001Good evening everyone. >> I hereby call the meeting to order. It is 6:01 p.m. ladies and gentlemen. I'm going to go ahead and ask our board to call roll. Starting from my right, please state if you're here. >> Jessica Choan, present. >> Carlos Margo, present. >> Anita Chavez, present. >> Alisa Pñena, present. Hernandez present. >> Sed Jun present. >> Great. Everyone is here. We do have quorum. Next item on the agenda. If you're able to do so, I ask that you please stand and face the flag. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. You may be seated. >> Ladies and gentlemen, before uh we get to our next
002agenda item, um I would like to read a statement on behalf of our superintendent of board of directors or our board of managers and also from our senior staff and our staff, our students and our school body, our student body. As you know, we did have some losses this week, and I do want to read a prepared statement. This week, our La Hoya ISC family experienced two heartbreaking losses. We are deeply saddened by the passing of Miss Miriam Figodoro Olivera, a dedicated teacher at Elidor at at Elidora R. Chapa Elementary, who faithfully served our students and community. Her passing for teaching, her passion for teaching, and her care for children will be remembered by all who had the privilege to know her. We also mourn the tragic loss of Mr. Lton Oscar Udbe, a student
003at Palm View High School. Lton's life was filled with promise and his absence will be felt deeply by his classmates, teachers, and all of us here in La Hoya ISD. On behalf of the school board, the superintendent, we extend our heartfelt condolences to the families, friends, and colleagues and classmates of both Miss Fedor Olivera, Miss L and Mr. Lure. We ask that you keep them in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time. At this time, I ask everyone to join me in observing a moment of silence in their memory. Thank you. Okay, we can go ahead and move on to agenda item number four, public comment. If anyone has signed up, it's a reminder that you do have three minutes. After 3 minutes, we will inform you that your time is up. Um, we
004ask that when you make your way to the podium that you state who you are. Um, so we may proceed. Um, do we have anyone who signed up for public comment today? >> We do not have any public comments for tonight. >> Okay. Seeing that we don't have any, we'll go ahead and move on to agenda item number five, staff recognitions. Um, staff recognitions will be I ask that um, board member Anita I mean um, Anita Chavez and Sosa Gomez Jr. to make their way in front of the edias. Further recognitions, those that would be recognized today will be for the contributions to TEA possesses. This will be done by Miss Jamie Miller. Miss Miller, you may proceed. >> Good evening, board president Dr. Swornson, and members of the board. Every year, the development of
005highquality assessment relies on the expertise and experience of Texas educators from across the state. The Texas Education Agency invites educators to grade level and content specific committee meetings each year to provide feedback on the development of the state assessments. These dedicated educators review questions, test questions. They judge the appropriate appropriateness of item content and difficulty and they have the ability to gain valuable insight into the development of state assessments and their impact is felt statewide. About a thousand educators were chosen and we actually had 11 from La Hoya ISD. So we are very excited to welcome them tonight and to just recognize their contributions. So Blanca Mrs. Cantu is actually going to come and announce them. >> Thank you, Miss Miller. Um, first we have Miss Marisa Cisto from Dr. Maria Pal Maria Palmira Mandola
006Elementary. [Applause] Next we have Isabel Ernnandez from La Hoya Palm View High School. [Applause] Next we have Mr. Julio Friday from Guermo Flores Elementary. [Applause] Miss Lilana Munoz from [Applause] Miss Annabelle Cruz from La Hoya Palm View High School. Miss Isella Gara from Cesar Chavez Middle School. [Applause] Miss Karina Pales from Dr. Bamira Mandola Elementary. [Applause] Miss Ivan Ria from Palm View High School. [Applause] Marisa Cisnerto, Mr. Pedro de la Fuentes Silva from Javier Science Middle School and Mr. Damian Benavides from Kiki Kamarena Elementary. [Applause] And we have two principles that are here to accompany them. So we'll we'll get them in just one moment if they would like to come up. And just again, thank you for the impact. act that you're having on students across Texas. [Applause] >> Congratulations. So, >> congratulations. >>
007Good to see you. >> No surprise. Congratulations. >> Thank you, Miss Miller. Before we move on, uh Dr. Sorenson, would you like to add anything to agenda item five the recognitions? >> Thank you, board president. I would just like to take a moment and really not only thank our educators for their contribution to the state assessment work, but understand that it's a rigorous process to be selected, to be chosen, and to truly engage in the process. Your impact, your brilliance, your excellence has been felt all over the state. And so to have 11 members of our workforce or teaching staff represent La Hoya ISD at the state level makes us so proud. So tonight you are our le our excellence in leadership strategic priority number one because that shows up in our teachers as well.
008And so you're demonstrating across the system that our teachers are leaders too. And so thank you for leading this work. Thank you for representing us. And thank you for all you do every single day for our students. We are eternally grateful. Well said, Dr. Dr. Sorenson. So, next item on the agenda is 6.1. I see that this is going to be a tag team by Dr. Little and of course, Joseph. Um, it's going to cover the annual school plan, uh, Lonear Governance. And again, doing the presentation today will be Dr. Little and Joseph. >> Thank you so much, Mr. President. Good evening, board and superintendent. We are happy to come talk tonight first about our annual school planning process and how that really guides the work that we do as a district uh in support
009of our schools and then we're also going to tag team the the next one which is really about strategic interventions as part of the superintendent's constraint. So to ground us as always, sorry about that. Uh as we think about the annual school plan and start to describe what this includes and how we go about it, it is all geared towards us moving closer to our vision and mission. Um so this will always be the centerpiece of our work and certainly is the centerpiece of our annual school planning process. It is also directly geared towards us making progress against these student outcome goals. The annual school planning process really helps us clarify what we need to do school by school in the district to get academic progress. And so that's a a direct sort of vehicle
010and connection to our pursuit of our student outcome goals as well as our northstar. again like we've started to include this Northstar slide regularly in our presentations and will continue to do so because it is the beacon by which we are like guiding all of our work uh and it's incredibly ambitious and just as a reminder that's really improving the number of students that are attending AM campuses uh ultimately getting to the place by 2029 where we have 90% plus of our students at an A or B campus in the district. So the annual school plan helps us really focus what we have to do this school year to make progress towards that northstar goal. And so Chief Nella is going to come give us some context on how this uh process works and then
011I'll come back with some of the details of the results. >> Thank you Dr. Little. So the quality seat, you recall from last fall, um board members, the quality seats analysis, uh brought to the district a comprehensive data set that gave us a single source of truth where we were at this the state of our district at the time. The quality seats analysis is a part of our um system of great schools work. Um and the quality seats analysis is going to be is an annual process uh for which we will bring another quality seats analysis 2.0. know um later in the later this fall with updated data. Um so the quality seats analysis is important because it informs the annual school uh the annual school plan. Um it helps us make informed decisions that
012improve access to highquality schools be high quality and best fit schools for our students. So the process is a district level strategy. It reviews school performance using comprehensive data. It engages the community for input and feedback. It determines the trajectory of each campus, whether to improve, expand, rep, replicate, or take bold action. It aligns, as Dr. Little shared, with our Northstar goal and our long-term vision for student success. Um, it results in a strategic school action plan, again, also an annual process um for the upcoming school year. So some key components of our of the of the an the annual school planning process again is the Q the QSA the quality seats analysis. um community engagement, tiering schools. Um so we take a comprehensive set of data points, not just our accountability rating data, um
013not just our star performance data, but a more holistic look um look at data to then we call it quartortile quartortiling schools or tiering schools to identify um both needs um areas of support um and um and levels of intervention. So with that, you can see here that the uh here's a comprehensive look at the at the quality seats analysis um and how it plays out along with our um our theory of action. So in coming in October, we'll have our next quality seats analysis. Um and then we will uh we have our northstar goal which has already been established or theory of action which I'll get to in the next in the next two slides. um school action. We have school actions under underway for 2526 and Dr. Little is going to walk through
014specifically what those are um a little bit in the presentation. Um we have launched our strategic plan um and then we have implemented tiered supports based on the annual school plan. So, if you would recall um earlier in the summer, we adopted a theory of action and our theory of action um is managed instruction with performance autonomy. Um it's centrally focused on student achievement by defining the role of the district and empowering our school commu communities. So, again, two parts to this managed instruction performance autonomy. So, we're going to look at the first part of that and break it down. If with managed instruction, we're saying every school in the district is going to start with a managed foundation and underneath uh you can see on the slide, these are the components of what the
015managed instruction is. These are um these are what are required and supported um across our cool school systems at all campuses. So, a researchbased instructional framework, a shared lesson structure, coherent aligned professional learning community systems, um implementation of integrity and au state and board approved highquality instructional materials, intentional and targeted tier 2 and three supports uh through our multi-tered systems of supports, common assessment practices across the system with clear timelines um and shared data analysis um and improvement cycles. Then at the other end of our of our um theory of action um is our performance empowerment. So as as as as schools uh perform at higher in increased levels um autonomies are earned. There may be some flex some examples include flexibility from some managed instructional requirements campus level autonomy for certain types of work
016streams. Um and they continue to have continued access to districtwide support systems um including professional learning. What Dr. Little is going to talk through um is is um more about the managed instruction side. So at the core of both um both of our uh of our strategic plan um this year as well as our managed instruction theory of action um is quality instruction. And so what we needed to do um this what we've done this year is begin to get really clear with our campuses, really clear with our teachers across our system what highquality instruction looks like and that begins with our instructional framework. And I'll turn it back over to Dr. Little um to walk us through that. >> Thanks so much, Chief Nigella board. We shared this with you uh recently in in
