Westchester 92.5 Board Meeting - Mar 19 2026

001Good evening. I'd like to call to order the uh March 19th regular board meeting. Can I get a roll call, please? >> President Wesowski >> here. >> Vice President Boyd, >> he's here. McFerson Neil >> Here >> also present are Dr. Sony. Mr. Vanborn, Mr. Deli, Mr. Grass, Mr. Kayata, Miss Laughen, Miss Moran, and Miss >> Excellent. You guys would join me in saying the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge alce 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. Right. Can I get a motion uh to approve the agenda as presented? >> Moved by Cynthia. >> Second by Gina. Any questions, concerns? Okay. Roll call vote, please. Sanchez. >> Hi >> Ortiz. I Neil. >>

002Hi. >> McFersonson. >> Hi. >> President. >> Hi. >> Six eyes, zero nays, one. Motion carries. And then just for a couple um board recognitions. Uh first, we'd like to congratulate the district and the wellness committee for earning the devoted to wellness silver award. uh thanks for promoting wellness and helping lead the district in engaging in healthy activities. And I think one of the latest ones if I remember seeing is pickle ball is coming up. So >> you played Wednesday. >> They played >> Oh, they played Wednesday. Excellent. >> I was there. >> Yeah. Nice. Um and then second, we'd like to give a a shout out. We are very proud of our first grade student Arya for being named a runner up in the IASBE um Reflections of America 250 art contest. Um her

003artwork has been selected for display um at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield. If anyone happens to have plans to go to Springfield over break and hopefully this summer, I don't know how long it stays on display, but um make sure we check her out uh her artwork out. Um, congratulations to Arya and to her art teacher Jill Jacobson who is here this evening um for this wonderful achievement. Thank you so much for encouraging um all the kids to um to participate. And then last um just a really big shout out to everyone involved uh in the Shay forgave fundraising event across the entire district. Uh for the past seven years, students, families, staff members have all come together year after year to support this cause in honor of our student Gabe and so

004many other children and families affected by childhood cancer. Uh this year with a little bit of a comeback from behind win, Westchester Middle School pulled off the victory uh between the three schools raising uh $1,671.19 um including money from the charity games that they do every year in bracelet sales. Um the primary school and intermediate school also had fantastic participation bringing our district total this year to $3,269 68 cents which surpassed last year's total. And then this I think was an incredible number. Over the past seven years our Westchester 92 and a half community has raised $31,424 for St. Baldicks, which is >> incredible. >> Um, as the memo we received noted, this year is especially meaningful as the Meyer boys who inspired the event will be graduating soon. Um, so just a real um,

005thank you to the Meyer family for sharing your journey with us. um to Julian for being an amazing example of brotherly love to everyone who donated or joined in the head shaving. I know from year to year there were some um families that joined in. Uh and a big thank you to Stephanie Delviako who has led this fundraising effort year after year with such heart and compassion. And finally to our Gabe who through it all continues to show incredible courage and joy for life. We are so grateful that he continues to receive allclear checkups and we will um we will always be cheering for him and anyone who's facing childhood cancer. So thank you for all that you guys do. It was a huge um event. Hopefully it continues even after they graduate. Um, next

006audience comments. None. All right. So, uh, action items on the consent or action on the consent agenda. I need a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Moved by Jared. >> One sec. Second by Deshanda. Right. As a reminder, consent agenda items are those items, minutes, business, and personal matters that are routine in nature. Any item may be moved from the consent agenda to action items with discussion. All items on the consent agenda are approved with a single motion unless removed before the roll call vote. And tonight we have the regular board meeting minutes of February 19th. For the personnel report, we have uh resignations of a science teacher and bus aid, retirements of a teacher and bus teachers and bus driver, and um hiring of a cafeteria supervisor, as well as the

007second reading and adoptions of policy 510, 590, and 660. Oh, and 6130. Any questions or concerns? Okay. Roll call vote, please. Terren >> I Manchester I >> President Wesowski >> I >> McFersonson >> I >> Neil >> I >> Ortiz I six I zero Naz one >> motion carries. >> All right now for the good stuff. Um discussion items with no action. First up F is state of the school Westchester Primary School. So Laura, take it away. Thanks for being here. and we'll keep our questions till the end. Perfect. So, this is our state of the Super Bowl for the 2526 school year. This is our team. We have an alphabet for Maggie Maggie Church. Angie Grandandy cannot be here tonight. She uh is very sad about that and she wish she could be here.

008We have Joan Hackstrom, Kelly Hernandez, Jill Jacobson, Sad Marquez, Barb Cadis Kumar, me Christine Lawson, Vanessa Marino, and Bart Tamala. So, we're going to go through a data review with you tonight and then we're going to talk about next steps more toward the end. Uh, we know that you've had this presentation since Friday. We're not going to reach it word for word. Um, we want to respect your time, but we do want to make sure that we're highlighting all the great things that we're doing. And then we have some of our data from the Illinois school report card from 242. This is our student enrollment fund. Hello. As you can see, um, our numbers have stayed pretty similar through the years. Um, especially compared, uh, WPS to the district. Since, uh, January 2026 when this

009data was pulled, uh, we've had a few transfers in, a few transfers out, and there have been a couple ECE and PFA students that have begun during the, uh, months of March and February. supposed to touch that. All right. For this slide, um you can see that enrollment has stayed fairly steady. A few years ago, we had a big spike in second grade. We had 20 extra students, but otherwise it stays pretty um steady throughout the years. And then finally, the racial ethnic diversity. Um we um our numbers have stayed uh pretty consistent with the districts. Our Hispanic numbers are a little higher than the district. and um for Asian, American, Indian, Pacific Islander, and two or more students in our school that I'm here to um talk about the student characteristics. So um our

010we had 55% of our population students. Um 17.3 was ESL students in the district. That's a little lower than last year, which is 19.1. Um but of WPS, 24% of our population is ESL students. And um I just wanted to break down what that looks like for us. So our biggest class is second grade, which we have 36 students. >> Um that's the biggest uh uh first grade is 19. And then uh kindergarten was a little lower this year was a little smaller class with 17. U most of it is Spanish speaking Hispanic um that's what it is the majority of of it and then um parents get to choose ethnicity. So that's why sometimes it says Native American or white or um there's also Asian or and then there are a few parents that

011did not choose an ethnicity. So that's why they're unidentified. So um and then um our students with IP stayed about the same 25.5% um of those of that that's our population and all of the e that includes all of the EC kids which is about 15 students they come with an IEP and then 24 out of the 37 uh EFA students um come with an IEP but uh speech IEPs are also included in that in that stat. So um because we know you know early intervention is the key um our mobility is 5% which is down from last year and that is uh below the state uh student mobility and um a school student mobility rates the percentage of students who experienced um at least one transfer in or out of the school between the

012first day of October and the last day of the school year. So it's um less than the state of of Illinois. And then our student attendance stayed about the same about 93 point. >> And then this is our IR designation. We are commendable. We don't take IR like we talk about every year at WPS. Our score is based on the achievement for third grade and then the growth between third and fourth grade for those uh proficiency. Um but that is our you know absenteeism is from WPS. We work on that. I speak with parents. We'll talk about that a little bit later too some of the meetings that I have. Um but the growth and the achievement is uh from WIS. Oh, I'm the math specialist. So I'm going to talk a little bit about

013the fall the winter math math role. So you see the blue columns there. we've exceeded the grade level norms for projected growth which we're really proud about. And um with that also for grade one and two, we've um we've achieved a high percentile growth rate as well. You'll see in first grade our achievement percentile for students coming in was at the 40th fourth percentile and in the winter math score was in the 78th percentile. And then second grade, we went from the 42nd percentile to our achievement percentile being 60th. So we're incredibly proud of that while we're also very proud that we've exceeded the projected growth goal. Like those are very different. Um so with that achievement, please. And for kindergarten early math, this is one of the benchmarks we give um three times a

014year in the fall, in the winter, and in the spring. And this is a composite score um summary that we're looking at which is made up of three smaller subtests. So the um colored bands represent the different achievement levels and that key is on the left. So the red band would show you the percentage of students in the grade that are um it's less than the 20th percentile. And then the orange band is the 20th to the 29th or close to 30th percentile. Light green the 30th to 85th and 85th and above are our high achievers. So, kindergarten has been very busy working with these littles from the day they came in to um accomplish such great results there in a short time frame. So, our challenge now is to just keep that up and

015maintain it through the spring. Okay, so moving on to reading. So, in reading, we also saw some wonderful growth from fall to winter. Um, this year our second graders took the two to five test instead of the K to2 test. The K to2 test is a little bit different because the students can click on a speaker icon and that speaker icon will read the questions and the tests to them up to a certain point. But the two to five test does not do that for our students. So all of our students had to read the questions for themselves this year. So we are aware that our second graders are only performing at the 40th percentile. So, we do have some work to do, but we're going to talk about this with more detail throughout our

