001started. Thanks for waiting just a couple of minutes while we all got here. Um we'll go ahead and stand up and do the pledge of allegiance real quick and then we'll um get into our meeting. So, United States. All right. Thank you. We'll go ahead and call the meeting to order. And do we want to do roll call or I don't think Okay, we're not voting on anything. So, it's more like a workshop. Okay. Well, uh, Director Lima is virtual and the rest of us are here. So, um, all right, you guys ready to come around and or come up? And so, this evening we're doing the turnaround and priority improvement school unified improvement plan presentations. Uh, we did this last year and we decided it was easier to do these meetings um, outside of
002a normal board meeting. Um, so we have Clifton Elementary, Rocky Mountain Elementary, Nisley Elementary, Grand Mesa Middle School, and Grand River Academy. So, we'll let Jen kick it off for us. I I will start it, but I will ask um my principles to come on up. Yes. Um Oh, you're invited. The only thing wherever you sit maybe alpha order but so thank you board. We will um I'm going to start us off. I'll kick us off and I'll give you guys all a little bit of background and then I will introduce um our our schools and at that time I'll have them introduce themselves to you and then I'm also I it's in the presentation we ask that if you'll wait till the end let everybody present and then when you have questions if we
003could do that at the end. So, like um President Height said, tonight is our special meeting for our schools um who are either in turnaround or priority improvement to present to the board. And this is part of a condition, a CDE condition that needs to to happen. Um we're going to start our presentation with our vision as always, engage, equip, and empower each and every student each and every day. As always, our students are always our why. and um we want to keep them at the forefront. We talk about all the time how um the graduate profile and our students where academic proficiency is only one slice of our graduate profile, but we all know the importance of that academic prof proficiency. So tonight's purpose is to inform our community about the D51 schools that
004have received state rating or priority improvement or turnaround and what the school's plans are for success. Um the schoolboard report is a process required by CDE. So what does it mean to receive um this rating? Again, it's our two um bottom accreditations and it's um the bottom one, the red, is accredited with turnaround and the second um lowest is accredited with priority improvement. Accreditation categories are based on the total percentage points earned on a school performance framework or an SPF. So here is just an example of an SPF. So at the top of an SPF, you'll see it's a we have a plan type and a rating um with growth and achievement total. So in the blue circle at the top this school um this example this um representation shows that there were 39.4 points
005earned out of a 100red possible and that means that this school has um had earned a priority improvement plan. At the bottom you could see academic achievement and academic growth approaching and does not meet. And each one of those categories of approaching and does not meet is based on a percentage of those achievement scores and those growth scores that I can talk to you a little bit later if you want some detail. um I I'd be happy to do so. Just this some of this as a review when we had Jenny Hinkle from um CDE last week, but just as a reminder um that these scores are based on achievement scores and then growth scores. And for elementary and middle, it's a 6040 split that um the the majority of the score the points are
006awarded for growth. I've said it very a number of times, growth precedes achievement. And we always want to emphasize in growth. High school, we don't have a high school with us this evening, but they have three um criteria. It's the postworkforce readiness, the achievement, and the growth. But you can see there that growth um is is heavierly it it's weighted more than PWR and achievement. So, here is the breakdown on a school performance framework. Again, it's the 40% achievement points for all students and for diverse um groups of our students. And you can see those diverse groups and where each one of those groups and the points that are um that are earned in those categories. And again, it's a percentage of the points that identify whether they're approaching, does not meet, meets or exceeds.
007And then below that is the 60% um the weight with the the growth points. Again, this is just an opportunity to provide an example. Growth always precedes achievement. We've said that. Um and you can just see that this shows that it's it's numerous. These are the the number of pages of an SPF. And it's not just one point. When a a school is in priority improvement or turnaround, they are challenged with numerous um areas of impact, not just small specific ones. The reason or the lesson here is there is no program or silver bullet that um does this work, but it is a broad spectrum of tier one and universal instruction use. Each school in Colorado, regardless of accreditation category, will use their SPF to craft their UIP or the unified improvement plan. Each UIP
008must identify major improvement strategies or also known as MIS. And our schools this evening are going to share their major improvement strategies that they will be incorporating into their um UIPs based on their SPFs. Am I good with all those acronyms? Okay, if there were a few. So what approaches do these schools take towards improvement when they are identified? Um so we start the top bullet. Our site directors are um a major source of support. They are here in the audience supporting our principles now and they work with principles all of their principles not just the ones that you'll hear from tonight to unpack their data and ensure that the schools MIS are focused on the areas that need the most improvement over time. Second, principles also work with their instructional leadership teams and their
009learning communities throughout the year, analyzing data and action planning to address those teaching and learning gaps. Clifton, Grama, and Nizzley are also receiving some additional outside supports such as consultants. Um, you met from Jenny H. You met or you heard from Jenny Hinkle last week and she is our CDE consultant and she works with a transformation network that many of these schools are a part of. And then um all of our schools this evening do receive some consultation from strive. That's our the group that we use that um for literacy. Um and we have one school that's receiving some math support, our consultant. And then um you've heard a number of times easy. Easy stands for empowering action for school improvement funds. Those are funds from CDE that we write for a grant every year.
