001now 7 p.m. and this is a regular meeting of the Kelan Board of Education. We'd like to inform all board meeting attendees that this meeting is being livereamed and archived for access at any time by our community members on the internet within 24 to 48 hours of the meeting's conclusion. And Mr. McCauley. Pledge, please. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> And attendance roll call, please. >> Mr. Manky, >> here. >> Mr. Klener, >> here. >> Mr. Cook, >> here. >> Mr. Mr. McCauley >> here, >> Mrs. Simmons >> here, >> Mr. Stalup >> here, >> Dr. Lawler's absent. >> With six members present, we have a quorum. And
002is there anything the board would like to move from the consent agenda to new business? Hearing none, I will entertain a motion to approve the agenda as presented. So move a second. >> And a roll call, please. >> Mr. Klesner. >> I. >> Mrs. Simmons. Hi. >> Mr. Cook. >> Hi. >> Mr. Stalup. I >> Mr. McCauley. >> I >> Mr. Manipsky. >> I. >> Motion carries six to zero. The agenda is approved. It is now time for board superintendent salutes. I will turn it over to Dr. Roland. >> Thank you. So, uh, we have two this evening. The first, uh, we want to, uh, recognize Jack Bicker. Uh, Jack is a sophomore at Kan High School. He's here with his parents, Lori and William. And I'm sorry, I don't know the brother's name. >>
003What's your name? >> Owen. And Owen. Um, so Jack was cast in the Illinois High School Theater Festival Allstate production of Newsies. >> He will represent Kalin High School alongside over 70 other talented students from across the state for this prestigious performance at Illinois State University in January >> with over 300 students auditioning. Uh, this a huge achievement. He's actually shared the story with me of having to go back and uh it sounds like quite a quite an experience. Um, he is also the first student in Kalin High School history to be a part of the all state production. So, we couldn't be prouder. So, Jack, can you join me at that? [Applause] >> A little certificate for you. You want to share anything with the group? >> Wow. It is a great honor to
004be representing Keaneland as the first representative in the Illinois High School Theaterfest Association Allstate Production. I am very proud to be here and go Knights. >> All right, go Knights. Here you go. [Applause] >> No, no, we can find out. >> Okay. Um, our second uh salute. Sorry, moving around a lot. Uh, we're going to hand it over to uh Dr. Atkins. Thank you. Um, first I'll just share just a quick little thing. Um, this summer my daughter who's a junior at Prairie Ridge High School started screaming and yelling, "Dad, come down here. One of your kids is on TV." And she was talking about Mr. Bigger because it was televised. She's like, "Can you believe it? Caitlyn made it and we didn't." So, go Nights. >> She's saying, "Absolutely, I believe." >> Well, you
005know, there's been successive teasing from me to her. So, anyway, congratulations again. quite an accomplishment. Um I am here to introduce to the board in the community um Miss Leah Reli. As you know um we had a principal vacancy at the tail end of the summer. I'll be very honest with you as your HR person. I was extremely worried about getting a good candidate pool. We did get a good candidate pool. We made a difficult decision um and a great decision we think. And so Leah, if you would want to come on up here. Um we had our typical screening process, interview process with the cabinet, um group interviews at the building level with a final interview, um informal interview, right? Um with the superintendent, um and we were able to then have Leah join
006us. She hails from U46 where she's been an elementary principal. I won't take too much of her glory, but um welcome, Leah. And >> thank you. >> Microphone's yours. >> Thank you. Um I just a little thing about myself. Um I come from Elgen School District where I was an assistant principal for three years. Um I have taught in the elementary education world for the last 20 plus years. Um teaching kindergarten first, second, ESL instructional coach, all of the good things that have led me here with my experiences. So um I'm very humbled and blessed to to have been chosen and I appreciate that. So thank you very much. >> Thank you. And that is all I have. Dr. Boen, >> nothing this evening. >> Board members. All right. To uh the board appreciates everybody
007in attendance this evening and invite you to stay as we move into the new business portion of the meeting. We understand that not everyone is able to stay for the entire meeting. We want to make sure that you know that this is an open meeting. So you are able to come and go as you need and we look forward to seeing you at future meetings. Tonight's consent agenda contains the following information action items. Approval of accounts payable and payroll for August 2025. Two, approval of minutes of the August 11th, 2025 regular meeting. Number three, approval of personnel. Number four, approval of policies from press issue 119, second reading, andformational items, the new teacher hire report and student suspension data report. I will now entertain a motion to approve the consent items listed. >> So move
008second. >> And a roll call, please. >> Mrs. Simmons. Hi. >> Mr. Cook. Hi. >> Mr. Stalup. Hi. >> Mr. McCauley. Hi. >> Mr. Manky. Hi. >> Mr. Kisner. I >> motion carries 6. The consent agenda is approved. Public comments. >> Sorry. >> None. >> Seeing no public comment, we will move forward. Um, tonight the community engagement and finance facility committees met. the committee chairs if you'd like to provide us with overview and updates to the rest of the board of education. Mr. Stallop, if you would like to recap the finance and facilities committee meeting. >> Sure. We spent uh the majority of the meeting discussing uh some information and formatting of presentation and I think we've settled on the formatting of how that'll be conveyed. We did review some of the current data and
