##VIDEO ID:Y-osMVb9CtQ## we're going to try to present that as it is a part of the literacy and literacy is everywhere uh we're going to share a little bit of our data and a data picture of our students and then we're GNA round it out with how we're supporting literacy across our community um within our school community and our community at large and I don't should I keep going or does that bother everybody okay all right so to start because literacy is very much connected to the read act right now um as you know the read Act is an acronym for reading to ensure academic development act um it was passed in 2023 and then reimagined in 2024 the read act's goal is to have every child reading at or above grade level every year beginning in kindergarten and to support our multi-lingual Learners and students receiving special education services and achieving their individualized reading goals this is something that's set forth in the react and it is certainly something that we and sashko are striving for as well um you'll hear a little bit more about our official District goals when we talk about the world's best Workforce or the cacr comprehensive achievement and Civic Readiness Plan that we need to set forth um but this is certainly a goal of ours that every child is reading at or above grade level beginning in kindergarten we've talked a lot about professional development last year but just to recap um for for professional development there were three it's it's training and structured literacy and so providing our our teachers that Foundation of understanding how kids learn to read and so MD put forward three programs uh carry all and then letters both through the University of Minnesota um and then core or and online language and literacy Academy you'll hear us refer to Ola and Carrie a all um Ola is one that we have selected for our grades 6 through 12 plus um for our teachers that we have identified as having that direct impact on literacy instruction so and oftentimes we think that's just our ELA teachers but our teachers of social studies our teachers of math our teachers of science all of them are going through this Ola training which is one of MD's approved trainings um and then the other train training cores adolescent literacy Solutions was selected for those staff who are probably feeling like they're a little bit more removed from direct teaching of literacy um it in the process of selecting with our directors of teaching and learning when we dove into kind of the content um core definitely matched our six through 12 teachers a little bit more and Carrie I all seem to fit along with our early childhood and elementary teachers um the reason we selected the ALS is it all synchronous instruction the teachers come they show up they hear about it and um there's certainly the and I think Leah's worked really hard with our vendors to make sure that because we've gone above and beyond and are training all of our staff that the vendors are really trying to make sure that everybody feels like they are a teacher of literacy and so the facilitators that are working with these groups are doing a really good job of connecting it to physical education connecting it to Social Work connecting it to counseling um and Leah has really spearheaded that and working with the the facilitators on that um the training is around 45 to 54 hours it's a it's a combination of asynchronous and synchronous um and so far we have gone we're two months in we have some staff who have self-paced and gone through all of their modules um Leah has gotten a lot of positive feedback regarding how this has really helped them understand how kids learn and I think you've heard us say those of us that went through it last year that it did the same for us even though we aren't in the classroom teaching uh we often get asked about funding how are we funding all this and why are we putting all teachers through this and um and we felt like it was a really good investment of the react literacy aid funds um to invest in this time for our teachers we certainly also use professional development set aside but there is redact literacy Aid which was new one-time funding and there is wide use of that for the statute um and then we also received this last summer some information regarding some additional funds for Teacher compensation and so we are in conversations with the utswc the United teachers of South Washington County leadership and what does that look like through anou and Abby is working uh with their leadership on that what does what does that mean for compensation for a stipend those types of things and and when and how is that going to be um distributed but that is in the works and we don't have final details on that yet so to dive in kind of the subject area that we often think about Ela um and literacy this is how MD defines literacy so it's all of the communication and language skills and processes people use every day to receive and send communication um we've talked about how critical literacy is to all that we do um when mde breaks down what we want kids to know and be able to do so in the standards they break literacy or or English language arts into Reading Writing and then listening speaking viewing and exchanging ideas and we certainly focus on these things in our Ela classes English language arts classes but when you look at those three strands you can imagine how much we also use those skills in other classes um so yes Ela is literacy and literacy is bigger than Ela and so um while the standards are certainly focused on in our English n and English 10 we do understand all of these skills being infused throughout our curriculum to talk a little bit about specifics of levels I'm going to turn over to the team and Arthur is going to start out with Elementary all right uh as we look at data for elementary we are going to talk about two different types of Assessments that we use the first one is called the map and that's the measures of academic progress and that's a computerized assessment designed to measure student skills in reading so all students will answer the same number of questions but the difficulty changes based on how students respond uh and also we'll be talking about the ear and that's the independent reading level assess mment and that comes with our core Arc American reading company resource so this first slide looking at our third fourth and fifth graders you are going to see the national RIT or rash unit percentage Norms so if we look at the data from 2024 from this fall we can see that 48.1% of our third fourth and fifth graders were in the high and high average category which means they were in the 61st percenti or higher compared to their grade level peers nationally um and you can see we have 21.9% as average and then 30% uh low average and low when we look at this slide though we can see that the teachers are meeting the needs of our kids of where they are if we look at the data from this year we had 54.4% of our third fourth and fifth graders meet the projected growth for this fall so um for example if there's a second grader last year that took the map they took it this year if they met their growth goal they would be a student that um would be for in the yes um category and this slide is very exciting to see um the number of students meeting the growth goal has continued to go up and now I'm going to turn it over to Tom to talk about our eara thank you Arthur um so I want to provide a little bit of context with this slide uh because this is not quite as public facing as some of the other assessments that we utilize this is our uh leveling assessment it's it's era is what we call it uh but that stands for independent reading level assessment and this assessment is given at the beginning of the year um but it's also given at multiple points throughout the year so the map assessment that Arthur was just referencing that's a onetime assessment that we give in the fall the ear is one that we do throughout the year and specifics of that assessment in terms of How It's given it's a onetoone assessment uh so the teacher is sitting with the student and the student is doing a variety of things and the teacher is taking notes on that so for example in our early assessment uh the student will read a passage um and the teacher will be listening to the student read that passage and while the student is reading the teacher's making notes marking any errors that may be taking place from the student from a decoding standpoint they're also listening to hear how fluently the student is reading are they pausing at the right places are they noticing uh punctuation and so forth and then there's always a comprehension component that comes after that passage reading and in addition to that this assessment also takes into account we would call them subtests um so for certain levels those subtests might be specific to uh decoding a specific phonetic concept and so the students would be reading a list of words to see how they perform on that in the older grades it's more of a vocabulary component where we're assessing the students uh vocabulary when looking at a word are they able to um come up with a synonym or a definition for that word and so all those components go into then the teacher making an instructional decision that this is a level this is the level that the student is at taking into account all those different pieces so when we look at that the the data up there I'm going to draw our attention to the bottom um colors because I want to make I want to frame that for you um in our ear leveling system we have we start at re to me which is the purple at the far left and then up to the very end which is it looks like G1 but it stands for gold that's the gold level that's considered almost a 12th grade level now we only use eara in the elementary setting as of now um so I'll just kind of explain the color levels and and how they're associated with the grade levels but we would say that one to RTM 1: 3 y 1G and 2G would be the span of levels that we would have for kindergarten students and then 1B to 2B is the span for first grade 1 R to 2 R is the span for second grade white level is the span for third grade fourth Black Level fifth is the orange level so now when it comes to the data tables um 2022 2023 we had 63.8% of our students in K5 that were reading at the expected endof year level and then our previous year 2023 2024 we had 71.1% of those students meet in or reading at that expected grade level and like I said before we give the assessment at the beginning of the year but we also give it multiple times throughout the year and also at the end of the year so we can gather that data all right we are now going to talk about fast Bridge screener so Kelly talked about the um Minnesota read act and part of the read Act is districts having to give screeners so we were districts were given the choice between fastbridge and Dibbles we formed a committee we looked at we met with um representatives from both uh companies and we decided as a district to go with fastbridge and what you see on the screen are the three testing Windows fall winter and spring and what students have to be screened on for each screening window um so we completed our fall screening on September 27th and now teams are looking at that data to make uh instructional decisions to help with um reading and whatnot so you can see letter names letter sounds word SE word segmenting were required for the fall in kindergarten nonsense words were optional first grade word segmenting and nonsense words CBM optional and um then second and third grade CBM and then in the for the winter nonsense words will become part of uh screening for second and third grade all right so you might be wondering what are some of those subtests um and Arthur and Tom and I were part of our assessment teams um at each school um since this was kind of a a big year for teachers to have a lot of things on their plates the professional development and many other things um we decided to have assessment teams that supported each site um and so that included instructional coaches reading Specialists interventionists principls um and then several people from the district office too um would go out and Screen kids um so at that kindergarten level we're looking at letter names um that is a one minute timed test where there are um letters in random order in front of the kids and you're just simply marking how many letters do they know um this is looking for automaticity because um