October 11, 2023 — Meeting Transcript

Machine-generated transcript — may contain errors.

To the Board of Education meeting, adequate notice has been given and let's go ahead and stand for the pledge. Okay, Gary, we need to adopt the agenda. Move that the Board of Education adopt the agenda as posted. Second.

It's been moved and seconded. All in favor? Aye. Aye.

Any opposed? And we are now on to recognizing our own. Good evening, everybody. It is a privilege to be able to introduce a special team from one of our elementary schools as part of our recognizing our own.

There is a national organization called Character.org that is an advocate and leader for character in schools and communities. And this year they recognized about 170 promising practices in schools and organizations. And the organizations and schools that they recognized were programs and initiatives that have demonstrated significant impact and strongly aligned with the principles that help schools and organizations cultivate a culture of character. And in the state of Missouri, about 20 schools and organizations were recognized, including Ralph and Captain Elementary School.

So I'd like to invite the principal, Jen Martin, up to the front with her team, Christine Anthes, their instructional coordinator, Crystal Taylor, their building counselor, Chris Wande, their science specialist, and Patrick Ward, one of their fifth grade teachers. We also would like to welcome Claire Gunn, our speech pathologist who had no idea she was going to hold the banner this evening. Good evening to you all. In June, we were awarded a 2023 Promising Practice Award for an innovation called Captain Connection Cruise.

This initiative was put in place at Captain following the pandemic as our learning community worked to explore ways in which all stakeholders could reconnect with each other. I invite our instructional coordinator, Dr. Christine Anthes, to tell you more. Good evening.

In an effort to foster stronger collegial relationships, Captain staff members were placed on connection crews composed of individuals who do not typically work together. Each month, staff members were presented with a crew challenge designed to foster positive relationships. Our team challenges included establishing our crew name, taking a group selfie, team building challenges, discovering new things about each other, self-care bingo, random acts of kindness, and much more. I would like to introduce to you our fifth grade teacher, Mr.

Patrick Ward. Good evening. Thanks for having me. For me, our connection crews build a greater sense of community among the staff at Captain and add to our positive environment.

Being able to engage in friendly competition with and against each other allows us the opportunity to connect and support one another. The demands of the educational field can be stressful. So through our connection crews and strong staff community, we can provide each other with a network of emotional and moral support while helping each other manage personal and professional challenges. Swande, what would you add?

Thank you. As a science specialist, my classroom is located on the lower level of Captain, far away from most of the staff. So I found that having these short tasks gave me a genuine purpose to collaborate with my colleagues that I may not have otherwise reason to communicate with. This was especially helpful in building relationships with new staff members and also those who tend to be more introverted.

Because these tasks are quick and fun, there's a lot of smiling, a lot of laughing, and a lot of good memories. When we then interact again, we already have those positive interactions to build on. Our counselor, Ms. Taylor, will share a few words about the importance of character development and social-emotional learning for all stakeholders.

Thank you Ms Wande Character reveals our common humanity transcending religious cultural and ethic differences Research shows that the comprehensive social learning programs in schools not only boost academic success but also inspire young people to care about and practice their character strengths Here in Clayton, we educate, inspire, and empower students to embody the competencies of the profile of a graduate, all characteristics in which our Captain Connection crews model. This initiative is one example of how we cultivate an environment where each staff member is seen, valued, and respected. So does this work? Well, we ask you to be the judge.

Our school climate and our students' sense of belonging both increased by 7% as measured with our annual school climate surveys. This was the most significant growth in one single school year that we've ever seen at Captain. Relationships are key elements in a healthy school system, and it is crucial that each of our educators love what they do and enjoy coming to work each and every day. A positive school climate is leading to the success for all.

Thank you so much for honoring our work this evening and for celebrating this award with us. All right. And at this point, we'd like to invite our Board President, Amy Rubin, and our Superintendent, Dr. Patel, to come up to the front and formally recognize all of you.

And we'd like to commemorate this moment as well with a photo. Thank you, Luke. And again, congratulations on this special recognition. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, congratulations, Captain. We are now on to public participation at board meeting, So I am going to invite people up as I received these white slips. And our first person is Josh Moyer, and I hope I'm not saying that last name incorrectly.

Okay. Okay, good. Welcome. Hi, Sarah.

Good evening. I'm Sarah Turley. I want to thank you all for letting me come speak with you this evening. I've been living in Colonial Lane, which is the neighborhood that is right next door to Gay Field off of Gay Avenue.

I've been living there for 15 years. I'm a proud graduate of Clayton High School and the daughter of a Clayton High grad as well. My family actually, my grandparents bought our home in Clavarack Park in the 1920s, and our family lived there until just 2019. So, I'm here today to bring to your attention how outrageously bad things have gotten in our neighborhood due to the recent upgrades carried out at Gay Field.

Some years ago, a decision was made to put up lights on Gay Field. Spervantage of the Education Committee meeting. Spervantage of the Education Committee meeting. Spervantage, P.A.C.E.

The Spervantage Propriety and Equality Scoreboard sound system and upgraded the lights The prior scoreboard was smaller lower and hidden by surrounding trees This new one is a behemoth and an eyesore to anyone in our neighborhood But what is truly intolerable is the sound system that was installed We are being subjected to incessant blaring music from the fields on evenings weekends during the weekends at nights and even during the workday We have been claimed and told that they would take decibel readings. You don't need to hire somebody to do these readings. Come live in our shoes. Come live in our house and listen to it.

