you Mrs is Randy I'll second motion by Mr sadiki R um second by Miss Gabriel are there any um questions or discussions regarding the minutes hearing none all in favor I I motion Carri for the approval of the minutes from last month um at this time we open the floor for public com are there any public comments online or in the room at this time Madam chair I do not see um I do not see any online and there is no other um there is no one here in the room with us it's only District staff thank you Dr shefield at this time we'll move right along to updates from Chief academic officer um Madam chair I'm going to make mine um of course very brief um because we are running slightly behind and we have two um you know we have two updates and we definitely want to collaborate with the you know with the committee members um this evening um as I indicated earlier but of course what we're doing here within the district alongside with um you know textbook adoption because the state did revamp um And in regards to some of the adoptions that are coming forth you know right now um we do have an Ela adoption that we must do um which caught us off guard but the state has revamp um some of their excuse me content area adoptions um to where they push some behind and they move some further along Ela is one of them so we are actually in the beginning stages now where we are meeting um miss Mr n um is meeting alongside with committee members um we have you know from the community um and so forth and others that are looking at and providing um they're having conversation around the rubric and so forth as we're in the beginning stages around our Ela adoption not just Ela but also looking at reading intervention as well that's the biggest piece of the bucket that we have going on now alongside with all of the legislative pieces that as you know as they approv we are constantly reviewing with our legal team and just making certain that we are updating and getting ready um for our school year 25 of course this is the time in which we are you know getting ready for our um class of 2024 where graduations will be starting um sometime the 2 week of excuse me the second week of May I think it kicks off on May 10th um excuse me actually May 9th with the Indian Ridge school that will kick off the season for the class of 2024 then of course our students will start testing um we've actually had some students that participated um in the fast writing assessment and within the next week or so they will start with progress monitoring three for ELA Math Science and so forth so we're just continuing to work alongside with our schools um we still have teams that are um outside of the district office that are working very closely with our teachers and with our students just making certain um that our students are um you know being prepared and we're trying to make certain that we're setting them up for Success so that's just a lot around the nutshell of what we're doing here from an academic standpoint and um I know Nolan is here with us but as he indicated last um last month um it wouldn't be much of an update um because this is a slow pace for us right now what the team is doing is just that we're closing out school year 24 you know classroom libraries and so forth um and preparing in regards to for any new um features that may be brought upon us so Madame chair I will let Nolan give his Library media update if he has any then of course I do want to yield all the all of my time to um Dr edwell around what we're doing here with artificial intelligence and then of course Miss MJ steel and her team around the transition to kindergarten it's that work is definitely gearing up and of course our VPK enrollment for um school year 25 and as I've indicated within the past few meetings um our summer programming um it is Fast and Furious and we've we're advertising I've shared with you the programs in which we're offering this summer so we're just continuing to work with our families and lastly before I turn it over hopefully all of you have been following in regards to the federal student financial aid FASA um you know they had a complete um overhaul of the FASA form um from a federal level um normally fasta is um released for students to complete complet um start completing in October this year the form was not released until December when the form was released um from the federal government there was a lot of glitches there continued to be um some challenges for our families um as they're navigating their new um platform this new form so Mr attorney and myself we've been sitting on calls with the um with from the federal standpoint um weekly in regards to just the fact crisis um that we are in at a national level so we are continuing here um within the district to work alongside with our families and our students because we are concerned and we know that there are issues we know that there are glitches and so forth so whatever it is that we can do to try to help our families navigate through it to where our students um those that are continuing on to postsecondary and of course this is all tied to scholarship dollars and so forth we want to make certain that we have done everything that we possibly can in this trying time but this is a national crisis that we're dealing with right now as it pertains to this new fast for roll out that occurred thank you um Dr Sheffield um I don't see any hands at this time are you going to pass the Baton to Mr roell yes Ro Nolan uh good afternoon so I don't really have any major updates uh there may be a slight uptick in some of the orders because the SS y the Sunshine State young readers Awards uh were announced this year so the the list came out actually just today so some of our Librarians will probably be ordering those lists so you may see a slight uptick but besides that everything should kind of be winding down for the year thank you at this time I think we're moving right into our presentations Dr Sheffield um and you can call on um the presenters in the order that you wish okay Madam chair here you go here and um Dr Sheffield or Dr atall at this time um just so we have a precedent before the hands go up would you like to receive messages throughout your presentation or at the end of your presentation I think um let's see how it goes sometime it helps if we hold it to the end because the questions sometimes tend to be answered through within the presentations so if we can hold it to the end that's good but if it's a burning question um then by all means um you know we're going to stop because we are here to collaborate around this work but I definitely want to try to leave time for um you know MJ and her team um and I think she has quite a few slides there you know when we start talking about VPK and um you know and those foundational skills and early literacy and making certain that we are getting our families in and so forth and preparing our students from the time they enter um there's a lot that go into that so I know um MJ and her team has a significant amount of information um that they would like to share with us and of course open the floor for some collaboration so um I'll turn it over to Dr Atwell and we'll see how it goes Madam chair all right good evening everybody um so we're going to go ahead and Jump Right In I've kept the presentation relatively brief in an effort to U provide some opportunity for questions and and see where the conversation takes us uh but we've been on this uh Journey around artificial intelligence for about 2 years now so um the team has been looking at the advancements that have been coming down and uh really getting excited about it um keeping up with it from different um different sources that we have um and starting to really dig into it and play with it over the last um last two years now um when we think about the artificial int intelligence implementations we've really been sticking and organizing it into three main areas and those are students staff and then Technical Solutions um we won't talk too much about Technical Solutions but we'll talk a lot about students and staff during this presentation so jumping right in um one of the things that we've been doing is really focusing on hey how do we make sure that our students have an understanding of how to ethically use artificial intelligence because it is absolutely being used by them but how do we make sure that they're used in productive ways in appropriate ways and safe ways um so we have a districtwide training program for students that happens every year it's signed off by the school principles that it takes place on each of our campus campuses and we've Incorporated a module on it that has artificial intelligence it comes