random automatic naming is part of a dyslexia screener and it tells us it has correlation to Student Success in reading and decoding later on so that's letter names letter sounds is very similar but the letters are in front of the kids and they're giving us the sound that the letter makes and again they're doing as many sounds that they can identify um within a minute um both of these Tex we're looking for automaticity so we're looking for students to be able to do this in 3 seconds or less so um it kind of feels especially in kindergarten we're like okay just try the next one one two three try the next one um and so um that's what we're looking for to see how automatic it is um this test will be given throughout the year and so we'll be able to see It'll be very sensitive to growth um from our Kinders that come in throughout the year of kindergarten um the next one we do in kindergarten is word segmenting and this gives them 10 words this is not timed um but we'll give them a word like um top and if I say top what sounds do you hear and so we're looking for them to say t and um at kindergarten that's a lot to ask them to do when they are first coming in they're like I don't know what you're saying you know or they'll look at me and they'll say t it's like but what sounds do you hear um and so the norm right there that we're looking at if they can name any three sounds out of those 10 words and mainly we're looking for that initial sound so if they give me T that's one one point um and three if they get three points points that they're meeting the cut score and really if they have zero they're kind of on track for some risk not even high risk so that's what we're looking at for word segmenting again this goes into first grade as well too so as the year goes on we should be seeing that they can identify more sounds this is all done auditorally they're not seeing anything in front of them so we really are focusing on that phonemic awareness which is the foundational skill of literacy can they hear the sounds and the words and we know later on with kids who struggle to read many of these kids have a deficit in phonemic Awareness where they're not hearing the sound so this is a really important test for us to give um and it's a test that we've given for years to it's just a different um company that we're using right now nonsense words is a new one for us and this is part of a dyslexia screener nonsense words are words that can be sounded out phonetically if you know what sounds they make so an example would be AK a the student would say a Um this can be kind of perplexing to kids who are readers and they're like that doesn't say a word so we explain to them that this is not a real word but use what you know about sounds to sound out this word um they can either sound out this word and say a and that would be credit or they could say a um so that is the nonsense word there and then the last one the CBM reading this is a uh basically a grade level passage that they read and we're looking for accuracy so how many words do they get correct and what is the rate that they read at and again rate has correlation to reading success down the road as well um each student is given three Passages at grade level and um each one is scored they get a minute to reading each one and they repeat that three times a year so they will read the same passage in the fall the um the winter and the spring um and that again will be very sensitive to growth so those are the tests that we give right now this is still me all right so what does this look like in our classroom um so as Tom and I were discussing this I mean there's so much going on in our classrooms this is a very big part of our our elementary schools date um so we kind of broke it down to like what are the components that we're doing and and what is that teaching look like and what are the structures so when we talk about the components um obviously there's reading and writing going on um Arc as I've mentioned to this group before is a very integrated um curriculum where they're reading to produce writing and they're using their writing to go back to the reading and find evidence too so they're doing both of those things every single day um and then foundational skills is very important in our K2 program or our K2 grade specifically um this includes um for kindergarten and first grade an interactive morning message where there is a very Target tared skill for the day and the teacher has a message up on a whiteboard or on um chart paper and the class is completing that together often and including skills that are they're working on that day in the literacy block um we also have new this year we have decodable anthologies so these are books that have decodable words that are aligned to the lesson that they're teaching with the word work um so these will be um opportunities for a whole class to practice the the skill for the day the words that they're working on um and also for small groups to revisit later on and then finally word workbooks so the um kindergarten first grade has specific word workbooks that they're doing as they're learning quotable words um the structures that are in place whole class instruction and and a key part of this is that we're using grade level texts and we're focusing on grade level standards so all of our kids are getting grade level standards um this is important because while all kids are not reading at grade level if we continue to hold kids away from grade level work that Gap is only going to grow so core instruction is at grade level for all students but there has to be times for differentiation so there is lab time for reading and writing practice this is when kids um will meet with teachers for reteaching or for additional skill work but also time for them to practice because kids don't learn just by us telling them things they need time to synthesiz and practice work in their own text so if they're not meeting with the teacher they're at their desk and they know specifically their power goals that they're working on and they're applying that in their own reading and writing um the Equitable conference is a schedule that the teacher has that spans two weeks that talks about what which groups they're meeting with which days and they follow that and then again that small group instruction where we're using um we have something called the toolkits and those have very specific um systematic and explicit lessons that um retach part of the core or they might go back so as Tom talked about with like the two R readers um that being a a second grade approximately um level if we have third graders in there but they have some gaps in phonics we can go back to that two our toolkit pull up the lessons that they need um and the teacher will do that in small group as well um and I think that's about it anything else I missed Tas uh no I think you covered everything Leah but the only thing I wanted to mention um was uh to link it back to the ear assessment that I was talking about previously Leah mentioned I think the power goal component um many times when we're giving the ear assessment teachers will have the opportunity to see what that next um teaching move or instructional component would be needed to progress them forward we often times gather that from doing the ear assessment and that power go often times will drive that small group instruction or that one-on-one um conferring conferencing with the students and as Tom mentioned we do the eara several times a year but we don't have set windows and this could be because a student might be in one of those foundational skills level and sometimes they move through those those skills pretty quickly and sometimes they need a little bit longer so if we think a student has met the power goals and kind of the criteria for that level we give them another cold read we look at those subtests and then um if they meet the criteria to exit they're on to the next level so it's always an ongoing process to see what what the kids need um and it's very responsive to the students but it's also a very very structured um scope and sequence of what skills the kids need to be successful readers also in our Elementary classrooms uh we are seeing uh information from our K all training that Kelly mentioned earlier so far uh we've gone through two modules module one was the multi-tiered systems of support assessment and literacy development and module 2 is instructional considerations for literacy Educators so in that module too looking at what does explicit instruction look like we know for structured literacy we have to have systematic and explicit instruction so in module two um we're learning about what that looks like and also what's next in elementary um all of this data that we've shared with you it's really nice teams are using that in their professional learning communities our plc's and we're also seeing these in our school Improvement plans and um to make instructional decisions that meets the needs of students and then also classroom practice as I mentioned in the previous slide imp implementing the strategies from the carry carryi all literacy training into the classroom practice all right and so now I'm going to turn it over to my colleague Mark thanks Arthur uh good evening everybody I uh have the pleasure of uh reporting on some achievement data and reading at the secondary level and we purposely set this up so it' be symmetrical with the elementary although we have a little bit less data when it comes to the eara and the more formative day-to-day classroom uh data than we do at the elementary level but that'll be our work this year is to continue to build out that data picture so uh Arthur did a nice job of explaining the map and uh what this this snapshot represents but at the 67th and eth grade level you'll notice here that 45.9% of our sixth seventh and eighth graders scored in that 61st percentile and higher uh as compared to their um same age peers Across the Nation um and so some Trend data there that we are keeping an eye on and if we advance the slide and look similarly that we did at the elementary level uh we can see that uh 53.7 uh percent of our students hit their growth targets uh as a identified in the previous year's um growth benchmarks uh so obviously that's a trend that we'd like to see continue to increase and we have some more work to do there but um certainly we like to see uh see those bars moving up so when we talk about Ela in the um secondary classrooms um this slide specifically talks about what it looks like in the English language arts classroom um and last year we completed a scope and sequence for the district for sixth through 12th grade so um I met with every grade every teacher from every grade level three full days during the year last year and then at the end of the year we had one um kind of vertical alignment day where there was one teacher per grade level per school where we kind of finalize some things we're also meeting a couple half days this year just to continue this work to see what support is needed um these things are based on practices that we have developed for common practices across the district um based on the standards and what we want to see for our students receive the instruction we want them to see receiving in our district so when it comes to reading instruction includes book club and book clubs are kind of like you think of a book club where you know Dana and I might be reading different books um but the students have choice in that there's a lot of research that um talks about Choice increasing engagement for students and engagement um in turn often impacts achievement um and this is something that's written into the Minnesota state standards as well um but we know that that can be that needs to be balanced with whole class novels and there's there's a time and a place for whole class um novel reading and instruction um it's a common shared experience it allows for um very um clear teaching points um so those that's how instruction is balanced there um text we have um purchased a lot of text this year offering multiple perspectives which again is called out in the standards including Dakota and Nishan AB texts um one thing that I'm really excited about um last year we got um some received about 300 books from the mid awakon um um Sue Shak mawakan Sue tribe I'm through an initiative of theirs where we got a book called voices from P toy and so those books all are at the high school um in their book room that they can use to meet