001Good evening. I'd like to call to order the February 5th special board meeting. And for tonight's uh meeting, vice president board will be participating via audio and video conferencing. She is absent for a qualifying reason under board policy 2-220 school board meeting procedure. If there are no objections, we can continue the meeting. >> Okay. So, can you hear us? >> I can. Can you hear me? >> I can hear you. Can you see us? >> Yes, I can. >> Excellent. Can I get a roll call, please? >> Wasow here. President >> here. Neil, >> here. here. Also present are Dr. Tammy, Miss Delco, Miss Fentes, Mr. G, Mr. Kaya, Mr. Leven, Miss Moran, and Miss for the record. Absent is Pearson. >> All right. Will you guys join me in saying the pledge of allegiance?
002>> I aliance 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. >> All right, I need a motion to approve the agenda as presented. Moved by Gina second. Second by Cynthia. Any questions or concerns? Roll call vote please. President I >> I motion carried. Do we have any audience comments? Nope. Okay. Uh moving on to a consent agenda. We need a motion to um a motion uh for the board to open discussion on the consent agenda as presented by Jared, second by Rose. Just as a reminder, uh the consent agenda are those uh items, minutes, business, and personnel matters that are routine in nature. Any item may be removed from the consent agenda to action items
003with 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 personnel report including a pair of professional resignation and the regular board meeting minutes open and closed of January 15th. Any questions or concerns? Roll call vote, please. Hi. >> I hi >> Sanchez. >> Hi, >> President Wowski. >> Hi, >> Vice President Boy. >> She said I She's trying. >> I'm sorry. I >> That's all right. I zologize. >> No worries. What did you said? Six eyes. Z want to ask that motion carried. All right. So now to discussion items with no action. We have first up state of the school presentation by Westchester Middle School. So the floor is yours. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> We have a
004lot of information to share. I'm going to stand over here just to the side because I'll have our team introduce themselves. We have a lot of information to share. So there may be questions that you have. We tried to build in some of the questions we already have into our presentation. Um, but just know that what we do every day takes a lot of energy, emotion, u frustration, anger at times, um, be able to try to provide the best environment for our students. Um, so we'll start with introducing our team. I'll let each of them introduce themselves and talk and just their name and what role they play here at at WS. >> Great. We'll do questions at the end. We'll hold all the Michelle Fuentes. This is the principal. Hi, I'm Lesley Tom, eighth
005grade ELA. Hi, >> I'm Becky, a specialist. Uh, >> Michael Mossing, eighth grade or seventh grade social family and consumer science. >> Blair, I'm sixth grade ELA and science. Amanda McMahon, math specialist. >> So, this is our silt team. As part of what we do, I feel like talking about the fact everybody u as part of what we do is we review data. We come up with plans. We devise various things that we are going to work on throughout the school year. Um different data points like yesterday was one of those data points where we looked at our map scores from the winter. Uh we looked at some of the the goals that we had set from the fall. Where are we at? What are things that we want to work on? That's kind of
006an ongoing process for us as as a school. kind of like we never have the same plan. There's always tweaks to it. There may be things that come off that just become regular process. Um an example of that would be annotating, right? I can remember years ago we were just teaching the kids how to annotate, right? Write in the margin or write notes and now it's just part of what we do. Um even the kids come to us with those skills as part of what that is. So that's just a simple example of what we we do each day. Um but as I say, each day is a new opportunity. You never know what emotions are going to come through that back door or the side door over by Mr. Woods. Um, as part of
007what we do here and what we're going to talk about today, there's some data that'll go along with that and then we'll share some of the the highlights of what we've accomplished this year. So, as we look at this first slide, we talk about our overall index score. Um, it's the number one. It's one number that summarizes how a school is performing across the state by combining multiple indicators on a score of 0 to 100. 79.65 means a school is performing well above the state's minimum expectations when accountability all accountability measures are combined into one score. Looking at each section, you can see the points we've received out of each percentage. In ELA growth, we received a 23.88 88 out of 25%. Meaning our students in ELA growth performance was almost maxed out on that
008part of the accountability system. So you can see where some of them come into play. This slide is probably my favorite. The reason I say that is M. Fuentes came up with a new category, right? There's commendable, there's exemplary. We are calling it super commendable. Okay? And the reason being is this is probably the closest we've gotten to that exemplary. So we're very proud of that piece. Now, there are areas that I feel like sometimes we have control over and I think there's some areas where we don't have control. Um, and those are things we continue to work on that attendance or helping kids with truency. Sometimes it's outside of our control. I can't I can go to the house. I can work with our resources and get that, but that doesn't always provide us
009with that piece. But this is the this is just one part of the data that we look at. And for us looking at where we've been over the years, you know, probably more in the middle and moving towards that exemplary uh piece, I like that came up with super commendable. So that's what we're going with on that. So that's just a part of what we'll talk about tonight is as kind of our overall highlight and we'll come back to this. >> Um we are going to start looking at the students that make up the amazing growth that we've had this year. Um here is our current enrollment. Um you can see across the grade levels it is pretty equal across each grade level. Um again this is kind of ever changing a little bit each
010week. Um but as of January 15th we have 311 students. It changes a little bit throughout the months. Um our average class size right now uh for individual classes is 23.6. Um, as the year has gone on, in sixth grade we've had 10 students transfer in and 11 transfer out. In seventh grade, we've had 13 students in and three out. And in eighth grade, we have had five transfer in and eight out. So, that is a total of 20 students in and 22 out. So, again, it's keeping it somewhat balanced and even. Um, just as a reference point, last year we had 29 students transfer in and 25 transfer out. that would be traditional for what we see we're typically ins and outs are pretty close to each other. >> Um in terms of our
011demographics here again you can see when we look at uh our demographics in terms of male and female again it is almost equal. Um and then in terms of our demographics you can see there are numbers um currently our Hispanic demographic is at 145 which is our highest demographic which is also the same as last year. So our demographics are staying somewhat current. They have changed obviously over the years but in terms of the past couple years these numbers have been so uh the next slide is our student characteristics as far as where our students stand in certain categories low-income English language learners IEPs one of the focus on on mobility uh where like especially especially with comparison to last year like of the percentage of students that are transferring um in uh or out
012of school from October to the end of the last day of the school year. Um as well as our student attendance numbers parentheses again are numbers from last year. >> All right. Um proficiency shows whether or not students have mastered a common standard. So proficiency determines whether or not a student is at grade level. So at the top of this screen you'll see ELA and we are 12.5% above the state currently. Um in the middle you'll see math and that is almost even. It's just uh two ten below uh the state average. And then the bottom is science um which our eighth graders take which is 13.3% above the state. Um Illinois uses student growth percentiles to calculate the growth. Um so while proficiency like I said shows whether or not students have mastered a
013common standard, growth actually recognizes progress towards and beyond the standard regardless of wherever they started. Um so um you'll see that last year we were at 50/50 for ELA and math and this year we um went up to 64.4% for uh ELA um and 52.5 uh for math this year. So here we have um reading and math growth and proficiency by demographic. Um we also included the entire all percentages is in there. So as you can see um on the top half the first number for each demographic represents the percentage of growth from 2024 compared to 2025. Um unfortunately the Illinois state report card does not have proficiency data listed for last year. Um so that is what we currently have. Um according to MAP and I typical growth is 50% um and should be
014used as a baseline for creating goals for students. So, while uh typical growth is average um where you want students to be at for grade level, it may not always be enough for a student to reach proficiency standards, particularly for those starting below grade level already. So, um and I say this as a experienced middle school teacher and instructional coach, but year after year, math proficiency across the state has been in decline. Um I've noticed that from a lot of data over the years. Uh some but not all of the factors that play into this data can include teaching strategies, student engagement, parent support and engagement with the school. Uh parental proficiency in these areas. So if they are not proficient at sixth through 8th grade, they may have a hard time assisting their their
015children in those areas as well. Um previous schooling. So, we do have a lot of students that have transferred from other districts and wherever they come from that um looks different as well. And any language barriers as we now have more um English language learners moving in a little bit more. Um and later on our specialists will discuss what we are doing to address the needs of these diverse learners. I am going to be sharing with you the uh map growth data. Um, to kind of go along with what Greg and Michelle said, over the past year, our st our staff has worked intentionally to analyze the data, refine instruction, and respond to the evolving needs of our students, all in order to help them grow and reach their fullest potential. This work has required
016flexibility, perseverance, a strong commitment, and the steady growth reflected in this data is not the result of an isolated effort. But the unified team approach from our teachers, our support staff, our specialists and administrators. And we're proud of the work that we're doing um and we remain committed to building on this momentum to support continued success for our students. So this is our fall to winter um map data. Um and the sixth grade students demonstrated strong progress increasing from the 52nd percentile in the fall to the 57th percentile in the winter. Seventh grade students maintained their performance near national average going from the 59th percentile in the fall to the 56th percentile in the winter. Eighth grade students sustain strong achievement remaining consistent at the 69th percentile. When looking at our student conditional growth percentiles,
017which compare um our students growth to similar students in other schools, we also see areas of success. Sixth grade scored at the 61st percentile, seventh grade at the 47th percentile, and eighth grade at the 57th percentile. Sixth grade and eighth grade students demonstrated above average growth. Um and um seventh grade remains close to the national average. A significant number of students met or exceeded their individual growth targets. For ELA in sixth grade, 55 students or 53% met their targets. In seventh grade, 48 students or 47% met their growth targets. In eighth grade, 59 students or 55% met their growth targets. Um, we also look closely at supporting our high achieving students in ELA and the students that were scoring in the 80th percentile of above or above in sixth grade um remained constant 17 students
018in the fall and 17 in the winter. Seventh grade um went from 21 students in the fall to 17 in the winter. and eighth grade increased from 24 to 27 students, showing that these students are prepared for the next academic step. Our math growth goals from fall to winter um also shows some strong academic growth across all grades. Sixth grade students increased from the 48th percentile to the 54th percentile. Seventh grade showed substantial gains moving from the 58th to the 67th percentile. Eighth grade students continue to perform at a high level, increasing from the 79th to the 82nd percentile. Our student conditional growth percentile show that students are growing at rates above the national expectations. Um, sixth grade is at the 59th percentile in math, seventh grade at the 70th percentile, and eighth grade at
019the 66th percentile. A majority of students also met or exceeded their individual math growth goal targets. In sixth grade, 60 students or 58% met their growth target. In seventh grade, 66 students or 63% met their growth targets. In eighth grade, 68 students or 55% met their growth targets. These results indicate effective instructional strategies and targeted supports. Looking again at the high achieving students um in the 80th percentile or above. Um these scores remain somewhat stable or increased. Sixth grade went from 20 students in the fall to 19 in the winter. Seventh grade increased from 21 students to 24 students and 8th grade increased from 31 to 36 students. Westchester Middle School teachers continue to work extremely hard to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse range of learners, including academic, social, emotional, and instructional needs
020that have evolved significantly over the years. The growth reflected in the data that I shared is a direct result of intentional planning, differentiation, and a strong commitment to supporting every student. Sorry. >> Um, so I'm going to go over our math acceleration scores. So these are students who are in a math acceleration program, either single or double accelerated. Um, so we do have 14 students who are in sixth grade taking seventh grade math. um of those students, nine um or 64% of those met. Um all students did grow um whether they made their growth target or not. Um and these students are already above the 9th percentile starting out. So to show that growth continually um isn't is good to see. Um we do have two fifth graders who are double accelerated in 10th grade