017a presentation, but wanted to come back because it really is a centerpiece of how we approach managed instruction. This instructional framework really ties together all of the work that we are doing academically across the district regardless of grade level, regardless of content. Um it it sets this sort of central anchor to how we think about quality instruction and what our teachers do. As a quick reminder, um this image on the left really encapsulates what the instructional framework is. So the outer ring is essentially the lesson cycle that stu teachers go through. uh planning and internalizing getting ready to deliver quality instruction to students, actually doing that through instruction, um assessing both where students are as well as their own practice. In that regard, and then reflecting to determine what needs to be adjusted for the
018upcoming lesson or either later parts within that day, the centerpiece of it is definitely our students. So, as we think about the learner profile and the learner actions, uh those really bring to life part of what's in the strategic plan with empowered graduates and thriving students. So, as you like read these side by side, you will find incredible um like connections and sort of shared thinking and language use across what we're looking for in what we want students to be able to do just as like citizens and thinkers and contributors once they leave La Hoya ISD. And all of that sets on a strong foundation of classroom culture. And we've actually called that out more directly on the right hand side of the slide. That classroom culture is really important to create spaces where students
019feel like they belong, that they are welcome, that they're cared for, um that their individual needs are sort of seen and and responded to, and that they have opportunities to like learn and grow and thrive even beyond the academic skills. It's important that students want to wake up every morning and actually go to school and go to class. And the classroom culture really sets that foundation for all of the hard work we're asking them to do once they get there. really grappling with ongrade level super rigorous instructional content uh and materials. And just as a reminder especially to the community who may be listening um when these slides are available that link at the bottom of the slide will take people to the instructional framework. So this is something that's transparent and available uh for
020anyone in the community to like read through and see and we have provided printed copies uh for the board this evening as well. The other part of our managed instruction work that we are spending a lot of energy and focus on this year is how this comes to life more practically each day in the classroom through the lesson structure. This lesson structure really outlines the key components um based on research that teachers have to be incorporating into their daily experience with students to ensure that they're getting the quality instruction that they need to master that grade level skill or or or concept and able to apply that and move on to whatever comes next for that student. Uh just as a way of a reminder here, what's on the right is actually the like detailed
021version of the lesson structure that's providing uh expectations within that component as well as examples for teachers to know what that means. So when they hear interactive practice, they actually have strategies or resources to think about in how they do that. A couple things to call out as we we just go through the image on the left. Our expectation for educators across the district again regardless of grade level, regardless of content is to use this lesson structure because it is based on evidence and research and aligns with our high-quality instructional materials that we're also asking them to use in the classroom. And that begins by bringing students into the lesson. So activating learning is really about connecting to things that students already know in their background knowledge, teasing them with what's coming up and why
022this lesson is important and getting them excited about that. So that's a quick sort of few minute part at the beginning of the lesson. The next piece with explicit instruction is something that we are going very deep on right now because it is the centerpiece, the bedrock of this lesson structure and that's where the teacher is directly teaching students whatever it is that that lesson is about. Um, so working on that skill or concept, making sure that that first instruction is really high quality and on grade level. Our team is actually out in classrooms this week and next week specifically looking for explicit instruction and providing feedback and and sort of co coaching support to principles and APS to make sure that that is growing and improving across the campus because when students miss out
023on that first ongrade level instruction then we're already behind where they need to be uh moving forward. The next two uh really is where the student starts to become able to explore and sort of practice this on their own. first with interactive practice, so working with other students or working with the teacher and then ultimately trying that independently before they have to demonstrate whether they learn that skill or concept. And that's what the demonstration of learning really is at the conclusion of that lesson. The opportunity for the teacher to know uh where students are and what additional interventions and support may be needed for students who didn't quite master that yet. That's another big piece that we are emphasizing and really focused on because teachers need that quick data to make improvements within the day
024and across days for for where students need to be. And closure is really the culminating event, sort of the recapture of here's what we did, here's why we did it, and here's how it connects to what comes next. It really brings that bridge uh into the next activation of learning when I come back the next day into that class or into that uh period. Again, this is also linked at the bottom of the slide. Everybody has access to it. Uh we want to make sure that the community or anyone can really dig into this if they want to. So, with that context set, a reminder on the quality schools analysis, how that connects to the annual school plan, and what managed instruction really looks like. Now, we want to share how this year's annual school
025plan came together. And first that is a a reminder and overview of the data that we look at to build the annual school plan. Couple meetings ago we gave our like endofear accountability presentation and that really relies on star data. That's the predominant factor going into accountability ratings. The annual school plan is intentionally much more comprehensive and holistic than just star results. So if you look on the right hand part of the slide, you see the two red boxes. all schools and differs by level. Let's start with the all schools part. Yes, we're going to always include star results and accountability results in our annual school plan. That's a centerpiece of what we do, certainly here in Texas, but we're going beyond that. We want to have a deeper and more nuanced understanding of where
026our campuses are and whether they're showing growth or regression based on this combination of data points. So, we're including map growth. How many of your students are really exceeding in their growth and therefore getting to improve their achievement? Also, we've talked a lot at with the board about our chronic absenteeism issues. Our students actually showing up every day in the way that they need to benefit from our instruction. So, that's a piece that we look at as well in addition to student discipline. And something that we're working on throughout this year to include in future versions is also what teacher attendance looks like. We need the student to show up to school, but we also need the educator to show up to school so they can really benefit and do that work together in the
027classroom. So regardless of the school that I'm at in La Hoya ISD, all of those things in the all schools column goes into their annual school plan rating. On the right is where we get a bit more specific to the school type. And these really are where our GPMs come to life in the annual school plan. So, elementary, you know, that one of our GPMs is looking at Texas kindergarten entry assessment math results. So, that's part of what goes in here as well as our MAT reading fluency data. Middle schools, not a direct GPM connection, but it does ultimately feed into goal four of CCMR readiness, and that's algebra 1 uh credits earned. So, if I'm a a middle schooler, particularly an eighth grader, and I'm taking algebra 1, do I actually pass that class
028in a way that I'm earning that credit to go onto my high school transcript and be ready to progress moving forward? And then our high school data brings in the GPMs from goal four, like freshman on track, the number of percent of students passing TSI in both reading and math. We're also looking at AP passing rates here, and then, of course, our associate degree attainment and IBC completion data. So if you think about this like a a blender, we put all that into the blender and we get a score that comes out at the end and then we stack our schools by their scores. So we got the highest scoring school with all of this data down to the lowest scoring school and that creates our cortiles. So we have our top 25%, our next
029middle two 25% and then the bottom 25%. And this slide shows you that distribution for La Hoya ISD right now. Again, this is based on our data from last school year. And so we see this broken out elementary, middle, and high by quartile. So quartortile one are the highest uh rated schools in the annual school plan. Cortile 4 are the lowest. And what this really signals is where need and support have to uh come together. So our quartile 3 and quartortile four schools with this comprehensive look are telling us they need more help and we've got to spend more time and focus to help them improve. So that's really how that comes back to the theory of action uh as well. A couple things to call out here. So the letters in parentheses are their
030accountability ratings from last school year. So you see Benson as the first elementary school that was a B-rated school. So that's just helping you know what those letters are about. Uh when we look at the distribution, we can find some things that are like well that's really interesting. So you see Tabasco as a C-rated school is cortile one. Again, part of the annual school plan is to look more comprehensively beyond just STAR and accountability to understand where the school is. And so, this helps us see schools that are moving in the right direction despite their current state rating or schools that may be moving in the wrong direction despite their current state rating. Um, so we can see that particularly in middle schools where we've got a cortile 2 and a quartile 3 school that
031are a B- rating, but based on all of these factors, that's a signal of concern and support for us. The other thing we've told you and now you can like more clearly see it got a lot of work to do with middle schools in La Hoya ISD. Six of our eight schools are a cortile 4 school uh based on that data. So that is really driving you what this entire team back here is is doing every day and how we are providing support to those teachers and to those principles uh in particular. If anyone wants to see how all this comes together, that link at the bottom of this slide opens up the full data sheet uh and folks can see sort of how each of these ratings come to be for for the schools.
