001is Thursday, May 21st, 2026. I call this special meeting of the Elizabeth School District Board of Education to order at 6:00 pm. Can I get a roll call? >> I have Director Callahan is absent. Mr. Director >> Director Fletcher >> present. >> Director Hunt here. Director Olsen >> here. >> Director Pal >> here. >> Okay. Um, yeah. Sorry, Mike couldn't make it, but he had a he had a soccer issue come up. Um, so with that, let's stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay. I move that the board approve this special meeting agenda as presented. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Nope. Okay. Can I
002get a roll call? >> Director Fletcher. I >> director >> I >> director Olsen >> I >> director Pal >> I >> okay um so uh the reason for this meeting is interviews for superintendent candidates and um in full transparency we did have two applicants that we invited to interview but one had to back out um due to the fact he couldn't really commit for another year. So, um, seeing how, um, we want to get this position filled sooner, um, we have one candidate and that is Ted Knight. And thank you for coming tonight. And if you want to take the hot seat there, you've got a copy of the questions. >> Okay. And I can go ahead and kick it off. So Ted, what attracted you to our district and what do you see
003as our greatest opportunities and challenges? >> Well, living in Douglas County for the past 12 years or so and working in Douglas County, I always kept an eye on Elizabeth. It always seemed like a great place. It was a great district. Um, and I've watched it kind of evolve and and change a little bit over the years. Um, and earlier this year when Dan had reached out and and asked to come and do some work out here, I'm like, "Yeah, why not? I'll give it a shot." Um, and I fell in love. I never thought I would want to be a superintendent again. Um, but I love the people. Um, I love the district. There is so much opportunity here. Um, you know, when you think about the challenges, obviously, we've got some financial challenges
004right now. Um, we've got to make sure we're retaining and recruiting high-quality employees. Um, and I think we've got to make sure we are celebrating the great things that are happening in Elizabeth rather than letting other people brand us um in in the way that they see. Um, and so when you look at those opportunities with the district this size, we've got four schools. We've got wonderful people. Um, and I really think we can take off uh focusing academically. We've already set a a path for math and literacy. And I think we can not only continue to move our academics forward, but really help our students with durable skills, make sure they're college, career, and citizenship ready. I think we can write the ship when it comes to the budget, um, and make sure that
005we are moving forward in this community. Um, as again, as I just think I've met more and more people, it really became apparent I felt this is where I was called to be. Um, and I keep joking. I think this has the best of both worlds. It is everything you like about rural and you can still be at a mall in 30 minutes. And so I'm like, what is what is not to love when I think about, you know, recruiting people? I'm like, I can think of so many people that this would be a destination district for. Um, and so I love the vision. I love the culture. Um, I really feel this is just a really good common sense traditional school district and the expectations of this board are to operate this district the
006way schools need to be operated and stay out of all of the other things that some school districts are doing right now. And I think that's a great opportunity. There's not that pull to get involved in everything that other schools are getting pulled into. It's we want kids to have high academic achievement and we want them to be good people. That's a dream job. >> All right. Thank you. >> Go next. >> You want to go next? >> Yeah, go ahead. >> Okay. Um, how would you describe your leadership style and can you provide some examples of how it's evolved throughout your career? So I think leadership style is always interesting because a great leader can evolve to the moment. So sometimes you're a servant leader and you need to be serving others and you
007need to make sure that you're holding people up and supporting them. Sometimes you have to be a transformational leader um and you need to make sure that you are moving a district forward or moving an um an initiative forward. So for me it's really that idea of being flexible. I think leadership is having a lot of tools in your bag and knowing which tools to use and when. Um I never really subscribe to myself as being one type of leader because then what happens when scenarios change. Um you really have to be able to wear a lot of hats. Um I mean in general I think most of us in education lead towards service. That's why we're in public service. We want to we want to serve the public. We want to serve the community,
008parents, our students, our staff. Um, but from a style perspective, again, I think you've got to you got to wear a lot of hats. Um, and I think how that's evolved throughout my career, I think early on in any administrator's leadership career, you really start out as kind of an operational leader, right? You keep the lights on, you make sure things are staffed, those types of things, and then you tend to move into more of an instructional leader. So you're able to align curriculum, you're able to give feedback to teachers. Um, and I think the point that I'm at in my career is more of an organizational leader at this point. I can be an operational leader. I can be an instructional leader, but I also understand how organizations work. I understand how to implement.