021math. Um both of those students exceeded their growth targets, so it's 100%. um seventh grade and eighth grade we have 12 students. Five of those students um met which is 42% but again all those students are already above the 90 percentile just maintaining that um percentile. Um we have four students who are in seventh grade taking math one. Um of those students 75% met their growth goal. Um that one student who did not was rate is at the 99 percentile. So it's kind of hard to continue on um past that. And then um eighth grader math one we have nine students seven of them met at 78% again all those students are above 90 percentile and then we do have four students who are in our integrated math 2 um two of those students met
022their goals 6% um and those students are all above the 94th percentile. Um these next numbers are for the ELA advanced learner scores. So that those are our lists of students we just started looking at this year who are at um the 84th percentile or higher on their math scores in reading. Um so for sixth grade there was 15 students identified um in the fall after their math test and five of those students met um based on the major scores. Seventh grade there was 15 students, five students met. In eighth grade um 15 students, five students met. Um with those numbers too, like we had we looked at that list that we had from the fall with those students and um you might say like well it looks like no not that many met or
023yes some of them might have gone down. We also we didn't rearrange those list but we had students through and then jumped into that blue number we look at that's the 84th percentile and above when we were looking at that list students that was identified in the fall. Uh so that's just something to note is that um there are students that weren't in the fall who then they increase their scores. Um, as far as our interventions, um, for math, we have tier 2 and tier three interventions, um, which is both spring math. Um, tier 2 is a classwide intervention, so all students are working on the same progression of skills together in that group, while tier three is an individual intervention, so each student is working at their instructional level. Um, as well as working
024towards a core curriculum scale as well. Um so in math we have in sixth grade um tier two tier three and then in sixth grade we have something um which we are trying to implement which is using our time in study hall. We do have students who receive tier three reading and math. We want to make sure those students still were getting support um whether so they're in uh their 40 minute tier three reading and are still getting that support um regardless. Um so in the fall we had 23 students in tier 2, three in tier three and then three in that tier three study hall who were our reading intervention students. Um our tier 3es were stable. Um but our tier 2s we did have some students exit in seventh grade. In the fall
025we had 15 students at tier 2. Um two in tier three and zero in our study hall. Um so we were able to accommodate them within that resource period. Um and then that number we had five students exes out. So we have 10 um and then our tier 3es remain the same. Um in eighth grade we had six students in tier two, no students in tier three. Um and then in the fall we had two. So overall um you can see our exits and enters. Um while my numbers kind of look different, it's kind of like as you're exiting kids, some other kids are coming in. Um pretty much those kids that are coming in are our new are new students. Um so we had seven exit tier two in se sixth grade. Um six
026in seventh grade and four in eighth grade. Enter was three in sixth grade, one in seventh grade and none in eighth grade. Um exiting tier three had four in seven or sixth grade. And then entering tier three we had one in sixth grade, one in seventh grade. Those were our new students. Um, so just kind of looking at the numbers and the progressions from sixth to seventh to eighth, we could kind of see that our intervention program is working because, you know, did not have any students in tier three and eighth grade. Um, that's a first for us. So just being able to provide those students um the necessary interventions for them to, you know, graduate out of that in that support. for our reading numbers. I think if you um depending how long you've
027been on the board and you've seen these um presentations, I would say that the reading intervention numbers um they're low for the middle school. Um and I think that just speaks to teachers um who do the tier 2 intervention and the interventionists um who do the tier 2 intervention within the classroom. Um tier three intervention is with me or Miss Apalo. He also has a sixth grade group. Um, but I think with the support of all the teachers um on board with the intervention, thinking back to like years ago when I first started, it was just um the specialists who did the interventions. Um, but we are I think because we are reaching more kids and our structure of our classroom allows for small group instruction for everybody. Um, in addition to doing the tiered
028support, our numbers are getting lower and lower. So that's really great to see. You'll notice in the fall that our sixth grade or tier two we had 10 students and for tier three we had seven. Um you might think that that's a high number for tier three. That is two separate groups. So there are three students with me and then four students with um Misso who is one of our interventionists. Um seventh grade we had eight students in tier 2. And um again these tier 2 students are not all in the same classroom either. So that's between seventh grade teachers. Um there's two students in tier three that again is with me. Um that's for seventh grade. Um I should backtrack. For sixth grade, tier three, they are with me every day for 40 minutes.
029And that's in place of an um honors class. And then for seventh grade, they are with me um on B days. So every other day um they are with me for intervention. And we started the structure a couple years ago based on where we saw students scoring and what their needs were so that they could also um have that experience of fine arts classes um as well as get the intervention. Those were students again who I'm also able to pop into their social studies classes for example um and work with them on skills within that we're learning within those classes. Um it works out well with my schedule that way. eighth grade. There are seven students in tier two and there is one student in tier three um who've been a tier three student um
030for their time at the middle school at the middle school. But we've actually like been able to like kind of tailor and structure from where that student was in sixth grade and then to seventh and eighth grade what the tier three intervention looks like. Um and that's been a really nice growth to see um with that student and where they've come in three years and what we've been able to do with the intervention support. Looking at our winner numbers um so sixth grade had nine students in tier 2 and seven in tier three. So tier three remained the same. We did not add any students to that. Um noting with the sixth grade, there was a couple students based on their scores could have technically just been tier 2 students, but um Greg and I
031always talk about this because we've been doing this for a number of years. Like we don't want to exit those students so fast and then all of a sudden in a month or so you're calling the parents back and saying, you know what, we're going to put them back in. We're going to pull them out of this class. and then the back and forth back and forth. It's not good for the students confidence and they're kind of teetering like on the border where it's like, you know what, if they could still use that tier three support um so that hopefully by the end of the year and then in seventh grade we can tailor it more for what they need. So we don't want to like um it still makes it, you know, our tier
032three numbers could look different by a couple students less, but we don't want to do that just for numbers sake and then pull that support and then have that be detrimental to the students. um seventh grade 10 were in tier two. So we added a couple tier three again remained the same and eighth grade um eight and tier two so that bumped up by a student and then our tier three the same as well. Um the nice thing about looking at these students numbers um like Greg had said or said where or Michelle when some of these students start they're below grade level significantly. So sometimes when we're looking at numbers, it might not seem like a huge jump to maybe like the outside person looking at the data, but when we're looking at it
033and you see a student who was scoring in the 180s is all of a sudden in the 190s, like that's a huge celebration for us and a huge to their confidence to see that they are growing. And just also to note, uh these numbers for our the tier two also include resource students. Um so just since we've seen such growth with our spring math program offering it to those students as well. Um so in sixth grade we do have five students who are in that tier two number who are resource students. Um in seventh grade there's five and eighth grade there's four. Um the next slide for intervention or small group support specifically talking about reading in our core we still have the students work on. Great thing about that is math scores are inputed
034and they are given skills work on based on where their math scores are. But teachers are still able to assign skills based on what is being done in the classroom. So if they're working on theme, for example, they were working on that in sixth grade. The teachers can assign that to the students to work on. Um the nice thing too is that you look at um you're familiar with that you can go down a couple grade levels and you can still find skills on that topic. We still can tailor for students who need that support but that is being done um by all the language arts teachers in their classrooms. Um we say a goal of 20 minutes a week. They can divide that up how they want. Um, tier two again that is done
035in the classroom and that can be done by the classroom teacher that can be done by the specialist. Um, rise comprehension strategies. This is Scholastic program that we bought some years ago. The great thing about that is they have a lot of leveled um texts that are both informational and fictional. Um, so that goes along with um the mix we have in HMH as well. the comprehension strategies that it focuses on um in small groups targets fluency, comprehension, vocabulary, writing um and is moving the kids through those steps so that they can see um within the smaller group and then transfer those hopefully you see that transfer with um those same activities that they're expected to do in grade level or in their other core classes. Um the HMH materials we use are the there's
036information you know the materials that come with the program. Um again we have level materials within that. There's level up tutorials where the teachers can assign those based on skills that are being taught and the students can work at their own pace. Um they've added new videos this year. Um HM also restructured some of their stories and their questions. um the writing component, writable that comes with it that we were given um some training on at the beginning of the year that is also able to be leveled for students um to kind of scaffold support for them if they need it. Um so those are all part of the HH materials that teachers are using then on um during that time period um to bump up the students so that they can participate in the
037larger group or within or doing their independent work too when the teachers meeting with the other groups. Um tier three again that is myself third quest she's actually using that program this year with her group and we had order we had bought it a couple years ago. We saw a lot of success with that. Our sixth graders use that. Um it follows these kids through like they go back in time. They have to work their way through um the different areas of like geography based, social studies based, which is not my thing, but they work their way through the different areas to get back to the present day. The great thing is it's very structured. It focuses on fluency, vocabulary, word and text skills, comprehension, basic writing. Um, and it has kind of a nice
038structure that students learn and um, we're able to kind of like go through the program with it where it gives them more and more um, accountability where it starts out very heavily teacher directed but it gives more to the students. So by the time that we're at the end of this third quest and you can finish the program in a year. It's designed that way they are the ones doing majority of the reading the work. So that's really nice to see. for Gillingham. I'm sure you've heard about this from other the other buildings as well. Um that is our need awareness phonics works on fluency with those students who are really kind of lacking those skills or maybe they missed out on um maybe phonics, you know, the lower grades. Um, so they are getting
039those foundational skills so that they can hopefully close those larger gaps they have so they can move on to like a program like rewards which is the next one which works on decoding multi-elabic words um vocabulary fluency again um so that they are seeing words that are that are hopefully going to help them in their core classes um moving beyond just like one syllable words that they would see like an weren't feeling. And then the last one, Great Leaps. We have some of the program materials. Um I think from when we were a Ruck came out and saw us, but I kept them because I thought they were great. Um it again, it works on phonics, fluency, comprehension. I like it because it focuses on the high frequency words where it moves from words to
040phrases to short phrases, sentences, short stories of comprehension. Um it's nice because it's quick so the students feel success with that. You can do it daily. they could see the progression between like you want to try one word, oh we try two moving through all the way up until they're reading six word sentence and they don't even realize it. Um and then the short stories with the comprehension it's nice because it can be done within um the time period that we have within the um you know 15 20 40 minutes depending for what I have. >> All right. So for our math small group, um we kind of started this towards the end of last or the middle winter math of last year. Um it was really looking at we already have things in place
041for our tier 2 students, our tier three students, for like our accelerated students, but like that kind of poor support is where we kind we felt we were lacking. Um those kids that you know they're more independent but they still needed a lot of teacher support. Uh so we kind of evolved to make sure that we are kind of breaking these groups into smaller groups to support where they were at. So we in math um we our small group supports um involve tier 2 students um who typically fall between the 20 below the 20th percentile um but have an instructional level of foundational fact fluency. Um we use spring math classwide intervention for these students. So once the group as a whole reaches an average score of 80% they'll move on to the next one
