March 4, 2025 — Meeting Transcript

Machine-generated transcript — may contain errors.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, it's 7 o'clock. We're going to get started with the meeting. Thank you, everybody, for joining us tonight.

Adequate notice has been given for the meeting. I'd like everyone to stand and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you.

And Chris, will you please read the motion to adopt the agenda? I move that we approve the agenda as posted. Second. Okay, all those in favor?

Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Motion passes.

We will now move to Lisa Sell to recognize her own. Hello, everyone. I'm Lisa Sell, and it's an honor today to be here with Ms. Deb Garbo, or as we call her at school, Softadeb, Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

Superroportion O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Superroportion O levy agenda motion carried On the door and met Karen and her lovely family who is here with us tonight She even Deb took the time to send us a little picture of Karen tell us some of her interests kind of say that Karen had even shared that she wanted her to greet her on her first day at Captain, which we made arrangements to do that. Ms. Deb shared some of her interests, so we got to know her, really helped her teacher, Ms.

Palmer, who's here tonight, and just really the whole Captain family get to know One of our new students, and she was traveling so far, but this is just Deb. I've only known Deb for a short time, but this is just one thing she's done that's truly made our school just a special space. And I just love the connection that she's made with Karen's family. They spend weekends together now and sometimes her, Deb's family is here and they've met Karen's family.

So it's really just a win-win for everyone. But I really felt this Recognize Your Own Award truly applied to Miss C. Thank you, Deb. And we're so happy that Karen's family is with us.

And I believe they have siblings at the middle school as well. Isn't that right there? So, Karen's got siblings that are now part of the CAPTN community as well. Thank you.

Well, thank you, Safda Deb, and thank you, Ms. Sell, for recognizing her, and thank you to your whole family for coming to celebrate you tonight. It's so great to see all of you Thank you so much. Thank you.

Okay, we are moving on to public comment. Do we have any public comment tonight? Nope? Okay.

Okay, we will go to Dr. Patel and her superintendent communications. Great, thank you. Okay, we are going to start off with some student spotlights, of course, as we always do.

So the first one I wanted to spotlight was, I'm sure most of you have I've heard about Lona. She is a proud seventh grader from Wydown Middle School, and she actually recently advanced to the third round of the highly competitive regional spelling bee. Lona proudly represented her school, and while she didn't make it all the way to the championship round, she did an amazing job just getting there. And so I just wanted to make sure that we highlight her, and she was eliminated on the word frumentatious.

That was the word. But we really are, it means actually something that resembles grain. Grain, wheat or grain. Frumentatious.

So we're very proud of her. And if you've ever met this young lady, her personality is just big and fun and she's just a great kid overall. So we just wanted to highlight her. Next, at Clayton High School, I also want to congratulate our girls They actually, whoa, all right.

They actually recently made it all the way to state championship and finished eighth overall. So several of them also got individual medals. So we're very proud of them and their work and all the dedication that goes outside of the school day in getting ready for competition like that is commendable for them. So very proud of them and congratulations to them.

And then recently, I wanted to really highlight the success of our celebration of black achievement event. We honored students past alumni and staff members and showcased a lot of the incredible talent We had our cheerleaders there We had Black Student Union represented We had the high school jazz ensemble there It was a great evening and I want to thank Dr Poole for arranging it because this was his third year doing it and I already looking forward to the next years So thank you for all your work behind that. Next, also, it was late February, but we actually welcomed Representative Missouri, House Representative Jeff Hales to Clayton. What we did was this year, you know, we always want to go ahead and make connections with our legislators in Jefferson City.

So we sent a letter out to anyone who wanted to come and visit our school district. And when they accept our invitation, we give them a tour of the buildings. And I wanted to actually thank him for his commitment to public education and also take this opportunity to thank Dr. Gachewski because I know that we always count on you to do the tours and you have a wealth of information and history and I know that it's extra time out of your day.

So we really appreciate you doing that. But it's a great opportunity for us to meet with legislators and Leo joined us as well. So I think it was a good conversation after the tour as well. So another opportunity to make connections.

And then this, I thought, was a great highlight for us. One of the things that we do in our district is really try to be a true family, and it's hard for us to meet staff members from different buildings all the time. So one of the traditions in this district is a bowling tournament for all the district staff. So at Tropicana Lanes, once a year, we all get together.

This year, we had like 29 teams participate to go bowling. A lot of fun, a lot of camaraderie. We have people from food service, facilities, people that we don't usually connect with on a daily basis and just spend some time together and have fun celebrating each other. And I wanted to thank Brad Buck, who's the science teacher at Clayton High School, who arranges this whole thing every year.

So it's just good camaraderie and time spent together. And then finally, I wanted, it is March. That means it's Board Appreciation Month. You get the whole month.

Look at this. So I wanted to take this time just to truly just express my gratitude for each one of you on this Board of Education. I know your community volunteers. I know there's a lot of work that you put into this.

There's meetings. There's 7 a.m. meetings now, too. Yes!

Now if we could do it on a Monday, 7 a.m., it would be even better. See? It's serious, right? But really, your passion and your commitment to this work and making sure our district is the best it can be truly means the world to us.

So on behalf of me and the entire district, thank you for all that you do. Our schools got you each something, so hopefully you get to enjoy that. There are some amazing cards and cute quotes in those cards. So from the bottom of our hearts, thank you for all that you do.

And we have a short one-minute video from people thanking you as well. So if we can play that. We'll get the sound. Maybe.

Did you? What did you say, Jeff? It was a little louder. He is so cute.

There we go. That's okay. No problem. Yeah, we'll send it to them.

Yes, thank you. Thank you for all that you do. Thank you. Give it a shot.

Okay. The Board of Education is basically like a bunch of volunteers that are trying to help the districts of Clayton be the best that they can. I would like to thank the Board of Education because they helping us to make our school better and they don get paid when they go to school Because they just want to help our school and make it a better place Thank you for making sure that the teachers have everything they need to help us teach They work super hard behind the scenes. They're kind of like the stage crew in a school play.

You don't always see them, but they make everything happen. Thank you for your time and hours and good education and putting so much work into taking care of the school. Thank you. Hello, this is Lisa Sell.

Just wanted to say thank you to the seven members of our school board for their endless amount of hours that they volunteer to make our schools the best in the nation. Thank you, school board. Thank you. Thank you, Board of Education.

Thank you. Thank you to the English Board. Thank you, Board of Education. Thank you, Board of Education.

Thank you for keeping the schools safe. Thank you. Thank you, Board of Education, for everything you do. There you go.

So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That was so nice.

Of course. And then finally, tonight, we have one presentation, and that is our annual assessment reports. Our principals are here. Dr.

Garganego will be here leading the charge with that as well. And this year, we have, oh, thank you, school board. We're just going to keep playing this all night. I think this is much better.

We'll be done by 8 o'clock. We're just going to keep repeating. Right. But we, so they will be doing the presentation and this year we have Ms.

Robin Hogg, our Director of Assessment and Professional Development, who will also be joining us. So thank you for all your work ahead of time for that. And if anyone wants detailed report, there is a 76-page document for you online if you feel like digging into it further than tonight. And then finally, I'm going to hand this off to Lucia, but before I do, Lucia, I want to congratulate you officially for your acceptance into Wash U.

So good for you. You are going to change the world. Oh, no, I'm so excited, really. It's going to be a different journey, but a great journey, and I'm really looking forward to it.

And Clayton has prepared me amazingly, so I know that everything will be good in the end. But, okay, so for the student update, I'd like to start with the Wellness Center. So I've planned officially a meeting with the Youth Council, so I look forward to sharing a really deep dive into the Wellness Center, their mission, and everything that it means for the Clayton High School students at my next student update. And I'd officially like to give a shout out to the spring sports since they have officially started on Monday.

And I wish all the student athletes an amazing season. But for the main part of my update, I'd like to provide a perspective on what the changes from the Paragon architecture would mean for the students in the Clayton District. So as Paragon mentioned, our students were built over 90 years ago. And with education consistently changing and evolving, education now looks very different than it did 90 years ago.

There's the high school perspective, the middle school perspective, and the elementary school perspective. In the lens with the students I've talked to, I think the elementary school perspective and the middle school perspective tie really well in together, especially with the fact that there are early stages in learning where students get to really experiment to see what learning styles fit them best, And then high school really being able to use the tools that school provides to be able to solidify those learning styles that each student has, which are unique to each student, of course, and to really be able to solidify them for then any future, the future that they may want to create. I think that a key aspect as we look at the long-range facilities master plan is understanding that modern education has taken a toll, focused more towards creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking compared to the more traditional lecture-based methods that have been used 90 years ago. This traditional way for teachers to teach and students to learn, the renovations are going to make a really big impact to be able to, how do I say this, welcome these new modern styles that really, as research has shown, are making a big improvement on students.

It's good for every student, for each student, because the learning styles are unique to each student. Again, this highlight for the importance of new and different learning, especially since, like I said, the evidence is around Young learners thrive in hands-on and movement-based environments, which means maybe stepping outside of the classroom. In the high school, in the math wings especially, they've set up whiteboards all across the hallway, which is incredible because that means stepping out of the classroom to be able to work in groups in the hallway. And even that small change of scenery truly makes a big impact in being able to stay awake, learned, focused, Spervantage of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

I think we'll truly be able to work conjoined with these new technological improvements that are happening in our world and work together with them instead of sort of in a rockier path, I think would be a good way to put it. But with this being said, I would like to truly thank Paragon Architecture, the steering committees, and the board for doing such an amazing job at identifying the key points for improving our district and overall community. These changes will make a huge impact for the Clayton families, and I think that there is lots to look forward to with these plans. So, thank you.

Thank you, Lucia. I think as we go through this process, it's so important to listen to the students' voice as it relates to the facility. So, thank you so much for sharing that. Now, we will move on to our presentation.

And Dr. Garganigo. And team. Do we have enough chairs?

I walk up some. Oh, that would be fun. He did that. Yeah, that would be fun.

Walk up some, yes. I like it. Don't stop believing. Good evening, everyone.

So the team and I are here to present the annual assessment report. So the first thing I'll do is introduce the team to you. So Dan Kaczewski, the principal at the high school. Melaina Garganego, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning.