009uh we'll have another draft next time and we're going to break out the referendum topics, do it by school building and then a district overview. So, thank you for Jackie for generating some some reports for us to look at and options, but we think we're going to have something uh pretty quickly here that is easily read and understandable >> and the community engagement. >> That' be me. And when you're part of the community engagement, you get a script because we're about communication. So, >> thank you, David. Uh uh we discussed the results of a community survey regarding um communication practices within the Caitlin school district. Uh feedback from the community members and staff highlighted both the challenges and opportunities um leading to the development of a comprehensive communications plan for the 2025 2020 school uh
010school year. Our primary objective of the plan was is to transform the district's communication strategy into a clear, streamlined, effective flow of information, ensuring our community remains well informed and engaged. Um key goals including reaching information overload or sorry reducing not reaching we don't want to add more reducing >> reducing information overload enhancing clarity in communications ensuring timely updates and actively involving parents in the process. Again, we're really working on I shouldn't say we. I don't know why I added that. David is really working and his team's working on the website and we're trying to really get staff, parents, community, everybody to go straight to that. And so that will be your one-stop shop for all the information. So to achieve these goals, the district will consolidate the communication outlets into a unified district newsletter
011that will serve as the primary source for all district level news. The district will also optimize the website for clarity and ease of navigation, clearly outlining where families can find specific information. Additionally, the district will redefine the social media tools as a celebration, as a place of celebrations, not all the other stuff, all the information. We again can't stress it enough. We want you all to go to the school website to get the information, firsthand information. Um, so and then we're also going to use social media for critical updates and things like that. But again, school website, can't say it enough, that's where you need to go to. Um, the district is committed to fostering ongoing parent engagement by creating regular feedback channels to assess communication effectiveness. So again, the survey that was taken, we're
012we've read them, we've seen what your, you know, your thoughts are and your ideas and stuff like that, and they are being implemented. So, anytime you see a survey, please don't just pass by it. Take the time to do it because it is really important for us to be able to make those changes. Um, and as the district moves forward with this plan, uh, there will be continuous evaluation of the efforts based on community feedback and engagement met metrics. So, again, thank you David for all the work that you do every day, not just for this meeting. You've done a lot of work. Website looks really great. If you have not gone to it, I will keep plugging it. Keep going to that website. And if you're a parent, look at the parent section, students,
013staff, all that stuff. So, please use it um as much as uh you need to. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> That's it. >> Thank you, chairs. >> All right, we'll move on to new business. The first item of new business is the approval of community solar tenative contract. Dr. Boen, if you would please provide us with more information. >> Yes. Um Becky Thompson with NIA is here again this evening. Uh at our last meeting on August 11th, um Mrs. Thompson was here to present on community solar and there there were definitely some questions from the board. Um especially regards to different types of charges, things like that. Um and also some concerns expressed just over the length of the proposed contract at 20 to 25 years. So I'm going to turn it over
014to Mrs. Thompson. um because as we've talked about previously, things change rather quickly and even since our last meeting, the questions that were posed, um she's been able to go back and and do some more research. Um but things have changed, so she's here to talk about that. >> Yes, I'm here for an update. So, thank you for having me back. Uh so, yes, uh taking some of the feedback from the last meeting, we did go back out to the market and um talked to all of our developers again and said, is there anything that has changed or progressed since the last time that we have evaluated this? Um and one of the developers did come up with a a solution to I think some of the questions that we had. So um they have
015a local uh farm that's opening up in Aurora that has the potential um for an open subscription for your school district. So it'd be actually located within Kain County. Um it has a closer commercial operation state which just means that it would turn on and be electrified sooner. Um which means you would start getting some of those credits and the savings sooner. Um but it's not guaranteed. they're still kind of working out some of uh the the owner of the field of the farm or the the asset where it's at has the right of first refusal and still there's they're still working through on their end. Um but because they wanted to leave that as an option for you, uh they are offering a 25-year contract that renews in 5-year increments. So, it's essentially a