010So the learning community um all of our schools are grounded in the um their work through their learning communities and you'll hear about the work that our schools and our principles this evening are using with their learning communities. But the four essential questions, you know, what do we expect our students to learn? How will we know when they're learning? How will we respond when they don't? And how will we respond if they already know it? These learning um communities ground themselves in data and student work. They also set quarterly goals. So you will hear about their major improvement strategies and they follow and progress monitor those strategies on a minimum of a quarterly basis. And those we call our sprints. And they're um all about the teaching and learning, the instruction, and what the student
011outcomes. We progress monitor those student outcomes. They monitor and adjust instruction to retach and assess for learning. So tonight, with that background knowledge that you have, hopefully you have a a good understanding when you hear from our schools this evening why they're sharing and what they're sharing um with you this evening. So again, if you don't mind, we'll wait till the end when all four are completed to ask those questions. Um we are going to start with Clifton Elementary. We will um start with Nizzley Elementary. We're gonna go in alpha order and as soon as our Clifton principal gets here, she will introduce herself and share her and then introduce herself and I'm gonna skip some slides. Hi, I'm Dorothy Wolf, principal of Nisley Elementary. Um, so Nisley Elementary is on a priority improvement plan.
012We are in year five and as you can see our academic achievement does not meet and our academic growth is approaching. I can beep. Um so our first major improvement strategy is around tier one instruction. So that is like the grade level green zone instruction. Um and we're really focusing on improving um foundational skills and meeting grade level standards. And we have kind of three avenues or action steps that we're taking to do that. Um our first one is really focusing in our professional learning communities on stage three planning, which is like the daily lesson planning. So we're really getting into um how our teachers um engaging students and giving opportunities to respond along with um learning targets and success criteria. Um so we have a set agenda um that we developed with our strive
013consultant. um that week one is looking at the overall module and identifying those learning targets and success criteria and what might be possible scaffolds for students um and um the assessments. And then week two is when we do that stage three planning where we're looking at what does it look like for each week and what questions are you going to ask students? Um and then week three is data meetings and cross conversations. Um the second step is we're doing monthly walkthroughs for both math and literacy and our instructional leadership team is analyzing those and we're utilizing the district um criteria or rubric for um explicit instruction. And then step three is we're having um data meetings and we're starting to ensure that we're using a body of evidence um and we're looking and we're using
014the protocol from relay of see it, name it, and do it. And we're really Thank you. Yeah, you're good. And we were just, it just says there that we were leveraging our PLC's to do that work. Um, our second major improvement strategy focuses around our parent and family engagement and looking at communication. So, um, our attendance was at 87% last year. So, um, we're focused on improving that and getting up to 90%. And so, we have been, um, increasing communication with families. And so, um, our first quarter goal is that our, um, teachers are calling when students have missed three days and reaching out to families and finding out why, um, and also, um, offering work or how we can support them to, um, help their child get to school. And we have seen an
015increase or a decrease in, um, in absences and an increase in attendance from doing that. Um, and then in the second quarter, our goal is going to focus on making sure that any students that have um more than five absences are in the MTSS process and that we're um starting to plan out some strategies to help them get them to school. And we're also creating positive attendance systems and starting to recognize students for coming to school and having perfect attendance. Um, number two is our family feedback surveys. Um, we've been we're collecting data at our community events and our builder building leadership team that focuses on culture is analyzing those results and that way we can act upon the feedback um so that we're ensuring that we're welcoming for parents and that we're also planning
016and scheduling events at times that they can attend. And so, um, in our events that we do plan, um, we're really making sure that we're incorporating our school performance goals, um, that we have something to support learning at home, and we're continuing to recognize for goal attainment during quarterly award assemblies. Uh major improvement strategy number three is really around our body of evidence and ensuring that all of our tiers of instruction are preparing um students and that we are um responding to them as learners. And so we have three steps here. So our leadership team um that's part of where our consultant with Strive has been helping us. Um we did a summer retreat which was really successful and we have a really focused agenda and um we also have an academic response team that's
017making sure that um our targeted students are moving forward. Um number two is that we're using um data systems. We're making sure that we are showing growth throughout the quarters and we're looking at our end of module and unit assessments. And lastly, those data meetings I mentioned before, um we're making sure that we are um looking at data and making changes in instruction based upon a body of evidence. And this was also um we had a protocol created with our strive consultant. And we're also leveraging our weekly PLC times and team planning for that. And then this last way is just the way that we're progress monitoring. Um and you can see there's some overlap of these things, but some of the things we're doing is we're um really looking and having data meetings about
018our module and unit assessments. Um we're looking at NWA and looking at um the projected growth of that. Um we are um using our Strive data system that we learned from the district and from the Strive consultants. Um we're doing our instructional walkthroughs and we also provide observation and feedback to teachers on a regular basis. So thank you All right, good evening everybody. My name is Tyler Jones and I'm the principal at Rocky Mountain Elementary. Um, as you can see, this is our first year in priority improvement and for the past two years, we've been intentionally focused on culture and climate in our building. We've done a lot of important work of establishing a clear vision and ensured that we as a staff have shared common values. Um while we're behind expectations in achievement and
