2026 2 17 BOE Meeting

001The meeting is the board of education meeting Tuesday, February 17, 206. >> All right, we are ready. Um, we stand. Thank you everybody so much for coming tonight. I am super excited because it's not every day that I get to welcome state champion for a special treat tonight a little bit about them and then we have some starting hospital I'd like to welcome to the band right now. Hold on. Five, five, six, seven, eight. The Bulldog who makes the best This is how it's like two. Thanks. Bye. We know that process go ahead today and just do like a replay of their battle. here because they want to make sure that they get the real right. So, I'm gonna um go ahead and give them this extraordinary team. They finished with five first place finishes

002and then two second place finishes consistently competing against medium conditions along the way. Favor of you guys more impressive is that half of our athletes had never competed at the junior high level before this year. They expect a new level of expectation and rose to the challenge every single time throughout the season concussions illness refused to last time their journey continued in February. Like I said before, this is one of the long seasons that we all have at so is there for this championship. Their animation paid off as they are the highest across quarter in one history from the 91.9 cafe. This championship marks the fourth championship place at IDSA and the eighth podium finish for the program. So again congratulations girls. I love it. Over here. Alison Street. University many times. Sorry, let me

003shoot you. Bring it. >> Jesus me. Please post somewhere. So everybody with us for energy the knowledge that she has shared with um leaders over the last seven years. So S thank you so much for all your girls and all of that. We would not be here today um without all of your so on the journey and helping with that journey. Thank you to all the obviously not How long you guys entertainment of all the smart applause. local support district that's focused. So, thank you so much for that as well. I have a speech point, but I said that separately, but I guess I'll sum it up by saying this season on this team has definitely like a mindset that I'm going to continue to just say like I'm so proud of everyone on this

004team and like how much of a family we've become from the drama. that we did this season to now like this team. It's an amazing team. Everyone has worked so hard like such good leadership and I'm just so grateful and happy to be able to hold the state championship and to be able to be on this team. So just a big thank you I guess. our report tonight. So, thank you so much for doing this. Congratulations. will give you this section. We have some staff to celebrate. How exciting. Congratulations again. We know United States. I'm a parent myself and so in January for me. I happen to be in Indianapolis with my daughter and a basketball tour. called me. It's a Saturday and being three hours away. It was also very Saturday. I was thinking

005so I called Dave Lashley and tonight I celebrating staff saying I don't believe in it but thanks to Gary Jim Dave Tim Brendan Sue Dell We don't have >> Thank you for tonight. It can't possibly show our appreciation for all that you did. How greatful are you jumping in to talk? >> So, absolutely. on Saturday morning. So we had water nearly the elevator bottle process water probably would have gone beyond that and so the elevator it was it was a real catastrophe to slow down. So a water leak I think we've all seen those in our house. Okay. This is Niagara Falls. And so this first level for everybody and so this came in on a Saturday. The only one that was there was dead. Um and everybody else came in uh by phone call

006from Gary direct say we had staff that came in and it took us four hours to clean up. So Sue was one of those as well teacher French was there was there as well. So, there were a lot of folks that really chipped in and help out, but great police estus. um not helping out with me. Mother told me we needed to be uh needed. We had another custodian come over and say help me. So it was just a great effort and and truly just our huge gratitude for all of you. So thankful Dr. Frank said we have a small to uh to recognize. So I'm going to call you one at a time here. I appreciate it. So go That's Robert work at anybody. Gary, we have several huge shout outs. Thank you very

007much. All right. Thank you so much for coming out for us. It's the best part of our next and so thank you for bringing everybody out to something like that. and just I saw the it wasn't it was not directly below this battle essentially and it's a regular street wide sewer covering up there was it was amazing how much water so thank you for coming in minimizing the damage that was done so thank you we're going to return to early say you're welcome to join us and if you're Penny. Okay, great. >> All right, it is 7:23. We're back in regular session. Um, AFT report. >> We did. >> Oh, we did. >> Oh, yeah. We did the whole thing. >> Um, okay. Uh, yes. I just wanted to mention that we spent the last

008couple of months uh writing proposals in preparation for the upcoming negotiations. These proposals were generated from a survey that we had sent to our members along with issues and topics that have come up since the last negotiations three years ago. So, so far we have three dates planned in March to begin the process. Uh look, we look forward to uh working together with administration and the board um to the completion of this process. >> Thank you. Sure. >> Any public comments? All right. Administrative reports, Dr. Frankovich. >> All right. I'm going to keep the feeloods because I have another shout out that I wanted to do. So, I hope I'm not going to steal Dr. Shanahan's thunder here, but I wanted to shout out our AI trailblazers. That's great. >> Um, so, uh, we have

009a an AI trailblazer team and I'm just super impressed every time this team meets about the creativity and the ideas that come forward from this team. So, um, Andrew Bar, Ally Feman, um, Ann Marie Honen, Annie Novak, Amy Wichek, um, our principal team, uh, Emily, uh, Weter, Haley Wilson, Maya Ray, Becca Vickers, Ebony Haywood, Amanda Raldi, and then our administrative team. So, um, the teachers presented last Friday. They actually got up and taught peers, um, about all that they've been learning in AI. And so it was just super impressive. Um I think we got some really great feedback and so I just wanted to shout out to that team and and let them know how appreciative we are for all their hard work every time they come together, how willing they are to take risks

010and try something new in an effort to make sure that um we're staying, you know, consistent and in trends with what's happening because we know our students are. And so I'm just really thankful to that team for um all their work and for helping kind of spread that AI. So that was my first part of my report. My report is attached for the board. There's a couple of things I did want to highlight. So we also need to move our March board meeting. So um for those of you that may not know, Governor Pritsker has issued an order. We cannot meet um if there is voting and March 17th was our March meeting and there is voting that day. So we do need to move that meeting. So, we had uh talked about March 24th.

011So, for the board, I just wanted to make sure that March 24th we're able to move our meeting. All right. Perfect. Um I also wanted to kind of talk a little bit about student enrollment. Super um thankful to Penny, Sean, the tech team. We're going to be starting student enrollment which is critical especially as we look towards staffing for next year. So the one of the things I wanted to highlight for the board as well was you have my uh February the February enrollment report there. So we had talked a few months back about a smaller third grade cohort that was moving to fourth grade and we anticipated that we would need to go down a class level at that position. So, while we are still planning to do that, I'm happy to say that

012due to openings um through some retirements, we have a fourth grade teacher that will be serving in a new role next year. So, we're able to naturally kind of absorb that position. We won't have to um displace any of our fourth grade teachers, which was a great thing because that was something that we were all kind of thinking and planning for. I also want to point out to the board that we're closely monitoring our current first grade section. So, as those students move to second grade, there's about 30 more students. And so, one of the things that um we're going to want to monitor is do we need to take maybe one of the first grade um teaching positions and move that to a second grade position to maintain more consistent class sizes. So that's

013one of the reasons that we really want to get this enrollment up and running so that we can see historically we have seen that we get around about eight students um that join us for first grade. They don't attend kindergarten with us. Maybe they go to a full day kindergarten daycare setting. Um so we do see a little bit of a an increase there, but not by many. And we know we have a kindergarten cohort of around 139 students right now. So we're just going to be monitoring that. um to see if we need to make any tweaks there. We want to maintain those smaller class sizes so that our our teachers can provide better tailored instruction to students. Any questions um regarding that or any other topics in my report? >> All right. >>

014Thank you. All right. Um Mr. Bachley. >> All right. So, in my board memo, um there are several things that I wanted to uh take a moment and and talk to the um actually going to turn that off for a second because that's where my PowerPoint went. Sorry. Uh so, in terms of what was on the um update list, so we are looking at some um we've done interviews with uh Mr. Grekie and Dr. Frankovich for architects strictly because we wanted to re-evaluate the proposal that we have for Lewig. And so at table tonight is a proposal from a firm called TRIA. Uh this was after screening several different firms along with Gary Moser and Jim Fen to figure out uh who we might want to pursue in terms of a relationship that would give

015us the flexibility to perhaps proceed with further uh development of a relationship. But this is a front door for us to try out another firm without having to go out for an RFP at this point in time. It's a small project because really what we're doing is evaluating the initial proposal we have received from DLA and WT and wanting to make sure that it's uh the best best price we can get for the best dollar and actually hitting all the work that we need to. So the other work that we we know we have is we are going to have to phase this work. Uh there there's not enough uh funds right now to uh to to pay for this initial work uh not with TRIA but overall for the Lewwood parking lot as originally

016proposed from our architect. So we know we need to figure out is the scope of what we've identified truly what we need to or are there ways that we could pull back on what our scope is of the Lewig parking lot. So this is a work that's been going on really since triple I. So, uh, Jim and I both, uh, reached out to firms when we were at Triple I, um, and and had some just introductions, just rudimentary in the in the conference room booth and, uh, then did one-on- ones with with, uh, several firms and TRIO was the one that they actually interviewed with us more than 10 years ago and have changed quite a bit and have actually have the local knowledge that we think will really help us when it comes to

017permitting, when it comes to dealing with uh the city of Lockport, some of the challenges that we we know we're going to face with uh getting this this project up and running. The original proposal from um from our architects with DA was to put in at least one turn lane on Archer because we were looking to change the entrance for for Lewig. And if you recall, that adds right off the bat $750,000 per turn lane. And we also have a need perhaps to move another entrance. So that was sort of the initial design work that DA did. So part of the price tag was was large because of those components. So TRIA is looking at that as well and saying okay that's one model. Are there other ways that we could do this campus? And

018so all things are really on the table. Um and at the end of the day day they know I want bottom dollar. So we're going to try to make it work. But this is really an initial phase and step for us to figure out can they go through and quantify and validate really the numbers that we received and the plan that we received from DLA and then figure out is there another way that we could we could actually tackle this project. Um and so they they haven't really gotten into it yet. We are still in the process of evaluating all of the domestic water pipes and the plumbing in the building. So we know that's a ongoing component. Um, so there's there's an immense amount of work to say to throw the price tag out

019that we received from DLA sounds like they're like there's no way that's a legitimate number. But when you look at just what we faced at Reed and Walsh when we had to tear out where there was no base left, it was basically um some clay, no gravel, and so we had to go down a foot really to rebuild that entire surface. We're looking most likely at the same thing here. We've done soil borings and so there's a lot more that we're going to be working through on this, but this is just the initial phase. It's not for approval tonight. Um we have a month to think about it. TRIA knows this and they I've told them we will bring back whatever recommendation um we decide you decide as a board. I will make sure they

020are aware of that and I'll bring back a proposal uh for for March from from them. Uh the next thing that's on the on the the uh my memo was about the Walsh gym floor. So there's I just as of yesterday, I think it was I received the um the bid specs. So we have bid specs for the Walsh gym floor for this summer. So that's uh an asbestous abatement and that's new gym floor. Uh probably taking bleachers out. We're going to figure out if we're going to put those back in or if we're going to purchase new ones. Um, that's that's just a a piece that we're going to pause though for right now. We're going to take those out, do the floor, and then and then reassess where we're at. The spot that

021we're at right now though is um in discussions at the board level with with uh with Jim. We're trying to identify what kind of flooring we would like to go with at Walsh. The floor that we did at Reed is very similar to what this pine looks like. So, it's it's a but it's a soft surface that um it it has about six millimeters of cushion underneath the 2 millimeters of of tile basically. So, it's nice and cushiony, but then kids can't use their scooters in PE class because they don't slide as well. We have a hard time moving lunchroom tables as well as the indent the indentions that go into this or they take a little bit of time to come out. So, like once you put a kitchen table on it, it really

