April 24, 2024

Machine-generated transcript — may contain errors.

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

Thank you. Thank you. We ready, Luke? We're ready.

Okay. Time to say the pledge. Everyone would like to join. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, To the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Okay, adequate notice has been given. Let's adopt the agenda, please. I move that we adopt the agenda. Second.

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

Okay, next, 2.01, recognizing our own, Luke. All right, good evening. I get the privilege of introducing our academic challenge engineering and science students and their sponsors, so I'm going to invite them up and turn it over to Mr. Beck.

Thank you. And thanks for having us. ACES stands for the Academic Challenge for Engineering and Science. It was held at Eastern Illinois University last week.

There were 29 schools who competed in that event. These schools had qualified in regional and sectional rounds, so there was a lot more schools involved in the whole competition. Students take tests in seven different categories biology chemistry computer science engineering graphics English math and physics And the students that were on our team by the way we came in second place And the team consisted of Nate Brown Vilma Buckley Carter Davis Sahil Doshi Kian Ektasadi Tiana He Logan Hewitt Lava Nyamani Hannah Moon Catherine Nguyen Yaya Saeed Evan Vallo Hannah Yurkovich and Sophia Yang We had individual awards were given to top five finishers in each category. And in just introduce him here.

So in second place in English was Lava Yomani. Nate Brown, yeah, Nate Brown placed third in computer science, and he is homesick today. In chemistry, we had Yaya Saeed tied for third, and he is doing a viola recital tonight. These kids do everything, so I'm surprised.

We're happy to have anybody here. Sahil Doshi tied for third place in chemistry, and Logan Hewitt came second in chemistry. Congratulations. That is quite a trophy.

Very impressive. All right. Wait, we'll wait to get in. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. All right. Are we ready? Thank you.

Congrats again. Very impressive. Okay. Superintendent Communications, Dr.

Patel. Or, Luke, sorry, do we have any public comment? We do not. Okay.

Thank you. So I do want to let the students know, oh, never mind. There you go. You are fielded free to go.

That's what I was going to say. You don't have to sit here for the whole time. But thank you for being here. Congratulations again.

I didn't know if they wanted to spend the whole evening with us tonight, but apparently not. They were like, we're done. Out of here. Hello, everyone.

I can't believe it's April. It's fast and furious. The last couple of months of school, there's a lot of events happening. First one I just wanted to highlight, I know it's been a few weeks, but Luke, if you don't mind, if you can get to that slide for me, thank you, is our prom.

We had prom a couple of weeks ago, and it was held at the Smith, which is the motorcycle museum. And that was actually a location that the students picked. So we had about 350-ish students in attendance. The night was great.

We got really good feedback. And the best news, there were no discipline issues that we had to deal with. We usually wait for at least 24 to 48 hours before we hear anything. We were all clear.

So great event. And I know we had, the kids had a lot of fun at that. So wonderful seeing some pictures. And I really want to thank Tashaun, Regina, Drew at the high school who really puts all this together.

And of course, all the staff that volunteer their time and chaffer on this event. So that was another great night. The next one I want to highlight again is at CHS. This was a day of service.

And so we had over 90% of the senior class actually gave back to the community on this day. So the other grade levels had the testing happening and our seniors went out and there was a lot of engaging with younger students. So some of them went to the elementary schools to help there. Some of them were sorting and organizing all kinds of donations.

Spervantage Propriety and Equality So that was a good day for all of our seniors at the high school And then the next event that been happening that I wanted to highlight was our Clayton Education Foundation They had their Alumni Association Induction Hall of Fame over the weekend And the Friday night we had about 10 new inductees into the Hall of Fame that are Clayton graduates And we also honored four distinguished educators And if you haven been to one of those so Friday night we had It was at the high school, and they got formally inducted, and then Saturday night was the gala where we basically celebrated them. But if you haven't had a chance, and we do this every two years, the stories that you hear and the journeys that our students who graduated from here and how they're changing the world is amazing. Spervantage, the distinguished educators who were a part of Clayton for years and years, and the stories that they have also. It's just inspiring to be a part of that.

So if you haven't had a chance in two years, it will be here again. So hopefully you get to be a part of that. And I want to thank especially the Clayton Education Foundation for putting this together for us. They've put a lot of work and effort into this.

And just yesterday, another part of it, we don't have a slide for it, but we were part of the price patrol from the Clayton Education Foundation who gave away over, I want to say, around $30,000 or $35,000 worth of just grants to our staff members. So we went to all three elementary schools and we went to the high school and surprised the staff members who won those awards. So that's a really good feel good as well. So our foundation does a lot of work for us and I appreciate them.

Legislative update, I'm sure you've all heard, I know you've gotten emails about this, but Senate Bill 727, which started off with like a 12-page bill, ended up being a 167-page bill, is now headed to the governor's office to be signed into law. Some of the things that were a part of it was one of them was increasing teacher beginning salaries from, hard to believe this, but from $20,000 to a minimum of $40,000, just the starting pay. Another part that was impacting is the state funding formula and how they're going to be counting enrollment as well as attendance into that. Another thing, of course, is expansion of voucher programs.

When we look at the Clayton and our school district, we will have minimal effect. Our teachers start starting teacher salaries a little over $51,000. And then state funding, we don't rely as much on it. But I think for us, what we have to look at is really the idea of public education and where this is going.

So while it may not have any immediate impact on us, I think we need to think about as a board and as a community long-term impacts on different districts. Spervantage, Becomes law. I know there are a lot of districts and there's a push for us to like send letters to the governor in opposition of this to see what he does. And then finally tonight, our one presentation will be on professional learning.

And I'm looking over there because our professional learning coordinator, Janet Cruz and Dr. Garganego will be presenting the work of our professional development committee and all of the professional learning that occurs in our district and even long term goals. They just completed a two-year study. I believe the last time they were here at the board table, I'm trying to believe it was maybe 2017.

So today we'll get an in-depth learning about everything that's happening. And I want to take a moment, I'm going to pause, and I want to thank Janet Cruz. And I know she's going to hate this moment right now. But Janet Cruz has given 25 years to this district.

She is the reason a lot of what you see happening in professional learning in our district. Thank you. I would have been hard for me, but Heike, thank you. It's administrative assistance week and day today, but thank you for everything that you do, not only for the superintendent but also for the board And I was gonna get you flowers but I was like Heike usually you get flowers so I didn want you to get flowers for yourself so I didn get her any flowers So I glad someone got her flowers Well I interrupt and say these flowers are for you from the board Many people maybe don't realize that Heike is not only assistant to Dr.

Patel, but also to all of us on the school board. And she does an incredible job keeping us all organized, reminds us all about our meetings and setting up our meetings and making sure this table and all the details are perfect for us. So we all appreciate everything you do. So thank you.

Okay, Mohi. Hi, everybody. Hope everyone's enjoying their short week. So the first thing I wanted to give an update about was the EOC, specifically biology.

On Monday, the entire junior class took the biology EOC. And I remember a couple weeks ago at another board meeting, we discussed really how accurate these statistics were. And if we were looking at actually represented the people who are taking the test, especially there were like worries that people weren't trying or what kind of effort was going into it. And so first thing off the bat, I talked to honors, regular and AP students of biology.

And when they When they first look at the test, everyone found it pretty much extremely approachable. There wasn't a skill element that they had to jump over in order to actually do the test. So the curriculum was preparing them for it. And so many people actually went on to attempt it because they found that it was something they could actually do.

But further than that, a lot of teachers actually created an incentive to do well on the EOC. They said that if they were to get the scores back in time, they would put it in as a grade if it was better than their current test grade, like currently, right now. And while I don't think that necessarily probably will work out, a lot of kids actually ended up doing their best, trying really hard, because grades are really important at this stage, and it would only have a positive impact. And so a lot of kids took the whole hour to work on it, to do their best on it.