042as a group. Um and our focus is on foundational fluency skills related to core skills. Um and these students are met with 20 minutes every other day with our interventionists or our classroom teachers. Um and then in tier three students who fall below the 20th percentile who have um below instructional level of foundational fluency and we use that individual intervention and that is with me 40 minutes every single day. um for sixth grade. Um and then that works on a foundational fluency skills with a goal skill incorporated. Um we have do have our resource students um who are getting um that extra 40 minutes of resource daily. Um they do utilize spring math um as their classwide intervention tool. um it's helping the students um scaffold core content to help them to be able to
043reach those grade level standards um and to support those foundational skills. Um our course support students um so I meet with students in sixth, seventh and eighth grade. Um those are students who we feel that were always taking a lot in the teacher's time because they don't have quite to have the confidence um but they had those foundational skills. Those are like our students that are between like the 25th and 50th percentile. Um, so I meet with them 20 minutes about two days a week. Um, and we work on previewing concepts we're going to get to, um, to make sure that they have the foundational scaffolding they need. Um, as well as reinforce what they're doing in the classroom. So doing reteing um breaking things down doing lots of direct instruction bring in games and
044task cards um to also build their confidence because a lot of those kids also they want so much help with the teacher because they don't have that confidence like I can you know I can do foundational skills but I'm not really confident in those core skills. So just give them that and that kind of small group instruction. Uh and you kind of make it so I have you know a group I like for one group there's you know there's what 12 kids I broke them into two groups. I see one group on a day one group on B day. So I kind of make them smaller groups. I also tier it to them. So like I one group who's slightly lower who needs more scaffolding and one group who just needs to build their confidence
045and needs the repetition. Um and then we have our core enrichment who are students who are above 50 percentile um who just need more core support like working at the core um but not really needing that scaffolding. And then our extension students who are mastering those skills at the core and then want to be bumped forward to either apply those skills you're doing in core or working on something beyond what they're doing in classroom. So really trying to tailor our small groups to the students. Um for our ELA block, um we still have 80 minutes a day. So it's a double period. Um the teachers can structure that how they want, but we usually look at it as half of the period is dedicated to reading. Um HMH, half the periods dedicated to writing. Sometimes
046they overflow or just blow into each other um based on the day what the teacher is doing. Um but everyone is starting with some sort of bell ringer. It could be ISL. Sometimes teachers do their ISL leader boards then they save that till the end of the class. Um it can be content related with starting with a question from the day before. Something to get the students started right away coming in knowing the agenda knowing what's expected um and getting right into that independent reading. A lot of teachers choose to start with that instead of having at the end of the class where the kids are tired and I like having that at the beginning where it gets them in that routine. It gets them ready to go. Um there is student choice within independent
047reading. The teachers at all grade levels, six, seventh, and eth. That's a time when they're able to do the reading conferences with students. Every grade level has a set goal. Sixth grade works towards um number of pages. They get stickers for so many pages. Seventh grade um does number of pages this year. They did um complete books last year, but now they're back to pages in eighth grade as well. It does certain number of pages. We try to increase that number um each grade level so that the students are seeing that growth um and what's expected of them. um HMH reading, we are still obviously using HMH. Um they restructured it again this uh for this year. Um where we found that they added they moved stories around in units. Um maybe took some out
048here and there. Seventh grade wasn't changed as much. Um and what we did notice is that the rigor of the questions increased with the analyze the text. Those come after each selection. Um, and we really were happy with seeing that, which has led to um, students really working on answering those types of questions that analyze the text with um, using text evidence. And that has been a focus for all three grade levels this year. Not that it wasn't before, but we you could go into any language arts classroom and see how the teachers are hitting that hard with students having to answer the question, get text evidence, explain the text evidence, what they're expected to do on A. we are making them do after every selection and a selection might take a week times less
049depending on it. So we're it's not like the selection takes like six weeks or anything. So they are constantly getting those it's kind of that same structure of the whole group whole class instruction where they know the strategy we're working on. They have the first read in the first lesson that they do as a class. Um then it moves to the second lesson and then it's that's where the teacher has longer instruction where they're working on target skills. They're working on those analyze the text, the notice of know where they're annotating, going through doing close reading. Um it's nice and then we have assessments at the end of each selection. Um it's nice that there's that structure that they follow. Sometimes there yes could be a little burnout from it because especially now these kids
050who have had it for multiple years are getting used to that. The nice thing with HMH and the reading lessons, we can add in novels. That's something that the um sales rep told us the first year they gave us the program and we're like, "Nope, we're not changing out the units. We're not putting novels in. We are teaching it like it is. We want to see like how it works, what the program is." Now, we're at the point where we can add those classroom novels in. Um where each grade level is doing at least two novels at some point throughout the year that go along with what the stories in that unit would have been except we're using the novel in place. So, we are still doing the strategies. We're still doing the targeted skills.
051There's still the writing, but we are able to add in some of that extra like um the thoughtful walks or we are looking at the figurative language flip charts we were looking at doing with our next unit in eighth grade. We're able to use some of those um to add some of those um Jennifer Saraveo strategies back in where um it makes them think a little bit more on their own um where they're not just being told sometimes find this or here's what to think. It's making them do that thinking on their own. is strategies too that they can practice within their independent books. Um, and then within reading, we still have scaffold and independent work. This I didn't talk about this a couple slides ago because I missed it, but this is probably where
052you're waiting to hear about what are we doing for those higher level students, those ones who are considered advanced learners. Um, within the class, teachers have those extension choices. It's a little bit different from math where they can't just go out and teach themselves read. Just reading doesn't work that way. They still have to be there for the past instruction. They still have to be there for the skills. They still have to be there for the strategies. They still have to be there for what the teachers teaching, especially with the literary analysis by the time they get to especially eighth grade. They need to know those analysis skills and how to do them because that's what's expected in high school. So, it's not something they can necessarily just go off and teach themselves. We don't
053have another level curriculum where you're going to go teach yourself from this book. We're using this book with these students. Um the stories in HMH are higher level stories. Um so if anything that scaffolded work is really needed for like maybe the lower level even the middle students but the higher students who are noticing from the HMH test too like they those tests are difficult in a good sense we see is because it's giving them questions. It's not easy just recall questions from the stories. It's the kind of analysis questions you see on the state test that that's making them think. So, um, this is where they can have extension work when they're done. Teachers do have writing activities. There is choice within their reading. Um, sixth grade just did lit circles. Everybody was in
054there, but like based on the groups and if they finish early, um, there was extra activities they could work on with the summarizing, with the illustrating, the drawing, the vocabulary. Um, so we do have those things and obviously we're going to keep building that. We know that's a focus. We know there's always that what are we doing for this level of student. Um but I think it's just good to know too that um sometimes even those students those advanced learners may not get to those extensions because they're within the classroom. They're it's taking their time. It's not something we have found with HMH you can just rush through or like skip through. It's real fast. So it's if they get that work done then they have those um extension activities and um writing is the
055other part of our block. Again whole class instruction um writable's been it's given some good ideas for how to tailor some writing um for the students who are um lower level and higher level and those students in between. There's always that group of students we don't want to miss that are just kind of like their middle students sometimes don't always talk about those as much as we should. Um but there's scaffolding instruction for all those level students. Again, we're working on targeted skills. Um and we would like to see that progression um from sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. Sixth grade, I think, hits the grammar harder with the students. Um by seventh and eighth grade, we are still doing that, but we're doing that within we really want to see that within their writing where
056we might be focusing on that, but we're not doing um as hopefully not as much grammar instruction as we have to sixth grade. Again, if we see that students, if we do the lesson, um I know in class the other day, April profess their talk, reviewing adjectives, and I don't think everyone got it like that, maybe like we thought they should, we still are then taking time to teach those skills based on what the students are showing us. Um again, they're scaffolded independent work within the writing. where you can really pull small groups and um support the students at any level for what they need in their specific where they're at in their writing because even those students who are advanced your middle or lower um there is still you could always be a better
057writer. So then we always have to find ways to say well go back and look at this what did you do this part of the writing what else could you do work on here? Um, but I don't think their writing instruction is ever, you're never really that perfect writer, right? Um, tier 2 intervention, again, I had mentioned before, this is done within the classroom few times a week where those teachers are seeing those students. That doesn't mean they're not still part of the other small groups. They are. So, we're still within those rotations. Um, this allows me to push into the classroom as well to work with those students who I see in tier three, but I also can see the tiers two students. Um, but that helps support the teacher. So that um lowers
058the number of groups they have to see there's a second person in there. So it's great when there is. And again those are the materials that we already talked about that are being used. Um our math block um is similar to years past um just with our revisions to our small group instruction. Um every teacher starts every class with a do now. So as they walk in they grab their binders and they get started on a problem on the board. Um these could be reachback standards, review of core materials or many lessons. Um and specifically geometry and statistics probability. Um this year our seventh grade did want to try incorporating statistics and probability directly into the content. Um and not just do it as an extension or as bits and pieces here. Um because there
059was a big need for it based on scores. And there we saw a tremendous growth where students grew more than 11 points in that category. and now it's tied for the highest category we have. And we actually, even though we took time out to do that, um, since there's so much fraction work and percent work within that, we saw the next unit, which we usually do, go faster and they were more proficient at it because they had that practice with the percents and the fractions and reviewing those concepts. So, they uh saw it was worth their while to take those those weeks out to build that into the curriculum. um they're still on track to still get to the concepts they were getting to before. Um we have our whole group instruction that tuck book
060um it's has built in engage um hands-on activities, investigations and concept reviews. We have our small group core instruction um which is our check for understandings or reviews as well as our weekly ISLs um which are is the practice for those core materials. Um we have our tier two interventions again which happen three days per week with our class interventions. Uh and then tier three is separate that part of the math block and then our small group targeted instruction. So really working on um students use choice boards. They have um ISL diagnostic arena. We have our core support small group, our core enrichment small group and our extension small groups. So really tailoring it to these smaller groups more built for specific needs students small group and group work. I'm not going to go over
061everything here because we've had a lot of this in the in the past, but it it includes a variety of environments when you see like band sectionals counsel and social worker student advocate. Uh we've tried something this year with our student advocate where he is working with our counselor and they're kind of co-supporting students where it's sometimes just during study hall they have a group in the in the media center or steam lab and it's just about work completion. Some of our kids we have to build those skills. I think if you've heard like kind of what we talked about I I try to push with our staff at times where we get a student that is performing below grade level and it's like let's not look at we have to try to get them
