 Board of directors, March 16th, 2022, convincing that's 6.33, most attendees here with Amanda on screen. So for sort of business is public comment. We don't have anyone in the room. Is there anyone on Zoom who would like to make color come on us that we've got? Several folks I see. Angela's got her hand up. Angela has her hand up. And anyone else, just do it old fashioned styles. You want to just physically raise your hand. So I've got Angela, anyone else? No? Jim, if I could give you a few, I have an email from a live viewer to share with us. All right, perfect. So let's do Angela and then Mia can read the email. Great. Is it OK to shy begin? Angela, you're muted. She's not. Or we can't hear you. Hold on. Tess, can you hear me now? There you go. We got you now. Yep. OK, I'll take the headphones off. You might hear background noise. OK, thank you. Great. OK, I'm Angela Shea, parent of three children in our district. Thank you so much for your time and your energy in general. I want to just take a moment here to note some deep concerns that I have around our special education program, which includes both our process for identification, assessment, data tracking, and use of evidence-based interventions. I'm struggling with our approach to teaching literacy and phonics for all, but especially our neurodiverse students, and I feel like it's lacking. I think we could benefit from a little more standardized process and curriculum that addresses both phonics and screens for dyslexia and has a process that reports out regularly regarding process that's data driven for each student. But I think the pandemic has taken my concerns to a new level, especially around learning loss, which I'm finding pretty alarming as evidenced by both the state and also in my own living room. And I was hoping to see the answer funds support that a little bit more as opposed to infrastructure. And I think that just I'm just public commenting because I feel that in order to make a change, that we kind of just have to identify it. And I'm struggling with wondering if it's being acknowledged or not. And so I just want to bring it up and I'm happy to talk more deeper about it. But I just felt like I needed to bring it up and this was a place to do that. And I appreciate the time to even be able to comment. So thank you. OK. Thank you very much, Mia. Do you want to email me? Sure. This is from Cara Brown, also a caregiver in Living and Lives in Montpelier. She says, one thing I've been troubled by as a parent is the absence of any assessment data being sent home to parents. And this is similarly to Angela's. This is around special education and interventions on learning. But she says, including star reading and math assessments, which have a very parent friendly report and are full of useful information and F and P reading assessments. I believe these should be sent home to parents as a matter of course. I believe the schools reading benchmarks and other benchmarks should be provided to parents as well or made more easily discoverable on the website. Last year in my kiddos school records, I found a standard form that tracks the child's progress in meeting each relevant benchmark, not limited to star and F and P, but also assessing spelling and mastery of sight word lists. Each fall, winter and each fall, winter and spring for grades K through four. This was information I would have liked to have been made aware of sooner as a parent, particularly as I was very concerned at the pace of my child's reading and writing progress. I think this information should be included with grade cards and sent home to parents. I suspect that many parents are unaware as I was that this information exists. It is a key tool in helping parents understand and address their child's education needs and work with their teachers in addressing those needs. And then she closes with saying, thank you. Any other public comments? Let's call for the screen. I do see Jason Gagel on the line who did not know that I would see him, but it's a chance for the board to say hi and Jason to say hi to the board. He's not prepped for anything, so I didn't expect him to come. So I wonder if we might want to just add an agenda item to let Jason say hello to everybody. Give a background. All right, why don't we spot a little bit? Why don't why don't we do that now? Jason and welcome aboard. Great to have you. Hi, everyone. Sorry to crash crash the board meeting. Nice to meet you all and thank you for this opportunity. And let's see. I don't know if it's time for questions. Caught me off guard. Sorry, I was just watching from a totally putting you on the spot, Jason. That's OK. Hi, I'm Jason Gingold, and I'm just watching as the agenda continues. And I look forward to meeting you all in person and getting to know you all better. Yeah, thank you for being here. Excited to have you joining the team in June. And that's also great to have a principal as a part of the community. Yeah, thank you. Moving on to the consent agenda. We would like to add an item to the consent agenda or we can do it separately, which is to appoint Joe Ramek. Thank you, Joe Ramek, to the CCCC and the CCCC board, which she's been serving on for a while. But they their merger was approved and they are now their own district. And so each district needs to appoint a board member and just would do a fantastic job as chair and has kindly stepped up to do again. So someone other than me needs to make that motion to put that into the consent agenda. Let me just do that. So why don't you do the consent agenda? I want to pull the Superintendents report very briefly. So why do you make a motion to approve the consent agenda with the superintendent's motion? Without. OK, so I move to approve the consent agenda minus the superintendent's report. That's my motion. Hi. Great, the approves and the superintendent's report. Yes, first, I want to say thank you for the thanks. Because. Sorry, hang on. Yeah. So many times throughout all of this, it's felt to me to that our role is that we haven't been able to do enough. And so to just hear that it has meant something meant something. So thank you. That's the first thing I wanted to say. And then I also wanted to follow up on the hiring to see if any have volunteered to be a hiring team for the director. I know we're all very busy. If any board members could find the space in their schedule to join the hiring team for this very important role, I think it would be really not just send a message to our community and the members of our community who are really have brought concerns to us about, you know, special education and student services, but it feels like we could it's not just so it's not just a, you know, gesture of goodwill. I think it would be really great to have board representation on that committee because hiring for these key roles in our in our district are really, really important. So I'm just putting a plug into my fellow board members. So please do it. Yeah, now it is a. Helpful to have. Someone on that. I know that this would be late notice because your first meeting on that is tomorrow, right? But maybe if if a board member could join for interviews, if they even can't make tomorrow's meeting, the date for interviews is it still the 30th March, March 30th? So I myself, I know I'm pushing others. I can't do it, but I was on I'm on the I've been on a few hiring teams. I can also attest to how fun it is to be a part of that process. So anyway. Well, is it sorry? The the 30th old day? Probably not because we won't have it. We don't have that many candidates. So I'm imagining I think three interviews would probably be. Oh, optimistically. And does it start early and and say, no, one of our parents is on the committee works nights. So she's asked that we start after 10 30 so she can get some sleep, which is a good request. So we'll we would start probably at 11 that day. Well, you would be amazing on that. No pressure. I just happened to have my whole day meeting castle. So the 30th I can do. But I do have a meeting at 3 30. So I'm not sure. We most likely would be done by 3 40. Yeah. OK, then I can join. Thank you, Amanda. Thank you so much, Amanda. Thanks, Amanda. Is there an announcement? I don't want to or we can move on. Right. Yeah, for it. Yeah. Do you want me to make a motion for that and Jill's appointment? Because we didn't. Sure. So I moved to approve the superintendent's report and the appointment of Jill Remick to the C. The Central Vermont Central Vermont Career Center, CVCC. 4. Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Hi. Any opposed? Great. Thanks. So soon update. Thanks for checking out all the way to Roxbury. I think you're the first students who have trucked all the way to Roxbury. Sorry. So we're going to talk about some of those results. And we've had some other meetings about the sort of the topic about diversifying staff and our hiring process. So we have updates to share about that. And then just some of our future plans. And then we're going to move on to the next slide. So yeah, what's been going on for our community? I'm going to go to the next slide. Sorry. Okay. So on Friday, there was a nationwide youth walk out. And this was to protest bills that were passed recently, such as Forda's, what's been done with don't say gay bill. And this is also in addition to numerous other anti LGBTQ bills that have been passed around the nation in recent months. And the theme has been kind of developing as a result. So in Montpelier, there was a walk out and a protest about that. And there were youth that spoke with state legislators both inside and outside the state house. I personally was one of those. So that was really great to see. So something coming up is. So I'm going to go to the next slide. So I'm going to go to the next slide. Montpelier's theater department is doing a production of Oliver. Musical. It's on March 24th, 25th, 26 at 7pm and March 27th at 2pm. And students have been putting a lot of work into it. So if you can come and show it. I'm acting within it. And I'm part of mass leadership. So I'm part of mass leadership. So on Sunday the 13th, the same day as what we'll get into the next slide basketball tournament, there was the Vermont state debate tournament and Montpelier competed in that. Unfortunately we didn't win anything. But someone busmed one individual work, so that was, that was okay. And then also on Sunday, the Montpelier high school boys basketball team. Joseph's after division two state championships. And that's exciting. We learned today that Donna. I think it's cats and I'm not sure. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I think it's for the district is general. So. So today means that held a listening session at the high school. And the goal of this was for students to share any thoughts or concerns they have about their education or their school in general. And so we had a pretty large and successful turnout of over 30 students who expressed a wide range of views. And some common themes, despite this wide array of views, some common themes that emerged were more mental health spaces and support. It seems that although counselors are an option, they're not always students's first choice to go to when they are suffering from having these struggles. So that's something to probably consider. And another theme was concerned about teachers and how many of them have engaged in things for microaggressions where they have kind of far or just, you know, kind of harm. There's kind of being done. There's funding done. And so that's something also for the board to consider that's been a big goal of RJ and BIPOC connections to bring attention to those and to see what can be done about them. And there was also sentiment address at this listening session about the importance of having more diversity within staff. And we'll get into that in subsequent slot slides. Another theme that was addressed was in a very popular theme with that was the severe parking shortage at molecular high school. It's a very tedious issue for a lot of students. That was a big concern. Yeah, and adults for sure. Everyone involved. And there are also some other points on this first slide about what we heard at the listening session. So you can, you can all look at that through the mic or we can move on to the next time it's up to you guys. I wanted to just ask for clarification. I think I know what you mean by content warnings, but could you just, could you clarify. So a lot of what was discussed, like also related to mental health was giving adequate and like appropriate information about material contained like within, within whatever doing class so like content or like trigger warnings, sort of regarding if there's going to be like a heavy topic in class today, like, where are the alternative spaces students can go if they like can't deal with that right now. And sort of making that more of a standard rather than like above and beyond thing future sometimes do. So just to add on to that sometimes in some classes they'll be trigger warnings, but it will be like okay in 10 seconds we're about to see this, I don't know bloody image or something so I don't know. But emphasis from these students was on those trigger warnings being either in this class before or just maybe on Google classroom or something just like more emphasis on that. Thank you. And yes, just to vert to, there are a lot of things. So we have another section at the end of the slide we have links my like full, our full messy notes, but we took during meeting, if you would like to read that. So we also have there was a lot of talks about the classes available and sort of expanding from just US history or even within world history, like sort of learning about something other than like the Russian Revolution, or like just European history in general. And sort of talking about different ways to structure the curriculum. So like the integration of extracurriculars and credits which I know has been talked about before. And sort of the flipped classroom like lectures in class and then like read a textbook for two hours at home, sort of dropping that we're shifting away from that to make learning sort of accessible for all the students there. And that's like for curriculum and then for trainings we have generally just more trainings in general or sort of calling in outside organizations to do that work so it's not being put on students being directly like affected by things that have happened or like teachers within the building who already have like a lot going on and can't like do this other training. Yeah, that was also in regards to micro aggressions, which I can just mention another slide, and sort of making consequences for teachers or students who do things like be racist or do micro aggressions making those consequences. It was clear and sort of a standard for everyone was definitely the dress and then we have the miscellaneous, we had a lot about supporting. There were a lot of seniors who spoke about how they do not feel supported going into sort of this next year and they're like don't feel like they can like be a person outside of like high school. And so a lot more around like life skills. And someone mentioned the CBLs at the high school have things modules like how to write a cover letter for resume and sort of maybe integrating those into a class or just putting more emphasis on that in general. And there are some things about better childcare and more paternity maternity leave for teachers in the building and then different specific things. I just want to add one thing about the, like, idea that students don't feel prepared for my post high school I'm everyone's student particular after listening session, who just said that they don't really know what they're like. They just don't really know what they're going to do and they simply don't feel that high school or even their whole education has prepared them for anything besides being in the building. And I think it's very important for the board to consider. So, um, me and Zach held separate meetings with both RJ and by connections, I personally spoke with RJ regarding diverse client staff and from RJ, we've heard that they really want to make diversification a priority, but they don't want diversification for the sake of diversification, but for the impact that will actually have on students and particularly people of color in the school. And although RJ doesn't really have super specific and all the all solutions for diverse buying staff, they're willing to help with anything that would be asked of them, such as interviewing potential teacher candidates, and they'd be showing that those teacher candidates that they're they're welcomed here. And also just adding on to something that we talked about a little bit in the subsequent slides or proceeding slides. RJ is specifically interested in firing like POC history teachers, because I feel that there's been a big focus over the years on really just Euro, Euro, European like focus history, which isn't the whole world, and shouldn't necessarily be that way. And then I spoke with BIPOC connections. And a lot of the people who are involved with BIPOC connections are also involved with RJ, so there's a lot of overlap. There was a lot about focusing on not just hiring, not just hiring BIPOC folks, but also retaining them, because living in an environment where like, there's a lot of racism and a lot of microaggression. And just like being in Vermont in general, a very, very white state, focusing on how to give those people the support they need so once they're like in the community they like want to stay I want to be a part of it. And it was brought up that some places in Vermont have been successful using a nationwide search like working with recruiting firms to get more people looking at Vermont as an option and being there and a lot of things that were brought up. It was also brought up in our listening session, but something like having a BIPOC guidance counselor would be very impactful for students, and would also likely be supportive for that staff member because they are. It's difficult to be like a math teacher and have a lot of people like look up to as this like support model, but as like a guidance counselor, they might be more equipped to deal with that, and sort of have those strategies and also student teachers, or like substitute teachers are also a really great option to have in the building in general. So that's that we heard, I just remember the same session. So, even if my diversifying staff is hard. Maybe it would also be valuable to have like guest speakers at the school again used to have a lot of those and years passed but unfortunately we haven't really had any of those recently. So bringing those back and giving students valuable opportunity. Sure. So, um, now we have a few future goals for moving forward as student representatives. We're planning on holding listening sessions at the middle school and the elementary school. I've been in contact with the guidance counselor at the elementary school and also with some students at the middle school who are with express interest in meeting with them. That's exciting. Yeah, and we want to continue listening to feedback and concerns, specifically involving those listening sessions, and also continuing to work with RJ and BIPOC connections. Sort of with their like strategies and all the useful insight. Also, we've heard a lot about listening session, and it's not the only thing that we're going to be using to gauge student feedback, but the issues that were raised there, we want to continue focusing on them. So we want to continue finding potential solutions to them. And that's going to be a big part of our role. And yeah, you can also see the whole student feedback notes, which is less organized in our presentation, but you would like to see everything that we wrote down. Yeah, thank you guys. Do we have time for that? Okay. So, thank you so much for all the work that you're doing. It's, it's just such a breath of fresh air to have you both as part of the board. And out there, you know, what is, what is the expression beating the streets, beating the paving pounding the pavement. You know, doing the work like reaching out to students and getting their input and bringing it to us and helping us, you know, understand the priority issues from a student perspective is, is so important. So thank you so much. It's already like, you know, paying off and, and awesome to have you part of the board. I held a listening session. I think, did you both come to that at the high school. Zach was there. And Zach, you'll remember that a lot of these same issues were raised then. And I made an attempt to get feedback from some of our veteran board members and from Libby and others to, to bring back to that because I would I'm really interested in like being responsive to their concerns. And when you're talking about, you know, a four year career in high school, it's like some of these things kind of need to happen quickly and democracy is slow and bureaucracy is hard. And so it's like, I'm interested in sort of brainstorming ways to be more responsive to the student feedback. One hope that I had was to just give a quick, because I know some people sitting at this table, I even have a little bit of input on some of our progress on some of these issues. I think it would be important for you as represented student representatives to know sort of where we're at on each of these bullet points. So what the thinking is, or what are some of the roadblocks and challenges that we've faced, you know, trying to get diverse staff or that those sorts of things or change curriculum. So I think it's important to know like where we're at as a district on these issues, and then what the future holds, and then trying to be responsive on some of the things that seem to be really quick and easy fixes, like getting a microwave material. I mean, I'm not sure if that was a COVID thing, but that feels like, why can't that happen tomorrow. And then it's like, bam, you know, we've made progress. You know, it's just one little thing, but it's like a little thing that can actually improve the quality of life of our students, you know, just by that little bit, I know my daughter is like a hot food person, but needs to reheat stuff from home. She's very picky anyway. She would hate for me to call her out like this publicly, but a microwave would be really important to her. It would actually like change the way she's eating and the types of things that she's eating at school. So I'm not sure how best to move forward with this and I'd be happy to lend my time to help the two of you sort of make some progress in being able to report back to the students on what you're hearing. But I think it's important to get back to them and have them have be responsive to their to their call for action. And some things are just going to take time and are harder to accomplish than others. And then other things on this list feel very easy to accomplish. And I would love to like make sure that we're making progress on that. I think we can move forward on a lot of these issues and as I said a lot of them are pretty pretty quick and simple fixes that and still have a significant impact so I think maybe this meeting with you are the members like more in depth to talk about our action plan how we can go forward on this would be valuable. Yeah, I think it's all that we're pointing out a lot of these issues. Maybe we can, you know, maybe you're talking about are kind of more, you know, things that should also be really principally brought to the principle and the administration. So certainly curriculum and hiring decisions, you know, we hear about this but those are really administrative decisions as is, you know, things are hiring processes we definitely kind of set a compass on that in terms of what we want to see but the actual implementation so I don't know Jason is still on but he is but I texted him he's got it off. I said on the slideshow that's about his first you know 100 days. Yeah, so he's picked a good meeting. Yeah, and we can help facilitate those meetings to but, you know, absolutely, you know, definitely, you know, forward with Jason and you know currently Renee and and they can they can provide a lot of probably quicker answers than certainly we can in terms of what's what's being done. Yeah, our listening session isn't specifically