019growth, uh we feel confident about the plan that we've set forth for the year. So for major improvement strategy one, we're focused on improving student reading achievement by refining core instruction. So what I've identified is three improvement strategies and the action steps to go along with them. Um our major improvement strategy, one is to deepen understanding of ELA standards. We plan on doing that by fostering collaboration within our learning communities to unpack and gain a comprehensive understanding of ELA standards, ensuring that all educators are aligned in their instructional approaches. Um, our second action step is to implement a data-informed instruction protocol. Um, we're going to be doing that to uh enable educators to make informed decisions based on student performance data um driving targeted improvements in teaching practices. And then finally, we're setting out to
020create clear learning targets and success criteria. By establishing and implementing clear learning targets and success criteria for each lesson, we'll be providing students with transparent goals and measurable outcomes to enhance their learning experience. Our second major improvement strategy, there's some overlap, but we're going to be in uh focused on improving student math growth by improving core instruction and targeted interventions. So, I laid out three uh major uh action steps that we're going to be taking in regards to that. And the first is to address learning gaps. We want to prioritize a focus uh specifically on math standards and where students have demonstrated gaps in their understanding, allowing for targeted instruction that addresses these critical areas. The second step, we want to make sure that we are aligning targeted interventions. So we want to develop and
021implement targeted interventions for tier 2 and tier three so that students are closely aligned with or sorry so that the interventions are closely aligned with core instruction ensuring that all students receive the necessary support to improve their math skills. And then finally you're going to see the overlap where in math we're going to also be focusing in on uh creating clear learning targets and success criteria. And again, very similarly, establishing and implementing the clear learning targets and success criteria for each lesson, providing students with that transparent goal and measurable outcome to enhance their learning experience. And for our third major improvement strategy, we're going to be cultivating a strong sense of belonging and building supportive classroom communities. We're going to be doing that by first utilizing effective strategies for a supportive classroom. Specifically, we're going
022to continue to implement strategies for creating a caring community and environment, including power circles, classroom commitments, and schoolwide expectations. We plan to strengthen our community engagement by establishing var various ways for parents and caregivers to engage in their students learning, such as hosting parent nights, one's coming up on at the end of October, uh making positive phone calls, and utilizing social media to engage our families. And finally, we plan to improve a sense of belonging between peers by building opportunities for students to build positive relationships with their peers. Um, excuse me. Good evening. I'm Randy Foster. I'm the principal at Grand Mesa Middle School. Um, we are at currently in a turnaround plan. This is our second year on the clock. um we are um not meeting academic achievement at 25% and we showed approaching
023growth at 37.5% on our SPF last year. So both we have two major improvement strategies. Both of these improvement strategies are focused on creating a clear consistent learning environment for students. So our major improvement strategy one is culture and climate. So we're trying to increase our students sense of belonging and create a safe and productive climate in which learning can happen. And we're doing that be by creating clear and consistent expectations for behavior implementing positive behavior and in positive behavior and intervention supports what we call tracks and providing a consistent response to behavior infractions. And our second uh improvement strategy then is creating consistent instructional strategies. Again, we want our students to experience the same kind of learning environment in every classroom they enter. Um, we're trying to increase time on task towards the standards
024by having common lesson plan components. Um, working with a consultant on professional on professional learning for our teachers with strive and and helping teachers to engage students in learning bellto. All right. Good evening. I'm Amy Shepard. Uh I am the principal of Clifton Elementary. Over the last uh after over the last year, we have made some great strides in the improvement of our student outcomes. Um this slide that you're looking at is our school performance framework from last year. And then it should I don't have the click. Okay. And this one we have moved to priority improvement um this year um and we are two and a half points from improvement. Um we've been working with Relay Graduate School of Education as well as Jenny Hinkle with the Colorado Department of Education in implementing uh
025data cycles and targeted instruction within tier one. Um this past year we moved from 25 out of 100 to from turnaround to 39.5 and um we move from our does not meet in academic achievement and in growth to approaching in both um our and our major improvement strategy one is effective student supports and culture and again last year our biggest goal was to calm the learning environment. We were able to decrease our inschool suspension and out of school suspensions by 44% and we implemented the five Rs. We are leveraging into that work. Our five Rs are it's a it's a framework that uh supports everyone in the understanding of an equitable discipline structure. And so kids will expect that every time that they that that we're we're teaching within uh any kind of error of
026behavior. Um and our strategy is to um increase the student belonging and engagement and increase that our metric by 6% as measured by Panorama. And then also through an equitable discipline structure, we'll implement an a transparent protocol in supporting the student behaviors. And more specifically this year, we are working on those larger areas like lunchroom um after school, those kinds of times when it's unstructured, but really trying to be very um specific about what we expect. Additionally, we're also working on opportunities to respond, increasing the engagement within tier one instruction. And that's that one. And then moving into our strategy two, um it's vision for instruction for English language arts and math. And we are moving that through our our goals are we're moving up um into the 50th. We're we're shooting for the 60th