And so I would say in regards to biology, I think this year's scores are probably going to be pretty accurate because of this incentive the teachers gave. And so I think that's definitely a good way to make students try on the EOC while also not, you know, making them worry about studying for it and sacrificing other classes and responsibilities for it. And then my other update was we talked a lot about the Merrimack Elementary Building renovations. And so I brought it to the SBSA, the School Board Student Advisor Council, where we talked to all grades, freshmen to seniors.

And they all come from different elementary schools. So we asked them about, you know, questions that really reflect the idea of what's happening with these renovations. And we first discussed about class sizes. So like in terms of population.

And one group of students, like, it was very divided, actually, in the class. Some believed that, you know, small class sizes is better because, you know, you get the connection with teachers, less distractions, really focusing on the learning. However, you know, some of the seniors were actually pointing out that as a kid they found that they enjoyed bigger classes better because it allowed them to contribute to socializing and getting those key, like, emotional learning skills. And so, especially kids who went to Glenridge, they said because at the time they went there was, like, a lot more kids, they actually found that when they transitioned to Wydown, they could really see the social differences.

I'm not sure if that's necessarily true, but I think there's support on both sides for the population itself. And then we actually looked at class sizes in terms of physical space as well. We discussed it. And a lot of kids felt that other than realistic necessities, obviously, the emotional environment was what's critical, not really the physical confinements.

So we were looking at decorations, the teachers, and what we found that was students value above all else, above class sizes, above the physical confinements, was the teachers themselves. They found that even the best teacher could make anything work. And so I think the main idea of our discussion at the SPSA was, you know, I think Clayton ideas, you know, the small class size and like trying to maintain that. But I think, you know, regardless of whether we're able to maintain it, kids really find that, you know, the overall, you know, well-being of their teachers and how the social environment works can ultimately work regardless of, you know, keeping that specific number.

So we're excited to keep discussing that. Thanks, Mohini. Thanks for bringing that to the advisory. I appreciate the feedback.

That's helpful. Okay. Point zero one, Milena and Tony, speaking of which, Merrimack Elementary building renovations. Oh, sorry, Milena, sorry, professional learning.

I skipped you. Sorry. Mahini was talking about that, and then I jumped right to it. Hello, everyone.

Good evening. So before Janet gets started, I would also like to publicly thank her. I can't do this without crying, so I won't say much. But just publicly thank her.

She's been my partner in crime for many years. So we've been side by side together. And it's big shoes to fill. So that's all I'll say there.

As we move into the professional learning review, this is similar to the content areas when we're doing curriculum review, so with the cycle. So the work is a two-year self-study. We came to the Teaching and Learning Advisory Council for some feedback and some input, and then coming to you tonight with our long-range goals for our work. Some of what you'll see, the presentation tonight will be a little bit more than what we've typically done with the content areas just to provide some perspective and some shared understanding around what we mean when we talk about professional learning and the fact that we have standards similar to content areas, et cetera, but people aren't always as familiar with those.

And so this provides us with an opportunity to share those with you and to give you some context of our work around professional learning because it is something that we consider a hallmark within this district. We put a lot of energy and time into our work around professional learning, and we see a lot of impact on particularly our work is focused on student achievement. And so we feel like there's a direct connection between the work we do with our teachers and our classified staff in supporting our students. So all that being said, I'm going to hand it over to Janet for the presentation, and then we'll take questions afterwards.

So I love any chance to talk about professional learning. It's something I'm super passionate about. And I have Clayton to thank for that because you all gave me the opportunity to really develop that passion that I have in the time that I've been here. So we're just going to give you some highlights from the report that we sent you, the things that we think we really want to make sure that you have a clear understanding about.

The first part is actually a definition of what is professional learning from Learning Forward, which is our international organization. So all the states and several countries really contribute to the work of this organization. So the big ideas here is that it's about the knowledge and skills that the staff, the educational staff need in order to meet the kids' needs, right, helping them to succeed. And then the pieces at the end are really the conditions or the components that are really important to us in terms of it being sustained and intensive so it's not just a one-shot deal.

It's collaborative. It's connected to your job. Anything that can be part of your regular job is going to be more beneficial. It's driven by data, and it's focused on what's going on in the classroom.

When we think about what it's grounded in, that Learning Forward provides standards for us. Just as Melina said, every content has standards, so our program standards are, it was recently updated. So the kind of star shape is new this year. They've identified content standards, processes standards, and then conditions standards.

It's been around for a really long time, but they've really updated it to make it relevant to where we are as a culture, really. And the graphic on the left really just indicates that when you have standards that are guiding the work that you're putting together in terms of professional development, It's going to impact the educators' knowledge and skills and beliefs, which will in turn impact their practice, which will in turn impact the students and their performances. We also have local standards. So these are our standards for professional practice that are part of our evaluation system.

It's what we expect of our teachers. And then they get feedback on those as well. So both those national standards and the local standards guide the kind of professional learning that we're offering. This is our mission statement for professional learning.

This was on the front of the information that you all got. And again, grounded in the stuff that we just looked at. But it really highlights three things. Our goal of the PDC is to create shared understanding between the staff about professional learning planning for the future and then evaluating and assessing the professional learning that we doing seeing if it making a difference And then similar to the work we looked at we believe it comprehensive and sustained and intensive and that it's really about supporting student learning.

As we plan the time that we're allocating for professional learning, there's really three big ideas that we kind of keep in mind. What do we need at the district level? What do we need at the building level? And then what are the content needs?

As the district, when we're planning district professional learning, we're really being guided by the strategic plan and our profile. We decide what's assured, what do we want everybody to experience, like when we have a keynote come in, or is it something that's more differentiated, so there's going to be options for folks to, under one big umbrella, but get what they need. At the building level, again, there's some things that are assured, like participating in a professional learning community is something we want for all of our staff. But there is also differentiated opportunities at the building, again, based on your content, based on your particular job, or based on where you are in your career.

Same thing with content. There are assured activities that happen, and then there's differentiated activities. So there's this balance between all of these pieces. What do we want everybody to experience and what needs to be kind of broken out?

And then those three big kind of buckets definitely influence how we divide up the calendar related to professional learning. In addition to that, of course, we have the strategic plan, which definitely gives us focus areas that are now across the district. In Clayton, all of our teachers want to know how to do everything at the highest level right now. And so over the years, we've struggled with having, as Melina says, our arrows going in lots of directions.

So because everybody wants to investigate and get good at a lot of different things. So the strategic plan that we have now has really helped us to be going in the same direction in terms of our arrows. So every building has goals that match the strategic goal. So there's something around equity, there's something around empowered learning, and there's something around social emotional learning.

So that seems like a small thing, but over the 25 years I've been here, it's taken us that long to get to this point where we can now talk apples to apples instead of apples to oranges. And then our profile has also been a lovely grounding piece for us to be thinking about the students developing those skills, but also our staff developing those skills. So again, it gives us some alignment there. Okay, I just want to think there's something else that I wanted to...

Oh, I know, the data that we collect helps us determine how we prioritize those areas. So when we first kind of rolled out the profile and the strategic plan, we kind of got equal amounts of everything for everyone. But now that we've had them here for a while, we use the data to indicate, okay, do we need to spend a whole day on equity, or do we need to spend multiple days on equity based on the feedback? So what that feedback looks like, we use a system called KickUp that helps us look at teacher perception after an event occurs.

So they fill out surveys. This particular data set you're looking at is from last school year, and it's for all of the events that occurred over that year. And we look at things like we have really good, over the years we've had really good feedback in terms of we're giving them time to reflect and incorporate the learning into their practice, and it's relevant to the roles and the work that they do. It also lets them say, okay, here's where I was in my understanding when I started, and then here's where I am afterwards.