016five-year contract with the opportunity to renew up to 25 years. So, they have a placeholder for you for that with the potential for a farm opening up even sooner. So, uh, what you see in the packet is a contract from this developer for a 25-year, uh, community solar agreement that does renew in those 5-year increments as there was some concern around just accepting a 20-year flatout contract upfront. Uh, it's still the same 10% discount that we discussed. Um, and there was also some questions about the numbers of what we used to calculate the potential savings. So, I did provide that to you um, in between the last meeting and now. Uh, and so we can tell you that based off of what we know today with the current KMED rates and what you have paid
017historically, estimated savings with that 10% shared discount is about $46,000 annually. So, one of the things that you'll notice um tonight we are looking for approval. Um because we don't have the finalized contract from the developer in front of you at this point and because the market changes so quickly, you will notice that the recommendation that we're asking for approval is for the board to grant uh me the authority to enter into the contract in the best interests of of the district as available. Um and really the reason for that has to do with timing. um because things move quickly uh you know to wait for another board meeting even the opportunity that was presented last time is no longer available to us um and so it wouldn't it wouldn't have been available to present
018to the board for approval so that is I think the biggest change also from last time to this time in addition to those contract terms >> our attorney's not reviewed this yet our >> it is currently with our attorney so questions. >> So, so contracts up to five years. We have we can renew it up to 25 years, but we have that option every 5 years. >> What would what would there what scenario would there be for us to say at five years say, you know, we're not going to renew this contract. Something else came up that's better. What are some of the scenarios? I think that's a less likely scenario that something came up better. It would be more of um you're considering putting on-site solar, your usage is changing in a nominal way
019um where you would no longer have a use for all of the credits that you were previously subscribed to. So, at that point, you could do like a reduction in the credits or if you're wanting to remove some of the facilities that you had subscribed to it. That would be the more likely scenario that you would have. Um the the contract is structured that it auto renews at that 5-year unless either party either you or the the seller uh gives I think it's 6 months notice 180 days notice in advance that you would not like to renew that. So I think there was a question last time about if it were to autorenew would they come back and say now you have a 5% discount instead of a 10. The contract is structured to maintain
020the 10% discount and it's full for the up to 25 years. It's just more of a a kind of a safe harbor for you, if you will, so that if there were something that were to change, you close a building or something happens because 25 years is is a long time to see into the future, many boards will come and go over that period of time, right? Um, so it just kind of leaves that exit door should it be need to utilized in the future. >> Perfect. >> And we we're strictly renting essentially, so we have no obligation on maintenance of this solar farm. >> Yeah. you're you're actually not even renting. You are just um you're not tied to the infrastructure in any way. It's just that whatever electricity is generated by the portion
021that you are subscribed to that's earmarked for you um uh Cameed issues credits for that electricity that's generated, the credits by law for in Illinois for this community solar program to work the way it's structured. So those credits cannot just go to the asset owner. They can't just go directly to the developer. They have to flow through a third party's uh invoice. So the entire credits flow through on your invoice and then the developer would bill you for 90% of those credits and you retain the 10%. Um so you're not responsible for any maintenance operations. It's not tied to any part of your infrastructure on your building. There's no out-of- pocket cost. There's no annual subscription fee. Your only obligation is that as the credits are generated, 90% of those will be build by the
022developer. So you will pay the developer for 90% of those credits and maintain those extra 10%. I was more worried about if if the if they're not maintaining their solar panels out there and they're not getting their return that they think they're getting. >> Do we have any liability in that or we're still going to get our 10% reduction? >> If they're not maintaining and it falls by the wayside, for example, um and then the credits are not being generated, then you're just not paying the developer. Like they won't bill you for any of those credits. you just won't receive those credits um on your invoice. So you're they the you you have no stake of ownership within the the actual infrastructure itself. So if they're not maintaining or something goes off, you won't be
023liable. I think it would just be grounds for termination of your agreement at that point. If you're looking at the agreement, that would probably fall under events of default would be the language that you would be referencing in the contract. Yep. Any other questions? Debate. We'll now entertain a motion that the board of education authorizes the assistant superintendent for business, Jackie Boen. Dr. Jackie Boen to finalize and execute a community solar contract on behalf of the district pending legal review with the option that best meets the district's financial and operational needs. >> So move second. >> And a roll call, please. >> Mr. Cook, >> I. >> Mr. Stalup, >> I. >> Mr. Manky. >> I. >> Mr. Klesner. >> I. >> Mrs. Simmons. >> Hi. >> Mr. McCauley. >> Hi. Motion carry 6. The