062to grade level one year. We've got three years hopefully with them. Um I think that sometimes when students do go from building to building in our district see that now our our numbers and that have decreased over time. Um but again it's it's what what comes to us each day that's where we work with that. So I think the small group piece there we did talk about like what is small group and what is group work and there are some classrooms that do more group work where it's just like the collaboration and working together on a product um similar how you may do it work. And then there's others where you've heard a ton about small group where it's more intentional for that. So I think in the past we didn't really like we have
063to do small group everywhere. Doesn't always have to be that depending on what that what the what the classroom is or what the content is what they may be working on. Sometimes it's just working together uh as part of that overall process. So that's kind of some of the examples that we have as part of what On Friday, October 10th, the district came together at WIS for a professional development opportunity presented by the renowned educational author Dr. Jessica Mahan. She provided several wonderful insights on increasing work engagement and reducing oppositional behavior in students. This workshop benefited all departments in different ways. In the fine arts department specifically, we have been implementing visualizing time, a brief brain break or finding a good spot to pause, visual descriptors, and use of proximity. Personally, in my classroom, I
064use brief brain breaks when I see students are becoming overwhelmed academically. We take a two to three minute step away from the assignment or the lesson and talk about something fun like, "What's your favorite flavor of ice cream and why?" These brain breaks do two things in my room. It gives the students a chance to breathe in their day. And more importantly, it gives them a chance to build community with each other and get to build relationships with each other in the room based off of similar interests. I've seen students start bonding and just start talking because they like vanilla ice cream the best. From that brain break, a friendship seed was planted. For sixth grade and eighth grade teachers, the key strategies they have implemented in the classroom include having visual posters for initiation,
065persistence, self and self- advocacy, and seeking help. Additionally, sixth grade is planning advisory lessons that target the areas of initiation, persistence, and self- advocacy. Similarly to the members of the fine arts department, sixth grade teachers also use time visualizing strategies as well. Seventh grade teachers are actively implementing five-minute check-ins with students after questions. When a student encounters a crossroad in their studies, the teacher will answer a question and check in within five minutes if clarification is needed. Having the follow-up check-in with the student actively increases, excuse me, decreases their anxiety during learning. Although we as a faculty adapt strategies to meet our specific grade levels and content areas, we are ensuring continuity and prioritizing time management and resilience in the face of adversity. All right, let's start talking about some data. So before I even
066begin, I'm going to give you guys a visual, a hands-on demonstration. So, um, we're talking about some discipline data here. Um, and before I even begin giving all that information, I'm going to explain what I've handed to you. So, I've given you a yellow card. Um, we use these as recognition for positive behaviors in our building. Um, and behind us, you'll see in the back of the room, we have bins for students. And every month they switch out. So, um, this month we have, yeah, normally it's in front of it, but, um, this month we have a mystery snack and open gym as options. So, when a student gets a yellow card as a recognition from a teacher, they use it as like a raffle ticket for our monthly drawing and um, they really enjoy
067it. Um, we've changed up things every so often to um, based on some requests of the students. Um, the second one that I've given you is the current red card that we use in the building. Um, and I'll talk a little bit more about that in a moment. And then the third one that I gave you is the previous version. And this is still not the original version that um, I walked into the building using. This is actually was altered um, uh, when I met with the team when I first started here. So, you can use it as a reference as I go through these things. Um, so all student behavior is logged into P school and teachers have the ability uh to write a referral for any student in the building. And this is
068actually a change from last year. Um there were some updates in powers school. So now anybody can actually uh do a referral for any student in the building. Um teacher managed behaviors are logged uh as observations. If it has been something that is repeated, it can actually be escalated once the teacher has gone through their own classroom level consequences. Uh last year there were 519 total referrals for the entire school year compared to 616 the year before. Uh as of January 16th, there were 192 referrals for this current school year. Uh for the first semester, the majority of the referrals are for red cards like you see before you, which is the accumulation of three minor infractions that lead to a referral. So, we revamped the red cards in January of last year to address
069minor behaviors that do not necessarily require a referral right away. Uh, I also worked with the SEAL team and gained feedback from the staff on the language of the red card. So, you might notice that between the differences between the two um to make it more objective and remove any biases like the word disrespect for example to mean different things to different people in different cultures. Um, so we will review this again at the end of the school year based on this year's data and our current needs. Um, this year we did add a student signature line and these are meant to become a teachable moment between the teacher and the student. So adding a signature holds both parties accountable. It's meant to be that talking piece uh to be able to talk about what
070they did um and why it's earned a red card and hopefully it stops it from happening again. Um what we did notice is that with the integration of our new digital pass system, there are less incidents occurring in the hallways, which is what was always on the red cards. Um about 81% of the referrals have been written for male students. That was another thing we did notice. Um and referrals for profanity and abusive language have decreased with the addition of more conversations about distinguishing between home language and our professional school language. Um on the screen uh we have some more information about the disciplinary actions taken. Um so referring to the discipline matrix is a normal practice for us. I have a copy by my desk that I'm constantly um referring to. Um we use
071it to determine where student behaviors are and what progression we're following. Uh the first step of this process is always at the classroom level. Uh then it moves to red cards and follows the order that you see here. Um, you will notice that there are 689 red cards that were issued for the first semester. Um, I'm going to go back for a second because you will notice that um, there are not 689 referrals, right? Um, and if you look at the line for just red cards, there were 84 total referrals for red cards. So, I'll explain that more in just a second. Um that means that 63% of those red cards never actually became a detention and deterred the behaviors. Um so we are also noting what types of behaviors we see or measures that
072we took that may need to be added or recategorized when we meet to review and revise the matrix. Uh some of the things to note are each month red cards restart their count. Each quarter referrals restart their count for um qualifications of loss of privileges such as dances, uh attending athletic events or any extracurricular activities. Uh parent contact is incorporated in every step beyond a classroom conversation or red card. And this is done via phone call, email or parent support. Uh however, there have been plenty of phone calls, emails, student conferences, and parent conferences that are conducted outside of any of this referral process and what is documented here. There's the informal conversations as well. Um we have been incorporating more restorative conferences between students to reduce future occurrences and increase the ability for students
073to be able to talk through situations, problem solve. Um, we have been stressing big time the importance of students talking first with no consequence versus it escalating into a bigger uh incident that then leads to disciplinary action. We want to be proactive instead of being reactive. Um, so one of the one of the factors that might have helped us boost to exemplary was chronic absenteeism. Um, so Illinois defines a chronic absentee as a student who misses 10% or more of school days within an academic uh year with or without a valid excuse. So that's excused and unexcused combined. Um, while chronic absenteeism was at 18% for 2025 for the entire school, we still remain below the state average of 25%. Uh, last year, sixth grade was at 12.8%, 8% seventh grade was at 26% and
0748th grade was at 17.3. So um the question is what are we doing about chronic absenteeism? Well, we are documenting absences weekly. I keep a big spreadsheet with all that information on it. Um I do I send attendance letters to parents via email and or mail depending on where they are in the process. Um contacting parents to discuss any issues or needs with getting students to school. Sometimes it's a drop off issue or walking or um you know whatever is happening at home. We make contact to see if there's anything that we can do to help. Um referring to our student advocate for additional support. So if they are having a problem with absenteeism, we do refer them to our um advocate. Uh we currently have about 3% of our student body that um have
075already reached the 10% or more. Um but they every single one of them is already working with our student advocate or they have some type of support in place. Um and uh we will we're going to continue connecting and monitoring with the students regarding attendance throughout the year. Um on a positive note, we are continuing our traveling attendance trophy as a way to recognize advisories for attendance. Um recognition happens every Monday or on Tuesdays if we have a Monday off. Um, we have it on our TV screens um in the cafeteria here and in the um front by the office and we also um now put it on our Instagram page for parents to see if they are unable to you know be here at school and any given day as well. >> Um and
076our next slide is our our case for our counselor, social worker and student advocate. Um, so our counselors have our 504 students, the 17 of those, as well as regular education students that they see regularly or periodically depending on their needs. Um, as well as social worker case load that features our IEP students and a couple of 504s and some regular education students depending on you individual needs as well as our student advocate case load. Um, that gets added based on kind of how teams decide they want to, you know, provide those supports and what students like we talked about with attendance. Um and as well as our additional supports which includes our savers review that we do uh periodically during the year to kind of reflect on our students how they are doing um
077in the fall and then eventually in the winter spring um how to support them on their you know changing needs and if there's any types of you know changes that we see with them throughout the year um as well as things we've done for signs of suicide, depression, vaping etc. presentations So, I I know that we've talked about our advocate. It says 26 up there. I just added our 30th students earlier today, actually. Um, we have two more spots that are available. Um, but we kind of we kind of hold those because there's some students that may need that. Um, sometimes like we have to make the decision on which support will go with that. So, just know that that's something that comes along with their way. So to take all of this together, just
078kind of summarize the different things. Uh we as part of our instructional piece, as part of our goals, we have learning labs where our teachers have gone and visited other classrooms. It was uh other departments. Sometimes they want to see people within their department. So we've kind of taken staff feedback on what they would like to see and and built off that. This year, Miss Fuentes has been instrumental in helping schedule that or covering classes. While I volunteered to help with that, she takes care of that and does that. um wish I could help more. Uh math fluency practice, interpreting charts, the different pieces that we do as part of um things that we see sometimes with our students that sometimes where it becomes a part of what we do. Uh our classroom visits trying
079to get into classrooms, even if it's just being a presence. Um sometimes there's classes that just need Miss Fuentes just to stand in there. We don't really need to say or do. Um and the kids get you're everywhere. Fuentes is everywhere. Perfect. That's what I want you to think. uh the discipline communication. I I don't think we've ever had more communication or more access to data. Um I give Michelle a ton of credit for that. I think back to when I started it was all on spreadsheets and it get count and then Swiss came along and I think like one year we had 1,500 referrals but my second or third year is uh AP uh but using the the matrix and all and that process as Michelle said our detentions again trying to look at
080a process we talk about like lunch detention that's kind of the first process our goal is after lunch detention it doesn't come back um sometimes students need a little bit more than that and they get the other versions that we have um our review of data whether it's with our SIL team or team um our culturally and linguistically responsive strategies Michelle has led that we've had two opportunities this year we'll probably have a few more before the end of the year our discipline data and then we've had two student presentations were from outside organizations signs of suicide and depression where they came in and they talked to the students they filled out a short questionnaire easiest way to explain that after and then our staff and their staff met with some students that may have
081needed support um just want to make sure that they are needing to speak with somebody. They still have access every single day to email us, fill out the survey that we have. Um, and every other week they fill out a survey in advisory like, do I need to speak with somebody? So, they have constant opportunities to be able to have that. And then we've also done one on vaping. Um, I think our students constantly need that reminder of what that could potentially do to them um when they get something that may be known or unknown. And then our athletics activities and opportunities, four sports, uh softball, volleyball, soccer, and basketball. Our sixth grade basketball team's currently playing this season. And then our volleyball teams are right now the girls. 10 clubs and activities, three bands.