the standards that address Dakota and shab people um and then this year we we received um about 100 copies of Dr Anton troyer's new um young adult version of um everything you wanted to know about Indians but we're afraid to ask and so we and are expecting about another um 100 or so books coming from mde as well so those will be books placed into our um Middle School book rooms as well so really increasing the kinds of books that we have to meet the standards for our students um core instruction um again like I mentioned for elementary is really important for it to be grade level text will also differentiated for needs so sometimes there might be an opportunity for students to have text at different level but again the core instruction all students are receiving instruction using grade level text um and then another thing is independent reading time happens on a regular basis and we had a really rich conversation with teachers about this today and what that looks like um and how students are doing with that the sixth grade teachers today reported that the students have a lot of reading stamina and I have to attribute this to the work that our elementary teachers have been doing um with their independent reading time 30 minutes a day um so that's what's happening in Reading um for that kind of listening speaking viewing and exchanging ideas um we have um three at the minimum of three secre seminars or shared inquiry discussions um in every Ela class a year and these are where a students would read a common text and they'd prepare for it in advance thinking about questions um annotating the text um coming with their own thoughts and ideas but then that discussion is where they are um listening to their peers before they speak they are um building on each other's ideas they are challenging each other's idea in a respectful manner um and they're working through this and then at the end they're trying to they reflect upon is their answer the same as it was when they began um their Reflections um for writing there are four genres called out um informational writing argument and persuasive and those are are separated they used to be kind of one um and then creative and narrative writing as well um there is a focus on doing more writing more frequently but we also know that extended writing so doing kind of those more formal papers research papers maybe writing a creative story um are also important so the requirement is that there are at least two extended pieces of writing um or at least two of those in those two genres during the year and then finally the last one um there used to be a language strand where it's kind of a separate grammar Strand and um mde kind of embed that into the writing strand this year and so we use a tool called No write ink that has that embeds grammar within writing instruction and also includes some reading as well so that is what it looks like there across the content areas though um there used to be an appendix to the mde ELA standards that had like reading for the social studies and science Arts um and that has been removed and they have embedded all of those kind of literacy type standards into the new science standards and the new social study standards so um if you take a look at those they will have a lot of literacy based kinds of thinkings things like this that you'll see in there so that is what we're doing in the secondary classrooms thank you Leah yeah and as a a former English teacher and married to an English teacher I'm really excited to see the intentional work done on these skills because whether you're talking about college ready or career ready or just Civic life in the community these are really important skills to develop um in the ELA environment um just this last slide what's next at uh secondary level uh the read act we are awaiting a a screener at the secondary level and guidance from mde on that uh and they will also providing some grade level achievement uh benchmarks uh to guide districts uh so we'll wait on that piece as part of the redc and and then we just really need to build out this data picture for our secondary schools so we have an opportunity for example to look in 25 26 at adding a prea for 8th grade which will be having another uh data point that uh will illuminate where students are at in terms of the reading uh comprehension and the skills that Leah identified all right so to round us out we're going to talk a little bit about next steps um we were presenting and Cheryl proactively just came I hear you say soash go literacy in the community and let let's talk about what that means so um it's been awesome to have the conversations with her so I'm going to let her kick it off for us thanks Kelly um so one of the ways we can help our children achieve their literacy goals is to Ure that they have access to books and so our schoolie bus um the has been a registered free little Library since 2018 so uh wherever kids see the bus they can get free books um those have all been donated through our community and we've given out thousands of books over the last six years um and then more recently so waso Care's entered into a partnership with the Dolly Parton Imagination Library are you guys have you heard about that program so it was actually brought to us through um our ECFE advisory Council parents they had one of them had it in their old community and was like we would love to bring this here so we have just um signed the the partnership with the with the program and we're going to Pilot it in Newport and so we'll be working with Newport Elementary and um our Newport Community Library as well as businesses and churches and daycares in the community to enroll as many students as possible so basically every student um can get a a book mailed to their house every month until they turn 5 years old at no cost to them the only cost of the program is the postage and so sashco cares will be fundraising for that um so some of the other ideas that we have been brainstorming these are in the early planning stages um we the um uh intergenerational reading buddies we're already working with darts um who are uh tutors in our some of our schools and then the guest reader uh program to kindergarteners we have already we have several people alined up waiting to read to the kindergarten cuties um the Avid Middle School pen pal program we love working with our Abid students we have a we're already through soash go cares and Kids Club have a program where we work with our middle school students and high school students and then um we'll continue to work with our business community to support um literacy we have great Partners Barnes and Nobles have donated um really over the last three years probably over a thousand books to our programs and then also some intentional out Outreach for our families so a sashko Family Academy um you can see the dates there Tuesday December 10th and Tuesday April 8th where really we provide our families I don't know if any of you were here like when Leah was kind of talking what all of these are it's like I could support that at home I could make sure that my child is sounding Out letters and so um some tips and strategies to help at home but also diving a little bit more into what is happening in their child's classrooms regarding um Ela and literacy so we are excited to do the December 10th um session and the April 8th session for our families and we will work with our Communications Department to make sure that the word gets out what questions might you have so I have a question I know you said that generally the kids are working at what grade level they're in rather than what level they're at um and maybe this is a question for Aaron is that true with special ed too say say you have a kid that's a 10th grader that's reading at like a second grade level are they are you incorporating things from that second grade level or how does that work uh great question so I think we maybe could clarify a little bit more about what the conferencing is and what the toolkits are used for but kind of going back to the fundamental purpose of special education it's always about making progress in the grade level curriculum so our IEP goals are what we're targeting when we pull kids away from a class right and do that really um drill down discreet skill development to kind of close some of those gaps so that they can better access their experience in the grade level class at the same time second grade level to 10th grade demand is pretty tricky right and so we wouldn't typically at high school see that be an experience for a student we have highly specialized classes for students that have that great of a gap um but circling back to the elementary we are constantly working on improving our practices around scheduling and being really intentional with when we pull kids away from the grade level experience so that we're maximizing the discrete skill development with the exposure and access to the grade level experience is that helpful yeah would that also I just would love to share that we're exploring some tools for how we support um assessing Literacy for our students who experience hearing loss that's an area too that we're working closely on would that be the same thing then for kids that are coming to our country that are just learning English they would still vot whatever grade they're coming in at yes the goal is always going to be to get to grade level but we have that reasonableness standard about how much acceleration can occur in what's developmentally appropriate I think the fundamental um kind of piece is to remember that it it is always essential for kids to have access and exposure to their grade level experience regardless of what extra Services they're entitled to yeah I think the biggest Focus there to like Ain said it so eloquently is that we're not removing kids from core instruction um during grade level instruction time to get any extra Services um so we've been really intentional about that scheduling but of course within reason we're we're meeting kids needs where um where they're at um can I have some clarifying questions on um the different assessments kids are going to have so um looking at the elementary um map test scores right so on Le got to scroll back so looking at that um we have you know roughly 70% of kids who are either average or high average in that and so is average the same as proficient or is average just like they are statistically similar to the average in the US that one is a nationally normed test and so it's not going to equate exactly average will not equate exactly to like a meets on the MCA there is a correlation score that we have so we are looking for a RIT score that does give us a predictor of whether or not they will be proficient on the MCAS is that what you're asking yeah so I guess my my question is um you know so we see here that like there's 30% of kids who are low average or or low and then when we look at our MCA scores um you know it's it's more than 30% who are not proficient and so I guess what I'm trying to figure out is what is the bridge between those two numbers and how should families or how should we be thinking about those yeah and I don't know what the number is exactly um I feel like it's usually around like the 53rd percentile that kind of is that cut score do you guys know does anybody know what that cut score usually ends up at as percenti wise from the map that is a predictor of proficiency for the MCA yeah I don't and I think that was also why we thought it was important for you to see this whole picture of kids and other data pieces because we do know that that is our accountability test and we do know that that is important um I think the more we're able to make those database decisions in the classroom in time with data like the eara with data like map um and our teachers are getting really good at using it and so it is driving the instruction which to your point I think will naturally we're hoping drive up that um MCA score but that's that's one child on one day whereas these tests are multiple times and we're gathering this data so to correlate them we use them to predict but they really caution you to correlate like Leah scored blank so she should score blank we use it we use it to predict we don't use it to say she should you know if that makes sense we use it to predict where we need to teach and where we need to use gaps or where we need to fill gaps um but they don't turn it into a zcore for example like a z like they don't have a zcore between