009Um, I understand how people evolve through change. And so, um, I think it's an evolution. And, um, I've trained a lot of people on leadership and you see that evolution through everybody. And it's usually pretty easy when you get to know a leader to kind of know what what level they're at. Unfortunately, in education, most of us stop at instructional leadership. That's kind of where it ends. Once we think we're an instructional leader, we think that's it. Um, and it's why you see a lot of failed implementation. It's why you see um a lot of change initiatives not go through because a lot of educational leaders don't understand the organizational aspect of it. They don't understand behavioral psychology. They're not great at conflict resolution. And so, um, for me, I would humbly say that I
010think I've reached that point in my career. I've done this for a long time. Um, and I'm excited to to bring that here. >> Thank you. >> How do you build trust with principles, teachers, parents, and the school board, especially when entering a new district? >> Um, I think a couple things. one, always telling the truth, always being honest. Um, being very transparent and then walking my talk. Um, if I say we're going to do something, we do it. Um, and that's not always as a leader, you're not always going to share good news. Um, but I think sharing the truth. I had to have a difficult conversation with the teacher earlier this week. Um, and everything she said was, "Thank you. Thank you for being honest with me. Thank you for telling me the
011truth. Thank you for sharing with me why things are the way they are." Um, and I think that that earns trust. I think sometimes as leaders, um, you know, we think we've, I don't know, have to be everybody's friend and have to always give people what they want and have to always, um, you know, walk a certain line. And honestly, I think you build trust by being honest, being transparent, um, and walking your talk. Um, one of the things that I have seen over time that I think is sometimes uncomfortable when you're talking about trust is you don't build trust if you don't win. So, as a as a leader of a school or a school district, if you don't win, which is usually academic achievement, you're not going to build trust. Um, and I've
012had that talk with leaders over the years. I can remember a very um specific conversation with a director one time. Um, and she had said, you know, I don't feel you trust me. and I said, "You're you're not successful. You're not winning. You're not meeting your goals. It makes it difficult to trust you. It doesn't mean I think you're a liar, but it does mean I I I have to walk alongside you. I have to help you get better. I can't just give you full autonomy because you're not meeting your goals." And so, I think at the end of the day, you have to win. You have to actually demonstrate what you've been hired to do or you're not going to get that trust. And if you do have trust, it's such surface level. Um,
013you know, I trust this person because they're nice to me or I trust this person, um, you know, because they seem kind, but at the end of the day, um, trust is not going to happen unless you fulfill your mission. >> Uh, can you describe your approach to strategic planning? >> Absolutely. Um, and I think there's a couple ways to do it. Strategic planning in a I think a a school district sense is usually about building a strategic plan, right? You get your community together, you you get information and you build where you're going to go for three to five years. Um when I think of strategy, I think more of what is your strategic direction. Strategy helps you decide what to say no to. I think it's the most important thing about strategic planning
014is if you don't know where you're going, it's really hard to say no. It feels personal. Um so when I think of how I would approach strategic planning. We've got to go back and look at do we have a mission? Do we understand why we exist as an organization? Do we have a vision? Do we know where we're going and what success looks like? Um do we have core beliefs and values? Meaning, do we know how we're going to behave to get there? And then once you have that, you can decide your strategic direction. Um I've talked with a few folks about that in the district just over the last two weeks as we're looking at budget. I'm like, how can you create a budget and decide what to cut when we're not real clear
015about where we're going? Um, we have to have a strategic direction because then it makes it clear what I should value, what I should say no to, um, what I can't live without. And so, obviously, I think in general to oversimplify it, we could say our strategic direction is, you know, to increase academic achievement, but that's definitely not defined enough. Um, we need to talk about what our strategy is to get there. I uh brought in all the building leaders about a week ago and shared with them. Um in my mind, our strategic direction is focus. We've got to focus. We're doing too much, which means we're not doing anything well. Um we're not really sure what um I don't know like what philosophy, what practice is going to get us where we're going because
016I'm not sure we've defined where we're going. Um, I think we have some people who think we're going east and some people that think we're going west. And so I think we need to focus. So when I think about where I would suggest we move is in a very focused direction. Um, but we've got to take a little bit of a step back and make sure we're clear on our mission. Um, which my understanding probably hasn't changed in a while. Our vision that's posted is not a vision. It's a tagline. It's not, you know, what we want to be as an organization. If I were to ask you five years from now, if you're describing this district and we're the best district in the state, what are you saying that that's our vision? Um, we
017don't have that. So, we need to discuss that and then we decide our strategy to get there. Um, and that may very well end up in a strategic plan. I don't believe in this day and age, a five-year strategic plan is the best bet because we have to be agile. But I think you have to have a strategic direction and then I think you can create short cycles of innovation of goals. Um but again we've got to figure out where we're going and then pick a strategy to get there. >> Okay. So what is your experience managing a district budget of similar size to ours? How have you handled budget constraints while protecting instructional priorities? So, when I look at my last district, um, our budget was about 80 million, so more than ours, and
018we had $25 million in reserves, which I think is what any district wants to do. You want to have healthy savings. You want to make sure that you're paying people well, but you also want to make sure you have a rainy day fund. Obviously, in a situation like that, um, you've got plenty of money. When I was in Douglas County, I think we had a $800 million budget. I can also remember cutting about $35 million over a couple years um which is the size of our budget. So um no matter what size budget I've worked with, I think my my kind of feelings have stayed the same and that's in almost any organization. You can afford anything you want. You just can't afford everything you want. Which is why you need priorities. You need a