from Common Sense Media it's a very good provider of content it's the same training that they use to talk about online um safety and passwords and so on and so forth right right um so we're focusing on age appropriate lessons um making sure that they're using it in ways that's helpful um excuse me so another thing that we're doing with students is we don't want them to just learn about it but we want to give them a positive use case to use it and actually play with it um they're they're going to be naturally inquisitive around this so what we've done is we've we've gone out of our way to find a Walled Garden that they can play with AI inside of a place that's protected that's safe where they can ask it questions where the model isn't going to be learning on the things that they're saying in it um and where it can be an integration into the curriculum um and their teachers are aware of what they're doing on it and so we've partnered with Con Academy Con Academy is a very very well-respected online learning platform that provides free education across the globe for free and what they've done is they've worked with um AI chat gbt and have created an online tutor and teaching assistant so for teachers what that means is I'm sorry for students is that's a that's a chat bot that they can ask questions hey how do I how do I answer this algebra question and maybe what's the answer to this algebra question it won't tell them what the answer is to the algebra question it'll socratically walk them through step by step on how to do that problem um there's a couple different things it'll give you assistance with essays giving you feedback you can debate a historical figure or a literary figure from one of your favorite books um some pretty engaging opportunities and lessons um and it's all available through Con Academy and the partnership that we have with them right now we have nine high schools that are piloting the program um but next academic year it's going to be going to all high schools and all middle schools um carrying on from there the choice and career options um Team like they they've had some great um computer science programs going for a while now and two of the high schools have ai built into their into those programs um it makes sense they're starting to integrate some of that um and really we're continuing to investigate other Innovative uses of AI to assist learning there are tons of applications really this is like the Inception of the internet again it's it's affecting all sorts of things that we do even these images of students on the left were made by an AI logo creator that I I utilize to get some graphics for this presentation here's a page um this is just talking about Con Academy and the conmigo AI within it right on the right hand side you can actually see what the chat feature looks like you go you go in you click on the little chatbot icon um in the corner and you can engage with the chatbot um asking all sorts of things what's kind of cool is you can ask it a little tangential question it's going to prompt you to get back to your work and go back in the right direction um kids have test have pushed it asked lots of different things it'll flag the teachers in in principles depending on what they say if there's an issue there when it comes to staff training has been a big key focus in this um we've we've kind of got two different groups of training one is a general AI training um where and we've been doing many of those as you can see indicated on this slide um but the other piece is the conmigo and Con Academy training right those nine pilot schools we've been focusing heavily this spring on training them up how to utilize that in their classrooms integrated integrating into the curriculum um with our friends in teaching and learning and providing ongoing support and as we move into school year 25 again that number of teachers is going to exponentially grow and it's going to be over 6,000 teachers and administrators that will be training and giving access to this tool um governance is a big big deal when it comes to AI we don't want all the different models have um being open in the district um so we've been working with the technology Clearing House committee um to make sure that we're utilizing safe approved um approved by the legal team and also the um risk team to make sure that our data is protected um tools so some of the really great tools that we've gotten approved for utilization in the classroom by the teachers um is Adobe Firefly Adobe is the um the industry leader in um graphic software right and they have a a generative AI tool that is used for um looking at images uh creating new images um canva the second bullet um is a very um interesting tool it has lots of different ways of creating different Graphics it can actually create a custom um presentation uh template for you based on what you're Pres presting and so on um then we have the more generative pieces the the Google Gemini that's the one that's made out of Google um and also Microsoft open AI um their chat gbt so those are the the models that you probably have heard a little bit more of in the news um remember those are only open to teachers and that's where you can actually go in type your prompts think about prompt engineering and how to get good responses out of it and use it as a personal assistant there as well um but again KH Academy big training and tool for teachers um they have access to it to help as a teaching assistant so this is just a picture um a screenshot from Adobe Firefly that I talked about earlier right I went on there thought what might be interesting for us well give me an image of an academic advisory committee in the style of pop art right so I don't know if I see any of us on there but you know um perhaps right um that's what it happens to think that looks like and I can give it feedback and change it up a little bit but um you know I'm an art history guy so I don't know necessarily about the pop art but the colors work um so it's a little bit of a back and forth to get what you want still and then even in canva if I ask it for a presentation on an academic advisory committee that's the template that he gave me kind of fits the fits the bill um now looking this is a screenshot is there a question from the on group no okay um carrying on um Gemini just drawing attention to one of the um major models right um on the right hand side of the screen you can see this this is what it looks like when you go to gemini.com anybody has access to it and you can type your prompt in there and it doesn't cost anything right now for you to use it it's using one of the older models it's not their their new model but remember this this free version is way better than what the paid model was a year ago it keeps getting improved keeps getting better now on the left I've written a definition for prompt engineering and that's something to know when you're when you're playing with this later um prompt engineering is the art of Designing questions or statements that guide AI models to produce specific desired responses right you have to be really clear you have to treat AI like it doesn't know what you want and you have to really spell it out for it right and sometimes this takes a little bit of a back and forth when you don't like what you get you say hey that's not quite it I wanted this you gave me this and it'll be polite back to you oh I'm so sorry here's what I think you might want now and then you critique the next piece of it it's a back and forth so I typed in there what should I cover in my AI presentation to the school district's academic advisory committee there's a couple of those ideas represented in this presentation so I think this is perhaps the last slide yeah last slide so just to do prompt comparisons I wanted to show you what it looks like when you do a slightly more vague prompt and one that might be slightly more useful a little bit more direct so on the left red means no right how do I teach algebra to an eighth grader keep response short plug that in it gives me a good answer right start with real world examples so and so forth connect them with invari variables great but it's kind of vague it's not really teaching me how to do anything I can't take that and and and teach something but on the right it's a little bit more useful because I actually took a learning standard and threw it in there how do I teach an eighth grader to solve multi-step one variable equations and inequalities keep response short if you work through that and take the time to do it you see it does actually tell you how to teach that to a student in a much more meaningful way than the prompt on the left and you can get more