032>> The next thing we want to do is Oh, sorry. President, I just wanted to pause to see if any board members had any questions if you don't mind. >> Yes. Thank you, Dr. Sornson. Does anyone have any questions for Dr. Little or Joseph at this point? >> I have a question. um that link you just referenced right now will that then be able to tell us which factor of factors is what's kind of dragging the school down to a certain cile like is if it's going to be the star accountability the chronic acetism and whatnot. Yeah. So if if a community member wants to open it up they're going to see the result from each of these data pieces for every school that that applies to. So, for example, a high school is obviously
033not going to have the MAT reading fluency data, but for all the data points that apply to that school, you can see the result. You can see the points that they earned for that indicator as well. >> Okay. And then one more question for the um the chronic absenteeism. I remember we saw that data um a while ago where we're seeing that it was kind of high in high school and kind of getting there in middle school too. for teacher absent absentances. Are we seeing that same same trend or is just something I guess I've never heard of um teacher attendance being a problem? Right. So I'm just see asking like is it something that we see more in the high school, middle school, elementary? >> Yeah, I think part of what we looked at
034so far is the substitute request. So schools needing because a teacher is absent requesting substitute coverage and that has been a little eyepopping at times based on the substitute request coming in. I don't tonight remember the total trend by level, but I know that has been a concern for us across the district, which is why we wanted to build that in for all schools. >> Members of the board, >> I have a question. Can you kind of explain why do we have most of our middle schools which are like C's or D's in the quartile 4 compared to the elementarymentaries that are in the quartile four with Fs. >> I want to use this slide answer. >> Yeah, absolutely. I want to use some of the data on this slide to help answer that question.
035Um, in our last quality schools analysis, let's start sort of bottom up here with student discipline. We saw that middle schools had the highest rates of disciplinary incidents. So when we did that QSA a year ago, that was one of the things that popped out from like behavioral support need across the campus or across the district. So student discipline is counting against middle schools more than it's counting against elementary or even high schools in that case. Uh we just heard Bor Chavez talk about chronic absenteeism. That is more pronounced at the high school level. It is second worst at the middle school level. So now we already have two data points where like they're really struggling in those areas. And then to go to the top uh the star meets achievement data in the presentation
036we just gave whe whether we were looking at reading or math our middle schools had the most amount of decrease and decline in those areas. So all of that factoring together again leads us to a place regardless of whether it's a C or D-rated campus at the end of the day they're moving sort of holistically in the wrong direction which is why we now have to have a more urgent response to support them and turn that around >> and would you say it's made it's the biggest reason would be behavioral >> not the biggest >> no >> I'm glad you asked that and I'm sorry I didn't clarify that not all of these things count the same in the like calculation that we're doing. So star accountability and star meets together is about half of
037the overall score because of how like important that is for us in the community and with the state. So the other things get broken down. So some of these are worth like 5% others like 10 or 15%. Um so not all things contribute equally but all things matter to the overall result of the school. >> They all add up. Thank you. >> And I would add Dr. Hernandez. Um, another piece, um, and this is a national context, not just a local context. And I know that sometimes people go, well, we still just want to know about us locally. Um, but nationally, middle schools are struggling across the nation. Um, I mean, NATE data actually just got released and middle schools across the nation are at its lowest point in terms of academic achievement across the
038country. And so one of the things that we as educators have to look at is what are the experiences that we're providing for middle schoolers knowing where they are in terms of brain development for adolesccents. And there's a lot of research that talks about experiential learning and how students at that age range, their frontal cortex is still developing. And so the way in which we provide instruction to students in the middle school setting as they're still just forming like identity, who they are, what they believe, and you know going through all the hormonal changes really does have a profound impact on how students learn and what they learn and how educators have to interact with middle school students. And so we're doing some really great work, I would say, with our middle school principles and
039then subsequently with our middle school teachers in terms of how instruction needs to shift in middle schools. Sometimes our kids show up to middle school and we put them in rows like that dramatic shift from like elementary is more of a collaborative learning space. Well, now they're in middle school and we treat them like little adults. Actually, they're still 11 and they're still 12. And so those those transitional years and how we approach it instructionally really matters as well. And so we're having those conversations with the leaders of those campuses and how we engage instructionally in those settings um to also impact instruction and student achievement. >> Thank you for the elaboration. >> Thank you Dr. Sorenson. Any other further questions? Yes. >> Yeah, Dr. a little where it says uh the information here. Is
040that a link where we can see all the information >> uh in more detail? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you. You may proceed, Dr. >> Thank you so much. So, with this context set and now we know where all of our schools fall as part of this annual school plan uh tiering, I want to talk about how we're supporting our campuses. Uh so this first one, professional learning is something that is universally uh accessible to all educators in all schools within the district. So we do that through district-wide professional learning days. You may remember when you approved the calendar, there were specific days set aside where students aren't coming to school, but that's a day for like teacher and educator learning. So that's something whether you're cile
041one or quartile 4. That's true for everybody. uh principal meetings and like leadership sessions. We do that for all of our schools. And part of it goes back to our managed instruction theory of action and where we are as an organization. We've got a lot of new learning to do as we're building these foundations. So it really doesn't matter whether I'm cortile one or quartile 4, I still have to learn the same new curriculum or I have to learn the lesson structure in a similar way. So that's part of why professional learning is is ubiquitous across the organization. Responsive support is where it starts to get a bit more refined based on the needs of the campus. So this is where we start to show up to campuses differently in terms of frequency of campus
042visits. How often we're there walking classrooms doing some sidebyside work uh with principles. We're going to do that more with Cortile 3 and four than we are with Cortile one and two. Uh it also starts to differentiate like if we see a trend across a certain grade level in content and we sort of say hey we're going to offer this virtual session uh in a couple weeks to help with that. Uh it will determine whether we're at telling people they have to show up and they're required to participate or whether that's an option for them based on their uh rating. What you see on the right hand side of the slide is a lot of examples of what this can look like. Um, you know, some of these are are what we're asking everybody to
043do like lesson internalization. We need teachers to walk in ready to go like they wrote the lesson and they fully understand and have prepared for it. Um, and other things may start to be uh tiered or differentiated like the assessment supports based on what we're seeing at a campus. And then the most tailored is our coaching support. This is a bit more nent like we aren't fully off the ground with our coaching system yet. Um but this will be the most targeted really focused on Cortile for some Cortile 3 campuses and specific teachers within those campuses. That's really what we will do at the central level with our reimagined roles like literacy coaches or dual language ESL coaches. So this goes through a formal coaching cycle. We set a coaching goal with that educator. We
044work on it through a variety of coaching techniques for a set period of time. We monitor progress against attaining that coaching goal and then we either set a new one or we figure out how we're going to have to go work on the first one if it wasn't attained uh overall. But again, this will be the most focused, most targeted support that we provide. And then the other thing which again is more universal across the district is operational and system support. Uh one way to think about this is you know what Blanca and her team do with communications. that's going to benefit and support every campus, not just quartile one or quartile four campuses. We have required things on the safety side that we have to do like drills uh that campuses pursue. You got
045to do those no matter what your rating is because that's a legal requirement. So these are things that are either provided by us to everyone or expectations of every school regardless of their rating due to the nature of the the types of things that we are talking about. And again you see some other examples on the right that I didn't mention. One is like policy. Policy applies equally to all schools not just cortile 4 schools. >> Board president can I add something? >> Yes please. >> So one of the things um Dr. um and his team as well as other um divisions are working on is um role clarity. Being very clear on the role of an executive director in these sports, the role of a coordinator, the role of a coach, and getting really
