##VIDEO ID:I58Mcyy2eeo## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e and oti Shaka people who was stewarded it for Generations the oti shika includes seven bands so I would also like to recognize that over 40 additional tribal Nations likely used this area for trade ceremonies and social Gatherings thank you I'd like to call for a motion to approve the agenda for the January 13th 2025 regular Board of Education meeting so moved is there a second second roll call please director Allen I Ean I Garland I noes I motion carries I'd like to call for a motion to approve the minutes as listed on the January 13 2025 agenda so moved is there a second second roll call please I Bates I'm sorry Egan I Garland I nolles I motion carries we will have comments by director Egan thank you good evening thank you to principal Duran and Prairie M school for hosting us here tonight and to our technology setup and Safety and Security teams for everything you do and allowing our meetings to be held at our schools Happy New Year I hope your 2025 is off to a great start it was an honor to attend the Cherry Creek Innovation campus groundbreaking ceremony last week in his remarks principal Steve day shared specifics about the economic impact of ccic during the 2023 2024 school year this estimated 4.1 million annual impact includes the cost savings for students in certifications and college credits as well as grants and service to the community Community such as the tiny homes specifically cost of certification savings 2.5 million cost of college credit savings 605,000 grants earned by ccic 630,000 industry donations 242,000 and Tiny Home Savings at 88,000 we're very excited about the next chapter of the Cherry Creek Innovation campus the Cherry Creek Schools Foundation is excited to start sharing the results of their educator initiative grant program check out their Facebook and Instagram pages to see how Community Support is enhancing the educ educational experience for all students educator initiative grants are funded through community support and the foundation's up upcoming Gayla is on Thursday March 27th tickets will be on sale for a night of student performances live and Silent auctions and more all to bring resources to our CCSD Community the foundation is also hosting a Super Service Saturday event where members of the community will gather to make hygiene kits for Cherry Creek School students this event will be held Saturday February 8th at poulton elementary school volunteer shifts are available from 9 to 3 for more information about foundation events and donation opportunities please check out the website CCSD foundation.org congratulations to the Cherry Creek High School Esports team on their 20242 state championship and a nonprofit started by Cherry Creek High School students just two years ago has offered $22,000 in academic scholarships through Equity learning highlighting academics and students from underserved communities in our state I just returned from a very informative weekend with my colleagues at the state school board and reminded of a very important topic parents and caregivers please talk to your students about being cautious with posting anything on social media everything a student post becomes a digital footprint which could have a negative impact on their future endeavors it's also imperative that students are not using social media as the platform for reporting concerns or threats school and law enforcement officials want to ensure that actionable concerns are being handled appropriately and avoiding posts that may instill unnecessary fear in our communities if you want to report a threat or concern please use saf toot tell at 1877 542 safe or your local law enforcement agency or main school office the district's exceptional volunteers will be honored next week at an awards dinner but we thank all of our volunteers who show up each and every day in support of our students and staff this January Cherry Creek Schools is hosting a virtual donation drive to support CCSD students and their families with Food hygiene products snacks and other Essentials all donations support school resource pantries throughout the district and it's never been easier to make donations through the district's Amazon wishlist as well as Financial donations through the Rev track link We recognize and cele celebrate Martin Luther King Jr Day on January 20th this federal holiday celebrates commemorates and honors the life Legacy and impact of Dr King on his birthday and is also a day of volunteer service in the words of Dr King life's most persistent and Urgent question is what are you doing for others this concludes my comments thank you director noes thank you and good evening thank you to everyone who helps make our traveling boardroom possible and thank you to Prairie Middle School for hosting these are my old stomping grounds I went to Prairie from sixth through 8th grades and was part of the first permanent sixth grade class at Prairie back in 1989 to 1990 they had piloted a sixth grade class just from eidge two years before but I was part of the first per uh permanent sixth grade class I was here when the second Gym was added and the entire Wing over here was added I was here when we changed our colors from red and yellow to green and blue it was in this very gym that MC Hammer came to visit us in 1990 do you remember that Tony yep and I had some amazing Educators here with a few of my favorites including Mr Duncan Harvey Mr Doug Mabel and Miss Jerry Mason and some legendary coach like Steve ramp and Mike stor it's always good to be back here last Wednesday several of my colleagues and I joined District leadership industry sponsors elected officials and ccic staff and students at the groundbreaking of ccic 2.0 this is the first groundbreaking of the big five projects our most recent bond is funding we'll be breaking ground for the other five over this next over the other four over this next year including next door at IST and the Overland pool I've told people it's really fun to be on this side of a successful bond in Mill I know many many people worked extremely hard to get it passed and it's wonderful to see the bond projects already starting the next District accountability committee meeting is February 5th at 6:30 p.m. at the instructional Support Facility which is by ThunderRidge Middle School the agenda is still being set but keep an eye out for if we because we will probably have a guest speaker present on the 1241 task force all are welcome it's too soon to understand the full extent of what the next Presidential admin mean for K12 education and our students and their families but the district is in regular communication with Community groups legislators the state arapo County city of Aurora and others to plan and prepare for a variety of scenarios that could impact our students and Community we remain fully committed to protecting our students in schools and ensuring all students have equal access to Quality public education it's more important than ever that we ground ourselves in our five core values with that in mind the district is committed to doing everything possible to ensure the safety and well-being of all students and staff members regardless of their immigration status gender identity sexual orientation national origin race or religion public education is a door to opportunity for everyone and we will continue to be public education proud every student is welcome every staff member is welcome here in Cherry Creek that doesn't change no matter what the future holds that concludes my comments thank you thank you director Allan thank you and good evening and happy New Year thank you to principal Duran and uh to the entire Prairie Community community for hosting tonight's event I take this opportunity to read and reflect on an article titled the purpose of Education written by Dr Martin Luther King Jr in 1948 at Morehouse College I chose this article because it speaks directly to the purpose of education and its role in shaping Society a topic as relevant today as it