001One at a time. When I show you a letter, you're going to say the letter's name and then the letter sound. So to give you an example, if I show you another letter, you're going to say that. So to give you an example, if I show you an example, if I show you an If I show you another example, if I show you another Set there. Stand for the pledge of >> allegiance. >> Stand for the pledge of >> allegiance. >> And for the pledge of >> allegiance. That is the ghost. Before tonight's public meeting, the board met in executive session to review with council information or strategies in connection with tax appeals and other pending litigation matters and issues on which identifiable complaints are anticipated. Excuse me. The board also reviewed information to discuss
002agency business that if conducted in public would lead to the disclosure of information or confidentiality which is protected by law. >> We have any guests tonight? >> We do not have any guests tonight. >> Fox Leadership Council student representatives, >> please come up. Hello. The class of 2027 exemplifies a remarkable blend of compassion, community involvement, and school spirit. From our very first year, we have demonstrated a strong commitment to making a positive impact in our community. Our journey began with with creative projects such as crafting mummy piñatas for nursing home residents, ornaments and candy gifts for the VA hospital, and raising funds for the teleathon. Even as freshmen, we demonstrated a great deal of school spirit by decorating the commons for homecoming and sponsoring a a spirit week competition. We ended freshman year with a
003freshman finale consisting of a dodgeball tournament and a trivia morning. Finale. >> As sophomores, we expanded our reach by gathering supplies and a monetary donation for Serge Corpse International totaling $860 and collecting over 535 books for Reading Ready Pittsburgh which supports literacy across the region. We hope to support school spirit by decorating the commons for homecoming and hosting another spirit week. We ended the year with a patio takeover where members of the class of 2027 could enjoy Italian ice, patio games, and music during lunch. Now, as juniors, our dedication continues to shine as we engage in initiatives such as crafting pumpkins for nursing homes residents, raising further funds for the teleathon and another successful donation drive for Sergey Corpse International. But the year is not over. We are currently organizing fundraisers for the Steven Hawkers
004fund which provides necessary equipment for disabled children that insurance is unable to cover. We are making pipe cleaner flowers for nursing home residents and trying to revive the traditional powderpuff game. We also look forward to helping a local animal shelter. So stay tuned for more good news from the class of 2027. We would like to thank the school board for its support of quality education and extracurricular activities that make Fox Chapel Area School District truly special. >> Thank you. >> A little bit off topic, but if you did not get a chance to read the Post Gazette this morning, uh Mrs. Klein's class uh which is an AP class uh was featured with I civics I believe and student responsibilities as uh and and how they fit into the elections etc. So a wonderful article
005so if you get a chance please read it superintendence report please >> sure well this evening we do have a lens on learning and I would like to welcome principal uh from Hartwood Elementary Dr. Rachel Fishba who is going to be introducing some of our Hartwood Elementary School educators and staff members who are going to be sharing some exciting information about the reading interventions offered in our elementary schools. So, Dr. Fishbach. >> Good evening everyone. Hartwood is proud to present two of the district's intervention reading programs. These reading interventions are foundations and spire. Each of these programs meet the specific needs of our students. Presenting this evening are H Heartwood Reading Specialists Jennifer Burmeister and Olivia McCall. Mrs. Burmeister has been in the district for 25 years and Miss McCall has been in the district
006for eight years. Hi everyone, my name is Olivia and like Dr. Fishb just said, I've been in the district for eight years, but this is my first year as a reading specialist at Hartwood. Previously, I taught kindergarten and am very well familiar with teaching foundations at the tier one level. And now, as reading specialists, we teach foundations at tier 2 with our double dose program. But this is my first year teaching SPIRE, which is our intervention program for students who really struggle with reading. Spire stands for specialized program individualizing reading excellence. The students who benefit from this intervention are the students who struggle to learn and apply phonics patterns to words. These are the students who struggle with reading fluently because the phonics patterns are not automatic to them yet. And they also struggle with