024community solar contract is approved pending legal review. Second item of new business is a report on the opening of the school year. Dr. Rowling, if you could provide more information. >> Absolutely. So, um, we welcomed our staff back on August 11th and, uh, we welcomed our students back on August 13th. Uh, it was a great first day. I want to thank, uh, Mr. Chavez for riding around in a bus with me. Uh he didn't get to choose. He was volunte. But uh we did ride around on a bus and pick some students up. It was a good time. Um uh some brief highlights from our schools at Blackberry Creek. Uh they have become a one rule school. They will work to tie all building expectations back to this one rule. Mr. Fox has turned it
025into a jingle. And if you know Mr. Fox, you think he turns everything into a jingle. Um, so the EC first EC through first grade friends are learning the rule through the song. Um, they start each day reviewing the rule and um, in each classroom and on the announcements, there is a video that I'll share with the board in this week's update of of some of those things going on. Uh, John Shields, they are excited about the new math resource. It's been going great. uh staff members took advantage of the opportunity to collaborate with uh Miss Vaklavik on her touchpoint day to learn more about uh using the new materials and um we have some photos again that I'll share with you for our uh kindergarteners learning how to use the math manipulatives. Um at
026Stewart uh the teachers and students love the new LED lights and dimmer. Um I even got a nice email from a staff member thanking me for that. I told him I had nothing to do with actually the dimmers. Um uh fifth grade students led uh the champs expectations on the second and third day for all the students to learn the expectations and we are very proud of their leadership and uh students are enjoying the start of school at KME. Miss Kathy Ronzio applied for a grant through the MC Montgomery Foundation and was approved for $500 uh to purchase winter gear, snacks, and other school essentials for our students. And I saw the picture. You got to like the big check, right? >> I love the big check. >> Um, our students are embracing uh the
027schoolwide theme of superheroes this year. Uh, four of the our fifth graders painted the front doors with a quote that's saying, "A hero is someone who helps others to spread kindness and support building our community through the building." At Harter, uh, they continued their tradition of welcoming new seventh and eighth graders by bringing them down to the cafeteria during home room, providing them with, uh, some Canal swag. uh some a drawstring bag, some magnetic clips they can use in lockers and a canel stress ball, which every middle school student needs. Um the student services department introduces themselves so the students know who they are and they feel comfortable with them at Harter. Uh students always comment how they feel welcomed coming to Harter. So great job welcoming our new Knights. Uh at the high school,
028uh we had a great start to our athletics. um couple of student athletes that are getting uh getting some good development and uh moving along the way. And then uh we had a really well attended student orientation. Um Miss Catel told me that there was standing room only almost um but that the SRO's joke flopped. So we had to work with him on his jokes. >> Uh but um so that helped all of our new uh freshman and other new students get off on the right foot. So, it's been a great start to the school year and we look forward to uh continuing the positive vibes. >> Any questions? What's the What's the rule? >> What is uh I I don't remember. It's >> if what you are doing interferes with learning, hurts somebody, hurts
029someone's heart, or prevents you from being your best self, you should not be doing it. >> All right, that's real easy to tie those back. So, if you're like talking to a student, you're like, "Which one of these?" And they're like, "Well, I hurt someone's heart." And we talk about that. All expectations are tied back to those three. >> Just helps them not have to switch of like what's the rule in this room or this one. It's the same no matter where you go. >> That sounds good. >> Terrific. >> You didn't sing it though. I >> I honestly he played it for me and it's one of those like once you sing it you can't un sing it. >> Anybody else? Okay. Terrific. >> All right. There's no action necessary for the report on
030the opening of the school year. The third item of new business is the e-learning schedule revision. Dr. rolling if you could provide more information please. >> Absolutely. So, uh we do use e-learning days as an option when we have inclement weather. Uh that does not allow for students to attend in person. Uh last year the e-learning plan was adjusted to include second graders in the blizzard bag program uh to meet the developmental needs of our students. Um this year based on feedback from um a lot of people quite honestly uh we did work on an adjusted schedule to bring to the board. Uh the schedule reduces the amount of time that the students are on a Google Meet um to 25 minutes per period and during that time teachers will instruct prep students on what
031the the uh activity for learning will be. Um they will work through their their day pretty quickly in the morning and then in the afternoon they'll have independent work time to demonstrate learning through some sort of an assignment uh that that they would be given. Um so this is something that we have worked with our uh KA and speak partners on. It does not change any of the other expectations in terms of what our employees or students are doing. It what it does is reduces the amount of time that they're sitting in front of a computer. Um and if anyone has done an all day uh Zoom training, you know what I'm talking about. And so uh this is actually a model that's used by a number of of schools in Northern Illinois. >> Any