027median growth percentile on our unified improvement plan. And our action steps are uh 100% of teachers will engage in a coaching cycle around our teaching learning framework and implementing our data cycles in English language arts and mathematics targeting those gaps in student understanding as they achieve to grade level rigor and the standards. So with that, you have heard from our four schools. I I hope you understand when I um emphasize, as you probably already know, being here this evening is causing angst um for each one of our principles. But none of our principles are here um mis misunderstanding or they know the the sense of urgency and they know they understand that and every single one of them and their plans is all based in um those student those positive student outcomes. And so um
028with that being said, if you all have any questions, now would be your time. foster. Could you tell me what belltobell is? So, belltobell means that students um enter the classroom um they begin on a learning activity that that we call a warm-up or uh uh warm what's that? Warm-up is good. Warm up. Let's go with warm-up. Uh, and that warm-up should be tied to the learning outcome planned for the day or to to a thought-provoking question that they should respond to in a journal. Um, and then teachers have planned so that we have learning targets and success criteria on the board. So students are familiar with what they're going to be focusing on. The teacher provides instruction. The students are working um both with the teacher and independently. And then as they're leaving the
029classroom, there should be some measure of the knowledge added. And that that structure our but our our periods are 47 minutes. Hopefully that structure is taking the full 47 minutes maybe 48 minutes because it's important learning. And and in the past what has happened is teachers would teach for 10 to 15 minutes and then students would be given independent work time for an extended period of time and that led to a lot of offtask behavior and and behavior problems. So bell to bell means 47 minutes of teaching. Wasted moment for teaching and learning. Yes. How long is your ELA data cycle? um our data cycle. So at the very beginning of the school year, we actually paced out our every grade level paced out English language arts and math within every unit that they need
030to cover throughout the year. And so it just depends. It's it's usually about the the English language arts is about three weeks. It's a three-week cycle, but then also if you add on the foundational literacy skills, there's another week within there. So we meet with teams every week on Tuesdays. And so we are either talking about English language arts, foundational literacy or mathematics. And so we have that already paced out through the entire year as it comes in with what teachers are doing in the classroom. So then we pull the data right away and we're able to act upon it within the next few days and then act and then teach to the gaps. Thank you. Other question is for all of you who put down that you want to build a sense of belonging.
031How do you plan to do that? I'll start with Rocky. Yeah, absolutely. So, one of the structures that we built is as you saw in my action plan is a structure called power circles. It's similar to other structures that schools use called morning circles. Just isn't done in the morning and it's a little bit more systematic. And what it does is it allows teachers to build some of that connection through just some really light questioning, but then also some questioning that allows the some of that classroom community to be built. And so that's one of the structures that we're building out um systematically through the building just to give teachers that time to really connect with their class and build a powerful community. So, we do um it wasn't one of our goals this year,
032but we've been working on that as well for several years and keeping those systems in place, but um we do do the morning meeting that you're speaking of. And then on Mondays, we do a community meeting as a whole school. We do it virtually. Um and at that time, we get to share like schoolwide themes and focus in on that. Um we also have been focused a lot on recognition for students meeting um our bare expectations, which is like pit positive behavior in schools. And so, um, recognizing students when they are, um, meeting those expectations and they come down to the office and we hoop for them and cheer for them. Oh, Bear is, um, there's actually a chant, but it's I'm not doing that for you. I'm sorry. Um, I do it every Monday
033morning, but you'll have to come to see that um or at our quarter assemblies, but um B is be safe. E is everyone learns. A accept responsibility, and R respect SOS um school self and others. Thank you. So, we're working hard on building um a sense of belonging for our students, much like Nizzley, on working on positive behavior, rewarding the kids who are behaving like we would expect students to behave in school and we celebrate that. We're having a in fact we're having a fun day tomorrow for students um who met those expectations. Um we'll have an assembly on the 18th to celebrate attendance and academic achievement. Um some of our sports teams um really working hard also on creating a safe learning environment trying to make kids feel safe. Um last year at the
034end of the year uh our average attendance was 81%. Um at the end of the first quarter our attendance is at 89.6%. Thank you. Oh, our acronym is tracks. Uh, so T is for trust, R is respect, A is accountability, C is cooperation, K is kindness, and S is safety. Um, at Clifton, we uh I'm going to talk about that safe learning environment, making sure that we've called that learning environment. So, so continuing to keep with our consistent structures uh with discipline and behavior, but then also we have a morning message. We have a morning message and a closing circle at every at the end of every day. The beginning the beginning of the day is run by me and we uh we meet virtually on a Google meet. Every class does and classes participate
035at the beginning and the end and throughout like they're asked to participate as well. And what we've done is we've unpacked the panorama survey around the sense of belonging and really taught the kids that explicit vocabulary around what does that what do some of these words means? For instance, like what does it what is it like to pursue a goal? And so we're also unpacking that and also pulling out the data and looking at at it with students and talking about this is our data and how what does this mean for us? Um and additionally we are um working on some of the we're working on including in increasing our PTO membership our parent teacher organization membership as well as giving some other opportunities that are a little bit more um out of the box