tailored to what the school board can or cannot do it's really just showing like what students care about. One of the details are things that you know, Renee and and in June Jason will know and you know Libby knows and so so we definitely want to be moved in but we, we may not have detailed answers. I appreciate that I was just going to add. First of all, I think it's fascinating and really, really neat how you guys got some really like to the core of American culture issues, and also included a lot of pieces to support stock which I think is really cool. And also they're part of that sort of action plan might be reactions or responses or context that articulate that it might not be that simple like I remember Andrew mentioning at our last meeting about one of the biggest things we could do for energy and climate change at the high school is have fewer people driving cars. So like do we want to talk about that I know I'm a state employee, there are now massive parking lots that are to be a battlefield, not that far from the high school so maybe there's some, there's some quick wins but also there's like some bigger sort of like, do we want the track do we want to cut back on emissions is there something else we hear. But I'm just, I'm just really blown away just that's my high school, the awareness of context for what you're learning and hearing that from your students. Like I said, I was really impressed that students had comments about things for staff as well, not just criticism but rather like support that they can use. Thank you. Me. First, I just want to just take one little step up just to thank Angela for sharing her concerns before I think like was over so I just want to thank her for her voice. And this is so great I'm so happy of all the feedback. I also want to remind us that we do have the diversity equity and inclusion policy that kind of highlights that so it will be interesting to, you know, continue to have brain have these concerns. And the thing that we are, which is in our realm, which is the policy that does talk about expectations of curriculum and expectations of recruitment practice and professional development. And I wonder, you know, when we do have an update on that policy how we continue to have this concerns be aligned with that works for the long, or long term work. That is really great. And, and I think, yeah, just just wanted to point point that out there that it is kind of all those things are within our policy of diversity, equity and inclusion. The questions for markets. Awesome. Thanks again. This is fantastic and look forward to getting these throughout the rest of the year. And then we'll move on to capacity building with me. The view I don't see Mike, Mike has some family things going on. So it is me. You fly so well. Yes, indeed. So hold on let me get the right. It is PowerPoint up so so let me get the right one up. Okay, so this presentation today, Mike and I have been working on this week around the purposes around direction on more than anything else because you just got a beautiful budget pass that has a lot of new capacity building and and human resources and in professional learning. And so we wanted to give the board an update of kind of where we are and what our plans and strategies and dreams are going forward, and these two particular areas. So when we move into next school year. So one of the things that Mike, Mike and I, as soon as like the budget passes, we go into like planning and strategizing mode. And so we spent a lot of time together thinking about what are we truly, you know, digging into around our pillar work and next year we'll be talking a lot about these two areas. So it's a quick presentation just to give to the board and the community around. What are we thinking about right now and they're not like specific detailed ideas but they, they give the give us the broad overview. This is a statement that the leadership team really played with last summer before we knew what this year was going to be. And, and it's involved over time if you've been, you know, a board member for a while and you've heard me say that all students will work will achieve at high levels because of what we do every day, not can, because that enables some sort of thinking of yes they can if they want to, but we'll learn at high levels every day. I was thinking on that has switched a little bit into limitless future, which implies high levels of learning if you want a limitless future for our students, then they need to have the confidence and a range of skills, right, to have that did not have limits on what they choose to do when they leave us as graduates so our leadership team is really, really focused on this, and to eliminate the predictability of student success. So, you know, three years ago when I really dug into some, some particular data. It was, it was apparent very quickly that if you were male on an IP and free and reduced lunch qualified for free and reduced lunch there was zero possibility of you being proficient on standardized testing and and that that I could predict it, I could predict it with pretty much every student I looked at with those meaning those identifiers. We want to get rid of those predictions, we shouldn't be able to do that, we should any kid should be able to have a limitless future so this is kind of the leader, when the leadership team comes together this is the statement that we will want to. Just a reminder you've seen the slide before. So our theory of growth is that if we have these four pillars, rocking and rolling in the way we want them to they're not there yet, but if we do, then kids will have a limitless future. So, we're going to focus, or we're thinking about a lot about right now, these two last pillars. The first two pillars we've actually spent a lot of time with over the pandemic years, and particularly formalized essential learning it kind of ramped that work up a little bit. Because teachers figured out, because we didn't have the time necessarily when we went virtual that they couldn't teach everything they wanted to teach that everything was essential right we had to really think about that. So it increased that opportunity to focus in on that and is, and again with the collaboration you can't do this by ourselves so we're really focusing for this presentation, while they are intertwined around these two pillars, the idea of a timely system to enrich, intervene and that this idea that I, I, that keeps coming up to me from parents around it's like you're waiting for my kid to fail. That that shouldn't happen, ever. So we need to redesign our system. Some call it RTI RTI some call it MTSS around learning, both social emotional learning and academic learning. So that that doesn't happen. Right. And so this is a piece that we're really working on behind the scenes now it will continue to be a little bit behind the scenes from the systems perspective. So this is the first year I can say after this budget and once we get through our hiring season everybody cross your fingers that the people are available for us to hire, which is big sometimes. We will have the human resources in place in order to put a more effective system in order to get it going. We didn't have the human resources. All right, yeah, speaking at the listening session on special education I was just saying when I started four years ago, there were no interventionists at MHS. We have 400 kids at MHS, like there is nobody except for special educators who could work with students who are struggling, but may not be on IV. There's just, there wasn't the resource. And that to me was mind blowing. I didn't understand why that had happened. And I also have the mindset that Jim's heard a bunch of times that you can't just hire people and put people in the position without talking about the system behind this is behind it so we've taken our time to get that human resource in play. And then high quality of instruction in every classroom it's not luck. So, if you know Zach America two different first grade teachers that they're learning the same priority standards they may have very different ways of teaching it and I actually hope they do so that they can collaborate and understand which way is really effective. But they're teaching the same thing. So this high quality instruction every classroom takes away the luck of it. So we're really thinking about this right this next year, except in kind of different ways that we've thought about it before. So when we're thinking about timely system that enrich intervene and remediate in the most generic broad sense where we are right now is that we have very different approaches not just by school but by teacher. Very different nobody set the expectations or the system for teachers in this area and that's not the fault of the teachers in any way shape or form. So we're really looking at different approaches and going to work. That's just work right. There's different methods there's different data tracking and systems between buildings. Interventionists are working with up to 20 to 30% of our student population at MHS and MSMS in particular. That's a that's a large percentage that we're saying needs intervention support. And when I say how do we know we need they need intervention support. There's not a definitive answer anybody can tell me. Yeah, okay, so if Kristen were to need intervention support, it could be because Jill's her teacher and Jill's really loud about getting our intervention support without real data behind that. It could be that right. It could be because Jill's really targeted on our data and says person has this universal skills she's lacking. Well, there's no basis for that. When students. So students are remaining an EST that's educational support team for multiple years. So it's kind of like an, your student is placed on an IP without all the process and rules and laws around it. And so they never get out of it. Right and that's not the purpose of, of intervention or remediation that's just not the purpose of it a child should get the support they need. It's just that they know it and move back into the general classroom, or move back, move back. Right. So get what you need, and then come back, get what you need again. It should be this really good process and it's not they remain once they're in it they're in it. You said that yes, it's not. There is no hard and fast rule there. As it is right now. Yes, but there shouldn't be any hard festivals there. I mean, that's getting in the weeds and I can walk out on it but I'm going to go there. There's a current separation of service delivery between special education and general education interventionist. Now with that 173 starting that changes the ballgame as to who can serve kids who are tangles. The time and that's like kind of another rabbit hole to go down. But that's going to change. It's going to change by law very soon. It's hard to tell the difference between tears two and three and I'll get into those definitions in a second if I were to ask one of our educators, or possibly even our principles. Tell me what how or what a kid is what needs to get to your two services versus what it needs to do to get to your three services there is no difference there. There's zero difference, you couldn't, we could not tell you right now. And there's very little specialization and pedagogies for learning learners who need something very different so for instance, for one of the first districts I've ever worked in that we don't have what's called. We don't have somebody who's a specialist with Orton Dillingham methods. So that's a very targeted, structured way to learn how to read that that a small percentage of kids need, but we couldn't give that support to kids because we don't have somebody who has that skill right now. And it's, it's pretty a typical, typical intervention for kids who have that kind of profile. So Mike did link the universal skills draft I'm going to act this is actually kind of the wrong place on the slideshow so I'm going to come back to talking about that in a second, but know that that link is there. Okay. Let's just talk about some common definitions that we are working to build within our district. And when I'm showing