001Uh, we do have two members who might be joining us remotely. We had to switch platforms, so we apologize for the delay. We'll see if they are able to join us and if they are, I will announce them. Um, we have um uh, important agenda today. First, we're going to get an update on the 2025-26 Spotlight on Students recognition events. Uh, then we'll have a strategic plan updates and then finally an update on the District 8 vacancy. So, I see we have our team here. Hello everyone. Uh, who will be leading the presentation? Dr. Dr. Norfleet? Norfleet, yes. All right. Thank you, Dr. Norfleet. Good afternoon, Chair Haggerty, board members, Superintendent Taylor, and thank you in advance for your time and attention to this really important topic about Spotlight on Students and our updates. Today,
002we just want to make sure that we um, have an opportunity to present and uh, seek approval for the proposed county quadrants and event dates recommended for the updated format of our district's Spotlight on Students. >> [snorts] >> This programming will continue to strengthen collaborative support systems that prioritize the See Me aspect of the learning model, ensuring that each student's individual strengths and resilience are recognized. This framework provides a structured approach to help schools acknowledge students' experiences and cultivate positive learning environments that foster a sense of belonging and ultimately enhancing instructional practices and improving student outcomes. And I will turn it over to Dr. Norfleet. Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. Um, here we have the revision of our Spotlight on Students recognition program. Uh, reflects the collaborative efforts of multiple departments across the district. Each
003has played an instrumental role in identifying the school and community needs essential to making the new format a success. And so, we have representatives from CASS as well as student assignment, community services communications and marketing, translation and interpretation services, innovative and strategic initiatives, as well as security. Um, at the onset, this has been our planning team, but as we move in this work, we will also include school and regional team members to really um, help us plan for the uh, essentials at the hosting sites. So, today we're coming to you with uh, three proposed drafts for our quadrants in which our schools will um, ultimately be divided in hosting um, events across the county. With this first uh, proposed draft um, here we have the uh, quadrant set up to divide schools into equal groups
004of four with options to reflect and prioritize family groups as well as area superintendent regions and board member travel. Including multiple high schools in each region to assure ensure that facilities and adequate parking um, are available to support each program. So, as we look at our draft for um, option one uh, here there's heavy emphasis on uh, family groupings as well as work and travel for families. Um, and we also have school grouping um, sizes that range from 45 to 56 schools for this quadrant. As we move to option two, here we prioritized um, BOE uh, representation for at least three regions as well as the school group sizes range from 41 to 60 schools per quadrant. And when we look at option three option three represents the area superintendent's regions with our school group
005size ranging from 45 to 56 schools. Um, when we were looking um, at this option and working with student assignment um, because of the groupings and hopefully um, travel time considered for families, this one might appear to be the most family friendly. So, with feedback from the Community Engagement Committee and the board senior administrator regarding possible board availability, the recommended dates were selected. Our goal today is to obtain approval which will allow the planning committee to move forward with securing host sites across the district. And so, for um, planning purposes, we are asking that we begin um, the events in February. Um, and they will proceed until May. We have two dates per month that we'd like to seek approval um, from the board. Those dates um, are falling on Mondays and Wednesdays. We've also
006included in the presentation a revision timeline and this is to keep you in the loop on the prog- of the progress of the program revision. We've created a timeline that highlights the steps our teams have taken thus far. And so, uh, we reflected back to um, the initial meeting in June um, of 2025 when we um, were given the um, okay or the approval of acceptance option one at that time which is when we discussed um, moving forward with the regional model. And as you can see the timeline um, follows us until um, today, this presentation at this time. We've also included an implementation timeline and this time out timeline outlines the key dates for collecting and sharing information with schools and community partners, ensuring a smooth rollout of the Spotlight on Students program. Implementation
007will proceed once the board approves the assigned quadrants and proposed event dates, allowing us to recognize and celebrate students across the district effectively. So, in conclusion, the success of this revised program will require assigning special responsibilities to school staff members. The Student Services CASS department will need to increase the budget to support regional programming costs which may include extra duty stipend pay for school-based staff or regional teams, custodial costs for each of the four quadrants, table rental and setup for community fair events in the event that schools do not have materials for the community fair. Additional interpreting equipment and staff members, as well as additional AV needs. We will also form four regional planning teams made up of school staff members. These teams will be key in pre-planning the run of show and coordinating responsibilities,
008ensuring that each quadrant's community event runs smoothly and effectively celebrates our students. For any questions or feedback regarding the recommendations, next steps or any of the updates we've shared today, your insights are invaluable as we continue to enhance the Spotlight on Students program. All right. Thank you, Dr. Norfleet. I appreciate all of the work that has gone into this. You know the Spotlight on Students program has been around for as long as that I've been on the board. I think it was created a few years before that. Um, and I know that we'd received a lot of feedback from families and staff and staff had this idea that you know, moving out of central office and moving it back closer to the schools might have some benefits. I know the board's had a lot of
009input into it. Um, there's been a lot of discussions and ideas and so, again, just I appreciate you bringing these proposals together for us. Uh, what I'd like to do is open it up for any discussion or questions or debate. Um, we wanted to take a closer look at this and so, adding that community element, we put it in the Community Engagement Committee. So, I'll start. I'll ask Ms. Rice if she has any comments that she would like to make at this time and then we'll go around the table. Uh, I do want to say thank you all for the hard work and dedication that you did to try to bring this to light. Um, I know it wasn't an easy task. Um, but you got it done and it was greatly appreciated. Um, I
010think uh, chair, for clarity for me, please. Um, am I just making comments or am I sharing which priority or open discussion um, of quadrant that we're speaking with that later? This is uh, the staff brought us this proposal and so well, um, it's a work session, so we're not necessarily taking a motion. So, I'm just asking for feedback, comment, explanations. If you have a recommendation, you are so Okay. empowered to make that as well. >> Thank you. Just wanted to clarify. Um I think that with the discussions ahead that we've had, I'm more favorable for quadrant three for option three, that is. That's a little bit more family friendly. It seems to just so that I understand, to confirm though a few questions. With quadrant three, it this one is based off of our
011area superintendents regions, is that what we're doing? >> That's correct. And would quadrant three also mean that um how many board members would be um together at each time dividing the first session and the second session that would be needed? Like how like which one will say for instance if if our schedules, you know, they possibly couldn't do the entire day, um what does that look like? So, are our schools divided or with each um middle elementary, middle, high school, is it the same board member for each session that's needed because of their schools or how did we derive to that conclusion for three? So, when we look at option three and we're taking into consideration um area superintendents as well as board members, it looks like there's an opportunity for at least there to
012be an overlap of at least three to four regions for board members as well. In regards to the levels, if board members are not able to stay um for the entire um event, elementary or middle, it looks like we would still have at least three board members represented regardless of the the elementary or the secondary event, if that's answering your question. >> I I think it does. I'm glad that you said what you said because now I have a deeper understanding of what I thought this was. So, we're still overlapping multiple regions >> Correct. versus grouping in quadrants. I see I I assumed that number three was grouping of a couple of regions just maybe two regions, no more than three regions together when doing schools. Is that impossible through through what we've looked at?
013Is Oh. So, Do we need to invite Miss Polium? Come [laughter] on up. Come on up. Yes, let's invite Miss Polium up. She was very instrumental in um using her her expertise in student assignment to help us come up with these quadrants. Right. So, for so if if I may, thank you, chair, for your for your patience, but for for me, I just want a deeper understanding of this is my perception, right? It does not mean that it is the reality of a thing, but my perception was we would be able to do spotlight on students with uh two to three regions, meaning of based off board number, right? One through eight one through nine. And you know, invite those board members or all board members, you know, desiring, but doing regions at a time
014so far as in district by board and its students and its quadrant. And diverse like that. So, was that impossible to do in my world? >> That was what was included in option two. So, because your board regions don't naturally overlap transportation corridors necessarily always, the first pass option one really was looking at transportation corridors and thinking families from these types of areas could travel in groups together and feel like they're in a similar community and we also balanced by number. Then we were given the task to consider, "Ooh, could we reduce the total number of board members that would be required to be present?" And that's where option two came from. But because your board regions and transportation corridors aren't always beautifully aligned as you can tell by the the way the maps are
015drawn. Um it created a little bit of a different schema. You've got some flexibility there where perhaps schools in the maybe Garner area could either push towards the Fuquay side or join the Eastern Wake side. You could kind of play with that space and that would reduce the total number of sessions that a board member would need to attend. And then we thought, "We'll give you one more option. We'll look at the way the area superintendents are organized cuz that also tends to be family friendly." Most of the area superintendents have schools that are organized in communities, but that does does then increase the overlap of the board regions because the area superintendent regions aren't perfectly aligned. Well, you just Yeah, well, you just changed my [laughter] whole perspective and I needed to talk about
016scratch that three. I'm going to talk about two is where I am. So, that's that's all that I have right now so far. I thank you for explaining that a little bit better because I honestly just was not That's not what I understood. And so, by you sharing it, um it helps me understand. So, three is not what I envisioned. So, you're saying what my thoughts were is more aligned with option two. Um and then as I move on for someone else, um option two is that where it's just about the board a couple of board members. Okay. >> Three. No more than two sessions per board member. Okay. All right. Thank you. And if I can, I do want to do a little bit of reset here. So, to make sure that everybody is
017on the same page cuz not everyone was able to attend some of the committee meetings that we had. We're taking an event that was a board meeting. And as a board meeting for all the formalities of a board meeting, generally needed to be held here in Cary at the headquarters. It required a quorum and it required, you know, obviously if it's a board meeting, you want everyone to attend if possible, but you at least needed a quorum. And by our board policy, we try to do these in the evening when we think they would be the most accessible, but then we have two different waves of students that were coming in as well. Okay. And so, I believe that, you know, we have heard from parents and we've heard from our school partners and their
018supporters that oftentimes this was very challenging. Finding the dates that fit in the evenings for the board schedules, finding dates that didn't conflict with other school events, and as, you know, large a as large a county as we have, getting folks from all of those schools that are not necessarily central to our headquarters and coming through rush hour traffic and trying to feed kids, it can all be very, very challenging. And so, to be clear, what we're not trying to do is just have this as a board meeting. We're moving out to a school. This really is a re-envisioning of these events to be more family friendly and more school friendly. But of course, the board members love these events. We want to support our schools and support our students. And so, we appreciate all
019the work that has gone in to trying to make sure that they are spread around so that it's convenient for, you know, each for the board members to attend two or three, you know, of these in their region to make sure you do have board members representing those families in the region, but of course, anybody could come to one. And what I want to make clear is that if this is not a board meeting and the board members don't have a role where we're coming together, establishing a quorum, you know, opening or closing any meeting, we're simply there as guests or participants, then we don't have to worry about quorum and we won't restrict anybody. If you wanted to attend every one of these meetings as a board member, you could. But at the same
020time, if and I'm going to pick on Miss Caulfield because I know what traffic's like up there in the northeastern part of the county, and there is an event that is held, say, in Holly Springs, if you picked one that you did not attend, it might make sense to go to all of the ones in your region and maybe if you had to miss that one, that would make more sense based on travel time, right? Everyone is welcome to attend all of them. And we want to make sure that we do have the board members representing that area there, but it will be a shift and with that shift, we no longer have to worry about nine people's schedules and all of that scheduling that goes into it. And then hopefully, we can work with
021the school partners that host these and rather than trying to work on the schedules of all of the schools that might be coming to Cary, maybe we're only working with just the schools and those school calendars in that region, which I hope will make it a lot simpler and easier to schedule. My last thought is I know we've talked about brainstormed a lot of great ideas for what these events could be, but ultimately, I mean, I think this is a school event and an event that our academics team puts together for the students. And so, you know, if there are ways to implement a lot of these community outreach ideas, we would love that. But at the same time, I don't want to put a big burden on an individual school to where say they
022don't necessarily have a large volunteer base or a large PTA that somehow they would feel excluded and wouldn't be able to host an event like this at sometime. So while I think we'll be very excited and might have a lot of great ideas for you, I do want to ask you to help us rein those in sometimes to make sure that we can have these equitably hosted throughout the district. All right. All right, any further comments or feedback? Vice Chair Swanson. Thank you. So I have not had the opportunity to attend the community engagement. So my comments may be a little long, but I apologize in advance. But let me first start by saying thank you for putting this together without a blueprint. Taking out cut you know, hearing comments, making it work. So thank