I promise you will hear it. And the light's also a bad situation. I've come today in spirit of goodwill as neighbors, hoping that reasonable minds will prevail and that madness will end. However, I do want to emphasize the seriousness of the issue.

We have consulted with attorneys and are extremely concerned at not only the immediate effect this is having on our lives, our children, but also on the value of our property. Can I have one last sentence? If the city of Clayton does not take steps to end this, we are prepared to see this through because these are our homes and we cannot live like this anymore. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. Okay. Okay, so Sarah, so Josh is... Okay.

Hi everybody, my name is Josh Boyer. Thank you again for letting me speak tonight. Just want to reiterate kind of exactly what she said. I've lived in the neighborhood for a little over a year now.

When we first moved in, and last fall, you know, Friday Night Lights was kind of, you know, taking back to high school. Wasn't a problem until the new scoreboard went up with the new sound system. Mid-September, Wednesday, Thursday, maybe like around the 29th maybe, they tested the speakers about 9.30 a.m. for whom the bell tolls, Metallica, was loud enough to set off the neighbor's car alarm.

And I'm about choked on my coffee when they started getting it going. But just absurdly loud. I took readings myself. It was nearly hitting like 100 decibels on my back deck.

And this is at, you know, 930 in the morning during the game. The band wasn't bad, but until they get those levels in, it's inexcusable. It's way too loud. I also have two beautiful little girls, one-year-old and a two-year-old.

They both nap during the day and go down around 7 p.m. And even through a sound machine in both of their rooms, you could hear it clear as day, like it was being performed in their rooms. I also work from home, so when you're on calls and you have that stuff going on in the middle of the day, it's also a big nuisance. As I mentioned before, it wasn't a problem.

Now it's just ridiculous. So let's do something about it. Thank you. Okay.

All right. Thank you, Josh. Crystal Taylor. Hi, my name is Crystal.

I'm a parent of a student that started kindergarten in Clayton at Captain and is now entering their senior year here at the high school. And it's been a great journey. We are so appreciative of being part of the Clayton School District. It has been, we are beyond grateful for all that we've had access to, so we really appreciate that.

However, as great as this district is and has been, I mean, Captain, you can't really get better than that, right? Schooling in general has been difficult for my son. And so when he got his first diagnosis when he was in kindergarten of ADHD, as we moved through the years, those diagnoses kept coming. He ended up with a learning disability.

He's got some mood disorders, some anxiety. It's a lot. And I'm here to talk about how great SST is. And I knew I was going to get an emotional idea.

Partially because Sarah's here, and she's been really good for him. But I know you all are thinking about SST and special education and what it's like. And it has been a godsend for us, truly. High school is hard for all students, right?

For Jake it has been without the Quest program and the people in it who know him and who can follow him from year to year try him from grade to grade who knows the nuances of all of his disabilities and what that means and how they can advocate for him Not only a safe place to land during the school day to be in that Quest room to get the support he needs when it's just too much, because sometimes just a class can be a lot, but a day of classes is a whole lot, right? But they also have that they know when to push because of their professionalism, because of their expertise in what they know, and they can help us as we are trying to help him too. So, I don't know, I'm just here to support special school district, and even as much as the school psychologists who have evaluated him over the years and several times to help us find what are the right diagnoses, what's the right programming, how are we going to support him. From day one of help me figure this out to now, which is what does that programming look like and how do we support him and support the teachers who work with him and support his family too.

It's just been a really positive experience for us and for our family. Thanks for letting me. Thank you so much. Michael Shapiro and Rachel Shapiro.

Thank you. So, my name is Michael Shapiro. I'm also here on behalf of myself and my wife, Rachel, to talk about a special school district in our experience. So, we have a son, Eitan.

He's now 22. He has Down syndrome, and he'd had a very kind of disparate education. We had been in a bunch of different schools throughout his early education. We moved back, actually, to University City in 2014, and because of the great reputation of Clayton School District and specifically the Special School District program here, we enrolled Eitan first at Y-Down, and then he went through Y-Down and eventually through Clayton High School as well.

And the reputation we'd heard about, we were not disappointed at all. He had an incredibly supportive team from day one and on through all of his years here. They were able to create a very customized program for him that met all of his needs through the great IEP process. But perhaps most important to us, and we'd always look for this and continue in Eitan's life, is the inclusion aspect.

So the fact that he was included, one story that we were just recounting on the way here, he wanted to participate in sports. Spervantage, Propriety, and Equality, and the Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. And then perhaps now in his life, most importantly, the program here really did prepare him for life after school. So for the past couple of years, Eitan has been working at Schnucks right down the road.

And he's doing it there without a job coach. He's able to actually work like just any of the workers. He's treated exactly the same. And the skills that he was able to get through the program here was a large part of that.

So I wanted to thank everyone here that's helped make that program happen. And just, you know, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for everything that you've helped us give our son. Thank you so much. Okay, Julie Sandler.

Hi. We totally had it together. My name is Julie Sandler. I'm also here to address the special school district issue.