map and MCAS okay so that they they could easily be compared okay and so when we're looking at then you know so a kid takes a map so they're taking the map once a year correct and they take it in the fall no they take the map multiple times a year fall and spring in the middle school and just in the fall and Elementary and just in the fall and Elementary is map testing new than at the middle school or was I just an oblivious Middle School Parent it's newer sixth and seventh grade are in year three we we've had it once a year for middle school as long as I've been here I think it's new in it was in eth grade and then it wasn't and it's back in eth grade now okay okay um and so when we look at then like do these kids are these kids meeting their um their projected growth right so we've got you know a little over 50% of kids last year met their met their projected growth for third fourth and fifth grade how is that projected growth determined and what is the um how how similar is a projected growth is the projected growth for an average student compared to what proficiency should be for that student in that grade so to clarify a few of those um pieces you're right the the projected growth that a student is supposed to make will somewhat be determined on where they scored the previous year and so theoretically if you have a lower a lower score that comes in you're going to have to grow more to meet that growth the challenge though becomes is that not necessarily meeting that growth is necessarily going to put you in to the classification where you would be predicted to meet so it's almost for some of our students and teachers the challenge would be to um not only grow those students by almost 10 12 points um for some of our students depending on where they're scoring but the challenge is also to try to bring them even more farther than that um so from a to answer the question you had about where they score and how much they have to grow that is determined where they score the previous year and that's a calculation by map um the the company does that some algorithm that it comes up with the growth goal for each so it just populates what the growth goal is for each student I think the the other is true as well you could have a child that didn't meet their growth goal and exceeds on the MCA so we're always looking for meeting their growth goal we want we want even our highest kids to still grow a full year everybody deserves to grow a full year or more um in our schools um but we also want them to you know be proficient in whatever subject area it is okay um and so so then you said that this is basically like an algorithm that the map company has do we have any influence or any insight into what drives that algorithm like do we know is it um is what the what is what Drive drives the algorithms growth the same things that are important to us as a district yeah I think it's like Tom said the lower they are they want them to grow a little bit more but that's because it's going to stretch them a little bit more if you're below a a cut score or below grade level for that it's going to want you to grow a little bit more but it's always something like within reason I think I can't speak to exactly how it's it's calculated it's a technical I can certainly get more information on that I would just say that within every score when we're talking about the map test there are skills and strategies that students need to know and be able to do and so what our teachers are looking at is where's that next band where's that next number what skills do they have to to acquire So within every band of scores there are skills and strategies that students need to learn and be able to do in order to adequately move up and the map score will also it also has strands uh it has vocabulary um narrative and informational and those are strands that we obviously are attending to throughout the year so we can sometimes be we can be mindful of if if there are is there if there is a situation where a student is showing very low score and vocabulary for example we can try to match that with the other data that we're collecting and make a plan from there and to Julie's point when you look at a student profile you'll get a RIT score for let's say reading but when you look at that score it will say Arthur based on his RIT score will need this to to meet his growth goal throughout the year so teachers have ability ability to look at the score and then to see exactly what it is they need to do to help Arthur or whoever the student is grow to that next level map and ear give us great teaching points um so like things that we students can do right now and things that they need to work to do next um whereas MCAS give us more of a a system view um of how our students are doing so and against and it compares the students against grade level standards so it's kind of that finite cap whereas map and eara have no cap okay so those are the students basically then the students are growing against themselves not necess neily growing against anyone else within the within their cohort yep the map score um is it starts on the scale in second grade when they start taking it here and and there is no ceiling to it so we should see growth every single time they take it and the nice thing about a RIT score is a 212 is a 212 no matter what student so you could have a second grader that gets a 212 or you could have an eighth grader that gets a 212 and it means the it's the same thing yeah okay so it's really nice when you have eighth graders if they've been in our system since second grade you can see year over-year how they have done what their numbers are doing okay and then um for the ear like how many times so I know you said that they're not given on any specific Cadence right so what is the gate that means that we're going to be doing another early assessment for a specific child yeah it's really based on the child so if I am a kindergartner as Leah said before these younger grades like the yellow green and blue blue Levels kids are going through those pretty quickly so if I'm a teacher and Mark is my student and I and he's in 1G each level has entry and exit requirements and so as a teacher I'm like wow mark is really he has these exit requirements for 1G so I'm going to try a cold read for 2G to see if he fits there and so teachers it's really based on the needs of the students and so you might have those students that are doing really well they might not have the ear as much as a student that um is progressing through the levels faster so it's really based on an individual student need sorry I would say though too that we do we do give it at the beginning of the year and then we do give it at the end of the year so there are there are two kind of guide posts for us um to to see where they're at coming in and to Mark where they're at at the end of the year and then the expectation is that where they at at the end of the year they're going to be pretty similar like we're not expecting or we have calculated in there what the slide would be over this the summer for The Following fall then or we assume that they'll give it away they'll give it right away again um during those assessment days so we will oh like the the okay correct and then um so for the kids like so say you've got like you know there are a couple readers who are like just like they come into kindergarten knowing how to read right so how do they fit into this because they've already hit those benchmarks like what do we do for those kinds of students correct yeah and I think that goes back to some of the structures that we were talking about before within the literacy block um the one nice thing about this the the eara assessment is that it does provide not only the student to see what they can do at that particular level but then also it can provide teaching points for the teacher to instruct to get them to move Beyond and so to answer your question more specifically I think it would the teacher would be able to provide Power goals for those groups of students and work with those individual students during their equital conference schedule they would still be receiving the whole group instruction component but just like how we would differentiate for a student who maybe is struggling the intention would be that they would differentiate for the students who are also um above and beyond that particular level okay and then when you're talking about the secondary stuff are is that primarily like a middle school thing because of how different the high school classes are from each other and like it's um we have a common practices document for middle school and for high school that's pretty similar okay we just haven't given we don't give the map test at the high school correct we do not right now that's good because I was going to feel like a really bad parent if I hadn't realized that um and so the you had mentioned at the beginning that like these new standards um are set in statute like for reading and writing and stuff so is that going to be reflected then on the MCAS like does the MCA do the MCAS currently have a writing component the MCAS are only a reading test so while there are three strands um for ELA we only test the reading one I think the last time they did a WR writing test was probably back in 2008 9 10 something like that um so there is no writing test we just have the the math the reading and the science okay um and then when you were talking about this I swear this is my last question um with uh because I know everyone wants to be done um with the um you were talking about secondary how there's a lot of choice for kids to read um versus whole class reading and so I know that I mean I just read an article in maybe the Wall Street Journal or something that talks about like there's been because of school testing and informational text this move away from kids reading whole books as opposed to Shorter excerpts so is there is um do we have anything around like how they have to read like what what it is that they have to read what kind of texts embedded into this literacy process great question so um the standards are more informational based based in ela which for many of our teachers is a shift because they were like trained to be literature teachers and Ela at the secondary level is no longer a literature class it's truly an English language arts class um but when I talk about book clubs um at middle school and high school um there are two to three book clubs required a year that would involve some sort of choice and that could even be two or three different titles um but those have to be whole pieces of text so we're not going to say like we're going to read two articles and call at a book club so we just like the extended writing piece we do want kids to read an entire text to see the Arc of a story or to see an follow an informational text all the way through I would add this is also where you see literacy show up in other courses as well so for example newella which would probably be kind of what you're referring to is used in social studies in all of our contentar that's a resource that we have at the middle school level newella it offers um texts to in all the content areas um and um ultman for example did a great job as part of their sip plan last year um where every teacher was using it on a monthly basis and they saw really great gains with their school as last year so that would be an example where we're reading content articles um in in classes but maybe not a whole text do we have do we have requirements around like full texts in in middle school or high school like you have to read one full text per try or something like that yep so um our common practices we talk about um two to three um book clubs at a minimum through a through the year um and then one to two whole an option of one to two whole class novel some teachers don't do a whole class novel some might do one or two a year um so yeah we are looking at at least one or two um whole class texts per trimester and then how does this fit in how do Okay I lied when I said that was my last question um how does this fit in with then um classes that are like externally normed like if you're taking an IB literature class or an AP Literature class or something like that how do um how does our how do we overlay our standards over what these external organizations expect us to accomplish we have to follow the syllabi for those CIS courses to stay accredited in AP um and any of those as well and IB as well so