023you for that. And I know there's a lot of hard work that went into that. But that being said, I'm more in favor of options either one or two. Given the fact that I represent Western Wake, it makes sense in my opinion to keep those schools in Western Wake together because there is a sense of community. And I think that's the whole purpose is for communities to come together. And I believe both of those achieve that. I did have some questions. I know as we are moving these dates, I I don't see any conflicts with the dates, but I do want to be mindful and just putting this out there that it may you know BAC meetings may take place. And so being mindful of schools that are being that's been utilized for Board of
024Advisory Committee meetings not being overtaxed with this particular event as well. And so I can give you a list of schools that I typically use. I know if we're going with high schools, they've all been very gracious, but just trying to be mindful of the fact that those Board of Advisory Committee meetings take place all nine of us host them at various schools. And um you know, the spring is in concerts are happening again, performances. So it may look different in the different regions. And that's something we have to be okay with and that's and you know, it looks different from sitting here than moving out in the community. And so I did have some questions. I guess my other piece would be about the community fair. And understanding that I know every region looks
025different. And is the way of the community fair to engage folks about the issues or resources that are in you know, the various regions or is it county-wide bringing our county partners at the table? So could you just help me understand that a little bit more? So that has been a big part of our discussion in our pre-planning and specifically with our strategic and innovative team. They currently have a list of community partners and agencies that work with our schools across the district. And the idea is making sure that with each event that there is an equitable representation from within those regions as well as exposure to agencies that may not be in some of those communities. So specifically in working with that department, that is how we will invite as well as confirm and
026schedule agencies to be participants in each of the events. Got you. Thank you. And I do know that this may have been just like listening to some of the meetings that took place, but I know there was conversations about inviting you know, local mayors and city council folks. I just want to you know, although they are great partners, I don't think it's appropriate in this particular case and I'm just speaking for myself you know, to invite them as guests. I think it's a way to you know, bring a partnership, but I'm I'm afraid that that attention could be lost from the students and then making theirs. I just want to make sure that we're keeping it all student focused. It's great to have you know, our mayors and folks as thought partners, but just make
027sure that expectation is there that it's always about the students. We're elected to serve the community, that's it. But when it comes to our students, this is our opportunity to celebrate the greatness that they're doing and they're achieving. And so that's just my individual thoughts. I look forward to attending some of them and you know, looking to hear what some of the community feedback will be. I'm not sure if you all will do at the end of this a survey for families to see what the you know, you know, what some of the the details might have been or what worked well, what did not work well. And I will say just to put this out here lastly that if a school in Western Wake is not available, we always have the board room that
028could accommodate that particular region. So that's a piece just to lift up as well. So thank you all. Thank you. All right, thank you Vice Chair Swanson. Ms. Caulfield. Thank you for this. I'm kind of excited that we're actually getting out into the community. And you know, you hear community engagement and everybody is just assuming that's what it means, but now we're actually taking it to the community. So I think that's really huge to have the people come out and to have that interaction. I actually would love for our mayors to come and I totally understand what you're saying, but I feel like the more community partners we get in, the more all of us that are engaged in our community is actually speaking about every opportunity. Cuz I do find that you know, when
029speaking with the mayors you find out things that are happening in the community cuz you just can't keep up between the emails and updates and posts. And then they also learn from us. Like oh, we didn't realize the school did that. Well, now they can actually put that on there and their town planners can share. And like I'll just use for example Jessica Day, you know, the mayor over at Knightdale. She is very involved and she really does communicate very well back to and I'm only the singling her out because we just did a mayor academy. And Ms. Rice and I were there with Tyra Waters and Don Moyle. And we were talking about all the things that happened in the school through the questions and people came up to us after and it just
030got them more engaged. They did not read, you know, we talked about things with the schools and I mentioned Read to Achieve. And I had this lady come up to me, she said I didn't even know those schools did that. How do I sign up? So I think it's kind of really important to have that in there. And again, I totally understood what you said, but I'm just saying that different perspective is actually inviting them and seeing if they will come and attend because they could learn a lot as well. My one question that I did want to ask, I'm a little confused. If you can just clarify, what is the significant difference between option one and two? I see there's a little bit a tiny little bit of the beige in there, but I'm
031not understanding like what we're So it was just doing some final nuance to get the board number down. So it's not significantly or magnificently different. It's just some tweaking around those areas where the board regions overlap or connect, I should say intersect, so that we could reduce the total number of board members that would be required to be present at each one of the sessions. Cuz the first one, the way that it works out is that you could one board member could have as many as four sessions that they would want to attend because they could have as few as one school represented in one of the quadrants. So we tweaked it a little bit and adjusted the boundaries just ever so slightly. That's why it's all highlighted. >> [laughter] >> Um is because it
032was a lot of manual counting to make sure that we could figure out how to ensure that the board regions didn't overlap so much with the different quadrants. And so the second one gets it down to where the most that any one board member would feel required to go would be twice. Yeah. It's it's in general, it's covering the same families, same schools. Okay. All right, thank you. And Ms. Caulfield, I'll just ask so do you have a preference among the maps? Um I I mean I guess two works, but I still find that we have a very engaged board, so I think we're going to see a lot more than two people at that. So yeah, I would I think more towards two. >> Great. Thank you. And just just to the point, I
033mean I do think I think both Ms. Caulfield and Vice Chair Swanson can be right. And this is something that Ms. Rice and I have talked about, you know, if you keep the events student focused. If it's a bunch of board members and elected officials and then more board members crowd in, it's easy to overshadow those students, right? And that's exactly what what we don't want. But if the students are the focus and we're simply there as guests and participating, I'd love everybody to come out and see them. There is a little bit of sensitivity because sometimes you know, we do have these events and we'll put out a general call to a local elected officials. And I think we just need have to be intentional about you know, the area and the community to
034whom we're responding to. It's like with our high school graduations and some others where we send it out and then sometimes you know, I know this is the question that's driving Mr. Mr. Cook into retirement. I know. Um you know, we we we get mayors from you know, one side of the county showing up at graduations on the other side of the county or little specialty schools and everyone's snapping selfies and you know, it's all the elected officials and it's less about celebrating those students. And I think just we can open it up and have as many of those important guests there like again, Mayor Day is wonderful. Have them you know, come out and participate, but I just think we need to have boundaries to make sure that the students are kept in front.
035All right, I'm going to come to this side of the table and then we'll also ask for anybody online on WebEx, Ms. Gordon or Ms. Edmonds. And then if not, Mr. Hershey or Dr. Ring. I would favor number two. Okay. That's all I got. Dr. Ing, where are you? Um, the the fact that the entire District 3 is in one quadrant on option two, um, I favor that one. Um, but but more the more importantly, I think it's a good that there are multiple, you know, the the reaches of the the quadrants reaches from the suburbs all the way to the to you know, the to the to the city. And I think that it's a great opportunity for parents to perhaps see a different um, different way No, how the how schools are laid
036out differently in different parts of of the county and and um, uh, I think it it's a good op- opportunity for um, better understanding of other people's perspectives. Um, one other things I was thinking about is, you know, in terms of having uh, planning to host an event an event like this, is it possible to have two schools kind of tag team on um, doing the hosting meaning like one actually is the host at at the at the school site or whatever site, but then another school's PTA or what whoever is involved in maybe the some of the manpower um, or um, uh, doing some of the uh, uh, kind of the person like the the face-to-face kind of uh, things that that needs to be done. And so, um, just just some maybe some
037opportunities for for collaboration between schools. So, so just some thoughts. All right, thank you, Dr. Ing. Uh, again, I do want to make sure uh, Ms. Gordon or Ms. Edmonds, I see them online. If either one, okay, I see. So, Ms. Edmonds unmute first and then Ms. Gordon will go in that order. All right, I see Ms. Edmonds' microphone on our um, device trying to activate. So, I know that she's trying to speak. It's not working. Let's try. I can hear I can hear Lynn. Can you all hear me? I can hear Ms. Gordon. I was not able to hear Ms. Edmonds. Let me try again. Um, There we go. We hear you. Thank you, Lynn. >> Oh, great, great. And and I hear all of you fine. Um, thank you, Ms. Gordon and thank
038you, Chair Haggerty. So, I have two questions and a comment. Um, my first question has like two parts. So, you mentioned staff mentioned that there was a question about whether or not schools would have the supplies or equipment needed for the fair. And I just that kind of gave me pause. I mean, do we really think that schools like how concerned are we that schools are not going to have tables and chairs that would be required for the fair? And my the second part of that is if they don't have that, do we not have surplus inventory? I know we have surplus of other like school desks and, you know, other types of furniture. Is that not that we can handle? Great question. Um, we wanted to put that out on the table because this
039will be our first in working um, with those agencies, we really do not have a cap at this time on how many will be invited to attend. That will be contingent on um, the hosting site and the facility itself, how many um, agencies and and and um, guests will be able to attend in that area. But absolutely, yes. Um, and kind of going back to Dr. Ning your point in regards to um, collaboration, um, our plan is that there will be a regional team. And so, within that team, we would have representation from many of the schools. And so, that would give us an opportunity to collaborate and whether we needed materials, whether we needed, you know, task and responsibilities kind of split out. So, depending on the facility or or which site will be
040the host will be the determining factor on how many agencies would be able to attend and and what that volume of um, supplies and resources may look like. And so, if I could say if I could, I do want to add that I want to reaffirm to the board that uh, any logistical support that a school needs, we were going to be there to to provide that because this is not something that we plan to be a burden on schools. And so, I will depend on staff to make sure that any of that that comes up as an issue, then we're able to address that on their behalf. Thank you, Dr. Taylor. Ms. Edmonds, did you have a follow-up? I do. Um, so a second question and then a comment. So, my second question is
041um, again along with cost, do you have do you do you yet have an estimate for some of the other added costs you mentioned such as extra duty pay, AV equipment, things like that? Do you are you working on getting us an estimate even if you don't have that today? Yes, well, we will be working on getting an estimate because that will entail how many interpreters we will need to have as well as custodial um, care in after hours. So, that is something once we can are able to move forward with confirming locations, we'll be able to kind of pin down what some of those amounts may be. Yeah, cuz you did mention that this will require um, your department to, you know, have a budget have a line item for for this project which
042I'm sure, you know, we all support, but we do need to know have a sense of what kind of money we're talking about. Absolutely. >> fin- finally, Chair Haggerty, my comment is um, I'm very excited about this. Um, I I think it's a wonderful way to celebrate our students and our schools. Um, being in community is very important. But I just want us to be mindful as we try this that I I do think I hope we can all acknowledge that there is a little piece of formality that will go away once we take it out of the formal boardroom. And what I mean by that is that right now, the way this has been done is the expectation is that all nine board members are present. Students are actually recognized um, in the formal,
043you know, boardroom which I think carries a level of um, formality and sort of special recognition. You know, it would be to me it's akin to like going to the governor's mansion or going to the general assembly to be recognized for something. And so, um, I I'm in full support of this project, but I just want us as we move forward to sort of, you know, consider what you know, what we whether or not we lose that formal piece and whether or not that is missed later. And it may not be, but that's it. Thank you so much. Thank you, Ms. Edmonds. Ms. Gordon. Um, can you all hear me? Yes, ma'am. Okay. Um, I did want to start off with saying um, how appreciative I am of this um, of this effort. Um, and
044to Dr. Northfleet and the whole planning committee, thank you, thank you, thank you. Um, I can imagine this is no easy task. So, um, I did want to start with that. I also wanted to comment um, on something that Dr. Ing said um, about the collaboration between schools um, as it pertains to Ms. Edmonds' question around um, like tables and chairs and all of that. Um, I'm hoping that once the school, I guess team members are added within the different I guess um, areas or quadrants, um, that they are allowed to like plan and collaborate and kind of um, be able to share resources um, amongst, you know, amongst the the all the schools that are involved. Um, and then my last question really is to Dr. Northfleet. I think I I think I hopped
045on a little bit later and I hopped on um, during the tail end of your comment around um, the has the planning committee identified um, option one, two, or three as the more favorable option? I thought I heard you say that. We do not have a favorable option, but in looking at it, um, option three was more family friendly. Okay. Can can you say more about why you feel like it's more family friendly? Ms. Pulliam is going to um, assist you with that. Candidly, um, just to acknowledge what Mr. Haggerty mentioned earlier about the size of the district. I don't have the exact number, but the last time I looked, it's something along 40 miles by 40 miles. So, no matter how we dissect or bisect the district into quadrants, you're going to probably have