007other language skills such as spelling, writing, and pronouncing words. Spire is designed to incorporate the Orton Gillingham approach which involves systematic, explicit, sequential, multiensory, phonics-based, and emotionally sound instruction. Spire comprises six levels that consist of increasingly complex content. It is written for students with dyslexia by author and Orton Gillingham fellow Sheila Clark Edmmonds. What makes Spire so beneficial is that it is explicit and systematic. The students know what to expect whenever they come to class. They really thrive on the routine of the program. And it's also multiensory, which means they use their senses whenever they're learning phonics. So, they're seeing the letters, they're hearing the sounds that the letters make, and they're feeling how to make these letters. And all of that comes together to help them learn their phonics. And they don't realize how
008beneficial it is like we do, but they love it. They think that they're playing and they're having so much fun. And that's what makes this program so special. A typical spire lesson consists of 10 steps. Typically in a 40-minute class period, I teach steps one through five and then the following day I continue with steps six through 10. And with the routine of the spire lesson, it always has these same 10 steps. So the first step is the phonogram which is whenever we are practicing letters and sounds we're reviewing skills from the previous day and we're also focusing on the skill of the week. Then the second step is funological awareness which is whenever students practice the sounds that they hear in the spoken word. Step three builds on step two where we actually apply
009these skills to word building. Step four is decoding and sentence reading. So applying these skills in context. Step five, we pre-eread. We prepare to read a small paragraph. Step six, we're reading and practicing reading comprehension skills. And then the following steps are practicing encoding skills. So taking these skills and practicing writing, practicing writing words and sentences, the sounds, spelling, and sentence dictation. Here is going to be a very um short clip of step one, which is my second grade class at a level one spire lesson practicing the first step, which is the letters and sounds of the week. And it's a very candid video. So enjoying the sounds and words. Set that there for now. >> Okay. Okay. Second grade, are you ready? We are going to begin class today with a warm-up. I will
010show you these letters one at a time. When I show you a letter, you're going to say the letter's name and then the letter sound. So to give you an example, if I show you a letter, you're going to say P. Say that. >> P. >> Good job. Let's keep going. >> Nice. >> D. Nice. S S M H L O >> R >> X. >> Nice. Y >> Y >> A >> Y I >> I Y >> I >> say that >> I I >> And >> very nice job with our letters warming up with that. For the next part, I am going to teach you some new green words. These words are important to practice because you will see them often whenever you read. They are on green cards because you can sound
011them out if you forget the word like a green traffic light. A green card means that you can go for these sounds. You can sound these words out. So, I'm going to show you a word at each time. And we're not going to say the word right away. First, I want us to look at the vowel. So, looking at this letter at this word, what vowel do you see? Tell me the letter name. >> It's O. What sound does O make? >> O. A >> A. Nice job. Okay, so then we go back to the beginning of the word and we sound out each letter. Sound it out with me. >> Top. Nice job. Let's do the same thing with the next word. Before you say the word, go right to the vowel. What's the
012letter name? >> O. What sound does it make? >> Go back to the beginning. B. >> Box. Nice job. Okay, looking at the next word, go right to the vowel. What's the letter name called? >> This is O. What sound does O make? >> O. O. Go back to the beginning of the word. G. >> Got. >> Okay. Looking at this next word. Going right to the vowel. What's this letter called? >> O. What sound does it make? >> A. Going back to the beginning of the word. Here we go. >> Not. Nice job. Going to the very last word. We go right to the vowel. What's the vowel called? >> O. What sound does O make? A. Now we can sound it out. >> Let's try that again. A. On. Nice job, friends. Okay,
013we're all done with our warm up. Now I get to show you something brand new. You might want to cut it for this. So this >> this was our first lesson practicing CBC words that contained the short O spelling pattern. And as you can see um they had never seen these words before. So teaching them to identify the vowel, what sound does it make? And then reading through the consonant vowel consonant word was part of our step one of that lesson that day. And then all of the nine steps that came after in that lesson would have built upon that idea of our short O spelling pattern for the week. So that is how a typical spire lesson at level one um starts for each class. >> Thank you. >> Hello, my name is Jen