022sinks in. It's great again for cushion, but for the purposes of the gym floor, we can't wax it. It starts to show its its age and it's not weathering and and really aging as well as we would like. So, we are looking at some other options for the Walsh gym floor. Um, and I've talked to our our architect about that. And so, we'll we'll still make a decision for what we're going to actually do with that flooring. If we were to do something like this, this would have been a a um a change order. We're not going to do that at this point in time. We're going to make a bidsp spec decision and stick with some sort of eCT tile that's can be waxed, can be clean, but yet do some sort of design

023so that you see where the outside of the of the basketball court is versus the inside. Something like that. Again, this is Walsh, so it doesn't need to be a high-end, you know, wood surface. We're not doing anything like that. So, any questions or comments about it, just please let me know. We have our bid opening on Thursday, so uh you know, that's that's moving um quickly. The one piece that I wanted to highlight though is that originally we were going to attempt to um reconstruct the kitchen. So the kitchen, if you if any of you have talked to Michelle Maguire, we're supposed to have an in and out, a serving line uh where kids have the option to take what they want versus being served what they want. That's USDA uh rules. Um the

024the for uh food purposes for Isby, we have to follow those regulations. So, we were going to put in that serving line setup as well. But in order to put in a a different kind of hood for the stove, going a little bit geeky here. Sorry. We have to put in something called an Anel hood above the stove because of the heat that the stove generates. We're not frying food. We're not doing all those kinds of things like in a normal like at at a restaurant. Um, but it just depends upon the heat from the oven. So, we have to put an Anel uh new hood in. With that comes some structural engineering that we have to deal with. So that came up at the 11th hour. And so one of the reasons why we're

025putting a pin in the Walsh kitchen was it was too soon to the bid specs to make sure that a we were getting a structural engineer out to give us an honest assessment and get a price that would make sense. So you know in in terms of where we're at, we're going to put a pause on the uh the kitchen work. We will most likely revisit that next year if we can. But it's it's not a it's for us all of the appliances work. And um what we're going to do is is just make the infrastructure so that when we do do the kitchen in another year, we have the doors already in. We're not messing with the frames of those um or anything like that. So happy to answer any questions about the Walsh

026gym floor and that construction. Um otherwise in the board packet then there's the cops grant update. So we are moving forward with um some purchases now for the cops grant. So that is a um we will be putting money out for that and then we are reimbursed for it from the department of treasury. So that's a lengthy process. We're going through our grant specialties company to help us manage that. But that's a work in prog progress with radios and some h heartland work that I know that Sean has presented before. Um, we're still looking and evaluating cash management and being very um aware of what the costs for our families are when it comes to any online purchases. We know that there's a direct pain point and it's actually sort of a it's a regressive

027tax because it's based on money that you put in for lunch balances. You're you're not really taxed. It's not a percentage, which the credit card we're used to in and anytime you go to a restaurant and you get a transaction fee on a credit card. This is a C for cash purchases, there's a $3.50 fee that gets added on to that. So, we are evaluating all vendors out there. So, you know, in terms of of all the ones that we all know that from our our other, you know, kids in schools and things like that. I know I've used other systems with my kids. There are other systems out there. We're evaluating all of those. So, more news to come. I just didn't want anybody to be surprised. Um, so I'm saving some of the

028big ones for last year. Sorry. Uh, student transportation. So, this was a biggie. So, we we uh had uh Grand Prairie reach out to us a couple weeks ago and tell us the news that First Student had bought them out. So, this was something that unbeknownst to us, we did did not have any idea. Um, since then I think we've seen the communication from from first student and that's gone out to parents that services won't be um impacted this year. Drivers will stay the same, the buses will stay the same. Uh, Dr. Frankovich and I have a meeting with first student in a couple weeks and we'll hopefully have a few more specifics on what does it mean for next year. So remember, we have another year on the contract. So in terms of rates

029and those things, those all need to be figured out and so we'll be working through those details. But a big big surprise I know you know in terms of community if you talk to some parents some folks loved first student you know and and some folks love Grand Prairie and it really at the end of the day it comes down to who's our kids bus driver y >> and I know that's the way I was as a dad so all I cared about was who's who's driving my kids so I get it and most of our parents will say the same thing just you know when we left for a student that's fine but can you take our bus driver you know that was not an uncommon refrain so we're very priv we're you know

030very aware of the um the importance of student transportation. Um, probably one of the biggest things we did with Grand Prairie was get air conditioning in the buses. So, uh, there are some things that are, you know, I I know that our our kids and our parents have appreciated. Um, but this is out of our control at this point. Uh, however, we will go out to bid if need be. So, um, just making sure to to keep everybody honest and what the bottom price tag is. Uh, and I'll be getting into the budget mo or the five-year uh, budget projection in a moment. there's probably nobody else out there, >> you know. In fact, when we bid out two years ago, we did have a a decent number. The top three, one of which was

031First Student was a big price gap. So, where Grand Prairie was, yeah, >> there was a competitor and then there was one more. So, >> um we know that we got the best deal with Grand Prairie, but you know, in terms of who is out there now, it's a great question. I it'll be when I when I bid out seven or eight years ago, it was First Student was the only company that bid. So, we know the market. It's a very competitive market. And, you know, I was I was happy that two years ago, we had so many um so many folks bid on this because, you know, after COVID, so many transportation companies really suffered and struggled. Um, a lot of districts didn't pay. A lot of folks were just, you know, bus drivers

032were sent home and they no pay. Um, so in terms of being able to survive COVID, the companies that kind of exist now, I think are probably, you know, pretty pretty solid. That's going to be our pool. in the is there things like the air conditioning was that written into the contract? >> It was. >> Okay. >> Yeah. We we actually bid out we had an alternate. So we bid it out with and without. >> Okay. >> And even with the air conditioning for Grand Prairie, it was still they still beat the the next competitor. So it was >> So we still >> But we should get those buses absolutely next year. >> Absolutely. Yeah. What they've told us is nothing is changing this year. So, we're we're going to be going into this meeting

033in two weeks prepared. >> Trust me. Um, bidding out is not easy for for bus transportation. You just don't know what you're going to get. So, um, we'll we'll we'll we'll know more and be able to report more in a couple weeks. >> All right. Next up then is uh I do have in in the board p well, let me go to back to my memo for a moment and just highlight a couple other things before I get into my presentation on the the long range plan. Uh there's a just a a quick market update that is provided there just for your for your knowledge on bonds. Um that's a a great company that we've we use for bond information and what's happening in the workforce. Um or at least in the financial financial markets.

034Uh the Walsh Elementary Cafe flooring and kitchen remodel. So those are the bid specs I talked of. So that's everything that was just uh sent to me and you have it now in front of you. And then ultimately I I just provided a quick snapshot that was if we were sticking with a wood looking grain floor for for Walsh. U I I think in in looking at just the issues that I've talked about with our director of buildings and grounds, there are some concerns about just the longevity of this flooring. So uh we might uh stick with the original bid specs, but if you have feedback or comments, I'm all about the design, so let me know. Okay. All right. So, I'm going to jump into the uh long range plan. So, bear with me

035while I load this up. All right. So, what you've got in front of you then and in the board packet is a um there we go. So, this is our this is what I I call just our long-term financial outlook. It's really for the purposes of the board. This is a planning document. This isn't a budget. This isn't something that we're saying we're locking numbers into. This is big picture things that that based on and I look back five years and then I'm looking forward five years to say based on where we've come, where might we be going by FY31. So, that's really the the purpose of it. And like I said, it's not a budget. We'll we'll work on we're we're actually getting started with with budgeting coming up now. So, uh we'll you'll

036be hearing a lot more about that, but this is really just a communication vehicle for for all of you to help make decisions uh down the down the pike here. Uh so, the purpose of the long-term forecast, it supports our long-term financial plan. So, ultimately, what is what is the plan that we have for everything when it comes to um staffing? So salaries and benefits, purchase services, transportation, the supplies, uh those kinds of line items. What is the plan for for those for those items? Uh we'll we monitor compliance with board reserve policy. So that board reserve policy says the 25% threshold per fund. And so we we live within that. And we actually have a little bit more as I'll talk about financial uh sustainability. So that's critical. We have to make sure that

037we can keep our our services running. We can uh educate kids and we can keep uh paying staff and keep the lights on. So those are things that we know we have some safeguards built into our model already as well as the budget to say okay worst case scenario what would we do? Um we're going to update this regularly as we've done and again not a budget document. So some of the in terms of what I've already talked about so board policy that 25% threshold um cash flow needs throughout the year. There are points in time where we know we're going to get bills in that we're going to be paying things. We know we're going to be um delayed with reimbursements for various reasons from like the state board of education. And we also

038know that tax levies come in over two two fiscal years. So at the same time we're building now the budget for next year starting now. You know that's going to be impacted by the levy we did back in December and the levy that we're going to do in the next December. So there's there are a lot of factors there. One of the biggest drivers though is the state financial ratings benchmarks. So that's probably for us one of the most important things because that's our bond rating. So when it comes to the the factors that Isby basically judges us on or grades us on, it's it's out of a four-point scale. And we've been 4.0 for quite a long time. You can drop down a little bit under a 4.0 to maintain that that outstanding status.

039But some of the factors that are built into that is cash on hand. And so I'll talk a little bit about, you know, why do we have cash on hand? What does that mean? And what's the purpose of that? Well, that is an isby directed guideline that we want to maintain. And so later on, you're going to see some numbers of like, okay, well, why is that the way it is? Why do we have why are you worried about a low cash point, for instance? Well, it's important for us to make sure that we're maintaining that fund level balance as well as having enough cash on hand that that we're secure. So, those are all the factors that sort of go into this um in terms of kind of where are we at and and

040the why. So up next then is really kind of a a picture of our fund balance that needs a little bit of explanation. And so when I look at really kind of how did we get here because I think the the story is is pretty critical. If you look back at FY21 uh where we were at for fund balance at a little bit over 16 million um several things obviously happened in 2021 uh prior to that and continued after. So, obviously the pandemic, there was obviously one-time investments from federal funding that really for us, you know, it was a one-time windfall just like every other school district, but that was meant to pay staff, that was meant to keep services afloat, but at the same time, our fund balances were increasing. There was a time

041where we weren't paying as much for transportation. So, even though we had budgeted for a full year of transportation costs, we weren't paying that full bill. We weren't paying for overtime for custodians. We weren't paying for snow plowing. We weren't paying for some of our some of our equipment and and some of our supplies because we didn't need to for that period of a year or so. So, there was a there was a large amount that was coming in to our fund balance. At the same time, then there was a pressure point on minimum wage. There was a pressure point on uh what started in in 2020 and went to 2025 with those large increases. as well as at that time then you also had some of your you know moving forward to a for

042a couple years you had your largest CPI increases that school districts have seen probably in the last well you know more than 30 years so we have not seen a continued time of 5% for CPI and again for us our revenue is based off of uh CPI generates the new dollars for us that's why there's there's growth there so you had that you had an occurrence of different things happen at the same time that took us a while to to work through, you know, the the supply chain uh issues that we faced like everybody else faced. Um the very strong property tax collections as well during this time. So, a lot of different pieces went into these numbers of okay, why why the fund balances uh going the way they have. So, what now I