and more into detail with that you could say based on a student's interest like um this kid really loves Spider-Man or something like that they can work that into the narrative on teaching them how to do do that makes differentiation really great and again this is all available through these different models but specifically for teachers in an even better way because it's packaged within con Migo for them um so that's that's all I've got for you guys but I'm more than willing to answer any questions you have about different aspects of what we're doing across the school district with with artificial intelligence thank you for that present ation Dr Atwell um Laura Felman you recognized hi um I have a few different questions um the first one is in the list of AI um chat um sites that you mentioned I noticed that you did not include the Bing chat um is there any effort or thought process to include that because it does um act like differently than what chat GPT does and we'll give references albeit references that need to get checked um and that um would be good for both teachers and students to be familiar with yeah that's something we would absolutely be interested in looking into again there's there's a lot of process that we need to go through before we um open up a new model um it just so happens that we're we're not um the district standard that we utilize um with the students is the Google Suite um so that we wanted to make sure and work on the Google piece first um because um there's a bunch of of very helpful Integrations that H happen within Gemini um for example if you have if you write out a response you can import that straight into your email or into Google doc or um you can ask it to change what it is into SL into a table and put it into directly into Google Slides so it has some really convenient workflows that's and keeping teachers and students kind of in the same area is helpful for that um it's not to say that we're not going to continue to look at other options we're just kind of working one at a time so that there's not so much change on our on our team but we'll definitely um continue looking and and we there have been discussions about bangs so we'll definitely look at that um but it is sorry I'm happy to hear that you're going to be looking at it um it um and I know this field changes quickly ex however I think it's important for both our students and our teachers to try to stay on the Forefront of that and um from the brief looks um that I've had as well as from um people who work within the field I've understood that Bing um some feel that Bing gives better answers at this point and while I understand the convenience of being within that whole Google Suite you can copy and paste from Bing yeah absolutely and having those references and having those links can be very useful certainly but they do need to be checked absolutely we agree um so the second question I had um you had mentioned something about um bringing and I wasn't clear are you bringing the career um Pathways programs to all middle and high schools or was that you're bringing the pilot of using AI to all middle and high schools yeah good question so what I was referring to is we have two schools that have um computer sciencey at them um and in them they are integrating some artificial intelligence lessons um that those are the two career programs that I was referring to um and but what I'm what I'm talking about bringing to all middle and high schools is specifically access to Con Academy and con Migo so the AI assisted teaching assistant and tutor okay so as a followup to that yes um you're saying that there are only two focused on computer science in Palm Beach County um I'm not sure about that I know there are two that are integrating the AI piece to it I would have to defer to my friends in choice and career options I know when I spoke with um we have a interdepartmental group that we talk about this and and our um our friend MO from the from Career and Technical educ is on there um I can get a follow-up question with him to get to find out how many computer science programs there are and all all of that um I do know we've we've been working with different programs like code.org and done hour of code and those kinds of programs throughout the district for um several years now so they're still getting um some of that for sure but um if you're looking for like the state of computer science program in um the district I'd have to defer to my friends in Career and Technical Ed and happy to follow up with them if if you'd prefer okay um I I would appreciate that I do have a few more questions um sorry but they are following up with regards to this because I've noticed over the years that um our schools are really I feel not sufficiently um preparing our students for future careers within computer science and that having a background for example in AP Computer Science a um is quite important for being able to have careers and become for example machine learning algorithm developers and we have a very limited number of schools of high schools in our district that are actually offering that course and you can see that across the district in 2023 only 223 students took this exam and that's not even doing the analysis of how many of those students failed the exam and when you take a look I know computer science principles is offered more often but you also find that in universities there are some universities that are not even giving any credit to that course to that AP exam because it's not providing a sufficient background in the material that it does not even equate to one of their college courses and that being said for example Forest Hill in 2023 69% of their students failed the computer science principles course which is really telling because we need our students to be able to have careers within this field and if we can't help them get even that very basic first knowledge of it while as as fascinating and as interesting as what you're doing we also need them to have this foundation so what is going to be done in order to one further develop the foundations of computer science knowledge to be able to help them have these careers Laur Laura I think that might be something for um we' which we've had and we can ask to come back and Dr Atwell you can certainly answer but I think that might be a question um that is for the choice because um computer science if I'm not mistaken is a choice program and I just don't want to deviate from this session this particular this is a foundation the reason why I bring it up is because this is a foundation for work within AI correct and the computer science a the AP let me excuse me for a second the AP Computer Science a course is not tied directly to a magnet or an academy program it should be offered to every single student in our district anyone who can and wants to be able to take that course should be able to do so but it is not offered across our district corre now Laur to program sorry just one second I'm asking you your question because that will answer you is your computer science tied to the choice program or is it a AI because you said it should be I just want to understand so we can understand where your question need to be directed to so is your question you're saying that computer science is not available to all students is that because it is a choice program what we do have um madam here we do have um some choice acmy that have computer-based programs um as a magnet and we also have some schools that will offer um some of the programming as Standalone electives now to say that we're going to say if they're you know to say that we're going to find that elective at all high schools no you're not and of course with any elective course offering comes having the qualified teacher the certified teacher to teach that elective I'm not discrediting um the conversation from Laura but what I am you know what I'm saying is that we are there are so many it it sounds it's great and trust me we would love it but we also must have the staff that has the instructional pedagogy to provide that instruction for our students and that's and you know and one thing that we're getting ready to look at is in regards to not just you know computer science Choice programs but all of our choice programs in regards to it meeting the needs of all students and is serving the purpose that it is set out to serve but definitely not discrediting I hear what Laura is saying I hear it loud and clear but I do not want to negate the fact that in doing so a big part of that is making certain that we have the staff with the instructional pedagogy and with the skill to do such thank you but this is another conversation I