016presentation. Okay, this is our kindergarten data. Um, in the fall, the kindergarteners do not take math. So, we are using FastBridge to track their growth. This is from fall to winter. Um, and you can see that 30% of our kindergarteners did come in below the 20th percentile. So, we had our work cut out for them, but you can see that we lowered that to the 23rd percentile. Um, and then the yellow did bump up a little bit. Um, the green went up to 51% and then the blue did grow. So, we're very proud. We've been putting some focus on those advanced learners. So, we are proud of the growth there and we're looking forward to um continue that growth through the spring. So now this slide is showing our WPS winter map highlights. So these

017are some great things that we've seen from our students. So it's showing that we are committed to meeting the needs of all of our students regardless of what their current level of performance is. And we're ensuring that all of our students continue to be challenged and supported and so that their growth does not. >> Okay. So this is the first year that we have um started tracking the growth through progress monitoring of the advanced learners um in ELS. So you can see on the chart there uh in kindergarten we use FastBridge to track their growth there and 72% of our kindergarteners had met their goal of this group of advanced learners that was identified in the blue area in the fall. we've been tracking their growth. Um, so 72% have met their goal in kindergarten,

01878% have met their goal in first grade in this group of students, and 81% have met their growth in second grade. So, we will continue tracking their growth. Uh, we progress monitor them uh every other week, one month, at least once a month um to check in with them. And we've really been putting a lot of focus on these students. We've been receiving um training at the institute day and also talking about it a lot in our PLTS and making that one of our goals this year is to really put an emphasis on these students. So at WPS we have seven um first graders in grade one who are in a second grade math classroom and that is what this table is showing. Um seven of them all seven of them made their growth targets

019and we have 13 students in grade two who are in third grade math. So they're a whole year accelerated and they are in a second grade classroom at WPS being taught by one of our teachers. So 54% of them um met their growth target. And um while while 50% of them met their growth target, I can assure you that all of them are achieving at an above level MAP achievement percentile. So with a high level of achievement that incremental growth is more difficult to attain and it does require more targeted um differentiation for that group of students. And for that um I am working with the teacher and a coaching cycle. We're looking at formative assessments. We're looking at their summitative assessments and their math data to really dig down deep and see, you know,

020what specifically they need to close that gap or to not not even close a gap because they're already achieving. They're they they have not dipped in terms of their achievement percentile rank. They are at or above like the 70th percentile already, you know, much higher than that. Um so I am working with that teacher looking at those assessments looking at the MAP data to um work on more differentiated and targeted instruction to build that up. And in that um cycle and through those conversations we found that a large part of the um lower scores were um attributed to geometry and measurement and data which is not part of our bridges units that we had even entered into when we took the map test in December. And in fact, I was doing some coaching with her

021last month, working with her, modeling, teaching some lessons with her in measurement and data and uh and geometry. So we expect that to work its way out. All right. So what you see now is um a disagregated data of our math um map growth and achievement scores from fall to winter uh based on rates. So, um, you can see all of our all of our bands have gone up, right? All all subgroups of students are improving. They're growing, they're learning. Um, I know the question was asked what the not specified or other is. So, that um that particular um group is students whose parents reported their race as white or two or more races. So, um it doesn't include like Asian-American and Pacific Islander or um any other ones where we might only have one

022or two students reporting because obviously that would be too small of a sample area and you would kind of know students are being discussed. Um so, as you can see, our um many of our students are making great growth. We're looking at um in the fall we had 43% of black and African-American first grade students meet their goal. That went up 5% and we were at 48%. Um so if you look we have over 65% of each subgroup meeting their growth goals for math which is fantastic. Um and so here is reading obviously same thing with the uh disagregated data. Um kind of like uh Maggie had said for our second graders you notice that it is a little bit lower. Their overall percentage met their growth. Um the fall achievement was um a little

023bit lower as well. And that is kind of due to that the change in the test, right? We know that they're now having to do the heavy lifting of the reading. Um, but we're still at over 50% of students in all subgroups meeting their targets. So, what we have here is our ESL and WA math achievement and growth data. So, we're looking closer at our ESL students and we're very proud of the growth that they have made as long awareness of reading and math. um they've met they're 60% in both um reading and math and 75% in math. So that's really excellent. Um they're impressing us with their ability to grow. Um so here is our intervention criteria for um tier 2 and tier three supports in math and reading. They have not changed since

024last year. Uh this information can also be found in the district's MTSS handbook. Um for the students that were receiving intervention, 49 students in reading met their growth targets from um fall to winter and 33 math students receive uh met their goals. Um here are our numbers. As you can see, we have a lot more students receiving reading support than math support. And that's because there are three of us providing reading support and only two of us providing math support outside of the classroom. And also if you look at our data we have more students achieving at higher levels in mathematics as well. Um so in general most of our numbers did drop less students qualified for tier 2 and tier three support in the winter than the fall. And that's what we want to

025see. We want to see the kids getting out of intervention and back into the classroom full-time. Um in the fall 39 students receive both reading and math. And that number has also dropped to 26 students receiving math and reading support as much. >> Okay, I'm going to talk a little bit about what the ELA block looks like at the primary school. Um, the teachers have at least two hours for their reading and writing. Um, and that does integrate the science and social studies content areas into that as well. Um and then on top of that they have 30 minutes wind time for kindergarten and 40 minutes wind time for both first grade and second grade. Um and during that time prek through first grade do heerty which is phmic awareness audiary skills onset rhymes syllables

026deletion substitution which are all prerequisites for strong reading skills. And then there's the HMH reading lesson which is whole class instruction. It also includes some some small groups. Um, and then there's the writing. In kindergarten, they're using the Heerty writing. Um, and first and second grade is using the H&M. And then the wind time is when all the teachers are able to see their small groups. Um, and they see the their groups at least twice a week, all of their groups. Um, and we use the IMC OG materials for the students so that they're receiving instruction at their level. That's also the time where the intervention would happen as well. So students would be pulled out if needed during that window. Despite what I would like to see, the math block is only 80 minutes

027per day. We seem to be working with it. And that is um the execution or implementation of Bridg's math. And it involves number corner which is a whole classroom activity and that focus on operations and algebraic type of u math activities. Um computational fluency is introduced and practiced a lot during number corner. It's a very engaging um opportunity for teachers to um consider what how students are thinking and have students share and participate as a whole intimate little um activity. Um it also includes our um bridges just core curriculum which are the problems and investigations where students are um asked to u make an inquiry into something and then go about their um discovery based learning and guided by the teacher facilitated by the teacher um develop their knowledge based on that problem or investigation

028throughout their problem solving uh process. process. Uh workplaces is also a part of bridges and our wing group. Um workplaces are the activities that are part of our unit that um kids play with each other or independently and um is when stu teachers would visit with their instructionally based groups or differentiated groups. So that would happen during um the wind time or workplace time. Um we are also um using screeners which is part of the bridge bridges curriculum and bridg and the screeners are an assessment of prerequisite skills. So this is something new within bridges um that they implemented uh with our uh addition three that we've had for two years now. So teachers now are able to see what kids need to know before entering in the teaching of the unit. And um as

029an effort to respond to the needs of our students and our classrooms, we are going to be um it is part of the scope and sequence of each unit. But we are going to be doing those a little bit earlier on so that prior to getting into the unit, which our teachers have told us it's a little too late at that point to then be going back and teaching what they need to know to grasp the concepts of the unit. We're going to be pushing that back a couple of weeks, looking at that data in forefront and seeing exactly what do these students need to be successful in the unit. So, what are they missing through summer slide or just lack of retention that we need to shore up a little bit? So, those are

030some basic skills um that they need. One of those um skills we've found over the years is their knowledge of coins. Um the identification of coins and the value of coins. And that's super important to us because it is while coins may be going away with digital currency, we have um it is a very big part of our curriculum going into fifth grade and sixth grade and the instruction of fractions and decimals. So if you think of the importance of decimals and where kids go with that in their mathematical careers, the um ability to use coins at an early age really plants the seed for that strong foundation. So um that's just one example of the screeners that we we find that just kids learn coins and then they um don't use them right where

031we we are not using our coins and and it is just a big part of our curriculum. So, >> so just to follow up on our professional development, um, we wanted to share with you that we are using comic strips and visuals that are posted in our classroom, their schedules on the wall so the kids know what's coming next and how long the day could be. Um, also we have on our lanyards. I don't have mine with me, but um, what's just behavior expectations? So, if someone's having a hard time, you know, we can just pop it and show them that they're not understanding language because they're having a hard time. A picture speaks a thousand words. So, that's why we use them. Um, also just we have regulation breaks. So, kids are allowed to

032regulate their bodies so that they can get back to learning. Um, we like to use the phrase, um, pause instead of stop. Kids kind of listen to that more than they do stop. Um, that's good. We used a lot of visual timers, sand timers, um, you know, uh, clocks that run out of time and then make some noise. And, um, we are also just trying to connect with the kids so that they can trust us and we can teach them and they're comfortable. So here's our discipline data. Uh we're really proud that uh 98% of our students have one or less referral. Uh since implementing the discipline matrix, we do have 90% who have zero referrals. Couple years up here ago, I would have told you 98% have no referrals. But if we follow that

033discipline matrix with fidelity then we do have kids that hit a referral often times early in the year September October when they are learning expectations. Um we have found that it when we are consistent with that referral system and communicating right it's a communication tool with parents that then our expectations are laid and then it's solid to 98% have one or less referral and seven students out of 360 have five or more referrals and we when we have students that have five or more referrals we are looking for other supports for those students. Um there was a question about um the incidents here. So what we'll find on a referral, what I will find on a referral is that sometimes two boxes will be checked. So for example, defiance of staff, which is that first