046clear across our divisions as to what is the entry point into all of this work. Because if you can imagine, if everybody's entry point is the principal, when does the principal do their job? And so if everybody across the system believes that they're going to run into the principal's office and tell the principal everything that's happening on the campus, the principal themselves can't be in classrooms or can't be with students or can't be in PLC's. And so we're getting really clear about the role of a coordinator as they work with teachers. Their entry point is teachers to support teachers in the classroom. To make sure that we have implementation integrity around highquality instructional materials, to make sure that we have implementation integrity around the lesson structure. And again, they then work with their executive directors
047or directors to then work with the principal. So the principal can provide that support for those teachers when we're not there. And so we've got to make sure that all of us at central office are very clear on our entry points and our support points on campuses so that we are supporting the principal, supporting our teachers, supporting counselors or whoever needs the support and not overwhelming them by giving the data and the information to the same people but rather supporting multiple people on the campus rather than just funneling it all to the principal. And so it is creating systems of support that are sustainable and then everybody's growing in capacity. And so I just wanted to clarify that um for not only the board but everyone in the system as to why we're doing what
048we're doing in terms of role clarity and what the entry points are for those who work at central office. >> Thank you Dr. Sasonson. Dr. a little how are parents engaged in this whole process? >> Really good. So when we think about the different types of supports that we provide, those are really thinking about academic supports in general. But on this slide, actually one of the sort of calendared activities is parent engagement. So we have upcoming curriculum nights uh in in the district which will be late this month early into October. That is an expectation for all schools. like it's not just for one quartile or two. Every campus across the district has to participate in that because our parents are incredible partners to us and we've got to uh really foster that relationship even
049more strongly. Um similarly, you know, we have reimagine family and community liaison in the elementary space. We have reimagine attendance specialists in the secondary space. like they're really daytoday uh helping to foster that connection and relationships with families both to ensure that like students are showing up and making progress but we also understand and can support with other family needs as appropriate. >> Awesome. Awesome. Thank you. Any other questions? >> M >> I had a question. Yes. >> Okay. >> Thank you for establishing that we are not just a reactive um administration. and we are establishing support system for our our teachers and our district. However, I did have a question in terms of scope and sequence development. How are we implementing that? >> Um, so we can piggyback that if you want. So, um,
050the scope and sequence is really defined by the high quality instructional materials. So, Blue Bonnet, whether it be in literacy or math really comes with a scope and sequence. And so through that work of lesson internalization, that's where we work side by side, shoulder-to-shoulder with the teachers in their PLC's to really make sure that the scope and sequence that is given to us by Blue Bonnet is implemented again with integrity, not fidelity. So the lesson structure really matters there because again, sometimes you might have to go back and do a retach. And so that might mean that you're a day or a two or three behind because it's important that kids are getting those skills, but we also want to make sure that we're still on pace with the scope and sequence that's being given
051to us because we got to make sure that kids are getting grade level instruction. And so how do we balance out making sure that students are getting the skills that they need and making sure that they are able to demonstrate their learning so that we can move forward. And then I I had a follow-up question in terms of uh I'm not sure what slide this is, but Raptor, what is Raptor? >> That is on our our safety slide. Um Raptor is the system that we use to really manage um our safety drills. So campuses go in there, they schedule those, they conduct them uh in the drill. It's also a way that we monitor like actual or live uh safety issues as well. Um, so that's what kind of point out my friend back there
052because her phone goes off all the time with this noise, but like that's what principles and staff have available on their phones to say, "Hey, there's an emergency. I need to put the school on hold or we have a fire drill scheduled. I'm going to now execute that fire drill and do it." And our safety team can monitor all of that information. >> Communication board. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Little. Any other questions? You may proceed. >> Thank you. Just to wrap up uh tonight's discussion on the annual school plan, we wanted to try to more clearly show how these four support systems start to play out based on the school's rating. Um the first one is not very differentiated. When we think about professional learning, again, that's universal to
053everyone. We are putting in a lot of like new curricular, new new expectations and new structures. So, you got to learn those things regardless of your rating. Uh so that's why you see a lot of required on here. The second row I will call out those power hours and huddles are things that we we most often do virtually. Uh so for example uh you may have the early learning team say I'm going to pull pre-k teachers together for a power hour because we really need to focus on this particular interest area that may not be required for every school based on the trend. So that's why you see encouraged in those two places because portal one and cortile 2 may be fine and like they're doing a good job and they don't need to to
054come to that additional support structure with responsive supports. You see more variance here and this is what professional learning will likely start to look like over time with more variance but we see that um more specifically with this level of support. So campus visits for example this was the what I talked about when I presented a few moments ago. We're going to be at portal four campuses more often. People are going to really get to know us uh in those spaces because we're committed to helping them really accelerate their growth and impact. We're still visiting other schools including cortile one but the frequency of that will will be a little less uh because they are at a different place and a different need. And for example, if we go to the next to last row,
055our network EDS again who directly support and supervise principles, we've established an expectation this year that they got to be at Cortile 4 schools at least every week. And then you see that sort of gradually um get lower where Cile one and two were still visiting and still present at least monthly. It doesn't mean we're not there more often, but at minimum like these are the times that we have to have presence on those schools and with those principles. And then one thing just to call out in the last row here, this will be new for us as an organization building on the quality schools analysis work. We will as a central team go to every campus this year six times a year. We will be in a sample set of classrooms at those campuses
056doing what we're calling a a spot check or snapshot. uh and that'll be our way as a system to really know how instruction is moving across the district so we can then inform all of these support structures that I just laid out. Um so that'll feel different for teachers and and for for campus leaders. Um but it is a really critical piece again to rapid acceleration and making sure that we're able to target the supports needed based on the data that we're seeing throughout the year, not just at the beginning or the end. Board President, can I add? >> Yes, Dr. Sornson. >> Dr. Little, can you please take a moment and also add and explain what the sprints are? >> Oh, yes. Uh, we have started something that we are calling instructional sprints. We
057began those this week. Uh, and back to the lesson structure actually. Uh what we've seen in the first like three weeks of school is again teachers working incredibly hard doing the best they can but not always having the focus in the lesson that we need to feel confident that students are getting that skill and concept and ready to move on. Uh so explicit instruction again is the real anchor and key to that and then having students show that through demonstration of learning is is the like sorry the rounding out of it. So what we began this week is again members of our team along with others um uh like coordinators and and other support staff are going to campuses to do these sprints. The sprint concept means we're going to do it deeply and quickly.
058So, we're going to spend the next two weeks going through classrooms looking for that explicit instruction and demonstration of learning, giving super clear, actionable feedback to the principal about what we're seeing so they can give that to the teachers and like make rapid progress. Uh, we're trying this out this week and next week. We're going to learn from it. But what we expect to do, and again this is really a new system for us this year compared to last year, is likely sprint through the entire lesson structure to make sure that we've got a strong baseline of quality across all of those areas and then through responsive supports or like coaching, we can then do more targeted supports uh over time for the rest of the school year. So again, that is another signal to
059people, instructional quality matters. We're committed to rapid changes and we're going to be side by side with you to make that happen, but we're also going to be in your classroom a lot and we're not letting down on these expectations for our teachers and our campuses. >> That's pretty exciting. Dr. Little, I'm going back to page 19 where um board member OOA referenced where it says the information on the cortiles, the four. So, am I safe to assume that we'll always have four different quartiles? I mean, am I safe to assume that? I mean, we're never going to be at one or two, right? >> This debate internally. So, Dr. >> uh I love that very like wonky question. Poor President Alvarez, that is fantastic >> potentially. So, right now it is a force ranking.