mean I don't CU we this will take us down you know this will take us in another whole you know right another whole also need choice that would be able to answer some of those questions so I just want to make sure that when we're asking questions today that we are gerain to the presentation as the presenter has presented because there are some other um members of the committee that would like to ask questions and I ask that you keep your questions to two questions and then we'll Circle back if there is time because we still have another presentation and um I know that we may have questions surrounding that presentation so um if the body the committee members will please um keep your comments down to two minutes and questions to two questions down to two minutes if that makes sense um or within two minutes two questions within two minutes um at this time I'll entertain Dr Mendes yes thank you um well I'm I'm glad the district is doing something and it's about uh considering can canigo um however I think we're going we're a bit late here because the students are using generative AI specifically Jack GPT since December 2022 this was launched in in November 2022 and the students have been using it to answer the to write their essays to do homework to do a lot of things so I think we had to to think about how to address this in in in different ways one is prepare all teachers this is not something that just the specific specialist teachers need to know or the choice program teachers need to know all teachers need to know about this because their students are using it the teachers need to have um tools and there are no as as an instructor I can tell you there are no U tools that really tell you clearly uh what was written using AI but it g for example turn 18 gives you um a percent of probability how that something was created using AI is not always perfect uh once I posted one of my of papers that I wrote and it said that uh it was created using AI that was a lie because I wrote it but but but it's getting better this is also an AI tool um but so we need to train all TR teachers on that and and all students need to know how to use this in an ethical way but also how to create um good prompts and how to use it correctly and effectively this is not something that could be done just for for a choice program this could be like saying okay only students in computer programs need to know how to use the Internet it's the same thing it's the tool that everybody uses and we have to make sure and I here is my question how is the district going to make sure that the the educational death or what others called achievement Gap doesn't expand or gets um enlarged because of the difference that some students uh you know will have in terms of knowing more or having more skills on how to use this versus those students who don't have um this this skills so what is the district doing about Dr mes I think and it wasn't one of these slid is that what we did this year it was a soft roll out because of course you know Ai and hopefully we did it the right way you know that's something that we're dealing with now and you know with the new FASA form we didn't they didn't do a soft roll out they just right so what we have done here with utilizing Kingo and you know with the AI component and so forth because we were already using KH Academy is that we did a soft roll out and that those are the nine schools that Dr Atwell was making reference to and what that allowed us to do it allowed Dr atwell's team the curriculum team and other key um folks to constantly meet and to look in regards to what was happening excuse me because there were glitches that we found along the way so we are continuing to work now just like you heard him say that next year this will be in all middle in high schools now that we have done a soft roll out so now we are planning the work that will be done start you know over the late spring over the summer to where Dr Atwell and his team um the curriculum team where we're working we're looking at the content areas and we're looking and being intentional around how it can be infused into the scope and sequence of the work so we are you know not rushing this we're trying to be um deliberate and intentional about this roll out and making certain to your point that all students are having access so that's why we did the soft launch Dr Atwell is there anything you else you want to add to that um yeah because it was a soft launch with yeah I mean we best practice we try to Pilot everything before we go hhog um it's a big district and there's a lot of different contexts in the district so um we try to pile things before we go um you know looking forward to you know any disparities like that um it's going to be at all middle schools and all high schools so they'll all have access to it so looking forward to that in the fall um but one thing that you were referencing is the um the AI monitoring tools that tell you whether something was written with AI or not um as you alluded to they're they're simply it's a cat and mouse game and they're consistently not um not reli they have false positives and false negatives MIT has written about this um in um so I wouldn't recommend um that to the Border or any of our teachers at this point even though there are sales people who really do believe in their product and their ability to do it um it's just I would hate to penalize a student who really did work very hard on an essay um because of a false positive um and that's that's it's still too too inconsistent AC cross those those platforms Madam chair I think sadiki um I'm sorry um had his hand up Dr Mendez was there anything else Dr Mendez I'm sorry thank you I just I'll make it quick and know we're short on time Dr Atwell just thank you for the presentation I think it's TR interesting and it's great to see that the count that the district is is moving on this I think um AI ethics and governance is critical for the students so I was glad to see that um I I wanted to just direct um the district and your efforts maybe just look into um there there are some programs that are being put together by the folks at common sense um and if there's interest there I'd be happy to make some sort of an introduction if because I know some of those folks there they do some really interesting works with school districts around artificial intelligence um but a question that I had a really brief question is around um the last bullet point on the students it says other Innovative uses I'm just curious to know like what's on the horizon in terms of what's next I think we're covering the initial kind of uh level of Education with these students well and I'm curious to know kind of what's on the horizon in your mind of what what more can be done here yeah absolutely I'm appreciate that um we're a big fan of Common Sense Media utilizing them for our Tech Safe program um so some of the the new content on AI is actually what we're using to train our students on it um but talking that that piece is a little bit of a placeholder in just saying we are we are you know we're looking at it with open eyes um we find a new tool and have to think is this the next thing that we need to approve um districtwide to give access to it um we're we're really we're looking at new programs on on a weekly basis um so things are are coming constantly um but just to be um the the real big thing is right now for us is looking at that Con Academy and con Migo implementation next year a program like this going to all middle schools and all high schools with the with the training load and the change um it's it's quite a big piece um so a large portion of our efforts are on supporting our teachers to make sure that um it's a smooth um transition and a and a helpful tool for them and going to impact our students in a positive way so um largely that's what we're focusing on I know it's it's not really what you're asking for when you ask that question but um we we're you know we're we're on Twitter we're on um we're reading the news we're looking at all these programs people are coming to us constantly with new programs we find out from schools Innovative new programs and we're looking and evaluating and thinking does it fit uh fit a need that we have and as we evaluate different programs great thank you thanks for your efforts and your team my pleasure thank you madam chair I can't see if you have any other hands up um is there anything else Madam chair here I do not have any other hands up I yes I don't have any other hands up any other questions for Dr Atwell yeah I heard the answer regarding how they're rolling it to the students but how about professional development is it going um are you doing