was then as we approach Martin Lu Luther King Jr day it's important to reflect on Dr King's Legacy which was built on the pursuit of Justice critical thinking and moral character Dr King's essay challenges us to consider how education can advance those values both in our schools and in our broader Community the purpose of Education morhouse College 1948 as I engage in the so-called bull sessions around and about the school I to often find that most college men have a misconception of the purpose of Education most of the Brethren think that education should equip them with the proper instruments of exploitation so that they can forever trample over the masses still others think that education should furnish them with Noble ends rather than means to an end it seems to me that education has a two-fold function to perform in the life of man and in society the one is utility and the other is culture education must enable a man to become more efficient to achieve with increasing facility the legitimate goals of his life education must also train one for quick Resolute and Effective Thinking to think incisively and to think for oneself is very difficult we are prone to let our mental life become invaded by Legions of half-truths prejudices and propaganda at this point I often wonder whether or not education is fulfilling its purpose a great majority of the so-called educated people do not think logically and scientifically even the press the classroom the platform and the pulpit in many instances do not give us objective and unbiased truths to save man from the morass of propaganda in my opinion is one of the chief aims of education education must enable one to sift and we evidence to discern the true from the false the real from the unreal and the facts from the fiction the function of Education therefore is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically but education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest Menace to Society the most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason but with no morals the late Eugene talage in my opinion possessed one of the better minds of Georgia or even America more moreover he wore a five beta Capa Key by all measuring rods Mr Talmage could think critically and int defensively yet he contends that I am an inferior being are those the type of men we call educated we must remember that intelligence is not enough intelligence plus character that is the goal of true education the complete education gives one not only Power of concentration but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate the broad education will therefore transmit to one not only the accumulated knowledge of the race but also the ACC ated experience of social living if we are not careful our colleges will produce a group of close-minded unscientific illogical propagandists consumed with immoral acts be careful Brethren be careful teachers in preparing for tonight's meeting and reflecting on this article I was compelled to publicly share my commitment to the true purpose of public education Dr King's message about the importance of character and critical thinking is deeply embedded in our mission every student to think to learn to achieve to care his call to prioritize values like Integrity empathy and responsibility mirrors our commitment to Preparing students for both personal success and meaningful contributions to society education must go beyond the pursuit of knowledge and test scores it should cultivate the ability to evaluate information question assumptions and think critically these skills are essential in address addressing today's challenges of misinformation and social polarization and ensure our students are prepared to navigate a complex world with compassion and purpose as I consider decisions about curriculum resources and policies I will continue to ask myself are we fostering both critical thinking and moral character in our students are we equipping them to navigate a complex world with integrity and purpose I will strive to keep these questions at the heart of my decisions and actions by remaining true to our mission working as a team and listening to one another we will build a stronger foundation for our schools honor Dr King's Legacy and create a more just and thoughtful Community thank you thank you I would like to thank the Overland I'm sorry the Prairie Community for sponsoring us this evening the Smoky Hill Student Government will be sponsoring wish week from Wednesday January 15th to Friday January 24th to support the make A- wish Colorado foundation and their mission to create life-changing wishes for children with critical issues a wish experience can be a game Cher for a child and their families with critical illness wishes increase hope strength Joy confidence and self-esteem in the quality life and well and well-being for children during their treatment over the break I have a time I had the opportunity to spend time with my two favorite Smoky Hill alums my son and my daughter as I've mentioned on multiple occasions they are thriving because of this community my daughter is participating she works on her campus farm and does bio research on the animals there and my son just received a full scholarship to do medical research in South Africa and so again I want to thank our voters and the members of this community for investing in our children when when Cherry Creek School District decides on whether or not to call a snow day our administrators can consider a variety of factors it's not just about weather it's about it's about the balance of safety students staff and families with educational emotional and Community needs here are some of the considerations the sa the safety of students staffs and families travel conditions arrival and dismissal times and the overall building safety and Community safety education is also a source of child care for many for many families parents depend on schools for child care and sometimes nutrition so snow days have a have a adverse impact on some V vulnerable families there are also educational considerations that includes loss of instructional time having to make up misw work and the accessibility of online learning and there in addition there are Community considerations that includes includes local services and and the employment uh schedule of of of friends and families so ultimately calling the snow day is a balance between ensuring the safety of all parties involved and minimizing the disruption of students and their educational and social emotional well-be while the decision often comes down to weather conditions it also requires a nuanced approach that accounts for for logistical issues the emotional the emotional needs of students and the impact on the community at large our District's needs s often require planning ahead and flex and flexible schedules that allow for Swift decision- making clear communication and efforts to mitigate the effects on Mis instructional time that concludes my report we will now have communications from our superintendent thank you president Carlin well you guys stole my thunder so I just want to say thank you very much um I had the opportunity last Monday to welcome all of our staff back from break it's a great opportunity to me for me just to share how much I appreciate this school district community and the hard work that they do teaching education all of it that we do is a difficult job but the most important job is to make sure that our students feel like they belong here that's our job to make sure that they walk through the doors of school every single day and feel like and know that they belong I had that opportunity to also share that it's not just kids or young adults it's our grown adults because if they're going to give their best to our students each and every day they need to know that they belong and as we go through these uncertain times and have conversations about who matters and who doesn't everyone matters here everyone's journey is important everybody's belief systems are important and I hope that we can continue