034bar, will often be checked with disruptive behaviors. So for instance, I am being disruptive in my classroom. I am just not following expectations. And then my teacher gives me a directive and I don't listen. And my teacher gives me another directive and I don't listen. And so it's hard to tease out which came first. So they will just check both of those boxes which is why it looks like there are more numbers up there which goes along with this which is incident actions. I am always communicating if there's a referral that comes to the office that parents are getting a phone call or there may be a parent conference. Um we I may have a student conference and a loss of privilege. They may lose out on going outside with their friends. They have to

035plan the office instead. um other they might have to do some of their work in the office to show me that they're ready to go back to class. So that's why these numbers are not exactly on par because sometimes there are more than one option taken to talk about chronic abism. So this graph shows um the percentage of students who missed 10% or more school days um in a year and uh research shows that about quarter of students who um with nine or more days uh absent are not ready for college or a career in their future. So it's very important to address this and um as you see over the last few years our numbers have gone down in chronic absenteeism and I think it has to do with our you know both our

036Laura and our office staff because each month the office tracks all the attendance data and then they mail letters to the families uh for every five 10 or 15 absences and then um Laura also speaks to the families um like if they're draft they're dropping off their students um you know after the bell. So it's they're just it's just trying to make sure that they know that it's very important uh that they're in school um on time so that they don't >> we are very fortunate to have two social workers that are able to work with our students. If we look at our data there, we have a lot of students that have um needs uh from our social workers. We have 33 students with IEPs or students with 504 plans. We have quite a

037plethora of uh needs. And so we are lucky that they're able to support our students in small group settings, individually and in whole classroom situations. Um so some of the tier 2 level supports that u our social workers implement are check-in checkout um sheets where they check in with students. Um we also have a morning exercise club and they do group social work. Um some of our tier three tier three um supports that our social workers implement is individual social work. They'll meet with a student sometimes multiple times per week, sometimes it's multiple times a day. And uh again, they individualize check and checkout charts. Um they implement a token economy with some reports for for some rewards for some of our students. So, um, with, um, that in place, we have, uh, spring savers

038conversations that are currently taking place and if needed, we can, um, form new groups of support. So we take all of that data and we meet with our team. We meet with all of our committees and then we start to say okay what are we going to do because um we do not like status quo of UPS. We are always movers and shakers. We want things to continue to get better. Uh so we use that assessment data right we have our we have our benchmark data. We have fall, winter, spring that we've talked about, map data, fastbridge, savers data. We use some summitative assessment data from our reading and our math programs. And we have formative assessments, math uh bridges has embedded assessments that are checkpoints that we are using. We have those screeners. HMH

039has um little selection quizzes that we're using along the way or foundational quizzes to see what do kids need. Teachers are taking in time data in class. Flash me your whiteboard. I want to see what you're doing. what do you know in small group they're taking notes as they go ahead on their um instructional plans so they know what they're going to do the next time they see students in a group we are delivering tier one instruction we have bridges it is researchbased we are seeing really great progress with that but we continue to make improvements we are trying to expand play-based learning in kindergarten we have two teachers they were supposed to go to a PD I went with Nicole Gatau a couple years ago uh so then we purchased an extra kitchen for

040every kindergarten classroom room to um give them more play-based pools. And now the um Nicole Ghetto and um Angie Angie Nagel are going to go to another play-based um PD soon. It was canceled due to the weather last week. So they rescheduled it. Always looking to see how can we embed more play-based into our language arts. Math is there. We have workplaces. They are playing. They are learning. That's how they're building their fluency. And we have that full group structured literacy instruction where students are hearing on and above level text and having very deep comprehension discussions um to build their reading knowledge. We know our kids have to have a good sonic space, but they also have comprehension. It's a role that is together. Um we have tier one interventions. all three levels K12 and

041preschool actually has story champs um where we're talking about who's the character, what's the setting, what's the problem. Gestures go along with it. Our students hear it, they repeat it to a friend, and they are writing it. And it happens uh weekly for preschool, kindergarten, and first, and bi-weekly in second grade. really building on uh children being able to hear, have good listening skills, being able to remember, being able to write and to revision. Uh we have differentiated math support uh with Bridg's intervention. Our teachers have access to that intervention as well. Barb works with the teachers with that with that program. And we have number rack activities that we purchased as well. And our schoolwide initiatives, I have that in my board report every month. This month, in the month of March, we are

042concentrating on shamrocks for safety. As kids are going through the halls or in the bus line or in the cafeteria, we have different colors for each grade level. We post them on the bulletin board. Uh you will never see a more proud K through2 student walking past seeing their name uh up on the board that they wrote themselves. I even brought some to the buses yesterday because we want to make sure that they're safe on the bus and so they're partaking in handing out a shamrock for safety as well. And then we do provide tiered instruction that we've talked about a little bit. Uh we have class classroom based support for all students. All of our teachers are trained in the NZ approach for Orton Gillingham. We have targeted pullout sessions with specialist interventionist, social

043work, ESL as well. Um ESL pulls out or we'll push in uh sometimes uh multiple times for a student depending on where they are in learning language. >> We also have tier three interventions that we deliver. So those are more highly individualized. It's usually a one-on-one or twoon-one session with students. Sometimes it's longer time, sometimes it's more times per week to try and really close that gap with the student. We also work together as a team to talk about students that we're concerned about, whether it's SEAL concerns or academic concerns. We have team meetings. We also check in with our interventions every six weeks. So we progress monitor our students. Tier three students are progress monitored at least every other week, sometimes more. And our tier 2 students are progress monitored at least once a

044month. So we look at that data to make sure that what we are doing with the students is working. And if it's not working, then we have a discussion of what can we do to improve the students growth. We also do support beyond the school day. So we have afterchool homework club and assistance. So certain teachers sign up to do that and it's a small group of students that come in and do their homework that maybe don't have that support at home or just don't work well at home work. And then we also have our summer program, our jump start program for our students that are invited to come that are struggling, maybe need that extra push at their grade level. But we also now have a newly accelerated math students. So our kindergarten students

045that qualify for accelerated math, they do a jump start program with staff. And then finally, we we focus on student success. So, we're constantly changing what we're doing, looking at the data, and making sure we're giving the students what they need. And that's for every student that we see. So, this site and what we do um to involve parents and kids and grandparents. So, we have a lot of activities that they can come to and help out and see how the kids are in school. Um we have uh just leadership programs for the kids. So like student council and the kindergarten you know mentors and things to that nature and the kids like to set goals and they see how they can achieve it. So that's part of it. Um we have lots of extra

046activities like recycle club forever but still the kids love it. Um we have jigsaw puzzle club, we have board game club, the art club. Um he has two sessions and then science club is in the fall and winter and the student council. So just trying to get everyone excited about school and all the activities along with their parents and grandparents or whoever you know they're around. Well, I'm happy to share all the wonderful things teachers are doing to have our students learning. So, what are we doing? We're fostering, we have ways that we foster the wellness of our staff. So, we have Wednesday wellness check-ins. We have a super fun um sunshine committee that we plan fun activities to keep everyone's morale up and be able to share and get to know our teaching peers.

047And we also put other fun things. We do significant 72 activities as well as the children do them. The teachers do them as well for team building. So we have a lot of really good things that we're building as a staff of teachers. Um we also have coaching cycles available to us so we can have we can we want it to be a safe environment and say I can ask a question I need help right so we have both reading and ELA coaching teachers that are on staff to help when the need arises or how can I better this right we're always looking for ways to improve what we're doing and also the principal Laura walks through and she gives constructive criticism right and it's positive right she finds a good thing, something else we

048can be working on. What is she seeing when she walks into the classroom? So, that's ongoing as well. So, we have a lot of things that we can continue working on and striving to continue getting better at, right? And goal is for our students to reach their highest potential. So, we're enhancing our instructional practices. We've already learned that we're take get them going to give screeners before units begin. So we can already see where our children are falling. Not falling falling but where where they need to be met, right? So we want to meet each individual learner where they are so they can continue to reach the highest ceiling. So we just want to keep moving them forward. Um we have the tiered um different curriculums. We do integrity which you've heard of formic awareness

049and we just continue working on differentiating workplaces and in the classroom what can we do to meet the individual learners. So that could be small groups of students it could be retaching in a large group so that every student gets what they need. Um so we're professional learning and collaboration. We host three learning labs throughout the year. Um so that is very beneficial. So we can go into another teacher's classroom. We see how they're presenting the information, what they're doing. So we're not our own little private island. We see what's happening in other classes. And we have great we meet again. We talk about it and hopefully we have some really good things that we can take away and put in our suitcase of things that we can pull out the do. So that's a

050really positive thing. Um we're engaging staff in lots of different um professional developments. We just had one last month and it was great to find out how to meet our higher learners and where our learners are, right? Meet them where they are and we had great strategies to take away and start implementing in our daily instruction. So we keep providing more and more opportunities to learn and to grow as teachers as well. So HMH we have um our personalized reading programs. So in HMH, we started with Waggle. I know I've implemented it more this year because now we could put our what they're achieving in their MAP testing and their scores go in. So it's already balancing. So not only do they do that, Il does it as well and they can step into the