082You can hear one of them in the background, the jazz band. And then our half-day engagement activities and incentives. Um the incentives that we talk about that Michelle has really brought through our team. Um but she's also brought bingo. And you would never think that middle school students would love bingo. Our middle school students and I think our staff too love bingo. Uh it it's been a when the first time we did like we're doing this every time. So we had to revise our schedule today. So we finished uh yesterday with bingo at the end of the day and they get 40minute lunch uh open gym or mystery snack and they come down and they're they're excited and they sign up and they go back to class and hopefully they try to win a second
083time. Michelle's done various things with that. So, I think that's really added to what we do here. Last slide, right? This is where we started. So, it's a lot of work to get this. You've heard a lot of information what we do. And I think that's the part of it that I'm most proud of as the principal now for my 15th year. Uh the kids ask me, "Mr. Leven, when you were in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade, did you think you're going to be the principal here?" No. No. Never would have thought that. I didn't even think about education at that point. I was worried at 2:45 I was out the door what sport I was going to play. Um, but I think the work that the staff does here, I think it's it's a
084collaboration of discussions and efforts and there's days we go home defeated and frustrated, but there's days we see these these results and we get we're like excited or we see a student in in a tiered intervention that, you know, graduates or for me, I'm working with our our students who are on our retention piece right now and I see them like coming to school, Mr. Leven. I'm doing my work. I'm passing all my classes. You know, those are the rewarding pieces that we get when we work with all kids. So, I look at this as one picture. It's a data point. It's what we do, but it's also the other piece that you've heard about in this presentation that I'm probably the most proud of is is what we do each and every day because
085you don't know what shows up at the door when they walk past us. Mrs. Casoric and Miss McMahon and I have this joke about we say hello, hello, good morning, good morning, morning. Who's going to respond and say good morning? And we have some of our kids that are like, "You say good morning to me every day and I never say anything to you." We were I was talking with one today. We're talking today and she's like, "Yeah, I'm just not it's just not in the morning. You just leave her alone. She's not awake." Um, but I think it's it's the funny things that we sometimes come up with that just keep us motivated and going with the work that we do, the reward that we get from when our kids do succeed. So, >>
086so again, thank you for uh listening to our presentation. Thank you. Have questions? >> All right. Uh we'll start with Stephanie. You want to go? >> Well, I actually want to make a comment to um very good uh and thorough presentation. Can you guys hear me? >> Yep. Good. >> Okay. So, I was going to say I thought it was a very thorough presentation. I really like um the incorporation of that slide 19. I think that's a new slide to them. Um because it kind of really breaks everything down and explains like the support groups and everything. Is that is that a new slide? >> Oh, that's the math one. I was like, what's slide 19, Steph? >> Yeah, we were trying to summarize. There was another thing that we were doing and we did
087that put that in there. >> I always have questions about how many the percentages and what both tier one and tier three. So, that was really really helpful for me to be able to explain that. And I also like that um she explained about the core support and core enrichment. I think that was another area that we always have talked about felt like they were kind of missing um some of that intervention or just some much needed uh help and support and motivation for those kids as well. Um now this is just specifically for math and I believe that um and I couldn't see who was talking about reading. I kind of thought I heard them say that they're doing the core support and core enrichment for the reading as well, but I don't see,
088you know, I didn't have this breakdown for reading. So, I was just wondering if those same things are happening from a reading perspective. Well, I do know that the reading is a higher proficiency. Um maybe that's why it's not happening, but just was wondering if that same support for enrichment is happening in the reading sector as well. it is and that's u when I explained this slide for the ELA block for the 80 minutes that was when um I was able to explain what we do um that's our core but then within that core support that's where we're able to offer extension opportunities to um those advanced learners who are showing um proficiency and finishing the core work um within that core support that's where we have all the students working on ISL that's within
089the HMH like the guided lessons, the whole class of lessons on skills and strategies and then within um the core also is where we have our regular small groups where all students are being met with but then in addition we have those tiered intervention groups um for those students who need that like second dose of targeted support. So that's all within the 80 minute block. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you for that. I thought you mentioned it. I just wasn't clear and because I didn't have it in a slide form. Slide 19. >> We do have we do have a chart like that for slide 19. >> We do have a chart like that for reading that I was able to do off of the math one. Um, so I will make sure that Greg has
090that to pass along to the board. >> Okay. Very helpful. Really explains a lot to me that I was not connecting before even looking at all the other charts. So, thank you for that. Um my only other question was I was um I know it was um principal Fuentes when she was talking about behaviors and I know she said the number the total number went down. I know I got the numbers but I was trying to see was it incidents or how whatever she categorized them as it went from I think it was 519 and last year it was 616. >> Yeah. So that's an overall uh for referrals. So, >> okay. >> Uh, yeah, the year before it was 616. That was prior to when I was here. And then last year it was
091519. And halfway >> 192 today, January, >> it's 192 as of uh January 16th when I kind of did the cut off for when we were doing. >> So, based on that trajectory, it seems like it's going to be even lower this year than the 519. It should kind of >> crossing her fingers. Cross. Um, yeah, I think as of today we're currently at 234. Um, so we are still we're more than halfway through the school year and we're still um lower than where we were before. >> Yes. So hopefully doesn't like all things fair. >> Yes, just kind of ramp up. >> May's a little wonky, >> but it looks like you're going. And so your your slide also was very helpful with kind of breaking everything down. So I appreciate um that as
092well. I think that's it. That's it for me. >> I think I have one more to kind of piggy back off of Stephanie's for um discipline. Um how does the process for detention look like in terms of informing the parent and then what they're doing in lunch detention and after school detention? Like are they sitting reading? Are they you know what I mean? what are they doing when you prepare? >> So the process is first when I get a referral um I I want to act on it within 24 hours. It's not something to sit on. Um a student takes discipline a little bit more seriously when you're steadfast with it, not sitting and waiting for dates. Um so I do have a conversation with the students and it could be sometimes very informal like
093hey I got a referral with your name on it. Let's take a look at what it's about. And many times it's about uh red cards. So, um, I'll open up the referral. I I'll say here, you know, these are your red cards. I think with the signature part this year, there's less of a surprise from the kids. Um, last year, I think it was more, "Oh, I didn't know I had that red card." This year, it's more like, "Yep, I know I got the red card." Um, so it's like they already know. Um, I think there's also more conversations of, uh, students asking, "Have I hit three yet? Am I getting there?" You know, and then sometimes they internalize that like, "I need to chill." Um, and then once they get that referral, I do
094and that conversation happens with me, I then have to look at where they are. So, the first is always going to be a lunch detention. Um, then we move to 3:45, then 5:00. Um, when it comes to red cards, I we don't go further than 5:00 because it it seems unwarranted to have an inschool suspension for minor behaviors uh that accumulate to a referral. Um but otherwise I do start with um since they have a lunch attention here in house I always um I have a template that I use I put the information on it name. Um there's other information about like the progression of it for parents to see. I put the reason why the date that they're serving it. Um I will always email the student. I copy the parents. I give the
095students a paper copy in the office they pick up um is highlighted. Um, I send a daily uh discipline notice to to teachers so that way they are aware of who's serving lunch attentions and 3:45s. It's a daily email um as long as there's something going. Some days there's no email and that's perfect because there's no detentions. Um, but then if once it progresses past the lunch detention, I do make sure to always um contact a parent somehow, whether it's a phone call or via email um before I schedule it because I want to make sure that students are going to be able to get home um at 3:45 or 5:00 either by bus, walking, pickup, whatever. I want to make those arrangements so parents are aware and sometimes they have other activities after school
096that I don't want to necessarily take away from them or, you know, appointments or whatever. So I make sure that I'm very conscious of that as well. Um but it's always within reason of days. So um it's not far off of when they re receive the referral. Um anything beyond five o'clock we always consult each other. We talk to uh Dr. Salmi about next steps on that. Um but we have very we've had very few of those this year. And then um because it's really impressive that you're going from like 1500 600 you know you're at 100 now. I'm wondering if you guys would consider um speaking with an intermediate school and maybe sharing some of what you're doing and no shade with them but just having like consistent language. So like you're saying like
097they're coming in knowing um negative unkind language. they're coming in knowing what you guys are expecting here so that it's not a surprise maybe Mr. and you know no shade Mr. But just the consistency of like, hey, this is what we do here. This is what we do here. When you're coming in, they already know. Like you said, it's not a surprise and I can pride you on it. So maybe some >> Absolutely. >> We we've done some of that with like I say with Power School where the fifth graders, I don't know where they're at in the process, so I can't speak to it, but I know that they were going to work with them not being able to get on Power School and do that. I think this is something we could talk
098to them about and I don't want to tell them what to do but we we've had some really good fifth and sixth grade like meetings the last two meetings have been very good about just talking about process so that we understand what they're doing so when they come to us all right this this is what's going on these are the types of learner these are things you're going to have to help support I think that's been a good piece there so it's >> and I had sorry I was going to say just to add on as a teacher here for a while I've also seen the process clarified so much from the top down to the students. So, it's it's just been very clear what's going to happen. We you know what to expect to
099like meeting with the students to talk about behaviors and what it looks like. We clarified the language for everybody. I think another teacher thinks we've had discussions on what behavior is. So, that translates to the students what behavior is and what's not. But then having the really again I have no idea what you but having the really clear expectations with the matrix like this is your first step you go beyond this it's this we know that as the teacher we know what to expect so it's not like oh this kid did this and got a 345 this kid did this got a size of class like it's all very clear >> which I think that's helps us as a teacher know what to expect the percussionist you have a clear yeah she the student knows
100that there's no ambiguity anymore the signature now they know even when they said they didn't know they knew but still it's easy I didn't know I was getting it school but now it's so clear >> it takes all that little bit of extra depends argument whatever it's just all cut and dry for the most part some you're getting their buy in too right now they're hearing them on the language now they're signing off and another component is that the parents know right that like you say within 24 hours something happens. You're talking to the student and you're informing the parent of whether the detention or my you know but the parents are aware the student is aware the teachers are aware so like you said it's very clear maybe you know intermediate just language procedures
101>> and I don't think I answer the question about what happens during detention so part of the conversation so when they're in lunch detention with me I will have a conversation with them about how Um I do lunch attention. Yes. There's no time delay in their schedules and I don't want to put that on them. So I do lunch attentions. Um I schedule my time to sit with them. Um and you know it is it is a silent uh lunch attention but there are many times most of the time actually um I'm having conversations with them. Okay what did you do? How did we get here? How can we improve next time? Um, and then you know if we're sitting in a lunch detention, okay, listen, if this happens again, now you know the next
102one's going to be at 3:45. So it's an anticipatory of if I got another referral, I know what my consequence is going to be. There's no surprise. And that's the same conversation with parents. Your child already had a lunch attention, next one is 3:45, after that is 5:00. There's no surprise there whatsoever. Um, and we've even like when we get to the three referrals, um, it's not always like a automatic takeaway privileges. there is that conversation of let's set some goals. How are we going to do better? How are we going to make sure we don't get another referral? Um I won't take something away from them right away. I like to give them the opportunity to do better. Um because I know they can do better and they've shown that they can do better.
