April 29, 2026

Machine-generated transcript — may contain errors.

All right. Can I get a motion to adopt the agenda? I move to approve the agenda as posted. Second.

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

The agenda has been adopted as posted. Recognizing our own Cameron, Dr. Poole. Good evening.

So tonight you'll hear from a couple of our student reps from two of our student organizations, We have two organizations, one being the Asian Student Association and the other one being the Jewish Student Union. As we come up on May, we celebrate two cultures that are important to our community, one being Jewish American Heritage Month and then also being Asian American and Pacific Islander Month. So you'll hear from both of the student organizations just about the importance of the month and some of the things that they have been up to. Okay, my name is Dante Zou.

I am a senior right now at Clayton, and I am co-president of the Asian Student Association. We've restarted it kind of my sophomore year, kind of renewed everything, and we've been putting together a bunch of different events throughout the year. Superroportionate, Bord of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. I appreciate it if you guys would show up, if you guys would tell friends and family and the rest of the Clayton community to also show up to help support us and learn more because it's not just a month for us, but it's a month for connection too.

It is a month to learn about each other's cultures. Thank you. Thanks, Dante. Dante, what was the date of that again?

Monday, May 4th, yeah. Oh, in the corner. Okay, great. And Dante's been a great student leader with the Asian Student Association since he's come into high school with helping get the group back going and adding strong leadership.

So we appreciate everything that he's doing. So then we're also celebrating Jewish American Heritage Month. A lot of our kiddos from the JSU were pretty busy tonight, but they did make a video for us to be able to view to kind of talk about some of the things that they've been up to. That picture there, you can see Sarah Falcoff, who's one of our high school teachers and one of the faculty leaders of JSU with one of our students, Audrey Fine.

They went down to the Capitol, you know, to speak out on behalf of the passage of House Bill 2061. So they will talk about that. And you'll hear about House Bill 2061 in the video that we're about to show. I am Tucker Ables, and this is Rafi Kepich.

We are sophomore JSU students at Clayton High School. Thank you for inviting us to celebrate Jewish Heritage Month, a time to celebrate Jewish culture, history, and the contributions Jewish people have made to our communities and our country. Here in Missouri, we have something extra special to celebrate this year. Missouri recently passed House Bill 206, requiring every public school in Missouri to have clear policies protecting Jewish students from anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination.

This bill passed the Senate 29 to 1, an almost unanimous message that Missouri stands with its Jewish students. It was sponsored by Representative George Caruso, the son of a Holocaust survivor who said Jewish students should be able to go to school without fear for their safety, just like their non-Jewish classmates. At a time when hate and anti-Semitism are rising around the world, this law is a reminder that words and actions matter. Missouri is choosing to take a stand.

Jewish Heritage Month is not just about looking back at history It about looking forward to a school a district and a state where every student is safe celebrated and belongs We are grateful to be part of a district that sees us supports us and stands with us Happy Jewish Heritage Month! Thanks for letting the students share with the board and the community just, you know, about what they're doing within their groups and celebrating these important months. We hope to see you out at the event on Monday for the Taste of Asia. So please come out and support.

And, yeah, thanks for always supporting all students and being an inclusive place for everyone where all of our students have an opportunity to have affinity spaces where they can be themselves and to be able to celebrate themselves and their cultures, you know, with the rest of the community. So thanks. Thank you. Yeah.

And thanks, Dante, for coming today. Okay. Okay, is there any public participation? No.

We will move along. All right, Superintendent of Communications, Dr. Patel. Thank you.

Good evening, everyone, and thank you for being here tonight. One of the first things I want to highlight is one of our goals in our district is always to make sure we're connecting what's happening in the classroom to the real world, because we're all big believers in the real-world learning opportunities that we offer in Clayton. And one of the great examples, of course, is our Catalyst Program. And I wanted to highlight this because this is an amazing story.

Many of you may know or may not know, but the Clayton Chamber is actually coming off the ground again as a new Clayton Chamber collaborative. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. And we actually have two of our students on their board as well. So that's pretty impressive for our students to have that real world experience and being a part of the new chamber.

And moving into the following year, we're going to have two new students on there as well. So it's just a great way to connect classroom learning to the real world. So I wanted to make sure I congratulate the students who created the logo and really just highlight them as well. Speaking of amazing students and student success, I also wanted to highlight one of our students, Agustiai Divan.

He won a gold ribbon in the honors division in the St. Louis Science Fair, which is one of the highest accolades that you can get. And his project was titled, How Do Living Organisms Sense Zinc Deficiency? I don't know if you want to know, you can read the report.

So I'm sure he did a great job with it. But I just want to make sure that we highlight him and congratulate him. And part of the process was the judges also give him feedback on how do you get better on your objectives, the use of strong data, the thoughtful interpretation that he made. So it was a wonderful learning experience for him and he represented Clayton very well.

So congratulations to Augustia. Okay. And then recently, the Clayton Education Foundation, I want to highlight them and thank them for all of their support. Since 2009, I believe, the foundation has given our district over $500,000 worth of grants in supporting teacher innovation in our district.

This year we went on the price patrol where teachers fill out grants and then the foundation decides which grants they're going to give. So we actually announced all the winners and this year they gave around $25,000 were awarded to various teachers in various schools. And again, continuing to support innovation in our school district. So thank you to the Clayton Education Foundation for always supporting us.

And then finally, next week is Teacher Appreciation Week. So I want to take a moment just to thank all of our teachers for what they do every single day. We have a number of them in the audience today. So we're very glad that you guys are all here, going to be part of the presentations later.

But truly, they're the safe space for our students. They make connections with them and they really are in the day to day work. So I want to thank them from the bottom of my heart for all that they do. We celebrate them each year in different ways.

The long-standing tradition in Clayton was that every school would get a big cheesecake delivered from the district, and they would enjoy that. But we realized that there so much food and celebrations that week so we decided to celebrate them the week before this week You liked it Yes And we did a coffee truck at each of the buildings And so the staff got to get out and just have some coffee So it was a good treat for them small way small small way to say thank you for all that you do So happy Teacher Appreciation Week in advance. And then next, we have the presentations tonight. We're going to have four presentations.

We have, of course, Prop O, yay, projects update. We have our design team and the representative from BSI here, who is just going to give us a quick update on where we're at and really what's coming up in the next few months. And then we have three board presentation with Dr. Garganego and our coordinators who will be here to give us curriculum updates.

And I really want to thank everyone, especially the coordinators in advance for all of your work behind putting these presentations together. And I know it's two years worth of work. Study and committee meetings and conversations and setting goals for the next few years. So thank you in advance for presenting tonight.

And now I'm going to hand it off to Nina. And Nina is going to be excused to leave after her board report because Nina has a lot of AP exams that she needs to study for. So priorities. Take it away.

That is a great thing to start off with because the first thing I'm going to talk about is how AP testing is almost in full swing. With tests starting next week, it's safe to say that Clayton High School students have been very locked in these past couple of days. Additionally, Compass or Link Crew, which is a group of upperclassmen who facilitate team building for underclassmen and help freshmen adjust to the transition from middle school to high school, recently completed their interview process for the 2026-2027 school year. So this newly selected group of leaders will have their first training meeting, I think, Tuesday of next week.

So that's very exciting. It's great for upperclassmen to get to kind of help the underclassmen and get for the freshmen to be able to see, you know, what older kids are doing and how they. Thank you. And although we are a few weeks past Election Day, the buzz about Prop O has yet to cease among the student body.

Many students are excited and very ready for the changes that Prop O will bring. In fact, I have a little anecdote. Two weeks ago, we had a track meet, and there was pretty much nowhere to park. But as I walked towards the field with my friends, I heard a freshman in front of us say, sigh, and was like, Prop O will fix this, the whole parking situation.

Which I thought was pretty hilarious and very telling of the district's excitement about the updates. So all in all, Clayton seems to be having a great spring, and I look forward to seeing what the rest of the semester has in store for our amazing students. That's great. Thank you for that, and good luck to you on your AP exams, Nina.

Thank you so much. You are more than excused. Okay, so we have four presentations tonight, as Dr. Patel said.

So we will start with John and company with the facility update. Good evening, everyone. We had a lot of activity on our projects up until mid-February, Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Get back to work and keep this momentum going.

So, I'm looking forward to it. Okay, so just, yeah, just really looking, focusing on the next steps in the process moving forward tonight, but also just recapping the pre schedule looking at the Prop O projects the budget projects touching on the modular campus BSI to recap the cost estimate and then just touching on the future phase projects as well Just an introduction I know we got a couple new board members and it been a while since we presented So I'm Michael Younglo, project manager with Paragon Architecture. Brad Irwin, our president, wasn't able to be here tonight, but wishes his best. We also have Perkins and Will, our architectural partners, Steve Turks and Amy Ekman on our team as well.

John Whitlock, VLD, the architect. Anna Sutton with BSI. We also have Steve Schrage and Paul Scheramatero on our team that are not here tonight. So you'll recall the Prop O projects to be funded by the bond issue are full renovation of Glenridge Elementary.

In that process, we're going to remove part of the back of the school, gut renovate the front, and replace the back part with a new gym and additional classrooms. A learning lab or CTE wing will be added to the Clayton High School and Gay Field will be upgraded to improve safety and accessibility to the community. We want to take a moment just to look at all the work we completed prior to the bond, you know, and celebrate that. There was a lot of hard work completed going all the way back to last June, so I can't believe it's almost been a year ago.

So that started out with some building tours to really get a good understanding of the existing facilities. We had several workshops at the elementary level, high school, and athletics, really getting the user groups engaged and getting their feedback. Also got the community engaged as well with some sessions and a survey. I met with the board several times and also had a couple of retreats for their feedback as well.

And then most importantly, too, is we were able to go through schematic design and really establish those designs so that the district and community can see what those projects are going to look like And an opportunity for BSI to develop a budget for the bond vote as well. So, yeah, really moving forward, we're digging into design development. So it's adding more layers, just building more detail into design from that schematic design phase. So we'll continue to meet with the user groups every step of the way, having more detailed discussions.

So we're now getting into furniture, fixtures, and equipment, looking at materials, the interior design a little bit further. Starting to look at technology, the mechanical electrical plumbing systems further. So I have a lot more meetings. We'll be building that into our designs.

Also working with the city of Clayton as well and BSI to further define and check those budgets as well. So we'll have design development over the next few months, and then later this year we'll be rolling into the construction document phase. So really with that phase, we're going to be finalizing our documentation. We'll still be meeting with the user groups in the district to just finalize any final feedback, working with our consultants as well.

But really that final documentation will be utilized for bidding out to the contractors used to construct the building and also for permitting with the City of Clayton as well. And then, as we mentioned, we'll just have lots of owner meetings as we move through these next few phases. We've already completed several. We've got more upcoming, but really, we want to make sure that we're listening to the district, meeting their goals and identifying their needs correctly, making sure that we hit those major design decisions so that we're aligning with the cost schedule and scope.

So yeah, just take a look at the owner meetings. We've already completed a few and got several more upcoming over the next several weeks, and we'll have plenty more to come as well. So at Glenridge, we completed a user group meeting on April 9th. We met with a lot of the teachers and staff there and went over their individual spaces and how they utilize them, where whiteboards would go, touchscreens, furniture, their storage needs, so how they really want to use that space.

So we got a lot of great feedback and we're going through those revisions right now. And we'll come back on May 13th and 14th to present some revisions and get another opportunity for feedback from them. At the high school, the Career Technical Education Edition, we also had a meeting last week on April 22nd. Similar to the Glen Ridge, met with the teachers there and got their feedback.