Lisa Sell, Principal at CAPTN. Robin Hogg, our Director of Assessment and Professional Learning. Turita Murdoch, Principal at Glenridge. Jamie Jordan, Principal at Wydown.

And Patrick Fisher, Principal at Merrimack. So I just want to publicly thank the team for the work that they do every day with our children and for getting prepared for this presentation. So our presentation is really going to be in three parts tonight. So I'm going to give, we gave you a pretty comprehensive written report.

I'm not going to go through the 75 pages. I'm going to give you some high level sort of highlights from that piece. Then I'm going to hand it over to Robin, who's going to give you a high level piece of our multi-tiered system of support and the work that we've been doing and sort of our vision of that as an entire district. And then each of the principals will present their stories.

Of what that work looks like within their building. So trying to put a story behind the numbers and behind the data that we present. My clicker's not working. Gina?

You can't have walk-up songs if the audio doesn't work. I'm just going to point that out. It was off. Oh, it was off.

Okay, thank you. All right, there we go. So if we'll just start with our profile of the Clayton graduate, this is what grounds our work. And this is sort of what Nisha refers to as our North Star.

So the thing that grounds it, obviously as an organization we exist because of the students. And so our focus really tonight is on the students. And while we're focusing on data and academic data, it is more than that. And so I think it's important to talk, to bring up the profile of the graduate because this is a very small part of the work that we do with children on a daily basis.

So I going to spend a little bit of time talking about the Missouri School Improvement Plan If you remember we in the sixth cycle of this We actually in the third year of the sixth cycle So with MSIP 6 the two main categories that our accreditation is based off of is performance So that's overall performance on the MAP tests and the end-of-course exams at the high school. Growth, which we spent a lot of time talking about last year, but we'll spend some time talking about again this year. And then the change from MSIP 5 to MSIP 6 was the addition of the continuous improvement piece. And so the response to standards gave districts an opportunity to provide a narrative to go with the test scores.

So it gave us an opportunity to respond to a set of standards and how we do our work. And I think that's a pretty integral part of an addition to MSIP 6 was us being able to provide that narrative, which is the same way that we've structured this presentation for a while is like the data is the data. And then there's the story behind that piece. And then there are certain categories under continuous improvement that are just accountability kinds of things.

So because this is the third year of MSIP 6, we now have, for the first time, a composite score. And so our three-year composite is a 91.9%, which puts us as a part of a group of 22 school districts in the state of Missouri that scored above 90%. So we're very proud of that. If you remember when we came last year and we talked about the scores last year in the 89.9, we felt like that was an anomaly based on some data around growth.

And as you can see, like our theory of practice, I think was true, that we're back to where we would, to an expected range, where we would expect to be. So with performance and growth, this year with our annual performance report, our percentage of points earned for performance mirrored last year. So 100% of the allowed points in all areas except the student group and social studies. And if you remember, the student group is made up of black African American students, students who direct cert for free and reduced lunch, English learners, special education students, and Hispanic students.

And so it's that group of students that we tend to, that the state has us focusing on with the goal of making sure that their achievement mirrors the achievement of your total population. So we're proud of how we are doing overall. And then with growth, we saw significant gains. And so if you remember last year, I talked about the fact that growth is not a difference in a score from one year to the next year.

So, little Molina's test in third grade versus little Molina's test in fourth grade, that's not how the state averages growth. It's based on a predictive model from Mizzou. So, the professors at Mizzou determined based on a score that students received what their predicted score would be, and then our growth is based on how close we are to those predicted scores. So, if you remember last year, a lot of that was, I felt like anomalies within the data Because the set of students that they were basing that off of were very small values.

So at the high school, it was like 15 students in one group and like 50 students in another because of how they were determining it based off of COVID. And so that theory of practice also has proven to be different. So if you remember last year, our points were anywhere between 7% and 77%, and this year they're 100% or 75%, except for that student group in social studies, and we'll talk about that a little later. So when we look at our overall, this is our total population and our scores, and the numbers represent a MAP performance index.

And if you remember, the scale for the MAP performance index is 100 to 500. So when we look at these data, we're super excited because our students overall are doing very well. So to be in the 400 range in all of these areas is a super strong piece. And you'll see in the report that I compared it to state averages, but even compared to other districts, these are strong scores.

The same structure that we've used prior in reports, the blue scores indicate an increase in score. The red scores indicate a decrease in scores. I want to be careful, though, when we look at these because I don't want us focusing too much on one number. And so, like, when we look at, like, the district average or the district MPI for English language arts in 2023 being 440.2, and then I made the next thing red, 439.9, that's not a statistically significant number.

So it not something that we really worked up about but for the practicality of the report I needed to have an easy way to indicate when something was higher or lower But there isn I think Kim you asked me last year like what number And I generally say if there a delta of 10 so plus or minus 10 is when we start to have conversation I don't, nobody's ever told me that that's the number that I should look at, but that's the number that we use to start to have conversation. So if we see an increase of 10, we feel really good about that. If we see a decrease of 10, we start to have conversation about what do those data mean to us. So then when we look at the student group, same thing.

We see that we have strong scores, but the goal here is for the student group, for their scores to represent similar scores to the total population. So you can see that there is a discrepancy between our total population and our student group, so we're continuing to focus in these areas and do work here. And I think a couple things to highlight. I want to highlight something back on the total population score, and I'd like to highlight Y-down math.

So if you remember last year, we taught, or a couple years ago in the math review, we talked about the realignment of standards and that we were teaching standards out of context and out of, and so we had a theory of practice there that it was affecting our test scores. We moved the standards back into the correct courses. And Y-Downs, last year, that was the first year of assessing students with the standards in the correct courses, and so we're seeing an increase there, and we're really excited about that. With the student group, the thing that I want to highlight are our elementary schools, where we see many of our scores in the 400-plus range, and I believe that this is a direct reflection of the focus that our principals are doing with our teachers around our multi-tiered system of support process, which is what they'll spend time talking about.

So then quickly, just to talk a little bit about local data. So the state assessment is one data point on one day. It's not something that, it's a piece of information for us that helps inform us, but it really doesn't inform us instructionally. We don't get those data back until after the kids have moved on for the summer, and so it's not particularly helpful to us.

So our local data pieces are much more helpful. And if you remember last year, we talked to you about the introduction of our district data visualization tool, Educlimer, which really helps us to all have access to these data and be able to respond to them pretty quickly and have easy visualizations to use with teams of teachers or within whole schools. So NWA math, this is a visualization from Educlimber, and what this shows you is a pretty quick overview of, with NWA, we want our students to be in the yellow, green, or blue. So you can see that the majority of our students are falling within the range that we want them to fall in.

And then you'll notice that on this graph there are lines for like second grade in fall, second grade in winter. So we also want to see an increase in the length of the blue, green, yellow bar there. So our data, our local data parallel, for the most part, the state data that our students are doing particularly well. But the red and the orange areas are areas where we're going to spend more time focusing in and really studying who those children are, what are the ways that we can provide supports to them.

The same thing with literacy. So this year we shifted to a new literacy assessment because of the state changes. So we started with STAR. So we don't have longitudinal data with this assessment because it's the first year that we're giving it.

There's the early literacy, so this is kindergarten and first grade. On this one you want to see the majority of the students falling in the blue, green, or yellow. And the students who are in red are the students that we're going to follow up. So STAR is a screener.

We're going to follow up with a diagnostic assessment. And those are oftentimes the students who end up with a reading success plan. So a very individualized plan that's addressing their needs within reading. So this is our K-1-2, or sorry, kindergarten and first grade.

And then this is students move on to star literacy. Once they've reached a certain score, they move out of the early literacy test. So it's dependent by student when they move to that. So that's a little bit, the first grade bar is a little skewed because of the fact that those are all All proficient readers who have moved on to the higher assessment.

But same thing, you see that the majority of our students are falling in that blue, green, yellow, and then that we're looking for between fall and winter, a decrease in red, an increase in the other scores. So we feel really confident about how our students are doing overall, but we also know that there are places that we need to be focused with individual students with their work. Then the last part that I going to talk about is high school data And when we look at if you remember we shifted a while ago from giving everybody the ACT to using the PSAT sequence so that we could have multiple data points in high school to gather information around our students and to help support them What you'll see is that our average Clayton scores outrank the national score significantly in all of those assessments, and then you'll see that the number of students tested on the ACT, so that became a choice now. So it's a little less than half of the class, of the graduating class is taking that assessment now because we're giving them the SAT instead.

Another thing to talk about, as part of Dan's school improvement plan, the high school has focused on access to AP and honors courses. And one of the ways that the MSIP 6 looks at testing is to look at with AP, so Advanced Placement Assessments, the percentage of the graduating class who score a 3, 4, or 5 on the assessment or who get a B in the class. And then the class of 2023, which is the class that's represented in the APR that you have, so it's a little weird because it's like a year in the rears, that 73% of that class scored either a passing grade on an AP assessment or a B in the course. And that's a super strong number that we're really proud of.

And Dan's been doing some work with his team on increasing that number also as a part of his school improvement plan. And so we're seeing that as a part of our work. Okay, so now I'm going to hand it over to Robin. Thank you.

As Dr. Garganio just discussed, the data that she talked about doesn't exist in a vacuum. It exists as part of our larger multi-tiered system of support. And so in order to visualize that system, we created this graphic in front of you.

And it's an interactive graphic with a bunch of hexagons. So why hexagons, you ask? Well, they're not only really cool shapes and they have six sides and you can make lots of connections, right? But they also exist and they're a natural pattern in nature everywhere.

So a honeycomb, DNA, the center of a snowflake, those are all natural hexagons. And it's supposed to represent balance and harmony. And so when we think about the multi-tiered system of support that we are creating in this district, that's what we think about. It is predicated We're going to look at that graphic as a whole picture, but then we're going to take apart each individual hexagon and talk about how it kind of helps to uphold the entire system of support.

And to do that, we're going to think about the data that you just heard about. We're going to think about the MTSS process, and then also our EduClimber system, which helps us to visualize that data and really think about how do we make that comprehensive across our system. So, I don't actually know how to tell someone to switch. Here we go.