We're looking for growth, obviously, there. So, again, that's reflected in this data. Additionally, we get, there's open responses so they can comment on their connection to their students, they can comment on the connection to their own professional learning growth plan, and then what needs or supports they might need moving forward. And that's something that the PDCs, the content areas really comb through and try to think about how does that impact the next plan that we're going to have.

We're also really excited. We started doing over the last several years, really since the last time we were here, what we call walkthroughs. And this really helps us go from perception to application or implementation. So instead of just saying, here's how I feel after this event, we have teams of teachers at each building who look at their goals.

They look at the PD that they've done related to those goals, and they create indicators of what it would look like if the learning was impacting kids. Then they go into classrooms and teams, and they say, do we see those things happening? And we get that data back. So it really takes us, again, from just how we think it's going to impact to is it really getting to classrooms?

So up here you see in last year we had 467 instances of those walkthroughs throughout the buildings. And we get data like at Glenridge 70 of the teachers observed during that year were observed using PACE very well in their classrooms So having some differentiated opportunities for kids to move through the curriculum At the high school, there was a 58% observed using effective wait time. So we were able to take that back and say, oh, we worked on that, and now we're seeing it happen in classrooms. We can get as specific as we want in terms of what we're looking for.

So, all of this data is from Y-Down, again, looking at how frequently we saw the elements of empowered learning that we'd identified. We're also really excited, this is like happening right now, so you'll see this the next time we come up, but these were very tailored to the individual buildings, but now we have some new data that's across the district. Again, that notion of looking for alignment. So, we have equity walks that have been happening this month, where we looked at equitable learning practices.

We have, what's our other one? Oh, PLC, the PLC learning that's going on across the building. We have that. That's also being collected to see, like, what are the practices that are happening around professional learning communities with teachers.

So this gives us an opportunity to look across the district and not just at the individual buildings. So we still can do the individual school goal building walkthroughs, but this bigger piece kind of gives a broad stroke of what's happening. PDC also, or PD, has state requirements tied to it. So we wanted to just kind of spend a few minutes talking about those.

One is related to the funding, which this has probably the least impact on us here in Clayton. But because not every school district values professional learning the way that we do, there is a requirement that 1% of the funds that they receive from the state are allocated specifically for professional learning. That amount for us is actually pretty small. We spend way beyond that because of what we believe about professional learning.

But this is really important for other school districts because that isn't always true. So we're really glad that exists and it kind of solidifies our place in the program. Program. In addition to that, there are some other things that have to be in place.

One is that we have a professional development committee, that that committee is really teacher-based and actually elected by the teachers, so the representation has to come from the teachers. In addition, we have administrators that we work with as well. The direction from the state says these are the things that we need to be working on as a committee. And we also kind of oversee that there is an induction program for our new teachers, that there's a two-year program that also involves providing and training mentors, and that we use standards to guide the learning that we do, which is why we talked about that already.

And then it also ensures the amount of time that we need to be spending on professional learning. And we also know that research shows that 49 hours and above is what it takes for something to get to the implementation level. So the state requirement is significantly less than that. We work really hard to make sure we're working towards that number.

Right now we have 48 hours of kind of guaranteed professional learning through our PD days. Those have been moved to full days. We used to have early release time, and based on feedback from our families, we've moved to the full-day model. So far that's working great for our teachers, and we hope that's also working great for families as well.

That doesn't include all of the PD that we do. There are definitely other things that happen in addition, everything from summer institutes to umbrella meetings, which are where teachers across the district from the same grade level get together. There are staff meetings that's used for, sometimes for professional learning. And then there's things that happen during the school day, like plan times where PLCs meet and that sort of thing.

So it's just really guaranteeing that as a district, we have these eight days that we've really guaranteed for professional learning. So here is where we're headed for our goals. The goals that we've proposed for the next four or five years are as follows. We want to continue that emphasis on the strategic plan.

There are some specifics in the action steps that we're looking at, like really fine-tuning some components of that, defining what that looks like in practice. We also have been doing the PLC model, which for a very long time, and most districts do, that notion of teachers coming together, creating common assessments that's related to their curriculum and getting that data back and saying, what is it telling us about what the kids are learning, and then making adjustments for either a whole class or individual or students that need something a little bit different. What we have found though is that the implementation of that has been uneven over the years sometimes due to clarity of the processes or the skills related to that So we really leaned hard into that this year and there are some things we want to continue with as we kind of we calling it a reboot on the process Spervantage We developed some protocols around observing practice, so teachers going into each other's classrooms to learn and give feedback. COVID kind of put a little bit of a damper on that because people weren't going into each other's spaces, and so we're trying to get back to where we were, which was every building having an opportunity to do that.

We were just talking about that at the high school today, that in order for us to calibrate our own teaching, you have to see somebody else doing it. And we really learn a lot from that process. So we really want to get that back going again. And then finally, just this last one is an acknowledgment that this is a really complex job.

It has a lot of variables and a lot of pressures, internal and external. We want to make sure that we're working hard to align the work to make it meaningful, but also to make sure that people don't feel overwhelmed. We think if we put these things into place that we'll have several things occur. The first one is that alignment piece that I've mentioned a couple of times.

That's alignment of processes, systems between the school and the district, and it's really going to allow us to look at efforts across the district. It'll help us keep our focus on the same endpoints, so we're all moving in the same directions. It'll hold us accountable to the improvements that we want to put into place and the efforts that we're committing to. It's going to allow us to go deeper with the work that we're doing and with a few things as opposed to going surface with a lot of things.

And then finally it'll give us an opportunity to share, to observe all the great things that are happening in the district and And seek out inspiration externally to push us and keep challenging us. In terms of next steps, we have a summer leadership retreat. We've, over the last couple of years, really turned that into, it used to be in August, kind of to kick off the year. We pushed it up earlier, and people really have liked that notion of having some planning time early, so that when the buildings meet, because all the buildings meet in the summer to, again, look at the year ahead, Look back at the data and then look ahead at what we want to plan.

They like having that district kind of clarity first. So we want to maintain that. We're going to be onboarding a new director of professional learning. And all of the different organizations, the committees, will have a chance to look at the goals that we've put into place and the action steps and prioritize first steps.

Thank you. So what questions do you have? Thank you. Okay, I think I'm going to call on everyone in a random order today.

Chris, I'm going to start with you. Thank you. A couple things. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you and amazing presentation. I really felt like I got a really clear picture of what you guys are doing, what your intention is around what you're doing, how you measure it, all of that. I was really happy that you have the specific action steps like you always do.

So to me, I don't have a ton of questions. So I feel really good about what's going on. My one thought, I have maybe two thoughts. Okay, so some of the required, we talked about how the required state training has been increasing.

On page four, it talks about dyslexia, active shooter, suicide prevention, McKinney-Vento Act. These are all face-to-face trainings. So when did those happen? Are those on PD days that those are happening?

Generally, no. So generally they're happening during staff meetings. So we work with the principals to determine the best time for it to happen, mainly site-based. What I will say is that we see staff meetings also as professional learning times.

So it is eating into our professional learning time. It's just not eating into the 48 hours that we have on the calendar. But it is taking up Time that normally would be used for PLCs to meet or for building PD to happen or something like that. Where we can, with some of those trainings, build them into content-specific things.

So the dyslexia piece, I think, is a good example of something that can be built into content-specific things. Then it feels like it's more applicable. Some of the other things are just things that we have to do. Exactly.

It's really depressing when we put out all the calendar, Spervantage, Propriety, and Equality. And so that's also a component of, like, when we think about professional learning, we don't see those things as professional learning, but we understand that they're necessary. So they're a necessary part of our work, but it's not about learning as much as understanding legal components, et cetera, that we need to know in order to do our jobs well. So we don't necessarily push against that as long as it's not pulling from learning time in a significant way.