103Um and many times um with that conversation, they won't get that extra referral and I don't have to take away a dance or you know an activity of some sort. So um and then after school detentions um are usually a silent detention. Um, and we don't know if you know we change that model later on, but right now it seems to be >> and it sounds like there's a little bit of restorative in their talking with them. >> Yes. >> Giving them an opportunity for improvement. >> So, just want to thank you too. I I had no questions for reading or math or anything because you guys were pretty thorough and I we appreciate your hard work and we see it. >> Yeah. I was going to say the same exact thing that I have
104no questions for reading or for math because you guys have really like the the evolution of of these meetings and where they're at. They're at such a point now where you did 30 hardworking slides like we see all the hard work that you put into answering our questions. Um but we feel so I feel so confident in um in understanding the day-to-day and that's not something we typically are able to understand but um just thank you uh for the hard work you put into presenting and and the hard work you put into your dayto-day to deliver this and um I'm when you started uh Mr. So even you were saying how like you know it's not easy work and it's frustrating. It's but it's all the joy too, right? Like we it's seen in the
105data. So that's all. Thank you. I'm rambling. >> I just want to I think I couldn't think any more highly of middle school. You just keep upping it every year. I like the uh the recognition card. Do you know how many of these you hand out? Do you keep a count or is it just >> I don't keep a count because they all end up in the bins. But I do have a big bag right now of them because at the end of the year I want to do a overall raffle for all of them. Um and bring up the the bingo wheel and get them in there and then maybe some gift cards. But um I do have a bunch of them. They do get a lot. >> Okay. >> Yeah. because I I
106just ask because I do these um like classroom ecology checklists at the district that I'm in and we try to pay attention to if uh the there's like positive reinforcement at a ratio that's higher than the reprimands or negative. And so I just was curious if if that was track but but it sounds like there's a lot of them and >> there is I've handed them out. I I handed out one the other day. A student was just standing outside. was cold and she's like she's holding the door and I'm like you don't have to hold the door I can do it know those are little things that they do need to be kind of like not necessarily rewarded for but just addressed on like hey thanks for being a great kid I went and
107gave that you know I have never given one that I got to want it I think like the PBIS bucks where it was like eighth grade it was too cool for the PBIS bucks this is a whole different they want these things they want 40minute lunch and they're simple things and they're good pieces that I think Awesome. I just I had one comment in the question. So, I >> um between being a parent here and on the board, I' seen a lot of these. So, um thank you. I am so so proud of how close you guys got to that so close. Um and I I can't think of a year that we've been this close. So, I mean, it's huge. Uh kudos to all the the work that's being done there. Um the ELA
108growth is phenomenal. Um I'm I know we've had the curriculum for a while. I know you guys have worked hard at like tweaking it. Is there anything that you would say kind of sticks out that we've done differently this year than last year that maybe speak to some of that? I mean, that's a huge growth that I don't remember seeing. I we just said the same thing with the age. >> Um the building of stamina with the independent reading. Um that's that's been huge. Um because when we started HM and it was like there was like not time for that independent reading and we tried to like shove it into study halls and let's be honest study halls some kids need a break and just want to put their heads down or not allow for
109independent reading because they've been already working for five, six, seven periods of the day. Um and it just wasn't cutting it there. Um so we moved the independent reading we made that a priority moved it back to the classrooms and there's that building that stamina whereas we see the amount of reading that's like fake reading the kids are actually reading um so between doing the independent reading and like I said sixth grade did lit circle um books I just did a threew week um unit of that and every kid was like, "Wow, we completed a whole book." Because they chunk the pages. And like we had students who haven't maybe read or had that success of reading an entire book yet. We're like, "Yeah, we maybe read a book in three weeks." Um, and so
110building that stamina, having the kids do that, um, is great. And then I think from HMH2, they're revamping the questions and making the kids think more and be more active thinkers and not just sit there like, "Okay, we know what to expect." the routine or we know what the question is going to ask or I can skip this annotating because now with that having and that huge focus of reporting it not that we never did that before but that they revamped their questions they have to have text evidence and have to prove it and have to explain it and have to actually justify your thinking um I think that's been a huge difference maybe some of the writing too we've seen with the growth in that Yeah. >> Yeah. They're hard. There's some of those
111questions that come along. >> That's the answer. I don't think I would have gotten that. >> I think the hest mirror the I format to a little bit more work. So many of them ask a two-part question where they have, you know, in part a >> it's a tough question about content. And then the part B is pick one or sometimes two pieces of evidence from the text >> that support A. So just them also getting into the routine of that kind of question. I mean years ago when we first saw these tests like you're never going to pass these for a classroom grade to now it's everybody takes that test first. So >> it's just so that it's the the work of the literacy committee across the buildings. It's the work of the specialists.
112It's with Stephanie. you know, they're having these conversations at a higher level and then each specialist goes to their buildings, works with their teams and so you see the commitment across that, you know, like they're not they're they're I think they'll tell you too like the kids that are coming in are in a better position than they were three years ago. And so now they're taking to work and now these kids are coming in ready. Now they're taking them to the next the next level and are able to challenge them and get into these different groups. you know, everyone is buying in and it's because the the conversations that happen before he even gets to the classroom and and everyone has a commitment and you know, each building runs a little bit differently, but you
113know, through the leadership, they have their autonomy to within the parameters of of what the the curriculum is to make it fit the needs of the kids. >> And then my last question, I I might have misunderstood this, but did you guys say you log red cards into P school? No. Um, we have a spreadsheet that, um, we have one teacher for every grade level that will collect them, put them into a spreadsheet, and it kind of helps us keep track of three at a time. Um, so once they hit three, then they put in the referral for it. Um, I am I just threw an idea at Kumar today for a digital way uh, a different digital way of doing it. So, I'm gonna I have a thoughts on how to improve it and
114get a parent notification when a red card is entered, but it's going to take >> That's where I was going. Yeah. >> It's gonna take some tech support. Um, I was thinking about it and I have a plan. It's just I need assistance. >> I know you won't get it from every, you know, home support, but like, you know, waiting till you get three is almost too late to like for the parent to help >> not that behavior, >> right? Well, the the hopes of it is uh building that relationship with the students where they can actually go home and say, "I got a red card today. You know, I was messing up a little bit." Um, and hope that conversation happened, which does happen with some students. They will go home and immediately admit
115that they did something. Um, but yes, I I've thought about how can we because it is tedious with 689 red cards. It's kind of hard to get every notification to a parent. But I know with technology improving that I have some thoughts on how we can actually uh possibly accomplish that. >> You have one more. Sorry guys. Because I see how um how much we use here and um even for like my kids. I just learned about how they have their own here, you know, plan here them with reading and math. So did we say we were going to get rid of Miss Mako or Math or both? >> Yeah. >> K5. So not >> because we have something out of the program, >> but not for middle school. It's waggle. Waggle K5 that we
116got with new version of H. >> Okay. >> Thank you guys. >> Awesome. Thank you. You guys are welcome to stay of course but we understand that you've got >> next we have um >> finance the fiscal year 27 tentative budget timeline in process. You're just walking us >> through the timeline here. >> All right. >> Don't know how I'm going to follow such a presentation, but that's going to be a tough. >> Well, how long is it going to be? >> Accomplish this in 30 seconds. >> It is the same presentation here. is just overall laying out the process of budgeting. So right now I'm working on pulling forward my budget spreadsheet which consists of roughly around 28 apps populating note information such as salaries and tenative ones for benefits so I can plug
117in everything's formula driven so when a number does become known I I key into one spot everything really nice um after that I do push out to the buildings and departments just the listed accounts that they have what they currently spend and I allow them to go through and search my share week of April. So I can plug those numbers into my spreadsheet. Then I get in May the health insurance changes for months. I title that budget. >> Questions? >> Thanks for having >> Yeah. Any questions on that stuff? >> No. >> Okay. All right. Um the next just again a discussion item for the 26 27 calendar. I assume that's you Stephanie. >> Yep. >> All right. >> It is. And I love the survey. All that >> fe. Okay. So, I mean, one
118of the one of the changes from we heard that we heard from um negotiations is just mental health the staff. They're tired. They don't have time. They don't want to do anything outside of their workday. Um and I've just come to a point where if we don't give them time during the workday, it's not going to get done. We need to give them time. And we've been doing that for the last couple years. This one is giving them time. So, we built in um two work days. So, the first work day will be on the 17th. it is a paid day they will get paid they can it is an admin will not have meetings that is strictly for teachers to do what they need to do during de time um and then so then
119that cuts one of the institute days which then we move so that's the thing you know some of the feedback that you see well why can't we have a little bit of this a little bit of that with but with one and they don't see the big picture of it but with one change here comes another change here because you're playing you're playing chess everything is moving when you're doing um and it's fine and like we did the So we could put it to educate them on why things are the way they are, right? Um okay. So they off that seven they have the work day two work days that we put in um which were if you look at the feedback huge. They really appreciate them. They want them there. They need them there.