you all of this, this is, this is where we're going. This is not necessarily where we are right now. So when we're talking about tier one or universal first instruction. That's what every single student when we're talking high quality instruction every single classroom we're talking to your one and tier two. Every single student has the opportunity for high quality instruction are not taken out of the classroom and missing it for whatever they need. It's with PLC is professional learning community teams. They're determining shared formative and summative assessment of the priority standards, the unit plans they're conducting data analysis of common student work. And it goes back to that first pillar of this of teaching and learning is just to turn complex complex to do by yourself. We need to have teams of people thinking about it. All students have access to first instruction within their grade level or content priority standards. And when we're talking about priority standards I'll just remind you that the second pillar so they're all kind of connected here. That's the second pillar and what a prior and I think I have a slide on this actually later but if we were to take the Common Core and say we're going to get, we're going to get Zach to be proficient in every common core standards he would be at least 22 years of schooling to make that happen. That's what the research is telling us which of course we do not have Zach unfortunately for 22 years. So we have to prioritize instruction is differentiated it's based on a growth mindset framework it's intentional it's goal oriented and it's engaging the students 100% of our student populations fall into this priority standard so it represents the absolutely essential knowledge and I'll give you an example of this in the Common Core literacy standards I can't remember exactly which grade, but there is a standard around naming and providing evidence for a theme and a piece of literature for the theme of a piece of literature right. So knowing how to determine theme is a really important skill because you need it not just when you read but when you listen to a political speech or when you know like there's lots of things in the media you need to listen for theme and the evidence for it. There's also a standard that says that students can compare a piece of play versus a movie of the same. It's going to be fine if he doesn't have evidence of proficiency and being able to compare a play and a movie. So, so there's some that are less like that's nice to know but it's not a priority. Right, so our priorities are what a parent will eventually see on the report cards, and the younger years especially. And it's what all tier one and tier two will be tied around. That's the tier two and assessment and a second. It's also when we say common formative and summative assessments. There, you're not having common formative assessments on everything you're teaching just on the priorities, right because we're what we want to be able to say is this is what we're guaranteeing all students will be able to do. It's all in the common formative and summative assessment that every teacher in the same grade level. Yes. Yeah, so then they bring it all together. And, you know, my kids failed miserably and Kristen's kids, knock it out of the park I can say what did you do. Right, how did you get your kids to do so well on this assessment right. And we know that everybody's learning the same thing right know what the expectation is the assessment kind of defines the expectation for the teachers. Is that for each unit. Yes. Yes. And then common definition for two two this is possibly the biggest switch in language for our system and for our teachers right here is the switch in tier two. So thinking of tier two what we're thinking is prevention or intervention within the first instruction of the priority standard. Okay. So, right now one of the things that happen is that a kid can receive intervention services anything. But we want to say no we're going to we're going to really save that work for our priorities, because that's what we're saying we're going to guarantee you got proficiency in. And by that PLC team again based on the data analysis of the common formative assessment that I was just talking about with person that it's performed by the teachers within the PLC so it's based on the priority standards, which is a great level or content area specific. When I start walking out too far down the rabbit hole, Jim will smack me, but I am a first grade teacher. So I am the expert in that first grade standard. Right. That is who the expert is in the first in that priority standards so they need to be doing the intervention or the prevention. And the high school looks a little bit different. So if a class is meant to do if a kid has a double literacy block that first block could be around prevention work. How do I preteach vocabulary, how am I pre teaching some of the skills and concepts that the kids are going to do in the next class right how am I pre teaching feed so that when a kid comes into the class I'm not hearing it for the first time it's the second or third dose already because of that prevention that's a tier two intervention for high school. Or it could very well be an intervention within the classroom that I sit next to a kid and we go over to that or it could be during soul and block which the students were talking about earlier we have that piece but it's not effective right now so how do we do that and block a little bit differently. So our goal here though is for 10 to 15% of students to fall into this category. If you do the math, and you have class of 20. That's two kids. That's not a lot of kids who are doing that. Right. The way we get there is by following an instructional cycle, something like this. So the kids we know what kids must be able to do in the rectangle at the top that's what the PLC does that's what the professional learning community does together, they design the format of assessments. First, so they know where the roadmap is right. If you follow the arrows around they teach that first piece of instruction so if you have a priority standard that priority standard is the broad umbrella and that can be broken down into three or four. So the teachers are going to teach that first one and have a formative assessment that the team has already planned out together. Say how they do, and then they go into a reteach cycle that's tier two, right inside the classroom, you know let's reteach for the kids who didn't get it let's enrich for the kids who did. Then let's go on to the next learning target. Again reteach so it's this kind of you know constant cycle within a unit of study. And then when you get to that summative. It is no surprise who still needs more time. And you built it into the unit design so that they're there's researching at the end or there's enrichment at the end, based in this unit of study. So we have our tier ones and tier two structures, rock and enrolling teachers are doing this constantly they're introducing new ideas they're teaching into it. They're assessing their reteaching there, you know they're doing this cycle all the time. And the reteach piece is the piece right now that I wouldn't that my hunches is currently missing. The reteach and enrich built right into a unit of study. Then when we get into tier three that's intensive remediation so that link earlier around universal skills. That's where the ship that was that's where this link should have gone right here. So when we're talking about remediation we are not talking about special education. We are not talking about special education. We are talking about kids who are missing universal skills, and the most the easiest way to think about it is that is like it's about two or three grade levels below for priority standards. So if a priority standard in second grade is to be able to decode multi syllabic words, a kid's not going to receive remediation on that in second grade, probably not even in third grade because that's still opportunity to reteach and intervene in that scale. When fourth grader fourth or fifth grade they're really still having trouble decoding multi syllabic words, and that's remediation rate that's a universal skill map that kids really need. And it needs there needs to be a plan there needs to be formative assessments tied into it it needs to be very targeted. It's not just the child will decode butter, but the child will decode better through this very targeted skill area, so that it can be no more than three weeks, right we can hit it hard, really quickly, and then get out like get them out of this. And the parent is part of that process. So right now the evidence I have from the information I'm getting from parents is that parents are not part of this process right here. And that's a major missing piece as a parent of my kids receiving remedial services, because they're missing universal skill you're darn wrong I want to know about it right be a part of that process. So there's some examples here. It could be some different literacy programs it could be a special course in high school it could be something like reading recovery in first grade. And our goal is to have no more than 5% fall into this category of our student population. Because kids who need intensive remediation need an expert with them helping them through it and it might take more time oftentimes of kids one kids lacking one universal skill they're lacking multiple universal skills. And it's all connected to the tier one and two piece because they're, they didn't get it earlier right. Now this is much different so when we're doing this our interventionists are spending most of their time here and not at the tier one and tier two level. Our interventionists like to be at the tier one and two level, and they don't necessarily like to be here. So, this is where we're moving that shift is that our interventionist should be dog tired by the end of the day because they work so hard in this remediation area on the universal skills. It's probably our weakest link right now that we need to work on the most. And then this the idea of the data systems is really important where we are right now is that we have some screen or data and other local assessment items. This, our staff is unsure what each assessment types are used for. So I'll give it, give you an example. The screener data, we, in some areas we put way too much prominence on it's a screener, like the word screener should put you in as just like, it's like a very quick hitting overview, it is not an in depth assessment in any way shape or form. People who publish screeners like to say, oh, we can tell you exactly what the instruction needs to be after a screener. But you can't right because like these guys took screeners and high school, but the text they're reading in high school are wrong and thick right. So their skills need to be with like we need to be assessing them within the text that they actually read not short computers passages right that's just an example. So a screener gives us an example, gives us like hey, there's some red flashing lights here, we need to do more, we need to do more assessing, in order to figure out exactly where this child has some more work to do a screener is not the end all be all. Okay, like our educators don't know that. And one of the challenges is is that because they don't have that knowledge of what type of assessment to use with which some sometimes they put too much emphasis on a screener so when you sit in a parent conference they talk about screener data as if it's the end all deal. And that's not accurate right so there's a lot of data literacy that we need to do with our teaching staff around that kind of work. There's a lot of teachers also don't own this assessment info when I hear teacher saying, Jim come do my assessments for me or the literacy coach is going to do the assessments for me. You need to be sitting next to that child and seeing what they're doing as they're doing the assessment. And so they're not that tells me they're just not owning it they're not understanding what they can get out of it for their teaching. And we don't have a formal system to keep an access