014Burmeister. This is my 25th year um my third year at Hartwood in reading and I was at Kerr prior for 20 years. um fif five years in first grade and 15 years in reading there and had a small stint at the middle school and started in a Libra placement in 2001 at O'Hara in reading. Um so I've had lots of um time in the district and lots of work with kids in reading. Um our foundations program at or in the district or phonics program in the district is foundations. It is used at tier one and tier 2. Um just like spire, it's researchbased, systematic and direct and very multiensory. So the kids are um seeing the letters in a variety of formats, hearing the sounds. They get to manipulate tiles. They get to come to
015the board and move cards around. Um they're using applying all the skills in continuous text. Um, so they're getting a variety of structured and cumulative lessons that build upon each other. Um, as I said, this is a tier one intervention first. So, it's our traditional phonics curriculum that's paired with our reading curriculum. Um, in kindergarten through 2 grade, the students have foundations in their classroom as a whole group for 30 to 40 minutes and the teachers are delivering the lessons and staying true, you know, with fidelity um, from start to finish. Depending on like time restraints, they may have to reduce a few words here and there in the lesson, but they are truly just following the manual with fidelity for that initial um implementation. And then at tier 2, that's where we use data
016to decide who would benefit from an intervention. And if they are fitted for foundations double dose, that's what the second round is called. They work with us and it's a small group. So in this sense, we're still delivering the curriculum with fidelity, but we make some altercations based on the students needs in that group. So, um, informal assessments while we're teaching, we're making anecdotal notes and then we do progress monitoring um, throughout and if particular kids are, you know, having trouble with a certain sound or a pattern for that week, those are the skills and the sounds that we pull into our warm-up. So, it's very tailored to meet the needs of those particular learners. So, it's not just um, you know, that standard script. I've had groups with lots of ESL students too where
017I had to change my lesson and focus heavily on vocabulary development in certain parts and you know maybe trim time in other places. So the lessons are really based upon the need of the students at that tier 2 level. The key program features um the students lot learn a finger tapping technique to help themselves slowly work through words and make sure they're identifying each sound individually. Um there is the use of mama echo and baby echo which they find you know incredibly appealing. And the teacher usually models with mama echo and then the kids respond to that. And when they have a chance to be the leader and come up to the board, they use the baby echo on the pointer and get to lead vowel extensions and um parts of the warm-up. And you'll
018see on the screen if you can, there's the example of the word Matt. So the kids, they learn right away that they're taking their thumb and pointer to tap the first sound like matt and then they blend. mat. And obviously as we go through to level two, it gets, you know, progressively more difficult. Um, to the right of the owls, you'll see a sample of what their tile boards might look like in second grade after they've learned a lot of the glued sounds and suffixes and diagraphs. And they manipulate those tiles to work on whatever skill it is we are at that particular point, whether it's base words and suffixes or vowel teams. Um it just yeah goes along with the lesson part for that particular day. Um some of the key components we have
019sentence frames and marking words. So the students will have a chance to come up to the board. Also if we dictate a sentence to them they have to identify the amount of frames that they would need to um place on the board. if they're going to use a high cut frame where there's an uppercase letter, showing that they understand that they're putting spaces between those frames. Um, choosing the right frame for the punctuation, they're identifying, you know, the job of that sentence if it's telling, asking, or showing lots of feeling. So, that's another opportunity for them to come uh with the multiensory approach and get out of their seats and get moving and come up to the board. Um, the marking their words component of the program I think is really powerful because sometimes the