051arena. As parents, you hopefully have senior children. get leaderboards to get them excited to do some at home as well so they can continue and take take um advantage of their own learning, right? So that's what you want to be independent learners and want to do it, right? Be excited about it. So we're cultivating a very positive learning environment for our students, for our teachers, getting excited about learning. We're happy they're here. And what can we do today? We're learning together. It's a partnership and we're doing our best every day. We're there and they're they're coming, right? They're here to to learn. So, we take away and say, "What are you going to tell mom and dad or grandma or grandpa, what did you learn today?" When they say, "What did you do?" I don't

052want to hear nothing, right? They should be coming home and saying, "Did you know a couple fun facts that you can share?" So just reinforcing their daily learning and that they continue to keep growing. So lots of good stuff. >> Presentation. >> Do you have questions for us? >> Thank you. >> Um >> so we'll go in order and how about we do like if you have more than two questions you'll ask two and then we'll go to somebody and then you come back to the next two. Does that sound good? >> All right. Who wants to go first? Who wants to be on the list? No one has questions for me. Go ahead. You want to start this way? >> Yeah. Okay. >> Well, first I just want to thank everybody for being here

053and for all of the hard work that you're doing. And it's exciting to see my son who's in first grade doing a lot of the things that you guys are talking about. Um and so my first question is just um how come we I get this is a question for you. How come how many went to the two to five? Was that optional or was it like oops or can we go back or as I know my son struggles too when he has to you know he's in first grade but so um math designates they have some cut offs um that we can take a look at. We years ago we did the two to five um and then with the pandemic we went back to the K to2 test because it reads to them.

054The issue with the K to2 is that it really stops at that two level. And so if you have these advanced learners that we're talking about, you're not getting that information on where do we need to place them so that they're going through the ceiling to the sky because it really kind of stops at that second grade level. >> Um, also it gives us good information on what do we need to do for our second graders to really get them ready for third grade. In the past we saw, okay, our scores look amazing. We're doing great things. Um, and then they would get to WIS and they would take the two to five test and they'd be like, "What are you talking about? This is where our score is." And so it gives it gives

055us a little more information about where students are for being able to read independently and answer something. So that's why >> you guys um I mean and I don't want to assess kids through the ropes. I'd like to see both because I if a student is not a strong reader, it's not always easy to find out what their comprehension level is if they're not reading on level. If you're reading on level, it's going to give us a really good picture. If you're not reading on level, then we're going to find out your comprehension more within your intervention. >> Then if it's testing certain things, it won't read it to you would not. So once you Well, once you hit the highest or you would not. So for our first graders, once they've hit a certain

056point, it is not relating to them anymore. I correct. >> Um and then my second question, um I think it's for you too. Um I noticed on there that you had, uh for discipline, detention was one of the actions and I was just curious what it looks like, you know, for K1 and two like restorative, you know. >> Yep. Yep. Yes. All of the above. So it is punitive when you can't eat lunch. I don't really use after school detention because it's hard for parents to come and pick up sometimes. Yeah. >> So, I rely on lunch detention and it is um punitive because you're not eating with your best friend at lunch that day >> but at the same time you eat in a quiet space in the office and then we are having

057conversations kind of like the think sheet but together. What happened? Why did it happen? How do you think the other person felt? How can we make this right? and what are you going to do next time if you're in that same situation again? So, it's a lot of restorative conversation and again parents get a phone call each time at the beginning of the year. A lot of it is students ability to um with conflict resolution and once we have those conversations then they have the tools that they may not have come to our school with at the beginning. >> Yeah. Okay. back. >> Um, I really am struggling with my limit of questions. >> You can come back on the list. >> I like so mad I don't even want to ask my questions. Um,

058but maybe I can have a conversation. I'm going to try to figure this out my way. Can you tell me more about the small group? Uh, tell me more about small groups and how we're using OG. Like who gets OG is my first question. >> So all of our small groups get OG. >> So every kid in small group gets OG. >> Yeah. So we do an assessment benchmark and see where the students are. >> And what we're finding is a lot of it is writing. >> So we're finding that some of our students may be able to read certain words but they do not encoding. >> Correct. Yeah. So once you know we're now at this point talking about moving some of the kids out of OG and doing literature circles or um book

059let them pick a book and having comprehension conversations with each other but yes everybody okay so then I think when you're thinking about that evolving if a kid is still has phonics gaps like that should be a determining factor if you get OG or not right so like if you're if you've surpassed your comment your your you've you've you've surpassed your phonics goals and your next step is vocabulary comprehension. We're always working on those things but that's the biggest goal. >> So then that would make sense for those kids, right? >> Yes. >> But that's usually third grade and above. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> You get up. That's right. That's right. Yes. Well, my concern with Orton Gillingham is um I'm a certified trainer. I train teachers on how to use Orton Gillingham. And

060if I see here correctly, you're only doing it two times a week. And is that enough for is that enough for OG, but then I'm making some assumptions that perhaps you see how I'm getting away from my question. Um, but let's talk about what structure is as part of H.M.H. and maybe that will answer your question and as to what's going on then to >> But no, I know I know H.M.H. I know that program, but my question is is how are we using OG for small group when we're only doing it two days a week and are we doing for small group? So my question is for small group. >> Yeah. I'm just curious like does tier three get more times a week? >> Okay. So yes, the intervention students get it at least

061four times a week. >> Okay. >> Yes. So the >> because it's prescribed at 5 days a week, but I teach I can't get five days a week. It's impossible. >> And there's some of our tier three is five days a week. >> Yeah. And there are ways that if you look in through's um kind of implementation guide that you can reduce it >> to two sessions, three sessions, four sessions as long as like you're hitting each aspect of the lesson >> and integrity takes a piece of it out. You don't have to do that part, >> right? We do one minute drills through um Patrick's book. So we start with that one minute funological awareness and then we go into >> Oh, that's really nice to hear. >> Okay, that's really good because they

062have to hear it, you know. >> All right. Um >> that's all right. Go >> or your first was a story. So then I guess my other my other question slashconern and then I am coming back is how are we creating our lesson plans for small groups. I just have found I I'm living what you're doing every single day and I have made so many mistakes and have learned so much over the years that small groups is where you're you're you know where you're making your money on the growth here. So, how are we um allocating our time for small groups? Are we lesson planning? I mean, >> I just love to hear that. >> Are you looking for intervention students or in the classroom? Those are going to look different. >> Oh, that's true.

063So, that was another question I had. Tier 2, three students. Does this students see interventionist as well as the Jenna teacher? >> Traffic. Traffic. >> Yes. >> I'm sorry. >> You're fine. You're good. You're good. So then I'm I'm wondering >> I'm just wonder I have like some questions about how that's happening. >> Um >> so could you tell me like if you picture a kid that's a two tier two possible almost three like what does that look like for maybe that would help me to >> so most of our tier 2 groups are four or five students and we see that four days a week one of the days a week we do story champs. So that takes away the wind time because we're doing the tier one storage system. >> Then the other

064four days they are pulled out. We use >> and they have the online lesson planning. So >> yeah, >> that's what I use is their lesson plan and I add stuff. >> So pre-artal on Tuesday, free part on Tuesday, >> but this isn't oneonone. What if a different kid needs something different? >> They're they're group by ability. They're group by the OG. Man, I got that other question in. >> We do the OG screener for all first and second graders and we use that data to make um homogeneous instructional groups. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Awesome. I feel really wonderful about >> there's ongoing assessment in between ranking assessment. There's ongoing assessment. >> Well, and then we do switch students to different groups as we meetings. I might have a student who is on my

065other three kids. >> Joe's group might be higher. So then >> you can switch up. >> So then you guys are also planning together, looking at the data together, adjusting every six weeks, not waiting for a whole quarter to pass. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I get your superintendent to take a day off, but you can tell me spend a day with us. >> She would be careful. She would >> easy comment. Easy comment. Maybe a little question. I really love the afterchool support club. I I was just wondering how many students or do we have a good attendance rate for that >> invitation. So we'll put out so many every teacher has so many children that they can they could benefit from this and then they're called and they can sign up. So I

066would say it's a good >> I feel about eight first and eight in second. Now we don't offer it to kindergarten anymore. our kindergarten. We did offer it to kindergarteners and it was just such a long day for them. >> I can tell you that we have and then we try to invite siblings. If one sibling needs it, we try to invite the other even if they don't know what they're doing. They're more independent. Sometimes siblings need one-on-one when Mrs. Laughen during homework support club and I do that every Tuesday and Thursday with a one-on-one support for a student um because we just want our kids to love school and to work. Oh, >> did you have one? >> Yes, I did. Here to get that. Yeah, go for >> Oh, she doesn't have one.