So the first hexagon that we're going to pull out is our hexagon of strong collaborative teams. And that's really what anchors our work. So no matter what research you look at, it all tells us that the best performing systems have strong collaborative teams. And we are absolutely one of those systems.

And so our teams are thinking about focusing on a collaborative culture and learning and being results oriented. And so they are often using tools in Educlimber in order to be able to do that. And so two of the tools that we are using are thresholds and tags. Thresholds help us and help teams to be able to get an alert whenever students are falling beneath a particular threshold.

And so then you can kind of talk about that in your collaborative team. And tags are a way that we can really focus and sort our data in our teams so that you can look at that data and really, as we like to say our tagline, know our students well and respond to their needs. And the only way we can do that is if we can look at the entire system, who are the students that are kind of falling into those alerts, and then be able to sort and focus. So those are our strong collaborative teams and the ways in which we're going to use those.

And then our next hexagon that sits side by side with our strong collaborative teams. So we have that kind of anchoring our work, but then we also need that foundational framework for instruction. And Lucia, you did such a fabulous job earlier of helping us to understand what that looks like at the high school, right? We have phenomenal instruction at the high school, at all of our schools.

She was speaking about the high school. Let me be clear. I love all of you. So when we think about that foundational framework for instruction, we're thinking about what is the curriculum, the instruction, what are the things that anchor that Tier 1 work?

And often we think about that in an academic sense. And what's really amazing about our MTSS process as we start to roll that out is we're really starting to think about the social-emotional aspects of that. What is our foundational framework for instruction when it comes to social-emotional learning? And you will hear a lot about that tonight and about how our schools are really taking that process and thinking about what does that foundation mean.

And in Educlimber, we now have panorama data. And if you take a look at the screen, you can see overall panorama data. But what's pretty cool is you can also dig into the subgroups of that data. And so you can see where a student in particular might be struggling with some social emotional needs.

And teams can look at that data. Our leaders can look at that data. So we not only have those equitable practices and effective pedagogy happening on the academic side, but it's also happening on the social emotional side. And that's a really impressive thing.

And then the bottom hexagon. So those are the things that are kind of like those pillars, right? Really strong. But you can't have them without those top two.

So if we don't have strong collaborative teams, and if we don't have that foundational framework for instruction and support, it's really hard to do any sort of tiered support for our students. So if we find that our students are starting to fall into that orange or that red range, we know we're going to need some support. And in order to do that, we have to have some really solid systems in place. So I want to just give a couple of reminders about what those different tiers look like in MTSS.

Our Tier 1, that's the universal foundational instruction, right? That's what we talked about on the last slide. But tier two, those are those kind of more intensive supports, they're strategic supports, and they're often happening in our classrooms by our classroom teachers or perhaps in collaboration with a specialist. So for example, we had some phonics data, and they looked at that phonics benchmark data and our elementary teachers took that.

They separated students out based on that phonics data to different teachers, so we're really using our staff in order to make strategic choices because we have data and because we're looking at data. And then on the Winter Phonics Benchmark Assessment, they saw some real gains because they were able to strategically do some Tier 2 interventions in the classroom, just using the teachers that were right in front of them. At the secondary level, we have middle school math teachers who will do station rotation model and then meet with students in that station and do some really specific supports and Tier 2 supports of students in that area. And you're going to hear a lot about those middle school math scores.

So we have lots of these systems in place for a continuum of tiered support. But the thing that really makes it work is that we can track it in EduClimber. So you'll see that progress monitoring, again, on the screen. You can track when a student's getting some intervention.

You can see trends for that student. And that really helps us to have comprehensive communication across our system as we think about our interventions and our supports. And then finally, our final hexagon that kind of brings up that bottom, those are our systems and our structures. We have tried to be really intentional this year about how we roll out the MTSS process.

We have thought about that in all of our different areas. And so we have, for example, our Professional Development Committee have lead learners around this. They're doing a lot of the learning. They're going into their buildings trying to keep that learning really consistent.

They've been doing visits to schools using the strategy implementation guide and keeping data. We're going to come back and look at that data in March. So the PDC has been a huge part of that. But then our coordinators council, they're also doing a lot of study and learning.

They do a lot with that foundational framework for instruction in that curriculum. They've done a book study. They've visited other schools. We've also looked at the MTSS system with them.

It's also been a part of our new teacher training, a part of some of our equity training Spervantage, Pursuit, and And we hope that as we look at the different hexagons that form our beautiful hexagonal pattern, right, that create that balance and that harmony, helps us to know our learners well and be able to respond to their needs. And now you get to hear how that happens in all of our buildings, and we're going to start with Dr. Jamie Jordan at YDAM. Thank you.

Thank you so much. And as they said, we are all good to tell our individual stories, and I have a very exciting story to share. And while I am the person up here speaking, this is absolutely a credit to the teachers that are doing the daily work every single day, knowing our students well and how to intervene. Specifically, I'm going to talk about our eighth grade math team, Mr.

Powers, Dr. Koenig, Ms. Harkins, and of course, Angie Craccioli. So in the spring of 2024, last year when I was here, I talked a lot about spotlight students.

And I talked about students that we're going to really focus in on who had different thresholds and how we're going to work with them on tier two. And that continues to be a process that we work on. But in the spring of 2024 we started to look at a specific grade level of students They were last year seventh graders in math and they had significant gaps and they had had those gaps since COVID And we were continually trying to make up for those gaps but we were unable to do so in the structures that we had The students, we know when they have gaps like that, we've talked about this at this table in several years, that they have to grow multiple years in one year to close that gap. So Dave Powers, Nanji, and I started to talk through what could we do for these children.

And we actually went to visit some high-performing schools, went to Kirkwood, NYFER, and we met with their team. We met with their math specialists and we said, what are you all doing? They talked to us about their partnership with WashU and Math 314. And we started to think about what models and what things could we do.

And we know that we have this math intervention time. And we've had it for many, many years, but we really hadn't seen a lot of the big benefits from it. So and some kids did well and were able to maintain, but we weren't seeing that growth that we needed. So we came back together and we said, what could we really do?

And so we started talking about the possibility of a math specialist. So we met actually in different facilities with different teams and different groups, and we were able to, this year, staff a math specialist position. And the purpose of this person was not to have a class load for themselves, but actually to intervene similarly to some of what we see at the elementary schools and try to replicate those pieces. But this also is one of the things that we were trying to do that was very intentional.

So we set it up with the teachers across eighth grade. We worked with Angie to develop a software that we were using called Delta RTI where kids were getting pre-tested. They'd come in. They'd get really small work, very specific instruction on a skill, be retested, and go back into it.

So they were ebbing and flowing out of Learning Center and in different ways, as well as Tiffany would push into different classes and help them. So we saw the CT model as well, but she had a definite caseload of children that she was working with, and everything that they did was very intentional. We also really tried to, going back to what Robin was saying, really be a little more systematic with who we were serving and who was on this caseload and looking at the criteria of those kinds of things to make sure we had the right students that we were targeting. And their hard work has really paid off.

So this Tier 3 MTSS work this year, there was 23 of the 29 students made more than a year's growth in only first semester. So they've really done an amazing job. So, like, where you can see, and it's actually impacted the entire eighth grade, where they've actually been able to catch up with their peers. And so, if we continue on this progression, some of those places will be minimized.

And I was actually meeting with Dan this morning, and we were talking about some things, and I was like, oh, don't worry, we'll have it together before next semester, right? So, but all of these things are definitely because of the specific intentionality and the systems that supported that. So, it's amazing what they've been able to do and it's a lot of celebration. So, the next steps for us are to try to replicate it, right?

So that it's not just a one-time event, but like how do we systematically now look at doing it this in sixth grade and seventh grade and in other areas to see how we can really try to close those gaps as fast as possible. And now I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Kaczewski. Thank you, Jamie.

Actually, on my slide up here, if you recall about a year ago when I was sitting here at the board table, one of the things that we were really kind of focused on at that time was a growth area in our biology scores. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. They called themselves the Life Science Tigers just because they thought it was more interesting than just the biology team. But they really worked to look at how the state standards aligned with what they're doing.

And it sounds very simple and it sounds kind of silly, but it's not something we had spent a whole lot of time doing, actually, in the past. And so at that time, if you recall, my feeling or my theory of practice at that time was that we would see gains actually in the next cycle, actually, after we implemented some of those changes. And I wanted to highlight those. They're up on the slide there.

From last year to this year on our biology EOCs, and our total population index score went up 12.1, and our student population index score went up 16.7. And which was very significant actually And so clearly that had a positive impact on the work that we doing Now conversely we also wanted to try to replicate some of those efforts as we move forward And as we look at some of our English language arts scores so the English 2 EOC exam and the government exam which is the social studies exam we kind of use that model or at least that work that we were doing with biology And are currently kind of replicating some of those that deep dive into the standards and looking at what we're doing. I will say that to get movement in government is a little more challenging than some of the other subject areas, specifically because students can take or can satisfy their government requirement in one of four ways. And actually, less than 50% of our kids actually take the seated during the regular school year government course.

The other ways that students can take that course is there's the seated summer school course, Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. We expect that we'll see some positive gains in the future. Specifically, the nature of our course is that since it's a semester course, there are some foundational pieces that we expect our kids to remember from World U.S. 1.

And so if you are a senior taking government, there are some foundational pieces that we just assume that you continue to know or continue to remember that you learned in either freshman or sophomore year. And so they're looking at how they spiral some of that information or review some of that information. Also, a very specific area that is on the test is on the end of course exam is the analysis of visual data like graphs and then interpreting that data and applying it. Admittedly, we haven't done as much of that in the courses as we probably should have.

And so that's an area of growth that we're working on now. Likewise, in English, you know, we are certainly very proud of the Conference English Program, but then at the same time, you know, it kind of gives us pause when we look at our scores on the end of course exams. What I will say is that when we break down those scores, there's a written component of the exam that is by far our highest performing strand. So our students do very, very well on the written portion of the exam.