I think one of the things that we're pretty cognizant of is the fact that the state continues to add more and more on, and things don't come off the plate. So, like, if I think, you know, 10 years ago, we weren't doing the number of hours that now we're doing annually. Exactly. And how does that work?

Does the state give you specific instruction on what to teach, or do you guys have to kind of come up with your own sort of session curriculum? It's our interpretation of the policy, of the statutes. And so sometimes the state will give you some sort of guidance around what that looks like, and sometimes it's up to us. And I would actually prefer that it stays up to us, because then we can make sure that it's tailored to the work that we're doing.

So, like, for example, this year with the dyslexia piece, all of our Key Stage 1 teachers are doing letters training. Awesome. That's a much more comprehensive focus on things that affect characteristics of dyslexia. And so we're actually going deeper than what we have done in the past.

And I think we actually had a training today with it. And the teachers are coming out of it. It's a lot of work. Yeah.

But the teachers are coming out of it feeling better prepared for things within their classroom. Love that. Okay, thank you. The other question I have is, oh, okay, so on page 14, I love the point that you made about that when you went to the Teaching and Learning Advisory Council, one of the things that came out of sharing with them was the idea that they want, how the PDC can influence what and how educators share about their learning on PD days with families and families.

I think that's a really important idea. I'm so glad it was in here because, again, the more we can communicate with our families about what's going on, the stronger they feel about, you know, the wonderful work you're doing and their awareness of that, the better they can be partners with their classroom, you know, teachers and their students. So I love that. Was there anything specific in your action steps that would sort of relate to that?

I didn't see a connection, but maybe I missed it. Is there anything that you have set up to make sure that happens, I guess? There isn't, but that's a really good point. We probably should, maybe we can add that to the fourth goal area, because I think that relates to if your families are feeling like you are out of your class too much, then that might be contributing to that overwhelmed feeling.

So that's a really good place. It's something that we've struggled with how to do that. What's the best way to communicate that with folks? So if you guys have ideas on that, we'd love to hear them.

Social media is one angle, but it's very limited in terms of who's doing the following, right? Yeah, that was my next question. Like how would you do it? You would just write letters, you know, like that kind of stuff.

It's hard. Right. So currently the social media, like the biggest social media presence you'll see is Nisha's, mine, and Janet's. Yes.

On those days. And so it is completely dependent on who follows us. So the most people follow Nisha. Exactly.

And so that's like, but that's a part of our story. And we have been trying to partner with Luke and his department to think about how are we telling the story on those days? Because if we feel like it that important that your children aren at school Exactly That day how can we help you understand what we doing on those days so that it feels important to everyone in the community not just us Right And that really does go back to communications Yeah. You know, and how do we share with our families all the amazing work that our teachers are doing on those days?

Yeah. And that's why, you know, I know that's one of the areas that Luke will be focusing on. Yeah. How do we share that?

Yeah, I think that's amazing. I mean, I didn't know nearly the depth of it until being a board member, until you guys share specifically those breakout sessions that are happening. It's phenomenal. So, yeah, the more that our families know, the better off for the district as a whole.

The last question I have is related to our SSD teachers. I know that SSD teachers are part of all of our professional development, et cetera. Is there anything that's different about what they receive or changes that need to be made? I know there's just been a lot of great work going on with our department and with that department and wondering from your point of view, I mean, we're getting a new SSD person at Merrimack.

So what are your thoughts around their professional learning specifically and whether or not you've thought about the ways that it needs to change or can, you know, anything like that? So Robin and the SSD team and I met recently to talk through this. So we have a process each year where they have some required training that they need to do, but then also what are the ways that we make sure that we're connected as two organizations. So we're pretty deliberate about the thinking of what that looks like each year.

We plan it as a year-long plan as opposed to event to event. In previous years, we had done it event to event, and it felt a little chaotic. So about five years ago, we transitioned to a year-long plan for those pieces. And then when we met recently with Robin and Kate and Melissa, we were talking about, like, what are the things that we need to be thinking differently about?

And, like, is this still working for us? And some of it, I think, is still working for us. I think we can be more deliberate, specifically in the partnership around content. So our content PD and partnering with SSD's content specialists with our coordinators to think through some of the learning in that way.

And then when Janet was talking about the leadership retreat, we've started to talk about the partnership specifically around the multi-tiered systems of support of how the SSD staff and our staff can, so like special educators and Clayton educators working together to present that information to the team. So it feels as a unified front. That'd be great. And also so that people don't see an MTSS process as a means to qualifying a child for special services.

There's a lot of things that can happen in a gen ed setting. And so the special educators and the general educators working together on that presentation. So those are a couple of things that we have in the works right now. We also have a rep on the PDC.

So Kate serves. So we have an SSD rep. So again, look for those alignments. I think that probably the biggest challenge is they, SSD also provides training.

I know. And sometimes those days line up and sometimes they don't. So as far as we're concerned, they're always part of our learning. Exactly.

Like when we're doing learning days, we want them here. Sometimes though they get pulled for specific training. Okay. Thank you.

Yeah. Gary, any questions? Thank you. So I was thinking, I thank you for this, not just tonight, but all of your work.

So I was trying to think back to the last time you all presented. And I mean, five years, the new strategic plan and just the pandemic. I mean, those two things are pretty huge in terms of what you're trying to align all this to since then. I was trying to remember what our conversation was like five-ish years ago, and I didn't really come up with a lot of specifics, to be honest.

But I know that we were not even really, not only were we not talking about a new strategic plan, we weren't really talking in terms of framing our conversations around the strategic plan. It was very long, for one thing. It was a very different type of thing. So with that in mind, not that I think we're entirely ready to start that process again, but if we look five years in the future, if that were to happen again, I'm just kind of wondering how, if you had the same set of circumstances, hopefully only one or neither of them, how would these goals be able to kind of function in the way to still be relevant And to still be helpful if that change did occur Does that make sense Yeah I think because we focused really on fine the things we doing well and going deeper with it as opposed to creating new things So these goals don't feel significantly different from the work we've been doing over the last five years other than, like I said, the specific deepening of pieces.

So yeah, I think that what we're trying to do is get better at the way we're doing the work As opposed to just finding new work. Do different work entirely, maybe. Is it framing it within that same common language that we all have with the strategic plan more than doing different learning? I think it's ultimately because it's centered.

Everything that we're doing with professional learning, so everything we do is centered around student achievement. And so the goal is still the same. Superexpensive, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Janet alluded to this.

My big thing is about lining up our arrows. Let's make sure that we're all headed in the same place and we're headed towards that. How we get there may look a little bit different, but it really all comes back to our students. I feel confident that these are going to hold tight for us.

I do too. I was just thinking like five years ago, if you had asked the average teacher, what's your building goal and what are the district goals? I know you wouldn't have gotten the same answer from every teacher, and they may have said, I have no idea. I feel really confident now any teacher you ask could tell us what the strategic plan goals are and what their building goals are.

And what the profile of the graduate competencies are. Yeah, within, you know, maybe missing one. But, you know, in terms of like having a good set, that's huge, right? That we all know where we're headed.

It's a really big deal. Yeah, I think that makes sense. And you kind of alluded to this in terms of lining up arrows, not errors, lining up errors. Speaking of errors, so lining up arrows, I don't know if it would be helpful to maybe give a little bit of context in terms of, this might not be a fair characterization, but the way I think of it is that professional learning was a bit more siloed.

Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. And the difference between planning from event to event and having year-long plans. And so we are currently in the process, and that's the PD plan that I bring to you that you all approve, but you all approve it from a very high level. There's a whole lot of other layers underneath that that I don't bring to you.

But a lot of our work is what's going to guide us, that we know now, coming up in May, Thank you. Spervantage of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. So it's people are seeing the connections. The parsing is really just to be able to hone in on the individual knowledge and skills that we need to understand so that we can implement it.