019vision. you need to know um where you're going because just like your home budget, you can afford what you need if you prioritize. Um and so even in budgets like I had my last superintendency where we were flushed with cash, you still had to prioritize. The community does not want you wasting their money. Um and so even um when I think of that, I mean, imagine $80 million and more than 25% in reserves, I still spend every dime as though it was mine, right? I we sometimes get a a bad rap in education that, you know, if if I'm searching for a flight at home, I'm looking for the best best prize, I'll leave at 5 in the morning. I'll pick the worst seat, but boy, if it's on the district dime, I'm flying first
020class and, you know, I I might not, you know, go and really do the research I need to find the best buy. Um, I think you spend every dime as though it's your own because it's our taxpayers expect that. And so when you look at the different size budgets, yeah, there's nuances, but at the end, your values and your beliefs around spending taxpayer uh dollars in a in an efficient and effective way um is important no matter what. And getting those reserves up. You don't want to be in a position like we were in Douglas County when you've had to cut. Um, in a district where 80 to 85% of your money goes to salaries, what gets cut if you have to cut money? It is people. And we're a people business. And in a
021district this size, you're just not going to get enough attrition. People will lose their jobs. And so, it's something that I take very seriously. If we get in a point where we don't have money, you are literally sending people home. not able to feed their families. And so we've got to do a a very good job being good stewards of the taxpayer dollars, making sure that we're responsible in spending. Um I'm not a person who thinks in education we need more money. I think we need to cut. I think we need to run lean and mean. Um and rather than asking the community for more money like most school districts do, we need to first and foremost prove that we're using the dollars that we have wisely. Um, and many school districts don't do that
022well and we certainly don't do it as transparently as we need to. So, um, worked with a lot of different sized budgets. Obviously, in other parts of my career, I worked with smaller budgets, right? When I was a principal, you got about $6 after you paid for the copier. Um, and and it's the same thing, right? When I was assistant superintendent and I was over, I don't know, 90 schools, I had department budgets that were big and small. I had school budgets that were big and small. your values don't change. Um, and so it's being clear about what you're willing to spend money on and what you're not willing to spend money on. >> How do you uh recruit, develop, and then retain highquality teachers and administrators in the district? >> So, I think the
023first thing is you have to work on retaining the great people that you've got. And that starts by being clear about what we think effective instruction is and what we think performance is and being clear that with those staff members that you are what we're looking for and you epitomize what we want in Elizabeth school district and then making sure that we keep them. Um, interestingly enough, people will tell you, well, I need to make more money. And the research is just just does just not support that. You have to be able to make enough money to be comfortable. You can't be 10 $15,000 off your neighbor, but you can be five and then you keep people by having a good culture. You keep people if they feel they have autonomy, if they feel they're
024actually really good at what they're doing and they have the training that they need and that they have relationships with the people that they work with. Um, it's not complicated. It's very clear in in the research of how you keep people. Um I also don't believe that you want again employees being paid $10,000 higher than everybody else because then you handcuff people. People who might think it's time to move on can't leave. And so it's an interesting dynamic in terms of how you get your pay and benefits. But it's culture. I mean I'm sure you guys have all heard the tagline the past few years. People don't leave jobs, they leave bosses. And it's true. It's it's the culture. Culture will keep people here. And there's a lot of reasons to stay in Elizabeth if
025you're here, even if you're not making um as much as somewhere else. Um we have great kids, we have great families, we have great colleagues. Um and I've been in some of those other places and the grass isn't greener and it's not worth the extra money. And so for me, it's about making sure that we have a culture where people are trained and they feel confident that they can do their job. We we help them do that job in a way where we can give them the autonomy to teach. Teaching is an art. We don't want to clamp down so much that they don't have the autonomy to do what makes sense. But we've got to make sure that they have the training where we trust to give the autonomy. Um as far as recruiting
026people, if you do that well, the recruiting becomes easier because you're not replacing 30% of your staff every year. Um you're able to really fine-tune and know who you're getting. Um, Jeff has been doing a great job of helping to brand who we are. Again, I think we've let uh a few minority of people try to define on social media who we are, and that's sure not what I found the last four months. So, we've spent a lot of time talking about how do we brand ourselves and quit letting other people brand us because if people are listening to Facebook, they might not think this is a great place to come work. So, we've got to do a better job of of celebrating what's great about Elizabeth. And I think that will help us um
027recruit people, but um anytime you're a district that has something going on out in the community and we allow a small group of people to monopolize that, it's going to hurt our recruitment efforts. So, we need to overshadow that with all of the positive things that are happening here and write our own narrative. And Jeff's very good at telling stories and I know he's going to do a great job of telling our story and what it really is because this is a wonderful school district and I keep saying there are hundreds of people that would love to work out here. I know I've been in other places and many people are searching for a district like this. We're missing that link somehow. Um and we've got to get that out there and get the right
028people. But um we can work on that culture. We can work on the pay. I think as we get our budget under control um and really fine-tune what we're doing, you can pay people more. Um I personally believe you pay people who are performing more. I don't necessarily believe you pay everybody more. I think we have to define what performance is and then make sure we're paying the people who are performing very well. Um and create that system where people want to be here. So again, it's been interesting since I've got here that in some places it feels hard. And I think um I think we've kind of had that culture in the district. I think we have leaders who are scared if they lose someone because they don't know if they can hire somebody