Specifically, there were noted areas of strength in conventions and writing, but we also have noted by looking at the standards and looking at our performance that there's a significant growth area in reading informational text, i.e., nonfiction. And that's been a focus of our content professional development throughout this year. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. As we look at our sequencing and what we emphasize that we can also see similar gains, or hopefully we'll see similar gains in English and social studies in the next cycle or two.

And now I'm going to hand it off to Lisa Sell. Thank you. Well, it's an honor to be sitting around the table this year. I won't be here next year, but I'm thrilled to be here this year.

It's an honor. It really is. I have been blessed to be able to be a captain this year. And our story really is around social and emotional learning.

And Robin challenged the group at professional development, the district professional development, to kind of create one evening a picture to represent what is our work through our MTSSGC. And this was the picture that we developed on that evening. And it's one that we're proud of and we display often at some of our meetings at CAPTN. And it really just talks about how our Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 that Robin referred to in the academic area, CAPTN has taken on a challenge this year to also provide those three tiers in social and emotional learning.

Thank you Superintendent Representing head heart and hands at CAPTN is kind of how we refer to it And we also really focusing on the data That why that big magnifying glass at the top Because without the data provided by Panorama and some of the teacher surveys we weren able to really identify the kids that are needing that significant support So our building goals this year are all surrounded by social emotional learning. So this work is very intentional. And I know that a lot of us keep using that word. If I had to say from my experience at Clayton this year, everything that I see coming through Clayton is super intentional.

There is a lot of effort put behind things and programs that are used here, and I think that is just something to be super proud of. And we are seeing results from that, so that's really awesome at the same time. The building, or our building, we're using Character Strong Curriculum this year for the first time, and we're using it in every classroom. And it's not this year our counselor going in to provide that support.

It is our classroom teachers that are dedicating 20 minutes of their day. Typically right now it's in the morning, right as we start school. Those that are coming tomorrow might see a piece of that because I know we have a board little visit tomorrow. We're excited about that.

Go Cougars. Thank you for that. But you might see some of that character strong curriculum happening. Crystal, who is our counselor, is still supporting a lot of SEL that's happening in the building, but the teachers are now taking on that priority and responsibility of just daily intervention, which is really, really working.

And there's a lot of energy around it, which is really nice. Spervantage of the team at Capitan have been trained and then they're helping others that maybe haven't had the opportunity to get trained, but there's hopes for them to get some more training in the upcoming years. And right now we have students that are, every student in the building is getting social emotional support, but then we have that tier two that Robin referred to that needs a little bit more specialized in small groups. Those supports are happening.

And then we even have students in our building that are needing that tier three support. Support, and it looks very different. Sometimes it's small groups, sometimes it's one-to-one ratio with a staff member, and we also have outside supports like Center for Mindfulness coming in and helping our kids, because right now I think there's about 53 kids in our population, which is one-sixth of our population, getting some type of Tier 2 or Tier 3 support. Every student's getting support, but these are the more intense supports that are happening.

I think the major shift is getting everyone involved, just that collective efficacy that everyone has a part. It's not just Crystal or it's not just the social worker, it's everyone taking part. And what we're hoping to see is that looking at panorama data, oh, and two things that the district definitely needs to keep forever is panorama and edu-climber. Please don't ever part with those.

Those are very helpful in being able to pull data, and it's very useful. But we're going to be hoping to look at panorama data from the fall of this year and comparing it to the spring. We don't have that spring data, but we're not just looking at just the students and that 53 students that are needing support. We're looking at themes that are across all students, and we're going to be honing in on those few students that are getting specific support.

But overall, we're hoping to see growth out of all of our students. You know, there's a Maverick's hierarchy of needs indicating that if you can surround kids with that emotional support, you're going to see that academic growth. And so that's that whole heart part of CAPT and that we're really focused on this year, and we're super proud of it. And if you may have some questions, feel free.

But if not, just don't ever hesitate to call or send an email. Yeah. Okay, I'm going to hand it over to Charita. All right.

It's time for my 15 minutes of fame. All right. You're making up for the past three years. Good evening.

I think I'll put all of them, right? So, good evening. Even though this is my third year sitting at Glenridge as building principal, this is my first time at the assessment table because I had some unforeseen circumstances to occur, And so I felt the need to make sure that I write down our journey past, present, and future is what I call our story. I think it's imperative that I highlight our staff's dedication and commitment to our students, especially over these past three years that I've been at Glen Ridge.

And so I'm going to just... My first year, we focused on defining our why and establishing... Our collective commitments to guide our school improvement efforts, and you can find this actually on Glenn Ridge's homepage underneath our mission and vision. These foundational principles have really kept us focused and accountable for addressing academic and social-emotional needs of all of our students.

And to strengthen our instructional practices, we brought in a consultant from EdPlus my first year to kind of evaluate and provide training on PLCs. And then additionally, we provided targeted professional development by sending cohorts of teachers to training for response to intervention, PLCs, and behavior solutions. And so these investments have really empowered our teachers with research-based strategies that are shaping instruction and student support across our school. With a strong foundation in place, we prioritize structured collaboration.

So we have regular data team meetings now, ensuring that interventions are effective while teachers have dedicated time to unpack units, define learning targets, and refine those instructional practices. So we give them release time that they are able to do this as a team. Recognizing the need for direct teacher support, our instructional coordinator, math coach, and literacy coaches have also attended professional developments to enhance their ability to guide teachers through these processes. They have also offered four to six week coaching cycles for teachers as well.

So as we refine our approach, we introduced the collective intervention model where Key Stage 2 teachers assist Key Stage 1. So Key Stage 2 is third, fourth, and fifth. Key Stage 1 is kindergarten first and second during the science instruction. And so the Key Stage 2 teachers go down and help Key Stage 1 with intervention, whether it is extending the learning or remediation.

We also, this year, added on our guided coalitions where we have a guided coalition for academic achievement, belonging, and character development to further drive our improvement. So these teams play a critical role in ensuring that our school improvement goals are intentional and strategic. Each coalition has a 30-, 60-, 90-day plan to set clear goals, monitor progress, and adjust strategies, and then communicate this to their teams. And then, most importantly, we go into the social-emotional learning.

So understanding that student success goes beyond academics, we have focused on strengthening our SEL and behavior support strategies. We restructured our behavior response system to be more proactive, that fosters stronger collaboration between classroom teachers, counselors, and social workers. So this has led to more targeted SEL lessons, small group interventions, and problem-solving meetings with families to develop individualized success plans for students and needs. And then to create consistent behavior framework, you'll see up there it says SOAR.

We have our SOAR behavior system, which means being safe, on task, and accountable, and respectful. And then we have classroom discussions built around SOARing. Additionally, we've integrated restorative practices where we've done a book study and gone to the Restorative Practice Academy. And then this year, we also introduced Character Strong to help students develop essential character traits and social-emotional skills.

And the teachers are leading that effort with our counselor with the hope that 100% of our teachers are doing it 100% of the time next year. And our counselor is really doing our Tier 2 and Tier 3. And then we also have a cohort of teachers that will be attending Character Strong Summit this summer to dig deeper into Character Strong. And then this year, if you see at the bottom where you have Ms.

Johnson teaching a lesson, and then we have Officer Riley and Ms. Todd doing bus safety, we have introduced passport days three times a year where students and staff revisit our rules and procedures for Glen Ridge inside and outside of the building. So we have a shared expectations that is consistent for a positive school culture. And then looking ahead.

See, I'm almost there. We restructured our coaching approach this year with the help of Robin. So we are focusing on student-centered coaching that aligns with effective tier one instructional strategies. So she's working with all of our coaches.

They are coaching our teachers and they're going in and helping to coach our students. Spervantage, PDA, and so that has been this year. They have offered different tier one PDs within the school day. Like we have lunch and learn.

We have sunrise and learn days for teachers. So come and get some donuts early in the morning before school even starts. And then this year, our next major step this year is to systematize and strengthen our Tier 3 practices. So we already have Tier 3 when we talk about identifying kids for reading support, but we need to make sure that we're doing this for all students needing academic and SEL support for Tier 3.

So this year I have convened a team of coaches and specialists and we have been meeting and we have been reading taking action and best practices at Tier 3 So this year is our learning year and we slowing down and we making sure we have a purpose that we can communicate to the staff and we have procedures And so we are refining our approaches, improving coordination, strengthening our processes. And so we have full implementation of our Tier 3 site intervention team next year. So as we continue refining our practices, our priorities moving forward is to have our fully implemented Tier 3 site intervention team to continue strengthening our student center coaching, restorative practices, professional learning and collaboration opportunities. Our guiding coalitions will continue with their 30, 60, 90 day plans for first semester and second semester and further integrating character strong and our teacher cohort attending the summit this summer.

We also have now put each guiding coalition over a goal for our school improvement plan, which also aligns to our strategic plan. So we have our coalition for belonging will be in charge of goal one. Coalition for academic will be goal two, to grow as loners. And then coalition for character will be goal three, in head and heart.

Thank you. Okay, so one of the things that I've kind of, as I'm listening to everybody and we're talking, I think there's a lot of this, and I want to start with is that consistency that kind of happens across the, especially across the district and definitely the elementary schools. I think a lot of that work is led through Malena and Robin and the focus on MTSS. So Merrimack, we also have, we've also been partnered with EdPlus, for example.

We're also working with EdPlus and focusing on CLTs and how our collaborative teams can work together to really be consistent through Tier 1, while we're also building up that Tier 2 and Tier 3 across the building. We have a group that's also looking at Character Strong, looking at building in some of those pieces. We've also digging into panorama data and a lot of those things. So there's a lot of those consistent pieces that are happening.

This year, as we started talking, one of the things that has come up amongst our staff is this increase, especially in student anxiety and other SEL needs. And a lot of it is showing up in different ways. And so some of it is through conversations with parents where they may talk to us about the fact that they're seeking out, we find more, we feel like we're hearing more students who are seeking out therapists outside of school. Spervantage of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

Thank you. And I know we, maybe last year, year before last, we had the opportunity, someone said the opportunity to go and see Goldie Muhammad. It's through some work that Cameron led, and we were able to see that. But a lot of what she talks about is how do you bring in identity, students, personality, students, strengths, and then also joy into planning your instruction.