professional development with all the teachers this summer so they're ready for the fall yes around the Con Academy and con Migo implementation um as you know um 6,000 teachers is a lot of teachers to train um but we have a training plan ready to go um it'll start in um July because July is when the um changes they they update Con Academy each each year in July um so right before back to school um a couple weeks preceding that and then that back to school week we'll be offering large large amounts of training um mainly in the live virtual where um we facilitate it kind of like this meeting um and we go through the program that way we can do live questions um it'll be broken up into different groups so it's in manageable chunks of of teachers so that everybody can have an opportunity for that a little bit more intimate even though it's still a very big group each of these trainings um so we'll be doing that but we also have asynchronous trainings that are that are offered right now they're on um Elm um different um different options to learn about KH Academy and con Migo and then we're also doing um just general artificial intelligence trainings um continually um so we have an ongoing cycle of that as well so yes there there are options if you want to get trained um available for teachers and staff if they want is not mandatory is that what you're saying I I defer to my leadership on um what level of mandatory um they they place on it that hasn't been completely communicated as of yet we're still working on the Run of show that's what he's saying Dr Mendes we're still working on the Run of show um as we're moving into our middle and high schools thank you it's better thank you so much my pleasure thank you everyone um thank you Dr Atwell again excuse me um thank you Dr Atwell again and at at this time um you're more than welcome to stay on and stay with us for the remainder of our meeting or please at any time um you may leave uh the the room I think you're in the room yes um you may leave the room excuse me guys oh goodness um at this time Dr Sheffield I think the we're ready for the next presentation I believe the next presentation is on kindergarten yes I'm sorry no that's okay it was me last month and it's you this month I hope you feel better Madame chair I know I think you gave it to me you feel better um I do understand um so here um again um doc Dr Atwell um thank you um for sharing with us the work that we're doing around artificial intelligence and again um as Dr Atwell is leaving the room as I indicated earlier um there are always there are going to be opportunity um opportunity gaps we're not saying that we have this perfect we are far from being perfect um so we did the soft roll out um in terms of introducing it um working through all of those bugs and those challenges and so forth and we are going to we're continuing to work together with both teams um and streamlining to where we're ready to go come on the fall with both middle and high school and making certain that all students have an opportunity to Dr Mendes's Point um in utilizing so at this time we're going to go ahead because also we've asked around the work that is being done around our TR transition to kindergarten program which it has all kicked off our schools um elementary schools are all geared up welcoming the families for the incoming um kindergarteners that will be coming in in August and of course also talk around our VPK enrollment so at this time I'm going to turn it over to um Miss Mrs steel and our director for early childhood and her team good evening uh my name is MJ Steele I'm the director for early childhood and I'd like to introduce you to Stacy konz she is a program planner in my department and she has had the esteemed pleasure of being our first ever transition to kindergarten leader so I'm going to turn this over and let her tell you a little bit about what's happening in transition to kindergarten good evening um thank you for the invitation we're really excited to share what's going on with our transition to kindergarten initiative and that's an adorable photo of our class of 2037 these are some District VPK students um every year we have a theme and we welcome our new class so why does transition to kindergarten actually matter and I'm just going to focus on two things um that we're focusing on is that you see gains and academic achievement and it's associated with increased family engagement and that is really what we are working hard towards getting our families engaged I have to bring up one more the reduced stress um as we transition kids to kindergarten and we provide information to their families we reduce the stress of that transition because it is one of the major life transitions for our families and their children and this is our uh campaign logo for step into kindergarten and right now we are in the middle of our kind kindergarten campaign timeline it's a 3-week timeline you might have seen some of our commercials our Billboards um in the children's magazines uh we're in the malls so we're advertising all of um the information for the district to register our children into kindergarten then the week of April 1st through 5th schools invited prek students to come and visit a kindergarten classroom room and this week we are in the thick of things because today was our kickoff for Kindergarten Roundup at all of our elementary schools so one day this week in elementary schools will be hosting their Kindergarten Roundup inviting families to come in for the tour and information and at that time each family will receive a kindergarten Readiness kit and the children will receive an I registered for kindergarten sticker so what are our resources for kindergarten transition of course the kindergarten Readiness kits and each kit this year will have a QR code that will take families directly to a YouTube playlist of videos to help the families with implementation then principales have access to family resource folder with all types of flyers for parents informational Flyers how to prepare their child for kindergarten and this year we videotaped an unboxing the kindergarten Readiness kit video for principles to show at their roundups so families can become familiar with the kindergarten Readiness kits and that's just some photos of our kits that the families will be receiving and this is our video playlist all of this is found on the district website at Palm Beach schools.org kindergarten it's really One-Stop shopping for family at that site a new initiative this year for our transition to kindergarten program is our principal read program and this is something we are doing in um collaboration with the Early Learning Coalition they purchased all the books for our principles to use and go read at a local VPK Center that feeds into their Elementary School and this helps the principal start to build a relationship with the school and the director meet the children and talk a little bit about what it's like in a kindergarten classroom then we've had some prek parent engagement events in the fall we had our literacy event and our schools hosted that have VPK um a literacy event for parents and it was focused around asking open-ended questions and our winter event which was most exciting this year we did a parent webinar so we hosted two parent webinars where we shared all the information with our families about the transition to kindergarten focusing on topics as separation anxiety academic Readiness and Social Development how to register their child how to find their homeschool and the importance of daily attendance and we offered those webinars in three languages and they are posted to the district website for families to access then a new initiative was our unlock the power of 15 and that was a wonderful collaborative event that we're doing so we're working with the Early Learning Coalition the Children's Services Council the Palm Beach County library system and the literacy Coalition and we are working together to get the word out to read for at least 15 minutes every day research tells us that children who are read to for 15 minutes reach higher academic levels so our ultimate goal is to cultivate a lifelong love of reading and really this has just been getting the word out as much as we can with our families and then our most exciting initiative is our transition to kindergarten ambassadors we have hired four ambassadors and each have been assigned to a region and what they work around is engaging our families supporting our families collaborating with stakeholders and they are helping to build that bridge of communication between principles and VPK directors to support and promote ready schools ready children