036um for instance just I mean just for just a different trying to invite people and and having some of those those invitational conversations instead of why aren't you involved we'd love for you to join us because you have something to to also bring to our community. Um, and so that that's also a piece as well. Um, there's so much but I'm trying to think of what Thank you, Mr. Shepard. I have one more question for you. So, you mentioned discipline and um, one of the things that is a goal that you're working towards is equitable student discipline. What does that mean for your school and how are you applying that? How did you get to that? Okay. So, what really happened was is that when you think about a sense of belonging, if you're being
037kicked out of class and you don't understand why, I mean that that's also like you don't belong here. You're out. And so, it was also because we had we had very many different ideas of what of how things should happen. Like if I tell a kid one time then then they should go straight to the office. And so, what we did was we we looked at Mount Garfield Middle School's framework of the five Rs. And because we are a feeder school in Mount Garfield, I found that it would um it benefits kids to create a system for them as they move from elementary to middle school, especially we know that that gap between elementary and middle school is hard for them anyway. And so we c I took the engaging schools work that that secondary
038was doing and we framed it into our elementary world and and we've unpacked it with a roll out plan where we talk about is you know for the first part is is remind we remind the child of the expectation then we retach the expectation. The third step is we give a ch the child a chance to reflect and make an action plan from that. The fourth one is then that would be a reset. A reset does not mean remove out of the classroom. It may mean that we come in and we sit with the child and we help them reeregulate and get back on their learning feet. And then the fifth one is restore. So they make it right. So they make it right with how whatever it was, whatever whatever it might have been.
039It's like how are you going to make that right for your community and yourself? And so those that's that's the framework we operate from. And so that it has created that equitable structure. I've had students that have said to me that in years past they didn't know why they were getting in trouble and so now they know and they're and they and I had a student say I have a chance now. I I'm given a chance to fix my behavior and then I don't have to blow up the world trying to trying to make it all happen because and get the attention that I need. And this child told me this. He's a fifth grader for anybody. Um, do you guys feel I mean once you get to this point I know the teachers are
040working hard, you guys are working hard, your admin's doing a great job and but once you get to this point, how do you keep that that buy in with the teachers going on like we're not, you know, we're we're not really doing what we're supposed to be doing and how do you relate that to like your students? I can speak to that. Um really leveraging in the success that the data cycles our teachers got into this profession because they believe they can make a difference in the lives of students. And so with the data cycles, they can see the immediate effect on student learning, student outcomes, and how they're and and it's coming back every week. Every week I had a teacher just today walk in, retaches work, and it was like and she's got
041it. She she's right. They do work. And if we can really target what that student needs, they're the stu students can. And so celebrating those quick wins, making sure it's a system, making sure we're and making sure we keep seeing seeing that success as we go down this road towards proficiency. Do you guys have accountability groups uh within our for like school accountability? Yes. In fact, that's where I was until I just got here. I apologize for being late. Mr. Posture question for you. Sure. You were an elementary before. How does that cross over to be a middle school teacher now regarding academic growth because you had to deal with a lot with the elementary schools to get them to be able to grow and everything? How has that transferred to middle school for you?
042Just question curious. In my first quarter of experience, I would tell you that they're just bigger elementary kids. that that kids are kids are kids. Um and and when you set possibilities in front of them, it's possible to come to school and have a good time and learn and be responsible. It's possible to come to school and and feel good about yourself and the learning that's happening. And uh that's not a lot different than elementary kids. Sometimes the the how you go about it has to be a little craftier, right? You kind of have to tell them. Um Terry Rayqua, who I know you all know, came in and shared with me. She said, "Sometimes you have to give kids permission to blame you for their good behavior." And I that really struck me. In
043elementary, you don't have to do that. But in middle school, sometimes you have to convince kids to say, "Yeah, I can't do that. Mr. foster will really he's going to come down on me hard so I'm not going to participate in the bad behavior that you all are showing and that really resonated with me and I' I've used it a couple of times and the kids are like oh okay I can do that so so again they're just bigger elementary kids a lot of the time so yeah and then uh sorry one more question you guys feel like you're getting enough support or what else can we do to help you you know from the district I mean I'm sure there's never enough I'll speak for middle school. Um time time to work with teachers,
044time to we had an we had an instructional leadership team this afternoon from 3:30 to 4:30. Um and it was productive and it was positive, but looking around the table, they're all just beat, right? Everyone's very tired and so they engage to the extent that they can engage. Um I never realized how much I enjoyed early release at elementary and how much power that gave us in a week. That'd be a lovely thing to have at middle school. I think thought I was closer. I think at the elementary level um I think something that um I appreciate is my instructional coach. and if I if I wish I could multiply her maybe by three or four. So, I know that that's something that you currently provide, but I think it would be important to continue