046a 20-mile span one way or the other. So, finding something so- somewhat central still means the farthest family is going to have to travel 10, but that's certainly better than 40 or even 30. Uh, so looking at these, I think they're all relatively family friendly. Um, our thinking was just in terms of community. The area superintendents do tend to reflect the communities that are established around school groups. And I think that's what led the team towards thinking that that option three sort of honored that sentiment. However, I think all three of them will at least provide families a much more approximate option and to feel like that event is being hosted in their community. So, I think it goes both ways. It's just a matter of the area superintendent regions do reflect that sort of
047sense of camaraderie and and maybe even school feeder patterns, etc. But I think there's a lot of overlap between all three of the quadrants. All of them are manageable um and functional. Okay. Thank you. I think that concludes my questions and comments. All right. Thank you, Ms. Gordon. We'll go back around for additional comments. Uh Ms. Rice and Vice Chair Swanson. Thank you, Chair. Uh I wanted to raise a little uh share a brief comment. I I am in favor of and it was supposed to be about community and celebrating students. And so, I think that inviting our electorate or uh other business leaders with the focus of celebrating our students, um I think it's an amazing idea. Um The other part that that I have a little concern with that we spoke about briefly,
048but I want a little bit more clarity with the whole board here is about the fair and the partners. Um I had a little concern about the choice words of "We'll get with who is in our um map it group and then decide." Um I'm I'm a little more concerned about um having whether we're choosing to have partners or people that are going to be there and they're going to be at every single fair for the remaining of the year for each one so that the same everyone gets the same distribution uh partners. Um I also think that there should be a little containment of how many partners that we're having with my schools in mind who are hosting um because it can be a lot um as well as my other thoughts is around
049security um making sure that we have that. But I I I would like a little bit more um understanding of what what thought partners we're going to have around the table and that they're going to participate and a confirmation that they will actually be at each one of the um of our spotlight on students. Um because I'm hoping that we're not going to pick and choose who which partners we're going to use at which spotlight on students host. So, I'm really not in favorable for that process. Um but I'm looking for a more equitable process around having the same people, which is why um for me I know that you all said that you wanted to choose partners off of the map it. Um but in my mindset, I'm looking at um our district and
050and uh the departments we have in the district that parents or people may not necessarily know that's available within the district. And if they look like they were the resource fair. Um basically because when we go out into community, the district brings its tons of individuals as we learned in our community engagement meeting, the people within the district are the ones that are out doing the fair and showing who we are. Um meaning um you all's department as a whole. Um I would love to see if a fair and a table set up where it's for families with disabilities and you're actually spotlighting your phone number that it really is supposed to be available for families to be able to call. So, resources and things that they may not necessarily know that's within the district
051actually being elevated and spotlighted um since it is about students. It's about our students um and not about um external um partners and some do. So, just just a thought process of that is that it to me that it's not all just external people, but so that it's families that we're trying to get in. We want to elevate what goes on in our school and what our students actually and families actually have access to because external partners means they leave out of the district when we want to elevate what's inside the district to let them know this is what we think about you. This is how we care about you. Um and we want you to be able to know what we have to offer you as a district. Um the other suggestion that I
052wanted to make, um I think this is the last thing, is is there possibility for you to reach out to um our arts magnet um our arts coordinator, Mr. Jeremy Tucker. I meant to email him. So, Jeremy, if you hear this, I'm so sorry I did not get back to you yet. Um to see which schools in our district are already equipped um with the the theater parts or of in our auditoriums um that may already have um the sound systems that are a little bit more up-to-date. He probably knows probably better than any of us um which one of our schools have already good systems um with sound whether that's with our spotlight on students or our future community engagement um teams that when we go out in the community um at the schools.
053So, it's just a thought of reaching out to Mr. Tucker. He may already know which schools are already kind of put together um to do performance or to have that level of um planning and programming. And um I think that covered it for me from what I could think about board chair. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um we did way exceed the amount of time that uh we we thought we would spend on the event, but I want to make sure we've had um given you some direction. So, Vice Chair Swanson, I'll ask you for any comment and then I'll just ask board members to go around briefly. I think you've you've expressed preferences for which plans, but if anyone has changed anything, you can let me know. But otherwise, uh we'll we'll wrap it
054up. Vice Chair Swanson. Thank you. So, I'm still option two. Um just uh but I I'm curious to know what role will principals play into this as they're hosting and they're welcoming the community into their home. Um is there a space for them to either give a welcome or some remarks just so it it's you know, it's it's centering them as well because it takes a lot of work if you've been there all day and not leaving until the evening. Just making sure that we're being mindful of of that request as as well. So, that's the only thing that I had. Thank you. Do you all have a response or >> Yes. Yes, I'm sorry. That will um definitely be a part of the run of the show for each event. Great. All right, then.
055So, uh Dr. Ng. Um I was wondering whether you guys had thoughts about like performance art um performances at these uh community fair. Um I I just remember going to the East Middlebrook um Middle School anniversary and and and it was such a celebration having all these performances at different different rooms and all that. So, just a thought. Thank you, Dr. Ng. Mr. um Jeremy Tucker will be helping us with that. He surely will. He surely will. >> Thank you. All right. So, I have heard from different board members. I think I heard more comments in favor of option two, but I also heard that people I thought were fairly good with all of all of the options. So, if anyone if that is a misrepresentation of your view, please email the team, Dr. Norfleet,
056Dr. Hill, and Ms. Woodson directly and um we appreciate your presentation. Thank you for the update. And Chair Haggerty, before we adjourn, uh we what about the dates? Cuz we did um offer two options for dates. Would you all just like to give us that feedback of your preference? I I think at this point because we are so far over our agenda, if board members could look at their calendars whether Mondays or Wednesdays are preferable, just please reach out to the team or you can reach out to myself and Ms. Allen and just express your preference and we'll provide that feedback. All right? Thank you. All right. Uh next, we have our strategic plan update. And so, we want to call uh Dr. Leanne Offer Keith and Dr. Clinton Robinson up. We're just waiting for
057the uh the Testing, one, two. All right. Um so, the computer restarted. Not a problem. >> So, I am reloading now. Does everyone still have the PowerPoint on your on your computers? Okay. We good? Should be. All right. Thank you. Uh Board Chair Haggerty, Vice Chair Swanson, esteemed board members, and uh Superintendent Taylor. First, we want to thank you for the opportunity to share this afternoon's strategic plan update. Before we dive into updates and metrics, I definitely want to begin by grounding us and our viewers in our strategic plan for its its origin. Our strategic plan was It's not up. How we doing? Here it is. Okay. Our strategic plan uh was built through listening. Thousands of voices from across Wake County came together to shape its direction. Students shared their hopes, teachers their challenges,
058families their dreams, and community partners their expectations. Under the guidance of this board, those voices became a shared vision, a plan rooted in excellence, equity, and an opportunity for every student. Our mission and vision, preparing every student to reach their full potential and thrive in a complex, challenge uh changing world, is the foundation of every uh goal, every pillar, and every aim. The core beliefs you see here, excellence, equity, engagement, and innovation, are more than statements. They are our our non-negotiables. They drive how we lead, how we support schools, and how we measure success. The structure of this plan was intentionally designed to focus on what matters most. Student disposition and well-being, student knowledge and skills, and operational effectiveness. These are the levers that move the entire system forward. Finally, the strategic plan isn't static.
059It's a living framework that guides our decision-making, helps us monitor progress, and ensures transparency and accountability for our community to our community, excuse me. Three priorities, seven goals, four pillars, and 20 aims. So, as we begin this session, this update is part of our ongoing effort to keep the board informed as we monitor progress towards our strategic goals. There are three key outcomes we're focused on today. First, we will review updates of our strategic plan goals and metrics. Second, we will dive deeply into operational effectiveness. And then third, we will receive forecasts on future deep dives. Each of these outcomes ensure that we stay aligned and transparent. As we monitor each goal, we're not only measuring performance, but are also identifying best practices, barriers, and opportunities for innovation. Today's discussion is meant to share data
060and context, but also to hear your insights and questions as we continue this collective journey towards our 2028 outcomes. As part of our continuous improvement process, we built a cadence of deep dives aligned to the strategic plan. These sessions allow us to move beyond surface level metrics and explore what's really driving success or where we need to adjust. This slide provides a preview of the upcoming deep dives for the 2025-2026 board calendar. It is both a roadmap and an invitation, a chance for the board to help shape which areas we will examine in greater depth. Each of these deep dives connects directly to our strategic priorities, so the board can see how progress is being made across instructional, operational, and cultural dimensions of our work. Later in the presentation, we will revisit this slide and
061ask each of you to provide your feedback to determine if there are any additional areas you would like us to explore in future sessions. Your insights and feedback is always will guide our work for future presentations. Before we look deeper into performance and progress, it's important to acknowledge the broader environment in which we're operating. This slide captures several policy and budgetary uncertainties that are shaping our current year. Much like districts across the state, we're managing the tension between ambitious goals and unpredictable funding. These shifts don't change our direction, but they absolutely influence the pace and scale of what we can do. Two notable funding changes are impacting our work. Number one, the school-based mental health grant, which supported behavioral health and counseling services in schools, has concluded. The second, the teacher and school leadership TSL
062incentive grant, which helped us recruit, develop, and retain educators in hard-to-staff areas, has also ended. Both grants allowed us to pilot innovative practices and build capacity. So, part of our work now is determining what can be sustained locally. We're also navigating new or revised state and federal executive orders that influence instructional flexibility, staffing, and compliance expectations. These create additional layers of complexity in planning and reporting. However, despite these constraints, our teams continue to innovate, finding efficiencies, leveraging partnerships, and aligning resources to ensure that student learning remains at the center of every decision. We share this context not to dwell on limitations, but to keep the board fully informed of the fiscal realities that intersect with our strategic priorities. Transparency in this space helps us make informed, sustainable choices. So, the first uh strategic priority, student
063knowledge and skills, focuses on ensuring that every student is challenged, engaged, and equipped with the academic foundations and critical competencies necessary for lifelong success. We know that preparing students for success means more than memorizing content. It's about helping them develop essential skills, communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity, which are the four C's that empower them to navigate a complex and changing world. We also remain committed to ensuring that all students receive a strong foundation in literacy, mathematics, science, and social studies. But we're also intentional about expanding their learning in the arts, digital literacy, and financial literacy, the areas that connect learning to real life. The priority really serves as the anchor for the entire strategic plan because everything we do operationally, socially, and organizationally ultimately supports student learning. The measurable goals within student knowledge and
064skills priority, focusing on ensuring students graduate on time, um reach grade level proficiency, and demonstrate academic growth year over year. So, our first goal focuses on 98% of our students graduating on time. This isn't just about earning a diploma. It's about preparing students to leave our system ready to thrive in college, careers, and life. Graduation represents the culmination of years of consistent, high-quality learning experiences. The second goal is about ensuring 90% of students are proficient or above read in reading, math, and other core subjects. Proficiency reflects the ability to demonstrate understanding and applying learning to new situations. It's a measure of both rigor and relevance. The third goal emphasizes academic growth, making sure that every student, regardless of where they start, shows remarkable progress each year. Growth ensures that every student is advancing, not just
065those already performing at high levels. Together, these goals create a balanced picture of student success. Graduation tells us about outcomes. Proficiency tells us about mastery. And growth tells us about progress. Each one matters. And together, they help ensure that every student reaches their full potential. So, let's begin by looking at one of our most significant indicators of student success, the graduation rate. This data reflects the percentage of students completing high school within four years and helps us understand how effectively we're supporting students from start to finish. Our overall graduation rate is 90.7%, which reflects strong performance. You would all also notice on this slide student group graduation rate in correlation to our overall goal of 98%. These numbers remind us that while we're proud of our overall success, our work continues to ensure equitable outcomes
066is not complete. Goal two focuses on grade level proficiency, often referred to as GLP. It represents the percentage of students performing at or above grade level on state assessments in core content areas such as reading, math, and science. District-wide, our current GLP stands at 64.4%, which tells us that roughly two out of every three students are meeting grade level expectations. That's a strong foundation, but it also signals the distance we must cover to reach our 90% target. When we disaggregate the data, we see certain groups performing very well, but at the same time, we see significant disparities among other uh student groups. These results underscore our continued focus on equitable access to high-quality instruction, strong tier one practices, and targeted academic supports. The school performance model is comprised of two major parts, proficiency and growth.