to have conversations as director Allen said that are healthy we may disagree but that's okay as long as we ensure that the humanity is the focus of what we do and why we do it that's not going to change in Cherry Creek we may have to navigate some things but we will continue to do our work this is board appreciation month and I want to say to these unpaid Volunteers in other districts the superintendent wouldn't be able to say that so I want to say thank you to all of you for your belief in kids because this isn't about politics this is about public education and everyone has a right to to it and everyone has a right to walk through the doors and feel like they belong here and you start that Vision as five women who lead this district and I couldn't be more thankful I also want to thank the Prairie Middle School for allowing us to be here tonight and all the staff and I do want to celebrate one person we got to celebrate her this morning Miss Jill henden the executive director of our foundation who has given her time her energy and also given a whole lot of money to the Cherry Creek School District through her Endeavors to make this school district a better place she has an opportunity to chase her dreams at the Rose foundation and I wish her all the best of luck thank you Miss henden for all that you've given to the Cherry Creek School District wish you well please stay in touch and then lastly again I just miss Garin thank you for that because there is a lot that goes into calling a snow day and I don't take it lightly and it's real difficult when the forecast is wrong so I appreciate everyone's patience with me with our school district we aren't perfect but we are dedicated to be an excellent that concludes my comments I would like to invite the team up who is going to talk about our Cherry Creek literacy plan um I'm so excited about this opportunity our data is going up our collaboration is becoming better and I'm so excited about the opportunity for them to share I also want to remind everyone that you've heard this a couple of times before so I ask them to be a little more brisk in their presentation tonight to give you opportunities to ask questions of them so let you introduce everybody got that y all right good evening president Garland Board of Education thank you for your time tonight and allowing us to be here it's an honor to be sitting in front of you with board appreciation month and so thank you for all you do for all of us in the Cherry Creek School District we appreciate you all a ton so so thank you um before we get started I just want to introduce the team um what's super cool about this is It's a cross Department effort um this presentation and so it shows the collaboration that's happening behind the scenes to make sure we're providing Clarity and Alignment behind our iic plan and so without this collaboration those efforts are tough um and so with me tonight oh PR to introduce myself um I'm Toby arola executive director of Elementary education I have Dr Dominique Jones executive director of performance Improvement Missy Matthews director of title one and Darla Quintana Thompson director of professional learning um tonight we want to go through and share some of the work um we're doing doing like I said to provide alignment to our strategic plan so we can hit the goal in literacy 2030 of all students reading a proficiency and so looking at outcomes for tonight um we want to provide an update from our literacy priority team that priority team is part of our strategic planning team um a committee that strictly focuses on literacy does a lot of work and sets a lot of goals for our district that we'll be rolling out um to our schools here in the near future go back one and then also share some of the aligned efforts and support of the Strategic plan around literacy just so you can see the through line of what's happening so things seem connected um because that's our ultimate goal the one thing we don't want to do is have a bunch of different initiatives happening where teachers are trying to grasp on to what's most important we're trying to really align our efforts um so teachers can do the right work for all kids one thing our literacy priority team did um in collaboration with the literacy goal uh um goal of 20130 all students reading a proficiency is really looking at goals that are specific that are measurable and that are attainable so when we look at the reduction of read plans across all levels we set a goal by May of 2025 each school will reduce the number of read Plans by 177% that 17% comes when you look at the number we need to increase them by in order to reach that 2030 goal that's been set by the district goal two increasing percentage of students demonstrating proficiency um we've set a couple goals and we've really focused on grades 2 4 8 and 10 um we consider those critical grade levels to look at the data because those are where big changes within the standards come and so we need to make sure we're focusing on those grade levels to make sure we're doing what we need to to get kids to that proficiency level so for second grade um by 2025 60% of second grade students will demonstrate Proficiency in reading on Star fourth graders meeting proficiency will increase from 45.4 to 56% on Cass eighth graders meeting proficiency will increase from 51.4% to 61% on cmass and then finally our 10th graders um percent of 10th graders meeting proficiency will increase from 75% to 80% on the PSAT I'm going to turn it over to Dr at this point and Missy Matthews all right so it's our pleasure to be able to share some bright spots with all of you this evening and I'm going to start with the Cherry Creek literacy plan and so we are in year 2 of the Cherry Creek literacy plan and we are at this time working towards the implementation ties that are identified within that year 2 plan what you see here on the screen is the data that's collected at the beginning of the year compared to how our schools are self-reporting about their implementation of those tights that are within the year 2 of the Cherry Creek literacy plan and so what I'd like to draw attention to is we start to see that the yellow which is showing an area of need that we could put some attention to is decreasing while the greens are starting to increase which means that that's an area that schools are reporting as successful these are end ofe targets that we're talking about and so there is no expectation that schools are reporting out green across the board at the beginning of the year what we want to see is that more schools are indicating that they're finding success in each of those components there are seven components that attend to Universal literacy instruction literacy leadership at the building level what it means for how we're thinking about supplemental and intervention instruction professional learning database decisionmaking the database decision-making is an area that has a higher area that schools are indicating as a a place where they're going to need some support and so as we continue into this evening you are going to hear many of the actions that we've taken really being honed around how we're supporting our system in their data literacy this is star data and star is our interim assessment we use star early at the the start of our learning experience so our kindergarten really through third grade students are using star early and then fourth through 10th grade are doing doing star reading this is not to meant to be a deep dive into star data just a celebration as superintendent Smith indicated that we are seeing numbers trending in the right direction where schools and students are making gains in their literacy efforts so tonight we just want to celebrate and Shout out that this is happening that we are seeing the growth that we intended to see because of the Strategic actions that have been put into place when director normal alerter comes and he is from our assessment and performance analytics team he will do a much deeper comprehensive dive into all of the different pieces