But I think we just talk more about how the pieces are connected together. We also the documentation that we have people submitting to us is also aligned in that way So when you determining what the event is with it so you building PDC is determining your event then what the connection to the strategic plan What our measure to know that we moving in that way And then the data that Janet showed around kick is helping us to measure that also from both a perceptual lens as well as a sort of deeper lens And with the kick-up piece, one of the things that's important about that is that teachers submit that. It's not anonymously submitted because one of our theories of practice there is if you need support or you need help with something, I need to know who you are to know who to support. And so that, while that was a sort of hump at the beginning, we have a lot of people filling that out, and that's a part of our work with the PDC, is spending time knowing who are we going to touch base with, and who, so it could look like coaching, it could look like, but that's that ongoing job embedded piece that Janet talked about that we feel like is so important.

So it's not just the PD day. Then there's a whole lot of stuff that happens in between that PD day leading into the next one and helping support people from the last one. Okay, last question. Are there things that, with these goals in mind, that you, is there support in terms of resources or things that you need to be, in five years, reporting successful projects or progress on these goals?

Or do you anticipate needing to ask for? No, as long as we stay well-funded the way we are, then we feel like we can continue to do it. Like, everything that we've asked for in this report, I said, would stay within my existing budget, and I feel comfortable with that. But we also know the luxury of we are really well-funded with professional learning right now.

So, like, the 1% of state money is not anything near what we're devoting our budget to. Okay. Great. Thank you.

Thank you. Jason, any questions? Yeah, just one question. The district lab classroom just sort of like grabbed me.

I think that's a really interesting concept and a great way to sort of career ladder a little bit for folks. Maybe take just 45 seconds and toot your own horn on that program a little bit. You do. Yeah, I was actually being interviewed by a Globe student earlier today.

I think they're interviewing other retirees, and she said, what are you most proud of? And I said lab classroom. It's really an amazing program. I tell when I'm explaining it to other people in other districts, I say it's like a gold standard PD experience because it's two years.

So it's that sustained and intensive. It's a cohort of teachers that choose to learn together, to be coached, to be vulnerable and say this is what I'm working on. We always joke that like I'm going to come to a group of people, show my soft underbelly. Like this is the thing I'm struggling with the most.

That's why my coach is working with me, and I now want you to watch it and give me feedback on it. But we do a lot to build up that trust among the group so that they can be vulnerable with each other. So they go and observe each other's classrooms. They give each other feedback.

The learning that we do up front is like an assured experience. They all have kind of similar learning, but after that, it's totally based on the group and the things that they're working on, and we work to provide the PD that will help them get there. So it's a pretty cool thing. It's also us showing them our soft underbelly.

Yeah, that's right. So, like, Janet and I will often use that group as a group, like, when we're leading learning with that group, we're like, oh, let's try it. And it's like, who are we going to try it with? We'll try it with Lab Classroom because it also shows the same vulnerability that we're asking them to show, we show.

And I'm thinking about the teachers that are here from the PDC, and I think every single one of them has been a part of Lab Classroom. Awesome. Secondary report. Yeah.

Thanks. Leo. First of all, thank you for all that you're doing on this, and congratulations on your retirement. I was going to ask about the exact same language you focused on, Chris, at the top of page four, talking about the state requirements and how they cut into.

And since Chris already asked about that, I guess I would be curious to quantify what that impact is. And you said it's changed over time, and quantifying that change over time might be interesting, too, Just getting an idea of what, you know, maybe not now, but in the future, if there's a need to push back on something starting to develop, what's the degree of burden that the state's putting on us? I know you guys don't want to push back on something. Maybe I might want to push back on something.

Yeah, that's a fair question. It has felt more significant over the years and kind of arbitrary, too, some of the pieces. I understand. And, yeah, and you don't have to answer that now, of course.

That's just... Thank you. Thanks. Pam.

Hi. Thank you so much. I really appreciate the focus in this document of how you separate and explain the difference in how you educate adult learners rather than student learners. And I just, I think that that's beautiful and, as you know, so important.

I think I just have two questions. You spoke about the year, like you plan now for a whole year. How do you take teacher input through the year when they have things that they want to learn about? How do you pull that in?

Yeah, that's a really good question. I think the data is the piece that helps us adjust and change that path. And things like COVID, you know, that was another one that, you know, helped us or forced us to change our path, but things like that, or new legislation comes out or curriculum implementation, whatever. So those are the pieces that help us.

I think that's something that we can always get better at in terms of the feedback. It tends to be more local. So in the building, there's kind of Either through the feedback that they put in KickUp, like I said, there's always this open box that's like, what do you need? But also there's some anecdotal conversations that happen, I think, among staff or with leadership or at committee meetings, and we can make adjustments at that point.

A lot of the buildings have been doing, like putting in little choice sessions where the teachers have, like, what's going on, so I'm presenting about what I'm doing, and then teachers have some choice to kind of learn from each other. Spervantage, or there might be we bring in an outside person or we might ask like Melaina to come over and lead something because we need some help with whatever. So those are the pieces that are definitely adjustable as the year goes on, but it's still kind of on that path towards where we said we were headed. I think also we try to model with professionals, so with adult learning in the district, we try to model what we're doing, what we want teachers to do with students.

So the idea of empowered learning, so voice choice pays place path. That all of those things are, we try to embed those within our learning days. The days that we get the best feedback are the days where we have, you know, 60 choice sessions. That's a lot because we've got to find people who will lead those and everything, but then people are getting the things that they need and they fall under the umbrella topics of the strategic plan.

The other thing that I don't think we've talked very much about, we mentioned it in the report, but we haven't talked very much about is we have a very robust summer institute catalog. And all of that learning is either run by our teachers, by our staff, or somebody from our staff is inviting somebody else in. So they're hosting somebody else to come in and run that. And so each summer we're running between 60 and 70 sessions of professional learning.

And some of those are half a day, some of those are one day, some of them are multiple days. But it's another opportunity for if it doesn't really fit into the year-long plan, then we can often say, like tap into somebody to say, what do you think about running this as a summer institute? It's also an opportunity to sort of offer something as a differentiated experience to see what the turnout is for that, and then that has a tendency to influence some of our assured pieces too. So if there's something where it's like a lot of people are signing up for this, There's obviously a need for it, so we probably need to turn around and figure out what that looks like as an assured piece during the year.

Yeah, and in addition to that, there's individual, teachers have some individual funds too. So they might say, you know, I have this need. It's not being met at the building, but I have this opportunity that I can go to a conference or I can meet with some other teachers in the area that are working on the same thing. And that's a piece that we can sometimes coach with them to help them figure out.

They're like, I need this thing, but I'm not sure how to get it. So we usually, there are usually funds and opportunities that we can help them find. Thank you. I also just want to say to the board and to you all that, you know, I'm the newbie here, or one of the newbies here.

And as I went through my campaign process, I met with all of the building principals and with a few teachers. And when I would ask them, like, what is going well in this building? What is going well in how you feel about your job? Almost every one of them mentioned PLCs.

And the return, I don't want to say return, but at least the broader, I don't know, touch points about PLCs. They're fascinating. So thank you. Yeah, thank you.

I have one more thing. This is my last one, sorry. This document is so incredible, especially as you are leaving us. And so just to say like Dr Garganego in what ways you know can we as a board support you next year when you are doing this with somebody new The good thing is that the somebody new is somebody who is pretty ingrained with professional learning somebody that Janet has worked with for a long time.

And so the transition piece is working very well in being able to continue to partner with Janet as we think through those pieces. And I know she's only a text away. Thank you. Thanks.

Mohini, any questions? My question was, like, do you collect student feedback? And if so, how is it, like, incorporated? Yeah, you brought that up at the Teaching and Learning Council, and the committee was really intrigued by that question.