We also had our MEP engineer there as well to really get some coordination going on the equipment needs for that edition. And also reviewed the exteriors there, too. We've also got a Performing Arts Center improvements meeting coming up on May 13th. And then we did meet with Jim Brunel, the Director of Facilities for Facility Standards meeting, just to go over his preferences on materials and systems, just to make sure we can kind of streamline that ease of maintenance for those facilities as well.

Yeah, and athletics is very similar. So the first couple weeks of May, we'll meet with user groups, confirm the program that we know today, and then get into way more detail. So our projects aren't having to push it So we are in good shape for doing all of that. All right, so a little bit more with the design development and building that detail into our design.

So architecturally, if I just look at that image on the left, it's a wall section. So if you imagine just looking at a wall, cutting it in half and kind of seeing the interior guts of it. So we're starting to look at how those exterior materials are anchored to the framing system. We're looking at the air gaps that are needed, the insulation requirements, the weather barrier, the flashing systems to really provide a watertight envelope and a good insulation value.

Image on the right of that is just some physical samples of the exterior finishes. So a good example is like we're trying to match brick at the Glen Ridge facility in high school. So actually selecting the brick sample that would match pretty well. So looking at the glazing systems, the type of storefront, the color of it, the roofing systems, cast stone, et cetera.

Also focusing a lot more on the interior design and material selections there. So as I mentioned, we're meeting with the user groups. But looking at how they're going to utilize that space, that image there in the center is a casework elevation. So an example of how a space might be utilized, working with them to develop how much counter space they may need, What type of cabinets, what kind of appliances, if they need a sink and laying that correctly so they can utilize that space the way they need to.

Also, just looking at those material finishes and that color palette and identifying those materials as well and where they'll be located. Okay, and then we're also working with our consultants much more in detail. So on the structural systems, we just identified the basic structural systems and schematic design, but just getting more in depth there. They're running their structural calcs, refining the framing plans, the bracing requirements, refining column locations, and also looking at the seismic retrofit requirements for Glen Ridge specifically there.

Site and landscape, working with our civil engineer to refine the grading requirements around the building and the surrounding sites, looking at storm water runoff calcs and how to manage that, along with utility locations to the building. Another big one too is getting landscape engineers involved at these projects to make sure we're meeting the landscape requirements for the city of Clayton. Mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems. Just finalizing those type of systems for the mechanical, getting those laid out on where the equipment's going on the roof, where it's inside the building, looking at those ductwork runs, those shafts, that sort of thing.

Electrical, identifying the power needs in that equipment. Starting to focus more on the lighting design, those type of fixtures, how those will lay out in each room. And then plumbing systems, you know, we identified, like, the bathroom fixture locations and schematic design. But now we're looking more at the fixture types, you know, if it's a manual, flush bell, or electric, and then how those lines will lay out.

Project schedules, so just looking at Glenridge. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Starting with that one, yeah, we're in design development and we'll roll into construction documents later this year.

The goal is to wrap that up by beginning of 2027, bid that project out early in 2027 and have construction take place over the summer of 2027 through 2029. And then CTE project over at the high school, go through our design document phases throughout this fall, bid it out with the goal to start construction at the beginning of 2027 and Approximately about a year of construction there. High school performing arts. Similar to the high school wrap-up this fall, but we're going to have to get inside the high school and those spaces, so we're thinking that's more of a summer 2027 construction project.

And then I know we're looking at doing a turf field at Captain now, so we're also anticipating that to be a summer 2027 project. And then the future bond, I know the district's goal is to essentially do all three elementaries, So starting with Glen Ridge as the phase one, if the bonding capacity allows and funding, future funding, roll right into Merrimack after Glen Ridge is complete and then do Captain after that. For the athletic projects, we really, obviously all projects start with the end in mind. It's not just about your goals meeting them, but it's also about timing of construction and when you need to begin these projects.

So for Gay Field, we had to determine what made sense for the window. Thank you Mr Chair We have design development wrapped up around middle of July The construction documents around middle of October forbidding in the fall And then these projects would all start construction in the spring of 27 As I said for Gayfield as soon as weather breaks For Adzik as soon as baseball is over or that summer then go into the fall And then for Wydown trying to get into that again as soon as weather breaks in 2027 And so it's ready for fall occupancy for that project. All right, so we'll talk about budget a little bit. So just to preface, a lot of this information I'm going to talk through tonight, we've kind of been through at previous meetings, so I'll try to keep it fairly quick.

So a few months ago before schematic design, we had established an expected range, budget range for all the bond funded projects of $110 to $135 million. And then fast forward to this past February when the design team completed the schematic design documents. We developed a more precise estimate of about 114 million, so well within the 110 to 135 range that we had projected. So just a reminder, the $114 million is all-inclusive.

It's not just construction costs. It's soft costs, the contingencies, and escalation or inflation. And then this is just a breakdown project by project. So Glen Ridge is about $74 million, Clayton High School CTE addition $17 million, and then the Gayfield Complex is $23 million.

So when we look at estimates, we're trying to estimate to the level of detail that's provided. Mike talked through a lot of details and systems that they're working through right now and getting decisions made and documented. So once their team is done with that design document phase, design development phase, then they'll hand us a big package of documents for us to do an even more detailed estimate on. We'll be able to estimate even more quantities than we did before, maybe some structural concrete, structural steel.

Spervantage, Pricing, and Purchase. The other projects that will be budget funded will be proposed in the next year's 26-27 budget, in part, and the balance in the following year. We'll also be scheduling some funding for the bonds. I anticipate that we would sell bonds this fall, somewhere in the September-October range, be the first tranche of that.

Those dollars would be segregated from other funds and held probably by a third party so that we maintain our integrity with the public. Those dollars are only spent on these projects. We're already having those conversations to take place. And just looking at those budget-funded projects, we're looking at the Clayton High School Performing Arts area.

So still looking at a light renovation of the auditorium and adjacent restrooms, along with an ADA lift backstage to improve accessibility from the stage itself for students. Looking at HVAC noise improvements at the band, choir, and orchestra, and getting a new stool store along the main entry of the high school. And for ADZIC, it is really completing the project from previous, putting in permanent structures for the dugouts and the press box. And Y-Down is providing turf and a running jogging track at their play area, outdoor area.

And then, yeah, looking at Elementary Bridge Campus on the Fobmont site that we'll talk about more in a bit, and Turf Field at Captain. So with regard to the Bridge Campus, we're in conversations with Washington U about the use of their campus, And we in conversations with a company called Mobile Modular about supplying the modular units and setting them up We recently got some cost estimates from them and we reviewing those to see how to make sure that they are compatible with our needs So we'll have more to update on that in the near future. Here's a proposal of as it stands today. The modular school is there on the lower right.

Where it would be located on the campus is there shown on the left. The lower left corner red shaded area is where the modular buildings would sit. The parking lot to the north of that would be available to us. And then the center right is the denim center, which we would use for the gym and cafeteria services.

The budget planning for the budget funded projects are currently in this estimated range of 17 to 20 million dollars and that will be funded over probably a two year period, maybe three to complete those projects. Any other questions? And just keep in mind that we still have those future proposed bond funded projects for phase two and phase three. So Merrimack Elementary would be phase two, very similar scope to Glenridge, a full renovation of that facility and a large addition off the back of that building.

And then looking at Captain Elementary, fully replacing that school, so a brand new school, possibly on that same site, just a little bit further down from it as part of that phase three project. And then the district has set up a website to stay informed of the facility improvements. So please check that out at claytonschools.net. And it looks like they have a QR code available, so they'll be continuously making some updates So everybody can stay informed.

Thank you. Great. Thank you for that presentation. Who wants to go?

Any questions? Going once, going twice. I have one question. So is our BSI, are you guys involved with the non-Propo funded projects like the Bridge Campus and all that?

Are they part of the team for that as well? OK, gotcha. Thank you. John, quick question for you.

You mentioned segregating the funds raised from the debt offering. Is there like a best practice in terms of the controls on that that we just basically copy and paste and adopt? Yes. So, you know, just to assure compliance with the purposes of Prop O, generally we co-mingle our funds and keep them separate in our accounting records.

But for this particular transaction, we'll segregate those funds, probably with a third party, a trustee, to hold those funds and then disperse them for us. Okay. Great. Thanks.

Thank you, guys. No other questions. Thank you. All right.

Moving along, we have Dr. Garganio for English language development. Couldn't come up here without your drink, yeah. Start the clock.

All right. Good evening. So tonight we're going to continue with our series of curriculum reviews. So just to get you regrounded in the work, the committees, So the curriculum committees spend two years in a self-study.

The first year, it's a lot of refining some of their work, so studying their enduring understandings, doing a gap analysis, studying their old goals and their progress towards their old goals, and then starting to identify some areas of focus. During that first year, they come to the Teaching and Learning Advisory Council to present information to that group of parents to get input and feedback. Early in the process, some groups do some site visits, some groups do some surveying. It just sort of depends on what the work is that we're doing.

So each coordinator tonight will present the work of their committee, and then they give a basic overview The structures are gonna look the same for most of these Literacy gonna look a little different But they give a basic overview of the department and the work share their long goals that they developed and then share how working on those goals, as a consequence of working on those goals, how we will be better as a district. We'll make connections to the CSIP. We'll make connections to the profile of the graduate. And then you'll be asked to approve those long-range goals, the financials, and to re-approve the curriculum.

So one thing that I want to sort of state, and I've said this in the reports, but then I want to say it again, is that we know that the elementary curriculum is not stood up on the new website yet. So in the fall, we're going to do some work over the summer, and then in the fall, we'll ask you to reapprove all the elementary curriculum. So what you're approving now is really just what's stood up on the website, so 6 through 12. So I wanted to clear that up because I don't think I was very clear with that piece.

The other thing that I want to say is the financials for each of these departments. Tonight, we will not be asking for any additional money, so it will all happen within my existing budget. So as groups come through the cycle, I shift money to the different departments in order to cover that. If we decide that we're going to purchase a larger resource as a part of these goals, we would bring that to you separately.

So what we're asking tonight, so the financials is really just asking to stay within my budget. Okay, so that gives you the context of that. So now I want to introduce Sarah Gata-Miller to you. Sarah is our English language development coordinator.

I'm going to ask her to introduce some of her, I think actually all of her team is here. So I'll have her introduce and then we'll start with the presentation. I'll get you a little bit grounded and then Sarah will take over with her information about from her committee and then we'll take questions at the end. So do you want to introduce your team?

Sarah Godemiller, English Learners at Captain, Al Bergstrom, English Learner at Glenridge, Nancy Gamble, English Learners at Y-Down, and Amy Shipwe, English Learner at Merrimack. Okay. So like with all of these presentations, we like to start by getting ourselves grounded in our profile of the graduate, which is what helps us determine some of our goals and some of our areas of focus. So keeping us focused on the work that we do with children, because that's why we exist as an organization.

And our CSIP, our three goals of our CSIP, Sarah's long-range goals are going to center really around goal one and goal two. So that idea of a place for everyone and then the growth of learners. It doesn't mean that their work is void of goal three, but it's just amplified in goals one and two. Okay.

So last year we revised our enduring understandings. We spent some time looking at them and combined several. We had seven and now we have four. I think that they really speak to our understanding of our students as assets to our district and how their home language and culture really enrich our school culture.

Our elementary program has newcomer classes for our beginning and beginning intermediate students. They have classes daily with the EL teacher and also receive support in the classroom. We work together with classroom teachers to help modify curriculum as needed and find resources to help students. And we also teach students how to use tech to access the content in their first language and to share their brilliance that they can by using translation.

In secondary, we have classes two or three times a week. The classes focus on academic language support and reading strategies to understand the grade level content. Student also gets support with assignments and the EL teacher collaborates with the content teachers. Because of the schedule at Y-Down and CHS, it's because of the block schedule, they are at Y-Down one day and CHS the next.