045that and I'm sure that they would love to have them back at the middle school as well. Um I I I'm supported with with our I know our district really does try to support what we're doing and everything. Um, I would say that when I think about supports that, for instance, last year I had uh a grant that paid for an administrative intern um to support also. And so I had an assistant principal and administrative intern who was a teacher on special assignment and it was a part of our grow your own program. Um and and then there was myself and my instructional coach and so and my instructional coach. I wouldn't would not be able to do the work that we do without our instructional coach. Um, but what we're the shift this year
046because we are one person down because the grant wasn't there. Um, I will say I'm running from behavior to behavior right now and and that's really what we are dealing with especially in our early grades in our K1's twos. We have a lot of disregulated children, but yet we're working to teach them how to regulate themselves and how to be able to, you know, discern if it's a big problem, small problem, and and and problem solve through things. But we're impacted with so many of the big behaviors that it's it's hard to be able to um it's hard to be able to be in classrooms as much as you want to be because my assistant principal is working with one that's destroying a classroom and then I have to go help with another one that's
047destroying another classroom across the building. And so that's really those in the- moment supports. That's where we really um that that's really where it is. But again, it's it's part of, you know, it's the grant that was able to give that gift to us. Yeah. I'll just give a little background. Um, we very much liked that grant. It was part of the easy grant. Um, and we, um, at one time we partnered with this time we partnered with Colorado Mesa and, um, with easy and this po portion or part of the grant. um you have to be uh an approved CDE provider and at that time Mesa or Colorado Mesa was. So we were able to pay somebody not only to get their um their admin credentials and we paid a paid internship or a
048fellowship and both um Clifton and um Grand Mesa and Mount Garfield before you were there. each had TOSAs that were we were allowed or we were afforded the opportunity to pay their salary and they had a a position as um administrative support. Um we're not going to be able to do it this year, but um Mesa or Colorado Mesa is going to make there is some um change of folks over there and they'll make sure to get back on that. And so should we need or to write for easy again, we'll be able to do that again next year. Director Lima, did you have any questions? No, thanks. I think the questions that you all asked were perfect. Thank you. Great. Um, one question I have is you've all mentioned reaching out to your communities
049and um I don't think it's lost on if kids have a supportive home environment to do extra reading or to work on the homework. Do you feel that that's a significant challenge at each of your schools is that parent engagement with their kids so that when the kids get home um I mean they know they know how they need to support their kids and the work that they need to do that helps support them when they get back to school or what just what's the correlation or relationship there and then as you're reaching out to your parent communities like what are you going to do to help emphasize that it's super important when families spend time with their kids after school doing reading and whatever homework things they have to do. I have to do
050it with my own third graders, so I imagine that other third graders in the district have to do it as well. So, um I would love to answer that. I think our parents, like all parents, want to support their kids, right? There's just no question that their goal is to support their students. Um, oftentimes in my community, their parents are working two jobs and aren't home. Oftentimes, uh, I have students who stay home to take care of younger siblings. Um, the reality is the parent support I'm hoping to get from from my community is just a huge emphasis on how important the school day is, right? It's math. I'll just use an example. Math is math is math. 3 plus 4 is always going to be seven, right? We we have taken math and turned
051it into a a secret code at times instructionally because we want to teach kids multiple strategies. And so we send math homework home to families and I get calls the next day and it's like this is like no math I've ever seen. Right? And my message is always it's still math. Thank you for helping. just support your kids and tell them it's important that they try, that they're giving a 100% effort because this is an important thing for them to learn. And no one ever fights back about that. No one ever says I can't do that. So that for us that's the biggest parent support we want. And I I'll I'll resonate just Elsa that say our parents send their very best every day. And I believe that and they're doing their very best. again
052they are working two to three jobs and so it's also trying to find ways for them to be able to support that that positive school mindset and that academic mindset as well and I think the other part of it is is that re I I know that Megan and I my assistant principal we really truly get out there and talk to our families in the parking lot and we want them to see us as approachable because school isn't always like emotionally safe for them either and so we want to make sure that they are feeling welcome to be able to come to the school and ask questions and and and see us as approachable that and that we're a partner in in their in their children's education as well. And so that's another way that
053we're really truly trying to to bring them in too and invite them in. And it's not always you we don't have to just always force ourselves onto them, but inviting them in just by being present and asking just those questions about how are you doing? I think they captured it really well. I mean, I think the most important thing is that we're building lots of bridges for parents. Um, so that we're not seeing it as we're giving you homework to do with your kid and it and that can create a fight and that can create a challenge, but creating lots of bridges and lots of opportunities and and one thing that I do that I know that that others do as well is is creating those options. So, some of the books that we send
054home are are high engaging texts that have an opportunity for kids to have a small portion, but that's a little bit more interesting adult portion. Again, just trying to give parents plenty of opportunities to see that if you're engaging in your child's learning that they're going to be more and more successful. And so, I think they captured it well, but that's what I would add to it is lots of opportunities, lots of bridges so that they see their see um us as partners. I think my what I was digging at behind this is is um not to discourage parents. I mean, we know like you all said, they're wanting the very best for their kids and they're doing their, you know, their hardest to obviously provide for their kids and, you know, all those things.