data it's very hard to find. If you said to me, let me show me the first grade fantasy panel reading sports right now I couldn't do it. I have to find someone who might be able to put back together for me. So it's hard to inform instruction when it's hard to find. It's also hard to celebrate. It's hard to find where we're going is to use multiple sources of data that can be triangulated to show us exactly what a student needs. So we are very easy to find and use. We need a formalized system that's accessible to anybody who needs it we're getting a system called the cat where Mike's get we actually have it right now Mike's just populating it. And we need a knowledgeable staff around data literacy what do you use for what what what is this for me as a teacher how do I use it tomorrow. Now, I'm going to wait two weeks for somebody to tell me how to use it. And then just quickly, the idea with high quality first instruction every classroom. We've really gone back there's so many different ways to build capacity here. And one of the pieces that I'm really landing on from a super internal perspective is that the piece that our kids have lost the most and quite honestly our staff is community, and how do we. How do we get that back for kids. And what does that mean for high quality instruction. So the thing I'm thinking about I'm calling it calling it. I don't know if I read it somewhere or if it came out of my head I don't know is this idea of what's a pedagogy of wellness. So what is teaching for wellness look like what teaching strategies that we want to see every teacher using next year. We have this wellness mentality for kids. And so, just this may not be it, but just like really early brainstorming because I'm really looking forward to a new leadership team coming in this is what we're going to do this summer is really dig into this. I'm thinking about passion and engagement, right so a pedagogy of wellness has kids truly engaged and passionate about me engaged and passionate about everything they do, of course, but there's something right. And so these are pictures from our district across multiple years. This was from a physics class. I went into observe, I was just peeking into the class and these guys around the table were so involved in the work, they didn't even know that five adults were watching them, which is kind of bizarre when I walk in the room with five adults in the classroom people usually like when you're doing here, they didn't even realize we were in there. They're, they're totally engaged in whatever they were working on. And this was actually this past year. I walked in same thing these kids have designed different things they have water they fool me loser all kinds of things going on in this engineering class that the kids were designing quotation devices or something along the line they were totally when I said hey what you doing it was like three different groups were jumping at me excited to tell me what their project was. So I'm thinking about compassion for others. This is a piece that I think is a society, we really need to focus on in terms of how we work with kids. You know, so are we really looking out for the other fella and a thing I steal that from camp out and ackee. So again just different pictures from our school and past years. So the kind of pedagogy that I really want to think about for how we build the capacity and our teaching courses get one of the natural ways we can get more movement and talk into our students lives. I think kids are way too sediment sedentary right now. And, and through no follow their own really it's kind of the world that we've lived in for the last three years. So how do we get movement and how do we get kids talking to each other, academically. How do we get kids talking to each other appropriately and respectfully how do we get kids knowing how to disagree. Really well. How do we get kids to understand perspective, when honestly how do we get adults to understand perspective. So I'm just thinking this, you can't really see from this picture but this is a younger kids class and they're all like totally into. They're talking to each other about whatever science project was in front of them. This was from this year at RBS, which was one of my most precious days and they're digging out potatoes together, but having this whole long conversation about them potatoes. It was so great the pre K class here. And then fun. Anytime we're talking about wellness we got to add fun into the picture so what are we doing to intentionally bring fun to the table. How are kids get you just picture the giggles underneath that that parachute right there, you bring the parachute out there's always giggles it's just going to have it. Exactly. So these are these are just like some of the things I'm thinking about that I'm really excited to dive into with the new leadership team coming in as well as with the staff. How do we really think about it and these may not be it right. There may be other components of the pedagogy of wellness that we could really focus it on but how do we really focus our teachers work to say, In units of study I'm planning for talk. I'm teaching kids how to talk I'm planning for movement. I know strategies that I can do that's not lecture. I know how to get kids up and talking to you moving in a classroom. So those are some of the things I'm thinking about this is totally not leadership planning this is really fun. This is looking thinking right here so you should know that too. But that's about it. So within those two pillars that's really what we're thinking about and I'm happy to. I can talk about this for hours but I'm happy to answer any questions and if I go into TV, then Jim will smack. Questions for the book. I thought I actually hit pretty right on a lot of, a lot of things like regarding instruction, there, there's really no re teaching at all like I don't think I've ever seen re teaching in my class except for maybe review before some of those but even that like no but I saw totally agree with that. The second thing was running like assessments I seem to like to test like star testing of our high school school quickly. I can definitely say that those are not totally accurate, like most students, most students are either not caring when they're doing those, or they're not doing them well at all. So, I don't think they're good measure. The second thing is I really like your pedigree wellness instruction. I think that shifting away from just lecture base and just like, and I'm just like classroom learning and really shifting more towards project base and actually applying what you're learning is so much more valuable and you learn so much more from that then it's like, I don't know, doing a test. So I think that's really important. I think what I like what I am in my high school, I take the lever to the bathroom, so I can be in the halls and see people more. And I just started doing it a couple years ago. And it's quiet. It's really quiet every day, unless it's, you know, during lunch transition or something like that but it can get slightly louder, but never too loud. It's just a really quiet place and schools. I don't know it should be that fast. Any questions, Mia. What I also want to say, not just for us but also sharing it with the community, because I think it reflects a lot of what we've heard of the frustrations and concerns that parents have been feeling and it is a good. And it's just really good to see that that's that there's alignment there and that you're, you know, you're acknowledging it and saying here's what we're working toward. And I'm curious on the, the where we're at pieces that you shared. If you could give us a couple of examples of things that you would say that we're doing well right now on the where we're at. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, first I want to say this is a seismic shift. Right. And it's not an MRPS only shift of it. It's a seismic shift and believe structures and systems. Yeah. So it's not going to happen overnight. Yeah, absolutely not. So some things we're doing really well I think that the vast majority of our teachers build pretty good relationships with kids. And it's, you know, there's always a couple, but the vast majority of them. I'm not worried about it. I also think while there's learning to be had, I trust our educators decisions that they made in the classroom. Well, there's always learning and there's always mistakes, of course, but I do I think that's not a piece of this puzzle. Right. Which in some places that is a piece of the puzzle. I think that we are doing really well at UES has already started some of these shifts, and they're seeing success in it. And so we now have a system that we can look at and say, it's working here this is what they're doing. Right. So I think that's a big piece that we can start celebrating like this small change happened. And this happened for kids. It's just different, right, but they could connect the dots. So that that is really exciting. The work around the prioritize standards is happening. And it's going really well. So we now like, this is Mike Barry, this is, this is completely not really Mike Barry, when he took over he didn't have a system to work on curriculum. It wasn't built. You know there was no curriculum teams there was no, there's no way to do that work. So it wasn't surprising that you're the third grade team say, like five different things they were doing at that moment because there was just no structure in place for them like why would they, they wouldn't do it naturally you know. So, Mike has put together curriculum teams that are vertical. So not only is the prioritize standards happening but it's happening in a vertical fashion so we know that we're not. I was joking with my husband last night, or my daughter. I was like what are you doing in social studies right now and she's like, Oh, I was like well it's got to be pilgrims Native America is your American Revolution because that's all your brother. So there's that repeat kind of thing happening. So if you're doing it in a vertical fashion that would be like that's not happening like to work with the curriculum is really top notch. And it's in the teachers he has doing that work the teacher leadership we've been able to build through that process is also top notch and we want to increase teacher leadership big time that's a big time goal for the, for the central office leadership team. So some of the, the structures in the systems are, are now in place to do the capacity building. So there are there are a lot of really good things that are ready to go. There was also a lot of success last year and msms for some strategies they figured out even Kimball and math as the math interventionist and coach there did some amazing things, a circle fleet and virtually that really engaged kids on fractional knowledge that we need to hold on to. We learned some things there we need to hold on to it and expand it. And Amy could teach some, you know some things like school. I can do that so how do we, so one of the questions is how do we expand knowledge base and get people talking to each other more. So we have a lot of really good things in place. And if we can get through positive cases and anxiety and energy being told elsewhere. Um, yeah, I'm having the same feeling that I had. I'm thinking about the pedagogy of wellness and thinking about passion and engagement by students and thinking back to that. I think I was going at the pedagogy of wellness and thinking about passion and engagement by students and thinking back to that conversation around interest in seeing the curriculum review, and kind of based on that, you know, based on in per fed by the students and the time so I sure hope that your world history curriculum was really different than mine. It's really interesting to me by using this. So, I'm sure it does but what are the opportunities for the students to be moving for some purpose with our staff or administration and co-creating that curriculum together and really we have a lot of moving inspired and motivated students and to what extent can we tap into that curriculum shape. And electives offered at the school particularly as it's