032questions? I can answer. >> Are the teachers available in the independent work time? >> Yeah, so teachers will have a um they have an office hours section and they are also expected to monitor their their emails. >> Any other questions, comments? I will now entertain a motion that the board of education approves the e-learning schedule as presented. >> So move second. >> Second >> and a roll call, please. >> Mr. Stalup, >> I >> Mr. Manky. >> Hi. >> Mr. Kaisner. >> I. >> Mr. McCauley. >> Hi. >> Mrs. Simmons. >> Hi. >> Mr. Cook. >> Hi. >> Motion carries 6 to zero. The e-learning schedule is approved. The fourth item of new business is the online curriculum documents and update. Dr. Rowling, if you could provide more information. >> Yeah, I'm going to hand
033this one off to Dr. Horn, who's going to walk through some resources that are available to parents uh to understand our curriculum. >> All right. Good evening. Two board meetings ago during a topics for future agenda, it was requested that we bring forth the curriculum documents and updates on the website. I do want to recognize uh Mr. David Chavez for all of his hard work on the website. Uh this was something that was done in conjunction uh with in his role and his capacity. Uh these documents were reviewed at the ed committee at the last ed meeting ed committee meeting and now we're bringing them forward to the board. So, if you are on our district web page and you go to the departments link uh go to the department of teaching and learning which
034was formerly known as department of educational services. Click on uh teaching and learning and what you could see first uh front and center are the curriculum documents. We have them organized by elementary, middle and high school because the learning needs and the interaction are very different. what you have at the early stages EC5. Go ahead, Dr. Garland, and click on those. Um, the documents are geared more toward parents than they are towards students. Obviously, you want student ownership um throughout the course of education. Looks very different at the high school when you're working with a first or second grader. So, we have this linked in userfriendly parent language. Uh and um you can go through for parent resources at home and it's broken down by grade level by content standards uh very accessible for our
035parents. This is a work in progress. These are living breathing documents. We're always refining our curriculum. We're always working to make improvements. This year the largest uh curriculum overhaul that's happening at the elementary level is within math. So the math as we roll that out and refine it that will look different 2 three years down the line than it does today. So these are not static documents. When you go to if you go back to as uh teaching learning when you go to the middle school level it is broken down by grade level and by content. At the elementary level are your um uh >> oh no it's middle school. It worked like two weeks ago. >> It was working >> two hours ago. >> Okay, we'll get that up. Like I said, it's a
036work in progress. Maybe the bot didn't like the way it was working. [Music] All right. So, um, at the middle school level, once we get those up for you, it is by grade level, it is by content. So, you'll have ELA, you'll have math, you'll have social studies. So that way teachers and students uh can work around what the overall target is for whatever the unit happens to be. When you get to 912, students are earning credit. So we want to make sure that we're communicating what the not just the the standards that they're working on, but what the actual units of study are. Um when you are on Okay, sorry. He's determined. >> Yeah. >> Get it. >> What we can always do is maybe link this in the board update because we will
037get this up. We 912 we have a lot to communicate. Um at all levels we have a lot to communicate but it is about courses that students have available. So on here we do link our course offerings handbook uh so that you could be working on classes that you're going to be wanting to take in the future. Go back Dr. Garland, >> quick question on this one. Can you do like a control F lookup >> or is there any any kind of uh lookup function for the course guide keyword lookup or anything like that? >> PDF. >> It's a PDF. >> Yeah. >> F and then whatever. >> Yeah. >> I'm not sure. Did you have to download that first? No. Okay. No. So that just right when it's linked. >> What is it? 52
038pages. >> 86 pages >> and some light reading. >> All right. Cool. >> Yeah. >> Easy way to get something I want to look at, you know, when the student wants wants to look at. >> Yep. And then if you go back to the 912 uh documents, the scope and sequence, this will break it down by department and by unit of study. Um, and we'll give you approximate time uh for about how long things are going. So just click on math and then go to I don't know geometry. Sure. About how many weeks each unit of study so parents working alongside their students can have an idea of about what the students are working on. When students get to high school, we what we really want to see is a lot of the work being
039put onto the student. Um teachers are communicating with students primarily through Canvas. So this is intended as a uh worksheet parents can have when students are falling behind how are you doing with your proofs in geometry. Looks like you're you're on that student can then jump onto the Canvas page and show the parents and and the communication is best between student and teacher always. But this gives parents a guide to help work alongside their students. Okay. Can you answer any questions aside from the broken link? >> We'll get that resolved first. >> Okay. Thank you. So, we'll get the middle school link taken care of and um in our uh weekly update. We'll make sure that the board has a link to that. >> Thank you. >> Great. Thank you. >> There is no action