My son Ian is a sophomore at the high school and about six years ago he got an educational diagnosis of social emotional And when he was in fourth grade and got that diagnosis, we knew when we started the IEP process exactly what it would look like. We knew who would administer the services. We knew how many minutes he'd be getting. We knew where he'd be getting it.

And we always thought in the back of our heads that, you know, we probably wouldn't need the IEP in the middle school and high school. We get this taken care of. Well, while he made great strides, thanks to all of his special education teachers and actually the staff and regular education teachers, we still wanted to hold on to that IEP just as an insurance policy. And, you know, he's doing great.

And now he's in high school and has his IEP is on a consultant basis only. And Coach Keene is his case manager. And we wondered how the special education services would look in high school. You know, we knew what it was like in elementary and middle school with the direct services.

But what about consultant in high school? And from the very beginning, Coach Keene made us feel comfortable with him. He made Ian feel comfortable with him. He checks in with Ian multiple times a week, and he's a great sounding board for Ian.

He also happens to be a coach of a sport that Ian got very into and has really made a difference in his life. But, you know, even more than that, I know that if something happens over the weekend that I feel would impact Ian educationally at school, I can just shoot Coach Keene an email and say, hey, this happened over the weekend. Just keep an eye out for him today. Let the teachers know.

He disseminates the information to all the teachers. And so everybody's on the same page. So I just wanted to say that we've been really blessed and lucky by the special education staff and support that we've gotten through the years. Thank you for letting us speak.

Thank you. Okay, Adrian. I'm kind of teary-eyed after that one. Yeah.

So I'm going to read from my phone if you don't mind. Hi, Clayton Board. I'm Adrian King. I teach special education at Clayton High School.

Over the past eight years, I've recognized that one of the most crucial aspects to the success of my students is developing positive relationships with both the students and their families. These relationships are fundamental to provide a nurturing and supportive educational environment, and the experience, this is something we do a wonderful job at at Clayton High School, and not just Clayton High School, the Clayton School District. First and foremost, communication lies at the heart of any strong relationship. As teachers, we must be great communicators, make it a priority to reach out to my students' families regularly, not just when concerns arise, but also communicate the good things.

Whether through emails or phone calls, I share the achievements, milestones, and moments of pride that the students experience. By doing so, I am not only celebrate their success, but also strengthen the bonds of trust, partnership with their families. It is essential to set high expectations for our students, but these expectations must also be realistic. I believe in challenging our students to reach their full potential by understanding that each student has their own unique abilities and challenges.

By providing the right balance of support and encouragement, I ensure that our expectations are not just aspirations but attainable goals. These goals come from my opinions, observations, communication, the students, and their realistic goals after leaving high school. Equally crucial is the idea of working as a team in our students' learning path. Education is a collective effort involving teachers, administrators, board staff, and of course the students and their families.

Open communication is the cornerstone of this teamwork. I regularly engage in transparent and meaningful conversations about where their students are, what we believe collectively will make them successful, and how we can work together to achieve those goals. To truly understand our students and their needs, I believe we must go beyond academics. I strive to learn more about our students as individuals, but also their interests.

What do they enjoy doing outside the classroom? What are their dreams and aspirations? Thank you. Thank you, Adrian.

Stacey Simmons. It gonna make me cry now Good evening Thank you for having me I am a mom to two daughters both of whom have experience with special school district So not just one of my children but both of my children have. My oldest, who is a graduated, has ADHD and anxiety. And when we got to the high school level, we really saw things that stuck out to us that this isn't working.

She's never really liked school. She's struggled. She was diagnosed in kindergarten. So it's Long journey.

But we got into just as simple as a 504 plan through the special school district and accommodations that really helped her. And she got through, graduated 2021, not the best of 2020 and 2021 years of graduating, but she made it, did virtual and did it. And that was great. But I think our biggest success story is with our youngest, Michaela, who is now a senior.

We moved here from North Carolina to Missouri for my job and for a promotion. When we did it, we researched schools. We researched special school district. We picked where we wanted to live based on the school district and the research that we did and everything because where we came from was horrible.

It was horrible. But when we did that, we did it in her very first year. We saw so much academic growth, so much personal growth. If you know anything about children with Down syndrome, they are so outgoing and so loving that they don't always understand the things like bullying and whatnot.

But the school district here understands that and really helps to teach the other students and everyone that too. Just her academic growth and the peers that she made here that first year were great. Two things really stand out that we have really fond memories of from elementary. In fourth grade, they did the wax museum and research on a famous Missourian.

Michaela did absolutely astounding and amazing with that presentation. I don't know, Melissa, if you remember that one, but I was so amazed and stunned at that. And then when she did fifth grade graduation, they do little speeches. I'm like, she's never going to do this.

We were practicing at home, and she wasn't doing great. She blew through it like it was a champ, and it was like nothing. I'm like, okay, got this. Continuing through middle school, she got into sports.

She got into other things. She does all of her electives with traditional kids. She's pulled out for her academics. She's played four years of field hockey, three years of soccer.

She's in her third year of cheer now. So she's been very successful. She's also gained independent skills and learned a lot of things. Is she perfect child?

No, none of our children are. But the special school district, the teachers, the communication, the collaboration that goes on here has been absolutely tremendous. She should be included just as much as any other student should be included. You just have to find the ways to include them, and I think this school district and special school district has done really great.