It can sometimes be difficult to collaborate with content area teachers and also students who are newcomers and need daily support. We may have to be creative in how we provide that with maybe other personnel in the district that can help support a student on the day the EL teacher is not in the building. We have two assessments that we give regularly to students. The first is the screener.

When a student enrolls and speaks or understands another language, we screen them, and if they get below a 5.0, then they qualify for EL support. And then every year we give the access test once a year. That's our progress monitoring tool and shows if a student is a 4.7 or above that they are capable of accessing the curriculum without EL support and can move to monitor. We also work to ensure that our students receive the accommodations needed for district assessments.

And we're kind of putting some systems into place so that will be a little bit more streamlined in the future. This is something new that we're doing this year. So a language access plan is a document that gives more information about Yale students. So, we're kind of working through a few things that we might change for next year, but we think overall they're going to be a great tool to help teachers know their students and their needs more.

Our PLC, we're a small team and we get together to work on these goals a couple of times a month and we're working on identifying some priority learning standards and creating proficiency scales so that our students have a very clear picture of what it is that we want them to be able to achieve and where they are on the journey to achieving that. Another thing that we've been working on is looking at how other districts in the area are able to provide support for their students. So we're considered a low incidence district because we have less than 20% of our students are ELs. So a lot of the systems that are built for EL students and districts where they have a larger percentage of ELs, we don't have them here.

So it's like trying to figure out how did they do it in Ladue or how did they do it in Kirkwood and how can we try to take some of the things that are working well for supporting students there and replicate them here. So the last two years we've worked very closely with the literacy department to try to refine the way that we teach EL to match and better support some systematic reading instruction. So our elementary ELD specialists are doing letters training last year and this year, along with the elementary classroom teachers. Okay, so we have 102 students who have received services this year, or receiving services currently, sorry, and 119 who have received services this year, Spervantage, P.D., and We've had a chance for families to come to the Mid-County Library and get a library card.

We've had an outside presenter about supporting children with anxiety and how to set screen time limits. So we think that parent and family outreach is an important part of our program. Okay, so here are our goals for the next few years. We want to ensure that our students and families feel welcomed, supported, and included in the school and community.

We want to engage our learners in comprehensible content through authentic interactions in the classroom to ensure high levels of academic achievement. We want to expand the expertise of our educators to teach English learners through school and district structures for collaboration and professional learning. And how will we be better? So I really think that this two-year process of reflection has helped us to zoom out and kind of think about things more systematically.

I feel like we are so busy doing the work that it sometimes hard to think about things more systematically So I grateful for that We excited about the goals that we created about helping students have improved access to the resources and helping with creating some ways for teachers to be able to receive more professional development I think that will be really helpful as well Okay, our next steps, we really want to look through the lens of a family that speaks another language and help to clarify and simplify district communications. And then a lot of our action steps are working closely with others in the district to help students and family get access to resources. What questions do you have? Yes, questions.

Who wants to start? I'll cold call. Do we have a mechanism to kind of survey the parents and collect that feedback? And then my second question is, like, of these students, what is their tenure with Clayton on average?

Yeah, those are good questions. We have surveyed families in the past, and we did not this round, but we put it as one of our action steps for one of our goals to do a survey in the near future. I think it's hard for us to always know if the supports that we're providing are meeting the needs of each family because each family is different. So, you know, if you have an international coffee in the morning, does that necessarily include everyone because some people are working?

So things like that we would be asking questions about in the survey. And then I think our families' average tenure is, so it really depends. We have some families that come and stay. We have some families that are here for one, two, or three years because they're doing a doctoral program or another study at Washington University or SLU.

We have some families that, we don't have very many families that are transient. We've had a few families that are here for a short time, but most of them are here for one, two, or three years or here to stay, I would say. Me, do you have a question? Thank you.

Thanks for this report. It was really interesting to learn about the program. I was at the Teaching and Learning Advisory Council when I came through, but this painted a whole bigger picture, so thank you for that. I asked this question, and I still don't understand.

Sorry. Over email, but the percentage of students that are considered, their primary language is considered English, but yet they're part of the EL program. Why don't we classify those under their other language? So the answer that I got was that it was, they used English primarily, but also have a second language at home.

Why do we still count that under English? So I'm not sure. I think that the way that we ask that question is, what is your primary language? And so that is why it's counted that way.

But we do have families that have multiple languages, and then we're required to test them. And if they qualify, even if English is their primary language, Which they still receive services until they can get the 4.7 or until we use a portfolio to move them to monitor status. So there is a caveat for students that for whatever reason we can't get the 4.7. Sometimes we can move them off using a portfolio of other evidence.

Okay, so they speak English primarily at home or maybe there's just also like a... Yeah, a lot of times if a family speaks another language, maybe the child goes to a preschool where English is the language, so their preferred mode of communication is English, but they're still responding to their family's, whatever the language is. Okay, great. I was just mostly curious.

We would not be testing a child who both parents speak English and they went to immersion language school for preschool. We would be testing students who have another language at home. Right. Okay.

Great. Thank you. I think that's it for me. Anyone else?

Next? Oh, go for it, Leo. I don't have any questions for you. Thank you for this presentation, and I really enjoyed learning more about it.

I did think when I read through it, you know, you kind of soft sold or undersold goal three, but there's a fair amount of goal three in here, and I think you should take credit for the work you're doing in that area. I agree. Thank you Thank you for the presentation Thank you Thank you So one of the questions I had asked you via email, but I just wanted to also bring to this table, is that you shared with us in the presentation is the overlap in the work that you're doing in collaboration with the literacy department. And after I read the World Language Department presentation and sat in the World Language Teaching and Learning presentation, I thought, wow, there's so much overlap here.

And so I just wonder if you could speak to the idea of partnering with them in some way and how you could help them and they could help you. Yeah, I think one of the ways that I hadn't considered is this work that we're all doing to clarify our priority learning standards and the proficiency scales because I can see that looking at what you want a student to learn, let's say in Spanish 1 or Spanish 2, and how we would measure progress towards those goals could be very similar to looking at what a newcomer English learner is going to learn and how we would measure progress towards those goals. So that's something that I can speak with Michael and work together on. I think we do have, I was going to say we do have a couple of EL teachers that are also Spanish teachers.

So we're kind of, yeah, we're kind of inclined to. Thank you. And I just want to say thank you. I said previously that all of you in the ELD department, or maybe just EL department, anyway, you have to have such specialized training and experience, and I imagine also a heart.

And the fact that we have, I think, four or five of you who I feel very lucky that we have you. I thank you for your work. You're special people. Thank you.

It means a lot. We really feel like we're lucky to get to work with the families and the teachers that we get to collaborate with. Karen? No real questions, but just again, always struck by the number of languages that you're working with as well.

And just, again, speaking to the tremendous work that the department or group has to do to meet all those different needs across different languages. Just really impressive. Thank you. Chris.

Thank you for this presentation. It's always exciting to hear about how we are so intentionally bringing in the culture of all these folks that come to our schools. And I have seen firsthand it from a parent point of view, but now just as a community point of view, really, because I've been here so long, how much that enriches the lives of our students. It just does.

It's so obvious. It just feels so good. It goes so along with our profile of a Clayton learner. It's just a really wonderful thing.

And I'm super excited to be able to continue to support what you guys do. And the fact that you've thought so in depth about the way to connect with families and all the things that they need in terms of resources, it's phenomenal. I'm just so appreciative of your work. So thank you for all of that.

And what Pam said about bringing in that literacy and the world language, fantastic idea to continue to collaborate in those ways and, yeah, keep up that amazing work. The one thing I'll also say is I've gone to the Teaching Learning Committee a couple times when I was needed, but I love and I think that it is important that we have a parent there that is an EL parent because that's a great avenue for parents to be able to say, Here's what, you know, how it plays for me as a person that doesn't have English as a first language. Easy way for you to get feedback. I heard a lot of it that you said tonight.

I heard it in that room, so I know you're really hearing it. So always paying attention to that I think is a great opportunity in terms of having, you know, those parents at that committee. Yeah, and I was going to say one of the things that we talked about is having an international parent as a liaison to the PTO PTO, just so that PTO is thinking through that lens as well. Exactly.

And you are all welcome to come to an international coffee. We can invite you. I'm not sure if we will have one more in May, but we'll send an invitation in the fall. So you're welcome to join at the elementary school of your choice.

Come and get introduced. I was just going to say quickly I think you know when I first started reading this report I was like boy the family engagement has just got to be such a critical component of our work in this area And you mentioned it in the report of course Thank you Thank you for sharing that. Okay, so I think we need a motion to approve. I move to approve the ELD review goals, the district written ELD curriculum.

And the financials as outlined in the report. Second. All those in favor? Aye.

Any opposed? All right, it passes. Thank you. All right.

You ready? No, we're not ready yet. Can I get a motion? We're going to do this the right way this time.

No, no, no. To start the discussion. Because it's an action item. All right.

Oh, okay. All right. So, yes, we're ready. Yeah.

Now we're ready. Okay. Yeah, ask us if we're ready. Yeah, great.

So, similar to the ELD, World Languages has a set of long-range goals determined by input from their third department, Superintendent, the community, the committee, and the team's study of world language programming. So I would like to introduce, I actually just learned that I've been saying his name wrong for a while, and names are really important to me. So I would like to introduce Michael Crowell. Yeah, that's right.

Well, he said that I like roll it all together, so it's like Crowell, but it's really two syllables. So I'm trying, learning. So I'd like to introduce Michael to you. He is our world language curriculum coordinator.

I'm going to have him introduce the members of his team who are here. I will say up front that we say to people who are on the committees and the teachers that, like, come if you want, watch online if you want. So, like, I don't want that as a reflection of, like, who's here or who's not here or whatever. Like, people are watching.

People are paying attention. But I do want Michael to introduce the members of his team who are here tonight. Thank you all. As she said, my name is Michael Crowell, or Crowell, or Crowell.

And back here we have Laura Hartman. She's a French teacher at the high school. Dorothea Lacova. She's our department chair at the high school, Spanish teacher.

Gwen Kennerly, elementary Spanish, and Heather Moody, Spanish at elementary. So thank you again for having us. Are you going to drive for me? So back to just making sure that we're grounded in the profile of the graduate and then with our CSIP, Michael's focus is really going to be on all three goals.

And I'll let him sort of articulate how he sees it focusing on the three goals of the CSIP and then he'll give you the background of his curriculum area and their long range goals. Yes, so currently the World Language and Cultures Department encompasses first grade through twelfth grade language learning and exposure. So we have elementary Spanish at first through fifth grade in all three elementary schools. And then when students combine at YDEM, they have exposure to choice of language, which includes French and Spanish and Chinese and We're a small school in the state of Michigan.

We're a small school in the state of Michigan. Our focus is not necessarily on task. It's more about getting the students the opportunity to communicate and really try to embed cultural understanding throughout that. Our program is very strong.

We're one of the few programs in the state that offers elementary language exposure. We're very lucky and we're very happy to have that. We're very lucky and we're very happy to have that. And we have a variety of ways that students can get into language learning opportunities in the district.

And we have a variety of ways that students can get into So that happens at the elementary school, but also at the middle and also at the high school. Because of these variety of ways that students can kind of jump in, we do have some inconsistent clarity with relation to transitions and the expectations. So the current reality is that the courses do exist from first through 12th. We start out with elementary Spanish, and then students move from fifth to sixth grade where they can continue Spanish or they can jump into French.

Thank you. Thanks. So that will be a defined transition points at fifth grade, eighth grade, and at the high school. And we're going to work together to align all languages so that way it's not unclear, depending on the language of your choosing, or the level that you're at.