So we don't have an official way to do that, but we're interested in trying to figure that out. That notion, the group asked the students that were there said, you know, if this is a shared experience, how do you make sure every teacher is actually doing it? Because we've noticed that maybe that doesn't always happen. So that's part of where I think the walkthroughs come in as well, because that's getting us into classrooms and seeing where things are happening.

It's not necessarily taking feedback, but it's hoping to see what the students are actually doing with the learning that we're asking of teachers. So I appreciate that question. I don't have an exact answer, but it definitely is something that resonated with the teachers. Because I will say, like, with students at least, they sometimes feel like any, you know, comments, whether it's, like, positive or negative about a teacher kind of goes into a vacuum.

And so I think, you know, an element of, I don't know if what exactly could be put in place, but, like, surveys throughout the year or a way, you know, students can really have the outlet to see that their voices are being heard about, you know, the teachers and learning environment Could really be helpful, especially making students feel like they're being heard when it comes to their education specifically. Yeah, we agree. And similarly to the families, we asked you, what do you want to know about PD days? What's going on?

And you were kind of like, well, we don't really need to know. But we just know that we don't have school, and that's great. But we do encourage teachers to talk to their kids about what they – I was out learning this, and I'm bringing this back to you because I'm excited about it and I'm trying it, Superexpensive, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. The amount of work that you do to make our kids' educational experience better is so impressive.

And I also appreciate just the intentionality you all put around all of the planning for this in all ways. And so thank you to you both and the whole PDC team and everyone that's here tonight. And lastly, I just want to tell Janet on behalf of the board, thank you for your years of dedication to the district, Thank you. I have a couple more questions because they came up as everyone else was speaking.

Can you tell me, I love that there's a summer institute, and I was going to mention it earlier and I forgot. And I just, again, just so I know, are those incentivized? Are they paid? They're paid.

They're paid. And are they required? No. Okay.

So you literally just at the beginning of the summer give the teachers the schedule and they choose, you know, yes or no. And if they do go, they know they'll get paid extra amount. Yes. Perfect.

And what are the, of all the teachers that we have, what percentage go? That's a good question. So I can tell you the number of instances. Like last summer we had, it was something like 700 instances of people attending summer institutes.

I think 700 or 900 instances So that not unique people So that could be people attending multiple times It also open to all of our staff It not just our certified staff It our classified staff also And so I don know the percentage but that feels like a lot to me It feels worthwhile with the amount of hustling we do to get summer institutes in the books that it really does feel worthwhile. And I feel like my team is working all summer long, but it feels very worthwhile because it's like the pace is a little slowed, right? So we can spend more time lingering on some really interesting things, and then we have time to think through it and implement it before school starts. Okay.

So you feel like the time you're putting into that is really making a difference, and teachers are taking advantage of the things that you're offering. That's awesome. The last thing I'll say is, what about your all's professional development? I mean, how many conferences are you going to?

Do you feel like you're supported in terms of what you need to learn and grow as educators so that then you can help our other educators be educators? So we, yes, we attend things. So like Learning Forward is the international organization. We make sure that our leadership team from our PDC attends that annually.

Awesome. I will also say that some of the foundational professional learning things that we have within the district, so particularly cognitive coaching and adaptive schools, we invested in Janet to become a trainer for both of those because we think those are so foundational to the work that we do throughout the district that it made sense to have someone, and she promises me that she will continue to do that for us. Oh, awesome. Thank you.

So, we talked about like responsibility to self, responsibility to students, and responsibility to the organization. And so, you have a responsibility to grow yourself as a learner, your students, it's obviously that's integral to the work, and then they're back to the organization, like what are you contributing back to us? So, if we send you somewhere, and we're funding that, then can you offer a summer institute? Can you offer a session at a PD day?

What can you share with your PLC? Or something like that. And so, that's been a big sort of mantra The mantra of mine since I've been in this role is thinking about what's your responsibility back to us. That's awesome.

Thank you. Okay, thank you so much. Thank you. Okay, next on the agenda, 7.01, Merrimack Elementary Building Renovations.

Tony and Patrick. Yeah, we're going to have Dr. Garganego, Tony, and Patrick Fisher is also here if we have any questions. So we don't really have a presentation for this.

This is just basically a continuation of our conversation from last time. I do want to talk, just say a few things to start off the conversation and any questions we have we can clarify. But this really is about optimizing the current space that we have at Merrimack Elementary School. It's really about the idea of creating flexibility within the building.

It's really about, and I'm going to capitalize bold, everything projected, anticipating projected growth. This does not, in my opinion, lock us in in the future because whatever options we go down, we have a way to make sure it's not permanent in terms of staffing. Spervantage of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. And still, let's say we don't add any more sections, we still use those as current office spaces or small instructional spaces.

So, again, more about flexibility and being fiscally responsible. Even looking at other options, this is the most cost effective in terms of the building. So, with that, I don't know if anyone had any questions. And I don know if you want to read the motion first because it is an action item So Heike is looking at me Yeah I was going to say let read the motion first We read the motion first Thank you Heike I move that we authorize a construction contract with ISC Contracting for Construction of Flexible Use Space at Merrimack Elementary for the sum of the lowest cost bid Okay, it's been moved and seconded.

Start a discussion. Yeah, so we can start a discussion. Jason, would you like to start? I don't have any questions.

I don't have any questions. I appreciate all the information that's been shared in between meetings. To me, personally, this is kind of a no regrets move because it is flexible space. There's lots of ways that we'll be able to use the rooms when they're not needed for a classroom in any given year.

And the fact that it doesn't tie us down through the long-range facilities plan, to me, you know, I'm fully supportive of it. I appreciate the work and thought that went into this specific action item. Thanks. Gary, do you have any questions or comments?

Thank you. Chris? Yeah, just one. Since we have Dr.

Fisher here, I was wondering if you could just give us your take on sort of the teacher and staff thoughts around this. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. I think really what it comes down to is class sizes and where are we, how we're looking at moving that forward. Our building has experienced some growth over the last few years, especially from last year to this year.

And so with that, it has added additional class sizes. And so if that were to continue and were to project that forward, if that were, I mean right now, like Dr. Patel said, it is a projection. If that were to happen again, we would be looking at either continuing seeing that growth and having it really impact class sizes.

Spervantage of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Spervantage of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Superroportionate, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. We have amazing teachers who are doing this each and every day, but the longer we're asking them to do it and the more and more that comes in, I do think we have to think about that too. Thank you. Pam.

Hi. So one of the things that we talked about two weeks ago when this first came to us, or I should say one of the questions I asked was, like, what does the literature say about ideal class sizes? Thank you. Spervantage of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

How are we as a district going to deal with that? I can speak more about it, but I don't think I need to at this time. But I just want to put that out there that this is something that we will, this is like a real deal. We need to consider it.

Thanks. Leo? Thank you. First of all, I want to say I just want to commend you on handling these, what's been happening in the past in terms of growth.

I remember years ago I talked to an administrator about the challenges of enrollment growth and the example was, oh, 10% enrollment growth would be huge and it would be very challenging to deal with. And you've dealt with that for Thank you. So, for the staffing decisions, any of the additional classrooms, if we decided, if we needed to add a section due to high enrollment, then we would most likely recommend that we do a one-year only contract for those individuals so they would know there's a possibility that we would be able to add a section due to high enrollment. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

Our student representative went into it. You've got class sizes and you also have number of adults in the classroom and the amount of attention you can give to kids is more based on the number of adults in the classroom rather than class sizes. So we had this discussion about teachers versus TAs. I take it because the recommendations here that the view of the administration is it's better to have separate sections and have teachers.

I just wanted to ask you to explain what the advantages you see in hiring teachers here are as opposed to going the TA route. I don't know which of you would speak to that. So when we think about that, like those two options of a teacher versus a TA. When you put a TA into a space, there's sort of a limited responsibility of what that TA has within that space.