The IEP process has been fantastic. We make adjustments. We make tweaks. If something's not progressing, well, tell me a little bit more about why it's not.

So the communication that Adrian spoke to, it's very, very key. And I just want to say thank you. This school district has been the best, and for anyone who ever asked me, I'm always going to recommend this school district for here because we researched it and we absolutely love it. Thank you, Stacey.

Kate Pavlison. Good evening. I'm Kate Pavlison. I am the instructional coach for Special School District in the School District of Clayton.

This is my 16th year in the School District of Clayton. In the past seven years, I've been in a role outside of the classroom supporting teachers. This has given me a chance to work directly with teachers across the district. Many of those special education teachers are here tonight, and I appreciate being here with them as they are so dedicated to students.

As an instructional coach, I have many conversations about what is working and what could work better. These teachers continually show willingness and openness to grow as educators because of their commitment to student success. Because of the community of learning within the School District of Clayton and the leadership of Melissa Logan, I'm able to not only support these teachers through coaching conversations, but by being in their classrooms on a daily basis. This provides me the opportunity to know the students on an individual level and have an opportunity as well to have relationships with these families.

I believe this is integral to the work I do and it's the part I love the most. Although I'm proud to work for Special School District, I do not think of what I do here in the School District of Clayton as a silo to my work for Special School District. Everything I do is intertwined with the administrators and the staff of the School District of Clayton. As frequently as I am coaching and supporting special education teachers I coaching and supporting general education teachers the teachers of the School district of Clayton We are collaborating on how to help students through instruction accommodations and modifications in their classes and we are planning to ensure the accessibility and success for all students.

I am a part of this cohesive commitment to student success. Over the past several months, I've attended each of the special education community forums and the previous board meeting and many conversations about special education that have taken place. During these meetings, I've listened carefully to the feedback shared by some parents. I've spent a lot of time thinking about their concern around communication.

We've been collaborating as a team with administrators, teachers, and families to begin and continue to better the system to ensure that each family is receiving the types of communications that they need. I relish in the idea of continuous improvement and know we can always do better. And we appreciate the feedback that we've gotten from all the changes we've made already. Hearing from parents is critical as the partnership between schools and families is essential for student success.

Thank you guys for your continued conversations about special education in the School District of Clayton. I believe these conversations allow us to highlight the amazing students that receive special education services and it allows us to explore those opportunities to do better for these students. Thank you for taking this time to think about, talk about, learn about special education as we partner to create a place for everyone in the School District of Clayton. Thank you.

Zachary Hamdy. Hi. Hi, I'm Zach. I'm a Clayton High School graduate from the class of 2023.

And I had an IEP and I was in the quest program. And I gotta say it helped me out tremendously. Like, I mean, high school is rough for everyone. But when you have like, some stuff on top of that, it was really nice to have support and to have a team of people who care in my corner.

And like, if I started to slip, slip behind academically, like, we'd sit down and make a plan on how I'd get caught up and like, cross the finish line. And like, I don't know, it's just, I think I've grown a lot over the past few years. And I couldn't have done that without the support that I received. Thank you for sharing your story.

All right, thank you to all of our speakers tonight. We appreciate your feedback. And I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Patel.

Okay, thank you and good evening, everyone. Thank you, everyone, for coming out and giving your public comments. Just a couple of things that I do want to touch base on in regards to Gayfield. Yes, you're right.

We do have a sound engineer on site. They've taken readings. They're going to give us the results, and we're going to make sure that we're following county ordinances. So please know that we are working on it, and we definitely want to be good neighbors on that.

We'll be communicating with the superintendent and Steve Hudson, our athletic director. And thank you, everyone else, for coming here and sharing your thoughts as well. So in regards to my update tonight, the first thing is it is October. So we do this every single year and we want to make sure we recognize Missouri Disability History and Awareness Month.

Each of our buildings with their PAC ed leadership will be having different events throughout this month. And then at the next board meeting, we'll have an official recognition for that. So I do want to highlight that. In addition, we had some great news from Captain Elementary.

I know they're cheering back there. We just surprised the Emerson Excellence in Teaching Award winner who happens to be a second grade teacher Amanda Ketzer at Captain Elementary She has been with us for over 20 years And when we were reading some of the nomination Superroportionate Proposition O levy agenda motion carried Great time. But we have about 100 educators, kindergarten through college, that are recognized for this award in the St. Louis region.

And she was one of our recipients. So a huge congratulations to her. And then also, it being October, believe it or not, it is National Principals Month. We had a principals meeting and I said, hey, guys, congratulations.

It's Principals Month. And they're like, we didn't even know that. So I do want to make sure we highlight them. I've always believed that the building principle is the key to transforming a school district.

That what they do truly does make an impact with their staff and their students and the vision setting. And I appreciate the fact that they're always willing to have a growth mindset. I know I push them sometimes. We challenge each other, but we're in it together.

So I really appreciate their leadership as well. And then finally tonight, you will be hearing. We're going to give you another update on the Special School District Partnership update. We were here at last board meeting, and the board meeting asked us to add a few more things.

So we're going to be here, and we're going to share all that information. The three specific things that you asked to see was, one, was the data or the sources of evidence for some of the things that we've put into the agreement. So we have that added into the agreement as part of the addendum. The next thing was the ability to be able to amend the agreement throughout the year as needed when we give updates.