043have then is a a projection moving forward. So if you look at where we're at in FY26, looking still at FY27 and seeing basically numbers that are very consistent, but you're going to start to see the the dip down where we are basically able to um to rightsize. So remember three years ago when the board says attrition is how we wanted to rightsize from COVID because during COVID we hired 14 certified teachers and so there was we didn't do a riff. So you know that was great on the board for not just ripping the band-aid off a reduction in force that would have been painful for everybody because we still had services we need to do and at you know for a couple years after we were still living in a smaller classiz environment because

044of what the demands of the pandemic were. Um, so all of those things have taken time to to bring back down. And so you'll see, yes, there's a a progression here that I'm seeing us being able to get to by 2031. Obviously, there are things that are, you know, that we're going to consider, which are collective bargaining agreements, but there's another big driver here, which is transportation. And so, I know we've talked about transportation in the past, but it's a million4 that we don't receive based on our spending for what we spend for transportation. So every year, so all Illinois districts struggle with unfunded mandates, but we have categorical uh funds that we have to pay. So there are things we have to do that are we are mandated to do. Transportation is one of

045those. And so for that reason, then our costs are, you know, we're going to see our fund balance actually come down because of that. So again, ESSER funds, there were things that inflated that fund balance level. the five% for CPI. We're coming back to a point that I would argue is a little bit more baseline, more normal for where we have historically been. Uh but it does take time. And so I think that's the the message that um and again this is a planning document. The board could always say no, we want to do this, you know, more quickly or and well there are ramifications to that obviously. So we need to maintain certain levels of of required um as well as we need uh certain levels of just providing services for our kids and

046and for our community. So there are a lot of things here that are sort of behind the scenes on the on the um on the plan. But big picture it's bringing us back down to more of a typical operating level um where I think we were back in in FY uh 20. So there are obviously like I said those those pressure points we'll continue to monitor those. I will continue to communicate those to the board but the ones I've already talked about are the are the key drivers there. So the next slide then talks about historical and projected operating funds. I know it's rather hard to see on on the screen here, but if I could point your attention to just a couple different lines. Um and and I'm looking at the uh the line

047chart starting at the top that green chart that goes across the top that represents our fiscal year end fund balances. So like I've already said so starting back in 21 you can see where we we were at the increases then that projected up through um this year and then into next year through right sizing through the the efforts that we're doing bringing that number down for fund balance. You can see then the 25% of expenditures on that blue line. So that's the that's the board policy requirement that we have. So so we we need to stay within that. And you'll you'll see then that red estimated low point. Now I'm not proposing that we go below the 25%. So that's not not this is a this is not a budget document. This is a a

048planning document for us. But looking out to FY31 by maintaining some of our trajectory we would be below that cash point and I will get to that in a moment. Next slide. Then I took all the all the all the inputs from the years out just so you kind of see just the visual of it to get a sense. So even with the projected um changes so like changes from no esser funds we know CPI is 2.8% it's come back down to earth from the high COVID period of time. So, we're taking I'm taking those things into consideration, mapping out. I'm I'm trying to be as as um realistic about that forecast without saying everything is either going to be, you know, terrible and we're going to see 50% increases for transportation, but on the

049flip side, I don't want to say, oh, I think we can renegotiate a 1% increase or anything else like that. So, I I've tried to find a happy medium here of of what makes sense for us um projection-wise, but again, this is this is just a a forecast. Um, I think, you know, the the takeaway is, as you can see from where we're at for our estimated low cash points, even where we're at for um for this year at the at the 16 million, uh, the district maintains a really strong position and is is meeting the requirements both set by Isby, the financial services industry, and board policy. So um I I'll just elaborate a little bit more then uh with that by just highlighting really what the the key takeaways are here. So when

050we look at financial stability indicators these again these are the drivers that really make up how strong we are as a district. And so if you look at that first point about that fund balance currently we're at a 9.24 month fund balance. Now that months are not the only uh um determining factor for our 4.0 with ISBY, but it it cash on hand is. And so calculating based on 180 days, we're over that 180 days uh by a couple months, by three months. So projected then if you look at where I've projected this out to 2031, we're just under that sixmonth uh target or under that 180 days, but we're still within Isby's determination of of a very strong fund balance position. Meaning we would still as long as the other three factors within that

051scale we ma matched, we would still receive a 4.0. So bond ratings, I'm not projecting then that, you know, in five years our bond rating is going to negatively be impacted by by this forecast. That's not what this is. Um either way, it still assists with us uh reaching that that 4.0. And this just is a again a busy slide, but it points out if you look down the lefth hand side, you see our revenue line items. So you'll see everything from levies, what we receive from state funding, federal, and then expenditures. So you you'll see the salaries, the benefits, the purchase services like transportation, supplies, and materials, our capital outlay, um followed up then obviously get the surplus or deficit, and then some other uh sources of um of income. that beginning fund balance

052that um about a quarter of the way up there, a third of the way up. Uh you can see then where we're at starting our beginning fund balance for July 1, where we're ending then where I'm I'm uh seeing us end in FY uh FY31, which is fund balance as a percent of expenditures of uh 49% and a little under that um sixmonth cap. So the the key there is yes there's there's room there for us to uh to rightsize and and bring that fund balance down back to a normal operating level for us and we will still be within the the range of what ISBY uh recommends for us and board policy does. So just couple takeaways then. Obviously we're very financially stable. Even at nine months we're we're still only classified well I

053mean we're we're at the highest rating for strongly uh for our strongest financial position but that range goes up to 12 months. So we're within that um 8 to 12 month period of time. So even if we were to drop down under where we're at now we're still uh in a very favorable position. long-term planning continues. Future conditions, obviously, we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, but we're doing our best to plan for it. So, that's kind of the the message and the purpose of this. Um, and I'll just continue to keep the board a breast of of where we're at with with ongoing uh planning and we'll continue to bring that to facilities and finance. >> I'm happy to answer any questions about that. the >> the second to last slide had the

054had us deficit spending right the after 20 or into 27 right after that >> is any of that uh fund balance draw down >> Matt that's a great question so thank you for say asking that because deficit spending makes it look like we're we're spending less than we have deficit spending only means we're using our savings right >> and so fund balance is technically our savings. And so by going into a deficit mode, it doesn't trigger us with ISBY. There's no deficit reduction plan we have to do. We have enough money to pay for these things. That's that's the message here, >> right? But do those numbers include capital projects. >> That's out that's outside of that. >> Okay. >> We've we've sold all of our bonds and and we've we've um used all of

055our the money for capital. Mhm. >> We do have 2 million in capital projects right now and that's really the placeholder. Um >> but that's in there. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> And so then uh in terms of where we're getting to Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. That's that's it's just a it's a kind of a misnomer to think like we're we're deficit spending and and obviously in the out in the world that sounds horrible. Um, but if you view the fund balance as basically that savings nest egg, it's not that we don't have the money, it's just that we're we're tapping into our savings for that. >> Mhm. >> Okay. >> Um, the other thing there was there was another follow-up question about taxes received uh for FY24 and FY25. So, I apologize to do this

056at table, but I do have an at table here for and I and this is outside of the long range plan, but it fits into um just to the overall discussion of where we're at. So, what this was the the question was um can we talk about the the levy that was approved back in December of 2024? um that was ultimately calculated by the county and then how much we actually received in um in taxes. So on this chart then you'll see so this is taxes received just in calendar year 25. So on the left hand side I've got FY25. So we received um three different installments for what FY25 was and you can see that number there of the 15 million 104,274 and then in FY26 we started receiving uh the additional funds from

057the levy we had done. Uh, and so you can see there that number came to a little over 14 million,728,75 for the total there at the 29 million. Bottom left then you'll see the the board approved the um the 2024 levy for 28,946,255. What the county then comes back to us with their calculation, which we normally don't get till March. So, just like the levy we did back in December, we won't have final calculations from the county until March at some point. So, we don't know what the what our new money is going to look like. We don't know that yet. However, in 2024, um what the calculation from the county was was 28,950,304. So, there was just a we were off there by the the 4,000. And not really that we were off, that's

058just the levy amount and that's what we ask. And there are so many unknown factors when we do the levy. Um that's up to the county to to calculate for us. On the right hand side then you can see the 2023 levy. And this is why school financing is so fun because we're dealing with multiple years, multiple calendar years and multiple fiscal years. Um so in 2024 we received that 28 million total received versus the difference. And then in 2024 sort of the same exercise. Uh you can see those numbers as well. >> So the difference is are those um homes not paying their taxes? >> It could have been EAV. It could have been um EAV. It could have been new property. Yeah, it could have varied. But either way, based on what our

059projections are, >> there's there's there is no way of knowing when we do the levy in December truly what what the new property is. Um we we you know we rely on the county to give us the best guess. Yeah. And best estimate. We talk to assessors. We do all that kind of leg work there. But we're not going to be able to nail it down to a dollar. But that's pretty pretty close. >> So it's our calculation, the county's calculation. And then the reality of what actually gets distributed. >> Yes. >> Are three >> totally they're the same number, but they're they're the reality is just when you get the distribution at the end, you know what you got. >> Yeah, because like even for um for this year receiving the the payments in

060October, November, December um that was that was surprising and just a little bit delayed, but um yeah, so again, you know, it's it's just there are there are unknowns to what that process is going to be and and um but it's still good information just to just to track. >> So when we talk about the levy that we need to ask for the most because though we don't get it all. So here they gave us 4,000 more than what we asked for. Um and historically that's kind of how it's been over the last five years. >> And and you know in terms of just for those you know lay people who might not know I mean the levy ultimately we we ask for money that we need for operational purposes. And so it's it's funding

061those things that we we we deem we need to do as as a district. Um but the levy obviously when we come up to the new levy process that's when we can work through these things. So you know at finance uh when we get to the levy time which typically for us starts uh after the budget is done. So it's you know cycl cycllically for school districts at least in the business office. We are pretty much targeting, you know, this time of year um for long range planning. Uh we are then leaning into budgeting because budgeting is a is a lengthy process for us. It's meeting with all the directors and principles. Um all the administrative team is is working together on the budget. So that really starts now and will take us up till

062pretty much September to to to finalize with final approval. around that time, we do want to be tacking in the same discussion about the levy and ultimately what where do we need to go and what do we want what does the board want to do for the levy. >> So is the 4,000 that's that is between however many parcels are in district 92. >> Yeah, it's all just our our district, >> right? Did we get that $4,000 or we could have gotten it? >> So the he said we got >> So we had a cap on what we could ask for based upon where we were at for CPI. the piece that we didn't have accurate was EAV and new property. So that those and that's why like really like you know when it comes

063to new property that's that's the that's the sweet spot, you know. So again, you you'd never want to underell that, but the county's obviously good about making sure that we're as whole as possible, right? >> Yeah. And I guess my only other surprise when I read this is in 26 they started they they've been paying us sorry for this because it is the fiscal year's crossover calendar years >> in 25 we didn't receive any payments from the county from the first of the year to >> for correct for in taxes received in 25 so we went for a period from January up until May >> is that unusual? >> No, it's pretty normal for us. So, by really by the time >> by the time we get the levy done, you know, we know there's

064that gap. So, when you think about that >> that six-month target for us for uh really for fund balance, >> that six-month target is, you know, worst case scenario, what happens if we need to keep things going? And really for us, you know, just doing the math on salaries, that's over $2 million a month. benefits. Um we know that's you know not as much but transportation. So there are costs we have monthly just to maintain things you know so so there are sunk costs per month even though we might not be receiving everything right. >> However though as we've seen like fund balance has we have some room in fund balance that we could address. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you director of student services. >> Good evening everyone.