029else. And I think we've led from a little bit of a place of fear versus being positive about this district and this community and saying, "Next man up, I'll go find someone. I know there are people that want to come work here." And so I think we've got to change that culture as well. I think we're a little risk adverse when it comes to recruiting. And I think in some cases it's allowed us to allow average people to stay and our kids need better than average. Um and so I think you can create a culture of excellence that's just going to drive the right people to want to work here. >> Thank you. I'm going around the corner with my notes. >> I'll catch my breath. >> Um, okay. So, describe a specific turnaround situation
030you've led. Walk us through a school or district that was underperforming when you arrived. What were the key indicators of struggle? What strategies did you implement and what were the measurable outcomes? >> Um, so I'll I'll kind of go back to my early years. I think you guys know I was a turnaround principal um years ago down in Harrison School District. Uh I was at four different schools in seven years. And so my first principal ship, I came in, the school was on improvement. Um scores were floundering and um there had been some change. There was a new superintendent in the district and um I think 70 80% of the kids were on free and reduced lunch and they just weren't performing. Um and so I came in the first year and I made some
031mistakes. I drove excellence. Um, and it worked, but I wouldn't have wanted it to work for me. Um, I drove way too hard. I didn't do a lot of listening to what was already working. I just said, "This is what we're doing." People did it. Um, I always joke the very first day back with staff. I'm, you know, up in front doing my PowerPoint, you know, talking away about what we're going to do. And at at like 2:00, this teacher raises her hand and goes, "Can we have lunch or go to the bathroom or something?" And I'm like, "Oh, yeah." like that. So, made a lot of mistakes, but I can tell you I came back year two. Um, I kind of say I spent that first year tearing down the parts of the house
032that didn't work. And I remember sitting there that summer going, "How am I going to rebuild it?" Um, and I rebuilt it as a professional learning community. And so, we came together. We got very clear about um student achievement being the key that we believed all kids could learn, that we knew they were going to learn because of us. Um, we aligned our curriculum. We're very clear about what kids have to know and be able to do. Um we started using data and it drove um our assessment. It is very very similar to the um system that I've recommended for Running Creek. Um at this point I think that school has now been a national blue ribbon award award winner, a national title one distinguished school. Um, and it is still to this day thriving,
033which I think is the mark of a good leader. I've seen a lot of turnaround leaders that feel really good about the fact that when they were there, their school was great, and when they left, it crashed. So, it must have been me. I'm so important and so good. No, if you were a great leader, you built the leadership density that when you left, that school got even better. Um, from there, I went uh up to a middle school which was failing terribly. Um, I think they were on maybe even on turnaround. Um, I think within the first week 80% of the staff quit. Um, and they were good staff members, but they felt they could love their kids to Harvard. Um, this was probably the roughest middle school in Colorado Springs. Um, good people,
034really good teachers, good kids, but they they weren't interested in being held accountable to academic achievement. Um, and I think you probably heard me say I hired I don't know 80% of the staff was first year Teach for America kids, right? So the Peace Corps of Education, 21, 22 year olds who had never taught a day in their life. And at the end of that first year, we made more growth than all but three schools in the entire state. Um because we did those very same things that um we had done at Wildflower. We built a professional learning community. We got very clear and very focused about what we were doing. We created a no excuses culture. We targeted each individual kid. You know, every kid is a learner and flooded the ones that needed
035more help. um and turn that place around. So, it's I I always tell people the turnaround process is not hard. It's really not. It's it's so we all know what to do. It's difficult. It's it's tiring. It's a lot of work, but it's not like we don't know what we're doing. Um it's not hard to figure out. It's it's very easy to figure out what you have to do. People have done it all over this country. Um you have to be disciplined. You have to be focused. Um, you have to stay the course. You have to be willing to have difficult conversations. Um, when things get tough, you um, you know, I always like the scene from Hoosiers where Gene Hackman kind of puts his little, you know, book in the air like, I know
036what I'm doing is right. Um, and sometimes in a turnaround situation, you're going to get people that say, I don't understand why you're doing this. Um, and they will um, they will understand, but it's um, you really just have to be relentless about student achievement. Um, and again, there's a lot of flashy squirrels that run in front of you and a lot of things that we would say, but this is good for kids or this is good for staff. It might be, but every one of those is an opportunity to take your focus off the goals that you set for that year. And that's how schools and districts get in trouble. And so for me, in every one of those situations, like I said, I think I was at four schools in seven years. Um,
037every one of them was the kind of the same emmo. you come in, you build leadership, um you you get people built around a goal. Uh professional learning communities as a structure to work. Um and you focus on kids. Um and in in a lot of places, you know, especially in our elementary schools, you read and you write and you read and you write and you read and you write. Um you don't type on a computer all day and you're just relentless about reading and writing in an elementary school and you will turn those scores around. What diagnostic tools and data do you use to identify the root causes of underperformance in a struggling school? So, this is something I've done a lot, not only as a leader, but as a consultant. I spent quite
038a few years as a consultant going into school districts doing this very thing. Um, going into a school diagnosing what's wrong, doing mid-year reviews, doing endofear reviews. Um, and it's quantitative and qualitative, right? I mean, you can tell a lot by just simply asking the teachers, do you know the direction of the district and do you agree with it? Um, if teachers don't know, um, how can you expect them to, you know, to follow? Going in and actually watching instruction. It's one of the things that, um, if I'm selected, we will focus heavily on next year is getting into classrooms, watching instruction, and giving effective feedback. um you can tell me all you want um about what's going on in your school. I can tell in five minutes in a classroom if it's actually happening.