So that's been added on there. And then the final thing was the ability to have a conversation regarding staffing. If we had any kind of concerns, we were able to amend that and have conversations about that. And that already existed in the agreement.

So we want to make sure we highlight that. And then also we did secure a third-party facilitator who is going to be actually coming with our community engagement forum tomorrow night on the Zoom meeting. So we're going to introduce her at that point, and she will be taking the lead on the conversations leading up to that. Her name is Thurma Deloche, and she retired from Kirkwood School District around 2013.

She had spent about 12 to 13 years there as the Executive Director over Special Services. Prior to that, she was in Wentzville School District for 12 years. She was the Assistant Superintendent over Special Services. So she comes in with a lot of experience, a lot of different perspectives, and she's done a lot of facilitating work with this kind of conversations.

So we're looking forward to having her help us be better. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. And one of the things that we have focused on, and we've heard that from the beginning, is accountability. And we have put that measures in place.

So if we realize something is not happening, maybe at the building level or in the classroom level, we have a system that we can quickly address that. And that is what we're committed to, in addition to the action steps that we're going to focus in on, in addition to parent input and getting survey results twice a year. So we can continue to get the feedback to be better. So with that, we'll be hearing that presentation later on today.

And then I am going to hand it over to Mohini, who is our student rep. Hi, everybody. This week, as many of you probably know, it's homecoming week, and nothing more bonds students and teachers and faculty together than right now participating in theme days and sports and everything that's really going on. Hopefully the juniors will win the Golden Greyhound, but we'll see.

And overall, everyone's really spirited and excited. And most recently, you know, regarding football, for example, we have the Brentwood-Clayton team coming together, and everyone is so excited to see their team win and us to finally get some good football this year. And also, last night we had an orchestra concert, and one thing that, you know, really reminds me Me about orchestra is how a lot of the students who participate in orchestra now have been doing so since the elementary school and the middle school. And it really highlights the Clayton path for them.

And it's a lot of technical skill and art and practice that goes into it. And so it's really great to see that, you know, they're able to follow up now in high school and participate in that program. And the orchestra program also takes a lot of time to put everyone in the same category. We have concert and symphonic, which is different skill levels.

They still take the time to play a piece together, and it's really great to see the orchestra program doing well in the high school. And then also I went to the recent Teaching and Learning Advisory Council, and there we talked a lot about teaching professional learning days. And when it comes to students, we really feel that students feel the effects in the classroom. And so we, other than, you know, like the day off we get during teaching and learning, we definitely agree that, you know, if it plays a role in our current studies and grades, it's really important to us that, you know, that's what teachers are learning and that's what effect and impression it's having on the students.

And then finally, you know, on a more serious note, recently we've been seeing, you know, international tragedies right now. And this especially hits hard in Clayton community because a lot of people have family who are directly impacted. And so students have overall felt what I've talked to and we've really seen in history classes, for example, teachers really speaking up and facilitating conversations that, you know, Clayton is extremely welcoming and ultimately educational place That people can turn to existence whenever they need during these troubling times. And Clayton is really proving that right now, especially, they can provide support they need for students.

But yeah. All right. Thank you. We're going to go on to learn an update on the special school School District Partnership Agreement.

Thank you for having us this evening so that we can provide the updates to our partnership from last board meeting. Here at the table we have Dr. Weins, myself, Melissa Logan, and Dr. Keenan, the superintendent of Special School District.

And a lot of teachers and parents that we appreciate their support tonight of coming out. So, what did we do? So within our purpose of our partnership update, it was to increase our knowledge and awareness of expectations for all parties, Inclusive and collaborative approach guides our conversations and share out our progress in several areas. Within that, you can see our organizational chart.

And at the bottom is our classroom teachers, our special ed case managers, and our instructional coach. Those are really the go-to people that really know what's happening in the schools and can provide you with knowledge. Above that is our principals, who also are full of knowledge and work and collaboration. Then myself, working with the principals, the teachers, and the instructional coach.

Then we have Dr. Wiens and Dr. Moore that also support us at the administration level, and then Dr. Patel and Dr.

Keenan. We couldn't do the work without them, and they are additional supports. And one of the reasons we wanted to highlight this tonight, we didn't present this to you last week, was to also demonstrate as part of this process that we've been going through Over the last couple months that we're really committed to an integrated level of support where both administrators from the School District of Clayton are collaborating closely, not just with our School District of Clayton staff and administrators, but also with Melissa Logan and the administrators over at Special School District to increase accountability and our ability to build capacity around monitoring our progress, especially in some of the baseline areas and focus areas that are outlined in the updated agreement. So, I wanted to quickly review what was some of the feedback that we have received over the last 8 to 12 months and have learned as we have worked both individually with families and through our community engagement forums.

So, the two main themes from the feedback that we received from parents was around improving communication and improving the personalization For the services and the communication that families were receiving as it related to their students needs And so as it relates to communication one of the major ideas was our families need more pathways to provide feedback to special school district and to the school district of Clayton And so one of the ideas that's listed as an action step is to develop a family-facing survey that we could administer two times a year and be able to share that information back out with our community and also help inform any changes or mid-course corrections that we want to make to our action steps. Another theme in terms of pathways for feedback is families were asking for more regular updates on data trends at both the individual and the system level. So really wanting to know how has their student skill level, especially as progress towards goals, has changed over time. And then also as an entire school district, our students who are receiving special education services, how has their performance changed over time?