what they want to take electives. And I think not how culture like we are having this moment of like systems are breaking that we've been seeing a lot of fissures come out of the last two years, which is possibly the only silver lining but it's really magnifying things for us and so it seems to be just such an opportunity for me thinking. I guess, you know, I'm on hold all this. And I guess I'm just wondering like, you know, rubber, you know, you know needs the real kind of stuff with like, when, how, like the steps and the timeline like this is like the vision but like, you know, based on where we are at today and like how, how soon could we expect that's not overnight and it's going to be piece by piece but like, you know, as a parent, I would very much be looking forward to this kind of kind of education happening in my student and being able to get this kind of feedback and having the data piece, you know, in check and knowing that like the education is not based on real data, you know, that it's not like you say but it's craft and it's science. So, like how, how soon or better, I guess, yeah. What's a timeline, what do you see as a good stuff so for your purpose and making sure that this is happening after classroom. Yeah, so we're getting a brand new leadership team for the most part this summer. And so this summer, the leadership team will be doing a lot of work together around making sure we have a common understanding. That's number one, right. And the principles while some of them will be new working on what exactly can we target now. That kind of thing so schools are in different places and it's not lockstep right so the way that I like to lead from a systemic perspective of here are four pillars, here's the common definition of all these four pillars, and you know your schools best. We're really targeting in on yes the district is focusing in on making sure we have the structures and systems in place for our timely systems and yes we're creating a lot of effort there and we're working as a district to build that system with the players at the table. And that may not be what NSNS is going to focus on completely in front right they may choose to really focus in on how do we engage or how to listen kids. That's the question that MSNS staff works on and that's a fine question. That's perfectly great and they're going to focus zero in on that. If we're running this smoothly from a board's perspective, and I've talked to Jim how this is how I really want to change how I bring information to the board is that you have at least three or four presentations around this is where we are right now. The other principles are here this is the board that we've made for us. This is our plan, and then they're going to come back, right, and then say this is where we are this is the data to show our growth, this is where we think we need to move next. And we haven't gotten into that cycle of the last couple years. And I will make the excuse of COVID, but we need to get into that cycle. So, the board will see that as for a specific timeline. I can't give you a specific time I'm talking about humans and kids, right, it's not an assembled line of change. So, so this is where our focus is going to lie though. Yeah, so we would be able to have that we're going to be able to have that after our first local assessment window. So we have three windows that we call throughout the year. And the first one happens in October ish. And this is mainly a case that more of a case six thing that a 712 thing. Nobody's really figured out the data piece for product collected in a way that's understandable at 712. But after that assessment window, then we'd be able to say, this is where kids are reading right now, you know on a broad scale. Absolutely. I made that year. Yeah, well, yeah, yeah, so next school year, because Mike's populating it now we're going to be plans to get the teachers trained up and dekat and how to enter data and you know what's that mean. And then once that happens, once we got that going, then yeah, it's so easy to pull reports and say this is where we're at. And I think it should be very valuable but not leadership teams meeting the summer beyond for student voice to be heard as well. One thing I've heard about Jason giggle that you know principles and nodding his head right now is that two voice matters. Right. So I know his plan is to be bringing me all in and talking. Yeah, Amanda wants to talk sorry if I didn't see you earlier. It's hard to your hand Amanda is right in the yellow flower behind you it's hard to see it. Thank you for this. I have a question regarding the assessment data and I wonder if we if we have like what those what why they're called and how parents have access to that data for their own the individual children. And then I, I love, I love our, your long term vision and like how we're going to get there. And I'm just wondering for the kids now, who are now going to be able to be there, you know, like we're not we're not going to get the future. Like, what are we doing for them right now that you feel like it's worth, you know, like, exploring saying like these are some of the needs of the kids that we have each of these great levels. And the third question is around the segregation of data and how the district is looking at, you know, kids with low economic low income families and buy pack I know that like the whole buy pack it's we talk about that but how teachers look at their students and say okay like wow, you know, our low income students are doing for in this just making, you know, making an example or like my pockets are not doing well in this subject or so if there is that conversation that happened at the district level with the leadership. So I'll start there that's very hard to do right now, because we don't have a system like the cat in place at the moment. So what when the cat is work is populated teachers know how to use it because it's a new system for us. So then you can run a report so you literally could pull up a class check and check free reduce special education gender. Right, you can check those three boxes, and then it pulls up a report and shows the scores of kids, right so you can see where they are there. So we will be able to disaggregate the data very easily. The system is up and running. We cannot do that right now. We can do it easily right now. We'll put it that way. So that was the first thing. Second thing is that that our intervention teams and special educators are working to change their mindset and how they run their daily schedules now. It's almost like they needed permission to do that. It was interesting. It was interesting right so but I, and not so much special educators because they're still working under old special education rules, but they will this more interventionist. I met with them Mike asked me to meet with them to do very similar presentation for them, right, what more walkiness and depth with the educators but they. It's almost like they needed permission from me to say, you know what, find those kids that you've named some universal skills, find the kids let's start, let's start working. Instead of the team teaching that you kind of like to do, let's start really working on some of these universal skills. And so, right now teachers are, are, it's almost, it's like some research that they're doing right now for themselves and action research. Just good. So, so right now teachers are starting to change their practice and how they schedule themselves and all of that kind of good stuff. And I can't remember your third question Amanda. What the name of the assessment data and like if parents have that. That needs to be a larger conversation with each leadership guiding coalition and what the common expectations are I don't think we don't have common expectations across the district for that right now. So I think it depends on the teacher. No, for data distribution to parents. I think it's, I think it's totally dependent on the teacher. And it's, and it's interesting because, you know, if my kids teacher tells me that they're leading at an app. Like that benchmark from Francis and now which is what we use the letter kind of marks as a literacy expert I know exactly what that means, right, you don't know what that means nor do you know so. For me it's not so much that parents get the F, like the letter F. That's the one that's my failure talking about like the level of books. That's just right for me it's your child's reading at this level. These are the things that means they can do really well. These are the things that will be the next steps for them to work on. This is how you can help them at home, but it's like that conversation. I'm enjoying that progression so well of literacy or math, you know, that the progression of skill, and there's some capacity really to be done around that spreadsheet the universal skills spreadsheet that felt somewhat accessible. I don't just say literacy level after like it has the strategy what it kind of looks like. Exactly. That would be a thing that could be very useful for parents. Just as an example, I'm sorry, but I do have a couple other problems. So fingers fingers are crossed on the four interventionist positions that we're hoping to fill, bringing us to nine are interventionists angered to grades or buildings, and how do they interact with professional learning. Excellent questions right. So they're, they're, they're tied to buildings. Yes. For the most part, and they're not necessarily tied to grades, although they are at the elementary school at Union elementary school. And that's simply because it's simply because of expertise, or anything else and what the expertise and experiences. So how they interact with the PLCs are how they will interact with PLCs is that what we need our interventionists and our special engineers to be to be that we need to be them to be the experts in an untangling learners. Right. So, when there's that reteach and the PLC is sitting together saying I'm not really sure how to teach that differently. Right, that the interventions also at the table say, Well, let's really analyze what's happening here. And did you try this, did you try, you know, so giving other ideas for the, for the PLC just being another expert at the table. So I really want them to do is if a kid is struggling with fluency. I'm sorry I use a lot of elementary literacy examples because that's where my experiences and if I start using high school math and it's just going to be embarrassing for me. So I'm using elementary literacy, but if a kid is really struggling because they can decode the words but they read so slowly, which is a common thing to see. I need my interventionists to have a playbook of strategies that we know work, and that they are going to go at the playbook and they're going to, they're going to, you know, move that kid. I need them to say well they need really easy but easy, easy reads to, you know, learn retrain their brain as to how to read faster. They need to read like an opera singer they need to regional whisper they need to have these strategies in their heads and can share that with PLCs. As the expert. So we have a lot of capacity building and skill progression work. So, follow up how does our BS fit in this is this particular building. How does it fit. Are there interventionists will be here. Yeah. So it's, it's a little different, because I know that multi grade teaching is a little different. There's a little bit of extra professional development that has to happen but that's it fits into is it has a place. The PLC process might look a little different because they don't have a group of people to work with that are doing the same exact thing. That's the actually trickiest piece here for us is how do we get the PLC process, moving forward in a different direction. And what's tricky is about it, because people will be like well they could just be with us, which would be accurate if we had the same school schedule. So, it would be awesome if we did, we just don't so it's not an option so how do we, how do we figure that out in a different way. And there's, there are small schools Franklin elementary school has learned how to do it up in Franklin Vermont way