067>> She's got one done. >> Okay. So, I have a couple I had some questions, but you know, they kind of took most of my attention. So, but I got the answers on though on the one that I had in there. Um, but I have some questions around like the disciplinary actions and I was just trying to understand. So, for every I'm on the page where it talks about discipline. What page is that? >> 27 27 27. So for every disciplinary action is a parent called for every action. Okay. >> Called or they may just be happening. I know they're they're going to come in to pick up their child from early dismissal that day and I be able to have a So they're not called I have a parent comment. Yes. >> Okay. So

068that's one. And then when you talked about the lunch detentions, can you clarify a little bit more who's managing the lunch detention? >> I manage the lunch. >> So say for one particular do you all like scatter them out and scheduling? So like say could you have 10 or 15 kids at a lunch detention? >> No, I'm just trying to understand what that looks like >> all year. >> Okay. >> Um so no I don't have that many lunch attentions. If I had more than I thought I if I had more than two or three. One time I had a group of about five for the same incident and they all had lunch detention with me because we were all having the same incident and I called all the parents and we worked that situation

069out and again that was like in October. Um but I don't our uh a lot of our teachers are able to manage through phones through using um our medic strategies through um reminders. Um we get to launch detention once there are students who are really not being able to handle learning a learning environment. >> Okay. Um I think that's good for now. >> You have some? >> Yes. Okay. Okay, you could go back to um on slide 21 um when we were talking about the interventions. I'm sorry, I getting over a cold. Um do you have or can you break down the the students receiving interventions by their demographics so that we can see the racial background? >> Um I mean we we could that would take a little time. We can do that. >>

070We'll follow you. Yeah, we can. >> Yeah, we'll get it to you. >> And then um going back to discipline um I think I would have the same question. Are there um to be able to see the demographics of students who are um receiving different types of discipline um particularly in the disruptive category? Um yeah, those were like statements though were those questions. >> So I just want to make sure you would like demographic data for both intervention numbers and discipline um data. >> Yeah, thank you. >> Y do you have another one? >> No, I think I'm okay for >> Oh, no, I did. Sorry. >> Um and Miss Lavin, you started to talk about this a little bit with the um incidents. A lot of them happen towards the beginning of the school

071year, which makes >> the singulars. The singulars were at the beginning of the school year. >> Um, are there other um sort of um frequencies like more kindergarteners because they're getting used to the school environment or um you know around the middle of the school day because kids are getting restless. Do you have any other sort of trends? We don't really see an uptick in times of the day. Um or I mean if you look I think I think we were poking around at 200. I think uh Barb and I were I feel like maybe it was Thursday. There might have been more incidents on a Thursday something along those lines but it wasn't a vast difference. Um kindergarteners more like the beginning of the year. >> Yeah. >> Um with some of the behaviors

072that were did were skipped some steps, right? It wasn't just a talking thing. She they might might have gone straight for lunch detention for some of the behaviors. Uh lacking that conflict resolution, right? My friend put my ball and I kicked him. Well, we need to that's not just a oh, please don't do that. We have to have bigger conversation. Um so that is more with kindergarten earlier on. Um my the students who have five or more referrals, we are looking at how do we support the student? Does the student need a higher level of support? Do we need to go, you know, once we're hitting in school suspension and suspension, do we need to go to FBA? Do we need to go to BIP? Do we need to go to >> our behavior intervention

073plans? >> FA behavior plan and would be we would want to start the acronym. You see that? >> Sorry. Lots of acronyms. >> Lots of them. Jerry, do you >> That was gonna be my question. Why don't we have Jerry joke? Thank you. That was a dream. >> Um, >> let's take these seriously. >> Um, I was just wondering besides behavior intervention plans like what sort of supports do you provide with for the students with five or more girls? Um so we use a token economy on them. I have two students with a token economy. They have we find out their interest. I have one who loves football, one who loves basketball and then they are earning a little basketballs or footballs based on the uh what parameters we put in place. Are you seeing

074your area? Are you using birds? Are you fancy feet? And then um they earn five book economy and then they get to pick the reward that they choose. Uh we have a a little menu that they choose from. So it might be again that we purchased for students who need some extra movement. Do you want to come and ride the exercise bike for two minutes or three minutes in the in the office? Do you want to um I coached the little basketball game from district. You want to shoot a couple of basketballs with a friend. Do you want to play Uno with the social worker? So, we have different rewards in place based on their interest. Um, we talk to parents. We figure out, do we need sensory supports, right? We tag in our OT.

075Do we need putting? Do we need a Play-Doh? Do we need a lap pad that's weighted? Do we need a bus? What do we need to help these kids regulate and teach them how to self-regulate, identify their emotions? Because that's what we need most at this level is I'm not. what can I do about it safely? Um, our social workers do push into preschool. We didn't talk about that much, but they do push into preschool this conversations really early and they are pushing into every kindergarten classroom this year as well to deliver tier one interaction lessons based on what we're seeing that that population needs. But we do try to um partner with parents and guardians and along with teachers and other outside staff to provide those supports. No Mexico wants to suspend the APK2

076students. It makes me very sad when that happens, but when we have big aggressive um the suspensions you'll see that come from WPS are due a large aggression. And uh second one is uh who typically performs the FBAs is that you have a BCBA or or >> No, we don't we don't we try we try to find a BCBA. We have contracted with BCBA, but it's usually our we contracted with West 40 for BCBA, but also um our we have door psychologist who can't help. >> Thank you. >> Back around. >> Yes. one more just real quick because I just really want to let you guys know that we really appreciate you and see all your hard work when I was looking at the presentation slide I think it's 15 where it talked about you

077know your students in the 80th percentile and the 90th percentile I taught primary and it was my heart I mean I taught a lot of grades but primary was my heart and so the feeling of seeing students learn how to read is like it's really amazing and then when it clicks and goes on you know I don't think people can understand what you know this means you got you know almost 25% of your students 80% or above and that's a huge accomplishment and I hear a lot of like hey well we're changing this we see this is not working or this is going on now or this is changing you know you got kids coming in kindergarten no prek or language or or you know there's so many things so just want to give you

078a kudos that we see your hard work your effort um and it shows in the data my heart was bursting when I saw this slide and then and miss Kate is to I know you do so much and I see it all the time. Um and I was just wondering how you know you you guys are aware like oh we didn't have geometry and word problems. what would what a parent piece and just I'm just wondering like would a parent piece and it could be whatever is manageable and feasible just and I know it might fall on deaf ears but it might not you know if we know like geometry or word problems is an area that we need to focus on because it's not part of the curriculum or you know they're going to

079you know need that you know >> yeah it's it's really fascinating to me you know I was at WIS between PS and early math Math is is extremely cognitive and it's um you almost miss it because it to us it's so simple but it's an extreme cognitive load and there's many pieces that have to fall into place for our kids to be successful at that age with their reasoning that they're asked to do with these these numbers and the abstract the abstract symbols of numbers even. But to that question with geometry what I find found in looking at it it it is like a mystery it's like a puzzle because like with geometry and measurement and data it is um language intensive. >> So the reading is really important and my reading colleagues they do

080know that and they that is how they're working so tirelessly to support that vocabulary. But I guess um to your question, it it it would be great to have some engagement with parents on on those areas that need I would fully support that. But it fundamentally is a language. It is language and it is reading because many of those questions especially with the story problems involve comprehension, >> right? So yeah, it would be great to explore that more some engagement in that part. And I've seen your parent packets that you put together. Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah. The you know comprehension and the the vocabulary like geometry and measurement and data you know um titling graphs, bar graphs, line plots, all of that what they're doing in first second grade. I mean that's very language and

081vocabulary. So to that degree, yeah, parents could do some fun. Many more ideas, >> Gina. >> Well, since we're talking about math, I wanted to mention um also thought we got I thought we were like, >> no, >> she's got a couple stories. >> I don't I don't I don't actually. It's not a question though either. I just wanted to like elevate something you said earlier about coins. Same with clocks, but these things are still on standardized tests. >> So, they might not We might not see them in use in everyday life, but they're still on the test >> and we still teach them. >> We We have to Yeah. I taught clocks today to five kids with autism um in kindergarten. >> Okay. Um I wanted to say, Miss Laughlin, I just did an

082um PD on play-based instruction, and you said something that made me laugh. Um, you said you ordered new kitchens for all the Right. Right. But play isn't just kitchens. And that's something I thought. >> Oh, no. No. Right. No. It was just another opportunity. >> But it just made me laugh because I I was like, well, you put me in kindergarten, there's no toys in here, >> but it's more than play. It's more than toys, right? >> But, um, I do I do think from this PD I had, and I haven't verified this or even looked this up, playbased instruction is changing. >> So, we do have to keep that on our list of things. >> Two K teachers going. So, I'm hoping they come back with a wealth of >> ideas and um you

083know, we're ready to put some advice for next year. >> Um and then um just elevating also what my friend said or asked is um in the data that we're looking for, I would love to see some more data around our students that are below, not just accelerated. Um I'd love to see how they're growing or not. Does that question make sense? Right. Okay. because we used to have that data before, but I feel like it got knocked out with the accelerator. >> We do have um if you're looking on slides 21, we do say how many of the kids in reading and math intervention met their group goals. >> I want to see >> You want to see charts though? >> Well, like the like the accelerated chart, like the ESL chart. Look, I'm