020kids will even ask like, "Why are we marking these? Why do we have to do this?" And I was like, "That's your proof that you're proving to us that you understand how these words work." And obviously when you're reading a text, you're not going to do that, but your eyes are going to stop and slow down and focus on those parts. So if they get to a word with a suffix, they know to go ahead and s circle that suffix and then work left to right through the base word and um look for the components that we're focusing on, whether that's a diagraph and then figuring out what type of syllable it is. So they know how the um vowel is going to sound. Um it's pretty intricate and impressive what they are able to
021do with all the information. So by the end of second grade they know all six syllable types and the two exceptions and can you know work through that so that they know what to do when they get to difficulty in a text. Some of the foundations activities that go through a particular lesson they have drill sounds every day. Uh we build and tap words mostly like I'll build and they tap what I have on the board to read it. There are some make it fun activities that usually show up on like a day four of the lesson where, for example, if it's a kindergarten lesson, you might have a bag of objects and they get to come up and reach in and pull the object out and let you know what sound that word begins
022with. Um, they get to airrate some of their handwriting formations and have their friends guess what they're writing. So, it just brings another component of fun to break up the regular, you know, traditional components. Um, the word of the day is where they're introduced to a vocabulary word for the day. Um, you'll see that in the video clip and we discuss whatever skills are reflected in that particular word matches, you know, our skill for the week depending on the syllable type and the vowel sounds, etc. And then our trick words that they get introduced to, these are the words that don't follow the rules. So they know when they see them on a purple card, they can't be tapped out. These are words that don't follow our expected spelling patterns. And we just practice a
023lot so that, you know, those are the words they need to see and know automatically. And then our story time component is when they get to put everything together. That's when they see the trick words in text with words that they can decode in text and read as a group, read individually, read with partners, and you put their skills in action. And by the time they get to level two, they are looking at more in-depth word analysis study. They can read words with vow teams and or controlled syllables. They can read words with unexpected um vowel sounds. So they know closed syllables have one vow and are followed by at least one consonant. That vow is going to make it short sound. But then we have some exceptions to that. So they know that some
024don't behave the way they're supposed to and they can discriminate with those OLD etc. Um they look and notice the difference between base words and suffixes and we talk about how adding certain suffixes changes the parts of speech. So it really gets in depth um in the program and then of course they read and spell phonetically regular one, two and three syllable words. And then this is an example of an introduction to their word of the day. Don't say it out loud so we can respect our friends thinking too. Raise your hand when you can read it. >> Stephen, what's today's word of the day? >> Drain. Very good. What does the word drain mean? >> Henley, >> it's like it'll like drain water. Like in the sink, there's a drain. >> There's a drain
025in the sink. Very good. So, what happens at the drain? >> Um, stuff goes down and then it goes into the >> Okay. So, it's at the bottom of a sink and it's a place where water can flow >> out if you want to empty the sink. Very good. Is there another place you might find a drain? >> Like in the bathtub. >> In your bathtub. Right? So if you take a bath and get out, you don't leave that water there, right? You need to drain it. So a drain can be a noun. It can be the physical part. Or if you say, "Okay, it's time to drain the tub and I take the stopper out." Then the water's going to flow out and that's draining, too. So it can be a verb or a
026noun. How would I mark this word, Leon? >> You scoop it and you put a double for >> one at a time. So, I'm going to scoop it with one scoop because it's only one >> syllable. Good. One push of breath. >> This is our brand new syllable type. It's a double vow. >> And circle the ai. >> Yeah. So, when I circle that I ai, that lets everyone know that I know these two letters are working together to make the what sound? >> A. Very good. What's something else I can do to mark it? Kenley, >> you can put a bre a. >> I'm not going to put a brev over the a because a brev is what I use to mark a short vowel and a short a says ah. We have this