120I'll be honest. Um >> so Steph, sorry. Is it just they're coming in fixing up their classroom? >> Whatever it is they need to do. They want to sit and talk for eight hours. That's what they want to do. I I mean that's literally it's their time. I I mean >> they're going to take advantage and do that or meet. >> Well, I'm just saying it's the beginning of the year. So, >> yeah, they would set the pass. Yeah. Whatever it is they need to set their password and we are not structuring. We are not structuring. >> You see what I'm saying? It's the beginning of the year. >> I did not see >> it's the beginning of the year. So, where's the burnout is what I'm saying. >> The burnout there at the end
121of the week that we're doing all this PD and we have no time in our classroom. No, the issue being the issue was >> that was at the negotiation. This was a topic. They wanted to type the prop, read IEP, have information. >> Yes, I doing the is a big thing. They do that on their own time >> and this now builds in that opportunity for them to have this conversation >> because they did they would do give them some time um during one of these two days but again it's so bad there's so much other things that they have to do they can't really look into or talk with their pair of professionals having those support meetings they made a really pretty solid case that they need the time um again yeah so not
122the burnout part there more >> quick question. Is she referring are you looking at calendar one or two? >> Calendar one >> calendar two feels pretty traditional what we've always done. So this is calendar one. >> But the and the thing is too I think the big thing is no matter in the first two days of traditional you hit them with a ton of meat and people absolutely try out. I met as a teacher. It happened to me as a principal trying to lead it. It happened. So, we're not giving up like a meeting. We're giving up a meeting at beginning year, but we're not losing a meeting for the year. And I can tell you that there are times throughout the year where we wish we had another meeting and now have the other
123instit Yes. We're just separating them out. >> Yeah. >> On the chest. >> And I'm sorry, I should have said this. This is not for a vote tonight. So like this is >> this is the time for feedback. If there's something that you guys absolutely do not >> at the end of the day at the end of the day it comes down to what the board and everybody knows that teachers know. We know that it's a board decision. Not a teacher will give you what you're seeing the feedback. >> You guys always ask for it and then you guys make the ultimate decision on whatever you want to do. >> Vote on 19th. Yes. So, we'll hopefully be voting on it on the 19th. Okay, go ahead. Continue. Sorry. >> Uh, so and one of
124the other pieces of feedback that we've been receiving over the years, um, again, not I might have maybe 20 25 people fill out the surveys, then we do prep her conferences and and I don't know how you feel about surveys, but if you filled it out, then you have a there's something that you want to have a look at. If you didn't fill it out, you think everything's just fine. That's how I look at surveys. Um, and you know, I've seen teacher feedback and parent feedback on why we don't have a spring conference. Um, we went back to 2010 I uh 2010 we did do night conferences. Um, so this isn't some practice that we made up or that I made up. Um, so >> so you're saying one conference per calendar? >> No. So
125they will know that we've only we usually only have November conferences over Thanksgiving for 14 hours total. That's what the staff gives us 14 hours Monday and Tuesday. >> So now what they're doing is they have November 2nd will be um and again 4:30 to 7:30 is flexible because middle school gets out earlier. They could do 3:30 to um whatever. >> Yeah, 6:30. But the times it isn't just the placeholder of a night conference. So they have school and then conferences. Correct. So >> yeah, >> which a lot of districts do do. >> We had that's pretty normal. >> And then we understand that that was a late day. So then we have on the third on the third all day conference and we delayed start of that one. So that would go from 10
126to 12 or 10 to 5. They don't have to get up for you know I mean they kind of just take a little slower start to the day. Um and we also have to be off on the third. that is um the hot the voting that's voting so that's why we do it on that day um with that then we did we did um have them completely off the week of Thanksgiving that's not pay it's just they're off that does put two days into the back end of the calendar um which takes it to the >> so historically kids have been off but now the teachers will be off and then parents don't have to come >> for conferences that >> so if people are you planning vacations you could be earlier. you don't have
127to worry about coming to >> and and I'll be honest I I really and we're one of the concern one of the comments that was on um the feedback was very valid was can we al better align the semester the quarter endings and we'll totally look at that but if you think about it in November I mean that's already almost the end of I mean first quarter is way over by then we're already done benchmarking um and then if they are falling behind at the end of the year we don't have a chance to have those company meetings. Yes, teachers are having phone calls on their own time again on the plan time. >> Um, okay. So then that's so that's >> Stephanie. Sorry. So they're willing to go later in the year for the
128change in these conference times according to the 25 people that >> no the results the results of the teachers was 70%. >> 70% said they >> 70% of the staff want the calendar one >> calendar one which means includes all that stuff. >> Okay. 70% of the staff or 70% of who responded. >> No, 70% of the staff. >> Well, of who responded? >> Who responded? There was 65 people that were every staff member had opportunity to fill it out. >> Again, if you don't fill it out, you're fine with whatever it is. >> Oh, is pretty good. >> I mean, they want >> Yeah. If you're passionate about it, you write we give them plenty of platforms um to voice how they feel. Um so then another change that we did was um in
129December normally we would have ended school on the 18th which is very I mean it's pretty early for before Christmas Eve and a lot of people I mean people get when we come back it would have been um like Christmas or New Year's Day first and then you're coming back on Sunday. It just for me I mean I I take a vacation day so it doesn't matter but it just seemed very rushed like when do you so you know flexing that time and then also giving them that work day back on the sixth. Um and then the kids would come in the seventh and the eth what some of the comments that we've heard is that it would be nice um to do our our boot camps that gives the kids two days to get
130back in the in the mode of school and then here we go in January. Um everything else there is the same February. Um so we added that second inst that first institute that we didn't do on the teacher work day that is the 12th that aligns with proviso that is the day to >> so PTSU the proviso township we've been talking to superintendents to have a day that we're all and in case we want to do any kind of cross operation so that may be something that we're doing across the something you talked about. So we we never had that before >> and he knew that that's going to happen but we're >> right >> we kind of prepare for that. >> Um February 11th would be the next round of conferences. It's three hours.
131So that gives them a total of 12 hours. So they it actually um they didn't include lunch those days. They would not get a lunch um both the night days. They would just go straight to it. Um obviously they'd have 45 minutes off between work, you know, ending school and then we have to sorry the conferences are the same as they work a day and then have them in the >> night. Yes. >> At night same >> and this one would be only for students with concerns. It would not be every student coming in. um to who would first prioritize >> or the parendic >> right well first prioritize kids that need to be seen and then if we have openings in your schedule I have six openings I can open it up to parents
132um but then again we bought that up to an institute day so yes it'll be a normal time institute it'll it'll be 8 o'clock but it's not a work day where they we're here all night now I have to go to work yes institute is a work day but and then it is a is a long weekend for them as well but that the timing of that works out nicely too. And February is a good time to catch kids who are academically might be having some problems. We can kind of get them going there and before the end of the school year. Um but with that then they are they would get off um Blaski spring break they would have to get off u uh Easter Monday. They would get that off um April 6
133that is a voting day. They have to be off that day. So that is our our past institute and then everything else really is the same. >> And I have a question. >> Yep. I'll have a question. >> You're done, right? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Yeah, go for it. Seth, >> the spring break. What is our spring break this year? >> I have a calendar here. I knew you. >> It's Yeah, it's last week in April and first last week in March. >> March. So it's like that Monday is still a and then Tuesday becomes >> this does revert back this year on this current calendar that went back up to the >> it's we're following we're following provisal what they did >> so they did the same things >> yeah we're following provisor yeah
134they did wonder like I know it was I believe yeah >> that's the one thing we don't try to >> whatever they do they have any rhyme >> no I I don't know >> it definitely was like you said y'all are in sync for this year. >> Yeah. Right. >> And then now we're following them again for next year, but they moved it instead of having it the same week >> this year or next year. >> They changed it back to the 22nd. >> It usually does switch around though. I I I think it has to do with when Easter is. And this will now give the the kids a whole week plus a Monday off because of Easter. >> Will both end on June 2nd? Uh staff. So uh both calendars end on June
1352nd. >> I don't. >> Yes, because we kept the Thanksgiving. Um no, what was it? >> No, calendar two is made twice. >> Yeah, it should be >> I don't I don't have if you duplicate the tab and open both of them. You >> you have two books open, right? >> Yeah. But that's a a new thing, Laura, the like you can't toggle as easy. So back and forth between attachments. >> Before you could be able to open them all up and just have them up. >> They send out a survey every year. So I will add that >> our list. >> Okay. So yeah, I like to have them side by side, but I can't do that. >> Yeah. Well, you got >> I got I'm open. >> And also, one other thing about
136the calendars, too. Um, you know, we we're trying this based on feedback from parents and teachers. And if if it doesn't work, if it's not needed, we're not saying this is how it's going to be every single year. We're trying something. We thought outside the box. We wanted we're hoping it helps teachers and students, parents. But, um, I think that was a big thing for the the the community to know that we are because we're not stuck in stuck in this. if it works. I mean, I I think we have to as a DI as WA members, we have to see the big picture for the whole district. We can't think, well, I'm in one building and I don't need these meetings because I can have a meeting any day any day that I want.
137You know, we have teachers in our in other schools and other departments that can barely meet with each other once a week, right? So having the this built-in planning time or you know uh whatever I could probably calling it not attendance day teachers teacher work day is needed for some some some teachers in different specializations in different buildings different grades it you just have to think more boldly >> I definitely I work in a school that has the um I'm not teaching in front of kids but I still appreciate it but that um winter break, that first day back is a is a institute day essentially um or professional development day for them. Um and that's it's huge. >> It really is a good way to reset. Like I think that that's >> well then
138too I you know thinking about too you know I know what I do when I on my Christmas break I worked you know I I guess I was on vacation but we it doesn't end right but now it's kind of like the teachers can actually take a Christmas break and come back and have >> one day of work. >> Yeah. seven hours to get it all done and there we go. Like I I think that would that's that whole mental health piece, right? They're not gonna have to because we all do it. I mean, we don't stop working for people in this room, right? We're constantly thinking about work, but being able to say, you know what, I'm not thinking about it not once because I can do it when I come back on Wednesday.