084trying to find that slide. It it it shows like it compares winter to fall for ESL and for accelerated. I would 16 >> 1617. Thank you. I would love to see something like that for our you know um the kids on intervention. I don't know what the number is but you know >> um that's it. That's all I had. >> Awesome. Good. >> Um follow up. >> One other question around discipline. I know you talked about like the percentages like it's 98% that are one or more. What are what do those numbers look like? Meaning actual numbers like >> we have 360 students. So 36% would be 10% would be 36, 5% would be 18. So >> So the so >> so like nine kids >> make up all of those disciplines. I'm trying to

085figure out like if I so for the disciplines that you have on there which is like a uh I guess it's 80 what is the number of students that make up those? >> So 10% of 10% of students had a referral. So 36 students have had a referral. >> 36 students have had one or more referral. >> I got that part but then you was talking about so 36%. So this this whole number this like this 63 disruptor all of these are made up of only 36 students. >> Okay. That's what I was trying to understand. >> What I want everyone to keep in mind when it comes to discipline is that we have students that enter our building like you said that have never stepped into a school before. And so we are their

086first teachers of school experience and we do follow our our district discipline matrix pretty closely. Um we probably are a little more lenient in the prompts at the early stages and the think sheets at the early stages but what we're getting to referral. referrals are typically bigger issues, bigger aggressive issues um versus someone who just isn't making them. >> Thank you. >> Um so I had three but Gina asked one, so now I've got two. Um so I'll start here. What are um to follow up with what Stephanie was asking, what are the types of incidents that you're seeing that would be categorized as disruptive? So to get a referral for disruptive, we first would have had teacher talking to you and they when we're fitting their seat, we raise their hand, first we'll just

087raise our hand then and that's going to happen multiple times for the little ones and then we'll go to sheet and then um and then it might be Mrs. Le, I need you to talk to the student. They are continuing to disrupt my class. Um by the time I'm moving in, it often is escalating. So, I might have an incident where someone is in our calm down corner and instead of leaving the calm down corner because they're so escalated and going to find coming out to me or to a social worker, they're kicking in their calm down corner and causing a great disruption to class. And we don't let that happen long because we want our students to be able to learn that student as well as every student that's in the classroom. So, that's

088when we're getting to those disruptive is when it's large, so loud and so big that it's disrupting others. And one thing that I noticed and can having conversations at K through five too and just so you like when that is a referral there is as she said and at is it's like three times before you even get the referral. So the teacher has talked to you three times. >> It's never just you do something unless it's egregious like you're in a fight. It's like Gina you said you were going to ask the question Gina said Gina. And at that third time then you then you would take that step right. And so that is so when we look even at the behavior matrix. So when I look >> by the time a kid if on

089there if they were suspended it would be like after eight of these different times but eight really times three. So it' be like 24 times the teacher talked to you about a specific thing that it got to. So we try to do every that is the the kind of restorative piece. It's not just punitive. Write the suspension. So, you know, you're having a conversation for them. It's the think sheet. Then it would be the teacher conversation, then it would be the parent conversation, then it would be the principal convers. So, it's like but there has been so many different warnings. So, I just I you guys when you see referrals, it's not like you could see the number referral, but know that there was like these like stars that got to to get a referral

090takes a lot. It's not like we're just >> throwing them out. Yeah. Does that make sense? >> Parents are being contacted like anytime. >> Well, so like if it's if when it gets a referral, I think and even like if it's a if you did misbehaved in my classroom, it was just us talking. I may I'm not sure like I don't think that they're not always necessarily because it's just a one one off. >> Okay. Uh second and last question is with the oh um the example of token economy and really learning the um students interest. How um have you seen a decrease in sort of negative behaviors or um incidents? >> Of course, but I mean overall, you know, when you're really getting to know the students and trying to implement things over the

091course of the year, are you seeing improvement? >> Um with those when we're doing tokenies, we're talking about our students who are needing the highest level of support. So I feel like I can think of two students off the top of my head. One, yes, I see improvement. It es and flows. Um there are many factors for why students at WPS may be needing support. Many times things out of our control. So for that student, it adds and flows. I have another student that it is not seeming to work and we are really leaning heavy into families, the family and how can we support the student. Um and so right now we are leaning more like into discipline because we need students to be able to follow our expectations and use our tools appropriately. >>

092So and if it's not working right then our next step is to go and look um perhaps to go to the main or to uh >> so for the two students you gave an example I completely understand how it es and flows. I guess what I'm asking is for the seven um and I know each year is going to be different. Um but from, you know, August to the end of May with all of the shifts and the overall, you know, es and flows, are you seeing that your strategies are effective sort of generally? um or are there um resources or additional things that might be helpful to support you all as students who are happy? >> We've used different placement. So, we've gone a different placement for some students. We've had uh out of

093that seven, we've had we had a we had two students that were not in their least restrictive environment. Uh we have one student that went to domain and evaluation um for an IEP. Uh we have um those two others that we're talking about. The one I feel like is up and flowing. The other one we're not there yet. Uh we had the our and we have an office and behavioral health consultants that came in today to help provide us with strategy to help the student. So we do take it on a case by case basis. We don't leave it status quo. Um one of the students that was not in the least restrictive environment was an emergency placement. he did not have an IEP. So again, we have kids that come to us as you

094know who have wonderful uh tools at home. Um parents who parents, guardians, grandparents who uh can support, but we also have parents who may not have those tools at home. And so it is really a balancing act for teachers, for social workers, for me. >> Question kind of follow up to that just real quick. So just so I'm clear, I think you were saying so some of the kids that are in what I would consider like the SPE, are they included in the disciplinary action numbers as well? >> Yes. >> So they are in those numbers. Okay. >> That would be helpful >> to understand >> to to break out to see the difference of those students versus the students that are non-spared. It would be good to see the differentiation between those students that

095are being disciplined that are spared versus non-spared if that makes sense. Right. Um and then my other question would be and I'm just curious is no again what what would constitute suspension out of school suspension for this grade level >> hurting yourself or others. >> Okay, >> that's suspension. um >> disruptive actions where you are loping out of your classroom um and you leave the building >> um or if I'm following and I've done all these steps and I moved in your parent and we're have tools in place and you are deciding not to use those tools and it's a repeat repeat. Okay, >> thank you again for that. This is very helpful information. Again, this was no I'm trying to under I'm just trying to understand what that what that looks like. So, I

096appreciate I appreciate the uh information that you provided. >> Thank you. >> So, I'm sorry, but to just because I've been so involved in in the overall discipline, a huge piece that we're not talking about too is kind of the collaboration with parents and when they are involved and sometimes it's getting them there. It's it's more challenging, but it's also like the followup with the outside resources. So, some we'll have conversation with parents and maybe they are seeing someone outside. So, it's like the followup. We're trying to get communication so our social workers could speak with their outside so we're on the same page so we're understanding and sometimes it's follow through um like if they don't have the resources we're trying to team up and and Marine does a good job a great job

097of connecting um wraparound services with through ladsy no matter what you know the kid like we don't have to necessarily have an IEP but it's just about finding the resources for families Um, so it's like a it's it's like an ongoing and I I'll mention in my in my meeting, but I just had a meeting at Ladsy with all the directors and from the director of Ladsy, she said that she has never in her life seen so many kids coming to school, not been in school. So that this is a national it's it's a really and so we're actually going to have a symposium with all the superintendents and the directors because the numbers of special ed students and especially students that are showing these aggressions because we are filling up >> rooms quicker in

098Lati it's not not just Westchester this is like >> like a 20% increase >> in the past year. >> Yeah. >> And it's crazy about the number of students that are coming in. So we have to figure out like cuz the superintendents are like >> is this like going to be the norm because as you said the connection to the budget for all of us the implications moving forward it is not going to be sustainable. So we have to figure out it's superintendent are like you know what are we going to do? So we're having a meeting in a couple weeks. So the things that we're seeing here unfortunately aren't exclusive. >> Right. Right. >> You know I think that's what we've really learned in the last year. It it's like it's not us. I

099mean it's it's everywhere. >> So let me just clarify again. I understand you're explaining. I'm not questioning the action at all. I just wanted to kind of understand what has happened and I kind of had that connection to think that that was in there. That's why I was trying to understand having such a large number of kids that are coming in with the behavior issues. So again, there was no question or judgment on the actions being taken. Just wanting to understand more about it. And I I think that maybe for the board and like I guess what what I'm saying is like this is unfortunately like on our like we have to solve this because we know this is where it starts because all these wonderful scores like the challenge is the challenges of the

100the behavior. We got to get we've got to support all the kids so then everyone could be success. So like it's not going away unfortunately. Right. And we know we're starting to see like when it's isolated too. You said in all three buildings it's like a handful. So how do we help these handful without you know while moving forward so it's >> I just wanted to note that the kindergarten kids who are who entered school this year were the kids that were >> born during co >> so like I'm hoping that this is >> just a another trend in this in in the education world that will >> you know e and flow it it out. I don't know. >> Yeah. So, I'm praying for that. >> Good. >> Yeah. >> All right. Thank you

101guys. >> Thank you guys so much. >> Thank you so much for your time with us. >> Thank you to I think almost all of you one of my children. >> I was looking at that too. >> Oh my gosh. Yeah. I was saying like her >> sour now she she s for a little while after she retired. >> Yeah, >> I love s. >> I do too. >> They had them together. >> Uh so discussion items with no action. The next thing on our list is summer construction update. Guess that's you, Dennis. >> Yes. >> Thanks, guys. >> Are we going back up now? >> Uh, summer construction update. >> Discussion action. >> Yeah, go for it. Thank you, Dennis. So in connection with preparing the budget of putting together a listing of all