027circled because it's saying a. When we have two vowels sitting together most of the time they're making. >> So I just wanted to share a couple comments that um two of our students made. Um, Dalton said, "My favorite part of Spire is that we get to learn new vowels in words." And Leighton said, "I like when you learn new things in foundations, the different words and the blending." So, that just demonstrates that they understand what they're doing and um, they're having fun with it. Um, the classes are phenomenal to watch and the growth of our students is just wonderful. But I want to thank Mrs. Bormeister and Miss McCall for coming this evening and I want to thank the board for having us um for the second time in a row. But have a great
028evening. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Do we have any questions for them? >> No. Thank you very much. Superintendent's report. >> Uh that concludes the superintendent's report. >> Solicitor's report, please. >> No report. Could I have a motion to approve the minutes of the study se of the agenda, study session, and regular business meeting dated January 12th, 2026? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any additions or corrections? Hearing none. Could we have a roll call, please? >> Mrs. Cooper, >> yes. >> Miss Dad, >> yes. >> Miss Finley, >> yes. >> Mr. Frank, >> yes. >> Mr. Good. >> Yes. >> Mr. Hamilton, >> yes. >> Dr. Hasselorn. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lynch. >> Yes. >> Miss Zitch. >> Yes. >> Motion carries. >> First public comment period. >> No comments. We'll go to
029old business. Academic committee report. Mrs. Cooper. >> Yes. Um, the board academic committee will meet on February 17th at 6 PM in the staff development room on the lower level of the district's district office. Although the agenda is still being finalized, the committee anticipates hearing information about the new elementary science adoption, secondary science, the district's artificial intelligence leadership team, and a change in the college and career essentials course. The committee will also explore another survey tool that may be an option for the board to consider in the future. >> Any questions for Mrs. Cooper? Hearing none, I'll move on to governance committee report. The govern the board governance committee met on February 3rd, 2026. The committee updated 10 policies and recommended granting a funding request from the fencing club as well as small annual funding
030increases for all club sports. There will be a motion on a future board meeting agenda for this recommendation. The committee also reviewed a list of potential topics for a future board director handbook, adding ideas to the list. Any questions, comments on that? Projects and planning committee report, please. Mrs. Zitch. >> Yes. The board projects and planning committee will meet on February 24th, 2026 at 6 p.m. in the staff development arena on the lower level of the district office. The agenda is still being finalized and will be posted on the district's website prior to the meeting. Spoiler alert, we're probably going to talk about budget. We will start. Yes. Yes. >> Any questions? Moving on to new business, facilities and transportation. Mrs. Lynch, >> I'm moving on one item. Change orders for Hartwood Elementary School's HVAC
031project. Approve change orders HC00006 at a cost of $24,288. EC00001 at a cost of $3,276.75. EC002 at a cost of $95923. EC00003 at a cost of $5,641.36 and EC00004 at a cost of $24,382 as attached for the Hartwood Elementary School HVAC project. These were reviewed and recommended by the Fox Chapel Area School District or school authority. I move on this item. >> Second. Any questions on that >> hearing? None. >> Miss Dad? >> Yes. >> Miss Finley? >> Yes. >> Mr. Frank? >> Yes. >> Mr. Good. >> Yes. >> Mr. Hamilton? >> Yes. >> Dr. Hasselhorn? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lynch? >> Yes. >> Miss Sitch? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Cooper? >> Yes. >> Motion carries. Moving to finance, Mr. Hamilton. >> Good night. Items tonight on the finance agenda. Item one is general fund
032dispersements from fund 10 in the amount of 9,760,98748. Item two is capital reserve fund dispersements for January 2026 from fund 31 in the amount of $130,97.50. Item three, finance report for December 2025 with the accomplishment filed for audit as attached. Item four, the second quarter 2025 2026 middle school and high school student activity financial reports are acknowledged and filed for is attached. Item five, permission to advertise athletic supplies. Authorize the advertisement of bids for the 2026 2027 school year for the following athletic supplies fall and winter and athletic supplies spring. Item six, exoneration of tax collectors approved exon to exonerate the local tax collectors for Indiana Township, O'Hara Township, Asall Burough, Lonox Burough, Fox Chapel Burough, and Shupsburg Burough from further collection of the 2025 school district real estate tax duplicates and to turn over