And so we have a plan on how we can better share that on a more frequent basis as that data becomes available with both teams of the school district and obviously all of our stakeholders. Thank you. We have thought and reflected more critically on what does that transition process look like, what will it look like in the coming semesters, and then also what does the beginning of the school year look like for our families who are transitioning. And then another piece that we value that came from the feedback was the professional learning for our staff.

And so we have been looking more closely about how we can use our professional learning time to support advanced training in social emotional behavior support, post high school pathways for students, charting the life course, which we hosted in the middle of September, and then other sessions that we'll offer later in the year related to supporting students with diagnoses of ADHD and autism. And then at our last board meeting, the board also provided us with feedback. And some of those asks included adding baseline data for each of the seven categories, which has been added to our partnership agreement, including highlighting the staff evaluation piece, which falls under category one, section six. And then also affirmation and confirmation that we would have the ability to amend the action steps in the partnership agreement in the future, which we plan to do because we do consider it a living, breathing document.

And as we start responding to the different data sources that we plan to roll out in the coming months, that we know that will inform some changes that need to happen as well. So within that, where are some of the changes? So data added evidence for each category was done under staffing. So you will see we added school district of Clayton parent engagement survey as evidence by.

We also have SSD and partner district administrators will collaborate on the identification of performance-based evaluation components to determine a plan of action should performance issues arise with staff was already put in place in the document. Another area is we're looking at our overall student performance, academic and discipline. We have those under evidence-based areas there for the last two years. And then least restrictive environment, that data too, we have provided where we are with that.

And then within our staffing evaluation, as I mentioned, we have that collaboration with the principals And then amending the agreement of the addendum is also put into place. You will see that that is under this partnership agreement is a living document as we will evaluate progress on goals and adjust accordingly. And we also added it to the addendum piece where the educational partnership agreement is a living document with action steps that will evolve throughout the year. The data table below shows and illustrates the current state of the categories as outlined in the agreement and will serve as a baseline for measuring continuous improvement and information informing any mid-course corrections that we need to support and make progress on.

Our next update will be February 2024 We will come back and give you update on academic and disciplinary areas And between now and our visit in February we will be sharing information with our families and with our central office teams about our progress toward those goals. Any questions? Questions? Comments?

Yeah, go ahead. I just wanted to say thank you for taking our feedback, Especially at Kim's suggestion, I think it was, for including that baseline data, it just makes it so much more clear for us to see where we stand now. And then when we get the update, we'll better be able to understand how far we've come or not. But I think it will just help us and help you to better direct us, you know, what we need to be doing better.

So that part especially I appreciate, so thank you very much. And it was educational also for me to even just see this now in here where we stand in certain areas, so thank you. I just also, I will echo what Stacey said. I also want to thank the three of you really for being willing to engage in hard conversations and be willing to make us better partners and most importantly to do better for our children.

So we appreciate it. The board appreciates it. And I think Chris wants to say something too. I have a couple things.

Can you tell us and for all the folks that are watching what it is that how you'll be updating folks on how things are going? You said, you know, before February, you'll still have a good communication about, you know, what's going on, etc. What will that look like? So I send out monthly newsletters to our families and our teachers and our building principals.

So that's where I'll be able to gather like our data story of where we are in the fall, where we are in the winter, and give those updates to the families so they see the big picture of where their students are. And also they can ask their teacher, their case managers, too, how they're doing. And we're really going to tie into using Educlimber to really show the big picture of the data, too. And also I wanted to add that we are planning on having more community engagement forums.

And depending on the calendaring of those meetings, plus when data becomes available and when we've had time to take a look at it, share it with all of our building administrators and, you know, any more specific actions that's come out of that, that we've gotten their feedback and our teacher feedback so we can present it back out to our families. Great. Great. And if I may say something about, we've had three meetings so far with our families, and we're going to continue to work with the facilitator after tomorrow's session, and then we'll kind of continue our meetings as they're available, making it an ongoing continuous improvement process.

So they will be a part of this process so that when we update in February, their input will be provided in that, in our documents. Great. Thank you. So given all the work that has been done on this and the fact that you've, I've, again, like Amy, really appreciate that you've taken in the feedback from all of us as well as so many parents and teachers, et cetera.

You know, after talking to Amy and Nisha about this more, I'm the board member who works with, you know, the SSD Governing Council. And I think that it really makes the most sense for us to not take a vote on this agreement as a board. I think we just need to reevaluate whether a board really should be making a vote on something like this. And I feel really comfortable, and we all feel comfortable doing that, because of what we've set in place in terms of the communication, the feedback, the fact that we know that this is evergreen, the fact that we're going to continue to hear from you.