of the star data but for now just a celebration of what we're starting to see from fall to winter so while we know that that deep dive is coming really soon with um director alerta we did want to highlight um for our Title One schools um a data point for our winter star reading reading data and we wanted to specifically look at across the year so between winter of 23 and winter of 24 um we are seeing that there's significant growth in the percentage of students who are scoring in that at or above Benchmark which is absolutely um the trend we want to see putting us in the right direction and then on the the opposite side of that the decrease um in the percentage of students who are needing intense support um while we look at those percentages across those bands really um really clearly at the very bottom of this there's an average scale score um that gives us really important information about the kind of growth um related to that reading achievement that we need to see so while we know we we've got that disagre disaggregated uh data dig coming this um just snapshot for our Title One schools feels really important right now as an early celebration because we do know historically um when we set really important goals for our system um as go the our achievement of those goals Title One is a place we want to make sure we're keeping track of that data so in our work as a strategic planning team and specifically our priority team um this is a a graphic that we use really often to define the work that we're doing and um making sure that the acts of improvement that we are planning for are not random and and leading us potentially in lots of different directions but that our work continues to create real alignment um on my way over here today I was talking with with a principal who just happened to be leaving a guiding Coalition meeting and she said to me Missy I've never I've never felt the kind of alignment and I didn't realize that it was happening until I was sitting in that guiding Coalition meeting today as they were talking about the data that they were planning for and the way those teachers would lead in their collaborative teams um our system is feeling that alignment so just continuing to have this um graphic helps us to make sure that all of our next strategic actions um are really aligned and so that's what we want to share next is for our team where are What are the next actions that we're planning for in the second semester so I mentioned that data literacy is one of the areas that we really have identified as where some of our strategic actions need to take place so intentional work really happening connected to how are we understanding what it is that students know and understand understand and are able to do through their data and then how is that informing teachers and schools to be better positioned in order to be able to be responsive and make adjustments so that those individual student needs are being met what you see up here is just an example of that so Prairie is one of our schools that is leveraging a resource that's available across our system forth up to be able to have a targeted resource called just words that is a curricular resource that's very targeted in how we are supporting students who are fourth grade and older in their foundational literacy schools and from a really deep analysis of specific data points schools are able to leverage this resource it has primarily been in our elementary schools up to this school year to then be able to provide that targeted intervention that typically happens during what we call a win time which stands for what I need um and so Prairie Middle School is is one of our middle schools that's starting to move in this direction of leveraging this resource to be able to uh to support students that are really deep level based off of the data indicating that that's an area to support them and sticking with that idea of that data analysis that needs to happen when read plans initially rolled out there was this significant emphasis from then I would say up until now around the creation of read plans we even heard one of our student presenters talk about that tonight creating read plans ident is that a student needs in order to be able to make those gains towards grade level expectations but there has not been as heavy as of an emphasis on students exiting from read plans and so as Toby indicated one of the goals that the Strategic plan team has really talked about is then what does that mean for us to start closing the gap how are we attending to the read plans that need to be exited and so part of what the literacy team has been doing is this really thorough data analysis connected to all of the different literacy data points that schools and teachers might dig into when they're thinking about where students are that have read plans they meet with school teams they are having conversations about who are the kids that are right on the cusp they're almost right there ready to be exited from plans and what are the interventions or the Strategic instructional actions that we might take in order to be able to exit students from those plans but we are also having those conversations at the principal level for them to have a better sense of where to find the data how to make sense of the data and how to use that data to better engage in conversations with the teams at their schools and because that's one of our goals that we're working on that means that we also then have to be paying attention to the plans that are being exited so clearly this is not a list of all of our schools but just to provide a snapshot of that monitoring that's happening for us to be able to be paying attention to how many exits are happening um where might there need to be additional conversations and our literacy team will continue to push into buildings and have conversations with school teams the ones that are very closest to the work about what it looks like and what supports might need to be in place to continue to support students in exiting read plans the next strategic action that our team is is is working towards is really learning from the stories of our students um in our process we know we've got lots of quantitative data we can see measures on assessments and and there's this um real need to have the stories behind some of the data that um exists for us we're spending some time working um with Educators within our system to identify students who can really help us understand um what their reading experience has been while they've been here with us in the Cherry Creek School District so we're talking with some students who have been on a read read plan previously and some students who um are continue to be on a read plan we're not super curious about what what they know about their read plan instead we want to we want to take a step a little bit higher from that and say talk to us about who you are as a reader and a scholar um tell us about your experience um and and how the instruction you've received to grow as a reader has helped you define yourself as a learner um and we then want to ask them to give give us some advice what are some things that you wish Educators um your principles your teachers knew about um instruction and and what what do we what are we not yet considering from our students who have benefited from this very targeted um reading instruction um so we're gain that in the second um semester one of our strategies actually began and and it's pretty completed um we um really knew we needed to hear the voice from of principles um we knew that we there's a the greatest volume of read plans are in our Title One schools so we took time over the first semester to interview and talk with the principles in our Title One schools understand what's the experience for educators in their buildings um given the the large demands of read plans what they told us was writing read plans was not really the big lift it's actually the progress monitoring that's required as part of the read plan that every 3 weeks they're offering doing some