040required for the online curriculum development documents and update. Fifth item of new business is a review of school improvement plans for the 2024 2025 school year. Dr. Rowing, if you can provide more information, please. >> Absolutely. We'll be we will be inviting our principles up. Uh they will be presenting information uh on the success of last year's school improvement goals. Clearly the security is working. Okay. >> Okay. Uh for Blackberry, uh obviously we knocked it out of the park and uh so we're going to do it again this year. No. Um in all serious, we wanted our students in grades K through five to achieve 70% or higher on the post assessment for the addition and subtraction domain. That is our second domain we get to in the year. We embedded our place value domain
041within that. Um this shows you where we started the domain, where we ended, and then the growth. So every grade level met, we were distinguished for our SIP goal last year, which was um truly phenomenal. Everybody was in invested in it. Um incorporating the, you know, the kind of three things that really springboarded us to these scores was putting a non-negotiable was flexibly grouping. So, we used our pre-EST scores to help kind of sort students so that we could maximize the human resources component to make sure students who were on level were getting pushed forward. The students who needed um you know to kind of close that gap or needed more support that we could put them in a structure that allowed them to move maybe at a little bit slower pace with more adults
042in that room to help them. Um large focus on math facts which was huge. the amount of growth we had in that was um exceptional and that just helps take a step away from the students. You know, if I know things automatically, I don't have to figure that part out and then go into some of our um you know, those more complex problems. Um the the kids really did a great job. Same with the staff. We were super proud of of how we ended up and can't wait to see what this year holds for us as well. So last year um Shields created a goal around reading for the expectation that all students will increase um their scores by 9% from falls to the end of trimester 2. And as you can see um they
043did meet that goal. They exceeded that goal at 10.7%. Um and something they're very proud of at Shields is in the last two years they've made more than 20% growth in their reading on that assessment. Okay. So, we were in our second year of focusing on writing at John Stewart. And in this um progression, we I originally had talked about a 60% growth because we were just making this up based on what we thought would be appropriate. Then as we started going through it, we were like, "Oh, that's a little bit of a stretch." However, I made a deal with the teachers and the kids. I'm like, "February is still there's so much learning after February." I said, "Let's make it 50% in February, but still aim for that 60% in May, which is why
044you can see a February and May um target in there." And we did get distinguished. We had um we were working writing and then they were given um a reading passage at their reading level and then we're supposed to um answer a prompt using evidence in their text and um making that connection appropriately per grade level. Um, kindergarten and first worked on just how do you answer a question in a sentence. Um, and then first, uh, second and third grade did evidence and then reasoning was fourth and fifth. That's the most complex. So, they're really building their responses. Um, you can see first grade knocked it out of the park at the beginning and they asked to be challenged and when I would do data chats, we had four data chats over the year um,
045going over this data with every single class. Um, they said, "What do we do next? what's next? So, I pushed them and said, "Let's find the evidence in the text." And so, that was also they had two goals they kind of worked on as well. So, um we are continuing. I can't wait to share our goal this year because we're um in our final stages of writing and um yeah, we've seen a lot of growth and very proud of our students and staff. Last year uh at McDole Elementary uh our goal was uh by February the number of students in first through fifth grade assessed within a grade level specific genre writing piece taken in September of 2024 will increase by 35% in the development portion of the corresponding rubric. Um across the average um
046we did meet our our goal. Um we uh succeeded in four uh in grades uh two three four and five. Um and we're knocking on the door there in first grade. Um, so we're looking to bolster that up uh in the coming year as well. >> Um, so I'll share on behalf of Kipla. Last year, Mrs. McCoy and the Kipla staff um had drafted a goal around writing as well. Um, their goal was that 75% of students across both sections of Kipla, third through fifth as well as sixth through eight, would increase by three scores or by three points on a writing rubric. They focused on um a CER-C response which is claims, evidence, reason and then also conventions. So each student had an individual goal and they very much looked at it student by
047student. Um their goal was that 75% would increase by three or more points on that CER rubric. They surpassed their goal with 82% of students growing three or more points. Um 76 actually grew four or more points. So they had some significant growth. Um, in talking with the staff, they really attributed a lot of that to the collaboration that they that they engaged in, not only with the elementary buildings, but also um, participating in some writing norming activities that were facilitated by um, Harter Middle School's instructional coach. Um, and that was one of the key um, tasks that they really felt like gave them some of the information they needed to succeed. Uh, this coming year, the Kipla students will engage in the school improvement goals within the buildings where they are now housed. Hey