And lastly, the hope is that we are going to make, we're anticipating that learning language becomes more visible and trackable through portfolio and the curation of portfolios. So, content creation will be done with curriculum alignment. We want to be more clear about where we are vertically across languages and the grades. Portfolio and growth tracking is paramount to help us see and hear what students are able to do within language and helps students see their learning visible across time.

And then ultimately, provide students with opportunities of real world application of language to connect that learning And the hope is that clear expectations at every level provide students with stronger transitions between schools, that we have increased student confidence and ownership of their learning and language, and that more students progress through the system to continue into advanced coursework, which culminates not just in advanced placement courses, but also with French and Spanish elective opportunities within the target language. And that growth towards proficiency will be made visible over time with the implementation of what's called the Pathway to Proficiency, which is a, our stepping stones towards ultimately getting the culmination of a seal of biliteracy, which shows a proficiency in English as well as a second language. And we just awarded 50 seals of biliteracy, was that last night? Yeah.

So our next steps are year one, we're going to try to define the pathway and the proficiency benchmarks, which we've already kind of started working on just through our work, it naturally occurred. And then year two would be pilot alignment and portfolio exploration and practices and defining what that means. And then year three and five, expanding that implementation and refining our work. So what questions do you have for us?

Let's start. Do you want to go first? I move to approve the World Languages Review Goals, the district written World Languages curriculum and the financials as outlined in the report. Second.

All right. Discussion? Yeah, yeah, I'm starting to see who wants to go first. We'll start over here.

Chris, you want to go first? Sure. Thank you for this report. It's wonderful to hear about, again, sort of like what we were saying with EL, how much having all these opportunities for our students to learn these languages and how much the content isn't just about the language itself but about the culture.

I think it's a great, amazing thing. What was my question? I have kind of a random question. How much are we, because one of the things you said on there, so it's not random, is you want authentic experiences.

And I remember way back in the day, there was a lot more of these trips that happened at various grade levels. And I think COVID is part of the big reason why that may have stopped. Who knows what else? But, yeah, I do think that it's amazing to actually put it into the real world practices.

So I going to start and then Michael going to take over So as a consequence of COVID we we sort of suspended all international travel for a while and then regrouped in in our thinking related to that And so have gone through a span where essentially all international travel has happened independently of the district. Okay. And so the teachers have operated as individuals through, oftentimes through companies, partnering with companies, inviting students to be a part of that, but that has been independent of the district. Michael and I have recently had some conversation about rethinking this in conjunction with some of the work that Nisha and I have talked about with global education and those types of things of like what are the ways to rethink what international travel can look like.

And one of the sort of philosophical pieces that I would say is I believe really strongly in programs that have homestays or connections with people in the culture. I tend to lean a little away from things that feel like tourist trips. So service trips, I think, are really important. Opportunities for children to live with other families, I think, are really important because I think they just have a different level of importance And a different level of practice with the language.

So if the intent is for children to practice the language, when we're all together as Clayton students traveling on a bus together, that doesn't happen in the same way. It can still happen. It just doesn't happen in the same way. Oftentimes also the cost of some of those trips is really high in comparison to when we can partner with schools or companies in other countries.

So I'm going to let Michael talk a little bit about what we've been exploring as opportunities, like, pretty soon. Yeah, yeah, it's exciting stuff. And as soon as we were allowed to start doing student travel, teachers at the middle and the high school both jumped at it. So just to let you know that we do have a trip this summer in June to Spain and Italy with seventh and eighth graders.

And then at the high school we've got, and actually the French department at the middle school also does Canada, Just so they go to Montreal. Or Quebec, sorry. And then the high school, Amy Dean is leading a tour to Peru. It's a service trip to Peru.

So those are two trips happening this summer at both Y-Down and the high school. I was recently, I went to ACTFL, which is American Council of Teaching Foreign Languages National Conference in New Orleans this past fall. And I've been really grateful to go to that because before this district I had never gone before. It was awesome.

But I interacted with our LADU colleagues who are friends of mine, and I was on the board of the Foreign Language Association of Missouri with, and they informed me that they had found a company that they work with directly in Madrid or in Spain to do exchanges. So I was in contact with them, and I worked with Melinda to figure out what that might look like as a pilot for our students this next year. And the company doesn't just do exchanges in Spain. They also do it in Italy, and they also do one-way exchanges where our students could go and live with a family and go to school in France.

So those are some things that we're kind of working on and figuring out logistics as if the students want to or if we have enough interest in that. And a lot of the students learning about it are very excited to see the possibility, the potential there. So the Spanish will be a pilot opportunity this next year, and if things go well, the idea is to expand it. And they also have other options, too, for real-world application and learning, not just within language, but also outside of that.

They also have a service project at an orphanage in Kenya, and they also have language learning opportunity in India as well. So those are other areas that we could kind of work with maybe even business department or the history department or English department to talk about ways that they can get some real-world application to what they're learning in classrooms. So those are some baby steps in the direction of getting kids out there and experiencing things firsthand. I think the other thing that's appealing to us about that is a true exchange.

So us receiving children, because that has an impact on our community as a whole, as well as us sending smaller groups of students out. But the benefits to our community are similar to the ELD department, but having those opportunities to also expand that reach within our own community. It is exciting to us. I also think with CTE, we still are looking at the Global STEM Squad's work in Central America and things like that.

So the connection to service, I think, is one that's interesting to us, as well as this idea of true exchanges and living like homestays. Beautiful, right? Okay Leo So you answered a couple of my questions in the way you put together your presentation That great I did want to get you to expand on this idea of portfolios that you mentioned Explain that a little more, what's going on there. Yeah, so it's a theory, right?

So the idea is that we see a first grader with their language exposure, and we record it in some fashion. We're going to explore what that might look like. And then in 12 years, that same student could look back and see how they've grown over those 12 years. And maybe it's a recording.

Maybe it's written. I don't know what it would look like. So the idea behind this is to explore the possibility of what that could be. At the very least, setting up the pathway to proficiency, we already do standardized sort of tests at 5th and 8th and 10th grade-ish levels.

So I say ish because it depends on what grade they're in in that course. But those points of time at least give us hard data to point to the students and say, you are learning. Look, you've grown over time. This would just give us some more visual evidence to support it as well because saying, oh, look, you have a red dot here and now it's yellow doesn't speak much to the student.

We want to make sure that it's visible for them as well. It speaks to us as professionals, but we want the students to see their growth too. And parents. Yeah, I think that I was going to say the parent piece also.

One of the pieces I think that came out from the Teaching and Learning Advisory Council is it's not, and Michael sort of said this in the presentation, that it's not overtly obvious to parents what language growth is looking like for their children and what does proficiency mean. So he did an exercise with the Teaching and Learning Advisory Council about proficiency because there's a difference between this idea of fluency in a language and proficiency in a language. And I think for as long as I've been here and the elementary program has been in place, there's been a little bit of a misconception about what the goal is. And so people often will say my child is not fluent, and that's actually not our goal.

So the idea of a portfolio can help to make that thinking and that learning visible to the children, but also to the families of what children are capable of doing within the language. And then I'll just, this is, Chris said similar things, but I do think that this program really reflects some cool things we're able to do in this district Thank you. Aaron? I had similar questions about the portfolio, so that was great to hear a little bit more about what that might look like.

And then kind of also piggybacking on the sort of real world experience and opportunities, you know, obviously the international piece is huge and really important, but also the Experience and opportunities, you know, obviously the international piece is huge and really exciting. I guess I was also wondering about what sorts of domestic opportunities and local opportunities. I know this is not quite as exciting as going to Spain, but I know the Latin class recently went to the art museum to see the new exhibit on Trajan. And then they went to the zoo, actually, to practice their Latin.

Yeah, I know. It was a great idea. I was on the field trip. Yeah, so fantastic.

It got two thumbs up. But yeah, if there might be other opportunities like that. Yeah, glocal is fundamental, right? So the Spanish, we went to Cherokee Street earlier this semester, and they got a chance to explore some of the shops down there, go to some restaurants and try.

It was the pop culture class and try and order in Spanish. So we are doing our due diligence to make sure that students who maybe don't have the opportunities to go abroad still have a way to practice here. And we're going to continue searching for more and more opportunities like that. With our revamping of our World Language Lab, the plan is to bring in speakers this next year and start bringing in people that can speak to, you know, how do they use language in the workforce or beyond.

And so I think that those are going to be things that we're going to slowly percolate into our program that are going to, that sort of comment is encouraging. So thank you. I think also with the seal of biliteracy, up until this point, there's a component of the seal of biliteracy that's like a socio... It's a cultural reflection on how language has impacted them, but they get to write it in English and it's one page.

So Michael and I have talked about what opportunity that we have there to use that component of the seal of biliteracy to think a little bit differently about getting children into the community And other ways of being able to use language and then being able to reflect on that impact for them. So I think there's an opportunity there that we can grow that could create a connection in a similar way. Yeah so the cultural project is an option instead of doing that And we opted to just to get the program started we opted to focus on the cultural essay connection rather than the cultural project Spervantage of Education Proposition O levy agenda motion carried And then share your thoughts about that. Yeah.

And you sent that. I pulled the data for you. The, when we, and I assume when you're talking student group, you're talking really like racial, the racial breakdown. Yeah.

So in our AP courses, the, and so this is all AP, all AP language courses together in So, we're looking at the AP courses together in comparison to the total population of students who can access AP courses, if that makes sense, because that's not the total population of the high school. We generally don't offer AP to 9th and 10th graders, so this is really looking mainly at the 11th and 12th graders in comparison. So, the places that I see sort of disproportionality are black students. So, 2.9% were reflected in the AP courses, and there's about 15% of the total population.

Our Asian students, it was 18.6% in the AP courses and 13.5 is the total population of that group. 5.7% of Hispanic students and 2% is the total population. 10% of multiracial students, 10.8 is the total population. And then 62.8% of our white students and it's about 58% of the total population.

Of the white students, 62.8. So that's the AP. And then for the seal of biliteracy, so of the students who qualified for the seal of biliteracy this year, 0% were black, 24% Asian. And the total population for that is the senior class.

So only seniors qualify for the seal. So when you say 24% are Asian, how many of the seniors have a seal of biliteracy? So 24% of that 50, yeah. 10% Hispanic, 8% multiracial, and 58% white.

So, correct, correct. I only pulled it by race because of the way that you worded the question. I didn't pull it by EL or IEP or qualifying for like direct cert. I didn't pull that.

I just pulled it by race. So what I think we, my assessment of that is similar to what we see in our other work with our student group is that our black students are underrepresented in both of those, both in the AP courses as well as the students who are qualifying for the CLL biliteracy. That's the starkest number. The other numbers are somewhat comparable to the total population, but it's our black students that we see a disproportionality.

What do we think we can do about that? Yeah, so Michael and I had some conversation about, one of the things I think that we talked about is the partnership with counseling Thank you. But I think there's a communication piece there and a way of thinking through how we present courses to students that I think we can do some work there to really be intentional about that partnership with that department. Because they have a lot of, they have many more conversations with the children about their registration than, you know, the teachers necessarily do.

So I think that's an easy sort of first place for us to start to have some conversation. Is there a requirement for world languages at high school? How many years is it? We don't have a requirement.

So the state of Missouri does not have a graduation requirement. They have a recommendation of at least two years. So I guess it would be interesting to see the numbers of our black students who are taking a language as 9th and 10th or 9th graders, just saying. And that could help us see where is that the entry point or is it progressing in the.

Okay. Okay, thank you. Okay, now I have very different kinds of questions. So all of our kids start in Spanish, and then they go to Y-down, and they get to choose between two languages in sixth grade.

And then in seventh and eighth, they can choose two more options. What we don't tell our families and our students is that when they're in fifth grade, is that if you do not choose Spanish or French in middle school and stick with it all the way through, you will not progress very far in your language. This was one of the things I learned, I think, from you all at the Teaching and Learning Advisory Council. When you say you will not progress very far, does that mean you won't reach AP?