and ready families and right now they are working with with the title one School principles and the directors and they are hosting coffee chats and meetings to provide information and that communication and their major responsibilities are Community engagement where we will go to VPK centers and work with the parents and present uh transition to kindergarten information parent resources that would be our parent resource folder virtual coffee chats we hope hosted our first in March it was very well attended and we gleaned a lot of good information to help Drive our program for fy2 and then our parent workshops and that's our transition to kindergarten work in a nutshell I'm GNA toss it back to MJ thank you our I'm sorry thank you our next topic it that we want to talk about is VPK enrollment and to give you some context uh just for those of you who may not know about the voluntary pre kindergarten program the purpose is to prepare our children for Success upon kindergarten entry plain and simple so with this program parents have a great deal of uh choice and uh many kinds of things that they can do so one of the big things that's new and different this year for parents is they have the opportunity to postpone their enrollment date for their children the state decided that even though to be a be eligible for prec for the VPK program uh they have to be they have to live in the state of florid and they have to be four by September one of the year they're going to enter uh the VPK program now the state has decided that they can uh postpone their enrollment if they are young four and they were born between February 2nd and September 1 so another choice that parents have when they're we're talking about the VPK program is an ed educational setting so they can choose a school public private or Charter a private provider most of the VPK program is offered by private providers or they could choose a specialized provider that works with children with IEPs probably the most important and the biggest decision our parents make when they're deciding where to enroll or when to enroll is they can enroll for a school year VPK program or a summer VPK program they may not enroll in both so a school year program offers 540 free instructional hours a summer VPK program offers 300 free instructional hours most all of the of our students or our parents enroll their children into a school year program this is where the district really looks at what its priorities are in our tit to one schools that's where the district prioritizes meeting the needs of students from low-income families and families that have other risk factors there we offer the VPK Head Start VPK Title One and VPK migrant prek programs uh to create programs that will offer uh more than the three VPK hour three VPK hours a day so that we're able to provide six and 10hour days for the students where we expect to have higher academic gain also in our uh programs where we have they're not in Title One schools we offer the free 3-hour VPK program plus parents have the option to enroll in a uh parent enrichment program if they choose with a parent fee of course one of our big prior one of the district's big priorities is inclusion and whenever possible students with disabilities participate in VPK classrooms alongside their peers so this is just a picture of what I was talking about the the state program offers the three hours a day the district because of the uh priorities that we have offers an enrichment program structure so um that let gives the opportunity for and what my department does is we uh plan the budget we look at the identified options for braiding Revenue stream which gives us different opportunities for enrollment that money goes into school budgets and we earn the revenues and we start all over again so this is what our enrollment guidelines look like we um produce these every year we've been enrolling for fy2 since January um in the programs where we're offering that's when the state begins to offer or make the VPK certificates available to parents this is what our fy2 school year VPK sites looks like where you see the blue banners is where we have programs that offer that are in uh tital one schools that offer the enrichment programs that are enhanced without a fee for parents in the green boxes where you see the schools that offer our programs that are outside of tital one um schools where we uh focus on uh making sure that we have the opportunity for parents to attend either VPK alone or VPK plus the enrichment hours in this par in these schools we also um accept the um School uh we accept uh School Readiness meaning that subsidize child care so that we're able to also capture those children a big priority here is that we are looking at trying to keep our children in their home schools that's another priority for the district so talking about summer summer for fy2 is coming up but right now we're preparing for FY 24 summer VPK districts are mandated to offer the summer VPK program uh the district worked this year with the Early Learning Coalition uh with the Coalition provided to us a list of unused VPK certificates by ZIP code we overlaid that information on top of our school zones and for this summer we have two VPK sites Barton Elementary and well inton Elementary all students in the whole County are eligible to enroll in the district's two programs or in any uh private provider program what's of interest is that enrollment in summer VPK has declined so significantly that was actually um legislation this year proposed that would have uh taking away the Mandate that uh that school districts offer the summer VPK program prog and but what actually did pass is there is a proposal to create a VPK summer bridge program this uh is still in rural development we'll get more information about it but this particular program looks at serving children who um actually a score very low on the start early literacy assessment um another provision that is of interest to us with Summer VPK is that allows School District to meet the summer VPK K requirement by Contracting with private providers so I'm I'm going fast so um I know we're running out of time so we provide all of the enrollment guidelines work with the schools our enrollment happens at the school sites again because one of our high priorities is enrolling children in the schools where they they they it will be their home schools um so why does the VPK program matter um I'll go right down to the bottom where we get our state reports they consistently come out saying that kindergarten screening show that children who complete VPK are more prepared for kindergarten than those who do not and uh Dr Sheffield there any questions M um yes I'm sure there'll be some questions but I'm going to ask um maybe Stacy did hit on it um now that today kicked off the you know our registration for our incoming kindergarteners but what role is it that the four ambassadors that we have now hired to assist with that work like what role are they playing there within the community they are working within the community to help inform the families provide the information especially now around Kindergarten Roundup how to register their child they take them through a lot of our families don't know how to use the uh District website so we've been providing trainings as that and then they are at the school sites this week to help and assist during the Kindergarten Roundup uh presentations for all of the families but really our job right now has been to inform the parents get the word out in the community help them understand why it's important to register their child for kindergarten why it's important to attend the Kindergarten Roundup to get the kindergarten Readiness kits and then encourage the families to continue to get the information that they need for their child's success okay and so those K excuse me the kindergarten Readiness kids that we've invested in um they're picking them up as they go to register correct that is correct okay thank you and then um what work is it that we're doing with our private providers as they too are working with the students that eventually going to be coming into us and I know that we've been strengthening that partnership um so what how is that going that's going very well we just started this work in January and we had everyone on board by February with our ambassadors and um we've accomplished quite a bit with our private providers we are sharing our resources we have developed many resources here in the district that we share with our principles we are sharing those Resources with uh the school directors as well so that they can share them with their families and moving forward we're going to be