060You're going to have a one and you're going to have a four. Um what we can get to over time as we see quality improve across the board is to actually move from a force ranking to cut scores. So if you're going to be a cortile one, you got to at least be at this level or higher. Um, and so you may not have cortile four schools in that case because everybody made it at least to the cortile 3 cut score. Going back to our last presentation again, we don't have schools where more than 50% of our students are on grade level typically. So we're not there yet. This was for us the better way to really tease out schools that need rapid urgent attention versus those that still got to grow. You got to
061get from 48% to 70% at some point, but that's a less urgent need of somebody who's sitting in the 20s. >> Thank you. >> And that's also part of our SGS work is that the metrics can also change over time. As we grow and as we get better, the bar gets raised. And so maybe we're looking at different metrics or different measurements as as we grow and achieve and improve as a system. So then the bar gets raised. And so we're always looking to continue to strive to have our schools accelerating their progress um even as we make incremental growth on this end as we grow as a system, right? Because the goal of system at great schools is to have every student in a quality seat in every school every day. And so um
062the metrics can change and so can the measurements. >> And the metrics are done yearly or is it because we don't have data? We only went as far as 2024. >> No, that's a that's another great question. So, this is designed like as an annual school plan, it is designed to be updated every year. Okay. So, we could Sorry, I didn't mean to go back that far. We can adjust these criteria like which data points are included on an annual basis as well as like how much they count to the score or what those cut points are within there. So, we've got a lot of levers we can pull. We really wanted to be consistent last year to this year though to be able to see how campuses were moving either up or down uh
063based on that consistent data. But this will more directly to your question like this won't look at at least not right now at like six weeks data is looking at whole year data to give us that full picture of where the campus ended up. >> Thank you. Any other questions? >> Go ahead. Um for the instructional sprints Dr. Little um how do you ensure that the feedback you provide the principles actually gets conveyed or trickle down to the instru to the teachers? You can come back later to check in to say okay this is what we saw and check it again that same actor or >> I think y'all been like attending our meetings. Um this is something that we are spending a lot of time like debating and trying to understand and I swear
064the superintendent asked me a version of that question every day. Um there's two real ways to do that. One is we are more intentionally and more slowly by design going deep into areas with our principles. Big lesson learned last year is we were trying to do too much too quickly and we just left some people behind um and didn't get the depth of quality and integrity that you keep hearing us talk about. So, first is at the principal level to make sure that it's not just us going in the classroom, giving the feedback, and moving on, but that we're actually getting to a place where they don't really need our feedback over time because we're seeing the same things in the classroom and they're better able to name like here's the feedback I'm going to
065give that teacher. We are not there yet, but that is what we are working uh towards. So, one is like building that principal capacity and then having more trust that that's happening. But two, with the sprints and with these uh spot check visits, we're in classrooms a lot. So, we can see if that changed because we went back to that same classroom a few days or a week later. And if it didn't, then that's the conversation with the principal. Tell me what feedback you gave. What have you done since we've been gone? What has the teacher done? And then we can take the conversation where it needs to go based on those responses. And vice president Chavez, I'll also add that we have this routine when we go to campuses is um we leave the
066principal with three to five things, >> right? And I mean even um Diana has been with us where you know the principal hears a lot of information, very candid, very direct feedback, but as we debrief, we go back and we say, "Okay, tell us everything you heard today. What are your quick wins? What's the lowhanging fruit that you can correct right now? Because you know your teachers are going to ask, right? They're they're they know we're there. So they're, you know, the first thing they're going to say is what they say. What' they say? And so we want there to be actionable feedback that our principles can give to our educators because they want to feel successful, right? Our our teachers want to win. And so what are what did you hear? Right? give us
067three things that you're going to work on when we leave, right? Not tomorrow, but when we leave, what's the feedback that you're going to give your teachers that they can grow on and get better at today, tomorrow, the next day? And so, I'll use an example of um we were at Sigin, one of our ACE campuses, and we we walked with our principal and we gave her a couple of pieces of feedback. actually text me and she said, "Thank you so much for that feedback. I acted on one of them this afternoon and I'm finished with it." And finished meant like we needed our pre-K classrooms set up a particular way so that students were actually accessing the curriculum as they should have. She took care of it that afternoon. And so it's that immediate
068feedback. the principal could act on it immediately and it was fixed that afternoon. There were two higher level ones that we needed her to work on that were about instruction and implementation of the curriculum and language acquisition. Saw her a week later at a principal meeting. She gave me four examples of how she gave feedback to her teachers and how it was already rapidly improving in those prek classrooms. And so that's just another example of how the responsiveness from our principles when you're giving them these nuggets of actionable pieces of feedback, they want to act on it because they want to see the rapid improvement. And when they then turn around and give it to their teachers, our teachers want to do the right thing. And so they're also doing the really quick work of
069implementing the feedback that we're asking them to implement. And so it's really great to see that kind of growth happening on our campuses. >> Dr. Little, I have a question and then I have a remark. So one, Dr. Sorenson and I know what it's like to get feedback when we had the commissioner here. So we've all gone through that and so we appreciate it though because we implemented those recommendations right away. So I'm curious when when are there principles who encourage you to come into the classroom? I mean, I know if I was a new principal and we've there's new ones that have joined the district, right? Or if now they have that assignment, are they asking you, "Hey, come on in here and and and and tell me what what am I doing? I
070mean, am I doing something right? Am I doing something wrong?" I I can see that happening. >> Absolutely. Sometimes so much so like we walk in, they're like, "All right, let us have it. Let's go do it." Um and and are like jovial about that in in the best way. But I think what I certainly feel is true in our district right now and with our principles is the desire to learn and grow. Um like they are eager for us to be in the campus providing that support to teachers. The more they experience and get used to this sort of cycle of you know observation feedback support um they can better anticipate what that's going to sound like and what that's going to mean and are just adapting to that uh more quickly. So it's
071it's been great. We had from my perspective, I think the Sue probably shares this, maybe our best principal meeting last week uh with our leaders and part of what we did is we actually put them in the role of the teacher. Uh literally they had homework before they showed up to internalize a lesson and come ready to a PLC just like a teacher would have to to say here is how I'm going to teach that. And we acted like the administrators and then we had them self-rate uh at the end of that like did I prepare in the way I need to? Like are my campuses running like this with with my teachers? It was a really fun light-hearted moment with a really serious undertone because the serious part was like where are we actually
072right now? And and they had to do this in front of the room like you had to go stand over here if you're doing a great job and stand over here if you got a lot of work to do sort of thing. We had a lot of people in the lot of work to do space, but we also had principles who had to like grapple and get some peer feedback from their their colleagues like I don't think you're actually over there and here's why. So like come on over with us and then let's figure out what we need to do differently to get better. So I think that context and that culture that we're working to really cultivate >> means the answer to your question is yes because people are seeing the benefits and the
073growth from that already. And what I would add to that is that the principles that I so far and you know I think you've had a similar experience and same with team members um it's now spreading and you know principles that I've walked with and given the very direct feedback to um I'll use them as examples in principal meetings very openly and so the I think the first time I used people as an example they would go up to a principal be like what happened um and the princip were like, "It was great. It was clear. It was candid. And it was within the context of my school. I was given like super clear feedback on what to on what to work on. It was great. It felt wonderful after she left. So now what's
074starting to happen, people are like, "When are you coming to my campus? When are you coming to my campus? Because I want to walk with you. I I want to get the feedback with you." Um, but I I also want to say this just so that the board knows, but also so that our public knows is that one of my responsibilities as a superintendent is to also make sure though that every person from central office who walks on a campus shares my lens. It's imperative that I I can trust that everybody who walks into classrooms not only has an instructional lens of excellence that I have, but also can provide that level of quality feedback. Because if we're on campuses and we're not giving quality feedback, then we're not helping. And so, one of the
075things that I've actually attempted to do um every time I go out is I take somebody from central office with me. So, you know, I've taken Miss Miller with me. I've walked with Dr. little um I've taken the um EDS of school leadership will walk with academic EDS at one point I've taken taken Mr. Angela with me. I've walked with the two deputies. And so each time it is imperative to me that we not only share a lens of excellence in terms of instruction, but that we are also prepared and are willing, capable of giving feedback for people to grow. Yes, we want people to feel good. Of course, our employees are working really hard. But one of the ways in which they will feel good is when they are successful. Right? Success breeds success.