we'd have to kind of use that as kind of the the upper end of what we are doing I think we do make an assumption that the standards for ELA are embedded within their standards so I would say that's a pretty good assumption as well okay I'm done any other questions okay okay thank you okay moving on to 4.2 and that is board governance plan and that is presented by me um so we do a board three-year governance plan um this current one um was for 2023 to 24 going to 25 to 20 2 6 um so we have the proposed for 2024 to 2025 there are a few items that are highlighted in yellow are ones that um we did not do last were all these ones we [Music] didn't Dana were the ones highlighted and yellow ones we didn't complete because the live stream of the workshop in business we did do but the rest of them we didn't so that's why I was did that just accidentally get the 23 right okay so some of the items that um we had talked about doing but had not yet um so we did at one point we were doing the annual board self- evaluations um I know we had done one two years ago um it was done but then there was not discussion around it so then last year it wasn't done at all and we did not do it this year um so that is something that we would want to look at do we want to continue or do we want to remove it off of here um the board professional development we do that um the live stream of the workshops and business meetings that is something that we did add to continue or to add in our workshops and we did do that um and then the board listening sessions we had talked about doing the board listing sessions instead of um comments to the board so that is still on there if that is something we want to consider um I know that the consideration was that we would have one board meeting a month we'd have up to three board members that would show up 30 minutes ahead of time um if there were people signed up so it would be the same thing where they would have to sign up and it could be more of a discussion with the person rather than just them speaking to us and we not comment um and then the other thing was the staff lisening sessions um was another thing that we had on there that we had not um done so [Music] any comments or discussion on those items I have only one thing but it's actually uh so a couple years ago when I went to the National Schoolboard meeting I attended one session um about what school boards can do that has direct influence on student outcomes and apparently self-evaluations are one thing that boards do that leads to improved student outcomes [Music] so this was a this was some research done I think by the Texas School Board Association if I remember correctly and so um I would then support just on the face of it being better you know ostensibly better for students I think we should try to continue doing self- evaluations I do think though to your point when you said we never discussed it like the the evalu like The Taking of the evaluation is not the is not the job right it's the discussion and then the the outcomes and what the accomplishments as a result of the evaluation is what needs to be part of this and that's what's actually um leading to the better student outcomes okay and I am again I'm totally fine with doing the self- evaluations I think we should look at um finding one that better fits our needs I don't think the last one that we did really it was just a couple of questions and it really didn't I don't even remember the last one we did right yeah it wasn't so I will look into finding um but I do think like if we do do it I do think having then like a focus discussion afterward would be that's what's the critical thing yeah any I agree with simy so I think it's important for student outcomes and also for us to be able to measure our growth as a board um I did bring an example of our 916 one so let's take a look at I didn't care for that one either when I was on it was actually changed in job was oh okay yeah yeah then yeah if you could send me a but I think it's important yeah yes I agree any other things that we want to adjust remove so one question about the board listening sessions I feel like we talked about them and we said no to them at some point because of some reason but I cannot remember what the discussion was around those and so I'm hoping that and and just looking at you because I feel like you know um know I know we had talked about doing them when we had um instead of doing them all the time doing them when we had something large that we were consider like a referend or something yeah like yeah when we had a referendum or boundaries or budget or negotiations um yeah so even if so like when we had teacher negotiations previously we could have one so that they could come in and talk to us or we could even you know if parents had concerns about you know things um Bond elections that kind of thing um so we could do it and just put it in there that we would do it for special circumstances um where we would want to be able to have a discussion rather than just because sometimes it feels very informal when we have a teacher come up and they're sharing all of this and we just have to say okay thank you you know we can't we can't actually have a conversation with them um so that would be my suggestion or if we could add them just where it says here like special board listening opportunities as needed I I mean you know how like when we had the bond we had the different you know discussions and listening listening sessions where the board came I mean that could be something where you know we just hung out afterwards and you know if we wanted to hear other input or talk about things rather than having additional but we get to the the problem with those is if all of us there it becomes an open Mee right right we wouldn't be able sign right which which I don't want to discourage any board members from ever showing up to those that's why and plus if you already have been there for two hours are you going to stick around for another 30 minutes to have it so that's why I would like to have them for a set time I mean you people would still have to sign up so if nobody signed up none of us would have to show up for it um just as another opportunity because yeah like th those public meetings are really just they're not that the time for that um that would be my only suggestion is doing them when we have things like that so we can actually have those conversations and so one yeah so one of the things I think I would be helpful is as we if we structure them is that I know sometimes when we get feedback back from the community sometimes it's not um how do I want to say this community me because we don't decide the way that community members May um suggest we decide they think they have not been heard or they think that we're not you know when really there's other factors involved right and so that's what I like about the discussion is that you can say okay but there's X Y and Z that are also part of this right but I also want to make sure that community members don't community members don't community members don't leave these listening sessions feeling like they're not that they have no influence into the process or that they haven't been heard or something like that like because I feel like that would be very frustrating if I were a Community member and I come talk to the board and then the board is like oh okay well thank you for spending half an hour talking to me about this thing that's very important to you and now I'm not going to do anything and I think that's the same thing that happens though when we have the comments to the board because they stand up there they talk for 3 minutes and then they leave and I would say I mean how many would you say that you've actually because I know it does say that we may ask the super but how many would you say that you've actually responded you know I don't recall over the last year we probably had 15 comments to the board maybe and perhaps two to three so I I think it I think they'll they could feel more heard if we're actually telling them I understand you know and if we and if it is a subject we could have talking points so that we're not saying oh yeah I'll vote your way when you know I mean cuz that's really not right that's not what we're the point of it um but I I just feel like when we talk about the community not being heard this would be a way that they could actually feel like they were more more engaged in the more part of the process right um I don't know that we have anything coming up do we have be something that we'd have to is even anything on the horizon right like I think the biggest things are literacy and construction right so pick one of those to my question would be how do we determine or who determines what Rises to the level of where we're going to have these sessions well yeah and that's what we'd have to is that something that we take a vote on I don't so we would pick like there's always those hot topics that we know cuz the boardroom gets filled when when it shows up on the agenda so I mean we could say it's you know if we're going to be changing boundaries if we're going to be making cuts um if we're going to be I'm trying to think of any other going out asking asking taxpayers to find something we're going to have valid initiatives um anything like that we could say would rise to that um because then there also I mean to your point about though the anything that fills a boardroom there are lots of there are many things that are temporary that fill a boardroom that aren't necessarily like you know like I remember I I mean I don't even remember what the topic was but I came one year because my kid was supposed to be here this is before I was on the board and there was like a bunch of some athletic team had a bunch of parents in here because they were upset about something I don't I don't remember exactly what it was but and so I don't know that that would necessarily be the kind of thing that is so the long-term ramifications are such that we would do a listing session but they absolutely filled the room right so how do we how would we want to but maybe that would actually be something that we would want to because then we could hear from parents on their points I mean and maybe that's something where when Dana starts getting a lot of because you get the people that want to come and speak I mean maybe if Dana's getting you know 10 or I don't know that 10 would be but you know she's getting like 15 20 requests for the same topic maybe that's when we would consider doing something like we could set a threshold where if enough people I think you would have to I think that's a tricky issue because I think if you have situation where somebody is allowed to partake in a listening session and somebody else isn't it makes that person feel as if well the issue that I'm speaking about is not as important and who has decided that which is why I wanted them for every I I wanted one a month when I initially brought it Forward is I wanted one a month so that something like that didn't happen because to me it has to be an all or nothing right and and that was kind of where I was because I feel like they are just talking at us and we shake our head and we nod and we say thank you for coming and it they never know if anything you know I mean nothing ever came about any of them most of them or did we put something on the agenda because of something they said but maybe they weren't paying attention after that and they don't even know so I think one thing we've tried to do is when we think about our process whether we're talking about budget or boundary is that we try to make sure that there's opportunities for board members to engage and sit in on presentations like I think about bu and boundaries and even construction and referendum for you to be able to be at meetings to hear what groups of people and parents are saying and so um while not a listening session just pulled out in board versus people coming from the community there we try to in our processes build in opportunities for board members to be around community members listening I think really what what I hear you talking about more our actually engagement session so you're not just listening you're also kind of responding and so I think that's maybe the question for the board is do you want to to have engagement sessions because it sounds like that would be more of a back and forth and so I agree with you Eric I think if we do approach this we either do it every month like once a