And Patrick kind of alluded to this in the sense of like when you have larger class sizes, the teacher of record is still the person who's responsible for the parent-teacher conferences. They're still responsible for the feedback to the students. They're still responsible for all of those things. The TA can support that, but at the end of the day, it's the classroom teacher who's doing that.

So when we have the opportunity where we feel like as professionals that it makes more sense to split that into a smaller class size that focusing on things around our profile the graduate competencies It focusing on SEL It focusing on the academic achievement of those students If I have fewer students if I have 16 students I have more touches with them more opportunities to provide feedback to them As my class size starts to grow, it comes down a little bit. And our TAs are not often, sometimes our TAs are certified teachers, but they're not always certified teachers. And so that has its own sort of limitations with that piece. I would say, I would echo a lot of those same things.

I do think that is the difference, like we do, she mentioned certification. We're fortunate, going back to the last presentation, where a lot of our, even our TAs do attend a lot of the same professional development as our classroom teachers, which is a huge help. Spervantage of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

Spervantage of the meeting, the And we've decided to roll those into the long-term planning process. This one was important to bring to the board now because it's a current situation. Can't wait another year. Need a solution now.

Correct. Correct. That's a fair statement because this was one of the things that, as an administrative team, we felt it was important enough, vital enough to be proactive and be prepared over the summer for any fluctuations that could occur. So we're ready by August.

We have other capital improvement needs that we're not bringing to the table. For example, the lighting at Captain, right? We had already started going down that road. It was about a $358,000 investment.

We put it on hold because of the long-range facilities plan. When you think about it, you have Adzick Field, the dugout, the press box, press box at Gay Field. We have the CHS Auditorium, you know, the theater part of that. There's so many different things that still need to happen, but knowing that that can all be rolled into the long-range facilities plan.

For us, we felt this is a priority. And then the last comment I'll make is, depending on exactly how the projections play out, Many hundreds of kids' education will be impacted by this, and the spending does not appear to me to be disproportionate. Yes. So, that's it.

Thank you. Mohini, any other questions? I know you talked earlier. I would echo what Leo just touched on, which I actually brought up last time, is I separate this project from our long-range facilities project because, in my head, The long range are some of those forward thinking future things, but this is such an immediate need that I recognize.

So I'm able to separate that and support this. And I also want to thank you and John, who's not here, for sending us a lot of the documents ahead of time that answered a lot of our questions that we had at the last meeting. And I especially appreciate that we're thinking of this construction as the flexible space, not just classroom space, because they are projections. If we don't end up needing these spaces as dedicated classrooms, I appreciate knowing that they will, of course, be used in other creative ways that benefit the students just as well.

So thank you to the team for putting that together and for getting us all the additional information ahead of time. I appreciate it. So, any further questions? Okay.

All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay Motion passes Thank you Thank you Okay Thank you Thank you Okay Okay.

7.02. Is Tony presenting this? Yeah. No?

Yeah, Tony will do it. Oh, okay. Is the nurse salary structure? Would you like to read the motion for that, Chris?

I move the Board of Education approve the nurse salary structure as presented. Second. Okay, any, does anyone have any questions or comments about this? Anyone?

Nope. Okay, all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

Motion passes. And 7.03, classified staff pay salary structure. I move that the Board of Education approve the classified staff pay salary structure as presented. Second.

Does anyone have questions or comments about this? No? Okay, all those in favor? Aye.

Any opposed? Okay, motion passes. And on to 8.01, consent agenda items 8.02 through 8.07. I move that we approve, were you about to?

Well, I have a comment. Once we. Go ahead. Oh, once we.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry. I move that, you got me once this meeting. We'll figure it out.

We'll get through it. Concerned about my. We got our new groove. Concerned about what is going on here.

I move to approve the consent agenda items 8.02 through 8.07. Second. Okay. Any questions or comments about any consent agenda items?

Okay. I just want to comment about the financial reporting. So just to say it in public session here, just to make sure everyone is aware. So St.

Louis County just went through a reassessment of all of its property, and there's a large amount of challenges to the reassessment. And so what happens is St. Louis County collects the taxes, but then it doesn't disperse the property taxes to the district until that all gets resolved. And so right now we're going to miss our revenue budget by about $20 million.

They're withholding $20 million of our money, St. Louis County is, until all those issues are resolved. They'll get resolved. We'll get a good chunk of it back, presumably, but there's going to end up being a budget shortfall, you know, at the end of the year.

It doesn't, you know, I've emailed a little bit with John about this back and forth. It doesn't impact our cash flow. There's not going to be any sort of end of year crunch or middle of year crunch or anything like that. But, you know, just to say that's sort of out there and just something we just seem to pay attention to over the next few months while it gets resolved.

Once it is resolved, they'll release the funds to us. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions or comments about consent agenda at all?

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

Okay. Consent agenda passes. And board committees. Chris, did you have a wellness meeting you want to talk about?

I think we did. I think we did, right, Robin? Okay. No?

Remember I said I could go on and on about it for two hours? Yeah, maybe. I remember saying that. It was amazing.

It was the best. But I do have a different one. Yeah, go ahead. I have safety and security.

Oh, great. So, yeah, we just had our safety and security committee meeting, And I wanted to say something really, some new technology is hopefully going to be coming into the district. Luke has done an incredible job researching a new, a whole new sort of format for the way that we can respond in an emergency situation. Now we have blue lights, et cetera.

But this system is so much more user-friendly and actually would allow every staff member to be able to report an emergency immediately. It has flexibility in the way it's run. It's way beyond what we are currently seeing in terms of our safety and security capabilities. So I am thrilled with it.

Luke did a great job of researching, talking to the other districts that do have it. There's not a lot that do, but the ones that do love it, and I'm very excited, and I think our families are going to really respond well. I think the teachers are, too. They did some research talking to the secondary principals and asking, how do you think this is going to play out?

I think it's all very positive. So I happy for Luke to be able to present that and tell us more about it but that really wonderful I feel like we come a long way in safety and security Nisha and so I appreciate that Luke I appreciate Thank you And she actually came and she told everyone there about, she has a, I'm going to try to use the right words because they're not, you don't commonly say this. Okay. You gave an overview of the protocol that you used when there was a situation where a student had passed away in the district.

This would be the same type of protocol that she would use if a staff member passed away. Basically, it's crisis intervention, but the way she did it is she basically has a template that she goes down and she says, okay, this is what needs to happen, and she gets the right team together to then say, okay, and you're the person that's going to do this, this, and this. And we did have that incident this year where a student passed away, And the fact that she already had this in place to utilize this tool so that they could address these problems in a timely way and in an effective way, it just sounded like such an important thing for our district to have in place. And clearly these tragedies, you know, hopefully are few and far between, but the response to them couldn't be more important when they do happen.

So I just really appreciate Robin's work on this and the fact that, you know, the amount of like debriefing that you did with the people that you were doing this with, you know, at the beginning of a day, at the end of a day, throughout this entire week, what's working, what do we need? I just think Robin's has, you know, really elevated our ability to address something like this by doing what you've done. So I really appreciate that and think it's, I want all of us to know that it's, that we've got this in place. It's fantastic.

That's it. Thank you. Has anyone else had any committee meetings or anything else they've attended in the district that they'd like to share? I had a PTO council meeting, and it was great.

You know, they're wrapping things up, and they are planning their second, I think, which will hopefully be annual, back-to-school bash that they've talked about and kind of refocused. But it got such great feedback last year that they, I think, already picked a date in August to do it again. In Shaw Park was one. They have new officers coming on board.

And I think that was it. Yeah, yeah. It's kind of like a wrap-up meeting. The other thing I was going to mention, but Dr.

Patel did such a good job already, is that Pam and I attended the Hall of Fame induction ceremony. And it was really special. Pam went to Clayton High School, so she knew a lot of these inductees personally, either classmates or teachers of hers that were the distinguished educators. So she probably had a bigger connection to her than it did to me.