067While proficiency tells us how many students are meeting grade level standards, growth tells us how much progress students are making each year, regardless of where they start. So, as we look at this slide, I want you to understand that this slide reflects growth outcomes for schools and growth outcomes by student groups within those particular schools. 49% of our schools have exceeded statewide average growth. Elementary schools at 47%, middle schools at 45%, high schools at 55%. The student group data on this slide represents the percentage of schools that are exceeding our statewide average for particular student groups in these particular schools. So, for example, if we look at uh 34%, if you look at the black student group, 34% of our schools are exceeding the statewide growth average for black African-American students. So, what I would
068like to do at this time is I want to jump to this particular slide so that you can see the growth indicators. The statewide average is everything to the right of zero. And so, when we look at the 49% of our schools that are exceeding the statewide average, that means those schools are to the right of zero. But, when we think about all of the schools that we have in our district that have met growth expectations, I believe we are at 74%. Is that correct, Brad? So, as we go back to this particular slide, I wanted to make sure that everybody is clear of that understanding, that this pertains to schools, and then when you look at the student groups, it pertains to the groups of students in those particular schools that are exceeding the
069statewide growth average. So, now as we jump to this particular slide, one of the things that we really wanted to share with the board is the district strengths, district areas concern, district groups exceeding expected growth, and district groups not meeting expected growth. Excuse me. So, now when we look at this particular slide, we notice that in EOG math, fourth, fifth, and sixth grade are exceeding growth expectations. In EOG science, we notice that fifth and eighth grade are exceeding growth expectations, as well. When we look look at end-of-course exams, far as biology, English 2, math 1, and math 3, you will notice we are exceeding growth expectations. So, when we look at areas concern in EOG math, in seventh grade, we did not meet those expectations. In EOG reading, in third, fourth, and fifth grade, we
070did not meet those expectations, as well, as well to EOG reading in eighth grade. Now, this particular slide is of great interest, because typically we don't share this slide, and I'm going to ask Brad to expand upon the reasoning and the rationale of what has been done in the past. But, what you will notice in K-2 assessment of early literacy and mCLASS, from the middle of the year to the end of the year, we did not meet growth expectations in kindergarten. You will look at first and second grade, we did not meet those expectations, but I also included the growth index, so you would see what those numbers are. So, when we look at kindergarten, we're at a -16.22. We look at first grade is -6.01. And then when we look at second grade, we're
071at a -10.40. So, I would like to pause here and give Dr. McMillan an opportunity to share additional information. All right. So, um the growth slides that you saw that Dr. Robinson just shared come from the the caparts of the state's testing program that everybody's familiar with, right? End-of-grade, end-of-course, the the things that are part of the publicly reported testing and accountability. Uh but, the state also gives us a similar growth analysis of our K-2 dibbles early learning assessments in that same format, which you see here. So, it's not something that gets publicly reported every September like all the other stuff. However, what it tells us is that on those early literacy assessments, kids are not making much progress during the year in K and 1 and 2. So, even though that's not part of
072state reporting and accountability, that's obviously very, very important to us. And one of the reasons it's so important is because being uh a dibble scores at the end of grade 2 are very predictive of who is proficient by the end of grade 3, when we switch to the EOG test. Specifically, students who are below benchmark only uh pass the end-of-grade third third grade end-of-grade reading test at a 27% clip. If you're at the benchmark, or meaning {quote} on grade level on these assessments, it's a 54% clip. But, if you're in the top category, above benchmark, it's 86%. So, you can see there's a very clear relationship there between where you fall on these assessments and how you end up doing at the end of third grade. And one of the things that um can be
073a little misleading is we we've shared mCLASS data with the board before and looked at the percentage of kids who are {quote} at or above benchmark, and that number's generally in the 70s to 80s every year by the end of the year. Well, but it turns out if being at benchmark only puts you with a coin flip opportunity to being proficient at the end of third grade, well, then at is it's at. You really need to be above if you want to really be free and clear and on a good trajectory to be proficient at the end of third grade, and that's why this growth matters so much. Because one of the other things we've uncovered in looking at this is when we look at where the growth is is occurring and isn't occurring in
074these grade levels, the lack of growth is heaviest or worst at the top end. So, kids who are already {quote} at benchmark, they're not stretching, they're not going that extra distance to make sure that they've got that strong enough foundation the end of third grade, and instead of demonstrating these foundational skills where they're learning to read, they're having to read to learn and do comprehension things and summarize and identify main ideas and make inferences, that that leap is too far for a lot of kids at that point, because they really don't have a strong enough foundation that being at benchmark really is not getting us there. We really need to have more kids that are above, and that's where the growth is has been lacking in the past. So, that's an example of sort of
075getting past that top layer and trying to go deeper and deeper and deeper to see kind of what's behind some of these things that might be holding us back in terms of some of the state reported proficiency rates that we see starting in grade 3. And so, Dr. McMillan before we go forward, if we have any technical questions, let's go ahead and ask them. These are not not general questions about the whole results, but just about any particular slide. So, who the benchmark is set for K through 2 by the state, or is that our own personal benchmark? >> No, dibbles is a nationally normed assessment. It's been around for many, many years. Do we break down the K through 2 results based on age? Because I always think about it in K through 2,
076the 10-month difference between students where older student might be meeting those goals and a younger student may not be, and it just may be a case of they're 10 months younger and just haven't had I mean, that's you know, 18% of one's life at that age, kind of thing. So, do we break that down? We don't ordinarily. We certainly could. Um we know that we do have a lot of families who will, I believe the term is redshirt their children, uh and have them start kindergarten as age six rather than age five, which as you said creates a really big gap, maybe between some kids. And then you've got kids who just missed the cutoff sometimes by a day or two in terms of kindergarten eligibility, that can also create a gap. So, there is
077a lot of variation there to your point. I think it's a that's a good insight, but I don't think we've really looked at that particular breakdown before. We usually just looked at our typical sub student groups that we're used to looking at, but that's a good insight. >> had one other question. I would like to see that information. I think it's it's incredibly important, because they can be very misleading, some of this information. Um do we take the data that we have when we say getting to the benchmark isn't isn't enough? Are we taking this data and then examining what we are what programs we are teaching K through 2 and whether they're effective, how long they've been in place, have they been in place long enough to show an impact, and then I know
078I'm asking like 10 questions >> sort of getting beyond what we're doing at this point. >> but I just want to know basically how we using the data. We're getting presented the data, that's great. How does it translate into use? Most definitely, Mr. Hershey. And please know with the mCLASS assessment, when those students are assessed at those pivotal times, according to where they are, then it is implemented progress monitoring for those students that is on a schedule to see what growth they're making, and then to prescribe those skills in which they need that extra support in mastering those skills. So, that is how the program is designed to adapt to the needs of what the kids will need in mastering those particular skills. Okay. We're on slide 18 of 54. So, I really don't want
079to take more questions unless it's something technical specific to this slide. Go ahead. Well, I did have something specific to this slide, but I was going to ask because it is 54 slides, there could be a lot of questions to maybe break it up so that we can discuss what it is we just digested and then kind of move from there. >> So, what I'm worried about is that if we open it up to too many questions, we won't get to the other slides. Let me ask Dr. Robinson, given what we have just in this section, can we just finish up these data reports and then I'm looking at slide 22 it seemed to be a natural point to go back and ask about all of those. Okay, but I do have a question on
080this one. Go ahead. Um so and actually it's like the series because it's like three slides 14, 15 and 16. Um it would be helpful I guess it's more comment and a question. Um I see that we have like the grades broken down and for this year I think it would be helpful if we had the number of the students in each grade so that we can kind of identify and also like when you have the percentage it doesn't really give you an accurate number of how many students you need to address cuz each one needs to be addressed each student. So I think it would be helpful if we had in this chart somehow the number of students that we are actually charting in there. Um and then I wanted to know if and
081this could come later if it needs to be but it is on this information. You're mentioning K1, 2 and 3 I'm sorry K1 and 2 which leads to three which we all know is an extremely pivotal point for children. Um and I just want to know if they could comment and you can do it later on how we're changing that progress cuz I think it was our prior super state superintendent that said um by first grade if they're having difficulties it actually follows them through into adulthood. So that's that's kind of troubling to hear K1 and before we get to three so I just wanted to know what are we doing that is shifting things and also one more thing if you could tell us when do we review curriculum to see if that is
082something that we could shift. Okay, so what we'll do is we'll go on through slide 21 and then you can address those questions at that time, okay? >> Okay, thank you. Thank you. So what we have here are the district groups exceeding expected growth. And we wanted to make sure that we share this information as well. So when we look at our Asian Pacific Islanders the overall exceeds exceeded expected growth is at 21.72. When we go to the next slide we will look at the English learners the overall is 6.88 and the American Indian Alaskan natives are at 2.09. You will notice for the American Indian Alaskan native you will see meets growth expectations at a negative 0.16. So as a reminder we still have a a mark where we want everything to exceed the
083statewide average and be above zero. On this particular slide you will notice that although these particular student groups met growth expectations you will notice that they did not meet growth expectations when it came to reading. Uh academically intellectual gifted were at a negative 3.44 and with our white student group at reading they were at a negative 2.48. So you will notice the trends of consistency that reading is something of a major focus within our district. Now on this particular slide we talked about and we're sharing information around district groups not meeting growth expectation. Our black non-Hispanic group overall was at a negative 8.47. Our economically disadvantaged students were at overall a negative 9.99. I also wanted to include just this slide as well because we talked about our strengths the ones that exceed and we
084talked about did not meet but we have those that met growth expectations as well. Our Hispanic overall is at a negative 1.02 although that is not on the other side of zero it's still within the criteria of the state as being designated as a school that met expected growth. Now I'll pass it to Dr. McMillan to go a little bit more in detail. Well and again just looking at just looking looking ahead um some of those questions again that Ms. Caulfield asked I think it also get to questions of proficiency and some others that are also in the next couple slides. So let's just finish out this section on academic growth. Mhm. Then we'll take all questions about academics and then the next session will begin will be behavioral health then we'll stop for questions
085and then we'll conclude on the one about facilities and operations. All right? All right, so the next few slides are an extension of what Dr. Robinson shared before. He gave you kind of the point in time where are we on all of those priority one goals uh where are we and this is showing a little bit more of a trend going back to say when before the plan started what was our baseline? What's that progress been like on some of those goals? So here you see a trend over a period of time on our four-year graduation rate which has been relatively flat. Um if you get out your magnifying glass that line is actually going up from left to right but not by a heck of a lot. Uh and according to our math to