month or whatever it is right but we do it on a very specific Cadence or we just don't do it because I do think like the other thing is that you get um you know I I also don't you know if you you know if you've got like 10 people coming to talk about why like we shouldn't have water in the schools or whatever and then like all the pro water people don't know about it you know then you get like I don't I also want to make sure that everybody knows that there's an opportunity to come and that there's an opportunity to revisit things because if you're like you know oh October is the month we're talking about water and then you learn about it late and it's November then then what do you do you know so I I mean I'm with you I think I don't know maybe we just experiment maybe 202 four five what's next year yeah I mean and maybe that's something that we look at and we put a both options on out there on the website do you want to come to a 30 minute prior to talk to up to three board members or there's the and we have them both and see because we did them before and what happened was we started where we were we didn't have them sign up so at first they were people were coming and then all of a sudden we'd be sitting here for like 30 minutes no I think we did an hour wasn't it was it 30 I think it was only 30 minutes was it 30 it seemed like a really long time when you're were sitting here and nobody's showing nobody was there and so we did like three I think maybe three and then we just stopped you said you got the same people that would come all the time too no it wasn't the same people it was different but it was the same topics just different people and I would offer the board what data do you have or have you received that would say that listening sessions are a strategy or something that the Board needs to engage in so have any of you received data that you haven't been accessible you haven't had opportunities for public comment so what data do you have that say that this would be a strategy that the board would utilize in terms of transparency or communication so I do think one of the things to that to that is that I think a lot of people you know if you do come to a meeting and you do see comments to the board what you see is that people speak to us and that we don't respond and if you are not the kind of person who feels like maybe you're just like this is not something that I want to bother a board member about over an email or I don't want to call them but this is something that is important enough to me that I would want to make a comment to the board and hear back from them you know or I can go down and I can you know sit sit and listen to them you know I mean I think it may be just another Avenue for people to feel who are looking for a way to engage with us to feel comfortable I mean I I do think we should maybe just offer lots of different lots of different paths for people to to meet us right and you know there are some people who are going to want to have a face to-face conversation and there are some people who are going to want to email us and then there's you know a lot of people who just don't want to talk to us at all right and so we just need to be accessible to all of them in every as well as we can so that would be why I would say like yeah we don't have data that says that we're not accessible but we don't we we conversely also don't have data that says that we're accessible the way people want us to be accessible some some people at least this is my thought some people you know like to speak their mind um get things off of their chest I guess you could say some people would like to do that and then be responded to is it possible to you know offer the option when people sign up for these things to say yeah I would like a response from the superintendent from the board or or or I'm I'm not interested in that I would just like to you know say my my two cents and move on yeah we could try that first and I and I yeah and I think of the comments the public comments actual public and uh you know I guess maybe to gauge you know their interest in in do they want to have a dialogue about this or not because some people would be interested in that some some just wouldn't just want to yeah vent so to speak yeah and I would feel frankly in a listening session or or an engagement session however you want to put it you know I might feel a little ill prepared just be blindsided by somebody coming in here with a particular issue I know nothing about right so I that's you're kind of leaving us vulnerable I think in that regard yeah I like that I I like giving them the option of having um and because it gives them like you said it gives them the option that they can hear and I don't know how comfortable you I mean this would be up to you but I mean could it even be a response whereas they want you to actually I mean if we're only talking about 15 a year is it something that you could do a phone call if that's what they were asking for versus an email or if they wanted an email or a phone I don't I think yeah I don't think that I don't have a problem following up with people and having conversations about their public comment I mean many times it may not be an answer or it may not be a response they want to hear but it's certainly acknowledge that yes we heard them and and I mean f furthermore as you said Okay so last year for example we had 15 um people sign up for for public comment if hypothetically half of those like to respond exactly we're talking about seven eight whatever um perhaps before you responded you know we have monthly meetings with you to discuss things you know if if there was somebody who would like a response perhaps that's something that could be brought up during those meetings at least to you know discuss the issue with the board members maybe get some feedback on it and then those that that kind of information could be summarized and relayed to that person and Eric I think you're right that um in listening sessions with the board many times you're going to need to come back to me or to Administration someone around the table to get more information or get the answers and then when we talk about governance versus management then we also know then the board members begin to get into we want to make sure that you stay in that governance Lane and that's what I'm concerned about with the listening sessions is not only you know not being prepared for something like Eric said but also if you're doing an engagement rather than listening you could be depending on what board members are there that day getting different responses in that engagement I will say that during those Keith was there and usually another assistant superintendent the board generally didn't answer the questions I I will say that it generally was yeah and I think that's somebody else answering the question and the board I mean if I think one of them was the like the teacher negotiation the teachers wanted to talk to the board members but we really you couldn't really say much because it's negotiations so it was more they just wanted to listen to us and we said oh I understand and those kinds of things but again there were more people at the table it wasn't just the board but I do like Eric's idea because then we can gauge and if we're not getting a lot of people that actually want responses then there's really not a yeah that's true I mean I I will say I'm not super worried I mean to your point then I'm not super worried about not knowing anything because I don't know that we would ever show up without right someone more someone more knowledgeable in the day-to-day details right but um what I do like about them is that it's a it's a signal of openness and transparency and trying to do something different that maybe we haven't tried recently or you know maybe the last time we tried it it didn't work but maybe we're going to try something different now uh just because you know we whenever the last time it is we try like I'm sure the community is different the makeup is different we've got you know like we've grown a lot we you know and so there may just be we may just need to pursue different Avenues to um to make sure that we are truly being accessible to people the way that they want us to be accessible I mean honestly I do think actually the main issue is that like our meetings start at 6 and it's I mean you've all seen me like run in here at 559 with my feet on fire like I I think the 5:30 gets hard for people who are employed right but that being said you know if you know okay these three times I have to be here at 5:30 these two times over the course of the year then so be it you know right well as a reminder prior to public comment um the board chair whoever in that little statement it is that the superintendent may be requested to have a response to you and so that's always been an option and oftentimes I will say when when things are heard somebody in executive cabinet Administration does respond to staff or or to the person speaking sorry because we have their name we have their email in the sign up form yeah I just think maybe putting it on when they sign up like to Eric's Point like would you like a response after your comment gives them then we know do they want somebody to follow up or are they just here because they want their voice heard and then they never want to hear anything again from us yeah I could if I may too so a lot of times when people do comment you'll see me follow them out and and a lot of times I'm asking them that question did you did you want did you want us to to come with a response for you or did you get you got stopped by the buzzer could you share with me what you your full comments were so that you all had contact information and things like that the the the other one thing I'd say and I've seen this done well in in one space you know what happens sometimes though is only three people show up and then the other board members may not know what was discussed and so sometimes what I've seen is that you have to somehow find a way to summarize that for the rest of the board and um you know because you you so so that's I mean there might be a process there that you want to consider because if only two or three of you are here for this listening session you would want the whole board to be aware that this was happening with the community and so what might that Reporting System look like too okay okay I yeah and I can definitely just ask after each person would you like a followup phone call or to me until said well until Dana said why don't we just ask yeah I mean and Dana does send us stuff like last week the person that did the public comment that couldn't finish she was buzzed off you sent us the report which followed up with her as well right yeah okay so I think we have a plan for that one um so then there's the staff listening sessions um I know we did these a while ago um went to every school and um anybody could come in we did some in the morning we did some after school to try and accommodate I wouldn't say that they were well attended I would say um I know I went to almost all the middle schools and as you know middle schools have quite a few staff and I think the most we had was maybe 12 people so that's what not even 10% of the staff um I think again if we were doing something like boundary changes or things that it's going to affect a particular School more than another that might be when we would want to go out and listen um or if there's a program that we're considering that we might have to eliminate but I think Julie and already doing I think again we want to just be really careful about getting into the management yeah I feel like staff lisening sessions get us much more it's I like compared to community Les listening sessions I feel like staff listening sessions were much more at risk of getting into management and as I learned in my thing at nsba boards that engage in management have worse student outcomes so we can't do that I paid attention in that and I think you know I would just say I think that back however many years ago I think the culture and climate of the school district may have been different perhaps it warranted that I don't I feel like right now the executive cabinet members we have our lead principles we are always out in schools we're always listening to what our staff has to say um I don't know right now if you went out there that we would be surprised by anything that said um I think people as a as Leaders we're keeping a pretty