But I was so touched with all of their speeches, truly, like brought me to tears, and even some of the inductees as well. But it was really, really special. We have graduated and employed some really impressive people in this district, and I was happy to be there. I don't know if you have anything you want to add.

I just feel like it was one of the most beautiful nights, and if there is some way we can help the Clayton Education Foundation improve their communication and outreach about this event, it is absolutely worth it. And then the second is to, is there some way to think about, you know, gearing this towards our students, especially the high school students, for them to realize how lucky they are. It was incredible. You bring up a great point.

I meant to mention that also, that it was like a full auditorium, but it was really mostly all the inductees, family, and friends. But to have had this, our students there would have been really great to hear that. Anyway, the other thing I wanted to mention is that Dr. Patel and Chris Imohini and I are in the middle of interviewing students who have applied to be our next student rep.

And we'll be wrapping that up shortly. So we're excited. We had a lot of candidates, which is great to have kids so interested in filling this role. So pretty soon we'll have an announcement to make, I think.

And that's it. Okay. We can adjourn. Oh, yes, of course.

Dr. Patel, thank you for mentioning SB 727. Yeah, I think as board members, I think if we've checked our emails, we've seen that the MSBA has drafted a couple letters that potentially, if school districts want to, if boards want to, can send to Governor Parsons Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. I don know what the proper protocol I mean there probably some proper protocol to follow on that I just talk support of whatever that is What they have recommended is they already created the draft letter and for us basically to put in School District of Clayton I sign it and I send it off.

Yeah. It's signed from you, not from the board? Correct. But it's board approved basically.

Supported, I should say. Do we all, I don't know if we need more time to think about this, although I know time is of the essence because it's sitting on his desk. Yeah, that's why I mentioned it. Do we all want more time to think about this, or are we supportive of Dr.

Patel signing this letter? I can share the letter with you if that helps. It's in our email. Yeah, maybe send it to us, and then we can respond.

Thank you for bringing that up. Okay, anything else? If not, we can adjourn. I move that the Board of Education adjourn.

All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, we are adjourned.

Thank you.

Board of Education Business Meeting School District of Clayton April 24, 2024 Meeting Minutes

Members Present:

Ms. Stacy Siwak –President Ms. Chris Win –Secretary Mr. Jason Growe –Treasurer Mr. Gary Pierson –Director Mr. Leo Human – Director Ms. Pam Lyss-Lerman - Director

Members Absent: Ms. Kim Hurst –Vice President

Non-Voting Attendees: Dr. Nisha Patel – Superintendent Dr. Milena Garganigo – Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Dr. Tony Arnold – Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Dr. Robyn Wiens – Assistant Superintendent of Student Services Dr. Cameron Poole – Chief Officer of Equity, Inclusion & Accountability John Brazeal, Chief Financial Officer Luke Heitert – Chief Communications Officer/Safety & Security Liaison Mohini Mahajan – 23/24 Student Representative to the Board Heike Janis – Executive Assistant to Superintendent/Board of Education

1. Business Meeting – 7:00 p.m. Information: 1.01 Adequate Notice/Call to Order Call to Order Information, Procedural: 1.01 Statement of Adequate Notice The meeting was called to order at 7:03 p.m. Ms. Kim Hurst was absent due to a work commitment. The absence was excused.

Action: 1.02 Adoption of Agenda Adopt the agenda as posted. Motion by Chris Win, second by Jason Growe. Final Resolution: Motion Carries Yes: Stacy Siwak, Gary Pierson, Chris Win, Jason Growe, Pam Lyss-Lerman, Leo Human

2. Recognizing Our Own Information: 2.01 Academic Challenge in Engineering and Science The Board of Education recognized Lavanya Mani for 2nd place in English, Logan Huyette for 2nd place in Chemistry, Yahia Said and Saahil Doshi for 3rd place (tied) in Chemistry, and Nate Brown for 3rd place in Computer Science, the top five finishers of the Academic Challenge Engineering and Science.

3. Public Comments Information: 3.01 Public Participation at Board Meetings No public comments were submitted.

4. Superintendent Communications Information: 4.01 Superintendent Communications Superintendent, Dr. Nisha Patel, provided an update to the Board members and community.

5. Student Representative to the Board Information: 5.01 Student Representative to the Board of Education - Update Mohini Mahajan, the 2023-2024 Student Representative to the Board, provided an update to the Board members and the community.

Board of Education Meeting April 24, 2024 Page 2

6. Presentation Information: 6.01 Professional Learning Board members received a presentation and information regarding the overview of professional learning in the district and the new long-range goals.

7. Action Action: 7.01 Meramec Elementary Building Renovations This motion is for constructing the flexible use rooms only (for potential use as classrooms): Authorize a construction contract with ISC Contracting for construction of flexible use space at Meramec Elementary for the sum of $268,353, the lowest cost bid. Motion by Chris Win, second by Jason Growe. Final Resolution: Motion Carries Yes: Stacy Siwak, Gary Pierson, Chris Win, Jason Growe, Pam Lyss-Lerman, Leo Human

Action: 7.02 Nurse Salary Structure That the Board of Education approve the Nurse Salary Structure as presented. Motion by Chris Win, second by Jason Growe. Final Resolution: Motion Carries Yes: Stacy Siwak, Gary Pierson, Chris Win, Jason Growe, Pam Lyss-Lerman, Leo Human

Action: 7.03 Classified Staff Pay/Salary Structure That the Board of Education approve the Classified Staff Pay/Salary Structure as presented. Motion by Chris Win, second by Jason Growe. Final Resolution: Motion Carries Yes: Stacy Siwak, Gary Pierson, Chris Win, Jason Growe, Pam Lyss-Lerman, Leo Human

8. Consent Agenda Action (Consent): 8.01 Consent Agenda Items 8.02 through 8.07 Motion to approve consent agenda items 8.02 through 8.07. Motion by Chris Win, second by Jason Growe. Final Resolution: Motion Carries Yes: Stacy Siwak, Gary Pierson, Chris Win, Jason Growe, Pam Lyss-Lerman, Leo Human

8.02 Memorandum of Understanding - St Louis Virtual Campus (STLVC) 8.03 Memorandum of Understanding - All In Coalition 8.04 March 2024 Financial Reporting 8.05 March 2024 Disbursement Report 8.06 Personnel 8.07 Approval of Minutes

9. Board Committees Information: 9.01 Board Committee, Community and Liaison Reports Ms. Chris Win provided an update on the Safety & Security meeting. Ms. Stacy Siwak provided an update on the Parent/Teacher Organization meeting. Ms. Stacy Siwak and Ms. Pam Lyss-Lerman attended the Clayton Education Foundation Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. Ms. Stacy Siwak, Ms. Chris Win, Mohini, and Dr. Patel are currently interviewing for the 2024-2025 Student Representative to the Board of Education. Ms. Chris Win reminded the other board members about the legislative updates from MSBA and the importance of involvement in

Board of Education Meeting April 24, 2024 Page 3

legislation that affects education. During the discussion, there was support for Dr. Patel to send a letter (form letter provided by MASA - Missouri Association of School Administrators) to the Governor to ask him to veto SB727 that has passed both the House and Senate and is currently awaiting his signature. There was also mention that this item should be placed on the agenda for information and/or action, however, due to the time constraints it was deemed an emergency to discuss and move forward with it.

10. Adjournment Action, Procedural: 10.01 Adjournment That the Board of Education adjourn. Motion by Chris Win, second by Jason Growe. Final Resolution: Motion Carries Yes: Stacy Siwak, Gary Pierson, Chris Win, Jason Growe, Pam Lyss-Lerman, Leo Human

______________________________________

___________________________________________ Stacy Siwak, Board President

Chris Win, Board Secretary

Date: April 24, 2024