076And so we've got to love our people enough to tell them the truth about ways to improve. We've got to love our kids enough to support our adults to do right by our students. and they want the feedback as long as it's respectful and kind and thoughtful because they want to achieve. And so when we are not willing to give that level of feedback, I am unprepared as the superintendent to have people walk campuses that aren't going to dig in with our educators like they need us to. >> Thank you, Dr. Sorenson. Dr. Little may proceed. >> Thank you. Just to round us out with the last two pieces here. As we think about coaching, as I mentioned earlier, our direct coaching that we provide to teachers is really targeted and will be targeted to
077the cortile three and four schools because again, that's where the most need is. That's what we're going to do. The other three rows on here all say, you know, required. And that's because we're building that coaching capacity across the district. So we need every principal and assistant principal regardless of their quartortile to learn how just as the superintendent just said to learn how to give great feedback to provide great coaching support and understand that coaching cycle. So as we're building this system out that's a required learning for all of us as leaders and educators in the district. But the actual coaching support that we're providing centrally is more targeted to the areas of most need. And then finally, for the operations and system support, again, we're going to provide our communication to everybody. The requirements,
078whether they're state requirements or district requirements, like I mentioned with the curriculum night a minute ago, those are going to be true across the district regardless of of rating. And then there are some things that we could see as trends which are more specific um that maybe cortile one and quartile 2 don't have to participate in, but they are uh available to if they want. And so this was just meant to lay out sort of how the annual school plan comes together, what data we're using to be more comprehensive in that view of campuses and then how that ties to the support that we're providing based on the needs that we're seeing as a result of this annual school planning process. >> Happy to take any other questions. >> Members of the board, do you
079have any questions for Chief Nigella or >> Dr. I have a question. Um in terms of accountability in progress, what is the expectation for um the schools to get an update on where they stand? Right. So um is the expectation that uh a school will be in this cortile for one full year, right? Is that that's the the end goal? >> Yeah. So our quartile four schools will be that way for all school year. Now, we're obviously looking at a lot of data throughout the year to see if they're, you know, making that progress that they need to make to change that rating for the next year, but the consistency of our support also matters. And so that will be for the full year. And then as we update this again for next year, we
080will see if schools have shifted. >> Got it. And then um in terms of um teachers when we think about professional development um and and the principles um are there any additional resources that um central office is providing to incentivize and motivate the teachers to train and put in that extra time? >> Yes. So we actually pay people to come to professional learning. So uh we've got you know after school and Saturday sessions throughout the school year that that we provide. We have those district scheduled professional learning days as well. Uh and there is compensation for teachers to participate in that. >> Thank you. >> Great questions. Any other questions? >> I I do. I I love the framework. It's clear, it's concise, and the information provided on slide 19 is the same information you
081gave us during our last meeting, but it's much clearer um in this framework. Now, what has been the teachers response to it's an aggressive approach, right? Because we want to see success, but what has been the response with teachers? Obviously, we've heard from principles. >> Yeah. I think to to what the superintendent said a moment ago, the minute we leave campus, every teacher is going to their principal or AP saying, "Okay, what did they see? What did they say? What do I have to work on?" Um so we generally feel that interest from teachers as well on like what do I have to do to get better. The context of the whole system I will acknowledge is really between us and principal. So like we don't get to this level of depth with teachers on
082how the support system comes together but they are the benefactors and most often the direct recipient of the support that we're providing. >> That's fantastic. Can I can I just add? Yes. >> So, I am I'm blessed and and so are we as a cabinet and I'm pointing to Brenda sitting in the back. Um so, we meet with AFT, right? We meet with HPE. Um I also again um talk to teachers quite a bit when we're on campuses and I want to say it's hard. This is hard work and this is a shift in instructional practice, right? And so you hear this is hard, this is new, but you also hear some variation of I wish I would have known this before. I wish I would have been doing this before. Um to I just
083want to get better at what you all are asking me to do. Um and some who are like I I love the curriculum. I just want to be able to internalize it faster. Um, but there is an acknowledgement and I do want to say out loud that it is it's hard work to not only ingest a new curriculum but also then work on perfecting your craft in delivering said curriculum. And so again to um your point and I know that I said this last time but our principles really have been given guidance to provide compensated time for our teachers to not only do lesson internalization but also instructional delivery planning paid because that you know you put your money where where you value right on a campus. And so if we want to not put
084all of our money in tutoring because we want our kids to have that great first teach, the very best place to put that money then is to invest in our educators so that they can plan appropriately. And so to your point, incentivizing planning by providing the compensated time is something we have principles across the system really leaning into. >> Okay. Thank you, Dr. Sorenson. Do we have any other questions from the board, particularly on this agenda item? Okay. If not, we're going to move on to agenda item 6.2, which is a strategic interventions CMP 1.1 and 1.2. Joseph and Dr. Lou. >> Yeah, thank you so much. So, this starts to look at how we're responding to the superintendent's constraints. You know, we've got our student outcome goals and GPMs. We also have the superintendent
085constraints and constraint progress measures. Um constraint number one is our focus on making sure that there are no conditions that will decrease student achievement. And the specific measure here is that you know the superintendent has to initiate uh strategic interventions for any campus that has earned a D or F rating for multiple years in a row. So, we're sort of taking the support conversation we just had in the most like aggressive and intensive way in the district. And so, there are four schools that are qualifying for this strategic intervention. Um, two of them we have talked a lot about, the other two a little less so. Uh, but just want to level set on sort of these four schools and why they're here. So, Garza and Sigin are our accelerated campus excellence are our A
086schools. We know we've spent months and months sort of talking through that. Um, but what you can see in the accountability trend here is both of those schools most recently are only two F-rated schools, but over the three-year period like significant declines uh at those those campuses. Now, uh, board member Pena, to your earlier question in terms of like what we expect to see in terms of improvement overall, um, like rapid progress, uh, at Garza and Sigin, and I'll touch on that more in just a second. The other two on here are in a different position. So, Pena, we have shared in multiple presentations as a school that we are watching closely and that may ultimately need a strategic intervention and that's where we are. um they have earned a D-rating for the three years,
087but remember in 23 and 24 their actual accountability score would have been a low C, but due to the accountability rules that forced them to that D rating. This most recent year though in 2025, they actually earned that D-rating like this is not just the accountability rules putting them in that category. That is that is actually where they are. So we are initiating an intervention uh strategic intervention at PA and then SCS um despite the fact that six of our eight middle schools are quartile 4 the one that we're really focused on here is signs middle school and that's because of the real volatility in what we've seen there in terms of academic outcomes. So if we go back to 2023 they were a D-rated campus they then moved to a B but now they're
088back to a D. And so even though this doesn't technically meet the constraint of multiple years in a row, um we did not want to wait and be patient to say, okay, we're going to spend a whole another year and let's see if there's still a D, but rather to take the actions now to get them out of this status and no longer back there over time. So the other thing we wanted to say is start to define what these strategic interventions mean. The constraint obviously doesn't do that in detail. We as the administrative team have to answer that question. And so we have two things as our our big focus areas for these four schools. Garza and Sigin are obviously participating in ACE. That is a commitment we've made for three years. So they
089will be an ACE designated campus this year and the following two school years. Uh and then we have what is going to be true for all four schools. This will be a new support structure within La Hoya ISD. It is called breakthrough results and it is provided in partnership with the district management group or DMG you may hear us refer to them as along the way. Um and that's really providing deep school turnaround focus strategies. It's not like how to provide better instruction in reading is how do I make quick improvements in my work so I'm getting uh rapid progress over time. So they're really looking at continuous improvement and the improvement science behind that. Um DMG just uh for what it's worth is also associated with Harvard. So we're interacting with with some of
090these professors through the pelt uh work that we're doing and then separately uh through this GMG support. So just to go a bit more in detail to explain what this is, there's three big components. Number one is the campus leadership will receive coaching directly from a DMG performance coach throughout the year. So they will have weekly uh touch points with their coach where they're really understanding here's where we're trying to make improvements on the campus. Here's what I'm doing as a leader to make progress on those improvements. Here's where it's working, here's where it's not, and what do I have to do differently? And again, this is not like long arc coaching. Here's where I have to be by the end of the year. It's like here's where I have to be next week uh