progress monitoring and entering data um they talked to us about the impact of professional learning time at the beginning of the school year that they they need to really they'll be rethinking the design potentially of how time is used at in very strategic strategic points in the year whether it be um beginning of the year right for first conferences and then again at the end of the year because they know teachers need more support with time to complete some of those demands one of the factors that principles named that we're thinking a lot about is that they now that they have read plans and better Data Systems they know their students better as readers but yet we're not we haven't yet designed the time to really strategically use that knowledge for the design of um instruction based on that so our team has Tak that feedback and now are having conversations when we meet together as a priority team to identify where's where are the needs for training where's the need for additional support from our district um you know we think about Partners um and and then just the experience of learning from what's working really well in some of our title schools to respond to this big lift that happens um for our students or our teachers in our Title One schools a third important action um this year has been the increased fundations data collection um as you're going to hear shortly Toby and Darla are going to talk about that really important collaborative culture and a focus on results that's important for all for us to meet these goals that we've set for ourselves and so this strategic action allowed us to use a different kind of data point um we've got when we use star that's an interim measure or potentially a diagnostic measure to to see how our students are growing but our foundation instruction so this is a curricular resource that we use and then we have an end of unit assessment it's very close to the teaching and the learning so this data point allows us to watch a little bit more timely how students are meeting that 80% Mastery of foundational skills in their foundations learning um our literacy Partners um started to have conversations with all of our instructional coaches in um all of our elementary buildings to look at this data see where we're potentially we don't have data that's clean and we made it maybe needed to do some training or potentially um dig into what does the data tell us so we can do some professional learning about next instruction this is a piece of data one principles come together we look at every during every meeting and we're just tracking progress across the year to better understand what what does this data tell us how does this um give us better information about structures professional learning that's needed so that we're our students are growing in their foundational skills and then at the very beginning of the year we had um administrators um focus on this in some action research um as they identified was this is a need for um just a a a time for Focus for them so this data has given us some really important information that helps us even better understand some of our star data so we're going to go ahead and move to Toby to talk more about our professional learning communities one of our big K12 strategic actions is to reground ourselves in professional learning communities we started this work in 2015 um and through surveys from principles their voices came through that this is work that they wanted to continue learning about and regr themselves about so we made the decision of if we're going to do this right we need to make sure everything everybody's on the same field moving forward um and so that's the work we've started this year is really looking at what does it mean for a school for Cherry Creek to become a professional Learning Community because there's a lot of teams going through the motions um but they're not doing the right work and so we have to make sure teams are doing the right work in order to move the needle of student learning one thing we want to ensure is that all students have the ability to learn at high levels and I think of um Brian Butler um used to be a professional basketball player now he's a professional developer he talks about we need to teach all kids walking into our classroom like their general education students first and he is challenging us to go one step further let's teach all of our kiddos coming into our classrooms like they're gifted let's give them that opportunity let's not put l once we do more than likely we're going to teach those kiddos to lower standards and that's not okay and so we really need to make sure um we're ensuring we're doing the right work to get all students to high levels of learning each and every day one of the things plc's focused on is three big ideas to help ground ourselves um pretty simple Concepts but you know through Co a lot of these have shifted first big idea is focus on learning um we need to make sure that we're not covering content that kids are actually learning content because there's a big difference and so through Co there was a push to make sure we're covering as much content as possible to get kids caught up and what we're finding is is actually having the uh reverse effects kids aren't mastering content so we're creating larger gaps in their understanding of material and that's shame on us and so we need to make sure we're slowing down um and and guaranteeing that kids are learning content that we are expecting them to learn second big idea is a collaborative culture um how do we get Educators working together and this is an important concept because when you look at the research of John Hattie who's done some of the largest educational research in the in the world World um he has found that Collective teacher efficacy meaning groups of teachers doing the right work and they have the belief that they can impact students positively each and every day has an effect size of 1.34 to put that in context when you look at his work 04 is an effect size that we shoot for so when you look at a 1.34 compared to a point4 that's almost four years worth of student growth um just by having that belief uh in themselves as a collective team and so that Collective piece is super important the third big idea of a PLC as results orientation as Missy alluded to earlier we can't leave learning to chance um that's not fair to our kiddos and so what are we doing to have evidence of student learning because if we miss it um that's detrimental to kids as they move through our pk12 system and so we have to make sure um that we're looking at data using data um to focus on those results that are proving to us students are learning the content we need them to learn shifting to that one thing collaborative teams focus on at schools is answering four essential questions um those four essential questions are a starting point because if we can't answer these questions it's detrimental to student learning and that first question we look at that kind of grounds this work is what do we want all students to know and be able to do this work gets into how our teams identifying essential standards standards they deem most important that kids have to master by the time they leave at a grade level or move on to a new content course research behind that shows if you look at Marzano's current research our system would need to go from a K12 system um to a K22 system we 10 years of schooling um to get kids to Mastery of all standards that states and and the government are asking um teachers to get kids to so essential standards are a big piece of that the other big piece of that is when teams have this discussion we're taking away the educational lottery for for our kids and parents and so I mean by that is teachers are then able to set outcomes for that are the same for every class um and you're not hoping that you get that best teacher that has the best results for your child um and that's not that not fair right because if you don't know how to navigate the educational system sometimes that's really tough