initial. If you want to give me a ballpark, um, you know, I can I can work I can do a couple >> versions. >> Well, maybe we I'll send, you know, we get together and just talk about how this adds up to the revenue limit because >> Sure. >> that seems baffling to me right now. >> Yeah. Um, and if you go on the DPI website, under the revenue limits, you can see the past revenue limit worksheets, the 2526 is not completed on the DPI website. That's something that I have in my office that I'm playing with, but everything prior to that is finalized and they're all published on the DPI website. But yes, we can get together

159and you can look at my assumptions for 2526. I don't understand how it went down to $700,000. So that's >> we can definitely do that. >> So I I would suggest for purposes and for approving a preliminary budget that we leave it as proposed and based on what Bar has advised us who we paid to advise us on this stuff and then as these other factors start to come in and clear up we can keep looking at the over levy question. Okay. Any other questions for Maria? >> Thank you, Maria, for >> sharing and putting together and >> more to come >> as always. So, >> John, that's all I have in our report. So, uh other than just really quickly, I went to superintendent's conference last week at state superintendent conference. It was Wednesday,

160Thursday, Friday morning. Uh they had some guest speakers come in from the different areas. Uh we uh the the amazing thing about that conference is there's over 150 different superintendents from the state. Obviously, we have 420 plus uh districts, but uh just getting that a chance to talk to a lot of colleagues and just seeing where people are at right now. And uh financial is a big piece on a lot of people's minds in our world. like a lot of people having to go to referenda this coming April. I mean big name, big schools. um but trying and them trying to figure that out and so you know at the same time I feel fortunate the way it the ball bounced with the state for us um so that we're we've got a decent like

161foothold at least this year and and not having to try to figure out things but um in terms of referenda that was but hearing all these people trying to go through that asking questions and just listening and then trying to help and assist any way I can that's kind of where I was at. Uh at the same time the things that I hear from the presentations to the financial to to the learning we're in the right lane. I mean it just feels really good. It was validating to just hear people like you know talk and yet at the same time struggle with some things but things that we're doing that they're not that I mean put us in a really good place for our kids. So, uh, it it's just a a great place to

162kind of just see and reflect and, uh, get a better sense of like how things are going. Now, obviously, we can always continue to get better. And there's things that I was I took from, you know, things like everything from there's a Royal Virtual Academy. I'm still trying to figure out like how do we help our students who either, you know, are in expulsion or are obeyed that we have to give an alternative placement for them a little bit. You know, how can we better help them in the future? that's a possibility in the future like you know working with them even looking at you know offering courses to kids that we can't offer because of cost that could be offered through a platform or a network like that online I mean it's not ideal

163but it also still provides an opportunity for those couple areas but that's something I'm going to look into do a little more crash courseing than that so um but beyond that just a a really good uh experience to hear from again the multiple different people and how things are going across the state And I always always always say I'm just fortunate to have a board that you all bring the what you bring every single day. Like there's so many different happenings and stories out there and I'm just really grateful for be able to work with a board like you all and uh appreciate you. So that's the conference. Any questions about that at all? >> Okay. Our uh next item is new business and we've got four items on new business. The first one is

164consider approval of new hire from close session. So welcoming Nick Kelly to the district. So looking for approval of that contract. >> I'll make the motion. >> I'll second. >> Okay. Is that roll? Okay. Hawk, >> yes. >> Gellings, >> yes. >> Matthew, yes. Hner, >> yes. >> Uh, second item is consider approval of initial adoption of budgets in total school levies in tax raise as presented today. So, look for a motion for that. So, move >> second roll. Matthew. Yes. Yes. >> Helings, >> yes. >> Hawk, >> yes. >> Um, third item is consider approval of second reading of board policies as listed, which was explained earlier by Matt. So, look for a motion to approve second reading for board policy. >> I'll make a motion. I'll >> second. Roll when you're ready, Rick.

165All right. >> Yes. H. >> Yes. >> And then final item is consider approval of moving January board meeting. Can't believe we're already saying January. From Monday, January 26 to Tuesday, January 27th. So, look for a motion to move that meeting one day. I'll make the motion. >> I'll second it. >> Can we have some discussion? Sure. Absolutely. Um, and my comments here are going to be nothing absolutely nothing personal. You know, I checked into my own thinking what the issue was to change it. And we've done that a little bit recent years, but my concern is the, you know, when we need a special meeting, we kick the dates around and we get something that's good for everybody. Um but by policy the regular monthly meetings is the fourth Monday of every month. Um

166we make changes when you know special situations like Christmas or on Easter break or you know a few things like like that. So I I start to worry that you know it's it's in the policy so that um people know they can always kind of count on fourth Monday as board meeting. Granted, nobody tends to come to the meetings, but we do get people watching on whatever and they can watch it afterwards. But um if we start getting into um people just wanting to change the meeting because they're not available that particular night, I think we're kind of straying away from the intent of the regular monthly meeting. And you know, I understand John, you have a conflict that night. I checked the schedule. Um, you know, I missed the July meeting. We were on

167vacation, you know, and that that was to me that was just a decision I made um on that. Um, and and I'm not necessarily saying that I'm not not going to vote to approve this change. If it passes, I really want us though to start thinking about being careful about that. You know, Jacob, you travel. Pete used to travel in this meeting. Sometimes you can come in virtually, sometimes not. But um you know, you got to make sometimes you got to make a decision and if you miss a meeting, you miss a meeting. Um so I guess with that said, I just wanted to get that out there so that we'd be careful that it just doesn't get too easy to say, well, you know, I can't make the October meeting, so can we change

168it? that that's an extreme example and and I know absolutely why you change it and I understand that and if I was in your shoes I it'd be you know a tough decision for me too but um so that's you know that's my thought and that goes back I guess through just because of my many years of experience we it was I don't want to use the word sacred but it was pretty important to keep that meeting date to this per policy unless there was just an obvious reason that we had to change it. So I whatever anybody else's thought is yeah your your point is that it's it's more important to be consistent for the public to count on that. That's that's the >> or at least to caution us from getting into the

169habit of doing this too regularly, >> right? And and it's been like that for 50 years plus and I'm sure before that. Yeah, >> that's the practical part of what I'm saying. The other part of it, it's board policy that >> that the regular meeting stand, you know, is the fourth Monday of of each month. Um, so we, you know, we're we're following the policy almost every month and and I think exceptions are understood when when it's important enough. But and again, I this is last second here and you know, you know, I would I would vote to okay this and then but just ask in the future that we be careful about that particular point. Again, special meetings will probably free rain on whatever they want to have. >> Good points. Any other comments?

170Okay. So, I'll still I don't know if we should do it again or do you already get everything you needed? >> I go right to the vote. Second, right? >> Okay. So, vote when you ready? >> Yes. Ging. >> Yes. >> Happy. Yes. >> Yes. >> And that is our final item on new business. So the last one is adjournmented here at >> Before you do that, I just want to acknowledge Mr. Matthew or Rick Matthew for learning a new system within like a couple hours and making it really work. So let's >> All right. Sorry. >> All good. We uh are journeying today at 9:30 p.m. So, thank you everyone. >> Have a great night everyone. Be well. >> Thanks for