039Um there's, you know, you can look at a budget. A budget will always tell you what that school values. Um and you can see where people are spending their money, what they value. You can look at their schedule. um there, you know, if I walk into a school and unfortunately we have this schedule in a couple of ours and um I think we've got to improve upon it. If it takes 10 minutes to get to class and we start packing up 15 minutes before the bell rings because we think kindergarteners can't somehow grab their backpack and get on the bus when the bell rings, that's a problem, right? We're wasting time every day um that we could be educating students um talking with staff members, talking with parents. There's a lot you can find out.
040Again, if we're talking about performance, that means our parents should be satisfied with the education that their students are getting. We found out when we did the math survey, right? That was great data about our performance. We knew by test scores we weren't performing. We found out a little bit from parents why. Um, and so making sure that you're talking to all stakeholders. I love survey data. It tells us a lot. Um, but there's just nothing like getting in and looking at the quality of instruction. Um, and quite honestly, and I probably did this more um, in my consulting days, having honest conversations with the uh, with the leadership staff. Um, what's working, what's not working. Um, show it, demonstrate it to me. Um, I I can remember a very pointed conversation with a principal
041in southern Colorado um where I actually, you know, finally told the guy, "You cannot be a leader and a victim at the same time." Like, I I'm in here to look at why your school's underperforming and you're just sitting here making excuses. You're a leader. Fix it. Um, and so oftentimes, you know, you can tell that underperformance right away. I'd say nine out of 10en times is leadership. Um, great leaders fix their schools. Um, it's why I mean, one of the things Dan and I talked about early on when I got here is I think we need to identify our principles. We need to do a better job of recruiting. We need to pay more. Those are key positions. Um, you can get away with some of your positions not being high paid. You can
042get away with some of your positions being average, not principles. And so, I would tell you nine out of 10en times the root cause of underperformance is the building leader. Um, and you can see it in every decision they make. You can see it in things that they say, things that they do. Um, when I walk into a classroom with a principal and the kids all look and go, "Who are you?" That principal is obviously not in the classroom. Um, and so to me, it's spending time getting in there, getting feedback, getting data. Um, I would say it's not, again, that one's probably not rocket science. When you've done this as long as I have, I think you can walk into a building and you fill it pretty quick. Then you got to go in
043and find out why, and it's usually the person sitting in that front office. >> So, what frameworks or models do you use to drive continuous academic improvement across the district? >> So, I like the word because I frameworks and models because I'm not a fan of programs. I'm not a fan of textbooks, as you guys know. Um, I think you put in place models, you put in place frameworks. um things like professional learning communities, right? As a way for staff to work together, to talk about students, to talk about data, um the understanding by design model. It talks about how we plan backwards design. We start with the end in mind and then we plan backwards. So, um we decide what it is kids have to know and be able to do before we decide
044the resource. Um, if we, and I had this conversation recently, um, someone wanting to buy a new novel, why would we buy a new novel? We haven't decided what kids have to know and be able to do yet. Um, if we're going to buy the novel first, that means we're letting the novel drive what kids should know and be able to do versus standards. Um, so when you look at some of the the work um, from understanding by design, I think it's a great model to follow. Um, I think some of the probably frameworks that I've put into practice myself around, um, what I call strategic design, which is what we're doing in a lot of our schools now, where you're using your resources a little more flexibly. Um, so as a staff, um, similar
045to what we're doing at Running Creek, right, we have we can co-e um, we can ability group, we can departmentalize, there are different ways to to look at how we design our school. There are different ways to design our schedule um to make sure that every kid gets what they need. Um you know the the framework that I put in place with the distributed leadership team that's how you get initiatives from the superintendent's office to the teachers classroom. You need that model. It's not just going to happen and it certainly doesn't happen by bringing in outside consultants. Um you actually have to build uh that leadership density within the the school district itself. Um, so again, I'm not huge on programs and things like that. Those frameworks, there's really probably two or three that I
046always fall back on that are kind of core to, I think, everything I've done. Um, professional learning communities covers 90% of it because it talks about what students have to know and be able to do. It talks about having a no excuses culture. It talks about you need to get staff members together to talk about kids and look at data. Um, and so again, I don't I I think sometimes in education we try to be cute and we over complicate things and really some of the the best frameworks and models are just going back to some of the basic stuff that we know works. >> So you talked about using uh data to inform instructional decisions. How do you ensure that the data is actionable at the classroom level and not just something that's reported