086get to that 98% goal by 2028 we're going to have to grow almost 3% a year. And if you look across the last seven years you're hard pressed to find a year where we had a three-point jump. That would be more than what we've had before so we do need to find a way to bend that curve a little bit more rapidly. Within our subgroups we see the same picture. Um after a bit of a jump in things sort of recessed back to 22-23 levels last year we had a little bit of a reset with many of these student groups English learners Hispanic Latino students and others. Uh so again with the emphasis here is that if you think about 2.8% as a district on that previous chart it becomes obvious that some of our
087student groups need to grow even more rapidly than that in order to get to that 98% by 2028. Proficiency as Dr. Robinson noted was 64.4 that was 2/10 of a point higher than last year. Uh with our goal here being 90% of students at or above proficiency that means that we have to grow at an 8 and 1/2% clip between now and 2028 to get there. So again thinking about bending that curve there's progress but the progress is not rapid enough to achieve the ambitious goals that we have. And then by our student groups again we see small bits of progress but again not at the levels that we're going to need to see particularly for those groups that started furthest behind at the beginning of this plan in terms of their proficiency rates. So
088the acceleration that has to take place has got to be more than what we've had in recent years. With respect to the growth goal for our schools growth is a little bit of a different animal because everybody starts over at zero every year. So this isn't one where a trend necessarily continues in a linear sense. It can go up and down pretty wildly from one year to the next. We were in the 60s dipped down to about 49% of schools at or above the state average for growth last year. However this could very easily jump up to 70 or 80 this year because our growth measurements at the state level reset every year and so everybody's starting from zero each year and so that could go up pretty significantly um you know in any year
089or so very easily. The last chart I wanted to show you is a bit of a mashup between those two. This is another one like the K2 data which I don't think we've been share we've shared much at this level before so I do have I'm going to have to walk you through it for a minute here. So what you've got here is a set of blue bars that look very tiny. Every one of those is a school. And from left to right they are in order based on the proficiency level that they had last year. So the bar on the far left is the school in the district with the lowest proficiency rate and the blue bar on the farthest right of this slide is the school with the highest proficiency rate. Then what
090you see on the vertical axis is the amount of growth that those schools made last year and the green area is the the state state met uh met growth area. If that bar extends below the green that means the school failed to meet the state's growth standard. If the bar extends above the green area that means that school exceeded the state's growth standard. All right, everybody with me so far? All right, so the big takeaway here is if you look from left to right you can see on the left-hand side of the graph we have a lot more bars below the green than above and on the right-hand side we have a lot of the bars above the green and very few that are below. And so what that's telling us is the growth that
091we are experiencing in the district is disproportionately happening in our higher achieving schools. And in our lower achieving schools the growth is not as strong. So in a sense if you were thinking about trying to get schools caught up it's almost happening in the place you want to you almost want it the other way around, right? Um so there it is not evenly distributed. Our higher performing schools are having higher growth than our our lower performing schools. So on this particular slide we wanted to be able to share our strategic responses to priority one. We focus on low performing school support instructional capacity building and the learning model. Many of these strategic initiatives you're very familiar with um whether they were presented at our student achievement committee during the board work session or during at
092various committee meetings. However there is just one other um initiative that I would like to make you aware of that we just started recently under low performing school support. And that is the strategic instructional leadership program. At this time I would like to defer to Dr. Hill to share a few words about that initiative. Capitalizing on the work that Dr. Taylor and I have both had experiences with we're looking at work that's going to support our current levers. We have level one being our standards driven instruction level two with our high impact instructional strategies and then level three the student well-being and resilience. So we have issue initiated a cohort of 15 schools our low performing schools in which we are giving them um focus PD and looking at how we have established our learning
093model levers what are the desired outcomes and this coaching and feedback support is how they get to those um desired outcomes with their teachers. So, we've had our first session in October, and this is going to comprise professional development for both the principal and the assistant principal, as well as a team of our central services that are going to expand this support to even coach our um schools on a um higher level. Dr. you want to add anything to that? Yes, I do. And you know, one of the things that I always talk about is is what I call instructional leadership. Uh and so, one of the things I always try to examine is are principals able to go into a classroom setting, be able to identify what is good instruction, and then be able
094to give feedback on that to the teachers. And so, that's uh the significant part of this professional development is training those principals and teachers on those high-probability strategies, and then begin to develop um the framework where they can engage in what we call teaching studies. So, teaching studies is essentially you observing your peers, but it goes much deeper than that, and it's not part of an observation tool. It's actually part of a learning tool. And so, we wanted to start out with this um a cohort of the first 15 uh that we recognize as a number of the low-performing schools that we wanted to get in first, and then we have subsequent cohorts after that. But, it is about strengthening the ability as instructional leaders. And Chair Haggerty, the last slide of this particular section
095um is about our SLT data reviews. And so, Dr. Orph Keith, if you can share a few thoughts about that, it'd be appreciated. Yes, I'll be happy to. So, this uh we added here because this is a really something that's part of the strategic response as it relates to priorities one, two, and three, which is uh changing the way that our superintendent's leadership team reviews data on an ongoing basis. We actually have now this year a data review process for each SLT meeting, where we are able to bring together all of the metrics that you see here as it relates to priority one, two, and three. It is very systematic in how it is calendared according to every meeting, so that we're looking at data that is a timely. It is also extremely comprehensive, as
096I was always saying, it relates to all priorities and pillars, and it is distributive and collaborative in a new way, where it allows all departments to come and present their data to all of the other leaders of the departments, so that everyone is able to give that input and have a shared understanding, rather than data being siloed in specific departments. Um and so, this is something that has been informative and influential for departmental management plans, but it does connect as part of our strategic response to all of our priorities, as well. And Chair Haggerty, we're ready to pause at this time and take any questions you may have. Thank you. So, uh staff has presented strategic plan um metrics for the the the first area, our academic area, student knowledge and skills. Uh you you've
097had a chance to ask a couple questions about some of the specific metrics. Do you have more general, deeper questions? I know Ms. Caulfield had asked about student curriculum um and related things in terms of the progress we're making or when we'd review that. Board member, do you want to expand upon that now, or do board members have any additional comments about the uh student knowledge or skills piece? Um thank you. Um so, I was really I guess first trying to understand when we review the curriculum. Um I don't need to repeat the the comments that I made about the first K through 3. Um but when do we actually review the curriculum? So, Ms. Caulfield, the state gives us a timeline when those standards are in fact revised, and we want to be in
098alignment with them, and I'm just so appreciative of our state CAO, Dr. Stacy Wilson Norman, who's trying to align that, so that we won't have math and ELA standards being revised at the same time, because that's a heavy financial lift for school districts in order to obtain materials for both of those curriculums at the same simultaneous time. I would want to revisit that under um State Superintendent Truitt, there was a mandate for all teachers to be in K5 to be um trained with the LETRS training. And so, therefore, that was a mandate in order to be in alignment with the science of reading, and we do have our curriculum resources, and I have my team here with me that are in alignment with the science of reading. So, those things that we're trying to close
099that gap for our K2 students in order to strengthen their foundational skills, that's a part of those resources, and we want schools to have those at their at their um disposal, so that they can help to address those very foundational needs in order to give our students what they need. Okay, so And Ms. Caulfield, I can add to it because I know your question is about um when do we make changes in curriculum? And and ultimately, a district can choose to switch curriculum anytime that they want. Uh but, what we do try to do is to make sure we're in alignment with the state when they uh review renew those standards or whatever interval interval that may be. And so, we recognize that uh if we want to switch the curriculum every year, we can,
100but that's going to impact the professional development that teachers have to learn that particular curriculum. And so, what we try to do is align with the state, so that when they uh do I don't want to call it an overhaul, but a um um an update of the standards, that we can now select curriculum that aligns with what those standards are, and then use that over a selected period of time. It's usually talking about 5 to 7-year period. So. And where are we in that 5 to 7-year period? So, I think the state um when was the last time they updated the um ELA standards? 2021. That's what I thought. >> standards were in fact updated. Okay, so we're looking at least a year ahead before anything even is announced, and then we pick curriculum
101from there? Base Yes, ma'am, based upon those revisions. Okay. Um and then if I could ask one more question, um as far as the proficiencies, cuz I know we went over a whole bunch of uh slides. I guess um we our goal is to get to 90, right, by 2028 in our proficiency? Um do we know when we were last at 90? As a reflection tool of So, as a as a What were we doing then? What are we doing now? Kind of thing? Uh it was back in the 1990s. Um it's been that long since proficiency rates were that high in the state of North Carolina. Um and then once we got into the 2000s, and then the adoption of Common Core in the 2012-2013 area, those proficiency rates got knocked down very, very
102significantly. Um and there were lots of reasons for that. But, the state by its state itself has has not been there since the 1990s, probably. But, the standards also were very different. Expectations of kids in terms of the amount you had to be able to read to be successful back then were nowhere near what they are today. The standards are just much higher. All right. Ms. Ross. Uh sorry, but uh I I was listening as best I could. Uh I just have really just basically uh two questions. One, happy to see the low-performing school information um that was put in here. Uh first of all, I definitely have to say I'm very proud of Wake County and its strategic plan, period. I I think um the lead of Dr. Robinson in this has been absolutely
103phenomenal. Um it has been my guiding light to do the work that I do in community for District 4. And speaking of that and the data when it comes to our low-performing schools, one of the things that I've heard our superintendent speak on often, in which I'm in strong agreement with, and feel the same views, is that um as a district, we really need to shift from looking at a low-performing school and looking at our subgroups and its performance, because we find these same students in the subgroups who are in higher-performing schools having the same outcomes. And so, that's something that I've been trying to focus in in my district overall is about performance of the groups, and we see it here in the data that you showed um around low-economic families, and particularly, if
104I will say very directly, black families um and black children. Um that data has constantly been that way over two decades that I was advocating for student achievement um and pushing even in the when I lived in the northern part, right, in District 1. Um these same numbers are still here, and we're moving at some very marginalized spaces. And so, for me, I am interested in that strategic plan aligning a little bit more in depth around subgroups of of children, so that when we raise those numbers, you actually raise the overall low-performing schools, right? And so, then we don't then we don't just really stop at the low-performing schools that's raised. We actually then turn around and raise even the schools that are collectively performing higher when we focus on student populations that are struggling.