It does feel like we've set a new course, sort of, in the way that we work with our families, and that, to me, feels like a great place to start. So I just wanted to let parents know, you know, we originally thought that we were going to take a vote this meeting, but I don't think that that is the right move to make at this time. I want to just add to what Chris said I don want the lack of a vote to indicate a lack of interest on the part of the board It actually the opposite The lack of a vote is because I think in the past this board unaware of all of the issues positive and negative that have been raised by the community existed meant that in the past this board had been raising questions about the lack of a vote is because I think in the past this board unaware of all of the issues positive and negative that have been raised by the community existed meant that in the past it was mostly performative That's my words, not the board's words. And we don't want this to be a performative vote in terms of an evergreen agreement.

What we want is what I think we're starting to get, which is the information you provided after what was last week, Which I know is probably one of the tougher meetings that you've had here with this board. And I personally really appreciate the transparency. Even the links to the surveys that you have in here with the additional information gives us as a board, and I'll speak for myself, An opportunity to become more educated ourselves on what the status is of the current support that all of our students in our district are receiving jointly from SSD. And so, again, I want to reassure the parents here that have come tonight that the lack of a board vote is not because of a lack of interest in this.

It's exactly the opposite. And what we're looking forward to is hearing back from SSD and the district in February when you have your next update to see how much progress you're making along these goals that you've now shared with us. The only thing I'll add that just hasn't been shared yet. So first of all, I'll add my thank you.

So you guys put some work into this. I really appreciate it. But I just want to thank the parents, you know, everyone who spoke tonight and those who spoke constructively last week. And I think everyone who's been a part of this process over the past however many months has made this district better and this board better and more aware.

And I, you know, just sort of reiterates the power of sort of showing up and getting your three minutes for this meeting. So anyone who's watching at home or who's thought about speaking at a board meeting, this is a good example of how you can actually change the course of district policy. So that's it. Yeah.

Sorry, Gary. So, and I would just add to that also, there's lots of ways that people communicate with us without necessarily coming to board meetings, too. And so that's all part of the process. I echo all of this.

And just a little bit of context, I think, to Kim's point about the lack of taking a definitive vote or, you know, adopting an agreement. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. This is another party's responsibilities. This is an expression of shared goodwill and intention and principles that we think we believe in, and we need to express the ways that we're going to be measuring those intentions or progress towards those intentions in a way that's workable.

We need this. I don't mean to be dismissive about it. But when someone who writes contracts, that's often a tool that's used to put something in place that then is ignored because there's sort of a legal backstop that you don't have to worry about the way the parties are interacting because the contract tells them what they have to do or don't have to do. That's not the situation that we're in with this document or this guidance or these expressions.

So I'm sort of repeating what you're saying. Don't take this as, well, this isn't important because we're not taking a vote on it. We're not hammering out every, you know, I want one more thing. I want to get one more thing for my side or the other.

That's not what this is like. So it doesn't mean that. I appreciate all of your efforts to make us more aware and hold us. This is our job to be managing this too.

It's not just the administrators and the teachers and SSD and Clayton. It's our responsibility too. And for us to learn more about it, this has accomplished that. So I think that's really helpful.

So yeah, thanks for the engagement and for being here multiple times, everyone, and having the attention to this. I also wanted to add one more thing. First of all, I just wanted to thank all of the parents who have shared feedback with us for the last several months via email coming up to our community engagement forums for the folks who are going to be logging in tomorrow and all the folks who have taken the time to email all of our teachers and paras and building administrators about what's working and what can be approved upon. I appreciate their commitment in holding us accountable to making sure that we're delivering a high quality education to their students.

And I also wanted to take a moment to thank all of our staff, both special education staff and our general education staff, for all the ways they show up for all of our students who have disabilities or are receiving services. There are so many different folks who play such important roles in every single one of our students' days, from our paraprofessionals to our crossing guards to our lunch staff to our social workers, classroom teachers, case managers, itinerant service providers. There are so many different people, and I know I probably accidentally left out a few. And I also want to thank our building-level administrators for being so engaged in these transformative conversations and for having a growth mindset alongside Melissa and I and really being all in in helping us improve and really helping us process what these action steps are actually going to look like and what will things look like when we know we're being successful.

Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. You all know that all of us are very much in support of making some really incredible improvements for our families. Awesome. Well, I just want to say thank you all for listening to what the parents had to say, because it's very important.

Listen to what the parents have to say, and don't do layups. Don't be laissez-faire with their children's education. Make sure we give them the best because they have hope for their kids and you never know what's going to happen, right? And, yeah, that's it.

I appreciate what you all did with the document. Everything we asked for, I think, so far is in there. And, once again, just keep listening to the parents. And parents, keep emailing the board and whomever you need to email to get what you want done.

All right? So thank you all. Okay, thank you. Again, thank you to all three of you for being here.

Again, and we appreciate your time. Okay, so we are on consent items, so I'm going to ask Gary to read us a motion. I move that the Board of Education approve the consent agenda. Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Are there any questions or comments? All in favor? Aye.

Any opposed? And that passes. And it's going to be a short board meeting tonight. So we on to board communications already Gary do you have any Jason says yes Paul Thanks for talking about it Okay good Well then Jason do you want to go You can go last Thank you I don't know how many or if any other people were on the Friday new professional learning district advocacy call that happened for the first time last Friday.

It was definitely a little different and reflected a lot of work by Luke and Jay Hockman and Dr. Patel, I think, and other people, too. So I don't know how many of the people were on there, but I was listening in and hearing about all that. So I think that's going to be a good tool for lots of districts going forward as we think about a new legislative session not far away.