and so just really aligning what what teams are doing to benefit all students second question that lives within that is how we know if they have learned it um start to look at student data especially common formative assessments common formative assessments are an act during learning not an act after the learning and so it's something that we can act on in the moment what kids are getting it which kids are struggling and what supports do we need to provide them in order they so they can continue their Learning Journey um one thing we're trying to shift philosophically is it can't be a oneandone just because you taught it and a kid didn't get it doesn't mean you're moving on right we have to provide opport kiddos to have time and support to re-engage in the content in a different way so they have an a true ability to master those essential standards question three and four hit on what will we do if they do not learn it and what will they do if they already know it this happens each and every day right and so the thing about this it creates flexible and fluid grouping um so kids aren't locked into a group I think when I was in third grade at the beginning of the year I took a reading test and Mrs Hyde kept me in the red Group which was the low group until the end of the year no matter what I did um or how I performed on a test and I will tell you it was detrimental to me and I can remember that now I'm 50 I hate to admit that um but I can remember that till this day right and so how do we do better by our kids if we know they're not getting it what are in order to provide them opportunity to get it and if they already know it what are we going to do to make sure they have opportunity to engage in content a deeper in a deeper way one thing you see frequently to answer question four is well let's give them a 100 page packet and let them do it independently that's not good for kids right what happens as you start to see behaviors pops up they become bored disengaged um we need to find opportunities for them to Pro uh do some Project based learning experiences uh maybe some peer-to-peer tutoring and teaching um how do we engage them differently in these essential standards so they have an opportunity to look at it in a deeper way um and go an inch an inch wide in a mile deep um with this content so as my colleague spoke to some of the Strategic moves that they made one of the key levers in our strategies was our ability to support our instructional leaders being our principles and our instructional coaches the ic's and so part of that has been really being thoughtful and intentional about how are we growing and building the capacity of them to be able to support our Educators so part of that strategic move is as Toby alluded to is this idea of the power of collaboration and in Department work collaboration working together and so I want to give a shout out to the Departments of Human Resources educational operations performance Improvement and ccea because without that partnership we wouldn't be able to expand and provide the instructional support through our coaches that we've in the ways that we've been able to just as a reminder we in our fourth year of instructional coaches at the elementary level and our third year instructural Excellence race coaches at the secondary level in that collaboration of really working towards identifying and supporting the regrounding and professional learning communities we were real thoughtful and strategic in the ways that we were bringing our principles and our instructional coaches together to learn and engage in some pretty um strategic and focused training and so what you'll see here are just the days in which we brought our coaches and our principles together to do that so in July 28th was really a regrounding not only in plc's but really more what does it require and what does it mean to work in Partnership as an instructional coach and a principal and instructional leadership team on October 7th we really delve deep into qu uh essential question one and on November 19th and 28th we had the opportunity and the privilege to work with Maria Nelson who actually provided a process for our teachers to engage in to help identify those essential standards really in response to question one on December 11th our focus is on essential question two and how are we leveraging data to support our decisions that we're making in our planning we're going to continue looking at data in question two on February 10th and then on March 10th we're going to kind of sum and wrap up um our PLC focus with um Luis Cruz who's going to come and do some professional learning that will also tie in questions three and four um in addition to the shared experience and the profession learning we've been really intentional i' like what's the through line in what coaches are receiving in partnership with principles at Adco and then what is the deeper dive of learning and professional development that's happening for them on their pink days one of the things I offered to the board is a reminder the pink day really is just the color of the day is how it's on the calendar but it's stuck and so we continue to reference the professional learning days for our coaches as pink days but what you'll notice is the focus has been on plc's and collaborative teams with the primary resource being learning by doing we had the 15-day challenge which was really focused on unit planning and identifying essential standards we did also delve deep into Collective efficacy and then data and assessment literacy so part of the celebrations and the bright spots for the work that coaches are doing in schools is the implementation of the 50-day challenge so I do have just a few celebrations that I wanted to share um with you on some of the work that the schools are doing I got Turn the Page hold please so what we've had is um middle schools facilitating the 50-day challenge with the entire staff we had Miss middle schools facilitating with language arts teachers with elective teachers we had one Middle School that brought all 18 elective teachers to engage in the identifying essential several elementary schools have met with about every grade level in identifying essential standards and also common formative assessments we also what's super exciting that Ive and Missy spoke to this idea of principal saying and really filling the alignment is we have common language that's occurring K12 if you go to any level any principal any coach they can tell you what a boulder rock and a butterfly is in terms of how they're unpacking standard which is pretty exciting um and then also we have irc's who are working in collaboration with collaborative team facilitators to continue to build their capacity and work of um collaborative teams and so hope I was really quick um what you will see today is just this collaboration this part partnership the intentionality of really trying to align and get the ship going in the right same direction and so it's this partnership being really focused on what it is that our goals are that have allowed us to be super strategic and intentional in our in our moves and in our direction of serving all kids thank you we'll start our questions with director Egan hi thanks for being here tonight appreciate it I'm going to start at the back and ask the question about um this intentional strategic Direction which is great but I'm just wondering about alignment at the highest level and bringing in all the pieces together I'm glad to see Dr Jones here tonight as well and you mentioned Norm alerta but I curious about the conversations around in your PLC work and bringing in math science literacy all of these together under one umbrella I'm going to answer what I heard in that question and if I missed something please Circle back to me so one of the things that we've been really intentional about as a curriculum and instruction team is to make sure that we really are deeply understanding what it means to go through that 15-day challenge process just like the principles and the ierc sat through all