091in this work. So that's the rapid cycle that's sort of built into this. They will also work directly with teachers. So we will be de defining teacher teams at each of these four campuses that will get virtual coaching support again from a DMG performance coach where that teacher team is agreeing on a growth area over the next four to six to eight weeks. Here's the thing that we're going to try in our classrooms to get better outcomes in this way. and that coach is really monitoring and help them make the sort of day-to-day week-toeek adjustments so that we actually see that progress uh more quickly. So again, we're not saying here's where we're going to be by May, it's here's where I'm going to be by the end of October and what it's going to
092take for me to get there. And then they'll provide the campus and the district uh data analysis support so we can actually understand what these uh teacher team targets are, what they're doing to to get those results, how that's working and that will inform the supports that we just talked about in the last presentation as well. So we're really excited about this. Uh it's going to kick off uh more formally next week. So, PA and SCS are having uh an orientation session with DMG and then they will quickly sort of form their teams over the next week or so and start this work in their first uh cycle of coaching. And then quick reminder here on ACE uh just as we think about Garza and Sigin, we know that having effective principles and teachers is
093the key. that's really the bedrock of ACE and we've got incredible and dynamic leaders and really committed teachers there uh through our recruitment effort like we have a real high concentration of like TIA teachers at both of these campuses. So we are expecting great things as we should. The instructional excellence is rooted in what we're doing across the district. So that framework, that lesson structure, HQIM, all of that applies at ACE as well. and then making sure that we're making the most of our holistic supports. So, working with the schools to really ensure that that extra hour a day is high impact, that it's both an academic opportunity as well as an enrichment opportunity, which we heard strongly from families about, including the afterchool time. Um, so, so teams uh have worked to make sure
094that there are athletic opportunities for students in that afterchool day. Our arts teams are working to make sure that there are arts opportunities as well. in addition to more uh traditional like extracurricular club type things that are provided at campuses. And then back to parent and community relationships, like that's a real key to this work. We know we had to do a lot um to sort of get a little bit of community trust to make this change and now we got to continue to earn that with what students are experiencing every day and the results that we get. Uh so that work, that relationship, communication and connection is something that we're going to continue to pay a lot of attention to with our a schools because we expect greatness from them. Uh really that's part
095of the investment here in the design. So this school year, the target for Garza and Sigin are to move from an F-rated campus to a C-rated campus because remember our commitment to the community is that they will be an A or B-rated campus within two years. So, we've got to make that first big jump uh into that improvement. And so, that's what they're working towards. That's why these additional uh supports and interventions are really important there. For PA and signs, we absolutely expect them to move out of that D rating at least into a C, but we'll be pushing them to go as high as they possibly can. Uh as well, we know science has recently been a B. Why can't we go back there? And so, that's part of what this this intervention and
096support is really about. Um, so with that, we will take questions and happy to to engage on this and we'll continue to report on these schools. Every time we do a LSG update, we'll be sure to call out how these four schools are doing on those data points. >> Before I turn it over to the board, Dr. Senson, you have anything you'd like to add? >> Um, I just wanted to point out um that I I am acting a bit outside my constraint. Um, and so I hope that the board is okay with me accelerating signs even though it didn't exactly fall within the constraint. Um, and I did want to acknowledge that. Um, not only for the board but for the public and obviously our conservator. Um, but we didn't want to wait. Um
097when we talk about student outcomes and when we talk about student achievement, we did not feel it was appropriate for us as district leaders to wait to see will signs, you know, have the outcome again. And so again, it it was DB D. We said, let's act and let's act now. Um and let's put the strategic intervention into place even though it didn't technically fall in the category of the constraint. Um, and so I just wanted to acknowledge that for the board and for the public. Um, and ask for grace for intervening more aggressively. >> Thank you, Dr. Sorenson. Any other questions? >> I have a question. Do we have any preliminary data for the schools under the ACE program? Has attendance increased? Um, how much of the holistic supports have been utilized? >> Yeah,
098we will actually have some data to share with you at our next board meeting. So we'll give our first uh Lonear governance update related to goal one and goal three. And so that'll look at the end of unit assessments based on this first unit that they've completed in the curriculum. And so that'll be our first like hard data point this year um to look at how they're doing and if they're starting to, you know, make more rapid progress compared to the rest of the district. The only other thing I would say at this point is enrollment. Like both schools are really strongly enrolled. um more than 600 students are at both of those campuses. You might remember me saying last year that those campuses were in the 300 range uh particularly for one of them.
099So like families have shown up uh and they are are sticking with it so far and again we've we've heard anecdotally from some of these families that they're really seeing the benefit and their students are enjoying it and having a good time at the school. >> Great question. I I want to piggyback on on her question. So, you know, I was uh thrilled when we introduced the outreach specialist. >> Is that their the title? >> Yes. Family. >> I know we did a video. I saw Blanca's video where we had two individuals go out to families and homes and visit them. How's that been going? >> Uh it is new. So, it's got a little bit of legs to like grow under it. But that's a big commitment to our work across student family and
100community engagement is making sure at the campus level that that work is really clear and tight. and then with these family and community outreach specialists at the district level that we have a really coherent and strategic approach to what that looks like. Um so that we have a focus area across the district that we're monitoring progress against that it's not just willy-nilly family engagement but that it's actually feeding in to the progress to our strategic plan and our goals. So we're excited to see that you know become even more prevalent. But the team has already um this year become more present at community events and making sure that La Hoya ISD is represented and there to engage with families in the community. >> Love it. >> Mr. I have a question. >> Go ahead, Dr.
101Markle. >> Dr. Little, thank you for the information, but I do have a question. Just do we have a contingency or a plan? I know it's not going to happen, but just in the rare circumstance that there there's not an improvement to a to a C, what areas of focus would you then or how would you adjust at that point? >> You're talking about the A schools in particular? >> Yes, correct. I'm sorry. >> Yeah, I think one of the first questions we'll ask is like how far or how close uh did we get to that? um because like you may end up at a super high D rating and we can see in the data, okay, this was the the like population or grade level that really contributed and and make a more targeted
102plan for what that needs to look like in the following year. Um I to your point like that's not going to happen. I don't see that happening either, but really that work starts now. So it's to board member AOA's point like what early data are we seeing? We're not going to wait till next summer to decide did they get there or not. like we have the most heavy presence at these two campuses, myself included, and are looking at that data and will be looking at that data like every week, every three weeks as these unit assessments are coming in to make more rapid uh adjustments. And that's part of our connection with DMG is to have that more laser-like focus within the school year so that we're not surprised at the end and we I
103can stand up here confidently and say, "Look, the school did everything they needed to do. we provided all of these supports and here's why they ended up where they ended up and here's what we're going to do for the next school year. >> Great question. Great question. Any other questions for Dr. Little? >> Um yes, I have a I have a question. So um for the schools that are getting the strategic intervention, um I know the support for parents looks a little bit different in the ACE campuses for um BA and science. Is there any additional resources from a community perspective that they can expect? Yeah, in terms of like uh financial investment, the way that we're making an ACE, that's really coming through DMG. So, it's not like a longer day or a different
104contract for those teachers. That's a more traditional um space. But with our student, family, and community engagement team, again, part of what they're doing is building resources with community, with businesses, with with funders as needed to see if there are opportunities that we need to pursue. But our our good friend CFO also is continued to commit to making sure that we have what our schools in need really need. At this point I I say though like there's not a need for more resources right now. There's a need for deeper focus uh on the work and the supports that we have available. >> Thank you. >> And I would add to that um board president if you'll allow me please. >> Um is that I I I don't want to underplay and Dr. little nose. I
105do this every time as we talk about the instructional framework. I I'm a huge fan of pointing out around the environment, right? We I say this every time. We can have really great lesson structure. We can have incredible instructional delivery, but if the environment on the campus and the environment in the classroom isn't student centered, studentfriendly, student focused, all the things that it needs to be, kids don't want to be there. And so, um, I don't want to underplay ever the wraparound work that happens, um, with Deputy Chief Kendallio, Annette Lozano, and the team that works on that side of our house, which is about counseling, which is about student family, community engagement, which is about the family community liaison, which is about student behavior, which is about student attendance. Um, all of those parts,