102the projects we're inquiring about uh we do have the maintenance grant that we were approved for for the items that we selected on that as well as project school districts outside of those. >> Did you say that you have identified a spot for the maintenance grant? What did we submit for? I can't remember. >> We submitted for the middle school. Okay. >> A few different items including roof repairs, >> window repairs, smaller projects, but in order to do something like that, they have to be within one thing. So, we try to rotate that around the last year. >> Okay. So, will you have uh you think the April meeting or the May meeting? April. April. Okay. That's why I'm putting these out there. We have a lot of them that I'm just letting the board

103know. I'm reaching out parts to get things moving so I can bring you the information. >> April's going to be fun. People get you >> going to be here. >> Any questions about the summer construction for now? >> All right. um audit engagement letter discussion. >> So again, I just reached out to the auditor said, "Hey, that time of the year is coming up. When can I have it by April 1st?" >> Okay. >> So we'll have to date. >> Great. >> These all next month is the same. >> Yeah. >> Right. >> Just take it away. >> And then next, the milk contract. Oh, I skipped. I'm sorry. lunch program contract discussion. >> I did reach out to our lunch vendor. It does depend upon how much of our commodity credit whether or not

104they could give us an actual uh renewal. So I said, "Hey, where are we with the commodity credit?" They sent me what they have currently. We're not financ. >> Okay. And that is um remind me how many times we can renew without going out to bid. >> It is five. >> Okay. So we're still within that. >> Check that. But we are very we just went out to bid >> I thought so >> last year. Last year before last. Yep. It's been this has been >> very recent. We're good for >> I remember that >> a little while. >> Perfect. Same for milk contract discussion. >> Okay. reach out to the vendor. Where are we? Can we get pricing together? Want to get his and then reach out to a few other places. I know

105that outside of the food service just pricing and everything looks good, but I can bring it >> questions on those. All right. And we've got the um a draft of our next year of the board meeting dates. Um and then oh goodness 26 27. Isn't that crazy to see? Um >> this be voted on at the April meeting, but I wanted to give you guys it now in case there's a meeting where >> we're gonna miss. >> Okay. Yeah. >> I'm not going to be here for April 15th, 2020. And just, you know, >> think about it too, like if the 6:00 is working, we can stay at 6 o'clock. If it's not working, you know, um that'd be something to bring up. Um for next time, >> uh April 2027 is the reward. >>

106I know weird, guys. That's a long day. >> That is crazy. Um okay, so if you know of any now, let us know. or if not, you know, go home and check your your calendars for these, particularly for the summer. I mean, obviously, we know we can't summer's busy for people, so we can't always um have everybody, but >> graduate, so it's going to be a lot of orientations and stuff going on. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Trying to figure that out >> once they decide where they're going. >> Correct. Yes. >> Yes. You're right. We might have some move in dates. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Excellent. And then uh staffing plan. >> Yeah. So this is we're just I'm just talking about itformational. Um >> I didn't I don't have any you know there is

107going to be no change in F >> you know we're keeping the same class sizes K through uh 8. Six seven and eight you know it'll the sections will just change based off of the the bigger number of kids. The only thing that is going to be different and class size looks like it's going to be between you know 18 and 22 across the board and and like in my lower grades is around 18. As you know our enrollment is is going down a projected lower. The only thing that I've mentioned too is the the facts. The family consumer sciences we are not we're going to pause on that next year. We Stephanie and myself met with the fine arts team. There was a discussion about the AB schedule, but we are going to keep

108the AB schedule because this way if you keep it then every kid in Spanish, if they take Spanish in seventh and eighth grade, they then get another special outside of PE. So there was discussion. Now they're being uh create, you know, there Stephanie's working with them, Greg. They're trying to be creative about how to um get the kids uh some of the issues they just had about, you know, whether it was just prepping materials or consistency with when they see them and the projects they're working on. So, if they're working on clay and if they don't see them for 4 days, then it dries out. So, like how they could So, there's some tweaks that we can make, but the fact is with that fax program, we would like to, you know, we'll start having

109a conversation. Miss Stephanie's been looking at uh in Philadelphia boy go to Boyd's got a P um um looking at like some CTE programs through Proviso looking at different like try and then like over the summer start this work but then have you know feedback from board members from the staff from the kids about like what you know kind of understanding what are the skills our kids need for the future what's super important and then creating a program then >> that would roll out into that. So not you know we just didn't want to put it forward. >> So 26 27 school year we would just have the >> we'd be planning it >> the standard fine arts. >> So the standard fine arts it would be just the four the rotation of four. So

110it's art, music, uh steam and PE and then uh everyone would have sp sixth grade would still have Spanish, but then only seventh and eighth grade only, you know, you'd only you take it if there's only a certain group of kids that there's about 80 kids that take Spanish in seventh and eighth grade and they get high school credit >> and then we would roll plan since we are approving that. And so how do we as board members help with that? like how do we monitor that and what's our role in that and how do we obviously we all want to um move us towards that plan. So um we're going to reach out if that's okay with everybody. We're going to reach out to ISB and see if we can get um see what

111their schedule is like. It probably will need to be a separate meeting because if not it's just going to be a really long day. Um, so we'll probably see um we can keep it on a Thursday since that's what everyone's used to, but we'll see what they have availability and we'll check with everybody. Um, but that's our hopefully they're not too crowded. I know 209 just had it um their self-evaluation. Um, so we'll try to get one on the on the books for us. Uh, that's what I got. Legislative report for you. Okay, buckle up everyone because it is not a short one. I got like from the last meeting to now, there were six legis legislative reports that came out and so I was trying to compile all of the information and then it

112was like almost outdated in a sense, but I'm going to give you the main current points. Okay, so on February 24th, the president outlined his general priorities um in his State of the Union, but education wasn't a primary focus in this initial speech. So, um, we are expecting what's called the skinny budget the week of March 30th. So, this is kind of like a blueprint. Um, so right now we're kind of in the waiting room for that. But in the meantime, the Senate and the House, they have been meeting and putting forth their um, legislation. And I'm going to give you because, you know, it's got to go through the House, it's got to go through the Senate, and sometimes it gets amended and it goes back and all this. I'm going to tell you

113what happened this morning with some of the legislation. um that they met um regarding the cell phone ban. So, um, the House Educ Education Policy met this morning at AM and it is moving forward the cell phone ban hearing, but they have some parentfriendly um, protections added like how they're going to store the cell phones that they don't want police um, essentially being responsible for taking or um, superseding uh, the the phones. Um, and our local school board will still get to write the specific rules for our building in terms of the guidelines. Um, and the ban can't apply to students who have phones for medical like they want >> um or part of their five. >> So that was or cannot >> cannot. >> So you know my son he has a medical cell

114phone and so that cannot be a part of it. It's in his 5042, but um for staff shortage solutions, they just gained new co-sponsors this week. And so this one started in the House. It's going out to the Senate. And this ultimately allows our teacher assistants to move from a temporary license to a permanent one based on their work performance. Um, and then, um, Rose, you know, sent me that and I was like, um, today the US, uh, Department of Education officially began transferring 1.7 trillion student loan portfolios to the US Department of Treasury. Um, and it is part of a plan to just dismantle the Department of Education, right? Um, and so the the Treasury Department is taking over student loan. Health and Human Services is taking over school safety programs, family engagement, and

115community school grants. The Department of Labor is taking over most of the K12 formula funds, including Title One and career technical education. And the Department of Interior is taking over all Indian education programs. Um and so the department's office of civil rights will remain very active, but it has shifted some of their um focus. And so right now they have some findings against school districts in DC and Colorado for some violations of Title 9. Um, and even though this department is shrinking, I think the message here is that, you know, they're still trying to remain active and committed to their communic to their communities. Um, another one was a move toward AI. Um, and so they're recognizing that AI is important for teachers, for admin, um, to run the school, but how do we, uh,

116protect our students data? you know, I mean, we're getting hacked all the time and with AI, it just makes it easier. Um, so those are my main points and my takeaways. There is so much in that report. I almost made two reports, but I'm like, you open one report, you're not going to go open up another one because it's just like what? Um, but I also broke down some of the um voting referendums. Unfortunately, we didn't meet before we voted here on the 17th, but I did break down some of the pros and cons so that you can see how you did vote and how it will potentially impact us. >> Yeah, good. >> Good sad information. >> It's good to try to stay on top of it. It's changing every day. >> Yeah. >>

117Um IB West Cook. So, yeah, we have that West Cook uh spring meeting Thursday, April 9th. It's 5:30 to 8:00 at the Schiller Park School uh district 81. I am unable to attend. I am committed to a senior motheraughter night that I have. So, if anyone would like to go, uh registration ends March 30th. Um they usually have like a small dinner and they have the speaker who's going to be speaking about AI and it's role with board members going forward. >> What day is it again? >> Thursday, April 9th. >> Sher Park this time. >> Sher Park School. Yeah. >> So just let Laura know and she would register. >> I think I you um for it. >> They're pretty good. >> Yeah, it can be good. >> Yeah. Um any here's a a