of those professional learning opportunities so did the curriculum and instruction partners and partners from other departments as well and then what we have been doing in the last two months in curriculum and instruction is engaging in this work and unpacking it and making sense of it ourselves and all of the content Partners have been out side by side with teachers or collaborative teams as they are engaging in this work as well so it really is some like Darla just mentioned we are all able to speak about Boulders rocks and butterflies because it is the conversation that we're all having now as we're thinking about what does it mean to unit plan and really understand the standards that we're targeting within this unit thank you and then when you talk about Scholars one of the first slides that you have uh just wondering how I know that you are selecting those because they've been these students have been through the program and they have gained a lot from this I just wondered if you could talk more about the parents being brought into this and then also the selection process of that the word scholar yes yes that is a term that we use really frequently to describe students um when we think about building learner identities um using that term Scholars to Define students and and Educators in in just as a very general term um we want students to walk away from their educational experience with us defining themsel as a scholar so we've used that term here um very intentionally because we use that in in lots of settings and lots of ways to um really you know approach this as an how we're building our identities that we are Scholars um we we have t we um mentioned the role of parents and um in terms of the interviews that will happen with students for them to give us their their feedback um we will have you know parents aware of th that those are happening so that they're you know knowing their student is giving us their feedback and then just a side note of we and as part of our planning team we know that we need parent voice in this too um that isn't one of the Strategic actions we've named at to date but it has come up in conversations as as some another partner in this work that we know is critically important yeah I agree I think that's great uh so I've mentioned this before but when you talk about the targeted intervention and Prairie specifically I know that you brought up just words and I I guess I just wanted to hear a little bit more about that targeted intervention and what that program specifically is doing so just words is part of the Wilson's family and fundations is what we use in our kindergarten through third grade foundational skills that's the curricular resource that we use in that realm just wordss is then the extension what we would call um tier 2 tier three really getting more targeted and intensive in the support that it's providing if I am a student who is fourth grade and Beyond and I still have gaps of learning in my foundational skills then there is an additional um targeted intervention that I need in order to be able to continue to help me build those skills it is not for every single student and so um I'll name this as an example because we've been doing lots of work with Highline as well so they just gave um they're looking at different assessment points there's another assessment point that they're using and it helps them identify which students are going to be are going to be best served by this curricular resource and it's not about it being the new shiny thing it's that it is targeting a very specific population of students to be able to help them quickly make the gains that they need to fill those foundational holes okay great that that's helpful to me so I'm excited about this work so excited to see the progress and about plc's it's been a subject near and dear to my heart so I'm excited about the alignment among that and the instructional coaches kind of being able to bring that down as well so thank you for all you do and appreciate you being here thank you thank you director nolles thank you for being here tonight um I asked most of my questions when we saw this last week but a couple coms comments I will mention that at the breakfast with the board that we have with the various schools across the district the word alignment is coming up more and more so you are seeing that happen which is great and so whatever you're saying it I hear it you know in out of the principles so that's wonderful um I wondered just one question the 15-day challenge just making sure I understand this correctly is this like 15 days of instruction and they're kind of mapping it out and then do they how frequently do they have these challenges yeah so it's not really like a game challenge per se um it's more like a year in and unit planning for teams so they're more intentional around here's where these Essentials are going to be taught um number of days and then here's where a common form of assessment might hit what it does it keeps them on the same page because a lot of times what you'll see is a team going through the work work and then one teacher is like you know what I'm going to take an extra 5 days they go to look to data and they can't talk about the data cuz that one teacher is behind so it's it's a unit plan to help keep them all on the same page and moving that work forward and how frequently are they planning this out you know it depends right now on the school um we have schools doing it every unit within hmh um which is there's a lot of excitement and then we have some right now dipping their toe in the water um just because it's a different Dynamic within those teams and so with the help of Darla and the ic's you know the evidence we see in schools you know I think if I was in eight schools this week elementary schools um kind of what you said Ruthie was you you hear it right and so when you start talking about um coaches collaborating um which is where we need them to be to build their capacity it's super cool to see a coach in the Cherokee Trail theater collaborating with coaches in the Overland theater right because it shouldn't be we're locked into a theater we're doing the work for all kids and so this ability to align the work intentionally is is paying dividends for the work that's happening in schools and you can you can see it right I'm I'm geeking out taking pictures like holy cow look at the work they're doing and so um that alignment piece though that you're talking about is so important because if we're talking different using different language to describe the same things it's it's you know it breaks the system down and then who does It ultimately affect as our students great thank you so much thank you director Allan thank you thank you for this presentation um I love our setup that gives us some time after the study session to um reflect on what we've learned based on our questions and the presentation um sometimes we have a lot of questions sometimes not so many I think this is going to be for me one of those not so many I just think I need one I would like one point of clarification um with just words um is this when you say it's a curricular resource is it instruction from a teacher or or or is it more like Lexia where it's all online well Lexia is also not only online okay so I've sat there with my daughter for hours just just like that eighth grader I you know so so we do get to that very excited point and the teachers are phenomenal I just want I I'm just curious about how just words yeah no just words is is all direct teacher instruction and it wouldn't be more than 15 students in a group that are getting that targeted direct instruction from a teacher fair enough that's that was Leia has small group lessons that do that also and yes and and the combination um especially when our kids are really comfortable and accessing material that we aren't um um I I see a place for both um just want to make sure that it's not all yeah um computer driven because our teachers and their are phenomenal y um and and and their desire to not just