developing some PD for the directors because they're not understanding how everything functions here in the school district so they are in need of information really from each of the different departments such as Multicultural from ese even from Choice programs and we're going to be working very closely with the other departments to provide some PD to the directors we previously haven't had a communication Bridge so the ambassadors are helping us build that communication Bridge so we're having conversations with private providers and principles first getting to know each other and understanding our needs overall we want to have a common understanding and expectation of what kindergarten Readiness looks like here in Palm Beach County okay thank you madam chair I think you have a hand I think it's um Dr Mendes Dr Mendes you're recognized thank you um so you just mentioned that you need the support of Multicultural and I think we we haven't had a director of Multicultural uh for a while um my first question is first are you um do you have someone to contact and to support you um even though we don't have a director and my other question is regarding the first presentation you you show very nice um programs of like um resources different resources that parents can access online I like to know if those are in different languages because what they saw were only in English and you probably just show the ones in English but they wonder if we have them in Spanish and crayle as well Dr Mendes yes of course they are in the various languages and then also yes with the absence of the um director of Multicultural we have continued that curriculum collaboration with the managers that are there then of course um Mr Oswell whom oversees a m cultural is very um is also involved in this working making certain that he stays a breast as the team continuously work with the managers within good to know thank you madam chair I can't see uh I don't see any other hands up there are no other hands on my end okay yes I just checked in the box and I don't see any any other hands up thank you so much for the presentation Miss still and Miss Stacy because I'm not going to butcher your last name um thank you for the presentation and thank you for um this valuable information and insight on bpk and transition into kindergarten are there any other questions for the presenters herin n Dr Sheffield I will or is that some was that someone talking or is that in the room Dr that's in the room I think that's the open mic that we have okay that's blinking um I will turn the floor over to you at this time Dr Sheffield if there is no other questions um for um no I don't see any other questions um I do want to you know thank um Miss um Miss steel missw Stacy qu and and I probably messed it up as well and Beverly um just for the work that they are doing around our transition to kindergartens cuz we've really you know this past year we really have stopped and looked um in regards to those foundational skills and looking at the root cause when we talk around you know our literacy work and of course we know it does not it starts um it's those foundational skills and this definitely um you know we've leaned real heavy into this work and you know it's just great to have Miss MJ and her team um that are assisting us through this process so I do want to thank them all this is a busy time of the year for them so Madam chair that's um you know that is it for this part in return in regards to the collaboration of what we're doing here as a district and to of course get the feedback and just hear from the committee thank you Dr Sheffield at this time um Miss still and all of the other visitors that's in the room thank you you may leave or you may join us for the next 15 minutes um of our call or of our meeting at this time we'll move along on the agenda as we transition um to the next area of the agenda which is topics for let's just make sure I had it correctly um upcoming agenda topics and and did have this where we would have had a little bit more wiggle room but because we were running a little behind um we are at a hard stop of 15 minutes so I know that there was some homework that was given and um individuals had the opportunity to share their respective um topics Dr Sheffield your hand is up and you're recognized U thank you madam chair um Madam chair as we go to talk about um you know this meeting here in May um May 13th at 2 Monday of course we actually have um we have two and I'm not more concerned with the the graduation that's at 1 p.m. um because that's outside of course of our out of our meeting time but I do have um we do have Tak stock in children at the same time that this meeting is scheduled for um which takes stock in children it does fall within the department of um teaching and learning and these are the students we know that will receive that have participated all four years of high school and these students will receive um their um college scholarship um at the these are the students that are receiving College scholarships so um if we continue on and move forward with the meeting on May 13th I will be looking for um an alternate someone to represent me um because I would not be able to make the meeting on May 13th as I will like to attend um the Tak stock in children to support the teaching and learning division as it falls within the department of academics and Dr Sheffield I too will not be um and that was part of my Q&A I would not be able to attend that meeting either because um I am a takto for children um Ambassador so and as well as a mentor um and I will be at that graduation so unfortunately I would not be able to attend next month's meeting either okay I will not attend either I'll be in um I won't be in town on the country actually Randy Madam chair I don't know if you could see but you have Randy okay um Miss Menendez Diane is making a note Miss um Miss I think that was Randy yes I had um the hand you're going by the hands the hands that were raised it's um I have Randy first I had my hands up but I'll I'll let everyone else speak it was Randy and then Laura bman I think okay were we thank you Ma Madam chair um were we this is about topics for the future for next year for we have a couple of months left in this or not a couple of months I lied um I guess to kick off um next month and the following month um you know if there's a meeting next month but also um to kick off I think the only day that we don't have a meeting um and I don't have I'm sorry I don't have my folder Within Reach Dr Chef buiild if you can help me out um I believe it's June or July that June July we're off we don't meet back until I'm in August and that meeting in August occurs once school starts so we don't have that meeting so it could go to the second or the third Monday but we will meet in August but it's once we start once school start is the way the policy reads yeah so we will meet in August yes and August 10 to be the planning meeting where we do um you know we review the policy review the role and then select um you know chair Vice chair and then you know of course at the will and you know we could discuss um upcoming you know upcoming um agenda items or what have you but that's the will of the board the will of the committee I think the the purpose of the and that was the agenda topic I I just didn't realize how we only would literally next month we'll be out of school but um time just have by um I think that it can be twofolds um Miss uh Randy Miss Gabriel it can be given those agenda topics so that we can go ahead and proceed um let's just say may or and also things that can be followed up over the summer as well we may not meet in June but there's still a school district over the summer um my suggestion was going to be on um the legislative outcomes from this session and um the effects it will have on um our district and the education of um K through 12 students you said the legisl legislative updates yeah the outcomes from this past session which um I know he hasn't signed all the bills as of yet but um and then you know how it affects the education of students stents um 5 through 12 kindergarten through 12 thank you and just side note I'm just looking at my calendar and I may not be here on the 13th either I have a scheduled um contract monitoring to do in Flagler County thank you Laura you recognize thank you um so I'm two fold first is um I hold on hold on Laura I don't know what's going on with the mic in the room but it's cutting it's there's a feedback that it's given when Laura talks um Dr Sheffield try it again Laura okay can you hear me now yes okay so um I also will not be able to be here on May 13th um my oldest is graduating from