055I just wonder, you know, from a board standpoint, you know, our role, is there a way we could help with those communities? you know, can we be a community connector that doesn't necessarily put anything on your all shoulders um but that comes in as a support for the community to help support those parents, right? What what are things that um our community could do to wrap around and love those communities for, you know, a single mom that works two jobs? I'm sure she would want nothing more than to spend 10 or 15 minutes reading with her child, but like you said, even with your teachers at the end of the day, I'm sure she's spent as well. um you know and and I'd say that's probably true for all parents. I mean I have some
056days where I'm really tired and you're like okay I really need to do this. And so what you know I'm I don't have the answer right now. I'm just putting it out there is like I don't think this has to all land squarely on your shoulders or squarely on the the you know the parents shoulders when they're kind of at their wits end and they don't know what more else they could do. Um, I just I think I put it out as a challenge to us as board members since we're the elected community officials, you know, to say what could we do and and I think we live in a great community that does a lot. You know, we've we've built a, you know, some community centers out that way and different things, but I
057think it's just more of us keeping our ear to the ground to say what could we do to help support those parents and those families um that would then be, you know, a benefit, you know, to those kids. Um, so I it's more rhetorical at this point, but I'm just kind of thinking about things that that as a community we could come together and help one another rather than it being like, well, that's just Grand Mesa's problem. That's just Clifton's problem. It's like, well, we all want our kids to succeed in this community. We want them to all thrive. We want them to all read well and do math well. So, what can we all do to help out? You know, something I was really coming to mind is thinking about our afterchool programs that
058we do support. We have Eureka. We have Riverside Education Center. I will tell you those two programs are pivotal at my school. They are pivotal and they do bring access and equity for kids. They do get chances to be able to read. They do lots of they they get it. They I've been work. I also meet with Riverside once a month and talk about some some ways to be able to support certain grade levels of kids like foundational literacy skills. And so also strengthening those outside supports as well because they are an outside entity and they are funded by outside funders as well. And so I think also if I could give a plug to them as well. They are pivotal for our schools. That's great. That's good. I think that might just be more
059of our community needs to be aware of that. Right. I think um yeah obviously we work with them a lot as the district but they are not funded by the district. you know, they have to go out and find their own grants and things like so I think maybe that's just where we can work on bringing more awareness to make sure our community knows that they can support those programs which then are direct help like after school tutoring basically you know things like all those little time on tasks just help and then it takes the load off the parents when they get home and they get to actually spend some time with their kids um and like you said then homework doesn't become a fight so um great wreck is having a a fundraiser this
060weekend so there you So yeah, see this is why I was bringing it up. To piggyback off that, I mean, working on the other side of the district and I had an opportunity to work with Mr. Foster at Lincoln Mesa and just seeing how much wreck really helped those kids because we had kids that would otherwise be at home by themselves. They had an opportunity to be in wreck. They received help with any schoolwork that they didn't understand. I mean, what's that? Snacks as well. They have snacks as well. Safe place with some food. they had opportunities to, you know, have that communication with their peers and build relationships that they otherwise wouldn't have. So, yeah, I agree. It's an absolutely fabulous program. Thanks. Thanks for the feedback. I was just wondering uh when you
061talk about uh the behaviors in your students with trying to regulate the promotions, what's the mental health regarding how much mental health do you have in your staff to be able to help you to help them regulate? Well, we have we have a we have a full-time counselor, but then also we part of our our roll out of our our equitable discipline structure was also teaching our teachers how to support our kids in regulating in the classroom environment. And so we went it it was I mean I would it's still going on and and continually also not only regulating supporting a student in being regulated but also regulating yourself and knowing when you're disregulated versus when you are regulated or how those that also does impact. So for qualified staff I have the I have
062my my school counselor but she doesn't do anything therapeutic. And then we also have some district uh mental health therapists that do come in, but it's not like it's not systematic. They have to be referred. There's a process involved to be able to support individual students. Um so we do have one person. So, the other part of your population that I'm that I'm acquainted with, uh, how much of your staff has had training in in trauma-informed care? Um, 100% of our staff and and we're actually and we've done at the beginning of the year any of our new staff, we also did the trauma informed as well. We made sure to onboard them during their inser or their their induction days where the new teachers come in. So, we did that. That was part of
063our onboarding process was the trauma informed uh learning that we did and all staff in my school has been trained and we we continually do bring it back and so that it's a cycle. So we do come back and remind and we and we we continually um retach it. I don't see any other questions. Yeah. The the only thing I'll add one principal Foster didn't say this so I'm going to say it for him. I we um we were really excited about his leadership coming into Grand Mace as well because he has that strong background in early literacy. And I think a lot of times we forget that or we assume that once kids hit middle school, they they've got reading figured out and they're going to do just great. And we have a lot