Because you still have an opportunity to have four years of a language. You can have four years of a language, but what I learned is that if you don't start there, then the language you do as a senior, if you start, you know, the short sequence, as you call it, you start as what you are as a senior is equivalent to what you would be as a freshman or sophomore had you done it in middle school. So I have two parts of this question, so we can do that one first. And so how can we, you know, I really want to encourage you to think about communicating with the fifth grade teachers, with the fifth grade students and their families on making these decisions, because that seems like a big deal.

And then the next piece is, what do we do about our kids who come in in middle school? Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. So if I understand what you're articulating is you're articulating that there is not an entry point in the middle school after sixth grade for either Spanish or French. That is true.

Yes, and I think that that should be changed. And what we also learned is that if you are in learning center in middle school, you don't get to take a language. That's not 100% true. That is a consideration because there's a limit to the number of electives that a child can take.

And if Learning Center is taking a slot, it does take up something. And there are children where we have to make a decision, particularly in sixth grade where there's fewer electives, slots for students, we have to make some decisions. That is true. We did at one point try to have an entry point for Spanish in seventh grade, and it wasn't, because we do have a large influx of students that come in to the middle school in seventh grade, so some of those private schools end at sixth and come in.

And we did try it with sort of limited success. And it was more about interest in it at the time. So I don't know that it's not something that we couldn't revisit again, but we abandoned it relatively quickly because we weren't getting the kind of interest that we thought we were going to get. So I think we would have to think through the, like for us, I think it would be a question of thinking through the programming of it and what, because what I think that would set up is sort of a third sequence, which would be sort of like a medium sequence, right?

So we have like the short sequence, we have the long sequence, and then we'd have sort of a medium sequence, which would represent sort of more of a traditional what other school districts you would see where kids start in seventh grade and then get through senior year. And generally in those programs, the seventh and eighth grade is sort of the equivalent of Spanish one. So you're getting them sort of a year further, basically. I think it's just a missed opportunity for kids to not be able to access a language that uses the ABC alphabet, whatever that word is.

Oh, that's what you meant. There's a word for it, and we all know it. I just don't know what it is right now. It's a script, right?

No. It doesn't matter. Characters. We all know what I'm talking about when I'm asking this.

I just don want us to lose that opportunity for students to get involved in the language both in the language development and in the cultural development that you all are speaking about Okay Or is it even something as easy as reorganizing the schedule so that new seventh graders could be in a sixth grade Spanish class I'm sure that's not easy, but just another idea of not having to start a whole new class. I think the hope is that we can explore the ways in which we can get students proficient at certain levels, Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. I'm not saying it would alleviate, but... Random thought, okay.

But I do like this, I appreciate us talking about the counselor being part of this conversation. And I want to expand on that and say not only do we want to talk to our students, this counselor talked to the student about, you know, what do you think about a language? Spervantage, and like that excitement and that, you know, what language, what kind of conversations are happening, but we also have to have those with the parents because the parents don't understand that aspect about if you don't do it here, then it's going to be this, and you're only going to get here. Does that make sense?

So it's one thing for the counselor to have those amazing conversations with that student. It's a whole other thing for them to then translate that over to the parents because that's going to make a huge difference in the parent being part of, actually, I think you should do it this way instead, and having that conversation with those especially middle school kids. So I do think there's room for improvement in terms of that parent involvement in understanding where they could go, whether they do the short or the long or whatever. And I think the development of our path of proficiency that we're trying to do will help mitigate a lot of that confusion.

Great. I think also, like, in the report on page four, we have that chart that talks about the components of, like, how long you study a language and sort of what the proficiency level that you possibly can get to. And I think when Pam was at the Teaching and Learning Advisory Council, we had some conversation about, like, our philosophy has always sort of been a little, like, start early, stay long kind of piece. And when students shift into another language, a lot of what's often reported to us from the teachers of the other languages is, like, kids already have the skill and the muscle around learning a language.

So we can move much faster in like French one or Latin or Chinese one or something like that because they're not like trying to learn the language. But what I think is interesting about this chart, and I think it came up with the parents, was like help communicate this more clearly to us of like when we're making this decision because it's like, oh, we're making a decision, we're going to middle school. And it doesn't feel as informed. And they were like, if we knew some of this stuff, it could influence the choices that we're making within our family.

So, yeah. Pam, do you have other questions? So the other question is we have a short track for the kids who start in high school, that language, and we have a long track for the ones who start it in middle school slash elementary. And those tracks are basically a regular or a college prep equivalent versus an honors or advanced equivalent.

And I know there's all different names for them. It seems to me that there are levels within those levels that would be worth exploring, meaning the kids who start in ninth grade, there are going to be some who want to run with it and some who just want to take it. And likewise, there are some who started in sixth grade who want to take it and keep going, and there are some who really want to run with it. And so I just want to encourage thinking about that leveling to help more students go further.

So if I understand what you saying like is some of what you saying like if a student was in the short sequence and wanted to accelerate their learning to be able to access something like AP or something like that that we provide opportunities for that to be able to happen Okay Because I think there are a couple things like Michael and I even talked about this this morning There are a couple things that are in place that we haven't sort of historically used within our language courses, but are in place to be able to have that happen. And one is, like, you all have a policy around content acceleration that could allow that. We also have access to virtual learning that could allow students to do some things. And, like, that's a state law that children have access to MoCap providers to do courses.

So, like, that could look like some summer learning or something like that where that could allow students to move further in a sequence. Like, obviously, they're going to have to carry the load to be able to do it. But I think there are opportunities that we probably aren't very public about exploring that we could be more public about. And we do have, I had three or four students last year in Spanish 1 say, I really want to go and go beyond what I could get to.

So they did skip level exams, and we have those in place as well. So students that are ambitious enough, we can identify them, but they usually identify themselves, and they approach their instructors, and then we work with them to meet their needs. But I think most people's mental model of content acceleration in the district is math. But it's actually, your policy actually is not just written for one content area.

It's written for all of them, and we can help with what that looks like. And generally what that means is they take a course and then we do some kind of like giving them the final exam or something for the course to make sure that they're in the right space to set them up for success, to like skip a level. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

Report cards at the elementary level. Speak to that, because that's great. Yeah, so instead of task focus, it's proficiency focus. It's really just the beginning stages of having that conversation and getting people to understand.

We're talking about growth here and not tasks. And so the whole point of that revamp was to begin a conversation at the young age. That way that by the time they get to secondary, they understand what proficiency is and modes of communication and all that. And that's not just, you know, tapas class or something.

It's more about engaging with the communication of the language and using it. Ben? I just think having you describe our programs and what we have in this district is just phenomenal. I mean, from a language perspective, I mean, the fact that some districts don't have any language at elementary level, it's just awesome.

And then we have a coordinated effort across all our schools. I was curious, like, for someone who, you know, took language and, you know, was all about conjugating verbs and, you know, like, what, just maybe high level, just for those of us, you know, from the last century, to understand, like, what's changed? Like, how is, I mean, I've heard little bits. I would list maybe just a summary of how it's done.

Well, I mean, that is still important because that's a piece of communication, right? Well, sure. If you're using different tense, what were you talking about yesterday? So we definitely, we still instruct grammatical concepts, vocabulary, of course, but the grind isn't that.

It's more about can I understand what you're trying to say at the level that you're at. So, again, speaking of the proficiency, we have, just like the EL department has proficiency scales, we have proficiency scales. And we are working to make sure that students know that you're not meant to be saying more than what you are right now. Spervantage of Education Proposition O levy agenda motion carried Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

Superexpensive, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. I don't know. I just thought it would be kind of fun, especially in elementary. I would almost think that they can connect with their peers around the world in a responsible way.

It happens in other ways organically. Yeah, maybe eSports. I don't know. I'm just curious.

Any thoughts on that? Yeah, so we're already kind of doing that now. Y-Down, the Spanish kiddos, are interacting with students in Madrid via letters. Pursuit.

We're working on that exchange possibility. But also we've been, we're poised to start using this program called Booma Lang, which gets kids a few times a year interacting and engaging with a person via Zoom that's a native speaker. That's kind of an expensive program, but it actually is so, it's fundamental. The kids just, they dive into it and they really love it.

And so that's something that we've budgeted in this next year to get more exposure to at the very least one or two times a year so the kids can actually engage with somebody else in the target language that's not one of the instructors or somebody that we found nearby. And again, speaking to the opportunities that maybe we'll bring in speakers to the labs, people can come in and listen to individuals talk. But with relation to tech, I'm hoping and we're hoping that the iPads will definitely lend itself to more interaction, engagement with people abroad. The exchange program, I'm hoping to make a connection with that school.

Even if the program ends, we can continue working with them. And so it is challenging to find schools that will partner with us, not necessarily because they don't want to. It's because it's hard to find a school that you can engage with. Going to the national conference is helpful because lots of international instructors and admin come to those conferences as well.

But it still isn't an easy bridge to build. And so tech is definitely helpful with that, for sure. We've also met with a local high school. So Nisha and I went over to talk with a local high school, and then Michael connected with them also, that has a global ed graduation requirement.

And so we've had some conversation with them about what does that look like. And a lot of it is what you're saying. It's like these opportunities to connect with other children around the world on a Zoom and talk about global issues and those types of things. It's not necessarily, sometimes it's not necessarily a language kind of thing, but it's more this idea of like connecting across the world.

And so being able to sort of explore how they've done that program and what are things that we might be able to capitalize on for our students. I don't have many questions, but I will say that this graphic that you pointed out really sold me on the early start of language. I sort of, I mean, my daughter loves Spanish. I don't know if she's there.

But I kind of thought of it as a fun, nice to have, not as a real critical piece of language development. And it's so clear to see when you look at this that that's really the best shot at getting a kid to biliteracy or, you know, just total fluency or proficiency. So thank you for that. And I am really grateful that that language program is here in the elementary schools.

And the other questions about exchange and travel abroad was something that I was curious about as well. Also, thanks for that. And I really agree with the homestay sort of I studied abroad and I lived with the family and it was the coolest experience and just the best way to really make those kinds of connections and develop language. So I'm excited to hear more about that.

So thank you. Yeah, sure. Okay, a couple more things. Because I've been sitting at this table for a while, I don't know if you remember, Malena, one of the first times you talked about this, and I happen to be sitting, or me just sitting, I remember asking about content acceleration in this area.

And I remember saying, like, how great it is that we do it so well in math. So can you give me examples now of what's happening in terms of, I mean, I know that middle school is tricky because of the time. So if someone, if you give the, like, tell me what's happening now when you give a seventh grader a test for his or her entrance into Chinese and they're really at, like, a ninth grade, you know, they really need something beyond what you guys offer in seventh and eighth. Is that a possibility yet?

So there's a complicated answer to that, but yes. So oftentimes what that may look like is some kind of, we've oftentimes looked at that, particularly at the middle school, as some kind of like independent study within a larger class setting because the schedule at the middle school is complicated in the way of like when grade levels can do things. It's easier at the high school when it's not like sixth grade is in court at this time, seventh grade is in court at this time, eighth grade is in court at this time. I also think we typically like to teach our own students with our teachers, right?

But the idea of virtual education does expand the ability to allow students to accelerate in a way that would allow them to meet their needs. Spervantage, and then in some ways either fold back into the program at a later date or something like that. I would say that we have very few instances right now of people wanting to accelerate their children in that way, but we do, because you all have a policy, we have to have a practice in what that looks like. And so what that looks like is somebody reaching out to us, us collecting data and information, and then making a decision that makes the most sense for that child and that family.

So sometimes the family, like when we say here's what it could look like, sometimes the family's like, I'm not sure that's what I want it to look like. So the family has to have some agency in being able to make that determination of what makes the most sense. And the constraints sometimes are hard. The middle school constraints are probably the most complicated.