Do we have plans this year to do some, have some more meetings around what's going on and bills that are being proposed and for us to learn about all of that good stuff as a board? I was going to say, these meetings are... No, I mean just so that the community, just for us to be able to discuss it at the board table or learn, all of us just to kind of have a debriefing on what's going on. I know in years past we've invited some folks to share with us.

I don't know if anybody would be interested in something like that again. I think we've kind of been a little bit reactive the last couple years as far as when something was happening, but we could schedule something before the session starts. A lot of bills get filed early. I think that's definitely something that can happen.

I was not, I didn't have anything to do with what was happening on Friday, so I was just listening. I didn't know what all they were going to present, Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Oh, okay. I didn't know.

I know you've been on like 12 walkthroughs. You've been on a bunch of walkthroughs and you've done a lot of things. You guys went through walkthroughs and Chris and Stacy and... Yeah, we did walkthroughs today at Y-Down.

And you guys did the high school, I think, last week. Yeah. Captain. Well, I didn't go to the high school.

But I will say, it's been really helpful for me. It's just really nice to be able to see the kids in action, sort of refocus yourself on why we do what we do. And so I encourage everyone to sign on up. That's my promo.

Yeah. I just want to add just a little more color and context to our walkthroughs No you did great Jason That like one of the things we had just approved in the consent agenda was the construction of the wellness center at the high school And Chris and Kim and I were able to see the space. And Dr. Kachewski kind of walked us through what the room would look like.

And it has been very well thought out, very intentional about how the space will be used. And it's a bigger space than I even was imagining. And so I'm really physically seeing it really helped me and, of course, envision it and got me really excited for it. It's an exterior wall, and they're going to break through and make some high up level transom windows so there's natural light.

There's an exterior door. They're going to have it frosted glass or some kind of glass so you can't see who's in there to protect for anonymity's sake. Anyway, so that was a really cool thing I think we saw in the high school walkthrough. Thank you.

Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. At all grade levels now, our elementary schools, middle schools, and the high school, obviously, are celebrating Homecoming Week, not just the high school. Like, they're all doing dress-up days. It was fun to see the teachers, like, really into it, like, even in character almost, which was really fun.

So I think that helps build community in our district, too, when everyone's rallying around celebrating the same thing. And I wanted to add to today also at Glen Ridge, Dr. Nisha and Chris and I participated in a first grade panel about decision makers. So the three of us were there as well as Dr.

Murdoch, the principal, another first grade teacher, and Dr. Halsher from the high school. And these first graders were able to, we played a little game, kind of like who makes what decision in the district. Like, they would guess who decides it's a snow day, who decides on the lunch menus, who decides on our schedule or the playground or whatever.

But the kids were so engaged and excited. We were supposed to do a whole second part, but they were so into it that the teacher said, let's just keep going. And it was really fun to see and to participate in. And I think Chris and Dr.

Patel would probably say the same thing. So anyway, it was fun at all levels the last couple weeks to see the students so engaged in learning. That's it. Awesome.

All right. Does anybody have anything else? Go ahead I don have any updates for governing council or for the Wellness Committee I haven been to another meeting since our last meeting but what happening Do you guys hear that? I'm going to turn it off.

But I wanted to just reiterate that these walk-throughs have been great. I'm very excited about the Wellness Center. It's really happening. It's really happening for our students and it's...

So yeah, the other thing I want to say is that I was at the concert last night. It's great work, and I'm so glad that you highlighted the amazing strengths for young that we have in this district. It's phenomenal. My kids have benefited so much from all of the arts in this district.

But you said that we come at the Bordershank. You're right. So many of those kids go from fourth grade all the way to seniors, having played an instrument because of this amazing program that we have. We'll never understand all the possibilities of the program.

There are so many. So I'm really, I appreciate that as a student, as a parent, you certainly have seen this. So, yeah, wonderful job in your performance. Yeah, and also, I don't know if this is going to, oh, yeah.

Yeah, someone who does a walk through the Clayton High School pretty much every day. The Wellness Center, for example, people are really excited about that. I know, like, whenever, you know, we've got the new library. Everyone just really loves to use all the resources Clayton has.

And there's like no stigma around it, and everyone's really excited. And I think it's going to go really well. All students. Yay.

That's great. And then besides football going well or better than it has historically gone, we have some other sports wins for high school within the last month. So both the girls' tennis and the girls' golf teams are going to state. And the softball team just won conference championship as well.

So I know we're going to need a bigger sports trophy case. That's the other thing we noticed when we were going through the high school is we have cases full of academic awards, like almost overflowing. We have really a sad little sports case, but it's getting bigger. All right, awesome.

What was I thinking? Oh, Stacy brought up homecoming. I'm just going to ask one question. I'm going to say this aloud.

Dr. Powell is probably going to be angry with me after the board meeting because I'm going to put her on the spot. So for homecoming, what do we have in place to make sure that our kids are safe and nobody's showing up with alcohol or drinking and driving? And don't we have, like, detectors all over the place and stuff so Mahini can go back and tell everybody?

Oh, yeah. Yes. Yes, we do. We will make sure everyone is safe and we have protocols in place.

Very good. All right. All right, everybody. Everybody will thank you and have a good evening.