065to stay with Dave's theme theme of finances. Uh looking at some future positions. Um right now we currently only have a few positions that we contract out through agencies. We know if we have staff that are D92 employees, they're here with us. They're part of the team. There's a lot of value to that. So we'd like to go out and look at once again posting the nurse position. It's been posted, but we're going to try and advertise a little bit more. We can get a CNA or health aid in there. It doesn't have to be a school nurse because we have one at the other building. So posting that position. PT has historically been an agency person, but we'd like to see if we can do that more cost-effectively in-house as well as our OT

066due to that recent resignation in December. So, that's just some upcomings we'll keep you posted on as we post those. Um, and then I just had some benefits there you can see in my memo. We have a new targeted area, not my favorite word, but um looking at our students who take DM, which is the alternate assessment. So our students in third through 8th grade who have an intellectual disability do not participate in IR. So we have to stay under 1% of our total population. I did call the state because I was a little offended. 0.97 is not 1%. It's 0.97. >> They do round up. So that's fine. Did speak to them. I did put the numbers down. If you look at 22 to 23 over to 24 25. We went from eight students

067to 15. You recall last year we had a big jump of enrollment in third and sixth grade. So, we had several students who moved in on DLM. We have three in eighth grade this year. So, I do anticipate that going back down under 1%, but we do have to submit a plan, which we'll be doing here in the next two months. So, there's some information there. We've never been in targeted for this area, but we will work on getting back to where we were. So it's just >> how does the state expect us to manage that when a student isn't what you can't control the student and you can't say well you're right and force them to take >> I would never want a student with that level of need taken a typical fifth grade

068I AR that's just punitive for everybody involved so I agree um it is a required mandate and we will do our best to meet that and look at the students there are some students who might be DM and third and fourth grade and as they start to make skills they could age out or skill out and go back to AR. We want the kids with their peers as much as we can. So we do try to do that. Um we just did have a lot of kids move in who have unique needs right now, right? >> So um we're monitoring that and >> we're working on it. So yeah, that's how they expect us to do it. >> Um looking at our professional development, super excited. Barb and I participated this past week with CKLA.

069We launched our implementation training back in the fall. So all teachers across the district receive that training. But what we did this time is we had specific targeted training for our special ed population. So how do they use the same materials as everybody else with our special needs population? And it was really great for them to get into the resources, pull the materials apart and kind of see if you have a student functioning a couple grade levels grade levels below, how do you get in and see where they can be? How can you push them to that next level? And it was really exciting. They were very motivated and brought into it and actually asked if they could have more of it. So they're going to come back. The trainer will be back in March.

070So we're going to do another two half days. We did it. So the K through three teachers were together because they have a different presentation of how it works and or K2 and then our 35 teachers. But it was just the special ed teachers together and they really benefited and enjoyed it and thanked us for having it. So we're looking forward to that continuing. And then looking at our ongoing PD coming up. We have some more behavior training for our paris coming up on institute day um on the 27th. The other information is just a starting conversation for everyone. We're looking at how much we are currently spending outsourcing things for the area of behavior. You've heard us talk about different behaviors that we're seeing in the district, especially with students on the autism spectrum

071or behavior disorders. So, what we're looking to do is put a proposal in. You have two documents in your board memo there. One is just a proposal summarizing what the need is. I've highlighted kind of the costs of what we've spent the last two school years. I can go back if we need to also, but looking at if we're not spending the money on consultation and having people come in and do training, if we had our own BCBA on staff, they become part of the team. They're here all the time. Right now, we have that contract agency here. They're here once a week for two classrooms for eight weeks. They're doing great things. I met with one of them today and they were like, "Wow, the classrooms are so much better than when I started.

072That's great. We love that. But now they're going to be gone." So building our toolbox is great, but having that continuity of service is kind of what we're looking at. So it could also reduce our outplacements, our students that are in out of district placements. I have down there that's costing us about 49,000 per student plus the transportation costs. So looking at having someone inhouse who could help all the teams across the district would be something we'd like to propose and look at, but want to put a full presentation together for you for next month. So if there's questions that I can answer in more detail, this is kind of a general overview. What's the market like for those? >> You know, we're one of the few districts that do not have BCBAs. I have

073never personally hired one in a district. So, I don't know. I think there will be people interested. I just don't know for our area what that will look like. Um, Homer has BCBAS. They have them in four. They have three in their elementary and then one at their upper grade. So, they don't have one per building, but they have several across the district. They're a bigger district. Um, Kelvin Grove uses them, Richland uses them, but they're contracting, so it's kind of hard to tell. Yeah. Um, larger districts do have them though, and I think fortunately we have a need now where people have asked why don't we have BCBAS, there wasn't a need. The amount we're spending on training for this, it does look like there is a need at this point. So, it would

074be a good thing to investigate and see where we're at because the costs are only going up for audit district things and having contract people come in. The hourlies just from even OT when we needed an OT last year when we had our leave, it's gone up like $30 an hour. That market price for private people coming in and they're charging like Sykes, OT's, PTS, speech, that type of thing. It's very high. So, BCBA's if we can get one in-house, we could eliminate that hourly cost. All right. >> Any other question? >> All right. Director of curriculum. >> All right. Good evening. My report keeps getting a little bit smaller. Is >> it's okay. It's great. Um, one thing that I do, we are a team. One thing I do want to highlight though is

075our fifth grade team that's working on moving to a departmentalized model. We've had some really nice conversations and some feedback from them is just they appreciate that collaborative process as we go through this which is so great and I really can't thank them enough. They've really been student centered when it comes to looking at this shift. Um one of the things they did share is you know when something is new sometimes it can be a little bit stressful and overwhelming. So just looking to continue that collaboration especially as we move forward and look to see what each teacher will be teaching subjectwise. I think that is the next um area that we want to tackle. So just knowing that we'll have that collaborative process, always looking at hearing their input, hearing the questions they have

076because as we take on something new, we know we won't have all the answers as we start, but having everyone come together and say, "Hey, did you think about this?" really helps that process. So we'll be talking with some other teachers that started this process this year and gathering their feedback as we put everything together to make it as smooth a transition as possible. Um, I would be remiss if I didn't share some of the feedback from the AI training that we had. Um, staff really highlighted the fact that they felt like AI isn't as overwhelming after they left. So, it was just nice for them to have their peers there, but also to have the time to play around with it. So, that was great. And then also just um adding to what Norah

077shared about the CKLA reps that were here. She did come and she was in buildings at Walsh and Lewig last week and she'll be back at Reed in the beginning of March. And it was nice because she's able to come in and say, "Gosh, this is where you are in the process. These are all the things that you know you're really solid on. Here are your next steps." So, kind of knowing and feeling like we're doing some great things. Here's where we're going to go next. So, she'll be back to um work with three teachers and then again to work with our special education teachers. Um and then the last thing to highlight was just that we have our four instructional coaches for next year. So, we're excited to work with that team. Um, we'll

078start some of our training over the summer and then we will be ready to go and and hit the ground running come August. So, we're excited about that and then we'll touch base on our benchmark data with the principal presentation. >> Any questions about anything else in there? >> The departmental I can't say that word. >> It's tricky, right? I'm not sure where. >> So, we're just going to skip the word is that is that to take effect fall of >> like for the 26th 27th >> based on the conversations we've had. We've brought Nor in as well to make sure that again the questions that fifth grade has been asking are just lovely. They're so focused for the students. Have you thought about this for the students? Have you thought about this for the

079students? So making sure that we have those things in place even when it comes to our students with special needs. Like how will we support them? What will that look like? What will the schedule look like? So just being very thoughtful. But our our goal is that we would be able to do this for the next school year. >> Okay. I'll work on saying that word. >> Are there um with the AI professional development, have there been specific tools we've been focusing on? Has it been prompting? What what's helped make it manageable? >> So, I think again having the staff that went through the training and then focusing on just a handful of tools that we've learned and not making it so overwhelming. So, really looking at Gemini as that tool and then looking at

080the prompting and how do we make it so that you can prompt and it doesn't take you going back 12 times to get an answer. But then also starting with something was presented to staff. We didn't necessarily to jump into how does this support us in the education realm. It was like, hey, let's play around with this. What if you wanted to use Gemma and make a recipe for dinner? And so that was an easy entry point for staff to see, oh, this can be useful and then we can slowly weave in like how does this make it helpful in the education realm. Um, so kind of going slow to go fast, making sure that we know everyone isn't as comfortable. But when the feedback came back that they said gosh this really after this

081training and again it was two and a half hours so it's not like they received multiple days of training to be able to come back and say we really feel like this won't be as overwhelming. We're feeling much better about it after this. Um and again I think just hearing from your colleagues is so important. It's it's not it's somebody else in the room that you're comfortable talking with and that's there to support you and you know they'll be in the building to support you. So that was >> director of technology. >> Hello board. Uh you have my memo attached. Um just to update you on H Heartland Business Systems. Um we have received all the Vicata hardware. That's the security cameras, door access controls. Um we've received that all in hand and it's all

082stored um securely behind a locked door. So, no worries there. Um, we've also received our updated plans. Uh, so that would be scope of work and maps. Uh, the maps are pretty much, uh, just to break it down for you, you saw the really long scope of work. The scope of work is also built off of the maps. So, as long as we get the maps right, HBS, you know, getting the maps right, we'll get everything that we need. I just had a meeting with them last week uh to start facilitating setting up a time for our kickoff meeting. So, I hope to have uh further updates uh for you uh at our next board meeting. Um, one of the last steps that I wanted to also take with my team was going room by

083room specifically at Oak Prairie uh to go over um this is what's going in, you know, having that physical map in front of us and going this is what's going into this room. Uh what do you think and are we missing anything? Because this is the time to do it uh before we get any into any of those situations where you need to do a change order. Again, we've looked over these maps before. Uh I feel really confident in them. Um but it always helps to get a second pair of eyes, somebody else's opinion on it, uh to help, you know, cross those extra tees and dot those extra eyes, you know, that other people have ideas about. Um next month, I will also have an update for iPads and Chromebooks. Um, I've spoken to

084uh Apple and uh Xerox who we've previously used for uh purchasing our iPads and Chromebooks. Um, we will get updated prices. I expect those prices to be higher than what I shared with you before. Um in the future we hope to have uh be purchasing a year ahead in equipment um so that we're not in this position. So just for your idea um we would purchase around maybe by Christmas time December something like that so we get ahead of those market shifts and changes and we can buy equipment at maybe a discounted price. um especially, you know, now they're forecasting this year, this summer, and next year, AI has um increased all of those prices. So, we'll probably be looking at increased prices for devices uh for the remainder of this year and fiscal year

085next year as well. Um so, again, with buying devices that early, we got to find a place to store them. Uh and that needs to be an air conditioned, controlled, and locked secure room. So that's something that we are investigating. Um and then as our superintendent already mentioned, we are looking to open up uh registration to get that enrollment numbers uh in early March. >> And that is all I have. If anybody has any questions, I'd be happy to answer anything. >> Thank you. >> Oh, sorry. Oh, how old are teacher devices? >> Our teacher devices are four years. Um, >> so we're a while out on those. >> What's that? >> We're a while out on needing to replace them. >> I would expect to be replacing them um next year. Um, they they're

086the M1s for a model. Um, so we've had them for four years. Next year would be five plus. >> Um, and that's, you know, taking it to end of life. Yeah. >> Uh, for the device. >> Okay. All right. Director of maintenance. >> Hello everyone. >> Hi. >> Uh making just a recap on our meeting earlier >> uh in open on Saturday January 24th while opening athletic association. semi new notice water on the floor from a leaking pipe in the motor room. We had a 8 in sprinkler head anti-tightment device free opening the motor room up into the elevator when covering the wire room, the main room, PE storage and surrounding areas. Nami called me. I put the word out to everybody. We had 14 people showed up to help us and we had everything

087cleaned up within four hours. >> And I thank you and everybody for all the help. >> It was greatly appreciated. >> And that's all I have today. >> Well, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, it was quite a quite a video >> seeing that water flow out of there. Were the band inquired? Were they >> get the video >> scheduled to be in the building or did they come in when they found out? >> They came in when they found out who called them. >> Okay. >> And uh and ran in. They give us a hand. >> Right. >> Came in to help us and really appreciate it. >> Not complain. >> Very good. >> Thank you. >> All right. >> Thank you. >> See? >> All right. Principles. That's funny. >> Who's first?