139I'm going to have that time. We have that luxury, you know, in the summer. I can say to myself, I don't have to do it at work or at home because I can come back for work tomorrow, but most days of the week we don't have that either, you know. So, it's just nice. >> Well, and I think if 70% of the teachers >> want this that we want to, >> you know, try and support them, but >> I'm not liking that the spring conferences are limited >> to only um parents that are special needs because I feel like >> needs or or well, what is it? They have they need support that need support >> like kids that are struggling. >> Yes. But and so I feel like we have such minimal communication already
140that it's nice to sit with the teacher and get a good picture of like what's going on, what the school day looks like, what you know kids are doing in the classroom succeeding and not is there a way to do something about that? >> No, I mean it's it's three hours. That's what we have. I mean you can look at the the amount of conference time that each slot is given and during that time um I I can't imagine I mean what do we do we do 10 minutes right? So I can't I can't imagine teachers having I hope to god they don't have 15 kids that have concerns >> and I can't see that a parent who wants to go not getting seen. >> Not every parent's going to want to go. We used
141to have this a while ago, right? Like I feel like when my kids were like I had >> and so we had like fall was for everybody if you wanted it. >> Spring, right? Right. The teacher. >> Yeah. So and I don't do it. >> The opening I don't feel like >> the same thing even for high school. >> Yeah. Like spring like and and then it went away and >> we just did November, you know, or October. I mean, I think we got to I think we got to try because calendar option two has no spring conference, >> right? >> So, we can't add >> there's not even conference. >> There has never not been in like the last not since >> Yeah, it's probably been like >> conferences. No, you don't. >> You've
142never >> swear. It's been a really long time. >> Most schools, but that's the thing. >> A lot of schools do. We are one of the few that I because Lauren and I did a ton of research on what's around us and when are they doing it? What's their timeline? What are their times? There's not many that don't. >> So, we're trying to implement it and we're trying to, you know, knowing that we have to prioritize kids, but if there's families that want like there may be if you you have to have a class that there's not kids that are in need, then you'll have more openings. in. But if there's a parent who wants to like you don't have to just exclusive to that either. That's but we're going to have the space for
143it and and we'll we'll see how it goes like how much fill up. We'll be monitoring that >> but yeah calendar option two does not have spring >> at all. >> This year we don't have you know like I said we haven't we haven't had enough >> and calendar two has the conferences later in November like >> Exactly. So it would be a Thanksgiving week. >> Yeah. Because I think again when when my younger ones were or my older ones were here like conferences were in October at some point, right? >> Yeah, they were October >> and they were that felt a little early and so like >> they were over by Columbus Day they Columbus Day >> and then like sometimes so having that and then going to Thanksgiving Thanksgiving felt kind of late.
144>> So I do I mean this early November is kind of a >> like you're you still have time to catch up, right? Because then you're going on, you know, then you have Thanksgiving, you talk about conferences, you go on the whole week, but your parent, I don't know, maybe forgets tab, I don't know. But then we come back and it's um December, right? And December, we all know December's over like this, >> Dana. >> Yes. >> Just sent you a text. My computer boy over here taught me how you can split screens in uh put that in his letter. Well, I I sent you a text of it. So, I am looking at calendar one and two now. So, show me how to do it. >> Okay. >> Oh, yeah. You are. Look at
145you, Jaylen. Um, anything else? Any other feedback? Anything that you just not really loving? I don't know the like I said >> she did she did say that of the people that voted the survey 70% wanted one. Right. >> Right. And do you think that that's driven by the early like the um >> I think if you look at my one thing my last survey question was what >> did you like about like that's why I wanted to know like if if we were going to change things like what are the seller well I wanted you guys to see like what do they want and that will tell you right there what they were really looking at. I think honestly I feel like a lot of a lot of teachers and they might not have
146you know voice it here but they would like to start school a week later in August and go a week later >> and they've also they've also advocated for a different spring break because their own children's spring break is different and that's something that just been an so they kind of stopped asking so when we came to them with these things they were like well you guys really are listening and so they appreciated just the different options. So outside of the spring break because that just can't >> um can you fill in the rest of like the ones that most important you like what what words are cut off there? >> Oh, you know what? I have to look at it. I'm sorry. >> It said keeping conference the week. >> What was it? >>
147It says keeping conference the week >> the week of Thanksgiving. >> Okay. Moving towards a split conference >> conference. So that would be the uh fall and spring. >> Okay. protecting teacher prep slashwork. >> So that work time those two days time >> those two days >> having more time before this month. >> Yeah. So I how we shifted the dates. >> Okay. Having more time after the is that new year. >> Okay. Winter break return structure and then there's a parenthesy. >> The date that work day. >> Okay. Um ending the school year as soon I assume as possible. >> Yeah. There you go. So that would be how many people wanted to get out earlier. How what was the number? >> Uh it said 20 which was 29% of the >> respondents. >>
148And I think a couple years ago we were getting out like June 12th. Now even you know this year's May. >> Yeah. >> And next year we're looking like June sec you know like that's still early compared to when we were usually getting out. Like for a long time we were getting out. >> We usually get out in early June. >> June. Yeah. CPS >> CPS is like June 30th. >> So yeah, calendar one is June 2nd. What's calendar two? >> May 26. >> Oh, okay. So still after Memorial Day. >> Yeah, that one might be tough that calendar too because I guess Memorial Day is the 24th. So >> is in the 26th the half day. Well, >> is Memorial Day 31st. >> 31st. I like Am I looking at the wrong calendar? >>
149No. 31st. >> You were saying you're saying dates that are legit on here. >> No. No. >> Yeah. It's the 31st. They would get out before them. >> But again, I mean, again, I'm just I'm summer person. It's not really warm yet in May. It's It's warmer in August. >> I know. That's what teacher say to me. Bill's looking at me like sound like I know. But it's the truth. They're not wrong. So you guys have >> any thoughts? Anything that you would >> So and when they come next meeting it will be a recommend it'll be one that we'll vote on. Yes. So we can always flip it but like the motion will be >> to approve. >> Um so winter break would be families. Say it again. >> I'm just reading the comments
150that shifting the winter break to start later would be difficult for some families. >> I've seen that a few times. >> Say that one more time. >> That shifting the winter calendar later would be difficult for some families. And somebody said we could have four attendants. >> Oh, I I assume they mean because calendar two we're done on Friday. >> Yeah. And calendar one you're going Monday, Tuesday. you're done on. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> But again, we, you know, I was talking to some teachers about that. Um, and they said they like it because they can actually have a full week of academics. They're also math testing. So, they can finish that entire week of math testing and then Monday and Tuesday, Tuesday, that's the holiday parties. It could be more we can do the
151the Polar Express things that we did that that they they're going to do regardless but it's well actually the first >> I think it's something to look at for attendance wise and but I think if we do a Friday even Friday half day you start seeing people >> you know duck out I think the thing is really difficult when you know it's like >> January 1 and then the next day you're coming back you know like so extending it out makes it >> it's tough for all families and then families can extend their vacation too. So, while it might be tougher in the beginning than the end, they'll have more time with their families. And >> so, it's the same number of days or no, >> the same just you're just going into the next
152few. >> So, what giving them those work days? We have to give them off gas and we have to give them off the resume because they only work certain amount of days. So, those those are why they're there. If they don't work those days like we need them to work so that we can't give, you know, I mean it all, like I said, it's all a down. We move one thing, then we have to do something else. >> Can you explain what happens if they do make November 3rd a holiday for those conferences? >> Yeah, it would be >> we would the um we just have to push the end of the school year to we would it would be a day off for everybody. >> Yes. And then we would move into what day
153would >> and then the conferences would be the second and the fourth. So >> still the full day and then conferences >> and then the fourth would be the day >> conferences and then the last day of school would be >> gota >> but you know the state hasn't made a >> and didn't voting as a holiday like there was I feel like maybe a year presidential So what I was told is the presidential election is the one that is supposed to be a day off for everybody. >> So several districts have it off but several districts do not including proviso. I called west 40 and they said to you know have a backup which we do um which is what I just told you guys about. So, but they said the way they're interpreting
154it so we could have so we don't have students in the building if parents with the kids come into uh student life go with their parents. >> Oh, >> can I ask a quick question? It might have been answered because I stepped away really quickly on the 21st for Christmas. >> Yeah. >> On that is that different than what it was before? >> Yeah. So Monday and Tuesday they're in session where usually you'll take the two weeks but then you're coming back >> you're getting a Monday Tuesday in the back end just because of where the first lands and it's like you're coming back like the day after the first. So it's >> it's giving them a couple more days and families a couple more days. >> That would be a rough Monday back. >>
155Yeah, >> it really would. I mean when I saw that I was like oh >> and so even you know just thinking for families >> now how was it this year? Was it? >> No, this year was normal. This week was the two weeks and >> we came back six on the 5th >> one day later. >> That was just because how it failed. >> Exactly. >> Yeah, I got it. Just wanted to clarify. Thank you. >> That's true. >> All right. So, it's um it sounds like the recommendation is probably going to be calendar one. Is that anyone thoughts on that? The teacher, >> right? Is that right? Right. Yeah. Yeah, it's good to try out the giving them the time since they ask so much about it. >> One great thing about our
156district is we try things and if it doesn't work, we make we fix it and make it better. >> Right. >> Like during negotiations. >> Yeah. And so now like Yeah. We heard you and here's behind. >> Yeah. And they and I can't tell you how many times they've said, "You guys heard like they they've really expressed a lot of appreciation for what what we're >> you guys are recommend you know what you guys are letting them do >> if that's what you do it's been very >> and from a from a a parent perspective they're still starting on Wednesday so that doesn't you know like school starts on Wednesday wait teacher conference or teacher conference um >> meet and greet meet and greet with a treat would that still be that >> still >>
157that Monday night Yes. >> My only other uh feedback on that was are we concerned at all which I'm sure you all maybe have talked about even early on the 18th start their Christmas holiday. >> Sure. >> But you're always going to have that. >> You're always going to have, you know, you're always going to have that. >> We just promote. We try to have fun activities, keep them around, >> right? But again, a lot of the party. >> Yeah. The 21st and the 22nd is a lot of the parties and you know >> Yeah. >> I think it just be really good with manifesting being able to solidly learn and be able to finish it. >> It's just difficult to try. Y'all do a good job with this trying. >> It's a lot. And
158Laura and Stephanie put in a god knows what >> they did match up with this high school is open >> and that 22nd the orange day is a half day right >> and they get that as a exchange and they get to leave. >> Okay. >> All right guys, >> thank you. So, we'll see um we'll see that back um in two weeks to hold on >> a second round of audience comment. Right. So I need a motion for the board to retire to close session uh to discuss the appointment employment compensation dismissal performance or dis I'm sorry discipline or dismissal of specific employees litigation when an action against affecting or on behalf of the particular public body has been filed or is pending and uh collective negotiation matters between the district and its employees
159or their representatives um or deliberations concerning salary schedule and Student disciplinary cases are matters related to individual students. >> By Gina, >> sorry. >> Move by Rose, second by Gina. >> Roll call vote, please. >> It's fine. I wrote it here. Uh >> hi >> Neil I vice president boy >> I zero one yes we are closed at 806 Six.