Exactly. Exactly. And what happens if an eighth grader, do we test our eighth grader to see whether or not maybe they don't want to go, you know, where they end up in terms of not taking Spanish 1 or 2? You know what I'm saying?

So in French and in Spanish, they wouldn't go back to the short sequence. They continue in the long sequence. Okay. What if it's a step further?

Is there just a blanket test given so that you decide where to put them? I know you're not going to put them in the short sequence again. No. So similar to how students would progress through 6th grade literacy, 7th grade literacy, 3rd grade literacy, the same thing would happen of students progressing from 8th grade Spanish into 9th grade honors.

And for French, they're going from 8th grade French into French 3. Okay. Okay. So it is an acceleration in what's considered sort of the traditional, like what you would consider a traditional track, like other schools, but it's a part of our normal sequence.

So like when you look at those maps on the website, the sequence, so a sequence for math or a sequence for literacy is similar that there's a sequence for the languages also. Okay, but it's not individually based? Not generally, unless there's something really asynchronous that would require us to have a different kind of conversation. Okay.

And then I also want to say, because I've been here for a minute, the fact that your biliteracy, you're now a number of 50, is way bigger than it was when I first started sitting here. And I just think it's incredible. I remember going to a conference and learning more about it. I was like, oh, our districts were really trying to amp that up.

Well, here you did. So I just want to give you major props for that. It's amazing. Yeah, I think that's really impressive, too, because that's also 50 students out of the graduating class.

It's 25%. So it's about a quarter of the graduating class has qualified for either the regular SEAL or the distinguished SEAL, and some of those students are qualifying in multiple languages. Great work. Awesome.

And that was really my only one comment, just when you think about the profile of a Clayton learner and being culturally conscious and empathetic this is a key cornerstone of that in my opinion So kudos to you guys and the team I guess we can vote All right So all those in favor Aye. Any opposed? It passes. Thank you.

Congratulations. Yes. Thank you. And then next we have Dr.

Garganiga. Oh, you're here. Here I am. Two-thirds done.

No, because I got all the policies, too. Oh, that's right. It's a big night. Okay.

Hi, Julie. Hi. So different from the other two reports tonight, both the literacy report and the presentation are going to look a little bit different. That's a consequence of state law and requirements that the state has of us.

So if you remember in the fall, we came to you and asked you to approve a preliminary version of the comprehensive literacy report in response to state law. So you approved about the first 50 pages. No, well, it's all 50. So you approved about the first 25 pages of this document in the fall.

Now we're coming back to with it really actually completed with the long-range goals. So that's the reason why this report is much longer than the other two. It's also the reason why the format of it looks very different because we were required to do some very different things with that in order to comply with the state. But now that we have completed it, we do have long-range goals.

And I think the exercise that we went through, Julie's going to walk you through everything that her team has done. But I think the exercise that we did to get through this is going to make us much better in the long run. But I think it's been a hard, good study of ourselves. And I think there's, we are recognizing that there's a lot of places for us to do work, and I think you'll see those reflected in these long-range goals.

So I want to introduce Julie Power to you. Julie is our literacy coordinator. One of the things that I think is important for people to understand is, as the literacy coordinator, Julie is in charge of literacy, reading, so all elementary classrooms. So she has the largest department in the district and is spinning a lot of plates.

She also has the largest number of legislative things that she's responsible for. And so she has to be the expert on all those things. So she has to keep me up to speed on that. So I just appreciate her focus on that.

But that is why her role is the only coordinator role that is a 1.0 coordinator. So she doesn't have a classroom that she's responsible for because she's responsible for basically every classroom in the school district. But I do think that's important. We have an important distinction there with her role, and a lot of it has to do with the stuff from the state.

And I will say that Julie is often working with a moving target. The state changes pretty frequently what the requirements are, which means she's sort of starting and stopping. So I just want to publicly say that I really appreciate the work that she does because it's a lot of plates, and she does it very well, and she always does it with a smile on her face. So because of the hour of the night, we did not bring her team here, but we do have a slide that just acknowledges the people who have been a part of the work with her on the committee.

So I'll let her take over from here, but I just wanted to acknowledge a couple of those things and why things feel a little bit different for this area. Thank you. And thank you to my team. I know you're out there watching.

Hopefully you're enjoying this with a good beverage in hand. It's just a Diet Coke, I think. All right, you can go ahead. Do you want to talk about this?

No, I'm not going to. We're going to focus on goal one and two. We're going to focus on this. All right, a little bit of background.

So our K-12, K-12 classrooms rely on a comprehensive framework that is empower our young thinkers. The structure is a mixture of direct instruction, small group instruction, Time for reading and writing, individual conferences, peer work through partnerships and through small groups or book clubs with their friends. We work to balance the need for exploration and choice with more specific shared experiences, including, for example, whole class reads of a core text. We believe that students need to interact with diverse, authentic text.

Quality literature is critical to helping students see themselves in our diverse world Therefore we strive to ensure the diverse identities of our students in our schools are positively represented in the literature that we read in our classrooms Some of the changes that we've made have been quite a few. This is only my fourth year here in the district, so we've done a lot already, I feel like, in the short amount of time that I've been here. But our very first change that was really looking at was because of Senate Bill 681. And through Senate Bill 681, we as curriculum, the curriculum court, our council, or not council, our committee, elementary teachers, the literacy coaches, K-5, we spent really digging into our K-5 curriculum and examining what needed to be changed based on the legislation requirements.

And really the big one right there is like we had to make it more explicit, systematic, diagnostic, and really focusing on those five big components of the state. And identified by the National Reading Panel, the phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary. And comprehension, and also layering in morphology, which is more of that just studying of the morphemes in our language, syntax, and semantics. So really studying our grammar piece as well.

Because of that work, we also thought, oh gosh, we need to give teachers some training behind that. So our K-5 teachers have gone through letters training, as you've heard. So we're in the process. All K-5 are now trained through Volume 1.

We just started Volume 2 with our K-1 and 2 teachers this January. So they're starting Volume 2. And they'll wrap up around January of next year, and then we'll start with 3, 4, 5 with Volume 2 as well. Because we had that change of having to our elementary curriculum, we knew that we needed to revise our 6 through 8 curriculum.

So we revised that curriculum starting last year, focusing on integrating the Missouri Learning, the Missouri Priority Standards. We also are revising next year, beginning a new implementation of Reader's Writer's Workshop in 6 through 8. We're really focusing on the way to increase independent reading and writing in our classrooms. So more is happening in class with the classroom teacher, giving students immediate feedback in the moment.

It's like I always give the analogy of like playing basketball. We don't just say, hey, we're going to watch some people play basketball, and then now you're going to go home and practice on your own, and they give no feedback. So like really teaching kids the skill explicitly in the classroom and then providing time for them to practice it and us giving that feedback in small groups or in conferences. Also within the last four years, we've developed a K-12 systematic and diagnostic literacy intervention.

So by using the state and local criteria now, we now are able to identify which students need additional support and which intervention is the best one for their need at that time. EduClimber has been a great addition to this process because we can now document all of our interventions. We can monitor their progress and house all of our data just in one place, which is nice because we had 1,000 different spreadsheets happening originally. So this has been great to just go back to.

Remember the sheets? Yep. So our first big goal. So again, through the state, this summer, in July, late July, the state gave us this comprehensive literacy plan that came with an 82-page audit that you could do starting this year.

And so we quickly turned it around and used what we did last year with our gap analysis I mentioned in the report, identified which ones of those reports that were really aligned to what we had already identified through our gap analysis last spring. And one of the first big buckets was, or domains, was assessment. And so the assessment domain centers really on our goal is going to center on the belief that effective literacy instruction begins with understanding exactly where our student is in their literacy journey. With this goal, we are committed to providing teachers structured time and resources in their professional learning communities to develop and refine assessments that are authentic, rigorous, and responsive to our diverse student body.

By auditing our current tools and implementing common data reflection protocols, we will ensure that data is used not just for grading, but also a vital tool for teachers to think about timely interventions and adjusting their classroom to meet the students' needs in their classroom. Our second goal falls into the bucket of the instructional. I didn't come up with these titles. Intentional Instructional Intervention and Enrichment by the state.

And this one is really focusing on, it's guaranteeing that we have a viable and consistent literacy experience K-12 by implementing a comprehensive model informed by the sciences of reading. We plan to conduct audits of our curriculum and core text to ensure they are vertically aligned and are culturally inclusive of our students. By utilizing a systematic data-driven process, our educators can provide flexible grouping and targeted instruction for their learners. They should ensure that every student, whether they require support or enrichment, receive what they need to meet their needs.

And finally, the last one, the state doesn't have one for student growth, but we really love the idea of student growth. So we were like, the state said, you only needed to pick two. I'm like, well, good. We're going to add our own in.

And so our committee and through the listening through the Teaching and Learning Advisory Council, they love the idea of student growth as well. So the goal shifts the focus from passive learning to active ownership Our goal is to help students discover their personal identities as readers and writers growing in both head and heart Through our use of learning progressions teachers will empower students to set personalized goals engage in metacognitive reflection and curate their own progress. Or the next few years, just like Michael, I think I need to have a conversation with Michael, we're going to explore digital portfolios and our grading practices to really celebrate that learning process. So thinking about how students And then finally, we know this is, as a consequence of this work, we anticipate our students growing both head and heart as readers and writers.

By intentionally blending student voice and clear learning progressions, we aim to move beyond that traditional instruction to foster self-directed learning. Our goal is that every student develop the metacognitive skills necessary to reflect on their work, set meaningful personal goals, and achieve continuous growth throughout their literacy journey. And then we know this is a big task, and so here are our immediate next steps for next year. We're going to conduct an audit of our K-12 curriculum, really examining the diversity of our texts and our authors to ensure that we have all the essential components.

So looking at Missouri learning standards, the reading, writing, speaking, and listening standards for a comprehensive literacy curriculum and are included and are vertically aligned and horizontally as well. Then we also plan to look at and develop a K-2 audit of our assessments. And so looking at not only just the universals that we have in place by the state, but also what we make in-house, like our common formatives and our summative assessments, tree view, the purposes, the rigor, the challenges of the text used in those assessments, and inclusivity of those assessments. And then implementation of evidence-based practices for support student growth.

That is it. Can I get a motion to discuss? I move. Thank you.

I move to approve the revised literacy review goals, the district written literacy curriculum, and the financials as outlined in the report. Second. Great. We'll open it up for discussion.

Leo, can I ask you to start us off? Sure. There's a lot of great stuff in here. It's a big document.

A lot of it seems to go very, a lot of it is specific to literacy, but a lot of it seems to go to very broad educational themes, too, and I was interested in a couple of those. So one question I had is, you know, there's this shift to empowering student agency, which is definitely the goal. And I do wonder when I see that kind of thing about, you know, a kid who's not doing that and how you engage with that kid and make sure that the goal of, you know, empowering these kids doesn't become a barrier because they're not able to get over that. You know, do you have something to give them if they're not coming to get it?

That's the question. Yes, engaging the reluctant reader, right? Yes, we all know them, and I've met a few in my lifetime as a teacher as well. And so one of the real things is really tapping.

I think it's really getting to know your students, and I think teachers spending the time to know them outside of the classroom and knowing their interests, that's the way I usually have gotten to engage readers and writers, is finding, like, hey, little Julie loves soccer, and so what if I can tap into, like, she loves soccer, let's find out the books about soccer, whatever it is that I can engage her with. And so starting with that approach too and knowing them outside of just the classrooms is the first step. Then also like as far as like helping them set goals, I think the biggest thing too is like helping them define like what are those goals that we need to think about so like a learning progression is helpful because you can help identify like here are the areas we're working on it right now as a reader. We're working on, whether it be like little guys like working on sounding out words, right?