good pulse on what's Happening throughout the district and hopefully that's reflected in what you hear from people who work in the district and I would also say Katie actually when you talked about 12 people showing up from the Middle School like anything much bigger than that is really unwieldy like I don't know how we would how you could structure something right so you want everyone to show up but then how do you have everyone show up in a way that isn't a waste of time for them but also results in like meaningful feedback being provided I mean it's I think that's it it gets much more um I think we would need like a much more robust process and I think it came about because there was comments about board members not being well no not being like accessible like we weren't um that was a time where we were getting a lot of emails and most of our responses were thank you will consider your comment type of thing because you would be getting so many of them um and I don't think we've had anything coming up that has caused those so um so do we want those just removed then off of okay so that would be removed Shar do you have any point like you've been very silent and that's very unlike you we've been oh respond you I think that's gone far enough okay there you go now I'm woke okay okay so um then we also had all the ones in red that were from um this last school year that were completed are there any comments questions on any of those Shar yes yes we do have the mentoring program do we um Intercultural development this year we did not correct yet but we did do the Excellence in governance is what we did like in January February right yeah okay I which one which one that when I'm saying work session versus business meeting monitoring versus action items like using the budget as an example so if the budget is an example then it feels like something I said but now I don't remember what I meant when I said it oh that was um having work sessions be like this and or where we just vote just vote at the um business meeting okay what you're going to see next with Chris so is anybody else have anything or are we good to move forward D did you need anything else from us no okay we will move on to 5.0 information items and 5.1 is the financial update and that is presented by Chris Blackburn Director of Business Services good evening everyone I'd just like to thank you and that was a lot of good discussion and I think last time I got us back on schedule so we'll see what I can do tonight so um Sean did take over my clicking duties I was a little nervous that I had to talk hold the microphone and click and read and I was like oh my goodness this might be a little nerve-wracking tonight so this evening we're going to talk about how we do our forecast for our budget um at this point in the year we're wrapping up our final fiscal year of last year um getting prep prepared for our audit which will present um excuse me begin on this coming Monday that they'll be on site um for our final fieldwork um we have joke that they're going to move into our offices for about three weeks so if you don't see me or hear from me or I look a little frazzle just know that that's because um we're just they're keeping us hopping so um once that's done then we'll have the results of our audit typically presented in January and so it's just kind of a nice time of year to um reflect on our forecasting and how we do that um and again we're always monitoring what's going to happen in the future and trying to you know read the magic Aid ball so to speak so as we look in the purpose um of really why we do budget forecasting is to estimate our future fund balances is one of the primary reasons and as we've noted in the past fund balance is that really our District's checkbook what do we have kind of in savings that we're able to spend in years following it is monitored by the Minnesota Department of Education and board policy um recently updated in the last few years is 16.6% % is the goal by 2020 fisc year 27 the other reason why we do budget forecasts is to estimate any needed adjustments um to our budget and to um just kind of assess where we're at and see are we on track do we need to make some modifications similar what you do in your own household budget we do work with totals um and again there's significant number of assumptions as we look forward again um it's always a moving Target a little bit as to you know perhaps where contracts are settled perhaps where the states that's legislatively priorities or funding sources that maybe we didn't anticipate and so um it's kind of always a work in progress and so the fund balance right now is based on the best information we have today so again we always say that you know the one thing we kind of guarantee about budget is it's wrong but we do the very best we can at that moment but it is a snapshot in time at that given moment on the next slide then we start talking about um assumptions that we utilize in our forecasting and so the biggest Assumption of course course um or one of the biggest assumptions is regarding enrollment um and CAC I know we talk a lot about it as well but um we tend to be very conservative here at the district and have for many years we know that that just has significant impacts if we kind of overshoot and come in below so we right now show very slight overall increase to enrollment over the next 5 years again we utilize the cohort survival method we like to stay conservative it's about a 8% over the next 5 years so real slow growth again um as an indicated in the demographic study we had recently that's consistent with that and it equates to about 13 students a year factors that can also impact enrollment are again the kindergarten and we know what that historically low birth rates um that that will have impact as we kind of get smaller class sizes in um that we've seen in past history postsecondary enrollment options which again is our options particular that are 10th or some 10th but prominantly our 11th and 12th graders can make to attend um Secondary College enrollment options while yet in high school other enrollment options through other um School choices and then if we do have students who drop um classes or in the community so again the reason we stay conservative is we come in under we have a little um or we have come in more students than we anticipate that's always good news and we have a little um additional Revenue but if we come in below at this point in the year there's just no um good way to adjust our spendings I got it apparently I just talked too slow um on the next side then is our budget enrollment and is showed on that previous slide as we um through 22 and 23 is actual so in the red bars the green right now again we're wrapping up 24 and so our most recent um kind of anticipation was 18924 um right now we're trending higher in 2425 but I will caution the board that um historically we've trended higher in September and then we tend to go downward throughout the year so certainly that's positive I have peers who are maybe not in that situation even at this point this year so that's positive as we look forward in the gray bars then again that's projections out through 2030 um and again that real flat growth which will have some impacts um as our it just slows down that Revenue growth as well on the next slide um State it's just that state data again regarding births um they issue them by County the state does and so we utilize that data for this particularly in Washington County we know on historical Trends how many students um of that were born that then we capture into our kindergarten classes and again um as we look forward you can see that we're trending about 46.3% of those births the 21 data isn't out yet so we're not quite certain Beyond 26 what that may look like um so we have had to make some assumptions on that um our district is a you know kind of a reminder that we do have our population um we are entirely in Washington County and our district population of that is about 42% so we do capture more of the student population which is positive so on this slide is really busy and so uh don't hurt your eyes looking at it um CAC is often seen it and blown up sometimes but um we do utilize just a reminder the cohort survival method between each grade and so what that involves is students who are in first grade how many of those students moved to second grade and similarly second grade to third grade um as an example um as we look the sometimes we see um drops in students so there might be a change and it might be a decrease sometimes that's um particularly if you look at like 10th grade into 11th grade often that PSO comes into impact we'll also have grade levels where we see increases predominantly where we you know maybe it's a greater than 100% capture rate and quite often that's a result of uh perhaps student enrollment choices at other schools that have stopped at that grade level and so they don't proceed Beyond perhaps like a fifth grade level and so we capture additional students in grade six so again this is a historical Trend over 10 years and so we use that data um to project then out through 2030 and so again just that reminder you'll see one drop in 27 just kind of roughly anticipated at this point but or real slight but it is overall a0 um8 increase in those years following and I just put on there so that that Revenue um if we maintain pained all the students we currently have it would be almost $5.5 million but as we as I am also super conservative I would anticipate that number will be significantly lower as we look toward spring um but we certainly hope to maintain that um those students as well we know that this year there's a post-secondary enrollment option window for usually it was just spring for fall term and that for the whole year and now there is a midor option as well so we're anticipating possibly some impact from that on the next slide then Revenue assumptions um most of our state AG is derived from the basic formula and so the formula increases definitely are the biggest dver um of most of our Revenue changes the basic formula for 2425 as a reminder was 7,281 per pupil unit and we do use adjusted pupil units so again that secondary weighted a little bit higher the formula increased to 2% um as we're in this current year and future years by State Statute are tied to inflation and I'll kind of air quote a little bit on inflation because they did set a minimum and maximum of 2% and 3% the state could certainly come in and say we would like to provide schools with additional state aid and they could revise that formula but at this time it's tied to that um as we looked then and forecast our um assumptions we did to 2 and a half% um and that was largely a factor of as we looked at the CPI rate they use for the inflation Factor on our referendum dollars um that's what they were kind of projecting out as well as in Levy um forecasts other Revenue assumptions then as we forecast out um we assume our federal dollars um both titles special education other funds would us stay flat and that's what we've historically seen outside of the um pandemic funding era fees and other um collections for admissions and such like that we also assume those stay relatively flat year toe uh State special education we do anticipate increasing but that's because our expenditures increase and it is based on um correlates kind of as a percentage of our expenditures and again that operating referendum that we were fortunate to receive is does increase with inflation as that's what the voters had approved on the cash outside expenditure assumptions um wages and benefits are all negotiated and so that is by far the biggest driver between 75 and 80% on any given year of our budget is wages and benefits across the board um I do have to fully admit that I have one typo and we have 10 unions um I was like oh bummer we don't have we used to have a separate prek um if you recall a number of years ago so I was updating this and all of a sudden I thought oh and I'd already sent it to Sean so it ended up with 11 but we do have 10 unions um eight of those are in the general fund um often they cross but there's two that are nutrition services um and are kids club supervisors are in other funds outside of general fund with the wages and benefits then we see percentage of salaries and wages is a cost of living adjustment so when we do negotiations often there's a factor that's increased um kind of overall and then additionally even in non-negotiables