And so we started some book studies around that. And then we started thinking about how do we as a building say if these are things that we value, what are some of the things that we know can lead to student wellness? At a young age, play is important. And so focusing on some of those opportunities to move, seeing play, seeing some of the benefits of play.

So one of the things we did this year was we all, the whole building, participated in the Global Day of Play. Spervantage, Propriety, and Equality. Leadership team that's been working on organizing a day of service so that at some point in time throughout that day, every student from 5-year-olds to 11-year-olds will be participating in some form of service that day that works with them. So we're in the process of planning all of that out.

So while we strongly believe in each of those efforts and the impact that they can have just in being the right things to do we also know that if it really matters we need to start thinking about how we can measure this And with some of those pieces we have things that we heard about that are great The edge of climate data that we getting in there is really helping us target and respond to the students and knowing what they need Panorama gives us a great great starting point with many of our students But there times where there things that if we not careful we as adults we can make assumptions And we start thinking about what the kids need We start deciding for the kids Spervantage, Pursuit, and Spervantage of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. We need to focus on self-efficacy and challenging feelings with some of our students. And so we looked at the questions that were in there and we decided, okay, so we know that the student may say this is an area of particular need. But what we may be missing is why or what made the student pick never or rarely as opposed to sometimes or often on those scales.

And so what we started doing then was we picked a representative sample of our third through fifth graders. I think it's actually 49 students from almost every group we could think of, students who picked who we know scored low when they did the panorama on challenging feelings and self-efficacy. But we also ensured that we had a diverse group of students. We have Excel students.

We have students with IEPs. We have students who are speaking four languages. Spervantage of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Our gifted students, I'm sorry, our IEP students and 504 students, what are they telling us?

And so starting to go through that and looking for trends in the data, starting to think about what are our kids telling us what's working, what do they wish we had more of, and what kinds of things can we get from what they're telling us that we may be able to use to help guide our work, and really being able to take it to go that next step. So we're in the process right now of doing that. I will say it's nice when you can go to Educlimber and click a couple buttons and it says here's what it means. This takes a little bit longer and so we as a staff are going through and looking for trends and highlighting key words and then having conversations about action steps and starting to think about how we can use some of that wellness work to really help guide our practices as we move forward.

So I do think it's important to see that across the district, all three of our buildings have very similar things that we're focusing on, but also think about what we're seeing and being able to respond to the students that are in front of us and think about how we can use that to help us grow as a building. Thank you. So while our story might be long, we think it's really important to highlight the work beyond just the numbers and to be able to give you just a little window into what happens on a day-to-day basis in each of our schools. So what questions do you have for us?

Thank you. I'm going to let the rest of the board ask before me, but I just want to start by thanking all of you for all your hard work. And just to say, our kids are so lucky because the way that we intentionally look at each of their individual data, not just academics, but social emotional data, I just feel so lucky to be in a district that each of our kids are getting that individual attention. And it's so intentionally what each of them need to grow as learners is really incredible.

And I always look forward to this presentation, not just to see the data, but exactly what, Melaina, you just said, to hear from each of you how you use that data to inform, you know, how it informs teachers to help improve the student learning. So it's always impressive. So thank you so much. And I will just open it up.

Whoever wants to ask any questions first from the board can do so. Lucia do you have any questions First of all I would like to say thank you so much This truly hit a soft spot for me because I like to share something When I was in Glenridge, actually, I was one of the first students to be in the reading program because my reading comprehension. But now it has improved so much. So, yeah, so truly, no, exactly, but...

Now you are the proponent. That's right, that's right, that's right. No, but I want to really use it as an example because what Missy just said, truly, like, being able to see and identify the students and their needs is something so important, and as someone who really did struggle with reading, and it was a little bit tedious, Superexpensive, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. I had to catch up to people, but not in a way where it never felt, there were never any negative emotions with me needing extra help with my reading.

It always felt actually like extra love, really, from the district. And so I wanted to put that as a special example. And now I'm here at part of the board table, which is amazing. Just how much growth, I actually remember.

Reading 76 page reports. Exactly, exactly. And like an AP Lang now. So it's truly the growth and it's all possible because of Clayton.

And so I really want to use this as an example because it's something really special and something really important. And without, I don't think I would even really be able to be at this table. So, yeah. Mic drop.

I just wanted to say that. I am. Thank you, Lucia. That was so nice to share.

That's great. Okay, anyone else? I'll just open it up to anyone who has a question. So I want to apologize.

I had to leave to take care of a family emergency. So I did miss the individual, except for the end school stories, except for the end of Patrick's. But I did catch the first part of it. And from just a macro level, I think what I want the community to hear is that I think I heard that there's, Milena, you said there's only 22 school districts that scored above 90%.

There are 518 public school districts in the state of Missouri. So that puts our school district in the top 4% of all school districts that do this. So when I asked the questions last year about, is there a baseline? What's the standard deviation?

Spervantage of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Thank you. Thank you. I've cried.

Thank you for all of that you do. I do have some specific questions, so I'm going to get to those because I could cry with you all night long. So one of the questions, and maybe I'll just highlight some of the questions I had that you answered for us to check off that box, Melina. I was wondering about the social studies scores at the high school, and you spoke about that, and especially noting that that is a point, something you've been working on this year and tend to work on next year.

So I love that. I did have a question, and I don't know what page. Number it is that their Glenridge scores were lower on average, even though Glenridge improved. So let's note that first.

Glenridge improved in every part. I don't know which page is this. It's on the 76-page report I'm talking about. Maybe looking at page 7.

I feel like maybe that's not the right one. It's page 8. So, Glenridge improved everywhere, but why do we think, why do you all think that that's the case? Why do we think they improved?

No. I very understand. That's not a word. Yeah.

That's not a phrase. I understand why they improved. You guys explained that. You did that very well.

Thank you. But like, what is the thought about why that is? And what can the district do to look at that? Yeah, so I think when we look at these numbers, we don't see sort of, Glendridge doesn't feel hugely asynchronous from the other schools in what the scores are looking like.

And I think we have to remember that when we're looking at these scores, we're talking about cohorts of children, and they're humans. And so I don't think our goal is for all of our schools to have exactly the same scores, but our goal is for our schools to have strong scores. And so we feel proud of the work that has happened at Glenridge and that the scores are in line with the other schools. We did talk about Glenridge last year, and unfortunately with Tarita not being here, that was a hard conversation because I didn't have her support in being able to articulate the work that she's been doing.

But we are proud of the work that's happening at Glenridge, and we do feel like the scores are in line with the other schools. Yeah, go ahead. So as part of getting this job, part of it is looking at the data from Glenridge, right? So historically, we have scored lower than the other two.

And so for me, I went in, and that's why we kind of start with our why, collective commitments, How are our systems, how are our teachers collaborating? Are they given the time to collaborate? So that's why I'm giving them release time. What trainings have they had for updated, like, research-based strategies in the past few years?

I'm using building funds. They're using incentive funds to go out and learn more. So now we're having systems and putting systems in place so we can dig out of that. We know, and we know having data teams, we can see the scores, right?

And so what do we need to do? What practices need to be changed? What structures need to be changed? I think that's an excellent answer that helps me understand that.

Thank you. Oh, does the total population in student group, does total population include student group? Okay, thank you. I had this question before that I emailed you, Melina.

What changed, but I think maybe you answered this, what changed at the high school for language, English, and social studies to be decreased, to be a decrease in two years? I don't know what I mean by that. I think that's a lot of what Dan was talking about. I mean, I'm not sure that we would say necessarily that something changed in order for the scores to decrease, but we recognize the decrease and so dive into it, which is then what Dan talked about with his story about what's the work that we're doing to try to better align with the standards.

So the coordinators leading the teams into digging into those data to really understand where are the places where we need to put more emphasis. So that's where he talked about the nonfiction reading. And then the piece with government is a tricky one for us. And we're still trying to dig into it because there's a pretty significant percentage of our population that does not take that course from us and from our teachers.

And so we don't have any influence on change there. We only have influence on the change of what's happening within our own classrooms. And so that's hard for us. So you said like we don't look at why it went down.

We just look at that it did and how do we get out. I guess I would say because I don know the numbers from the years prior it does seem to me to be an important question to ask that if it was you know trending blue or the same and then there two years in a row where it does go down I love that you looking at how do we go back up but I do think it seems important to ask the question of could there have been something like a global pandemic or something Right, well, yes, and we can only look at three years of data because of the change in assessments and everything. So it's not a super longitudinal, like we don't have a big longitudinal ability to look at that piece. So I think we're doing what we can with the data that we have.

So let me ask this question. You said we're in the third cycle of MSIP 6. How many cycles are there of each? So each time, well, the state projects how long it's going to be, and then it usually goes another four or five years after what they project it's going to be.

So we're typically a cycle of MSIP is about five years, but MSIP 5 went on for about, I think I talked about MSIP 5 at this table for 10 years. Yeah. So. Okay.

My question about reading in eighth grade. Yeah. That second and third grade, I think, were lower. No, eighth grade reading was lower.

They were in second and third grade during COVID is what I came up with. Right, so that's that cohort that Jamie talked about that sort of across the board in both content areas. We were seeing some things with their scores. And we do have a theory of practice that the COVID had a consequence with that because they were in sort of formative years in elementary when we were trying to figure out how to educate children not within our walls and everything.

And so that cohort has just been a tricky cohort for us all the way through. And I think Jamie's efforts in her school with her teams have had, like we see the significant increase in math. They're also focused with those children in reading also. But we don't have the longitudinal data in reading because we just changed our assessment.

So we don't have a way of assessing it or showing those data in the same way that we do with math. I will also say that like we talked about the MTSS, that Tier 1 instructional method, like we are have embarked this spring in rewriting and looking at the curriculum, aligning it to power standards, and then focusing on those priority standards to ensure like coordinating the efforts of the STAR test across all the students in that instructional response. So Julie Parr is actually leading our teams currently through that work to implement a more aligned system similar to what you heard about math starting in the fall. So hopefully those will also have some implications as well as that Tier 3 that we've talked about.

And then you want to talk about the second and third grade for math? Mm-hmm. Thank you. Yeah, that's right.