048everyone, >> thanks for having us. Uh, so we actually knocked it out of the park. We had um a reading goal and it was based off of I Ready. So what I Ready does is gives us a percentage of students that should meet their annual typical growth target. Um, and so if you look at it, it the end of the year goal was 44% of our students should meet that. I mean, we blew it out of the water because after winter testing, we had 52% of our students meet their annual growth target. I am happy to announce I've never I don't think I've ever said this before in my career, but we had 100% meet their growth target at the end of the year in May testing. So, when I learned that information, I was
049I was pretty happy. And that's obviously, you know, Harter's got great staff, great people, great students, great parents who care, and we're all liter literacy teachers. And that's why we chose a reading goal. Uh we look we're looking I'm I'm kind of interested because kids are testing this week of what that that annual target growth percentage will be this year after that after we had such a wonderful uh percentage last year. Uh but we we will continue with this goal because we do believe everyone is a literacy teacher and what we can do to help students learn is obviously most important regardless of the subject. So that is harder >> and I'm back. Um some of the things that I highlighted last week actually were part of our SIP goal. So um Kelin High School
050students at the end of February of 2025 school year will demonstrate 10% improvement in their knowledge of personalized pathways of college and career readiness as measured in the needs assessment and pathway survey. So um one of the ways we kept track was our kept that data track was freshman on track uh for first semester um and then second semester um the state data uh which was 94% inhouse and 89 um for the state and then CTE enrollment we increased it by 18%. um a lot had we um I don't know if you remember we gave out the career um pathway um pamphlet and things like that. It really kind of helped our students um understand how our classes and that match what they want to do in the future. Um then AP dual enrollment increase
051by 5% and then and hopefully that enrollment goes up even more. I think once we start in um increasing our dual credit and things like that in the school should increase more even more. And then our needs assessment um in the spring of 70 um in the spring of 2024 we were at 73% by winter they were at 83%. So we did increase that um by 10% and I felt like and it stayed around the same because by uh springtime of 2025 um most of our students are kind of tired of taking surveys and I don't blame them. We give them a lot of surveys. So that's where we're at. >> Any questions? Were the was the improvement consistent both with students without IEPs and with IEPs? Are we looking at the same >> for
052us? Yes. >> For Okay. >> For us. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> I just want to say thank you guys. your energy. Obviously, it's leader top, you know, and I know your teachers are just amazing, too. But they they're driven by your energy. So, thank you for constantly raising the bar each time. And I know we don't always make it easy on you guys, either. So, thank you for presenting today and for all the work that you guys have done. And to our new principles, too. Thank you guys for coming up here and taking the hit when it comes to But, you know, we didn't ask you ask you any questions, you know, but thank you for being up here, too, and presenting. So really appreciate all the work that you guys do every day
053and and all the support you give us and when we have questions and stuff like that, but also to your parents and your students and your staff. So thank you. >> Anyone else? >> All right. There's no action required for the review of school improvement plans from the 2024 2025 school year. The sixth item of new business is a construction planning update. Dr. growing. If you could please provide some more information. >> Absolutely. So, this is uh the once a month update I provide the board. Um so, since we last had an update, we have uh we had our initial core planning teams meeting for uh the academic and athletics PE uh teams. They met last Wednesday um together to get an overview of the process and have some some highle conversations. Um we have
054uh developed an initial staff engagement schedule to seek feedback from our user groups for some of the more uh upcoming projects. Some of the things that we're planning earlier um we have held meetings with our transportation and maintenance departments uh to try to get those plans underway. We hope to break ground on those in the spring. Um and uh we have had held some initial meetings with prospective furniture partners to help out um the high school as we we do those classroom refreshes. Upcoming we do have another uh evening meeting uh this Wednesday with our academic uh core team and then our PE and athletics. They will meet separately this time. Uh we are going to be finalizing our furniture partner in uh the near future. We are going to be holding meetings with prospective
055uh playground partners. That's going to be a unique uh industry. So, we're going to work with somebody who does that on the regular. Uh and then um we are going to begin engaging with staff for feedback on our upcoming projects as as we move through those plans. Any questions? >> Have you spoken with the people from the village of Alurn on the playground? um >> because they they've just redid >> Yeah, we actually we did speak um one of the uh trustees is on one of our planning committee. She shared with us a whole packet of information that we can use to identify some prospective partners. >> Okay. Because I've had some experience with this. >> How many uh people are on each planning team? >> There's about 15 on each one, give or take.