graduate school and my youngest is graduating from college that weekend and I will be managing to come back from two different cities for those graduations so um I would like to put forward a motion to cancel the main meeting um or if people prefer to reschedule it but I know it's graduation season by that time so that would be conflicting with quite a number of us schools as well so I I move to cancel the meeting and then I have a second point after that heard Congratulations by the way to your um your child thank yeah both of them one with the Masters and one with the bachelor it's going to be double congratulations really amazing that's awesome at least you get to do both at the same time well thankfully the two different universities schedule them on different days so we are traveling in between it's going to be fascinating to see if we can pull it off that's awesome there's a motion on the floor to cancel May meeting and seeing there's another um comment um from Mr sadiki that he will not be in attendance um so there is a motion on the floor to cancel the May meeting I'll I'll second the motion motion has been um second um by Mr motion by Miss Felman second by Mr sadiki to cancel the May meeting um is there any discussions all in favor I I oppose motion carries to cancel the May meeting um Dr Sheffield um if you can please communicate with staff and those at uh those appropriate channels of communication to post um within the reasonable time amount of time yes um Diane will work with the board office um tomorrow um because you know with us cancelling we have to um there is a process so we'll work with Tony Lynn um in the board office tomorrow to make sure it comes off of the calendar we have enough time to do the public notice yes and then she'll send the cancellation out we'll do all of it tomorrow then we'll do the cancellation and then she'll send the cancellation to the committee members thank you Laura you had another question yes um during our last meeting there were uh a number of topics that were raised as possible uh meeting topics and I'm just going to request that we carry those over to be um that were not addressed in today's meeting that they are carried over to um the list of topics for next year okay if someone I think I had left early at that meeting last I believe so so I I believe they Diane has Diane just shook her head and say that she has them thank you okay and it's in the notes in the minutes I'm sorry oh yes okay I was and if we could I can't remember if it was in that list or not but if we could add um information um focusing on computer science classes and the efforts to find teachers with the expertise to teach those classes to that list and thank you you're welcome are there any other agenda topics future agenda topics I did see them my apologies they were at the end of the minute of the meeting uh minutes are you asking if we have more topics to to propose to upcoming agendas or I just want to make sure there is no additional topics so we're going to take these and um make a list of from today and and from um last month's meeting last month's meeting yes and we're going to compromise I mean comprise one list and send it back to the committee and then when we return back back in the fall will'll have that list but also at any time if there is any questions that you may have I think you can definitely send an email to staff regarding any of these topics um Dr Sheffield I do have a uh agenda item it's been you know our agenda this agenda item have been um presented at the district diversity and Equity committee um and it was around sat act CLT um more so classical learning uh the classical learning test I would like to know or and this could be an email or it could and it also I think should be a topic um at the beginning of the year to prepare us for next year um and that's we had a presentation that shared to date the results of the CLT act and sat and I would like to have that presentation at the AAC I can share that pre presentation with you from ddec um and I think it was with Paul Hutchinson but Hutchins I believe his name is um or Dr Paul Hutchins yes um but I one of the areas that they did a deeper dive in was a CLT and I would like to see a comparison and um an up to-date of how many students took the SAT T CLT act um and how many students passed it um in addition to um or I guess the passing rates in the reading the math whatever components that were um with the respective testing but I would like to see that I would like to see us um do a deeper dive into the um the three tests and not just CLT I think recently we had a presentation um that also touched on CLT just a a little bit but I I kind of want to [Music] see are you there and and since we're looking at that data it would be great if we could see um um disaggregated by by demographics um including um students with low social economic status so so if we break it down and deep dive like that I I understand the need for it but I just have a quick question by us breaking it down that way we never come up with a solution all we do is see the data so when we're when they're making the presentation are you asking them to come up with what the district is going to do about the low numbers in in those areas yes we always see the data but we never see well not never but there's rarely a solution well yes that is that is the point another point that I would like I thought I was going to do it in May meeting um but I don't think we're going to have it in this meeting or may meeting but was to go back uh well it's not go back um bring a practice that we do at ddec one month um the goal is to just not have presentations every month one month we will have a presentation the next um and it is it would be the job of the you know committee members to go back to their respective committees and have a deep dive um with the with staff the next month and then if there is any recommendation at the end of that deeper dive we would give that recommendation whether it's to staff whether it's to the board because I feel like we we have had presentations with no updates with no with with no recommendations with you know with no recommendations to staff with no with recommendations to the board or or whatever so you know this I don't think that that's what this meeting is about because we can get updates on the email I I believe I just feel like um we have to get to the point where we are um getting the information and then saying okay what are the steps that we're doing and then quarterly or monthly or whatever it is what is that update like you know the library the media library topic that was something that we met we got that and we were like hey we want this person monthly well we don't really have an update monthly but that person is here monthly to disclose any um discussions regarding the library books right so I mean at this point that that's what I'm saying we need solutionary not only with presentations we need something that's going to give a solution or suggestion because every every month we get these presentations but we're not getting a solution we're not I mean not every month not all the time but most times we ask for this so I mean can we put that on the table that not only do we get that but we should have recommendations along with it or what the district is doing to make it better absolutely and and the goal is to have these presentations laid out so that we too can do our homework beforehand with and come prepared um the the challenges sometimes with staff they you know sometimes they may not be available you know for the presentation so you don't have that um you don't have that immediate um you don't have the homew you can't do the homework in advance um unless it's a week in advance and most board meetings take place you know like our board meeting take place the first week um of the month so all right yeah thanks no problem are there any um other seeing that it is 7:17 and we are past our agenda time are there any other questions for this body for the good of this meeting or the body Dr Shield do you have anything um no Madam chair I am all good I'm I think we're good um we'll proceed with cancelling Ma's meeting and then um we will of course you know meet back um don't think there will be any changes for you know the upcoming school year in terms of committee members but if not then we will see everyone back in August yes um have a great day everyone and or a great evening the day is gone um have a great evening everyone and at this time the meeting is adjourned at 718 thank you thank you thank you so much thank you thank you Jesus thank you Jesus thank you Jesus thank you Jesus thank you Jesus hurry up and cancel e