Well, you said it before. So the second and third grade for math, a couple things to know about the NWA is in S25. Thank you. So what Pam's talking about is that the Clayton growth, the average growth in second and third grade is the only red on that page.

And in comparison to the norm group, it's not statistically significant, the difference in that. But I do want to talk about a couple of things with NWA. So NWA, the assessment shifts. So there's a K-1 assessment, a 2-5 assessment, a 6-plus, and then an algebra.

So each time that the children shift on that assessment, we have a tendency to see a drop in scores. That's across the nation that we see a drop in scores. The other thing that I want to say about this is like in order for me to present these data to you in a way that doesn't feel cluttered and ugly, I make it look like a data point. But actually, NWA scores are a range.

It's a RIT range and it's a standard deviation. And so it's like falling within that range to say if the child was to take that assessment again tomorrow, it would fall within this range. Those RIT ranges, so like when we look at these RIT scores, they're within the range, the typical range. I just don't have a pretty way to put it on a table for you.

So that's why it looks like a specific data point, but it's not actually that precise. The test, the assessment actually has sort of, it's about a 10-point range that the students, like when we get student scores back, all student scores are within about a 10-point range. I just don have a oh I think this was you Okay You said that SEL in the classroom the focus is SEL in the classroom and that each the teachers all of the teachers all the classrooms 20 minutes a day focusing on that Is that grade specific Curriculum and following that, will this continue moving forward that students always do that? Yes, and I think the thing that we're focusing on, too, is common language, too, across the grade level.

So like the kids that are, let's say, in second grade this year and they're getting character strong instruction. Next year when they go to third grade, it's going to be the same concepts, but it's going to be a little deeper. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. That's a great way to allow the kids a voice in that specific learning.

And then I think I'll end with a question. As a psychiatrist, I want to kind of say this. All of you, and we all know SEL is a focus, right? It needs to be a focus in our district and every district.

And so much time and money and attention is going towards this for all of our students. And so much of what our students experience, their parents are experiencing. And I just really would love for us as a district to think about ways that we can, all of these incredible supports our kids are getting, How can we pair them and support our parents? I know we offer like parent ed nights and an all-in coalition does some things.

I just I think it would be a really great way to help our district and if we can help our parents I think we can also in time lessen the load on the schools. So that's it. Thank you all. Okay, who wants to go next?

Yeah. With questions. Okay, Jason. I'll add my thanks as well, and congratulations on a strong report, another strong year.

I said this last year, and I'll say it again. Over and over again, I read about articles about lack of school leadership, and that's really a place that we need to focus. Thank you. That's great news.

So when we look at the pieces that we do have of longitudinal data, our students are now performing at sort of the same pace that they were performing pre-pandemic. So cohorts of groups, the scores are looking similar. The cohorts that we have that haven't been looking similar, that's where the sort of triage work has happened. And like Jamie's story is a good example of like a group of students making a year's growth in a semester.

Like that's what we have to do, right? It has to be accelerated learning in order for them to be in the place that we sort of have grown accustomed to our students scoring. Great. Okay.

And then just a couple questions about the report. So page seven, I guess it's really page six and seven. It kind of looks like as students, as the student group moves through the districts, right, from elementary to middle to high school, their scores drop off in proportion to the total population. So can someone sort of speak to what we think is maybe happening there?

Why do we think that perceived drop is happening? One theory that I would have is the frequency with which we assess students as they age up in the system So with the elementary and the middle school students are assessed every year When we get to the high school there are Thank you And then finally, the last part of the meeting. I'm gonna start with the same thing that we talked about also is that it's, it's how do we help students to see that this is important when it literally is one test on one day? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Right. And so, we do attribute some of it to, to that. Okay. So, there's no learnings to take from that or, I mean, just like are we gonna do any, like do we do something different as a result of this, I guess?

You want to talk about what your teams are? As Melaina said, one of the challenges is to get buy-in from the kids, actually, because, frankly, it's a one-shot test within a subject area during your high school career. There's no real incentive for the kid to work really hard. I mean, because regardless of how they do, they're going to graduate.

They're going to move on. So one of the things we've tried to do is basically incentivize that test or actually make it worth a few points, actually, which actually does seem to have a positive impact on student performance, actually, when teachers make it part of the grade. I will say that historically we had problems, actually, in how long it took us to get the test back, so it wasn't realistic to do that. But of late, actually the turnaround time on the test has been a couple of weeks.

So from the time we give it to the end of the semester, we're able to actually incorporate that into the grade. So that also, biology started doing that last year, and government is starting that this year, and English is looking at that as well. I will also add, and Dan mentioned this with what he spoke about, and I talked about it with math and reading, Spervantage of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. The consistency with which students are assessed, and trust me, I'm not asking for more assessment, but you can track kids longitudinally within a subject area at the lower grades where it ends up being kind of a one-shot deal.

So, like, you know, once you take your math test, you've taken it once, and then you're not going to take another math test. Now, we can look at different cohorts of kids over the years, which is what we look at, but you aren't able to track individual kids actually at the high school level because of that. Okay. And then my other question, which is probably just more of like a please educate me question.

So on page 14, it breaks everything down to, like, is this on track, off track, you know, emerging target? Like, do we, how do we incorporate, like, this to me is a pretty telling page. Like, do we incorporate, if something's, you know, approaching or emerging, you know, like, do we incorporate that into how we think about our planning for the year, and if so, how? Yes, but.

So this page is all about growth. And so it depends a little bit on what level we're talking about. So like the way that the growth model is determined for high school assessments is the predicted score comes from a score from middle school from a different content area. So social studies is a predicted score from math, science, and literacy.

Yeah. I'm with you. So I want to make sure that we keep those things in context. So we don't get overly alarmed when we see these.

It's a start of a conversation to say, what other data points do we have on here that support that we need to be putting energy into this? So, like last year, I tried to sort of minimize the idea of growth, particularly at the high school because of that issue. And so, it opens up conversation versus us having sort of like the pendulum swings a different direction and we make different decisions. But I think Dan gave some good examples in his story of growth.

Ways that things like this have had us start to look more closely at alignment of standards to be able to say, like, you know, we put a lot of energy. We know at the high school we put a lot of energy into writing. So great. Our writing scores reflect that.

But then when we look at informational text, that has our team studying. So how are we teaching nonfiction in English class, right? So sometimes I think people think about nonfiction, they think about social studies, they think about science, but we had, Julie's doing some deliberate work with that team to think about, well, how are we infusing informational text into our English curriculum, which was sort of a clear gap that maybe it wasn't as obvious to us, we weren't noticing it, But this, as a consequence of looking at this, that helped us to study that, which then our theory of practice is in turn, when we come next time, we're hoping that we celebrate that the same way we celebrate math, the same way we've been celebrating science. Okay, great.

Can I, real quick, also, from an elementary level, when we look at this, I look at that as not necessarily as approaching, but what are we doing with the students? I don't look at this, I look at who are the students. Like we mentioned, who are the students and how we're responding to them. So I wouldn't say, well, we're approaching, so we need to focus on being approaching as a school.

It's who are the students that need to grow and what are we doing for each of the students individually. So we're going to look at that by the student. And hopefully if we're seeing those students grow, those numbers are going to go up. So now I think it's two different ways.

What Melania's talking about is, is there a hole or something within our curriculum that we may be missing that we need to address as a system, or is it something where we need to fill a gap for the student? I think those are the two possibilities. So it may be that we need to know, what does that student need to make sure that they can grow, and the more students that we know are growing, that'll take care of itself. Sure.

All right. Thanks, guys. Great. Okay.

Anyone on this side who wants to go next? Hi. So this is my first assessment presentation, which was fabulous. Thank you guys so much for what you do and the effort put in for tonight.

And I'm just blown away. Okay. What I wanted to ask, I guess we have incredible leadership here in this district, and this is the example right here. How do you guys communicate together?

Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. But we do have a dedicated PLC time for elementary principals where we hop on a Zoom if we're not busy or in a meeting. But we try to hop on. We have it designated for our hour each Friday.

And we just say, hey, are you available to jump on? And that's how we share our different ideas, ask questions. We've already jumped on a couple with our new incoming captain principal already. So we have an elementary PLC.

And we also included the director of the family center this year as well. Okay. Very interesting. And then I guess kind of similar question, obviously I would imagine, Dr.

Jordan, you're in very close communication on the elementary school students who's coming into your school, and I would assume the similar happens with, maybe talk a little bit about that, how that process works. Actually, I spent an hour and a half this morning on a Zoom with the elementary talking about reading and math support. But, yeah, we work very hard to tighten up those transitions. It's a work in progress.

Like, it's definitely something that we do. And, you know, Kim last year, you know, was talking about spreadsheets versus EduClimber, and we've really made that move into EduClimber. So all of those math scores that I talked about and those specific interventions, when Dan's team picks them up, they're tracked in that system. So, like, as the – and same thing for the elementary.

So like fifth grade now, if there's a student that they say, you know, we look at Educlimber for thresholds, we get a group of students that score beneath this percentile, then we look at the Fontaine-Sympanel and see if that matches, and then we indicate like where do we think they go, then we can actually go to the student and that progress monitoring slide, we can see specific skills and how that student is actually going. So the data is now being able to support the child so we aren't starting all over and really like being able to like do the same thing to connect up to the high school with where we're going. Because honestly like years ago it was a lot of conversations but it wasn as instructionally based So now we really working on like we talk about we do those too Like we do a lot of conversations about the children and different things the counselors are involved in But, like, the important part is, like, how does the instruction change based on how we know about the student? And we're a pretty small district, so we should be able to tighten that up.

So, like, when the reading students go to the CHS, you know, Kelly knows how to pick them up right from where they're going and then push them from there. But EduClimber has been a big tool in that. And it's also just a helpful, when you're in meetings with parents, when you're in meetings with other people, and then the other part is that systematic of how we're getting in and out of reading strategies at the elementary level, at the middle school level, and into the high school, how we're getting in and out of math strategies and tightening those things up through the coordinators' work and through the different buildings. So we sit in the middle of it, so we get to see both sides where we're going and where we're leaning into, but it's been really promising, I think, to be able to tighten those up for those interventions.