106right? Special education, MTSS, all of that work you didn't hear about tonight, but that is deep work that is happening with people who are leading that work because without those supports, >> right, academics is not as strong as it could be. And so that's why again as you look at the instructional framework you see that you talk about learner actions, classroom culture, educator actions, the researchbased instructional strategies, the learning outcomes, right? What is the environment that we're creating inside and outside of the classroom, not only for our students to thrive, but for our families to engage? And it aligns perfectly with our graduate profile. like our profile graduate in our strategic plan. And so um I just want to acknowledge the work that's being done um in deputy chief Gandelario's space um and with Miss
107Lozano as the executive director to really lift that work up um around student supports. >> Thank you Dr. Sorenson. >> No other questions for Dr. Little Edund >> for the DMG schools. Um you talked about how the leadership teachers are going to be pretty much kept on track but for the A schools we talked about you know we closed our schools we extended the time period the kids have to be in class um what can the parents and students from those other two schools expect to change like I'm thinking maybe intervention classes or tutoring like how are they going to be how is it going to what can they expect pretty much? >> Yeah, fantastic question. And we certainly have some communication work to do with the the communities of those two schools. One to
108just basic inform them like here's what we're doing, here's why as an organization, but to your point like here's what that would look like um a bit differently. what students should really feel should feel is like a they won't know to name it this way but like a rapid improvement in like quality and ongrade level work in those classrooms. Um so like what they're coming home to tell their parents here's what I did today or here's what we're working on like that should start to change over time and then what we've got to do more work on is connecting families again not just at those two schools but across the district into what's happening academically and with the curriculum in the classrooms. We have some ways to do that. We're going to amplify those even
109more this year. But this is not a structural change at SCS and PA the way it is at Garza and Sigin. So it's not changing time, not changing schedule, not changing staff. That's by design. Again, ACE is the like most aggressive sort of last resort uh intervention opportunity we have. This is really taking the building blocks at those campuses, making sure that they're able to get stronger really, really fast. >> Thank you. >> I have a question. Um, Dr. Little, we just completed MAP testing, right? In the last couple weeks. >> It's finishes this week. >> This week, when can parents expect to receive the results of that? >> Very good. So as soon as the window ends, so like next week if you want to be an early sort of bird to the game,
110like ask your teacher, how did my child do? What does that look like? Because they can provide that family report to you. But in the curriculum nights that I mentioned earlier, um that'll be one of the things that families and teachers are talking about is the beginning of your MAP data. >> And that's only applies to uh remind me, elementary and middle school, but not high school. Uh we have high schoolers also taking math assessments. The like applicability at every grade and content is a bit different. Um so that's a bit more narrow of a conversation at the high school level, but yes, it's kindergarten all the way up through high school space. >> Wonderful. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Little. See, do we have any other questions? We're I appreciate the presentation you
111had. Thank you, Dr. Little. Great presentation. >> Next, we'll hear from Chief Nigella. It's the Lonear governance time use tracker report August 27th, 2025. Joseph, >> thank you, Mr. Board President. Um, so I am pleased to bring the board and members of our community our Lonear governance tracker report for our August 27th um board meeting. Um, of course look to ground us in in why we have this report, where it comes from. It stems from our Lonear governance work where um uh the school district administration and the board are working um in partnership entirely focused and intensely and apologetically focused on improving student outcomes. Um and so one way we measure that is how we spend time in our in our meetings um focused on student outcomes and adult or adult outcome or adult behavior,
112excuse me. Um and the threshold that we have or the target that we have is we try to spend um at least 50% of our time in meeting. I see happy I see happy faces. Yes. >> Yes. We have things to celebrate. >> Um but um >> yeah uh 50% of our time is spent at least on student outcomes. Um and so as you can see um in the August 27th report um we had going to the blue column 102 minutes laser focused on student outcomes two minutes that would be this report that I would gave last meeting um spent on adult behaviors um for a total of 117 minutes um total in in the board in the meeting um and that equates to 87.18% time um spent on student outcome minutes. So just to
113like where did that come where did that time come from? If you remember we had a short list of presentations last board meeting um but it was um very dense like in terms of um um of of its substance of student outcomes. We had our star achievement and state accountability uh report from Dr. Little and team. Um, we had some really good volley question and answers just like we did in the last presentation. So, yes, lots to celebrate in this report. >> Diana, did you got that for your report? >> You want to go? I want I want you go. >> I think it's great. I think it shows the progress that the district is making in maintaining that focus on student outcomes. >> Thank you. I'm very proud of you guys. >> Good. Good.
114Thank you. Dr. >> Anybody have any questions for Chief Melan? >> Thank you, Joseph. >> Thank you for all the hard work and thank you for doing this and monitoring us. Means a lot. >> Thank you. >> All right, we can move on to agenda item number seven. It is our consent agenda item. Do I have a motion? >> I move to approve consent agenda. >> Do I have a second? >> I second the motion. All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> All opposed. Motion carries. >> Ladies and gentlemen, the next item on the agenda is agenda item number eight. This is it is right now 7:33 p.m. We will be going into close session under section Texas government code 551.001 551.071 551.072 551.074 551.076 076 551.129 and 551.0821 concerning and any
115all purposes permitted by the act including but not linked or limited to the sections purposes listed below. Again, it is 7:33 p.m. We are back from um our executive s or close session. It is 8:25 p.m. Agenda item number 10. Uh discussion items. consider and take possible action to propose the termination of chapter 21 term contract employees and authorize the superintendent to send notice of proposed termination to employees. Do I have a motion? >> I move to approve item 10.1. >> Do I have a second? >> I second the motion. >> All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> All oppose. Motion carries. Next item on the agenda is agenda item number 11. Some important dates for all of us. September 2025 is National Suicide Prevention Month. September 2025 Attendance Awareness Month. September
1162025, National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. September 7th through the 13th, National Arts in Education Week. September 10th, 2025, World Suicide Prevention Day. September 11, 2025. Patriot Day 20 this year. September 14th through the 20th, National Adult Education and Family Literacy. September 14th through the 20th, Celebrate Freedom Week. September 15th through October 15th, National Hispanic Heritage Month. September 17, 2025, Constitution Day. September 20th of 2025, La Hoya ISD Wellness Softball Tournament. September 21st, 2025, IT Professional Day. September 23rd, 2025, education technology day. September 24th, 2025, regular call board meeting. October 8, 2025, regular call board meeting cancelled. So before we adjourn, do I have any comments from the board or from the superintendent? >> I will close with um really thanking our arts educators across the district. Um it's National Arts and Education Week and so
117we know how important it is to lift up the arts in our schools. Um so many times our students are showing up for their participation in art and dance, music, theater, all places where they get to celebrate exactly who they are um and really shine um as individuals. And so that would not be possible without the hard work of our heart, our arts educators. And so I really wanted to take a moment during this week to really thank them for their dedication, their heart, their love, their talent. Uh they really create safe spaces for our students to thrive. And so thank you to all of our arts educators across the district. Um and our arts leaders of course in central office, Dr. Zamora and U. Mr. Adame. Thank you so much for your work. >>
118Members of the board, >> I have a couple of things that I'd like to say. One, um uh this was a this was a hard week for the La Hoya ISD family. We lost um a teacher and a young man, and I appreciate the fact that um that we um we acknowledge them tonight. And I ask those that are here and those that are listening in that we keep those two families in our prayers. The second thing I'd like to read is a letter that came to us by or from TEA. It's addressed to Dr. Sorenson and myself. The purpose of this letter is to notify you that on July 16, 2025, the Texas Education Agency conducted a quarterly review of all the conservators and management teams appointed to oversee district operations throughout the state.
119On August 8, 2025, I reviewed and approved the district's the agency final recommend wait I reviewed and approved the district operations throughout the state. I sorry gentle ladies and gentlemen I reviewed and approved the agency's final recommendations. This review was conducted in accordance with the requirements of the Texas Education Code 39A. 03B. In addition to the review of conservators and management teams, TEA conducted a review of all TA monitors and board of manager placements. At this time, it is my decision to continue the appointment of the conservator and board of managers for the La Hoya Independent School District. Any questions you may have should be addressed to Garrett Black in the Division of Governance Interventions at Garrett.Black tea.ex.gov. Sincerely, Steve Lechelup. Just thought I would read that letter to all of you. So, Diana, there
120is a copy of this for you. Um, and of course, um, this is to be filed with the rest of our paperwork. Do I have any any remarks or any questions or any closing remarks from any of the board members before we adjourn? >> Seeing that we have none, do I have a motion to adjurnn? >> I move to adjourn this meeting at 8:30 p.m. >> Do I have a second? >> I second. >> All in favor signify by saying I. I >> all oppose. Motion carries. We are journed.