sometimes stretch directly tied to years of service where steps aren't always tied to years of service in the teacher contract in addition to the steps they do have lanes and is just a reminder that's if they um continue on in that education that they can go up steps as well as a um incentive to have those um perhaps obtain a master's or additional credits Beyond um a bachelor's generally our all of our negotiated contracts are two-year agreements um and then we have to always remind ourselves too and keep in mind that when we W raise the wages and benefits our payroll taxes as well need to increase additional expenditure assumptions then we did do um in the forecast we did a 2% average on the rest of these um and that includes utility and fuel costs Professional Services so if we contract um our SRO our um any special education services that we may need that we have to um contract for substitute teachers and Paras um as an additional snow removal last year was a good year keep your fingers crossed for another good year um waste removal uh any other utilities textbooks um instructional supplies General and repair supplies and so we always say it's everything from the lights on to the you know books in a kids classroom that's all in that other so we do assume a 2% um just on average increase in those some miscellaneous expenditure assumptions then um some things that do help us slightly we do um see approximately 30 retirements each year and as you can imagine we do have some savings between maybe a um no matter which um category of employee right that we do um have some net savings to their funds um because often we're bringing somebody in that's not as experienced um and so we on average save about 50,000 fully inclusive of benefits um per staff retirement and again about 30 a year so that's reflected in our forecast we also realize that Staffing would need to increase with increased enrollment so as we um project out too sometimes we know that there may be you know as we're expanding at Easter idge and ultman we recognize that they will have additional staffing needs are likely we also know that with new buildings and rentals as well that we may have additional costs in those so the meat and potatoes part of tonight's presentation the projected revenues in forecast but as we look we see the revenues um you know creeping slow you know going up as well but the expenditures are creeping up as well and they're kind of outpacing that um Revenue amount largely that's due to that basic formula that we know hasn't historically kept up with inflation um and that is the biggest chunk of our Revenue that we receive um it also doesn't align with the rate at which we've needed to settle contracts to make those mindful investments in staff the next slide then is the based we have all the revenue and expenditure information we can take that and project our fund balance and so again just a reminder this is one snapshot in time I did look at the um similar presentation from last year and this is um kind of on similar track a little bit so uh as we look it's again 23 24 is not fully done yet but we do anticipate um approaching um if not possibly exceeding 133% this year so that's positive next year as you know we did approve a $5 million budget deficit and so we do anticipate a slight de decline in fund balance next year um and then as we look to Future years right now um there's just a structural imbalance again with the um erosion of fund balance as expenditures continue to outpace those revenues without absent any um significant changes to State funding or um you know adjustments on our behalf as well and so certainly On Any Given year we absolutely are continuing to look for any efficiencies um are there maybe positions that were um open that perhaps we don't need to be filled are there U resources maybe that are underutilized and we can consider do we really need that resource any longer um are there just maybe some purchases that we can def defer that maybe aren't necessarily as we really look as it um most beneficial to our students right and are we making that with the focus of our decision- making of course so with that any questions anyone have any questions yes okay I'll take that as a compliment so thank you I'll just start out with a question a comment um I think we talk about the transition from uh Dan to Chris and what I love about it is we remain conservative um I believe we remain conservative because we have really kept the pulse on taking a look at the budget all the time enrollment is in every week conversation we know that that's where the basis of our money comes and um also making sure sure that every year we have a process in place that we're always looking for ways to refine what we do um and I think that ability to live within our means um we know that we went out to the community in 2021 and we don't want to be that school district that goes out every year um in light of the inflation Factor onto those referendum dollars that certainly has been helpful um I think I shared with a couple of you today that you know when I hear some of my superintendent colleagues talking about $27 Million worth of reductions um right now we're in a different spot but we do know that by deficit spending 5 million one year equals 8 million the next equals and pretty soon the fund balance is gone and so um we will continue to work hard on the other side to make sure that we hold the line as much as possible knowing that needs come up and things that we do have to fund to take care of kids but thank you and Chris Chris and her team this is a busy week ahead um I think until I've gotten into this role I really didn't understand the work of um Finance I really did think were a money tree and you asked and you received um but I realized it's so much more than that and and talking with Chris and of course working with Dan for many years truly finishing up last year's budget you're in this budget now and now you're also looking ahead so at any given point in time you're working on three different budget years I can't always keep the FY 2524 straight I have to like go back in my mind like what year was that um but Chris and your team thank you because I know you have a tough week ahead thank you because we did anything wrong just because they're going to want a lot of information it perhaps pays to have been an auditor at one point in my career so but thank you okay on to 5.2 and that is the first reading of proposed policy changes presented by Julie Nelson superintendent thank you um this evening I'm bringing for forward five policies and part of your board governance plan you you saw that we are reviewing a third of those policies every year we continue that pattern so first up um 510 .1 athletic and activity participation what you're going to note in that particular policy are some additions to the participation and guidelines um no significant changes just additional Clarity um policy 522 titled nine non-discrimination I've talked with some board members and I know there were some conversations um this is a very scaled back um version of our Title 9 policy we would anticipate uh there are some federal cases out there right now um around title 9 and so we would anticipate there may be some adjustments um this particular policy at this time with this language working with our attorney um he did share that um this policy has the same level of protection as we would underneath Minnesota law which is the Minnesota Human Rights Act or mhr um in relationship to discrimination so um this is a very tight policy with our primary coordinator around Title 9 being Abby Baker um the next three policies 81.1 81.2 and 81.3 I'm amazed after going through at least a third of the policies that we keep finding policies that really we don't need to have so 81.1 site acquisition procedures I think the board is all aware number one in the policy language it already says it's a procedure and we know that it's a procedure because we've gone out and looked at sites so we would recommend removing that um naming of District facilities outside of it not having the word procedures in the title basically if you look at the purpose there is a procedure and the procedure is you work through the superintendent and so we would also recommend that the naming of the district facility would go along with any um additional building that would be led then by the superintendent and finally 81.3 retirement of facilities I think that you're aware um through some of our past work that anytime we talk about repurposing or closing a school um that there is a statute in place there so with that one as well we would be REM uh recommending removing that and for those three there are no msba model policies so they are not required by msba so we would recommend removal of those three policies any questions on any of those no any public comment on any of those okay we will move on to 6.0 reports and comments uh first one superintendent you know I almost forgot that I had to make some comments tonight what's happened to me it's it's only October and I'm forgetting well let me start by saying next week is our mea week uh which means students will not be in school on Thursday and Friday and Wednesday is a little bit of an adjusted day for our elementary students um as well as I talked with the board I know we have gotten some calls around next year's calendar we will be bringing forward a uh calendar for the 2526 school year um next year um excuse me in November for next year thank you um with just a little caveat because we're working through some construction and I know I talked with board members today we want to make sure that our families in our community know um what our calendar uh is proposed to look like so we will be asking for approval at our second meeting in November but we also have the next couple of months going through some construction and thinking about if we need to make any adjustments to our school district calendar so just I share that now um and also that graduation dates have been set um thank you to Christine sha for our High School principles it really has be we have gotten um to the point as a school district that we have outgrown aldri Arena it just no longer meets the needs of the district I know Sharon you're surprised I can tell but I think uh the other side of that is anytime there's change whatever that change be even if it be a positive change where you can bring as many guess it's a change nonetheless and so that means U different things for different families who have had a different experience we are really excited to host graduation um at maruchi Arena um but we also know that when you're the last last one in you're not going to get prime time um and so we just have to be a little patient we have a number of other Metro school districts who host graduations on Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursdays and Fridays 4:00 and 7 o'clock it's not unusual but we know based on our experience that many times it's more celebratory if you will to have it on a Friday night a Saturday or a Sunday and so um we're going to make this work we are excited about it we think the kids will be excited about it and we hope that um families will be able to join in Minneapolis for that so those dates have been communicated out already in times um and have been finalized with Mary Uchi Arena Sharon is happy and Sharon is Happy um and with that I will just close I was out at Liberty Ridge today they had a little reading feed and I just have forgotten how darn cute those elementary kids are the first kid when we walked into the cafeteria poked the principal in the stomach Mr Moore Mr Moore and there were like four other kids who were wrapping their arms around them with Pizza on their mouth and I thought no this this is what I love about those little elementary kids but so uh with that reading feed um we had high school football players there reading to the kids well I just want you to know that the reading turned into a little bit of arm wrestling and I saw some other Shenanigans going on with the football players but nonetheless the kids loved having our high schoolers at um our elementary school so thank you okay any board members have any upcoming events on any of their committees that they'd like to share okay hearing none 7.0 future meeting dates October 24 2024 Schoolboard business meeting here at 6 PM November 7th 2024 is our Schoolboard Workshop meeting also here at 6 pm and with that 8.0 we are adjourned