No, and I would agree. Just to echo that, I think, too, that because we are a smaller district, actually, you know, the Y-Down subject managers and teachers are in direct contact with our department heads and coordinators who are doing the placement pieces. And we have, you know, our assistant principals and counselors all sit in the transition meetings, actually, as we talk about individual kids and their learning profile. And so that we're – the communication is as good as it's ever been in my 20-plus years now in the district, I would say.

And Jamie and I talk all the time, too, so. And I think to piggyback on all of that, Ben, that's a great question, but when you think of building a leadership team, You think of the vertical alignment conversations that are crucial. I think we've been trying to be very intentional on the systems and structures that we're putting in place around leadership. So, for example, we have our district leadership team meetings that meet once a month, and there's a lot of professional development that we try to do through that that's focused on the strategic plan.

So everyone's pointing the arrows all in the same direction, right? Like our principal instructional talk-throughs that we started three years ago now, we all go as a team into each one's building to look for look-fors, and how does that support their school improvement plan? So everything, our principals' meetings, unfortunately, tend to become nuts and bolts a lot, but they love them, don't you? They love them.

They do. But we try to be intentional even around those as much as possible. So it's all about building that leadership team because, as you can see, they're doing a great job. And we really like each other.

Yeah. We get along well. We respect each other a lot, but that is also a good thing. And I wanted to add, just even last night, some of us were at a PAC-Ed meeting, and one of the things we dissected a little bit further was there's great transition opportunities between elementary and middle and great between middle and high school.

Spervantage, Pursuit, and Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. But when I talked to the fifth grade students and their thoughts on becoming incoming, like, I was about to say freshman middle schoolers. No, but sixth graders. There you go.

And then the sixth graders on how, in the end, it was, like, the actual move was. It was naturally there's, like, that period of adaptation from a completely different schedule in elementary school to middle school. But genuinely they were, in elementary school, they were excited but also a little bit nervous. Also completely natural.

So within sixth grade, they got there, and then there was still a little bit of those nerves, but then the teachers were always there, and they were welcoming, and they said that it was, in general, a pretty smooth and good transition. And then when I talked to the eighth graders who were going to become ninth graders in the high school, almost same reflections. A little bit nervous, but mostly excited, especially for the, like, hour 15 lunch for all of these new – that was a big thing I heard lots of times. It was a 25-minute lunch.

So in eighth grade there definitely a lot more of that excitement with the possibility of free periods and a lot more liberty that the high school presents but also great support from the teachers especially having that hour 15 lunch to of course hang out with friends but also great on time You got to work on your message Sorry We love it We love it No truly we love it But we do study. We do study. It is so... Yes, yes, exactly.

Social-emotional. Connects to education. No, but having that greyhound time to be able to connect to your teachers when maybe the transition from a class is a little bit more difficult than expected, I also heard, so period of adaptation, but truly the transition from the schools from what I've heard from the feedback of the students has been very good. Wow, that's terrific.

I have nothing further. Thank you. I'll go. These are great numbers.

It's a great report. Congratulations to all of you. Good work. I really struggle with this topic because I'm very sensitive to what some of the things that Melina said and some of you have said about data anomalies, frustrations of these short cycles so you don't have longitudinal data, and not focusing on any one number is important.

And so I'm not going to ask you any questions about one number. What I wanted to say, I think, is, Melina, I think you said it really well. You don't want to get too alarmed by any one number, but it's important to get a little alarmed. And I appreciate what I'm hearing here today, that you're focusing on those points where there are opportunities for growth.

And I want you to not lose that and to encourage you to stay focused on those things. That's all. Okay, thank you all for being here again. And it's, you know, all the same thing.

This is an amazing showing, as usual. So kudos to all of you for your amazing work that you do. Lisa, I'll start with you. On that amazing slide that you put up there with the hands and then the heart, which is so brilliant, on the Tier 3, you see on Tier 3, on the one side it says one-to-one social worker, and then the other side it says Wilson.

Can you explain what both of those are? Those are specific programs where more intense like reading interventions or math interventions are being offered and it's typically one-to-one. So if little Malena was in tier three and I was the specialist, I would be working one-on-one, but kind of using Jamie's story is that we know exactly based on the data, based on Educlimber, based on reports that we have, the skills that she needs to help boost. And so those just happen to be some of the academic sides of it.

But then over on the left, you see the social worker. That would be the SEL part that's working directly with those friends that are of greatest need for that purpose. Okay, so that's what I, just to dive deeper into that, because I think these are both amazing. Wilson is the Wilson reading system, and is that provided one-on-one, first of all, and then number two, who is it that provides it?

So all of our reading specialists have been trained in Wilson. All? Or just all? Yes, like my two.

Even the high school. Hallelujah. So that is in the toolkit of supports for reading. That's wonderful.

Wonderful. What results are you seeing from that? So this is our first year. So their training was in the spring last year, and so this is our first year of implementation.

And so at this point, I think every building has at least a couple children, including the high school. I think it has a couple of children who are being supported through Wilson. Can I share a story real quick? I heard today from Wilson.

We have a student that has had reading support since kindergarten and really has not responded to any interventions. Got Wilson and actually read on the grade level today. And so they're talking about not even getting reading support at the middle school where he had reading support K-5. Exactly.

And then we have another student on the same trajectory. So just by switching to Wilson, it has made some progress for these students. Yay! And I think we all remember all the years of the dyslexia discussions and even outside people being hired to come in, and then the laws changed.

But anyway, so that's great. Yeah, so that is a part of a larger sort of toolkit that we've provided. So like SIPS is listed up there also. That's another intervention that's provided.

So dependent on like that idea of like knowing our students well and knowing what intervention would be the best intervention to try with them is the determining factor with that. And then the fact that all of our teachers our classroom teachers have gone through letters training allows the tier one piece to feel a little bit different than it has felt in the past So the phonemic and phonological awareness piece is a pretty significant piece So right now our Key Stage 2 teachers are going through letters. They did part of it today. And the teachers are excited about that because it's, especially the Key Stage 2 teachers, because that's not necessarily something that they've always been focused on because they're not always teaching children how to read.

Right. And so that's been a super helpful piece in their toolkit to be able to address individual needs. Fabulous. That's wonderful.

Thank you so much. With the one-on-one with the social worker, is it always a social worker that's doing that one-on-one on Tier 3? Not always, but we also have two social workers that work in our space. We have one that's from Special School District and one that's Clayton.

And so we all, it's intentional for that purpose, so I wouldn't say it's always just the one, because depending on if it's maybe a student with an IEP that's been identified, then there's a lady named Mallory Sample who works with maybe that. But there's a lot of collaboration and conversation that goes on. There's a lot of emails at Captain, but they're so purposeful, and they really are, because everybody has such a deep connection to the success of that kiddo. And that's what makes it, I think, just so beautiful is the time and effort.

A child might meet with Mrs. Burkhart and within 30 minutes, collaboration and information is going out so that we can use some of that feedback and some of that information to support that learner across environments. It's not just in the classroom. That email is going to the PE teacher, to the science teacher, to others, the parents that need that information so that everybody can move forward.

It's amazing. That is amazing. It's intentional. It's intentional.

It needs to be on a T-shirt. It really does. It does. It needs to be on a T-shirt.

That's our new catchphrase. Okay, so the counselor is not doing any Tier 3 stuff in general? No, I think she is doing some Tier 3 stuff. Our social worker, Katie, is not at our school every day.

She is shared across the three schools. And so depending on the need of the kiddo and what day particularly is best in their scheduling, Crystal sees some tier three kiddos. Okay. Dan, do you have any idea why government is so, my kids didn't take it in school either.

Why is that? Any thoughts on that and why it is and if that's a good or a bad thing or something we should think about? As in why they're not taking the regular seated class? You know, the profile of the kid that usually takes it in the summer a lot of times is taking it to get it out of the way So that frees up more space in their schedule.

So I would say that you're going to find a higher probably incidence of AP and honors actually taking, actually among the students that do that. Not always, but it's a matter of convenience. It's the same reason kids will take personal finance outside. You know, it's one of the courses that students have the opportunity to get a graduation requirement out of the way and to free up more space in their schedule.

Yeah, so it doesn't feel like a concern at all. It is what it is, and great. That's a good option for them, and so you're fine. I would be cautious about saying it doesn't feel like a concern.

There's nothing that we can do about it, because there's a law that provides them the opportunity to be able to take a course virtually. So there really isn't anything that we can do about it. We would like to have control over our courses, and particularly graduation requirements. And I think the social studies teachers would say, too, that they're proud of the course that they offer here and feel that it's a more robust experience to take a semester-long seated course in terms of a three- or four-week summer course or an online course.

But unfortunately, like Melina said, we can't restrict that. Right. And it's the class that ends up being often the one that you get out of the way. Yeah.

Okay. Okay. I think that my other question was already answered. Yes, it was.

My question, Lisa and Tarita, I kind of have the same question about. So the counselor, tell me, maybe Tarita, you could tell me this part. How does the counselor hours, I mean, we're talking so much about SEL, so I'm really excited to not just talk, you know, these academics where I already gave you all the, so I'm really talking, I'm asking more about SEL stuff because it's so related and so important to all of us. So tell me what the counselor, how they are, are they doing tier one stuff?

Because here Lisa said she's, you know, that individual teachers are doing, you know, tier one stuff, right? So how's the, where does the counselor fit in? Where, what's, because now we've got teachers doing it, we've got Counselor, we've got social workers. I think it varies.

That part varies at the different buildings, right? So at Lisa's building, I know Crystal has moved towards Tier 2 because the teachers had a year of Character Strong. Last year they went to the summit, and so 100% of their teachers are incorporating Character Strong at that Tier 1 level. So now Crystal can be very intentional doing small group interventions at their Tier 2, and then when Katie's not available, she can do some of those Tier 3 interventions.

At Glen Ridge, we're working towards that model. Okay. So we just started to dibble into Character Strong this year. We have a lot of our teachers, even specialists, doing Character Strong lessons.

But our counselor is still going in doing those Tier 1 lessons as well. She's doing Tier 2 and Tier 3. And so it is a lot for her. And so now we're trying to do like a gradual release on how we can release her from that Tier 1 possibly.