033to PA Del for collection the 2025 real estate tax listing certified as docu by the local tax collectors. Item seven, resolution 2026-2, deputy tax collectors approved. Resolution 2026-2 as attached approving the appointment of Jordan Tax Services Incorporated to collect school district taxes for the burrows of Fox Chapel and Sharpsburg and the township of O'Hara and designating t deputy tax collectors for the burrow of Lanox and the township of Indiana. Item eight, approve the depositories listed below for real estate tax collectors as recommended by the appropriate elected official. As small bureau, Don Easley, Farmers National Bank, Blanxboro, Casey Cunningham Dollar Bank, Indiana Township, Julie Leventry, Farmers National Bank. Uh the board's directive must approve the depositories for real elected real estate tax brokers annually. And the last item, asset control solutions incorporated agreement. Approve the agreement
034as attached between the Parker School District and Asset Control Solutions Incorporated for the management of fixed assets effective gener February 10th, 2026 at an annual cost of $12,700. This is a renewal of services. I move on these nine items. Second. >> Any questions for any of the nine items? >> Hearing none. Roll call, please. >> Miss Finley, >> yes. >> Mr. Frank, >> yes. >> Mr. Good. >> Yes. >> Mr. Hamilton, >> yes. >> Dr. Hasselhorn, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lynch, >> yes. >> Miss Sitch, >> yes. >> Mrs. Cooper, >> yes. >> Miss Dad, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> Moving on to instruction. Mrs. Cooper. >> Yes. I'll just be moving on one item. Uh to approve the 2026 2027 school district calendar as attached. >> Move on that. >> Second. >> Any
035discussion? >> I'm grateful for the discussion we had last week and we direct constituents to that discussion which was rather substantive. >> That calendar's also been on the website for quite a while. >> Okay. Roll call, please. >> Mr. Mr. Frank, >> yes. >> Mr. Good. >> Yes. >> Mr. Hamilton, >> yes. >> Dr. Hasselhorn, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lynch, >> yes. >> Miss Zitch, >> yes. >> Mrs. Cooper, >> yes. >> Miss Dad, >> yes. >> Miss Finley, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> Thank you. Legislation and policy. There's no further action for this evening. Personnel. Mrs. Zitch. >> Yes. I'm moving on the following seven items. Um, item one, resignations professional, the resignation of Tara Clutter, French teacher at Dorseyville Middle School due to retirement. Uh, supplemental contracts athletic, the resignation of John
036Alleric, Inter Scholastic Strength and Conditioning First Assistant. The resignation of Mary Leler inter murals Middle School back on track sponsor 2 B due to personal reasons. Resignation of Mary Leler inter murals middle school back on track sponsor six BOT due to personal reasons. For the resignation of Mara Pascal, softball high school JV head due to personal reasons. Item C, supplemental contract non-athletic, the resation of Mary Lethther gift that did middle school department head due to personal reasons. Item two, appointments, educational support. Christine M. She is approved as a personal care assistant at Fairview Elementary School. Um supplemental contracts athletic um following athletic supplemental contracts are approved for the February 26. Sean Minnie, cross country high school assistant. Shauna McKver intercolastic strength and conditioning first assistant. Keith Persing um baseball middle school assistant. Following athletic supplemental
037contracts are approved also for February 10th. Um Jill Leonard, cheerleading middle school head and Jill Leonard, cheerleading middle school head for fall and winter respectively. Supplemental contracts non-athletic. The following non-athletic supplemental contracts was ratified. Natalie J. Gorley, mentor teacher at O'Hara Elementary School, and Jessica L. Latner, mentor teacher at Dorsyville Middle School. Item three, leave professional. Uh Kelsey L. Cavalere, elementary teacher at O'Hara Elementary School, is approved for child and adoption leave. Um, leave replacement. Katherine R. Drumosski is ratified as a leave replacement science teacher at Dorsyville Middle School due to medical leave. Um, extra substitute teacher. The following individual is ratified as an extra substitute teacher at Kur Elementary School. Aaron Wharton for instructional assistance. Following individuals are ratified as extra innings instructional assistants for the 2526 school year. At Fairview Elementary, Amy Rain