105And so while I know that is important that we look at everything, I really um am advocating for that as a board member, even within my district, um with connecting with families at the place that I can in the community engagement level, but I am employing our our board because I believe that the folks around this table, um if we are in agreement, constantly are always talking about student focus. We're constantly wanting to see the achievement of all students. And so I believe if we are in agreement about that piece, we have to be more intentional about the work that we do to make sure that these students are receiving the direct supports and the wrap-arounds of what's necessary. And so that for me is not looking at a low-performing school and standing alone, but
106is looking at the population of that because I really want us to move away from the thought process of a low-performing school. You do not have to be a low socioeconomic. Low economics does not have to mean low performing. And so when we look at a different shift of that will not only change the low-performing schools overall, which if we look at the data, since we have data here, the low-performing schools is the predominant of that school by the race we're looking at, black children. Everyone's shaking their head, yes. Focus on the student with our student learning model and we shift it all. It's a conversation that has to be had in a more direct and a more open and a more honest conversation in Wake County Public Schools after 50 years of integration. 50
107years and we're still creeping. We're still saying we're working on it, we're working on it, we're working on it, but we have children who are black, who are struggling, and who are not performing well, and who are leaving our school district and still are not being able to meet the standards of society in which they need to be a productive citizen. And so I'm employing our board to really push this and support our superintendent with us being strategic around it. Our state superintendent, last thing I wanted to say, our state superintendent, I'm so thankful that he is in this space of where he is because he set out to do this at Guilford County Schools. A product of one of our vice chair of this time, where Guilford County Schools, I think still to this
108day, has the highest graduation rate of African-American males. It can be done because he was very strategic in it and he was very intentional about it. And until this day, Guilford County still has the highest graduation rates for African-American male students. If we believe in what we say around this table, let's really be intentional about it. Let's hold each other accountable to it. Let's not shy away from the conversation. It is okay to have the conversation because I believe everyone around this table actually cares. And so I just want to make sure that we put our money where our mouth is and I want to make sure that we actually implement what we say, um that it matches what we say, um also in what we do. Thank you, chair. Thank you, Vice Chair Swanson
109and then Ms. Edmonds. Thank you. Um I I am curious to know, I know you talked about the 15 uh um low-performing principals that are part of the cohort. What is some of that feedback has been with those principals? Um Vice Chair Swanson, when we had an overview session where we extended the invite to all of our low-performing schools and we asked them, "Would you like to be a part of this pilot?" The overwhelming response was yes. And so therefore, we didn't want to do this haphazardly. We wanted to do it very intentionally with that cohort of 15. The response has been very favorable after their first session. They did give some feedback of what would work better at the upcoming sessions, but it has been really and truly supportive of them and they have
110yielded positive feedback on this work that we're doing. Got you. So I I'm also curious to know, looking at the um data that says students are struggling with the reading, are there opportunities to engage teachers that teach English or what not at those early stages to figure out what we can do to get to those root causes because we can we can't tutor the hell out of this thing. I mean, that's just that's just where we are. We can't go that route. We have to find ways to be strategic at those early levels. So therefore, when they do get to high school, they're building upon those those skills. Is there ways for for communities to join? I know I my Rotary Club is a part of the Get a Book Read a Book, Get a
111Book. Are those avenues that we're broadcasting to help uh folks who are concerned about this data for them to buy into it and find ways to really be at the table with us? I want to invite, um before he retires out of here, Mr. Cook to come up and talk to us about our Wake Ed partnership that we have in place now that is strengthening that. So Drew, if you would come up and give us a some insight about that piece. Some of us are back there kind of busting wanting to say some things. This room is not necessarily conducive to an open discussion, which we regret. So I I I will say first of all, Dr. Hill referenced the Wake Ed partnership. Obviously, partners Mr. Swanson like them have been invaluable in terms of
112our tutoring and enrichment programs. Um I I want to say though, I think as much as we want and need and will continue to grow opportunities for community support involvement and that is critical. The data that we're looking at is dependent on core. And I and I think I think we all know and recognize what is happening in the classroom every day systemically in 203 schools has the greatest weight in terms of the impact and the effect that has on student outcomes. Um and that's not by any means to say that we don't continue to need to cultivate and grow partnerships in the community. I just think that we have to continue to focus on where most of the impact occurs. Nationally, statewide, and certainly it's true in the Wake County Public School system, that's
113in the classroom, right? That the goods the good stuff happens in front of our teachers every single day. Um they are working tirelessly, as you all know. You see it. Um our principals are working tirelessly. The job has never been more challenging for a variety of reasons. Um and I say I think we have an obligation at the district level to continue providing them, Ms. Caulfield, with instructional resources that are aligned to standards um that all students see themselves in. And that is a constant ongoing cycle, right? Yes, we have to align it with state standards and revisions, but it's absolutely vital that that's the work that we do. And I think we are working hard, although I would say the data doesn't quite yet reflect that hard work. We are working hard, I think,
114systemically to shift away from what has long been a culture of what I would call recommended best practices to and I think Dr. Robinson used the term systemic non-negotiables. And I think we all know and recognize there's a difference between the two and it's it's not a quick or easy road to get there. Um you know, rightfully at times there there is reticence among teachers when my staff or myself or even board members walk into a classroom um because historically it has hasn't always been viewed with the best of intentions. Right? But we are working hard to get out to schools to better differentiate the support for example, via the low-performing designation, where we know the support is needed the most. So I think, Mr. Swanson, to answer your question in summation, um we absolutely
115have to continue focusing on community partnerships, but for that needle to move the way that it needs to move in the next few years to reach those goals, the work has to happen at the classroom level with district level support. Um you know, certainly our goal is always to make the job easier, not harder. Sometimes the feedback is hard because sometimes the feedback we get is that sometimes we unintentionally make the job more difficult than it needs to be. So I think everything that you see in the strategic plan, certainly when we're talking about academic performance and improvement, is really an effort to make their to create a a more systemic equitable experience across the district. Uh whether we're talking about curriculum resources, instructional pedagogy from teachers, um professional learning programming the district provides, etc.
116Thank you. And I I just want to you know, just to say amen to that and to add, I I don't think the data also shows where a student was on day one compared to where they were at the end of the school day school year. And I also think it's important to to know that this data represents a student's EOG, which or EOC or whichever end of grade course they have to take, not giving the factors of what the student woke up with. Did they not have Did they have breakfast? Did they have a long bus ride? So, there's so many driving factors that this data does not necessarily show. And it also shows that there's still more work that can be done. So, we can celebrate the growth that we made and push
117and hold folks accountable to get to where we want to go. Um and so, I think it it requires mind shifts at all levels, um including our youngest learners, to find ways to be welcomed into the classrooms where they have opportunities to fail, um and not necessarily being reprimanded for that. And so, I'm also curious, how can we, um you know, have some train-the-trainers type things where you see teachers that are moving uh the needle, having them share their best practices because oftentimes you don't have to go outside the district to see what's happening, the good work that's happening. We have that here within this district. And so, how can we elevate and lift up our educators that are doing this great work that may not necessarily get be a teacher of the year or
118whatnot, but celebrating them here so they can help their peers and colleagues move the needle forward. So, the work still continues and I think it's our job is to find ways to support this work. And I will say that, you know, with the budget, one thing that I pushed for, that I'm grateful that we passed, was to put more support for our low-performing schools so they can move the needle over, those schools that were using losing funding because they moved from a tight low-performing school or a Title 1 school, not knowing that the factors that goes into that. And so, I'm grateful that that's one way that we are putting essentially our money where our mouths are, but I also know and I can hear Bill Fletcher in my head saying, "We need more hands."
119It's not always resource as in, you know, uh financials, but it's also helping hands. Folks who are willing to step out of retirement, who are willing to adopt a school or whatnot, to really help move the needle forward. And so, I think we all have a part to play that's not just at this table, but also beyond and in and and in the community as well. So, those are all of my my comments. Okay, thank you, Vice Chair Swanson. So, at this point we're going to pull an audible. So, get your pens out because we're going to take some notes here. With the time that we have left, we're going to continue on, and I still have Ms. Edmonds with a question, other board members with questions about academics. We're not leaving academics. But, after
120our conclusion of the student knowledge and skills portion, we'll continue on to the student disposition and well-being. Those are slides 30 through 41. What we will do is we will reschedule our discussion of the third item, which is operational effectiveness. We'll bring that back to another meeting so we can get a full discussion of that. So, we will go slides 30 to 41, and then we can jump to the very end. You have some other slides related to this for comparison with other counties around 51 and 52. All right? Again, we have some other people that have been waiting patiently for some questions. I'll ask them before we go back for repeat questions. Um but everyone know the game plan? Got the audible. All right. So, Ms. Edmonds, you've been waiting patiently if you still
121have your question. Thank you so much. Can you hear me? Yes, ma'am. Great. So, um with regard to the reading scores, um we were I hope Ms. Caulfield and Ms. Cha were channel channeling each other. I have I can only think about the HELPS program. It was showing such tremendous gains for students and just incredible um outcomes, and we lost it for, you know, totally out of our control. Um and I don't I don't feel like we've really replaced that. Um certainly not replaced those results. Is that a fair assessment having lost the HELPS program with regard to reading? So, I I think we're making every effort, Ms. Caulfield, as you just referenced, to speaking of calling an audible, having to shift from what I think was a universally well-regarded and research-based program midstream because
122of circumstances outside the district's control, now shifting that to the Level Up Tutoring program. Um it has been a difficult and challenging transition to do that in the middle of a school year. Um it is absolutely our intent to continue building that program and scaling that we can see the results that we saw early from HELPS. Um it has been a challenge. Uh you may or may not be aware that even the federal funding freeze this summer, um a lot of the funding for that program has come out of federal funds, and so, you know, that delay set us back a little bit. Again, we're on track to pick that back up. We've got some volunteer tutors out there. They're anxiously awaiting a phone call and ready to pick it back up. So, uh Ms.