teach but to have their students learn so thank you very much I appreciate that although this is just um you know a uh it's not a complete picture of the data I really love that we're in the middle of the year and you've come back with some additional data so we can keep our eye on um what those goals are um so thank you so much and happy New Year happy New Year thank you um my question is like as we've been working more towards the the alignment of of our um teaching are we noticing any patterns with either our systems or students or in in in those processes where kids need read plans are we identifying any patterns in that process I I would say that that is part of the conversation that we're always having as a literacy priority team so Missy alluded to um getting some Trend data from principles about some of the things that they're seeing as bright spots but really like what are the barriers and roadblocks that are getting in the way which is now having us relook at some of our systems as an example what might it look like for replants to roll over as opposed to having to be recreated at the beginning of every year have it be a starting place instead so yes there are conversations certainly about the trends that we're noticing and we continue to be very open to what are the other things that we're recognizing so you know I think what everybody has offered connected to the professional learning community's work is there was a need to J level set let's all what did you say be on the same field get everybody on the same field having the same conversations using the same language and so I think that we are trying to be really intentional about what are the trends that we're noticing how is the system and teachers and students responding to those intentional changes that have been put into place what are the things that we want to make sure that we continue to have going or what are the things that we're going to need to continue to think about o maybe not like that what modifications need to be made and those are the conversations that we're having as a part of the literacy priority team and the bigger strategic planning team each time I just want to add president Garland you asked uh quite a few about the correlation between behavior and reading that is part of the disproportionality um group of the Strategic plan so they are looking at those data points if we have students who are struggling with the capacity to read are they finding other ways to show us and and what we are finding is yes and so those two things are in correlation so it's not just about the instruction to get them to read it's also what are they saying to us with their behaviors to help support them so it's kind of twofold in that but but that was a question that the board asked us to dig into so we're digging into that as well once we get some more hard data on that we'll bring that back but we're kind of just kind of working through it and then along those same lines like how are our older students particularly middle and high schoolers responding to the title of a read plan I guess I would think like an elementary right but if I'm in middle and high school and I have a read plan like what does that have we talked about that at all that's part of the need to be able to go to students and say help us understand from your experience from your perspective and like Miss named it's not necessarily about that you have a read plan but having a better sense of what their literacy Journey has been and so that is data that we absolutely are committed to collecting and hearing it directly from their mouths that concludes my questions thank you it is at this point in our meeting that we make time for members of the audience who have completed the online public comment form prior to 12:00 noon today to address the Board of Education in order for everyone to be heard please limit your comments to a maximum of 2 minutes a buzzer will sound at the end of the two minutes and the microphone and audio will be automatically muted each speaker may only speak once during public comment speaking time may not be sh shared between speakers this is your opportunity to make comments to the Board of Education in accordance with board policy it is not a question and answer session please confine your comments to matters that are remain to the business of the district further please recognize that students attend most of our meetings speakers whose statements or behavior are unrelated to the business of the district appear threatening or unsafe or are inappropriate for K through 12 students may be interrupted or warned and their opportunity for comment terminated audience members who speak are asked to do so in a respectful Manner and the audience is encouraged to listen respectfully any speaker or audience member who disrupts the good order of the board meeting including the speaking time of others may be asked to leave we are very interested in your feedback and will listen carefully on behalf of the board I want to thank you in advance for your comments and for taking the time to to attend tonight's meeting Mr conic could you please read our list of speakers Brent Harris excuse thank you for your time and a moment of personal privilege it's been my dream School social studies teacher most notably for the last 12 years here in Cherry Creek where I was a student but long-term disability prevents me from re-entering my classroom anytime soon but my passion for Cherry Creek schools and its students remain strong because my son Calvin is in second grade at Black Forest Hills and my daughter Emma is two and racing to prek faster than I could have imagined in the coming days weeks months I'm going to be reaching out and taking time to listen to as many people who are willing to engage with me as I figure out what is the best next step for me to take take on my pathway of purpose here in CCSD my 2 minutes expired at the December meeting before I could finish what I just said seeing the number of speakers at both tonight's meeting and that meeting I respectfully suggest we re-evaluate the necessity of such a strict time limit on public comments while brevity is understandable during contentious meetings or times of Public Safety perhaps we could extend the time when there's less conflict and more cause for celebration as is the case tonight tonight you're approving a you're approving commendable work and one point 92 billion budget for next year there should be more community members here to celebrate these accomplishments I understand that your positions governing our large organization are unpaid that we've been unfortunate to have very we have been fortunate to have very selfless leaders who have served our community well but that but might that limit the ability of educational professionals with lifelong dedication to Cherry Creek schools to serve without pay due to my professional circumstances my family support during my medical needs I'm exploring a run for the director DC which is open this November and for which I could afford to do one term unpaid but not two I appreciate Jennifer hayne's stewardship during my medical leave which Ender December 31st since school Award nominations do not open until 90 days before the election I have some questions Miss hay suggested I speak with giny Mansfield Sonia McKenzie and Ian Lopez about my plans if any of you are present I'd love to chat first in person otherwise I'll reach out this week president gar let all for tonight thank you may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda resolutions 25.1 through 2514 so moved is there a second second roll call please director Allen I Ean I Garland I nolles I motion carries our next meeting will be on Monday February 10th 2025 at 700 p.m. at Fox Ridge Middle Middle School located at 26301 East arapo Road in Aurora Colorado I'd like to call for a motion to adjourn the January 13th 2025 meeting move to adjourn is there a second second roll call please directors Allen I Egan I Garland I nolles I motion carries our meeting is adjourned e e for