up on the border. And before the pandemic that enjoys who is the principal there had connected a little bit but I want her to go and see and see how Joyce is designed less because she's done a top notch job. And we need to get more information from small, very small schools who are doing this work well there's a couple up in Franklin County that really are. Thank you. Yeah. Did you follow up questions that were related to the. Okay. Yeah, I just want to echo appreciation and just what a beautiful thing it is to actually be talking about learning and education and not like how to manage our schools, amidst a global pandemic and like, you know, guidelines and protocols and I don't know, you know, federal dollars and, you know, it's just feels so nice to see you talking about how to improve kids learning. And I just can't say it enough like how, how exciting it is that we're sort of at this point now in the in the pandemic. And just, yeah, for whatever it is I mean when I had a question about where we're at with proficiencies and then I made a note about, you know, before the coven 19 struck. I had a meeting with Mike Bay a group of us were talking about the health education at the middle school and he launched into this really impassioned speech about where he's at with identifying priority standards, and had this huge spray and his office was just like walls were plastered with priority standards and he was like having all of these meetings with the curriculum teams and it was like, he just was, you could tell he was getting a lot of momentum, and he was at a good place with like, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel we have a direction that we're going in. And then it was like, I'll stop. And he became the interim principal of the middle school. And like, so it's just really heartwarming to see like, okay, we can like go back to the things that we do and that we're trained to do you know and you all seemed as if you had training in managing a global pandemic. But, you know, it's just nice to see you in your true wheelhouse. So I would like to know sort of where you think the district is that in terms of proficiency based grading and identifying those priority standards and maybe that's better for a time when Mike can speak to us but and then hear the same break and one other question. On slide 12 you talked about sort of the wellness pedagogy but you also talked about, and you mentioned this at another time I heard you talk about community, and how do we get this back, you know, after two years of sort of, don't talk to like watch a movie during snack like all of these rules that are in place like how do we start, what are our benchmarks to start moving towards these things that bring us together. And I've had a lot of feedback from community members around, you know, wanting to know sort of okay so now some of the mandates and restrictions are being lifted. And then we start doing these things that we used to love doing to help our schools so one thing that came up was the four wins curriculum at the elementary school, but things like that that we have at all of the schools. If we have a sense of if we're kind of be moving towards those community things this school year or if we're going to be putting that stuff on hold for next school year and I do think it might be that topic might be more than for tonight. And it might be worth having sort of a community engagement, you know, slash listening session, just on that topic. But anyway, those are my questions. I mean hopefully we'll be able to move into that this spring one of the pushes that I'm pushing on the principles right now is get the kids out of the building. We used to take great field trips. Let's take field trips. I don't care if it's education or not. Right, let's get these kids out of the building together. Yeah, I don't know if you guys are here. Yeah, so Yeah, so that's, that's like kind of the latest question right now our educators need permission. Right. And so, and we as leaders need to think about what they need permission about because we kind of guessing game. That's right. Right now that's our. That's one of our pushes that leadership is doing with the teachers of like, you used to do some really cool ones let's go get them out let's get them out it's going to talk to each other let's get them in public but you know like let's do all of those things that we know are going to get that schools do well and they've always done well, it's getting kids out and cool field trips. And I feel like I'm talking about my kids a lot today but one thing that my kids middle school has done really well is taking field trips for fun. You know, like my eighth bear went to North Beach, when it was cold. So there was no possibility of going in the water or anything like that. But they hung out on the beach and played beach volleyball they've gone ice skating twice. I'm just, I mean, if I didn't put that out there, but still like I can imagine he tells me he hates it but I bet he was laughing like crazy with his friends on the ice as they all fell over each other. Right. What I'm pushing with the principles and they're in touch with teachers is doesn't necessarily need to have the education focus in that way if the education is about community and laughing and talking with each other and building experiences together. That's that's like the product me that's missing it's building experiences together. So, how do we do that this spring. That's a that's a big question I have for like next steps. I forgot your first one. Sorry. Oh, it was that where we're at with like proficiency. Thank you. So that's a really interesting question and it and MRPS has had a really interesting growth trajectory there, because when proficiency based first came out MHS was probably a leader at trying out some new ideas around what proficiency based like could look like right. So first out of the gate and community from my understanding Jim correctly. The community is pretty much behind it right now like Mike McCrace was leading at the time he was able to really paint the pictures why this is a good move and education why this is a good shift in education. Yeah, some other neighboring districts and really struggle. Yeah, absolutely. I was in Jenin County at the time and people were up and arms over this switch. So that the high school led the way and kind of switching the elementary schools have kind of always been in a proficiency based system but not intentionally. So, and to an extent up to when I say elementary I mean case x, right 78 is kind of wrong with high school a lot of times so they did some things they designed some things they have some things working. And they have some things not working right so I bet these two will talk about some of it quite a bit with a capital S, right because some of those are really important are they. You could get an air for in your past just by doing some of those, you could probably, I don't know if so preparedness grades which is like everything else kind of. You could, it's like homework you could probably not turn in any of your homework and still get a passing grade in your class very easily if you got all fours on your summer. Pretty interesting. That's not proficiency based learning, right, that's test taking. And so one of the things that mhs is is grappling with right now was that they were celebrated for making the switch which they should have been celebrated and now we know more and should do differently. And that's a big focus of mine is that I'm sorry. But if the summative is not the end all be all actually the formative are right the formative are where we should be really putting the most attention, so we can read each in the classroom formative are what matter, and the summative should not be a surprise to anybody. I tuned into your cloud based diagram, and I was like I'm just curious like how many teachers are really doing it this way at the high school. No, it's a big show, big shift that's needed, and not quite understood yet. And so, and then at the other piece to proficiency based learning is that we have our private side of priorities, priority standards right so we have our priority standards each priority standard will have a proficiency scale attached to it. So we have the public knowledge that the kids all know right and that the parents all know. And so the kids know what proficiency is, and they know how to get above proficiency, and they know how to get slightly below, you know, it's clearly laid out for every priority standard, not for every standard not for everything they learn but for every priority standard. And that's the big shift at the elementary school, because you could have a kid score three on a report card right now. And, you know, three third grade classes and it means different things to every kid. Right, so with a proficiency scale that's tied to our assessments. That's not possible. All of these things. Yeah, so those are the structures that we're building. Right, so we have some work to do. And it's a little tricky work because we were so celebrated when it first came out as we should have that. And now it's time to move forward from that because we know more so that our kids I don't know do you still have the, I don't know this change now, like the, the six week summative cycle. So it's kind of up in the air, it's just really to like a semester based grading system, and then like summits can be anywhere within those. So it's up to the teacher, how many summits they want to have and like when, which I think is good it gives the teacher more freedom, but I just also wanted to add about summits themselves. As I'm sure any student will tell you they're an intense stressor that just isn't just going to go there. And in any way, in any good way to mental health or just any positive experience. The system that I just had in place it was either like six weeks or eight weeks I can't remember what it was, but every teacher had these priority standards they had to be taught within six weeks and the kids were given a summative at the end. Like, and I saw when our former student reps from the board and just in the high school the amount of anxiety kids had during that summative period with all their classes were given these huge some of an example like we were building that anxiety and the teachers were like, it was just the kids the teachers were anxious like yeah, it was, it was contributing to that big time so it's much different if you're if you're targeting formative assessments or if you're targeting assessments, reteaching, reteaching, teach some more teach some new concepts and formative and reteach and reteach so that students feel supported and confident teachers feel supported and confident and it's a different mentality and our, our high school teachers in particular aren't there yet, some, some of them, many of them. And I don't know if our, it's a, it's a different ship but it's a less hard shift for our k8 teachers. It's interesting how the culture like sort of went in that direction because that's not how it's being done at other schools, close by, you know, no but they also had a lot of hardship and shifting to the idea. So maybe they did it slower. Yeah, and you know, it's indicative that these, that American Zach say credits and not proficiencies credits is a very traditional way of thinking about high school coursework. Right. So there's just some, there's some indicators that we know more now about this work, because we've been in it for a while. So systems and structures have to change a little bit. Sorry, I lost my forgot. Let me lower my head. And all of him. I'll promise something quick. I see the time. Where would you say Libby that partnerships with caregivers factor into the where we're going, because I'm, we're hearing, you know, from some from parents and caregivers, the desire for more information so that they can be in with the teachers and to support the kids and so I'm just curious where you, how you would see that factoring into you, you know, I'm thinking about that slide that you had that was the where we are and we're going. I think it's um, I can talk on that for a while. I think the parent, the traditional parent conference