064of middle school kids who still are learning to read in many ways. And so, um I think that's an asset that Principal Foster brings to the the middle school level that we're excited about. And I know we're going to see great results there. Um but he didn't say that, so I'm going to say it for him. Um the these items at the top I just I one I appreciate you all mentioning these time to work with teachers early release that hasn't gone away. We're still having conversations about that but you know it takes a change there. And then these other pieces around instructional coaches behavioral support. Um, I agree and I'm glad y'all brought those up. It's just a reminder to I think all of us in our community that those things cost money. Um,
065and if we're going to be one of the lowest funded school districts in the state and if we're going to be one of the lowest funded when it comes to milvy overrides, we're going to have to expect that we can't afford things like that. And so if those are supports that we need for our schools, um, then we need support uh, in areas like Milwaukee overrides. So, I'm just going to throw that out there. Um, the other thing that I'll mention is um, one I I just want to end with saying I appreciate y'all being up here. I know this isn't easy. Um, but I I appreciate y'all's leadership and your staff that's in the um crowd as well and our site directors and everybody at central office that supports y'all and your schools. Um,
066every school is different. Every situation is different and so you can't peg it on one thing. Um, but I appreciate the plans that y'all brought tonight and I appreciate the time y'all put into it. Um, and I I just want to say the schools up here can make it to the top two academic levels because your schools have done it before, right? Like if we go back and look at the 14 years of um of SPFs for the buildings, um all of our all the schools up here have been at performance or improvement at some point. So I know y'all know that we can get there and that is a district expectation and a goal that we set, right? And so all these leaders up here know um that's the expectation and they're doing all
067the work to get us to those top two levels. So I appreciate that as well. Um, and I think the things you heard tonight are around strong leadership structures and systems that are sound, belief, um, and hard work. And I'll just end by saying I appreciate y'all stepping up and leading in the schools you're leading in because you all know that your schools have challenges, for lack of a better term, that some other schools don't have. And it takes um, special folks that want to work in those environments and want to do right for kids. And so, um, I know these are challenging situations, but I appreciate, um, y'all's leadership being in those schools and, um, and I appreciate the work you're doing, and I look forward to seeing, um, the fruits of that as
068well. So, thank you all for taking the time to be here tonight. Yeah. Oh, I just wanted to add one more. I want to add a little bit to what Dr. Hill was saying. One of the other things that all four of these leaders, and I would say all of our leaders um, would um, agree to this, is that this is work that we as adults that we need to do. This isn't we're not blaming children. We're not blaming families. We're not um we're looking to see what systems and structures do we need in place to ensure that our students um can reach um that uh that graduate profile. That's all I wanted to add. Yeah, it's definitely it it takes a village. I don't and I know that's a cliche term, but I just
069I do think it's it's it's a community, it's families, it's the schools, and it's it's something we all we all need to work towards together, you know, and so I, you know, from the board standpoint, we have this sort of 30,000 foot view, and sometimes it's like, well, what do how do we support you all? And I think if there's maybe ways we can just like I said build those connectors that help support you that help support the families that support the communities. Um I think those are ways that we can do that to help promote things that just help you know help make things a little bit a little bit easier a little bit brighter each day right for our kids. And um and I think Dr. Hill when you said belief I think
070that answers your question will when you ask them like how do you keep going? I mean, I would ask you as a coach like what keeps your team going when they've kind of had some losses, you know, or they feel down. It's like I think it's just the belief in knowing that you can do it. And so I think you summarized that really well, Dr. Hill. So, um, yeah, I don't I don't want my question as far as family goes to come off that, you know, I just know parents play a really families play a pivotal role in in helping their kids, but I want to know how we can help the parents because I know we we all are worn out and um, and sometimes we need a little bit of help so that
071we can help our kiddos. So, thank you all very much for your time. And I think as far as leaders, leaders are the ones who step in and say, "We're doing this and we'll figure it out." And um, and you move forward with it. So, you guys are great. We appreciate all that you do and all that your staff does. Right. Um All right. So, we have a board discussion. Um so, I guess we just need to We have our first board coffee this Saturday. Um, just as a reminder, we we kind of are sparsing out our board coffees a little bit more to hopefully get more people in attendance um at board coffees because we were kind of dwindling down to just like one or two people at a time. And so I think
072if we can just have just a few and maybe get more people there that helps us as far as outreaching to our community. So, um it's at Central High School, which would be a great opportunity for people to for the bond and mill coming up could see Central High School a little bit if they haven't seen it before. Um so, Will, you said you can make it Saturday to the coffee. Um I know Barb, you're you're out. Angela's out of town. Um so, Joseé Luis, either you or I don't know. Can you make it Saturday to the board coffee? Okay. I know. I can't I can't say yes for sure until probably about Friday because I'm trying to figure out some things. But um 9 to 11. So, yep. So, look at your schedule and
073then just let Amy know. So, um we've had just one board member go in the past. It's nice to at least have two, so it helps. Miss Lima just texted me that she got kicked off of the Zoom, but she um she said she would just like to thank all the staff and that she looks forward to helping in any way she can to move towards positive outcomes. Okay, great. [Laughter] All right. Well, it's on the record now. A Amy Amy read her comments. Thank you for that. So, oh, well, yeah, I guess we never know which computer we're all connected to. So, all right. So, um Okay. So, at least Director Jones will be there Saturday. Possibly either Joseé Louise and myself or all three of us watch it'll we'll all be able to
074show up. So, um any anything else board? Any other discussion? I know we have a business meeting next week. So, yeah. All right. We'll go ahead and adjourn. So, thank you all for your time this evening.