088There we go. >> I'll kick it off. >> Okay. >> Make sure we talking to the mic for those that are. >> Okay. Um, so we're going to talk about our winter benchmark data. When we came back from winter break, the students K through eight all took their fast testing. So this is our benchmark data that we do three times a year, fall, winter, and spring to kind of look to see, do we have kids that need support and kind of how is our core doing? Is there anything else that we need to be looking at or adding? Um, if you'll recall from the beginning of the year, we really looked at the historical data from both I and from FastBridge to see are kids that are typically proficient on AR, where are they falling

089on FastBridge? And that's how we came up with the goal that we had. Um, I was asked to look and see about historical IR data with the new cut scores and I'll put that together. It's not something the state did. So, we do have to go back in and pull that data, but I can do that and likely have it to you by the end of the week so you can just see kind of what scores would have looked like from 21 until now with those new cut scores um to be able to compare it because if you'll recall in the beginning of the year, we couldn't really compare last year scores or last year's scores to the ones that we had this year because it was a different cut score. We can go back

090and look at that and pull that Um, so basically we said, gosh, those kids who are proficient are typically about the 60th percentile. So that's where we set our goals. And we know they're ambitious goals, but we also know that we want our students to be proficient when it comes to standards. So we said, you know, let's do this. Um, the worst that's going to happen is maybe we don't end up at 80%. We've set a nice high bar that we know that our kids will rise to. Um, and if you'll recall, typically we use the 40th So again, it's a lofty goal. Um, but we felt like it it correlated better with to be able to identify the students who would most likely be proficient when it came to that state testing. Um so

091the following the following shots will kind of show how students did on the winter administration of fastbridge for early reading in kindergarten and first and then for a reading for second through 8th and then for math the early reading is K1 and then a math is grades 2 through eight. So when you look at this slide this is showing the district and where our students fell. It's the percentage of students at or above the 60th percentile. So the blue is fall and that gold color is where they were in the winter. So if we look at math, we see that in grades K through three, we see an increase from the fall to the winter in the number in the percentage of students that are at or above the 60th percentile. And then we see

092fourth through 8th grade, there's a dip from the fall to the winter scores. Um when we look at reading, so again, this is the percentage of our students at or above the 60th percentile in reading. And we know we talked about earlier with that new resource, there's the possibility of an implementation dip. So when staff is learning a new resource, they're spending more energy on understanding the resource and implementing it and they have to learn that new resource. When we look at the resource we had in the past, the previous resource we had for 10 years. So the teachers were very comfortable with it. Um didn't need to put in as much time understanding the resource because they had taught it so long. So some of that energy is spent more in learning the resource.

093So we anticipate that that would be something that we would see um just as they're getting used to it. So the energy for the staff it's being spent on learning the new resource rather than just executing it. Um so when we look at our scores here we see in kindergarten we didn't see an implementation dip. You know our students made a really nice gain there and even in first grade we see an increase and in fifth grade and sixth grade we see an increase. our other grade levels did see a decline from fall to winter. Um, and I think sometimes when you look at this, you're like, "Oh my gosh, what what happened?" I think it's important to keep in mind that this is data that we have. Um, and the most important thing is

094to be able to look at and say, "Okay, now what? We have this information. Now, what do we do with it?" And that's what the principles will talk about. share with you kind of strategies as we move forward with the rest of the year and changes to things that maybe they we started out in the beginning of the year that we were doing and what are some tweaks we can make to support our students as we look at as we look at our benchmark data. Um so I did share that fast bridged expectation they're saying for students that are at the 40th percentile they usually target those as lowrisk students students that should be okay accessing the core that shouldn't need any additional support. So just so that you could see this is where our

095students would fall if we were using that as our benchmark. And I'm not showing it to say oh gosh I think we should change our goal. That's that's not what we think but just so that you can see that historical perspective like we were asked to look at from that with the cut scores. So let's look and see what it would be if we stuck with the 40th percentile. And again we changed it because it wasn't really giving us a good indication of the students who would be proficient. So these are our students for math fall to winter at the 40th percentile. And then this graph shows our students at the 40th percentile. And again, we know we set an ambitious goal and if we don't get there this year, it's okay. But we've set

096a goal that we think will help move more of our kids forward with being proficient with the standards. Um so as we move forward the building principles will kind of talk about what strate they can talk about their data a little as well as the strategies that we established at the beginning of the year and any changes that they might potentially make to that. So then Megan you can use the clicker to >> Oh okay. All right perfect. Um, okay. So, at Walsh, we our primary strategy going into this school year was to really look at having a solid tier one, which means our core instruction. So, we really wanted to target our classroom instruction that's happening every day, all the time for all students. and we really wanted to make sure that we were

097bulking that up and looking at best practice and implementing this new resource with fidelity um as well as implementing bridges and our math resource with fidelity too. So what we found is um I always like to start our meetings by talking about celebrations and opportunities for growth. I don't call them concerns because data tells us it's an opportunity for growth. It's what we do with this information that will help our students in the end be stronger achievers in the classroom and their life. So the opportunity for growth for us really is here. We have a celebration. Our kindergarten data, you can see it there. It we were really proud of it across the board. Um we saw a lot of growth in math and reading um from fall to winter. But with that being said

098too, we our staff came together and one of the moments that I'm most prideful of is how our staff responds to the data we get from this tool. I'm lucky enough to have our assessment data broken down into components that give us specific skills that our students are excelling at or struggling with. And so as a staff, we come together and we pinpoint exactly where are those deficits within each academic area and how are we going to address that. So within a matter of a week's time, we pulled our specialists together, our school psychologists, our grade level teams, our special ed teachers, everybody came together. I have I share them with Barb all the time, but our school psychologist, these are all presentations she's put together to help our teams really understand the data and

099problem solve moving to moving forward. So, one of the areas we looked at for when we look at math here, our kindergarten scores, we really looked at and targeting moving forward our number ID. So we're able to pinpoint that that's an area that as we go through we can grow in that area. So what are we going to do? The team actually feels that with the implementation of bridges our resource continued we will naturally meet the goal for the spring as fast allotss it. The way they introduce numbers it aligns with our resource for teaching there. And then for math, when we look at first grade, um, we were identified, we, you know, kind of stayed stagnant there, but we were able to identify that place value is an area that we want to focus

100on in first grade. And not only did our first grade teachers say, "All right, how can we do that? Here's our plan. We're going to add in all this solid academic vocabulary and add units to support that." because we found that our fast bridge or our bridges unit for place value is actually at the end of the school year. So our students haven't formally sat through a unit of instruction in place value. So we talked about how can we improve that for our students. Not only are we going to target it at first grade, but our kindergarten teachers are going to get on board with that and really fine-tune some of that academic vocabulary in their number corner, which is a part of their math day to help accelerate that moving forward, too. So, that's

101really exciting. We have some plans already are in motion and hit the ground running. So, we're excited to see again bulking up that tier one with those two math strategies at each grade level. what that se what we see for the spring for our math scores. Looking at reading again a great celebration and an opportunity for growth. So looking at our kindergarten data we were really proud of um our student achievement and all of these scores happen because of our teachers in the classroom, the planning, the analyzing data, keeping up with best practice and development of our students. So, we are going to actually we still again even though we are really proud of that data, our kindergarten teachers said we can do better. And so, in our collab meetings, we meet weekly to collaborate

102on what to do. And so, we're going to actually focus on segmenting in our kindergarten reading um instruction to really bulk up that score even more. But, more importantly than the score, it's to ultimately help our kids be stronger readers. And that will that impact will actually help their spelling and writing as they grow also. And for our first grade, oh we had we had hours of talk. We met with Barb. We had all the brains like what can we do? We were so um just want to really close the gap for our first graders because we know how important this foundation is for them to be successful readers for the long run. So our area when we dug a little bit deeper, we actually had a score that decreased from the fall to the

103spring. And so we identified that area as what we call nonsense words. And so we were a little com perplexed in it because nonsense words is basically a CVC word like cat, but it doesn't make sense. So students are expected to read that fluently which we then saw but they are reading fluently on another portion of the test. And so we wanted to go back and forth and we didn't want to discredit any portion of the test. And so we came up with a plan immediately we intervened the next week as an entire grade level exposure, right? We need fluency exposure. And the reason this goal is so important is because as they get to third grade and second grade and they have multi-elabic words that appear as a nonsense word, they need to have

104the skills to read those words. So, we actually are doing a um a progress monitoring probe across the grade level next week to check in because we jumped right on intervening to really help close the gap really quickly with our first grade two. So, we're excited. Um we a lot of extra effort goes in as well as a sense of urgency at Walsh. Our staff jump on it and we are intervening really quickly hopefully so that come winter or come spring we have even more growth than what we've seen so far. So any questions about Walsh's academic data from FastBridge? >> I have a couple questions. >> Sure. >> The numbers there 34 and 62 is that number of students or is that percent of the total students? percent of the total students. >> And

105then which grades got CKLA this year? >> Every grade level did. >> Yes. >> Anything else? >> This is I think overall, but hearing some of this FastBridge and um both of our resources may not be lined up to what they're expecting to test for with where they are in the curriculum. So we see probably that more. Sorry, do you want to speak to that? Um, we probably see that a little bit more at our grade level. And I'll give you a perfect example. So through our CKLA resource, they have tricky words which are traditionally site words, right? Like we learned Dolch words or fry words. Um, those are instructed throughout the resource like two or three a week. the way the words are assessed in fastbridge for site words, they don't coincide at the

106same time. So, winter words, the list on fastbridge might look different than the words the students have been taught through the resource. However, where it comes into to play is at the end most of the words are taught. So, it's really those specific areas like even letter sounds. Our kindergarteners just finished learning all their letter sounds previous to this. It's just a different roll out. So sometimes the resource is behind or ahead of FastBridge, but by spring it should all be caught up. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Good evening board. Uh I'm excited to share a little bit about Reed's data and also talk about how we will be planning to enhance the strategies that we selected in the fall um in an effort to reach our goal. So here are both of the

107strategies that we selected in the fall. One for math, one for reading. Um I feel like anytime you receive data and you look at it as a team, you kind of have three options. And that is to just kind of abandon the idea altogether. Um keep it and just continue on or to adapt or change something. And as for me and my team, we still really stand by these strategies because they're important and they're critical. And I'll kind of get into that as I break off into math and reading separately. So our decision was to kind of enhance them or dig a little bit deeper as to how we can best support our kids. So I will start with math. Obviously did not see as much growth as we would have liked. Um very minimal

108movement there in terms of math for second and third grade. Uh our kind of recap what our strategy was in the fall. we were going to do a daily focus on math fact fluency or automaticity is what we call it. Um and we talked about why that's important in building confident math students, right? Because if you feel like you know your facts, you feel more um comfortable kind of tackling more complex math problems because you feel like you already have that first step done. Um, and I have to shout out my teachers for both of these strategies because they did commit to it with fidelity and that's in no way harming kids. However, looking at the data, we looked at what are we going to focus on now, right? Like kind of like Barb said,

109we see the data. What are we going to do now? And one thing that we have been fortunate fortunate enough to do this school year because of our targeted designation a few years ago, we had funds to work with um a math consultant who's been coming in and working with grade levels about once a month. And a big focus that she's been working on with both grade levels this year has been the concept of number talks. And what those are is they're brief, they're um collaborative where you literally gather all your kiddos in front of you on the carpet in front of the board and it can really look different. It's very flexible in design and I think to promote flexible math thinking. Um so it could be as simple as just a standard equation

110up on the board and the teacher asking the students what's the answer, but we've learned like the answer is the least interesting part of this whole thing. It's more so how did you get there? So encouraging student discourse around math is so powerful and something that I think in regards to math, we don't really offer a lot of opportunity for students to do is really get talking about how they've solved a a certain equation or a certain problem. And we've really seen the benefit that it is for all kids to hear how their peers have solved something. sometimes even the teacher or the consultant, you'll be in there and it is amazing to see how kids see different things that even as an adult it's like I never would have thought about it that way.