structure is archaic. And we should be talking to people more. I think we need to talk as a staff as to how we share information with families. How do we explain the information. Right. Right. Because I'll say, I think we need to talk as a staff as to how we share information with families, how do we explain the information, right? Because I'll say again, I've also been in parent conferences where my kids teacher hands me their reading assessment and says, this is where they are. And like, I've got the background, but what if I didn't have the background, I without possibly over what I'm seeing because I don't know if it's a, is that correct? And so I think, I think we need to, we need to have a conversation of how do we, how do we talk to parents? How do we do it more often? How do we fit that into our work day? Right. And how, how do we explain what's happening about learners in a way that's not edgy speak. Right. One of the things I did as a second grade teacher, for instance, is I'd have three levels of books in front of me, you know, with a parent conference, and I'd say your kiddos reading here, I'm going to get them to read here. This is how I'm going to do it. You know what I mean? Like, if you really want them to read, you know, you're going to get them to read here. You know, and show them, this is the type of book that I'm talking about. I'm not Henry and Mudge, it's episodic, it's very basic, you know what I mean? Like, but that kind of information, I think is the most helpful for our parents, you know, talking to our parents of really young readers to say, please stop saying sounded out. Please don't ever say that to your kid. They don't know what it means. Stop saying it. You know, like it's tricking them up. Instead, instead, say, what's, like, say them slowly, right, say the sound slowly, right, or you can be more teach parents how to help is a different way to do it. Yeah. And I think that's what we're hearing from parents is they want the, they want the information and the, the entry point in which they can be supporting their kids. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Zach, the last question. Oh, I just wanted to echo sort of the word standard costs, even though we have like a proficiency based system, like, actually making other proficiency based system. I, I moved from Texas and so there we use like traditionally letter and number grades. And I think with every report credit is a little explanation of like 3.5 is this and whatever. So it's really cool, at least for my parents and me to sort of understand how that translates, like, into credits, because like, is a four 100, like, even if you do all like get everything right on a quiz for some classes, if you don't go above and beyond it's like, that's like a three. And in some classes, it's just an automatic four. So like, I totally agree that having that standard across all of those classes is incredibly, incredibly important. And I really appreciate that you're doing that. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. We love these discussions. Clearly. Yes. There are a lot. Can I, can I just ask one quick question around like the community listening sessions. I'm not sure where they will that will fit. Because it's, I just want to ask, because a lot of what you're bringing up was in those sessions to and some of the students thing so, and going back to what Emma was saying before about how do we go back to the communities that we are hearing from. In a way that they that we can take what they were saying that they were concerns and matching it to what we're doing as a district. So there's a feedback mechanism. First day to say that we are listening and just wondering and I know that I went to the listening session that you did leave me as a parent because I, you know, just for my kids, my kids, but just wondering how that ties in because we're hearing from the same people and I just don't want to overburden people with the same questions and the same listening. And, and, and then we're having the visioning sessions I just want to make sure that we're all aligning so that we're not overburden parents to be to have to share the same concerns over and over again. Because for the people that showed up today it's like their third time that they're sharing their stories. So just, I wanted to bring that up and ask that question about like, how do we make sure that we're now that we're collaborating. I think so. I think obviously we want to continue to support the ambassadors in terms of previous information. So one of the goals the board set for me was to have listening sessions and, and then invite public more intentionally to speak to me or to come and talk with me about what's happening so those listening sessions are an attempt to meet that goal. Right. So, I understand that there's the visioning committee work which I'm a part of so I know what's happening there and there's part of it. We talked about a red and sagey. So, I'm a part of that work so I know the work that's happening there. I will, I will say that in my four years it's not atypical that when there is an event that involves the superintendent that the same people come. It's not atypical. It's a reality. I'm not sure how to get around it. So I think that, yeah, it is, it is collaboration and there's, there's some work that I've been asked to do by the board. So I'm working on doing that. And I just want to echo Jim on that it's also on us to, you know, for example, I posted one of those listening sessions around literacy intervention. And so I think it's part of the hosting that is my responsibility to keep the folks who showed up to that, and the people that they and then you know I know that. Anyway, the folks who showed up to that and the others who care about that continual part of the conversation. And to show that we ensure that what the concerns that they have brought are responded to sometimes that responses. And that's not on the, that's not at the top of the list right now, but here's where it is on the list and sometimes that responses, we're tackling that right now and we need to know more from you in order to be able to, to do what we need to do so. But I just think I, I don't think that's all on Libby I think it's also part of the board because that's one of our duties is to represent the community and be that bridge to the community. And so, and the people did ask like, what are you going to do with this information, and people did say, you know, you keep asking us the same question, and like we keep showing up, because so I just want to make sure that we're not overdoing it. And that we, that we respond to them and then go back and so like, I just think that collaboration Libby with like both of us as a board and you with the community session just being intentional about like, we already have this feedback. Let's make sure that we respond, or like if we're going to do it to say, hey, if you come if you haven't been part of the other ones that they don't have to share the same stories over and over again, I just just because it is overburdened to spend, you know, in one month, three hours to say the same thing. So I, I, I appreciate it because I joined as a parent and what's able for the first time to share, because I hosted the other ones and I didn't speak anything because I was as a school board member and I really wanted to share my experience as a parent with a special ed child so that was helpful for me as an individual I should have sent my husband but you know like, I'm the one that kind of deals with a lot of the things with Henry so I just, yeah, so I just would welcome more collaboration to be able that we're not overburdened the stories because it is hard to say the same thing over and over again. So this committee update who is. I can do that. Desired. So, I think it's sort of say the facilities committees back. Sure. Don't call it back. Yeah. We did convene and we had a meeting last Friday. And we are getting kind of our priorities back in place and realizing it's more than I did do, which is to bring our charge back to the board and have you all at least take a look at it and provide comment, but we will find a time and place to do that but I think generally what we're thinking in terms of how the facilities and energy functions as like a sounding board to administration who is, you know, on the ground at the schools. My family are blessed to have. Who is incredibly effective and has started to produce annual facilities reports. And we have a comprehensive look at our facilities across the district all for schools, updating us about projects completed projects needed timelines. It's just incredibly helpful to frame our thinking and our work and our outreach to do what we should be reaching out to them about. So, and that is going to be before the board at what's going to be for all of us on April 6. And so, our committee will be providing some feedback on that in advance of that meeting directed to Andrew, he's also given a couple other studies to look at the window replacement study. And I just think it's amazing that he creates all these protocols around how to release systematic we figure out the best thing to do from just practicality to cost efficiency. It just feels really thoughtful. So, and then the other one is the track. So, we definitely have some things to really sink our team into and yet, and I did know that you mentioned parking lot, which I will drop down to be on our radar as well. So those three reports we were going to be sinking into, and then we also have been contacted by me at monthly energy. Which I think they came to us last year. So, anyhow, so they've been reaching out to us very actively so we have a role to have a meeting with them kind of refresh and what their priorities are and their official report is out. So that's happening and then a big priority for us is going to be scheduling building for so we have as of today. So we're going to wait for the first bill to be at elementary school on the same or three. They join us and they're also doing the groundwork to reach out to the fourth group to see if we can get a representative engineer as well to join us just great. And then the goal is to generally try to get the facilities course completed within two months ish. So that's, that's happening. I'm just. Nice. Hello. Oh, and we're also trying to say. Yes, patients. Now we. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Great. Any questions for the. The whole board, of course, is welcome to join on March 30 from 430 to 6. Yeah, so I get an agenda and then that'll watch everybody. And I've said it before, walking through that building, even if your parent and you've been there a bunch with Andrews and Andrews eyes is a totally different experience. Yeah, it's totally worth, worth doing. Yeah, we should remind Sagey too. I don't think he's, I think it was building or two hasn't been. Second reading of the C 14 policy regarding above four. I suggest that we maybe move that to the next meeting because we were. Since our last meeting when we received some feedback on that about potentially dropping like a little introductory explanation of why we're going to adopt this policy. And we just haven't had an opportunity to do that yet. So it might be nice to push it. Yeah, you could also say this is the second reading and then come back for the third reading with that. Yeah, could we add a fourth reading if we need it to. Okay, so. So we could do it either way. Right. Okay, so we'll have a third reading where the policy committee will weigh in and if we need another reading. Fantastic. Yeah, we just need a minimum of three, but we can. So, motion to adjourn. No, I have one one thing sorry that I had realized that I cannot be in this election committee, because there's a meeting on tomorrow, the same one, I thought the interviews was the 30th. You don't need to come tomorrow we're just, we're just naming questions tomorrow. Okay. Okay. I'm sorry about that we can catch up if you have questions that you want to ask to send them to me so your voice can be at the table. Okay, okay. Great. Thank you for the review that I'm on it. Motion to adjourn. Second. That was a favor. Thanks everyone.