Or is it working on comprehension? What is that area and really limiting maybe one or two choices and then having them pick their goal from that? That's one way is just to help them see what are those goals because sometimes they don't even know what goals to set for themselves. But giving them a few choices is helpful.

I think also Julie just did some professional learning in classrooms with our middle school teachers around Readers and Writers Workshop. And what she was modeling was really the small group lessons and the conferring with individual students, and the ways to lean in with individual students, sort of to be able to have that kind of intimate conversation about their learning. And there were a couple different things that teachers observed during that time. So there were times where Julie would just drop an idea with a child and come away for a little while, and then come back and see what they Done with it.

So that can inform you. If they haven't done anything with it, then the next thing she's going to do is lean in in a different way and model something. Or being able to just have like a specific like mini lesson for that child and then sit side by side with them while they do some of that work. So teachers were able to see Julie model that of sort of three different ways to approach what possibly could happen in a conference.

And we had Jill Ellinger there sort of voice Superexpensive, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. And how the child presents can influence the decision that she's making at that point. So that was super powerful for us. And I really appreciate your bringing up an example at the middle school level, too, where I do think that can be a more challenging situation for individualization.

Yeah. I think also, like, Julie doesn't necessarily know those children. She was going into other people's classrooms to do that. So she also was modeling how to sort of quickly form a relationship with a child to be able to get them to move with that piece, which it's like, I respect what she's saying about knowing our students well.

Like, that's our model, right? Like, know our students well and respond to their needs. But also there are ways to do that, to get a child to engage just by sort of what she's got in her toolkit. That modeling that, I think, also was an important aspect of that learning.

And then one other question that occurred to me while you were presenting is you painted a picture, and I know this apart from this, of a lot of change going on in this area legally and in what's considered best practices and all that, and that goes together somewhat. So do you feel like that's still coming fast and thick and you're still reacting to it, or are you to a point where you're going to start settling on something? No, it's still coming quickly. I would say the pace of it has slowed a little bit, K-5, but that's still coming.

Like, they're still on a pretty steep learning curve with the letters piece. Like, they're only halfway through the letters training and the implementation of that. And then the middle school piece is coming fast and furious also. I guess I'm asking about the, like, the outside expectations that are coming at you and whether those are still changing so quickly.

No, those are still changing, too. Yes. Like whether you've, so you're going through this process of updating and then the expectations are changing and by the time you finish it, you may be back at the start. Right, so we're supposed to get another update from the state in July and we're sort of, you know, buckle your seatbelt.

Yeah. They just gave us guidance last summer, again, when they released the comprehensive literacy plan. They also dropped the 6 through 12 guidance for reading success plans for secondary students. So we've already just got word that they are now revising that guidance.

So that new guidance will come out again, probably late July, and then we'll quickly have to make changes to that. Well, you know, thank you for your work. That's what I'll say to that. It's pretty challenging to get anything in place with expectations changing that rapidly, I'm sure.

Yeah, this is a lot. So as a new board member, too, I was like, wow. I need to catch up my learning of all these things. Yeah, so I think, and I found really, you know, kind of embedded throughout this tension between needing to meet all these standards, all this assessment, And what you were saying, like knowing the student in front of you and how do you get that individual to be, you know, the love of reading in addition to, you know, making these metrics.

So, yeah, and I don't, that's beyond my comprehension. And I don't expect you to answer that. You know, like, I'm just, wow, that's, it's just a lot. But I guess, are there, you know, any things in particular where you think that, you know, there can be additional support?

Or also thinking a little bit going into our next policy like bringing in sort of the library resource or like working with maybe some of that individual differentiation issue or finding the interest you know can there with the library specialists media specialists be part of this I know that not really in here necessarily but just a thought Yeah, we definitely lean on the library media specialists. They have their, they're always ahead of like, what's the latest titles coming out? They know what kids are wanting to check out and things like that. So like, so there's a lot of times like, you know, the teachers, even high school all the way, I mean, K through 12, they're inviting the library specialists into the classrooms, like, give us a book, latest book talk, share books with kids.

So like, they're always partnering with our classroom teachers to figure out like, helping kids select texts, or, you know, whether it be researching, We're working on changing skills and things like that, but there's a lot of partnerships between our classroom teachers and our library specialists. Mead? Hi. Thank you so much.

This was huge. Just a very big report. I was like, whoa. But it is clear, just it's really clear how intense this work is, especially right now.

I know that it's been just like a hot, such a hot button topic for the last, you know, five, ten years. And I'm proud to see all this work that you all have done. I really appreciated all the explanation around the MTSS and how that ties in with the reading success plans. So just thanks.

I know. I'm glad you're just a one. You don't have your own classroom because I really don't know how you would also do that. So, and I realize some of my questions, I was really curious to dig into the curriculum.

So I know that's not necessarily possible right now. But I am curious, so the letters spelling screener is the only assured screener that is given several times a year. Can you talk to me about some of the other assessments that are happening, Especially with regards to spelling, morphology, word study. What do those look like?

Where are those drawn from? The STAR reading assessments that we also give, which is the foundational assessment that's one of the four that are approved by the state, that also has those pieces embedded because that's aligned to our standards. That's testing our students' proficiency with standards and it's computer adaptive so we're seeing how kids are able to use across the standards of their grade level and then Beyond the grade level as well. So the STAR assessment is one area that helps us as well.

And that's our early literacy and STAR reading that they take three times a year. That is one of our screeners that we give K through 12 to it. So that's an area that we use. That's probably more of a global universal one that we use, but the spelling screener is really giving us more information.

For more diagnostics, so if a student then shows an area of need in those areas on STAR, then we start digging in deeper and giving other assessments. So like the SIPs placement test will give us information around reading as well. We'll also dig into, there's not really a lot around vocabulary per se, because it's really hard to test and progress monitor vocabulary if you think about it. And like Isabel Beck's work around tier one, tier two, and tier three words, like how do we know, like how do we measure that?

And like, so there's, everyone's struggling with that's an area. Like how do you actually test for that? And when you think about, I'm hearing about languages tonight, How do you actually test one's vocabulary and language skills? I would say that's an area everybody is trying to work on and develop good tools for that right now.

But we're using most of like STAR, early literacy or the STAR reading assessment for the spelling. But the spelling, we'll use the letters and then we'll also drill down the words their ways. It has a great spelling inventory too, so we'll use that one because it has different spelling patterns that it identifies as well. So there's not necessarily something that's consistent across all the elementary schools that they're all using?

They all use the letter spelling screener three times a year, and then they have common formatives built into each of their units. So all of their phonics units have common formative assessments that they're using, that they use to talk at PLCs about, and then they form their groups based on that in their classroom. And I probably should know this, but so are the phonics units coming from Lexia then? No, so our phonics, units of study in phonics is K2, and then we use benchmark phonics for 3 through 5.

Okay, okay. Just because letters, you know, is like the professional development from Lexia. Okay, great. So I won't ask any more, like, too specific about the curriculum, and we'll wait to see those curriculum maps, but I am obviously very interested in those.

So obviously this report was super heavy on the assessment piece, and it's interesting. You said it is such a tension between the work that you have to do that is also I mean it very important and it has to be done to know your students but also losing some of that warm and fuzzy feeling around reading and Reader Workshop and all that And just to say I think we had the conversation of like we don want to throw the baby out with the bathwater around that And, you know, this is something that I have talked about and I asked about the video instruction happening versus the person in the room. And, Melina, I'm talking about like videos Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Thank you.

We are focusing so much on the assessment and the phonics and we're really, those are important. You know, that we're not exhausting our teachers to the point where they just want to put on a video of someone reading a book and that we're remembering that that's such an important, crucial part. So, you know, can you tell me how you might help the teachers kind of move away from that practice? Yeah, so I think there's sort of two components there.

One is materials that we purchased as a consequence of COVID and that we did not have an opportunity at that time to provide sort of a comprehensive professional learning opportunity for teachers, that now that we have had opportunity to provide that professional learning opportunity, Julie and I have had conversation about sunsetting some of those resources that we have purchased. So, like, they've sort of, it was our best thinking at the time, and we've sort of grown beyond that, and so it's a time for us to be making decisions about sunsetting that piece. The piece with the read aloud, I would say that we would agree with you that teachers reading aloud to children and interacting with real books with children and talking through their thinking and why authors make choices and why authors make decisions and everything like that, we believe strongly that that is the most effective way to deliver a read aloud. I also have seen instances where we may use something like an author reading their own book on a video and talking through those pieces.

I've also seen teachers stop those videos to have those same conversations. So I want to make sure that we aren't presenting this as a way of teacher's press play and somebody's reading a book and we aren't interacting with it. I do truly believe that our teachers are interacting with those things in that way. But I think the opportunities sometimes present themselves where there's a book that we may not have in our collection and that's a time when a teacher might make a decision to use something like that.

Or like I said, I shared a story with Nisha today about a librarian who was using Mo Willems reading a book about Elephant and Piggy on a video and then talking about how he had made the decisions about what Elephant and Piggy were doing and then had this whole sort of like exercise with the kids on how to draw Elephant and Piggy. And so the kids were super engaged with it because they know Milne Willems books. They know that. And it's a really cool experience to be able to see the author talking about the decisions he made because that is part of our curriculum of like the craft of writing.

And so I think we agree with you and we also see place and time where some of those videos could be helpful to learning and to understanding like author's craft and their purposes in writing and stuff like that. So I think it's the cautionary piece of how frequently does that happen. Yeah, and another use case, just to throw it out there, is I heard an example of someone reading a book that had words in another language that they wanted to make sure they got the accent right. So obviously, certainly there are use cases for that sort of thing.

And I would just say, so that would be like, it would be an exception to the rule. And you know I think that Pam said it so nicely in some other meeting about something else but I love the phrase so I going to say it here I hear my values reflected in what you saying And I think that we in alignment on those things But I do think you know there are some habits that are in the classrooms that are more than you know during snack time every day or you know like just things happening more than just those kind of exceptions to the rule So I would just plant my flag as like let move a little bit more Can I jump in with a piggyback question on that a little bit? Sure. An elephant and piggyback.

An elephant and piggyback. It's a Bo Willems question. A hippopotamus with a watermelon. There's a use for this.

This is really a question I think I should have asked a couple meetings ago when we were talking about tech explicitly. But since it's come up and I've been thinking about it a little, I wondered if we could get some clarification on the timeline where we might have some written documents laying out what expectations are for use of tech in these classrooms. And it ties into the literacy in the way that me, it's bringing it up, but it's also just a mulligan by me and a make-up call. So could I get a little answer?

Sure. Sure. So, Luke and I, these two might actually report out on it in the committee reports because they were a part of the committee meeting today. The work that we're trying to do, we're trying to accelerate the pace of the work that Luke and I are doing with the technology team to be able to, we see an opportunity here of like some things are changing in the landscape of technology.

So it's also an opportunity for us to sort of set the sandbox and be able to make some decisions. So our intent is that we will have some decisions made moving into the fall related to that technology. I don't think they're going to be the end of the decisions because the committee is working at a clip that, like, we can't sustain the clip that we're working at right now. But I think we can commit to some work, and the work that Mead and Ben were a part of tonight was really, like, we've defined it as sort of like what we would call a model of instruction.

So, as opposed to, because there's a tension, and Mead and I have had this conversation of, like, there's a tension around autonomy and, like, lockstep, and what does that look like in a system where we trust our teachers to make good decisions, But we also have to define that autonomy, right? So that there's some uniformity connected to philosophy and those types of things. So the development of this model of instruction is intended to move us in that direction of like we have a unified understanding of like what we mean when we say purposeful use of technology in the classroom and that we've outlined like so what does that mean? So what would you see students doing?