123Edmonds, we are working to bring that back, and you are right, it is something that is uh difficult to replace. We had a formula for success. It's unfortunate um that, you know, again, due to circumstances outside of our control with the HELPS program that we had to kind of invent something on the fly. We feel confident, though, that we can pick that back up, um and see some of the similar kinds of results for those participating students um this school year as well. Thank you. So, it's not it's not to make excuses. I just want for all of us to support staff and support, you know, we had something that was working, and we lost it again because of circumstances out of our control. But I think it's important to acknowledge that, that, um you
124know, and it's it's not easy to replace on a dime, certainly not in the federal and state um financial positions that we found ourselves in. And then, um the other uh question I had, and this is my um second and final question for this piece, do are there any schools that were outliers? Um what I'm thinking of specifically anecdotally is um during there was a equity symposium at it was over a year ago, and I met the principal, I think it was at Garner High School, and after they had um gone through the equity training, you know, with their English language learning population, they were seeing tremendous academic gains. And so, um he was invited to present at that symposium. So, that's the kind of example that I'm asking about. Have you Are there outliers
125um in this data where your attention is turned to them? What is that school doing? >> [clears throat] >> Uh Ms. Edmonds, great question. Uh and uh you must have been sitting in the back corner of my office today because we were having a conversation about that very topic, uh looking at some of our K-2 growth data, um trying to identify schools that have bucked that I'm not that talented, but thank you. Oh, you're welcome. Uh well, I got a lot of windows, so who knows? Uh but we were looking at uh elementary schools that and we do have several that have been consistently meeting and beating those growth growth expectations, um and they come from a very random cross-section of the county. And so, our next step is going to be to work with
126some of our area superintendents to try and uh figure out what those schools might have been doing for the last few years that some of our other schools maybe have not. Um and uh there's about eight or 10 of them that really do stand out pretty significantly to see if there's any kind of practices we can leverage there that maybe just aren't as prevalent in other schools that might be responsible for that. So, great question. And Ms. Edmonds, I'll just add in in academics, uh I think we use the term positive deviance. Um and that is an example, Ms. Edmonds, also just um in terms of programmatic support in the work that we're doing in low-performing schools and across the district, even something like district-wide learning walks, which our our principals have participated in now
127uh over the last 2 years where every single principal, if you can imagine, in this district, and by the way, we've done the same thing with 400-plus assistant principals, but getting them out of their buildings and doing instructional walks focused on the learning model across the district um with the very idea of doing what you just described, which is identifying some of those schools where we've got some positive outliers, and identifying in real time what are some of the practices that might be leading to some of the positive results that they're seeing that may um outperform what the metrics might otherwise say we would expect. And so, I think that's something that we'll continue to work to expand and grow. Just as an example of the kind of support that we want to provide at
128the district level to schools and school staff. Yes. Okay, thank you, and I look forward to those um getting follow-up about about those um learning walks. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Edmonds. We'll do Mr. Hershey, then Dr. Ring. Uh so, I just want to voice support for uh Mr. Cook mentioned that their group behind was chomping at the bit or whatever phrase he used to to participate and give us some more information. And so, I would welcome a form in which whether it's breakouts at a future work session or something like that where we can hear from the rest of staff sitting back there who's here with us today. Um and just be able to do a deeper dive into a lot of this because we just don't have the time to go, I think,
129as deep as many of us would like to go, and to hear from all the staff that's joined us today. So, I'm just giving support to that. Thank you, Mr. Hershey. I'm sorry, I will mention in January, I was just double-checking with Dr. Hill, our team does plan to do kind of a comprehensive overview of curriculum review, how that connects to some of the support that we're providing. I think we did the same thing last January. So, yes, sir, um I was about to say we, but they will be here in January to help facilitate that session. All right, thank you. And Mr. I mean the idea we could have a whole work session just on each one of these and probably that might be a better like approach to get to a deeper dive
130you know either midway next year or at the next check-in time. Dr. I mean Yes, thank you. I just want to maybe give some feedback to all of you but Dr. Hill has heard about this already from one of my constituents who had a lot of problems with the child having trouble reading when when he was very young and and and Miss Cash my brother says are actually intervened to help with this particular child who has dyslexia and and had really trouble reading and he felt he said he felt very stupid not being able to to read like his classmates. And so you know it goes to how you know the the reading goes beyond the the numbers here that I mean actually goes goes towards a person's feeling of themselves and the mental health
131component of things and so I I think that it really is important for us to look at you know the K2 time period when parents may not even understand what is you know going on in terms of you know why why is my child not able to read in up to speed to with other other children. And they don't even know how to reach out for help and and you know I'm I'm encouraged that you know I know Dr. Hill had sent me an email saying that there will be a some meeting with a group who is trying to work alongside the I get the CPS says to to help with issue of dyslexia. So just wanted to you know bring that forward. Dr. I mean you're exactly right and when we look at providing
132our multi-tiered systems of support when a child exhibits those not reaching those benchmarks what is it that's going to be our standard treatment protocol in order to address the issues and try to peel back those layers in order to get the support that those students need. So you're exactly right. Yes, sir. Thank you Dr. I mean So we have 30 minutes left in the work session. We can I'm going to ask you we can continue to discuss education or we can go on to student disposition and well-being. I have questions about the educational side I haven't had a chance to ask yet. Before I come back to you I'm I'm happy to entertain questions now but if we do that we likely will not have very many questions on the disposition and well-being. Again if
133you prefer we can try to take that off the table and bring that back and then we can just devote the rest of this time just to pillar one. I'm seeing some nods. Is that what a little bit of cringes? It's important. Mhm. Yeah. Okay. Let's let's do this. Let's let's let's plan to stay on education to get as thorough a discussion of these student knowledge and skills questions that you have. And if that means we bring back the well-being and disposition to another meeting I just don't want to give that topic or the operational effectiveness you know a lack of due consideration. Okay? All right. Miss I mean she said you had a very quick one. I'll let you and then I'll ask Miss Caulfield about hers and then I'll finish mine. >> Thank
134you chair. Really quick question we're talking about partner programs. What about the gains that we've seen with the Y Excel program that we do in the summertime? So it's a two-fold question it's about that particular curriculum within it since we're talking about curriculums. We're hearing great things about it. We do see great gains with it in the summer where these students are really getting a lot of gains in the summertime. Imagine if we were using I guess pieces of that curriculum during the school year of 180 days would we still see students catching those stronger gains during the school year versus just holding it to a summertime? That's the one part of the question the other part simply is I have a strong belief system and I know most educators agree with this for us
135to see the change in dynamics academically that we're hoping to see by trying to do remediations and all of that how much effort are we as a district really putting a real push behind our early literacy program which is the changing of the game for everything anyway for our zero to five populations that we serve. So those are my two things. Does anyone want to comment on the early literacy first? I'm always happy to comment. >> [laughter] >> First in regards to early literacy I think somebody mentioned letters earlier obviously that's been Miss I mean as you know a statewide focus. It's no different in Wake. You know I think that is clearly a hugely impact full transitionary period. >> [snorts] >> You know it's it's it's a place where we've got a lot of
136work to do in terms of the support that we're providing teachers and schools. You know even when we're talking about curriculum resources and I think this connects with the K2 discussion as well. Curriculum is critical in terms of the how it's designed the collaborative process that we're engaged in getting teacher input and support in terms of the front end development whether we purchase a curriculum resource or whether we're developing it ourselves it's vital that we're also providing in equal parts professional learning and an opportunity for teachers and school staff to work with the curriculum and the resources in a way that allows them enough time to kind of learn how to effectively use the tools that are being provided. And so I think curriculum is critical as we all know and understand but so is
137what we're doing with it once we've got the resources. And so that's why things like professional development for K2 teachers is so vital. It's also why it's so critically important even at the middle school level now for teachers who maybe got in the profession that weren't necessarily literacy teachers by trade to provide them with skill sets to help build those skills for students who might come into a middle school that are several grade levels behind. Dr. Hill. And if I may add Miss Rice curriculum is the tool but we need to ensure that our teachers understand the standard in which what the child is going to be expected to master. And so therefore the lift becomes the understanding of those standards because standards are what drive our instruction. Curriculum is the vehicle to get that
138mastery of those standards. And so therefore we need to make sure that we're peeling back the layers to understand that our educators are well versed in what those standards and what is going to be the measure to help students develop that mastery of those standards. All right, thank you Dr. Hill. Good. All right. >> Did you answer my achievers questions? That that that is that the answer still to the standard not is not that the curriculum isn't great but it's but I think I hear you saying we can choose whatever curriculum we want but until we get our teachers to understand the standard of where we're trying to go then the curriculum isn't as impactful as we would like it to be. So therefore it it goes hand in hand. >> Okay. And so therefore
139we want to make sure that they understand the standard first and then how to utilize that curriculum resource in order to master those standards. So yes, ma'am. And if I can just tack on clarifying question to that when we say I mean you can pick any curriculum you want that's within a limited scope of curriculum that exist that address those standards. I'm really worried that we're you know the way we talk about it when we say any curriculum anytime that it sounds like we have all sorts of options out there. Can you talk about the like the the scope of curriculum as they are aligned to the North Carolina standards and you know what options we have like is it a choice between like one history book or a second history book or is it
140that you have 100 different options? Chair Hegarty you're exactly right and therefore those standards in which when the DPI Department of Public Instruction gives us the revision for the standards they do in alignment of what curriculum resources we may choose from. There's a procurement process in which teachers are giving us feedback to give us input on what those standards are and what I mean what the curriculum is going to do to address those standards. So therefore with the science of reading we wanted to make sure that the curriculum align with those standards and to be parallel with their training with letters to be in alignment with the the science of reading. So therefore it's not a free fall but we wanted to make sure that those curriculums have been vetted and they meet those criterias
141in order to help master those standards. Thank you. Just for illustration you know like the difference in standards between states. I think it's either McMillan or Harcourt Brace puts out a standard high school US history book. The difference between the California book and the Texas book is out of like 600 pages, maybe only 120 are the same. Because of the different standards that exist between the states and having to customize the educational materials to meet those standards. So, I just wanted to make everyone aware we have choices and we have some options, but it's there are limits in terms of what's available. And and so Mr. Chair, I want to I want to add to that that these are all the right questions and I think we just need a a full day summit to
142to kind of have these conversations. But when we talk about curriculum, you're absolutely right that all of those publishers, the first thing they're going to say is that they align with your state standards and 100 page difference between this state and the next. And so what we always have to do is to make sure that when we begin to select curriculum that it is those that align most with our state standards. And and also including teachers in that selection because they're going to have a lot to say about whether or not it meets what they believe are the academic standards when they're teaching in the classroom. And and I think the final piece it really is about fidelity of implementation because we can select the best curriculum. We can have teachers be involved, but if
143they are not doing that work with fidelity, then that's going to be a problem. And so that is where that training with principals comes in to say that when you go into a classroom, are you able to articulate what it is that we're seeing in terms of this curriculum being successful or not successful. In addition to this, and I and I know that um uh Vice Chair Swanson is going to love this that when you look, I think it was page 23, somebody can look back and see, but our sped students that are around 23, 26% proficiency. >> [snorts] >> This also involves the work that we're doing with real in terms of what it is that regular education teachers are expected to do as well. Because if we're going to make any movement on
144that mark, which ultimately impacts the bottom line of proficiency throughout the district, then they've also got to be a part of that conversation as well. And so this is great conversation to hear in terms of the work that is needed, the work that we're doing, but how very far we have to go. But we can certainly be there. But this is the right conversation, so I appreciate the comments. Okay, thank you. And I do again, since I haven't had any questions, I do want to be able to get mine out there. Um I really appreciate you coming back and bringing hard data and numbers because those are the metrics by which we can judge our progress. And if you remember the process with which we used to define and put together a strategic plan, we
145talked about smart goals. Are they specific? And these are very specific. Are they measurable? Some of the ones we came up with, the board came up with, didn't necessarily have existing measures and you'll see that in the next section where you've had to go and create some tools for that measurement. But if you remember that debate where I had the most hesitancy about this entire plan was about attainability. And we can just say, well, let's just have 100 students graduate, have 100% proficiency, have 100% of students attaining growth. And you know, the pushback was, well, we should aim high. We should get as as you know, high as we think we can raise. And if you look at where we are right now, we have an incredible distance to cover to get some of these
146goals. And we might not, but that shouldn't overlook the progress that we have made. And so you know, I think we still continue to shoot for our goal, but I think having the context, and I know you have some slides later about context, is going to be important. How we will compare to other larger districts around the state, even if you look at other, you know, districts around the country to really gauge our progress and level set where we are. We might fall short of our own expectations, but I think it's important to show where we are and what we have attained. I do have some specific questions about some of the measurements. With graduation and a graduation rate, we talk about um an adjusted cohort from those starting ninth grade. What all goes into
147that in terms of students eligible for graduation? For example, we have a large population of ECS students whose academic path might not be a diploma, but rather maybe a certificate. I'd like to know how are they counted in these metrics and these goals? Is the 99 is the 100% all of those that are on a diploma track? Or is it 100% of all students? And then I'd also like to know for those that we say are not in obtaining a diploma, are we looking at things like those that leave the district and does that count against us? Where we have certain students or certain subgroups that might experience high absenteeism or dropping out? Do we know that those students are still in the community, still in the district? Can you speak to some of those