038and Taylor Trasi the Hartwood Elementary School. That's Clara Barnes. Item six, summer programs for steam camp. We have Melissa E. Wuest is approved as esteemed camp uh program facilitator for a two-year commitment. Item seven, volunteers athletic. The following athletic volunteers are approved. Andrew Scundrich and Stefan Swerchinsky. I move on these seven items. >> Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. >> Mr. Good. >> Yes. >> Mr. Hamilton, >> yes. >> Dr. Hasselhorn, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lynch, >> yes. >> Miss Zitch, >> yes. Mrs. Cooper, >> yes. >> Miss Dad, >> yes. >> Miss Finley, >> yes. >> Mr. Frank, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> Under operations cooperative services. Mr. Good. >> I have one item uh regarding Kennywood online ticket agreement. Ratify the online ticket agreement is attached between the Fox Chapel Area School
039District and Kennywood for the Wednesday, May 27th, 2026 school picnic. There is no cost to the district. Second >> discussion. >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Hamilton, >> yes. >> Dr. Hasselhorn, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lynch, >> yes. >> Miss ZG, >> yes. >> Mrs. Cooper, >> yes. >> Miss Dad, >> yes. >> Miss Finley, >> yes. >> Mr. Frank, >> yes. >> Mr. Good. >> Yes. >> Motion carries. >> Thank you. Second public comment period. There's none. Fox Chapel Educators Association, please. A comment this evening. Board comments. Mrs. Finley. I'm hopeful that everyone survived the two-hour delay today. I know that it was another one of those oh no moments. Um, we appreciate everyone's patience as we keep working through these wonderful weather days, but there is hope. You know, only five weeks left.
040And um thank you so much everyone for all your dedication to our students and for those students who achieved so much this week and over the last month. We want to acknowledge all the academic and sportsminded people. Thank you >> Mrs. Lynch. >> Is that five more weeks per the groundhog? >> Good to know. No comments in my >> Dr. Hel. Um, I appreciated the presentation from our our H Heartwood educators, um, reminding us all of how complex our um, English language arts program is at the elementary level and how it's continually evolving. It looks different from when it did when I was an educator and when I'm I was in elementary school, too. Um, and I think it reflects our commitment to always doing what research is telling us is the best, most current
041practice and then backing that up with some really great teachers, which was clear to me we have there at Hartwood for sure. So, thank you to them. >> Mr. Hamilton, please. >> No comment. >> Mr. Good. Uh, yes. Um, last week I forgot to mention um uh and and give congratulations to our cheerleaders who performed at um nationals in Florida um two weekends ago. Um so, congratulations to them. They had a great time uh even even though the weather was uh freezing. Um, and you know, congratulations to our uh basketball team as well, who I think uh have made playoffs. Um, it's been an exciting season to watch all the teams. Uh, good luck to them tonight. >> Mrs. It, >> no comment, >> Mrs. Cooper. >> Yeah, I just um want to say how
042much I appreciated a spotlight on Spire. Um, what a good addition it's been for our district. Um, I want to thank Ashley Constantine and the administration for bringing in that much needed intervention level curriculum um that was missing. I just um I would you know this is my thing uh one in five uh students are thought to be impacted by a reading learning disability and I will continue to say it's argu arguably the most vital thing that a school district could do is teach children to read and read early. that um literacy rates are tied to our juvenile justice system. It's tied to poverty. It's tied to adult incarceration. Um even for somebody to be able to medically advocate for themselves. Um so I appreciate that we have found ways to sort of reach those
043most vulnerable in our district. And I also want to encourage the district to look at research of assessing in kindergarten and early and first grade um to pull out those students sooner. something for the board to pay attention to. That was a second grade class that we saw there. Um, level one spire when it we first piloted it went all the way up through fifth grade. Also, middle schoolers um started at like level one and level two. So, think about that. I think last time we had first graders reading off of papers to us. Um, so just think about the differential that sets in our classrooms and how important literacy is in early um in early earlier than third grade. Thank you. Absolutely. I echo those sentiments that opening the door to reading levels as
044early as possible opens the door to everything in life. And I agree that that our winter sports season has been successful and uh comes right after that very successful fall season. So I wish the best to our athletes as we continue. I'll take a motion for adjournment. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. Opposed >> meeting is adjourned.