111Um, so teachers have really been getting into obviously modeling this when our consultants in there, she's modeled quite a few and then we debrief at the end, but I've been in classrooms where teachers are just doing number talks on their own, right? Like they transition back from recess, kids are using the bathroom. This is a great way to just kind of get them warmed up thinking about math. Um, so we're really looking at kind of marrying the concept of automaticity. And while it's super important to know your facts and feel solid with your math fact fluency, this is also extremely important too because it shows that you can apply concepts and can you put it into reasoning? Can you put it into your own words? Can you make sense of it? And I think marrying

112the two of those just makes an overall stronger math student. So, that is what we're going to continue to kind of dedicate our time to. Um, and it could be daily, it could be a few times a week. The benefit of it is it's it's quick, it's flexible. So, every kind of teacher schedule has like maybe that random pocket of time like right before lunch or right after ELA, but between science where it's like not a ton of time to dive into something, but this would be a perfect way and good bang for your buck. Questions on math? Do you were were you able to go as granular in your test score? Like does everybody's test scores go as granular as >> So I'm glad you asked that and actually I kind of get into

113it when I get into reading. Um no, unfortunately not. Um we would love it if we could because that I think just drives the conversation around data and to truly pinpoint where the breakdown is, where's the deficit, where's the strength. It allows you to target exact. you know exactly what you're going to do because you're going to target that specific area. A reading and a math doesn't provide a ton. Um, however, we're assessing in other ways, right? And I think it's responsible to realize we triangulate our data. We're not just looking at fast bridge. We're looking at like IR from the previous spring. We're looking at classroom assessment data. We're looking at all of these things because it's all important. Um, and so if I kind of recap what our strategy was for reading, it

114was um, that collaboration time that we've all kind of built for our teachers this year, embedded in the day to allow for them to plan as a team, collaborate as a team to really get to know the resource. Again, kind of echoing what you said, I want to recognize the celebration because such great work has been happening at we call them power huddles at Reed. um working together identifying high quality formative summitive assessments breaking down their standards prepping for report card like so much important work is happening during power huddles so again we don't want to abandon that obviously we want to enhance it so I think so much of that time up until this point and I mean still going on but was so much was built on what are we doing right here's

115the resource what does this look like how are you teaching it what assessment are we going to use. They're in such a good place now, I feel, both grade levels that we can start digging again a little bit deeper into um looking at our other pieces of data. So, I think a huge benefit of standardsbased grading is the fact that now all of our teachers are kind of speaking the same language, right? When they sit as a team, they're shooting out standards constantly. Well, this is for this standard, this is this, this addresses this standard. And I don't know if they realize that lends itself. so well to having data conversations because they're giving formative assessments that are all aligned to standards. They're giving summitative assessments that are all aligned to standards. It would be

116fairly simple to kind of pull together that data and identify exactly where our kids are performing at which grade level standard, which would give us the information we're kind of looking for, but we don't really have in fastbridge. Does that make sense? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um, so that was how we plan to kind of enhance those collaboration times to just now start talking about let's look at student performance and kind of pinpointing where are kids really excelling, where could they use a little bit more of a boost. Um, while also keeping in mind it is so new. So, I know I try to talk to um I was talking to my third grade team about it and they they they don't want to keep moving if they feel like they haven't taught it to

117mastery, right? Like they feel like uh I need to move on, but I need to teach X, Y, and Z first. They need to know this. They want to fill all the holes. And while I greatly respect them for that because they want to set kids up, CKLA is rigorous and there's a lot to it and they have to kind of stay on pace as a team to ensure they're getting to all of it. and they've done a great job with that. Um, but we talked about it would be beneficial to even expand our collaboration to have more vertical articulation between second and third grade just to kind of see what are second graders learning that maybe you as a third grade teacher know. Maybe this year they haven't been exposed to it, but next

118year, wow, they had a ton of practice with writing. So, you can anticipate they will be coming to you stronger writers. So maybe you don't have to spend so much extra time teaching all of these different pieces of how to compose, you know, an adequate writing sample. Um, so we kind of talked a little bit about that and realizing that as we continue to teach CKLA, the student in front of them is going to look different and need different things after they've received CKA instruction from kindergarten, from first grade, from second grade, and so on and so forth. with following a scope and sequence, there shouldn't be as many holes to fill, which I think will just help them become more efficient and effective in their instruction. >> Do you think the much like Mrs.

119Urban said, do you think the curriculum and the test didn't align for the reading at read? >> You know what? >> It's a I for third grade. >> Yeah, I could say definitively for math. Yes. Like for math, there were a few concepts that came up like fractions and decimals. They hadn't taught that yet. So that was a little bit of a disalignment. Um a reading I am not sure on that just because I feel like a CKLA touches on a lot. I mean especially in third grade. So second grade they have knowledge and skills which are both two separate components. Once they hit third grade, they're both intertwined and there is just so it's like word work, comprehension, read aloud, a little bit of skills like it is dense and so I feel more

120confident that there was actually more things sporadically kind of taught throughout. Um whereas math it's like you kind of are teaching isolated concepts at a time. Um but we have kind of seen that same thing with math in the winter. Yes. Are the standards assessments um common or >> Yes. >> So they're all giving the the same correct assessments? >> Yes. >> Those standards. >> Yes. Which was a big big piece of the work this year because coming to a consensus as a team, right, about what do we feel like is important, what do we feel like is um truly assessing what our students know, how many points of data for certain standards, right? you want to make sure you have efficient data to prove they're at a certain proficiency for their standards. So that's

121why I I truly don't want to discredit any of their work. Um and I think that kind of enhancing what we already believe to be important should continue to help these numbers move in the right direction. >> Any other questions? Okay, thank you. Good evening board. >> Hello. >> So um a lot of conversations taking place around Lwig school. Um focused on data, focusing on student experience in the classroom. Um, I can say that we came out of data review um, just a few weeks ago and the LEDweek staff is really, really well-versed at drilling down the data, identifying our students that are tier one students, tier 2 students, tier three students, who is on the cusp, right? Who are are th those students where we know with a little bit of extra support we

122can get them to make that jump, right? um whether it's that jump for the 40th percentile in this case, whether it's that jump for the 60th percentile. So, that being said, we looked at some of this overarching data and you could tell that there was a a little bit of disappointment, right, from the staff um coming out of data meetings, we talked about it at the staff meeting and I I show the data that I'm going to present to the board and the room gets a little quiet, right? um you feel that same sort of um um feeling coming out of SLT meeting, right? Our teachers are working incredibly hard, right? If I can take you back a couple years, um we've looked at data at Lewig specifically in a lot of different ways. Um

123going back, I want to say two years ago, um we really shifted our power times, right? I talked with you guys about, hey, we have this time of day when we can really um move the needle. We can really provide pointed feedback for our students. Um 30 minute block though, right? That's a 30 minute block of a much longer school day. So, we made some adjustments. Um students stayed with their home room teachers. We saw some some gains in student growth, but we also noticed that it became very um stressful for our teachers in the classroom because they weren't just managing one subject or one area of support. They were managing many things all at once and we didn't feel like that was sustainable. Right? Going into um that year and then the following year,

124we really delved into PDSA cycles and I've talked with you about those things here before. Um really honing in on um specific areas in reading and math at our grade levels to where we knew that we needed some support. We utilized I data, we utilized fastbridge data, we thought about our practices in the classroom. And to my staff's credit, right, wherever we put our focus and work, we saw gains and we saw growth. Um these are small areas though they're pointed, right? So I lead you down this path of this conversation because where we put our efforts, we do generally see results. Okay. So what we thought going into this year is we're going to look at math, right? And we're going to look at this number corner portion of our day where students have

125more opportunities for conversation in class, right? Math discourse. and we stressed the importance of it in years past building it into our schedule where we could fit it. Now it turned to we're minimally doing this 45 minutes per day. Okay, that's in place. We have that right? That is something that everybody has embraced. You can go across our classrooms and see it. Again though, we've pinpointed something that is a small portion of our day. It's 15 minutes three times a week, right? Okay, hold on to that thought. when you switch over to reading. Okay, we know that we have a new resource CKLA, right? We've embraced it. We know that it's rigorous. I've talked to you about how rigorous it is in the classroom, right? We see it every day. Are we backwards planning as

126a team? Yes, we've had so much more collaboration with our team than we ever had. It's taking place, right? Is it being implemented with fidelity? Yeah, it is. Right. We have the exact same sorts of activities almost to the paragraph taking place across classrooms at the same time during our blocks, right? Pacing, planning, the work that our teachers are doing with assessments, right? Embracing um um standardsbased grading, right? Um looking at our formative assessments, make sure that we are all implementing them and that they're rigorous and relevant, right? These things are happening. So then you show the data, right? Lwig 60th percentile fourth grade in the area of math 53% of students at that 60th percentile to 50 excuse me 56 in the fall 53 in the winter right when you look at fifth grade

12761 in the fall 58 in the winter. Okay this is with implementing number corner. Okay so we did what we needed to do. we we thought it was going to be enough and it wasn't, right? It wasn't garnering us the results that we wanted. So, when I pair that with PDSA cycles, right, um number corner portion of the day, these little incremental things that we're doing, yeah, we might be doing them good, we might be seeing small results, but what's the big picture, right? The big picture is tier one instruction in the classroom, right? Hang on to that thought as well. When you switch over here to reading, okay, 42% of our students p um achieving at the 60th percentile, 35th, oh man, let me start over. 42% of our students succeeding at the 60th

128percentile. Higher in the fall, 35% um at the 60th percentile for fourth grade in the winter. We saw a little bit of a dip, right? We know that we're going to see implementation dips. We've talked about that at length already. Props to the fifth grade team though, right? Right. When we look at their growth, 39% in the fall, 44% in the winter, we did see some nice gains there. Arguably, as you get to the upper elementary grades, this is more difficult to make those gains because you have more gaps that you're trying to cover over the course of time. So, while yes, we look at the uh 44% um of our students, it's not where we want to be yet, we getting there and we're on a good trajectory. Okay. So it goes back to