148numbers to how we come up with that graduation rate? Yeah. Yeah, sure. I'd be happy to do that. So, the baseline for our graduation rate every year is the population of students that starts ninth grade for the first time on day one. So, right there you're talking about not students who are repeating ninth grade, but students who were in eighth grade in June and are now in ninth grade come September. That's the group of students you start with. Fast forward four years later, then the group of students you end up with is affected by a number of things. [clears throat] Students moving in and out of the district, in and out of the county, in and out of the state, in and out of the country. Um we gain students who move in sideways. As
149long as they move to us, they come to us from Tennessee, they did a year of high school there, they come to us as a 10th grader, we put them in the cohort. They did a year of high school in Tennessee, they come to us as a ninth grader repeating ninth grade, they're not in the cohort. So, there's a lot of business rules like that that the state adopts to to govern that. Students who are experiencing extended content standards, who are anticipated to not receive a diploma, are counted as non-graduates by the state. Students who leave Wake County to get a GED, or you know, even if they do it early, say in their junior year, are counted as non-graduates. So, those students do come off the top of our cohort even though they've met
150the expectations for whatever they set out to do. So, that that takes that number down just a little bit as well. And schools have responsibility for tracking all of those ins and outs. If a student leaves us at the end of 10th grade and says, you know, I'm going to Ravenscroft for 11th grade, and they get to Ravenscroft and it turns out that the labor Ravenscroft looks at their transcript and says, you know, we believe this is this is 10th grade, this is not ninth grade. That comes back on us because now we've sent that student out behind and then that student will count as a non-graduate for us unless somehow they manage to graduate, accelerate and graduate at say Ravenscroft. So, those are some of the numbers that make that move around over time
151and schools do a you know, a yeoman's job of having to track all of the records requests and all of the ins and outs of all these students to make sure it's as accurate as it can have to be. So, if I understand you with some of those students that you identified that are counted in the cohort by the state, are they counted in our numbers in that for example, they would count against our 98%? Yes, that's correct. So, if you look at all the students who do not receive a diploma and maybe receive a certificate attendance, students who may get a GED, all of those students come off the top off the top and drop us from a possible 100 all the way down to whatever that percentage would be. Okay, thank you. And
152I I think that's significant because as we're trying if we want to get an accurate number, we we should, you know, we should have realistic standards and you know, a student graduate, you know, getting extra academic credits and graduating ahead of time shouldn't be viewed as a negative. Likewise, if a student is not eligible for a diploma because of their course of study, you know, that should not be counted against our academic success. Um the next question in in terms of proficiency, you know, we talked about this a little bit, but I want to come back to it. You talked about, I think Dr. McMillan has talked about the last time we had high proficiency was back in the '90s, 1990s. Now, I'd like to get a little more information about how that evaluation tool
153has changed. I know that we have more students in Wake County Public Schools taking more advanced sciences than were taking in the 1990s. More students that are taking advanced placement courses in the 1990s or that than we did in the 1990s. You know, I don't know if that means there's just even a wider gap in disparity in students or has that evaluation tool been changed? Has the bar been raised? And then does that make it difficult to compare apples to apples? Are we comparing against a lower standard? Yeah, that's that's a great question. Back in the '90s, prior to No Child Left Behind, North Carolina was one of the few states that had consistent end of grade testing in reading and math. In some ways us and Texas were the model for No Child Left
154Behind and the federal testing program we've had now for 25 years. Back then proficiency rates were pretty high because the state set those standards themselves, Uh, as statewide testing started to proliferate through all the other states when NCLB was around, there was a lot of political pressure because the NAEP test, which is the national standard for reading and math testing, was showing states with 40% proficient and their state test was showing 90. And so, the the you know, the emphasis at the time was, well, you know, are we cooking the books? Are the standards not high enough? How could the national test say 40 and our state test say 90? So, states felt a lot of downward pressure on those on those tests. And so, what you saw is in the early 2000s and the
155mid-2000s, huge resets where the standards curriculum standards would change. That's the the impetus for everything. And then concomitant to that, the test would change to reflect the new curriculum standards. So, the curriculum became more rigorous. Kids were expected to do things at earlier and earlier grade levels than they had been expected to do them in the '90s. And of course, the test standards had to reflect that in order to be valid. So, you saw, you know, new tests and new curriculum being introduced at the state level that would drop the proficiency rate by 20, 30 percentage points. The biggest drop was in 2013 with Common Core where we went down the whole state went down from like I can't remember the exact numbers. It was like a 40 percentage point drop. It was massive. And
156you know, we knew it was coming because those standards were being raised. You know, the the reading level in terms of the Lexile that a student needs in order to access a reading passage on an EOG on today's test is far higher than it was back in the '90s. And so, yes, the bar is higher now. So, proficiency rates are lower, but we're also holding kids to much, much higher standards and getting them to pushing them to do things at earlier ages than they were being asked to do 20, 25 years ago. So, that's part of why we are where we are. Which is to your explanation, that's why we still have more kids doing well on the ACT. We still have more kids taking advantage of advanced science classes. So, a lot of those
157downstream metrics haven't really changed a whole lot because we are pushing so much harder at the younger grades. Not just in reading, but also in mathematics. So, if if if I understand you correctly, we have statistical evidence of greater skill mastery of our students now even though the evaluation tools are showing lower thank you. And then, you know, one one final thought is when we look at the goal that we had you know, 90% to exceed growth. And you described a little bit about how that number fluctuates over time. You know, you could have 68%, 70% and then drop to 40%. You know, I wonder how we will look at that as a board to evaluate that. Will we only look at year five and see what that number is? Will we look at an
158aggregate over time? You know, and again, if you have years of steady growth and then that last year you dip, is is is is that a failing? Have you thought about how we record that or Yeah, it's it's a little bit of a weird one. Obviously, you'll have all the data points from throughout the whole plan. So, at the end, you know, that allows you to sort of make that judgment to say were we on the right path and just had a little slippage last year for this reason or for that reason or did it just whipsaw on us, you know, year by year over time? And I think looking at the whole trajectory is going to be your probably best judgment of where we are on that because really each year is independent of
159each other year in many in many ways. So, it makes it different from a lot of the other goals in the plan, which we just expect to kind of incrementally increase. And once they're there, we don't expect to backslide. That one's a little different. >> Okay. And then, you know, I know it's not our actual goal, but for comparison, I would be interested in seeing like the number of our schools that meet or exceed growth. And just seeing sort of where that is and then how that matches up because if we can show continued forward progress and still, you know, show that growth, I think that is positive direction. I think it recognizes the work that our teachers and our schools are doing moving students ahead beyond their expected level. It just might be that
160it's not above and beyond that expected growth. And I think having that will help put the other number in context. Yeah, I would agree. And you know, saying that everyone's going to be above average, you know, it's not like Wobegon, right? So, you know, that that is a pretty hard hard standard to meet. Technically, we could do it, but it would rely on a lot of our other 114 districts around the state to kind of you know, slow down a little bit. All right. Thank you, Dr. McMillan. So, we have a few minutes left. Ms. Cofield, I want to let you ask your question and I I still want to come to the even 1 minute for the District 8 update before we conclude our work session. Okay? Go ahead. Thank you. I will try
161and be super quick. Um, so, I definitely appreciate um Vice Chairwoman Swan talking about the testing because for some of you, I can speak for myself, I just really freeze up when I have to take tests, but I can tell you every detail out loud. So, I know those things absolutely affect them. Um, I do wonder with our numbers being consistent for the amount of years they've been consistent, is the work that we are doing is that meeting the goal and meeting the standards more the question than cuz there's there's just a lot of children. When we say 64%, you know, there's still a lot of children. So, those circumstances absolutely do happen. Um, but I'm just more worried about like the work we're doing to reach the kids so they understand. Um, and the
162reason I asked about the curriculum and now you're saying 1990s, I didn't think it was that long. So, we're talking like 30, 35 years. Um, and I understand that we're going to have to do a lot um in order to have professional development and resources to change curriculum. And you mentioned that the standards change. If we're I mean, we're going back to the like the 1990s. And I'm just wondering how often does the standards change drastically enough because from what I understand, um from the prior state superintendent met with her, talked about these things. The standards are the minimum where we have to be and then we can go up from there. So, I'm just curious with the standards being our cause for hold up, so to speak. I know it's also money and resources.
163How often does it change that we need to be worried about we could be missing the bar if we start working on it out cuz it's going to take a while to implement curriculum changes. And if I understand correctly from prior student achievement, it does take a little bit of time to do it. You can't do it within a school year. So, I mean, and I appreciate Ms. Edmonds bringing up HELPS. You know, I've been a huge advocate for that program. I know how much it works. Are we getting feedback mid-year rather than waiting the whole year to say, okay, what's our results? Are we getting feedback from our teachers in the classroom, boots on the ground, so to speak, that they are actually finding that this is working like the HELPS program was so
164that we don't go a whole other year because I feel like we are at the point where these children starting out in kindergarten, by the time we're getting these reports and we're in third grade and we're evaluating how they're doing, they're it's going to be fourth grade, fifth grade before they're done. That was their entire elementary school. So, it's really worrisome for me to think about how many children can fall through the cracks and how many children are missing like really imperative like super important information for them to be successful in middle school and high school. So, are we getting feed feedback like that on a regular basis? So, I guess it's kind of comment and a little bit of questions. All right, I'll start with the standards piece and then I'll probably kick it
165to Mr. Cook and Dr. Hill for some of the more programmatic focuses. The state has generally been on kind of like a five to seven year cadence for reading and math over the last few decades. It's not always been super even. Sometimes large national movements like Common Core standards and things sort of changed all through that timeline because there's kind of a national movement to do something. And some of those standards changes have been very seismic and huge. Some of them have also been very subtle and almost imperceptible from a standpoint of looking at where the where the bar is, so to speak. And so, it's just depend Our last science revision, I think, was was not very significant in terms of its scope. It was a few things here, a few things there. So,
166sometimes they're very significant in terms of the impact on classroom instruction and expectations and other times they're minor tweaks. It just depends on where the science is around what we know about the science of learning and what the different professional organizations that that help develop those standards have to say about where we need to go to make sure our kids are prepared. And I think, Ms. Cofield, just to extend that and to reinforce the point, you know, yes, absolutely, we have to follow, you know, state guidelines in terms of when standards are revised and that happens every few years. Meanwhile, I think it's important to point out, too, curriculum and instructional resources in terms of how we evaluate them, adjustments that are made, that is an ongoing year-round process every single year. Um, and I
167want to I want to emphasize, too, I think when we use the term curriculum, a lot of times we immediately think, in Wake County for example, of EL Education, which is the primary core instructional resource we have in our, you know, grade two, grade one through eight schools. We have a procured math resource. The vast majority of our curriculum resources in the Wake County Public School system are district supported, but often school developed and teacher developed, right? And so, I I want to be clear, it's not as easy as just throwing one out and putting a new one in. It really is a constant cycle and one that we have to take very seriously. And by the way, I I think even when we talk about standards, there's, in my opinion, there's nobody that knows
168the standards better than the classroom teacher because they have to live it and breathe it every single day. And so, you know, at the district level, our teams work really, really closely as much as we can with schools, which is why, by the way, with the regional model, for example, it's so important for us to be in schools. And so, that shift alone, I think, is helping us to have a closer ear to the ground in terms of what you're describing, which is, "Hey, this this resource that the district is providing is not hitting the mark." And sometimes it's even based on subgroups that teachers are serving, maybe in higher levels at certain schools than others, and they may not be having the same experiences and positive impact with a curriculum resource that another teacher
169in another school might have. And so, I think it's incumbent upon us, I think, to the point of your question, yes, to make sure our new curriculum procurements and development cycles match the state adoption schedule, but maybe even more significantly, year-round, on a week-to-week and month-to-month basis, we're constantly reviewing, evaluating, and adjusting curriculum resources and materials to make sure they are aligned with standards and they're still relevant for classroom teachers to use. And I think in academics, the very worst thing that this team back here can do is spend countless hours and dollars developing resources that are rigorous and standards-aligned, and then we don't see them being used. And that is not a reflection of a teacher, in my opinion. That's a reflection of something that we've missed in terms of building a runway, building
170an opportunity for input and support so that it's not something that's thrust upon someone, but it truly is, I think, jointly owned. And I think that's the best formula that we can aspire to in terms of that balance between, again, systemic consistency and some level of site-based autonomy and flexibility that a classroom teacher will always need. I appreciate that, Mr. Cook. We're really going to miss you. Sure you don't want to stay? Yeah, pretty sure. Yes. >> [laughter] >> All right. So, team, thank you. We will go into overtime and come back with priority two and priority three. We can discuss whether we want to do each priority in its own meeting or whether we want to try to do both in one meeting. My sense right now is we probably want to do one
171meeting for each priority just to allow full discussion. Okay? All right, thank you all. The last item on our work session agenda I can cover in 1 minute. It was the District 8 vacancy applications. As of today, we do had we have had nine total applicants. Two of the individuals, after verification, did not live in District 8. And then there were three applicants who did not provide the utility bill in their name, which was our base level of residence information. But then, using the lists that you all reviewed and applied, we were able to get other consumer data that helped to verify their domicile within District 8. So, we also have questions that were prepared. I can just don't have time to discuss them now. I will just If you can, just pick up a
172folder. Ms. Edmonds, you can't pick up a folder. I'll get you on when you return to town. Please look at the questions, and then we can correspond about any feedback between now and the close of the close of the interviews. All right? All right, with that, I'm going to call our work session adjourned, and then we're going to go into recess for about 5 minutes just to allow everyone to transition and get ready for the board meeting. We'll see you back at 5:35. Just hold on to this. Don't let it out of your sight until you've had a chance to like read it, review it, and then we get a chance to discuss it, okay?