Because we have teachers now going to the summit this summer. I'm going with them. We can implement that. Teachers are doing that tier one.

She can come in and do the tier two. She can also do coaching if they need any help. And so we're trying to go move towards to where Captain is currently. Cool.

Something they'll be excited about for Tarita moving into this is the momentum that comes off from that summer summit. It was so powerful, and I walked into that. Like, that was just an amazing amount of energy. And that's what I think is really spearing a lot of the success at Captain right now is the energy around it.

The other thing that Crystal is also managing, and I didn't really touch base on it, is that of our 44 kids that are getting tier one or tier two or tier three, after her eight weeks of working really closely with them, those kids get assigned a mentor. And so all 44 kids have a teacher mentor or myself or Dr. Anthus, and we check in with those kiddos every morning and every afternoon for 14 weeks. And that's going on simultaneously, too, as part of the program.

And so, Melaina really said it best at one of our meetings the other day, is like when kids are learning in first grade number sense and they're practicing addition or they're practicing just math in general, they're practicing a lot of that in first grade to get that really strong. And this SEL support really mirrors that, that they're practicing these skills on relationships. Because when the kids are getting academic support, or Tier 1 SEL support, it's very global. But when it's Tier 2 and Tier 3, it's very situational.

It's friendships. It's coping. It's regulation. You know, it's very specific based on the data.

And so when those kids get to practice that every day and have like a personal cheerleader, that's when we're, again, hoping for that carryover and success. And that mentor then is like a warm handoff back to the classroom teacher. Perfect. Wow.

That's a great system. That's really exciting. Awesome. It is great.

Let's see. Okay, so Jamie, has YNOW always had a reading specialist and just now has a math specialist? That's literally brand new? Well, we've had different types of math coaches, and I'm trying to think of what the titles were because this was a couple years, so I'm looking to land up for the historical.

Math coordinators. But because of restructuring and different things, so one of the things we did a little bit ago was to trade up and go to more of a co-teaching model with two math teachers. Yes. To be honest, we didn't see that that was super effective.

Like, we weren't getting the double return, so that's where we went back to the drawing table and said, what do we need to do? And so then that's how we restructured and then looked for this math specialist. That's very exciting. Yeah.

It's been great. So we are currently actually hiring because the woman we had, Tiffany, is actually moving with her husband. So we're hiring currently for the next math specialist for next year this week. And it a full Full position yeah Now we probably will restructure it since that group of eighth graders has moved into the high school next year We spoken about moving it more focusing it onto sixth grade and seventh grade because if we can get those gaps closed, then there won't be as many as eighth grade, but they will still have the same kind of caseload of students.

They'll be using the Delta Math RTI, working with them in a lot of very specific way, Recording the structures and seeing what's come of it. Nice. And there's still the reading specialist that's doing what they've always been doing? Yes.

Okay. Yep. But we are honestly working and meeting. I met with our seventh grade literacy team today to start talking about, we looked at the STAR data with the Fundance of Inel to track where they're going and starting to think about how the literacy teachers are doing things and how we're doing reading strategies.

Because right now we do it in a 40-minute class. Is that still the best method, or do we want to do more of a caseload? So those are conversations that we're having. We don't know what that answer is going to be.

And there's a lot of things in middle school that play into that, so we're trying to figure out exactly what that looks like. And honestly, we're doing the same kind of conversation around our study skills classes. Is the 40-minute block the best way to do that, or should it be done more on a specific case-by-case around a specific IP goal? Right, we talked about that.

Yeah, so, you know, we always are trying to improve and figure out what's working and what's not working and kind of go from there. Wonderful. That's great work, guys. Thank you so much.

Well, thank you. My questions were actually answered, but I just wanted to thank Robin for the hexagon graphic, because not only did I learn something new about what hexagons represent, but it actually, But that visual, for me at least, was such a good way to just understand the process in each of those pockets, so thank you for that. And I just also wanted to add, because we've always focused on and prioritized closing the opportunity gap and equity, it was just, I think, really great to see some of those gaps close with our student group, like particularly what Dan pointed out about the biology scores, which was a huge gain. So in particular, that was great to see kind of across the board, those student groups.

And I think, yeah, that was it. My questions were answered. So thank you again, all of you, for being here. And thank you for our gifts also from your students.

That was such a nice way to celebrate tonight too. So thanks for all the hard work in your presentation. That was great, really great. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, we're moving on to financials. And the teacher salary schedules for 2025-26 and 2026-27. And Dr.

Sullenberger and Mr. Brazile. Will present to us. Good evening.

Hopefully this will be pretty quick and easy. John and I have had the opportunity to meet with our salary conversations committee starting in January. So we had several meetings with that group to come to a consensus on a salary schedule, a two year salary schedule. So we have the endorsement of both our NEA as well as Our PRC, our Professional Relations Committee, they've both seen these salary schedules and they are endorsing them.

So tonight we would just like the approval of the Board of Education for a two-year salary schedule that still ensures that we are competitive and able to recruit and retain really highly qualified and talented teachers, but also ensures the financial stability of the district and that we are being fiscally responsible in the decisions that we make as well Thank you Chris would you like to read the motion first I think we have to read the motion and then we can ask questions, right? Got it. Is that the way on this part? I think so.

Okay. Okay. Sorry. Sorry about that.

I move that we approve the teacher's salary schedules for 2025, 2026, and 2026-2027 as presented. Thank you. Okay, now, does anyone have any questions or comments? Anyone?

Okay. All right, all those in favor? Oh, wait, Leo, sorry. Turn on your mic if you want to say something.

You can say something. Would you... I feel like we should talk about it a little bit. How about this?

Okay. What I was thinking about saying was I just want to thank John and Kelly publicly for the hard work you guys put into this. I think you guys really approached this as in previous cycles with a great deal of professionalism and thought and balancing the needs to really honor our teachers, which this board certainly supports, you know, honoring their contributions as well as maintaining the fiscal responsibility and financial management of the district. So I just want to thank you guys for that.

Yeah. And just so the public knows, this isn't the first we're hearing of this or seeing it. So that's not why we're maybe not asking questions, but we've been kept abreast of this in executive session because of the topic along the way. Yeah, I guess that's the point I would want the public to understand, that this isn't the first we've heard of.

Okay. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

Okay. Motion passes. Congratulations on that. Thank you.

Okay, moving on to the consent agenda. Would you read the motion for that, please? I move that we approve the consent agenda items 8.1 through 8.6. Okay.

All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, motion passes.

Okay, and board communications. I think a lot of us have had committee meetings. I know, let's see. Ben, you had a Parks and Rec meeting.

Anything to report from that? Oh, it's always exciting. Parks and Rec. I wanted to call out, there are some new facilities coming online.

So some of the ball fields in Shaw Park have been redone. You may have seen over by the tennis courts. So I know that like some of our elementary school and Middle school age kids play there. So it's now a little safer.

You might not get hit by a foul ball as you're driving past or on Forest Park Parkway. That happened. But, no, really beautiful fields. Really, you know, puts us, I think, you know, up there in terms of some of the quality of softball in particular.

So in the other – oh, I wanted to mention – so there's a new park coming online. You may not have seen it, or you may have seen the construction. Right next door to the library, it's called Remembrance Park. It's .25 of an acre.

There used to be a house, there's a church right next door to the, there used to be a little house sandwiched in there. Finally, it was a property that had all kinds of problems in terms of utilities. As they dug, they ran into stuff that stopped them from working for six months. Anyways, my point is it's going to be very, I think, kind of an urban-style park, which we don't have a lot of, but hopefully a nice place for our kids to go and hang out.

And there was some discussions around the So there been also a meeting of the sort of Shaw Park the ice rink space task force of which I a part So there was a meeting and what I love is that it was very very to the point kind of meeting So David Gibson essentially said we're going to go ahead and move forward with a design RFQ, so for a firm to do kind of the progress that work. So that's going to be a really exciting new project in Shaw Park. As an ice rink or no? It's not as an ice rink.

I don't think it's an ice rink. There's been some folks that have really, are hoping for some temporary ICE in the winter times. Whether or not that's feasible, we'll see. Undoubtedly, there will be pickleball, or at least that'll be high on the list of priorities for that space.

But not just that. I think it's going to be redeveloped into a way that's going to be really nice. So, that's it for me. Thanks.

Thank you. Okay, Leo. The Legislative Advisory Committee met last night. Last night?

Yeah, last night. And it's been a long day. And it was a good meeting. We got an update on everything that's going on in Jeff City from Dr.

Hockman. And we also worked on a set of legislative principles that I think we may end up bringing to the board table for ratification and discussion. So that was a good meeting. Thank you.

Chris, did you have a SS Government Council meeting? Yes. Anything you report there? Last night.

It was very... Yeah, it was, we talked, got an overview of what's going on in the 2024, like an update on the 2025 budget and how it's going and how they're trying to stay at the 35% fund balance goal, which is a big improvement from wherever they were. And then we talked about the draft of the budget for 2026, and we voted on a new Board of Education, SSD Board of Education person, and that was it. Thank you.

Anyone else? I had a PTO council meeting. They, let's see, they talked about, they changed one of their bylaws a little bit. They all decided to, again, bring back that back to school bash, which was only changed this year because of weather.

But I think everybody agrees that it's a great way to bring the whole school community together to kick off the school year. So that will happen again. We talked, we had a good conversation actually around legislation. Dr.

Patel and I got a lot of questions and we talked about the committee and Leo's gone to different schools PTO meetings to kind of inform them what's going on, which I think is great because the PTO, PTOs obviously are our ears, you know, conduit for us. To the parent communities, which is great. We talked about and had opened a conversation also about the Long Range Facilities Master Plan. They had a lot of good questions around that, too.

And again, I think that group will be crucial for us to help kind of get information out to the schools and district families. And we talked about the upcoming mayoral election and how, even though that's the city, not the school district, We're not in a group, but we work so closely together and it's important to get involved in that as well. It was a good meeting, anyway. That's it, so I guess we can adjourn.

I move that the Board of Education adjourn. All those in favor? Aye.