129tier one instruction, right? Taking a long look at what is our students experience in the classroom looking like. We know that we can identify our tier three students and provide supports on the high end of the spectrum looking at our enrichment students, right? We know that when we look at those desile bands, right, it does look like the meteor section of those desile bands of where our students are, most of our students are at, we're kind of all over the place. So, how do we move the needle on most of our students? Right? That's really the question, right? And if you're familiar with the four C's of education, I don't know that I've talked about it up here at the board, but critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication, right? What are our students experiencing day

130in and day out? This is applicable for reading and math. I'm putting the whole ball of wax together here all at once, right? What are our students doing? We had an awesome CKLA rep come and talk to us. She got into our classrooms. She gave us some feedback, right? And the feedback was very good with what we've implemented already, right? Um we're doing the things that we need to do with CKLA. We're we're implementing the resource, but what does it look like for our students? Our staff is up there working really really hard. They have the manual. They have the book, right? They're going through. They're making sure they do all the parts and pieces, right? But does it translate into what the students experience is and the level of rigor that they're truly going

131through on a day-to-day basis? Right? It was a great reflection point for me and it was a great reflection point at our staff meeting that we had two weeks ago. Right? I showed him a a graphic of what are those activities that are teacherled versus what are those activities that are studentled. And I had him do a little activity, right? And I said, 'Where do we think we fall on this continuum, right? And everybody felt very comfortable that yeah, the teacherled sort of activities where we're guiding, where, you know, we're presenting material where, hey, we might have some think pair shares, right? And some student interaction, like we're really solid there. And then on the flip side, we talked about, well, what does a fishbowl look like in your classroom? Have you had a fishbowl

132opportunity with your students? Or have you had a Socratic seminar take place with your students? And while there may be glimpses of that from time to time, um it's not pervasive in all classrooms, right? So I say all this right from where we've been to where we want to go, it's it's a close look at our tier one instruction for our students. The resources are there, right? Focusing on those four C's is going to be the work that our SLT team does moving forward. Again, critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication. Um, student engagement has to drive our decision- making. We're good with data. We're good at identifying assessments, right? But what do we do with that information and how does it impact the experience for the masses, right? That's my goal for my team. I

133think they're going to be willing to embrace that. Um, only because I know that where we put our efforts, we do get those results. questions on either math, reading or >> when do we take the spring assessment? >> Best bridge or I >> either both. >> So will be April and will be >> okay. I'm not going to lie, I'm a little nervous, right? Like I would hope that we saw decreases from fall to winter. I would hope that you don't see decreases from winter to spring. Um, you know, I totally get that the questions aren't aligning with the teaching and the curriculum. There's nothing you could do about that, but it it's a little a little nervous, that's all. >> And I think that that feeling that you're feeling is the same feeling that

134the staff feel, right? Because they are working incredibly hard, right? I talked with them. Um, I was at the last staff meeting when we're having this big conversation about when you guys go home like I know everybody out here is exhausted, right? I see it, right? So, how do then we make that experience that much more powerful, more meaningful, more engaging for our students so that the results mirror the effort that goes in on our >> Oh, 100%. I'm not questioning like anybody's efforts, but you just wonder what what isn't clicking, right? I'm not a good test taker. So, and I can say that for myself. Um, you know, so you just wonder what where, you know, thankfully Megan can drill down. It would be nice if all of you guys could drill down so

135that you could understand what that one topic is you need to. That's >> Well, I feel like with the standards base, I mean, we're all getting these worksheets homes or ones, twos, threes. I know where my kids have areas. You know what I mean? Like I would imagine like you were saying we should have an idea and I think I my guess is time is probably the constraint because the show must go on like there's so much to do and you can't get off track. >> So to be able to go in and so do the instructional coaches would that would this be the perfect opportunity? So this this will be a nice support with the instructional coaches to be able to go in and >> whatever the strategies that the building principles have identified

136to be able to go in and really help support that to be able to say gosh this is this is what I'm seeing from this student why don't we try AB or C. Yeah. >> And then as far as the fast bridge assessment goes with the A reading and the A math, it is an adaptive test. So, which is why you can't drill down like the kindergarten and first grade can. So, K1 takes it as a one-on-one assessment. It's a timed assessment and there's four components to it. With the adaptive reading, it's not timed. Um, they go through and they take it and the questions will change based on what they get right or what they get wrong. >> In that regard, you can't really drill down. But there are other assessments that we can

137look at and say okay looking at these components that from this assessment in fastbridge this is telling us this information. >> Um with A-ine it's kind of putting all that reading together and with some of the other assessments that are there you can drill down just a little bit more into some of those subs skills. >> I I will just say this. I'm I'm not nervous. I'm just not. Um I have full faith that you all figure it out. Um I really do. I don't just say that. But I will say, you know, the kids are it's my daughter is in fifth grade and she knows it's new curriculum and she was like, "Mommy, you voted for that." She was kind of like, "So they're she's been in D92 since kindergarten. They feel the jump

138as well." And I'm just saying it from the other end. So I just think that it's just going to take time. Like it's going to be some trial and error. It may be some dips. It may be some peaks. But I do think we'll figure it out. Like it is you said we did it 10 years >> needed to be done. >> Yeah. So it is just going to do if they were like if it plummeted like low I would be like whoa you know >> like what we're doing but I just feel like winter time the kids are the kids I also think when you're looking at like kindergarten and first grade this is their first curriculum. fourth and fifth, they know. They know what they've been doing. And if they have older siblings,

139like my daughter does, she knows it's different. And so they and they got a lot going on and like their little body. >> No, I know. I just I know. I'm just saying that there's so many like components that I rather see the dip early. I would rather see it right now than everybody think they got it. And like, you know, it's almost like when you're on a team and you're like winning a bunch, you there is no room. You think you you got it. You think you're the business. And so I rather see the dip now, right at the beginning. Let's figure it out. Let's figure out what we can do. And um like if teachers were saying like this is ridiculous, this is not working. That's where I would be more concerned. But

140I feel like we're trying. It's going to be trial and error. And you know, I'd rather see it now. I'd rather see the dip now. >> And and the other there is a the other parameter change is 40 20 40th. >> Yep. So you're you're not looking >> apples to apples >> and we're not dropping the bar like I I want to keep it. We that is the point of new curriculum. That is the point. We want to push them. I think our kids can do it. I just think they just got to get used to it and teachers too. >> So the 20% the the difference between 40 to 60 like that's what is sticking in my head. I don't have coherent thoughts yet but have it here. >> It's just rolling around in

141there. >> Have a hair. >> But >> what percentage of stu like do we know what the percentage of students who >> Would you like to see my graph? >> You know where I'm going? >> I do like the difference between um where the score was when it was the 40 40th percentile or 40th percentile versus 60th percentile. I calculated that for us because we'll see my data >> like is that 20 students in a in a grade level that if we target them and those are the skills that we'll flip that kind of thing. So that's where I'm kind of stuck and I love the 60. I love that we've raised it from 40 to 60. >> And then just one more time >> the 40 is what FastBridge says would make it student

142tier one. >> Yeah. They consider the 40th percentile right around there to be kids that they would identify as low risk. Those that should be able to access the core without needing additional support. But what we found was even if they're saying that on fastbridge, it's not reflecting in the state test that's measuring those standards. So we wanted to have something that gave us a measure more than one time a year. The tricky thing about is it's once a year. >> So it's not like you get a second or third chance at it during that school year. So if we can find that that number That's like, okay, when we're right about here, these are kids that are really going to be proficient. It gives us a better idea of, hey, which kids do we

143need to be targeting? Who needs that extra push to get them there, but then it gives us an opportunity to measure it more than once a year. >> Okay. >> What is this off? I >> Which one are you looking at? >> All of these bridge. >> So when is AR taken? I is taken in the spring and April and we shared those test results in October. >> Okay. Not released or available till >> Yeah. >> I I got >> mid to late October, right? >> Yeah. >> It's often something we see in November because they're embargoed until Halloween or something. >> Yeah. >> All right. I'd like to remind everybody that Oak Prairie cheerleaders won state >> and that we saved Oak Prairie from water and that we're exemplary. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I

144like it. >> Okay. Okay. All right. Just remember that. >> Okay. Um, so at Oak Prairie, we had um lots of real conversation around this data though um because it honestly was not like as good as we want it to be. Um, and so it did lead us into a lot of conversation in both math and ELA about what are we doing, where are we going, and then how do we get, and Matt, you alluded to this, we looked at where are kids, where was the 40th percentile, so the said we're tier one, and then what was the difference between the 40th and 60th and what types of things can we start to do to get our kids up to the next level, right? because that's really what we we know that the tier one

145gets it gets us there, but we also know that we need to continue to push students up into um becoming a little more higher higher achieving, right? So, um in math, we have spent a lot of time, the team has spent a lot of time um Barb has helped us out quite a bit with it is taking a look at our assessments um because we noticed that our assessments um uh were not rigorous enough. they were not challenging enough and um they weren't getting us to a point where our students were able to transfer I'm doing this in the classroom and then I can transfer it into you know another assessment um it was some basic skills the basic skills were there right but then being able to apply those to higher level questions was

146where things started to kind of fall apart for some of our students so we looked at um and continue are continuing to look at pulling um questions from the IR released item bank um and starting to implement putting those onto our um onto the test that the kids are taking regularly for their classroom assessments in sixth grade. Um I'm happy to report that this round of testing was the entire test was I bank item questions. Um so in both the regular and honors level classes and the kids did okay like we were very nervous honestly about it because it is such a different type of of question and assessment. Um, so it it's been a slow kind of transition um to get us there in seventh and eighth grade. Um, we're still making those um

147changes to some of the assessments um slowly but surely getting a few items on for each of those um assessments that we're designing. Um, we are also taking a look at what is, you know, what does classroom instruction look like? Because we do know, you know, the the block is short and so how we use it is really important. Um, we've done some great articulation with Blackport High School. Um, we're heading over to Homer Junior High to work um with uh and collaborate with them as well just to look at how do we use the the time that we have um to benefit our students and truly engage them in in the learning process, right? Um how do we get them to have that math discourse that is so important? How do you get it

148so that it's not, you know, um they they will sit and take notes all day long, right? But if they can't take what they're learning and apply it, that's that's where things the transfer learning has to happen, right? So how do we continue to do that when you know the math gets really hard? The math is very challenging as as the you know students start to progress through sixth, seventh and eighth grade. Um if you look at the seventh grade standards, there are a lot there are a lot there. Um, so how do we get our kids to fully understand um, you know, the depth of those standards and be able to apply them? Um, one of the things that I did emphasize with the team with both um, you know, the ELA teachers and

149math teachers and six, seven, and eighth grade is a lot of what Jeff said too is that I don't want the teachers to feel like when your data doesn't look the way you want it to that it's like to take it personally, right? And honestly, it's really hard for me too, right? I look at a our data as a building and I do take it and feel it and want us to do the best we can. Um, I like to be exemplary, right? But like sometimes you have to look at the data and and be able to then have some conversations around, all right, I don't like it, but like now what can we do as a team? What can we do um as teachers to respond to this, right? And what we really came