047to the school board? >> Probably my favorite question. So that was actually my first leadership position. I was pulled out of the classroom to be a data coach and my job was to coach teachers and leaders on how to use data to drive instruction back in I don't know late 90s early 2000s. Um and it really is starting with making sure all of your teachers have a fundamental understanding of assessment. What formative assessment is, what summitive assessment is. Um, oftentimes we're not a fan of summitative assessments like state testing because you don't get the data back soon enough to make instructional decisions. So, it's working with teachers on how to use formative data within your classroom. Meaning, how do I how do I assess a student in a way that that data informs what I
048need to do next? Um, and the best formative strategies are part of your instruction. They're great instructional strategies. Um, one of the things I I enjoyed walking around with um with Nancy Smith, our new math coordinator, you know, in a math classroom, if we just ask everybody, you know, um, you know, is 2 plus two always equal four, I don't really know what you're thinking. But if every kid has a little whiteboard and they hold up four, that is instant formative data. Because if you hold up three, I know I'm going to go cidle up next to you and help you or I'm going to pull you aside in a little bit. if everybody has it, then I need to move on, right? If I don't know that, I may retach the thing. And so,
049it's working with teachers on actual instructional strategies. Um, and something that we've definitely got to implement here is when you're thinking about that formative data, making sure we understand the difference between diagnostic um benchmark and um the progress monitoring data for every kid that we have. We need to diagnose where the issue is. We can't just, as an example, take every kid who's not reading at grade level and put them in take flight, which is a two-year sentence of extreme um reading intervention that can have no more than five kids. What if that kid just needed a little fluency work? Um and so it's really understanding how do we diagnose? So with reading, if a kid is not reading at grade level, we've got to see if they're reading fluently. If they are, then they
050just need work on vocabulary and comprehension. If they're not, we need to see if they're decoding. If they're decoding, then we work on fluency. We know that's where the gap is. If they can't decode, we look and see if they have phmic awareness in place. If they don't, then we work on phmic awareness. So, it's diagnosing just like a doctor would. You're running tests. That's our our progress monitoring data. And then once we know what it is, you progress monitor that skill. And if kids are really behind, you progress monitor that skill every week. So if we know you can't decode, we are going to progress monitor decoding every week, not take a comprehensive IR ready assessment that you know doesn't tell us specifically. And what we know is we take where the kid is
051now, we take where the kid is supposed to be and we draw an aim line. And that kid in every one of those progress monitoring should be above the aim line. If they fall below that aim line three progress monitorings in a row, we have to change something, right? We either have to change the intervention, we have to change the time or intensity, we need to change the person doing it. Um, similar to what is going on right now in the district with first, you know, with our kind of core instruction, if a kid's not getting it and a lot of times we don't have a place to put them. It's same thing in our intervention system. We've got to monitor those kids and we know same thing if a kid has met that aimline,
052we get them out of that intervention because we want that kid to move forward and we also want the kids who are left to get even more intensive instruction because now there's one less child. Um, and so making sure our staff have a strong understanding of that and then making sure that our leaders put systems in place that allow that to happen. If a teacher knows it, great. If the principal doesn't create a schedule that allows that to happen or if we don't create the space for people to talk about data, right? We now know next year every elementary teacher is going to have joint planning. Every middle and high school math and language arts teacher is going to have joint planning. That means there is at least there's about an hour every single day
053of the year where the third grade team could meet if they wanted to. At Singing Hills, there are five days a week almost, you know, an hour a day where high school math teachers are going to meet and they're going to talk about instruction. They're going to talk about data. They're going to build common assessments. And so we have to have the structure that allows that to happen as well. Um, and so it's twofold. Yes, you've got to get that data into the teacher's hand and make sure it's changing at the classroom level. They can't do it on their own. they need to be in a system that allows that to happen and supports them. Um, worst thing you can do as a teacher is do all that work and identify a kid that needs
054help and then the system doesn't have help for them. >> So, we've got to do both. >> Thank you. >> What role does curriculum alignment play in your improvement strategy and how have you successfully implemented curriculum changes districtwide? So the very first research article I ever read as a teacher was called in search of the standardized curriculum by Bob Marzano who's probably the most famous researcher in education. This was probably almost 30 years ago. And in that he said creating a guaranteed and viable curriculum which is what you get when you align that curriculum is the number one thing that affects student achievement. To this day that is still true. um you're just not going to increase student achievement if you don't know what kids have to know and be able to do in what