118spot here for any other board representative reports. I did I did I don't have a report but um we meant to bring this out and I don't know what the process is but >> um Tashanda and I had chatted about potentially doing something like and this is kind of going back to the conference where we're kind of giving our staff some TLC so that they can get to know us and we can let them know that you know we appreciate them and we take care of them and maybe it looks like you know bringing them coffee on one of those cold days or you know bringing lunch to our lunchroom, you know, employees or something like that. So, I don't know if it's a a budget that that we have for that or if it's

119a budget and we're all pitching in, you know, because I don't know how much coffee a primary school or an intermediary, but I mean, I can get through a box of Joe myself, you know, pretty good. And so, is it two boxes of Joe's? That's $50 per school, you know. So just thinking something of like that if we're interested in I mean I think we're interested right just to butter up our staff a little bit and let them know that we appreciate them. I see them we see them on those cold days and they're out there and they're getting >> we're driving by. Yeah. And then, you know, I'm in the in the the lunchroom and and I mean, it's just everybody everybody in every single school does hard work from the ground up, you

120know, and so just, you know, if we could bring them coffee and donuts, you know, and if I don't know if we have budget for that, like I said, we budget a budget for staff gifts. >> Correct. Uh so if nothing else, we can see what is left in there. But then something that was you were talking and it just popped in my head. So I'm going to sign us up for something and we may disagree but like >> would would the staff gift and tell me if you guys think that people would appreciate this. Would handwritten notes from us with the staff gift >> be like you know if we all committed to I mean I know there's a lot of them. So if we all committed to writing I mean how many staff

121members? 200. >> How many was >> 200? So like 12. So it's like like well I ordered 230. >> Okay. Like divided by seven. It's something to think about. We don't have to decide it now. But >> but actually and I was thinking as you were talking, what if we did something um not just like that one time we do the staff gift, but we pick 20 people, you know, per month um and we just randomly send them a handwritten note of appreciation from the board. That way we kind of spread it out and we're not trying to scramble and write 200 >> at one time at one time. But just little something just little things, you know, keep people motivated over the year. >> Yeah. Lord, do you want to brainstorm? We can get

122together and brainstorm and maybe you can come up with like a >> um a rhythm for us or a way to like so we're not missing anybody, but then we're also like, you know, and I you know, obviously maybe we can make a little note card that has the board on there that we can >> someone make cake pops that are cake pop. >> All right. So, we'll bring everyone. >> She may have retired, but >> cream puffs. Cream puffs. >> She makes She makes all kinds of stuff. She >> This is a great idea. >> Those kids in that tuition, I'm telling you. And this is not really a board representative, but just I should have said it in my president's report, but a reminder that the Celebrate Westchester dinner is late April >>

123of April. Yeah, they have not sent out a sign up for that yet, but I know it's April. >> Okay. So, we I will be there. We recognize our person of the year. Anybody else who wants to come, you're welcome. um you know, let Lauren know she'll buy the ticket for you. It's um always an interesting time. Um I just was cleaning up and found our little strip from was that where we took the um it was the Yeah, the roaring 20s. >> I was like, well, that's fun. >> All right, superintendence report. >> All right, good evening. So, um, shout out to our Scotty award winners. Tonight is the ceremony. I know Laura is sadness. She had to miss, but Greg and Sean held it down. Um, in uh, in your opening, Dana, you

124highlighted the health and wellness committee. >> Yeah. And you know, it just gets me thinking about uh some other committees that are really important that are actually like members from the district team. So we have like the trauma team that's looking at um tools that we can implement across the district and we have the insurance committee which is huge you know plans we talk about the insurance committee and then Stephanie and that's led by Dennis and then Stephanie's heading up the acceleration uh committee looking at that work and so these uh committees are so important there's so much work behind the scenes but it really carries out the vision so I'm just really fortunate to have um these team members uh doing this work as an extension, you know, of what we're trying to do

125here. And why I I mention them is because today we had a strategic plan meeting because even though we are approving a strategic plan, we already behind the scenes getting ready for the implementation. And so each of those team members has a goal that they're responsible for. And I was telling them in the research of actual school transformation, it takes five to seven years for for full school transformation. We know >> with the last strategic plan, you know, we had co and that you know and Gina mentioned in her thing we're talking about the kindergarters like Dave grew up at like CO will forever. So definitely there was some things that uh while I I see we're like we we're progressing and if I look from 5 years ago 7 years ago when I came

126we are in a totally different place but now with this strategic plan like this is our huge lever for real real change and it's exciting for some of us who you know as you're mentioning April 15th you'll be gone but like this plan is our is our is our legacy. Right. >> Not April. Not this April. April 2027. >> She Yes. >> So pay attention. >> I have a story. >> Um Gina, she's she's locked into 29, baby. >> Yeah. >> Right. >> What? 29. What do you mean? >> 29. You just got you just I am locked in. >> Well, you Okay. But anyway, in 2029, still this 5year plan, this five-year plan, >> um it is so critical because by the end of it, we I really think at what we put together,

127well, we'll explain and you guys have seen it because some of you have been on it like if we could really implement that and and Jacob has already helped me create the dashboard that we were talking about like it's going to look awesome >> and we could really really make some change. Um, and so it's important and I know like we do focus on test score like I know you guys and we have teachers in the crowd and we have people who are tied to education and so you know the the nuances of test scores and I think that one thing you could see from all the groups now that we're done with the the state of the schools and and kind of mentioning about recognizing them like the passion the commitment they know their

128stuff like they're not coming up here BSing like when you ask them question they have no idea what your questions are outside of the questions that we had like and they're they're not stalling, they're not mumbling, they they know their stuff. >> Um so it's not for lack >> of trying like there but there are things that we are >> so much >> constantly focusing on even like when you're talking about legislation like all that stuff trickles down like just the way that we are in it. So it's we got a plan and now like my job and our jobs is to like implement the plan and so when we have discussions in the future and I'll I'm prepping this all for next uh month but I'm I'm just pumped about it because it's like

129that is going to be that'll be our driver like these are the things that we are talking about like that's what we got to keep our focus on and while things come out like we just keep it focused on the plan >> and that's where I think school districts fall apart because they they get off course and and even from us. It's like our messaging is like we're talking about, you know, if it just acceleration or ELA, like that's what we're talking about. Like what are we going to do about it? What are we going to commit tom steady success not? And so, you know, and and what I said about the ladsy thing because that is it is really eye opening because we are looking at our own numbers and we're all figuring out

130like what is happening. But to hear them talk about it at my last meeting which was just last Wednesday was just like like wow like everybody is struggling. So at least we are going to have a conversation with superintendent because I go to my uh marine goes the herd but we're never together like this is a really like how can we work and maybe it is pushing legislation to change and to help for more resources or more >> but the teachers they got new teachers in these programs >> the teachers can't handle it >> they can't handle it but it's like the dollars that they're the really thing that boggles my mind is the like the costs right the therapeutic cost the it's out of control and it will not it will not sustain and

131we're going to you know there's a lot coming. So I'm just I know a little bit all over the place but the focus is is that um I'm excited about the plan and we got work to do but going to be in good shape with that. We have one week to spring break. >> Um and here's another one. So buckle up next week. >> Yes. Next Friday is the last day. Then we go on break for the last week. Right. >> When we come back, there is eight weeks left of school. >> Oh my gosh. >> Okay. Because we get out >> May 27th. So you're not even finished the whole So it's like seven and a half weeks. >> Nice. >> So, but the show us >> But here's the thing. The show continues

132because even this week we got like new students. So we got kids transferring in. >> Wow. >> So you got kids transferring in. We have spring math. We're setting up our schedule. So, like the show is going on in but we only got a little amount of time left. So, we're busy and then you know you have your musical. So, it's a lot. >> It's exciting time. Um, but there's a lot. >> All right. Thanks. Questions for Phil. >> Thank you. That was eight week way to depress me about eighth grade graduation. >> And that's my class because that's the group that I came in with. It'll be a special. >> Yeah, >> I'm already thinking the speech. >> I guess I should just be ready to have my subway. >> It's going to be

133a doozy. That's for sure. All right, administrative reports. Um, obviously they're all here. We have a few of them here with us tonight. So, if you have questions for any of them, um, if they're not here, we'll send a an email and and get some answers. So, anything >> that anyone wants to ask about the administrator reports? All right, um audience comments. Seeing none, uh I need um a motion for the board to retire into close session to discuss the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees and litigation. uh when an action against affecting or on behalf of a particular public body has been f filed or is pending before a court or administrative tribunal. Um and collective negotiating matters between the district and its employees or their or their represent representatives

134are deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees in student disciplinary cases and matters related to individual students. by Cynthia. >> Second by Desanda. >> Questions or concerns? >> Roll call vote please. >> Vice President. >> Pearson. >> Hi. >> Neil. >> Hi. >> Ortiz. I >> Pitch. >> Hi. >> President. >> Hi. >> 7 eyes. Zero naysay. Zero absent. >> Motion carries. 803. Take a little break. I'm guessing you have things for us to sign. >> Okay.