056>> How involved so far? Um, we have a couple students that are on the planning committee. >> Uh, and then we will be meeting with the youth advisory board next Wednesday with the architects. >> So, we'll continue to >> reach out and then um as we get some things built playground, we're going to go do some uh some panels with our fourth and fifth graders. I love that. >> All right. So, I'm sure they'll have some great ideas. I'm sure. [Music] >> Any other questions? All right. >> Well, there's no action required from the board on the committee construction planning update. It is now time for superintendent and board report. Dr. Rowling, do you have anything to share? >> Yeah, just a couple of things. Uh, I want to make sure everyone's aware that over
057the last two meetings in Jul July and August, the Kalin Sports Boosters agreed to fund nearly $10,000 in new athletic and athletic training equipment. Uh, the tremendous support helped us purchase three new 10x20 tents with sidewalls for outdoor programs, for cross country, uh, and track and field. Uh, they they purchased some Canelan logo golf balls for match play. I won't get any of those because I will lose them all. Uh but boys and girls programs sure are enjoying them. Um new football sideline equipment including uh chains and down markers, sideline markers and pylons and a brand new hydrocolator. Uh if you're not familiar with that term, it is uh really hot water >> and you you soak u heat packs in there. So it's doubling the uh capacity of heat packs that we're able to
058provide our our athletes. And then uh I know M. Troll will hit on this, but we did have a great nights under the lights uh evening on Friday. Uh featured parade of students that participate in different sports in the band, uh scrimmages, performances by a variety of teams and groups. Uh there was a runathon at the end with our cross country where they shut down the lights for a while and ran in the dark. I didn't uh didn't run that by the insurance company, but uh we seem to be all right. >> Yeah, it's perfect. Yeah. Uh, so I want to thank everyone that participated, planned, and attended that event. And that's all I have for this evening. >> Dr. Boen, >> nothing this evening. >> Student Representative Sophia Schro. >> Good evening. I hope
059everyone has had a great couple weeks back. Um, even though we're only just a couple weeks in, we've had several sports just be like in full swing. um girls and boys golf that they've been golfing every day. They've been playing tournaments non-stop, I think. Um and then also girls tennis played at home last Thursday. Um and then as Mr. Rollwing said, uh Kaylin High School also hosts its annual CA nights under the lights event on Friday. Um the tradition brings the community together to celebrate the beginning of sports season, specifically fall. Um the evening featured food trucks, um an athlete parade, which we've never had before. um watermelon eating contest. Congratulations to senior Natalie Nab who won um for softball. And then both freshman umsophomore and varsity football scrimmages. Um, and then the girls varsity
060volleyball team also begins their season tonight with a home match against Genanoa Kingston High School at 6 PM. Um, and then addition to sports and activities, there's also been new policies that have been introduced at the high school this year, um, including the five-star program, which awards points for student involvement, scanning student IDs for all hallway passes, and then a new rule requiring students to discard coffee or energy drinks if they arrive late to school with them. Student reactions to these changes have been mixed, but the student body is adjusting and will continue to adapt as the year progresses on. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Roll. >> Members, um any topics for future agendas that the board would like to discuss? Um, I'd like to talk about um improving participation in the PSAT
061NMSQT test and making it a since it's no longer specifically funded by state as the state has moved away from the SAT into the and college board into um the ACT. Um figuring out a way to make it ubiquitous for our students. Give them because this provides a lot. Doing well on something like this can provide a lot of opportunities. So I'd like to see that maybe discuss that um and start and this will be more education committee but let's talk about talented and gifted programs going forward you know encouraging that and providing support. When do we get the strategic plan furthered after our our retreat that we did? >> Uh that'll be coming in uh late fall. We're going to start uh working on some partners and then we'll figure out that schedule. Anyone
062else? Okay, it is now time for the second round of public comments. Seeing none, we will move forward to board of education is scheduled for close session to discuss the open meetings act section 2 subc sub one where there will be no action taken following the session. Therefore, after the vote to go into close session, the recording of tonight's meeting will be concluded. I will entertain a motion to go into close session to discuss section 2 sub one at 7:53 p.m. >> So move second. >> And roll call. >> Roll call. >> Mr. Miski. >> I >> Mr. Klesner. >> Hi, >> Mrs. Simmons. >> Hi, >> Mr. Cook. >> Hi, >> Mr. Stala. >> Hi. >> Motion carries. >> Maui. >> Motion carries. 6. We go into close session. Figure we'll start in about
063two minutes.