055order by grade level. Um so it plays the most most important role. It is absolutely the first thing you have to do. Um you can't if you don't your child is a lottery ticket player, right? If you're in this teacher's class, you get this. If you're in this teacher's class, you get this. It's got to be guaranteed. meaning no matter what third grade classroom you walk into at Singing Hills or Running Creek, I know my kids are going to leave having mastered these skills. And then it has to be viable, meaning it actually has to be doable. Um, before Colorado went to the Common Core, it would have taken K through 22 grade to teach all the standards. And then we we we talk about like depth over breadth. So that's where you started seeing
056in the standards movement a lot of work on power standards like okay let's look at these what are the most important and there's a lot of processes you can you can use you can look and say um what what standards are good foundational standards like this is something that's going to be very important they're going to have to know over time what's something that you know is tested what's something that um is a a a standard that we need to build upon so if you don't have the foundation so You've got to go through all of that. In uh my professional development plan for next year, we've already talked the first step in that is to build a scope and sequence for literacy and math K through 12. So that is literally just talking about
057what students have to know and be able to do and creating that sequence of those things over the course of K through 12. Once you have that down and your teachers are comfortable for that, you want to move to a full curriculum map. That means you're tying assessments to that. That means you're tying resources and really as a teacher instead of taking a textbook and reading page 1 through 400, you've got your map and you could literally hand it to a substitute teacher and they can look and say, "Okay, we've mastered these, you know, 12 concepts. We're here. Let's go." And in a way, it guarantees because you you could almost report out on that for every kid by the time you're done. Um, and that's what I mean when I say how do you
058retain teachers? you give them the strategies like that. Um, and you make them know that they know their stuff and they feel confident. Um, I can remember years ago doing curriculum alignment and we would create curriculum maps and districts would want to buy them. And it's like, I don't want to give you that and then you just go hand it to the teachers. There's going to be no buyin. Why don't I come in and sit down with your third grade team and we'll do it together? because teachers understand the standards a lot more when they build that process themsel. Um, which is why another reason why we put together those content leads and those department heads in math and literacy and the distributed leadership team is because they need to be the experts and then
059we'll pull in the other teachers as we go. um that creates such self-efficacy in the teachers like they become masters and if you think about an elementary teacher who comes in who probably is a master in reading but probably not in math and all of a sudden they map that out and now they understand oh after I teach this this comes next. Um, and then as you're working through that, it gives you an opportunity to look at that and go, "Well, my data says I didn't do very good at this, but Dave, your data says you did. Tell me what you did." Like, what what strategy did you use? How, you know, can you come watch me teach and give me feedback? Um, it it's a catalyst for conversation that without we don't have it.
060Um, and it's why I'm not a big program or textbook person because it allows us not to do this hard work, which is important. It allows us to just follow a textbook. Um, and that is not going to be guaranteed and it's certainly in most cases not viable. You guys looked at some of the math textbooks. I'm like, how can you teach eight books in a year? It's not viable. Um, which then means teachers are going to pick and choose what they think. I don't mind teachers having autonomy in that, but it should be as a group, not individually. So, it's guaranteed no matter what class you go to. Um, so it's by far, you know, the most important thing we do instructionally. Um, it's probably one of my favorite things to do. I've done
061that at school levels. I've done that at district levels. Um, and it's by far the most important work and probably the thing that I've seen give teachers the most confidence in what they're doing. >> What would success look like for you in this role after three years and after five years. >> Um I'm still standing. No. Um you know I part of that I can tell you I'll give you my answer because you of course you have to have um that idea as a leadership but part of it is going to be me working with staff in the community over time to figure out what does success look like in this community. Um I have a sense right we obviously need academic achievement to improve. I doubt people in this community would sacrifice academic achievement
062for their kids being jerks, right? We want both. We want kids to to grow with perseverance and grit and determination and we want them to have those durable skills employers are looking for, but they also need to prove that they can read, write, and do math. So for me um you know if you look three years from now we're sitting here knowing that we are well exceeding the state in um you know in our CAMASS scores. I think that's there's no reason why that can't happen. Um you know there's a district around here that keeps saying they have the highest scores in the area and I would love to be able to tell them no you don't. Not anymore. Um and so and I don't think that's too lofty of a goal. I mean, I