150out with um as as a group is that the learning and instruction has to be the focus, right? That when the data tells us that we might need to shift a little bit, how do we shift our the learning practices for the kids so that it's landing with them? How do we shift our instruction a little bit and make some small tweaks because what we're doing isn't isn't bad, right? Like I know we send our kids over to the high school and the high school says, "Yeah, Oak Prairie kids are ready to go." Right? like you guys know, you have some of them. They're ready to go. But that doesn't mean that we can't still do better, right? That doesn't mean that we can't still continue to push some of those kids that fell into

151that 40 to 60th decile band and say, "How do we get you guys up here? How do we push you up here a little bit? How do we give you some more experiences to make you confident in in your skills and your learning?" Um and so that's really the some of the conversation that we had at Oak Prairie around um our instructional practices um in math. And then a lot of the same in reading. You know, the hard thing for us is that um typically on AR we do really really well in reading. It's like a a shining point for us, right? Like and the data from FastBridge was saying the opposite to us. So, it kind of makes you step back and go, "Okay." Um, all right. Let's take a look at this and

152have some conversations about what we can do differently, where we think we might get, you know, some more bang for our buck instructionally. Um, we did then, um, there so at Oakquery, they take um, fast reading, which has a reading, which is the adaptive test Barb was talking about, but then they also take a a test that's called auto reading. and auto reading does break down into four um subcategories of decoding, identification, morphology, and synonyms. And so we were able to look a little bit at those areas and notice that for example in sixth grade decoding and identification strong, right? That means that they can read. They can they can read, right? But morphology and synonyms were a little bit lower. So then morphology is looking at like some of origin, right? So, some vocabulary,

153roots, stems, aixes, um, prefixes, suffixes. Um, so how do we maybe build some of that more into some of our instructional practices? Um, uh, how do we build vocabulary practice up a little bit? So, it did give us some areas, um, that way to target. Um, however, most of auto reading data looked pretty good for us. So, generally, our kids can read pretty well, right? That's not the issue. The issue then is how are we transferring the reading skills into the higher level skills, critical thinking, um you know, inferential questioning. That's where a reading is going to kind of expose some of that if we need, you know, if we need to kind of continue to work on those skills. Um and then again, you know, we did have a lot of conversation at the

154junior high um about how do we um apathy is a real thing, right? that kids um can really struggle at as in in these years to like value their learning and feel like a pride a sense of pride in what they're doing and then like digging down deep when something gets really hard you know I've seen it myself like I'll work with kids after school in SOS and like all right let's start this math problem and the kids's like no I don't want to right so how do we battle those things inside the classroom because they're real they're they're real. Um, and how do we excite our kids then about the learning that they're doing to give them those opportunities to really um feel that it's worthwhile to them, right? Because ultimately they are going

155to go to high school and they have to be able to work through some of those feelings of I don't love to do this, right? I always tell the kids it's called work for a reason, right? It's not called easy. Um, we wish it was, but it's not. So, how do we help um foster some of the the mindset of of really being able to work through some of the challenges of of learning as as a as a teenager. Um so, lots of really good conversation around it. Um I will show you guys briefly. Uh we did take a dip in everything in math. Um and again, you know, just looking at for example, um like one thing to highlight is if you look at seventh grade, if you had the 40th, um percentile chart

156in front of you, 82% of our kids, um hit that target, but now we're slipping down there to 52. So there's a 30% gap in there of kids that are falling into the decile band of 40 50 60% percentile there that like we just need to figure out how to how do we hone in on that group there. That's 30% of the grade level. That that's a lot of kids. Um you know that are performing at what we think is a tier one level but not performing at that 60th percentile level that we want to get them to. So um those are conversations that we have to have about targeting that group specifically moving forward. Um, and that that goes for the data in in um in reading as well. Like again, um, in reading,

157I look at eighth grade, that's a tough number to swallow, right? Um, >> they're at about 70 69%. Um, when you're looking at the 40th percentile, and then they drop down almost for there's 40% of kids in there, right? That went from you would normally be tier one, but now we're not because we're we're raising the bar here a little bit. like how do we target that group and then get those kids um there because they can get there, right? They can get there. Um and so it was just, you know, it was great conversations around data with the teams. >> We're still trying to figure out how to get more math time, right? >> Those are things that are still those are actually discussions we're always having, right? that like how do we one

158use the time that we have really wisely um to make the most impact and then two what are different models what are the different models that are out there because there's a lot of different ways that people have um you know found ways within their schedule to um to get a little bit more time. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> This might be random. Um uh is this do you still have the student committee? >> I do. I would I would wonder if it is worth it to ask them about buyin because that apathy piece is like I have three teenagers. They don't >> Yeah, you know it. >> They I can't like I'm like dude you're going to do it because I told you to like everybody you know that's just my parents style so that

159is what it is. Um, but I think to ask them because they they need to know you care. Like there's so many people teenagers and >> things and if they feel like you don't care, they don't care. And it is even a small comment that they're saying. But I would bring it up to the I would bring it to the kids. I think that they will rise to the occasion and even if it takes them some time, that may be where you're going to get answers as far as apathy because they are I don't know. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> My I rule by force. But you can't do that, >> right? And and you know, like every house is is different too, right? So that's what we you know, you notice that sometimes um if

160if a student goes home to a house that doesn't have a ton of support um or academics aren't as highly valued, that that's really hard. How do you grab those kids and make them feel like this is important, you know, and we do care that you learn this and we want you to care that, you know, it's it's it's tough, but I that's a great idea. I've had some great conversation with that group already around a lot of different things this year. So, I will I will do that. >> That's all. It wasn't even question. So, >> that idea >> do we see does the high school provide the pre-ACCT tests back to us? >> They do. They do, which is awesome because again, the the pre-ACT questions are pretty challenging. Um, so they did

161they gave us those back. They also give us back the pre-ACT scores. Um, so that's just another piece of data that we get to look at. Um, you know, to help kind of guide some instruction, >> right? Because I mean your your point about there's reading and then there's English scores and they're two different things, >> very different >> and performance can vary greatly. Yeah. >> And even as somebody who's in education, it >> I don't understand like how can you be good at part of it and not the other part? And >> have you seen the questions though? The those English ones are tough. They're tough. >> I'm terrible at English. >> And then again like that one of the things that we talked about as a team is um you know giving students

162just the the exposure of what those English style questions look like because they are pretty complicated to understand just the format of them. Um so again are those are all different types of you know experiences we are trying to balance with the time we do have >> right >> with the math for this for any grade it's obviously all done on the computer correct >> um so do they use like paper to like >> you encourage them to use paper yes >> oh I'm just curious because I can't imagine doing >> I'm not strong in math >> there's no paper >> well I I don't know I I always paper. >> Yeah. So, I didn't know if they had time one, right, to be able to solve the problem and then enter it in. So,

163>> yeah, the a math test is not timed. So, they have access to scratch paper. It's just who uses it. >> Yeah. >> And how much time they actually use. >> We also talked a little bit about like how do we can we incentivize it a little bit? So, like is there is there a way? And then I I said >> love barber. Oh, I I was like I told them I told my um my my principal group I said like what if we let you guys get out of the bulldog run like the grade level that they're oh yeah that is it that is it. So that might be coming down the line. >> Sometimes that frontal lobe is just not done cooking close. >> It's just >> you got to look at big

164picture and people parent differently. Very differently than how I was raised. I parent differently. So it's just you're not going to get that same I was very intrinsically motivated but like I I don't see that in my children like so I have to be creative and we're gonna have to be creative especially for that age group. So bulldog and they don't like that bulldog. >> No they don't right. I think it could be it could be the winning ticket here. We'll see if our spring scores go way up. You'll know why. >> Priorities. >> Yep. And I think just to wrap it up, we just threw this last slide up there just to say like it's important to look at the data that we have. We take time out of the school day to administer

165these assessments. If we didn't have these conversations even when they are difficult, even when the data doesn't look the way we thought it would, the way we wanted it right now, it's still important to have the conversations and to look and see what are some things we can change in response to it. So we have we don't want to shy away from difficult conversations. We know it's data. The worst thing would be to admire it and not do anything about it. So, >> I think we have some nice plans in place. >> Yeah. >> Well, thank you everyone. All the things you're doing. >> Great job. >> All right. Uh, I need a motion. >> I need a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. Washington. >> Dabkkey. >> Um, roll call, please. >>

166Yes. >> Washington, >> yes. >> Tidwell. >> Yes. Motion carries. And in a motion to approve board policy uh second reading of the board policy from last month. >> Washington. >> Correct. >> All right. So, we have brought the policy back. We discussed this last month. There are no changes. Um, it's presented as it was last month for the board. >> What do we have coming up for Don't we have a pretty good healthy press book coming up? >> That is what we're hearing. >> Yeah. Great. Um, all right. I need um Sorry. Roll call, please. >> Yes. Motion carries. I need a motion to approve the consideration and approval of a resolution authorizing and direct sorry is there a special hold on I should be reading something else. I need a motion to uh

167for consideration approval of a resolution authorizing and directing Robert Schwarz to file an assessment appeal regarding PDB Midwest refining >> refinings Lamont refinery >> Washington. All right. Um, this was discussed in depth in close session. Was there anything? >> All right. Roll call, please. >> Yes. >> Washington. >> Yes. >> Uh, yes. Motion carries. All right. Um, the BCBA proposal. I apologize. We talked about that earlier. I'm not supposed to talk about that. >> No. So, I'm happy to answer any questions you have about it. But next month, I'll have a full slide presentation and I will look at other districts like how many they had apply and things like that. What's out there in the going rate? >> Sorry. >> No, no, efficiency is good. Yeah. >> No. Yeah, that >> I was like

168me, but I already >> surprised. >> Any other questions? Well, >> efficient use of your time. >> Yeah. >> All right. We look forward to that next month. Um, I need a Oh, no, sorry. We're not approving anything. >> Uh, discussing the memorandum of understanding for the mutual aid assistance and response to crisis in the public and private se schools of Will County. >> All right. So, the board may recall back in se uh September, we had discussed a potential intergovernmental agreement with all of the schools in Will County School District. This was kind of being proposed through the ROE. um the board's attorney had looked at that, made some recommendations, we were able to give that back to the uh Will County Regional Office of Education. So, that is coming back and instead of

169as an intergovernmental agreement, it's coming back for the board next month to take action as a memorandum of understanding. And the reason for that change is because um the Will County Regional Office of Ed is including pri including private schools in this agreement with us, which is a great thing. So, in the event that there is a crisis, all local school districts in the county would be able to pull together resources to be able to respond um when they sign this uh a mutual aid agreement to be able to say, "Yes, we can send over social workers. Yes, we can send over um support staff to be able to assist you. Yes, we can send over maintenance crew in the event that you have a water leak and you need support. We're pros in 92,

170so we'll help you with that." So, um, this will be coming to the board next month, but I wanted to just bring it up for discussion today. Um, that we'll be bringing that back next month for the board board to vote on, but it will not be an intergovernmental agreement. It will be a memorandum of understanding. >> Wait, wait. What's the What's the difference? because the private schools >> in an intergovernmental agreement we couldn't do an intergovernmental agreement private schools >> because there are private schools not so we had to make that we had to make that a memorandum of understanding >> thank you >> yep >> it's late it's okay it is >> it's almost 9:30 >> well I got a question I got all right >> um no old business any new business

171information items for your request were in the packet as was the student conduct review. Um, communications are in the board. There weren't any, I don't think, in the and um any public comments? Not on the agenda. All right. >> Then I need a motion to adjourn our meeting. >> Washington. >> Doky. >> All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. I