063think that that's there's there's a lot of apathy out there around academic achievement right now, and it's one of the reasons why I enjoy being here because this is a board and a community that says, "No, this isn't good enough." I mean, I've heard Dan say it a hundred times in here, right? Beating the state average is nothing to write home about. Um, we've got to do better. Um I think um trying to think the best way to articulate this that our kids you know at the pinnacle at the high school that they have a pathway that high school isn't just about finishing it's about I know this is the path to my career. Um you know at this point in my career sometimes I'm starting to think the whole purpose of education is just
064workforce readiness. um you go to school so that you can get a job, not live in your parents' basement. And you know, as kids get older, they need to see that target. They need to know, I'm going to be a plumber. I'm going to be a lawyer. I'm going into the military. We need to be clear, well, this is the role elementary school plays in that. This is the role middle school plays. And when you get to high school, here is the specific path you want to go on. So, it has meaning to them. And I I think we've lost a little bit of that. Um I think success would be that we have teachers who are successful, well compensated, happy, proud. Um I one of the things that has been the hardest for me
065to watch since I've been here, I don't think our average staff member has hope right now. I don't think that they think things are necessarily going to get better. And so I want people to be hopeful. Um, there's a an author that talks about you can tell culture when people are as excited for Mondays as they are for Friday afternoons. Um, and I've heard a lot of, "Oh my god, one more day. One more day." Um, I love Monday. Like I it's I love to work. I want our staff to be like, I can't wait to get back on Monday because I know I'm making such a difference for my kids. Um, and so having that hope, having that energy, being excited, I think, uh, similarly our community being proud, right? If we're successful, it
066means and and I think you guys know this about me. I am a 100% for student choice. My own kids and my grandbaby have all used different forms of school choice, but I would love for our neighborhood schools to be the best choice. I would like for some of those 750 kids to be like, "Why did I ever leave? I can't wait to get back." Um there's I there's no better way I I think to say we're doing a good job than people vote with their feet and come back. Um and even maybe some of them hop over some borders, right? We're surrounded by other school districts and I think we should be the best choice for everybody. Um, and I think even when you look at all of our schools, all six of our
067schools, I would love to see all six of our schools grow and be the best option for the entire, you know, kind of, I don't know, maybe Eastern Douglas County, Southern, you know, Denver, obviously, Elbert County, and I think we can do that. Um, and so, um, for me, it's it's a high bar. I could probably go on and list a hundred more things. Um, but I think if our students, our staff, and our parents are just over the moon about what we're doing, it's probably oversimplifying, but I think it would be the best. Um, that means we're doing a lot of other things right that I could talk about, but um, nobody that that is never going to become true if we don't improve our academic achievement. Um, and so that that's the foundation
068of that success. >> All right. Well, I think that was the last question for the public interview. So, um what we are going to do is the board's going to take a quick executive session. Well, we're going to take an executive session. Um the board's going to meet and then um we might pull you in for a couple of more questions. >> Okay. >> So, um first up, public comment. >> Yeah, but we don't have one. Okay. >> But I didn't want to just ignore that. I apologize for interrupting. >> That's okay. Um, so with that, um, I move that the board proceed into executive session pursuant to Colorado Revised Statute 24-6-424C N4G with candidate for the position of superintendent who are not yet finalists um to discuss documents submitted by the candidates which are
069made confidential by the mandatory non-disclosure provisions of the Colorado Open Records Act, Colorado Revised Statute 24-72- 2043A >> 11 A I'm trying to catch my breath and p Oh, you got to cover all your bases. Um and pursuant to Colorado Revised Statute 24-6-424 G to discuss confidential documents submitted by the candidates for the position of superintendent which documents are protected by the mandatory non-disclosure provisions of the Colorado Open Records Act Colorado Revised Statute 24-72-2043A1A without any candidates it's present. So, um >> I'll second. >> Thank you. >> I should have repeat that, please. >> Okay. So, um we're going to take a break. We're going to run in there and just have a quick conversation and then we'll call you in. >> We need roll call. >> Oh, >> okay. >> You made the motion.
070>> Got the second roll call. >> Yeah, we have. >> Director Fletcher. >> I. >> Director Hunt. >> Hi. >> Director Olsen. >> I. >> Director Pal. >> Hi. >> Okay. was all the word. >> I'm just I'm dizzy. So, um we are um the board has concluded its executive session. No formal action was taken and we are now back in open session at 7:42 p.m. and we'll resume the agenda. So, our last item is um the uh selection of the sole finalist for superintendent. So, at this point, I move that the board choose Ted Knight as the sole finalist for superintendent. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> And can I get a roll call? >> Director Fletcher. >> I. >> Director Hunt. >> I. >> Director Olsen >> I. >> Director Pal.
071>> Hi. >> All right. Congratulations. That was a great interview. It was a great interview and we appreciate you coming in talking with us. So, >> thank you very much. >> All right. So, with that, I'm going to adjourn this meeting at 7:42 p.m. >> All right.