What would you see teachers doing? What are the kinds of things that would influence the decisions that teachers make? So one of the subcommittees of the tech committee is doing that work right now with the intent of rolling something out to the staff as we move into the fall. That's great.

That's great stuff. And I totally understand what you're saying, that it may not be the final work product. Right. But I think it's good to meet the goal of having something in place by the fall.

And I guess I'd say, I think others might agree, that prioritizing the lower grades in the first key stage in particular. So the subcommittee that's doing the work is a K-5 subcommittee. Great. Thank you.

That's all I got. Sorry. Can I keep going? I'll be quick.

But one point about the STAR assessments, they come home at a time when we're not talking to the teachers. So it's hard to get, and then by the time conferences come around, you know. So I was thinking about just there's so much good assessment that's happening, and you're clearly working so hard to know where all of our readers are. Just kind of making sure that there's some sort of, like when conferences come around, And the assessment pieces are kind of standardized across the, I don't know if it's, I don't know, that's up to you, for you to decide.

But as a parent, it would be nice to kind of come into conferences knowing that I'm going to find out this, this, and this, and that's going to be the same sort of thing I'm going to find out next year in second grade and third grade and fourth grade. Because I appreciate the standardization of the STAR assessment, but I never really have the opportunity to fully digest that with teachers. That's like a parent. The one piece I think that we feel a little bit of attention about is, so the state requires us to assess students within the first 30 days of school.

Right. We also then are required to put in place a reading success plan. We can't put a reading success plan in place without having shared the data with the families, so it like doesn't Really line up with our school calendar, and those are the decisions that, so that's a little of like where we're tied by statute that influences that. I think what we could do is, while we're still sending that home when we send it home, we could build in opportunities during the conference to like review it with families.

But it may not be the first time that families are seeing it because we can't put a reading success plan in place for a child where we haven't shared data. Yeah, and I mean, you don't have to assess them even more. I know they're getting assessed a lot, but just something to think about that. And I will look to hear more about the goal setting stuff because I think that's really interesting.

You don't have to go into it all right now. But I appreciated that you said that we are going to probably need, especially with their younger learners, help them define what their goals are. And just like, yeah. And them being able to see a visual of what those goals are anecdotally.

My daughter in kindergarten had like a bingo type sheet that we had up in the kitchen her kindergarten teacher sent at home. And every so often we'd check up there and be like, oh, yeah, you can do that now. And we'd color it in. And it was just kind of a cool thing.

And then by the end of the year, we had colored in all the boxes. And just a nice way for the parents to have visibility into the goals that the students also know exactly what they are. And I was thinking about that in terms of this or world language or the EL, the can-do statement. So anyways, just a little idea.

And then, okay, the last question that I'll ask is, I was struck by, at the social studies meeting a couple months ago, there was talk about the term paper. And that is no longer being assigned in social studies. And now it's an oral project, which, about a historical event, which I understand that in social studies, The goal is to learn about a historical event. I'm wondering, are we then translating that kind of the term paper over to an English class?

Or I think this is part of the conversation around AI and writing as well. And I know there's no simple answer here, but I just want to, like, are we going to expect, are we going to keep trying to teach our kids how to write a term paper? And, like, how are we going to do that? And I don't know.

Just interested in your thoughts around that. So I think it's, you know, we have a wonderful program in our high school with the conference program and teachers are meeting with their students. You know, they have nine conference papers throughout the year. So sitting down, having set conferences with your teacher at least nine times during the school year is a great opportunity.

And I think what's helping with that as well is that like I bring in my draft and you're going to give me feedback on it, right? I'm already seeing as a teacher what this piece looks like as a draft. Yes, I don't know if it was written with AI, right? But I do know, like, the style the student's writing in, right?

You know their voice. You know their choice in the words that they're using across the year, their sentence structures and things like that. So you're able to identify that already. And then through your conferences, you really get to know that student and then be able to give them feedback in those conferences as well.

So I think, you know, we have a great program at our high school, and our teachers do a wonderful job of just, you know, identifying the strengths of their writers and then helping them lean into and help them grow across the year, the years at the high school as writers. I think also our, as we continue to work on refining the six through eight curriculum and increasing the volume of reading and writing, so like kids are coming out of fifth grade with a significant volume of writing, that we're making some deliberate changes in the middle school and some partnership between social studies and literacy in thinking about that, particularly that writing piece, to then feed into the high school. So we're doing a little bit of looking at things like progressions, like learning progressions and those kinds of things from the elementary school and the high school and seeing like how do we bridge that in a different way in the middle school than we have previously bridged it. So I do think, I feel like we're putting a concentrated effort into continuing to ensure that our students are writing.

I do think we have a very real-world challenge with the presence of AI and how that influences how children write and how it influences the kinds of provocations that we develop for students to write to. So, like, there's a little bit of a challenge there of us developing things for students to write that won't actually allow something like AI to write it for them. And that a conversation that we continue to need to engage in and I think it going to continue to change and shift as AI gets smarter But we going to have to keep trying to outsmart it So that is something that is a real conversation that we having And Luke's subcommittee of the tech committee is talking about AI and trying to figure out some structure and that to put around that also. But that, again, is like a little bit of like shooting at a moving target.

And just to piggyback off that, like, there's a lot of conversations, like, we're getting ready to do our spring writing screener in K-5. And so, like, the fifth grade teachers are going to start doing some common scoring in their buildings of those writing assessments. So, like, we've invited the middle school staff. They're going to come over and participate in the common scoring so they get to see at the sixth grade teachers, like, what are these fifth graders coming in with me as writers?

What are their strengths and what are the areas that we're going to need to lean into to grow them? And then next week we're also going to invite the eighth grade teachers are coming over to ninth grade and we're just going to have a conversation around like what are your expectations around volume of reading and writing at the ninth grade level across college prep and honors. And then bringing their rubrics, students writing samples so that we have an idea to make sure that we have that vertical alignment of what our expectations look around that volume and stamina for our readers and writers. And I think Julie hasn't touched on it much, but when we think about increasing the volume of reading and writing, a big part of it for the middle school is, like, how do you increase it outside of the school?

So, yes, you have required reading, part of school, but what are we doing to increase the reading outside of school? And part of that is the goal setting and hopefully the expectation that every teacher has goal settings, like you're saying, right? It can be simple, even if it's something on the refrigerator, but more middle school-y, where the teachers then can say, okay, here we go. We've seen these kids read this many books that weren't assigned, so you're bringing the joy of reading into it as well.

You're looking at data to see, hey, the reluctant reader is not picking up any book. So increasing the volume of reading specifically is definitely a goal at the middle school. You guys are doing great work. Great job.

Keep up the good work. Ben. I think most of my questions have been answered. I was just thinking to myself, I feel like, correct me if I'm wrong, but we have come back a bit to handwriting and physical writing.

I think there was a time when perhaps we were not there. Is that a fair, like, I mean, we were doing a lot more on screens. We're getting back to handwriting. It's like, I mean, my son's handwriting is atrocious.

I mean, my girl's much better. But I think, and that kind of made me think, okay, I just, thank you. Yeah, sorry, sorry. My only comment is, are you talking about actual penmanship?

Penmanship, yeah. So that is, in that K-5 shift, we did have a pretty significant shift on print, K-1, cursive, second grade. I want to publicly state that the School District of Clayton does teach cursive and keyboarding in third grade. Good, okay.

So that is the progression. And when we teach keyboarding in third grade, that doesn't mean we lose a pencil. Like we still will do things, handwriting, but those are all a part of that K-5 curriculum piece that I think is important to point out. Because cursive seems to be something that people talk about a lot.

We do teach cursive in the school district of Clayton. Sorry, my daughter is even in handwriting intervention. Oh my, see. Really?

She goes to like pull out for that. So yeah, they're doing it all. Maybe she can help my son. Do they have that in 11th grade?

It's bad. It's pretty bad. So I was thinking also that just in terms of essentially volume of writing, I think, as I recall, when I was in school, I don't know why this is my own experience, But, you know, it was really those teachers that made me just right. I mean, and don't think about it too much.

And I know, I think, from what I've seen in my own home, like the CER kind of model, which is, I understand, it's obviously very common, but sometimes it can kind of slow down the thinking process a little bit, right? Like, you know, like, so I don't know if you have any comment on that in terms of that balance. Yeah. You're right.

Exactly. I can't quote the author right off the top of my head, but it's like you've got to write a lot of the bad stuff to get to the good stuff, right? And so, like, you do have to just, the more you create, the more stuff you're thinking through, you're processing. I don't know.

I'm a notebook person, so I have to handwrite, so it's a processing tool for me. So, like, just having kids do a lot of, like, free writing, so doing, like, some quick writes. Just throw a prompt up on the screen. The first 10 minutes they come in, like, let's respond to this.

So we doing just some quick writing so they have to just get to the point where they just creating in the moment We trying to do a lot more of that especially in the middle school You see a lot more in K right now The high school does a great job of it as well Like they just throw a quick prompt on the screen We're doing probably a lot more handwriting with them just because of like the A.I. usage as well. It's like how do we just have kids just respond in a handwritten response? Going back to just the handwriting as well, too, like there's a lot of research around if kids are not fluent with their letter formations, that hinders their process of creating and drafting and writing, too.

So we have to get kids fluent with the letter formation so that eases that brain, right? Like, hey, now I got the brain energy to focus on that craft, my sentence structure, my word choice and things like that. So there's a lot of research around when you think about the writing rope. There's not a lot of research out there right now, but the writing rope talks a lot about like, what are those skills that we need to make sure that are automatic for our kids so they can write?

I think when I when I'm in elementary classrooms and I look at a child's writing notebook or folder, There's, like, from kindergarten on, there are many instances of, like, different pieces of writing in different stages of drafting, which is pretty impressive to me. Like, when I look at a kindergarten child's writing folder and they've got multiple stories that they're working on that are in sort of different phases of that process, and sometimes that's, like, I'm going to keep working on something until my teacher comes to confer with me and helps me, like, move this forward, but I can start something new. So I think the fact that we started very young, I think is like that continual encouragement of like writing is a process. You don't have to take one piece from start to finish.

Like you can do multiple things at the same time, which that's a shift in thinking because like when I thought about writing, it was always about writing one piece. And then when it's polished, I then write the next piece. So I'm impressed with how our teachers approach that process piece with children starting from a very young age and all the way through the system. Like at the high school, I think sometimes the conferences are not necessarily just on a polished piece.

It could be some part of the process that now we're having a different kind of conference. That's very interesting to me because it's like zooming in on the different parts of that writing process throughout the – So it's like we don't have to just talk about polished pieces. We can talk about things that aren't there yet and how we can make change. Just final thought to say thank you so much for all the hard work.

This is an incredible mountain of effort and very complicated and constantly changing. So thank you. You're up. Thank you.

So we've talked a lot about reading And technology and the importance of increasing that in the middle school world. And I don't know which one of you responded to my email. My email question. It was a joint effort.

Team effort. Amazing. I could tell that there was different writing structure within each subject. I'm reanalyzing it.

It was the process. You were admiring the writing process. And so what you were talking about is the importance of, I was saying like, we have all these technology ways of reading. And you guys commented on the importance of reading a physical book.

Yes. So that is amazing. I love it. Keep doing it.

One concern I've had for a while is textbooks. If we know from, I'll use your words, from brain research that we read differently when we have a physical book and we are not having our students in middle school or high school use the textbooks. They're only using the textbooks on the computer. And that is weird.

Thank you. How can we help our teachers prioritize physical textbooks again? Or am I totally off base and that's a silly idea? Well, we don't have a lot of textbooks.

Why? Because we're using different kinds of resources than like a static textbook. So like we use articles, we use, you know, so like we're curating different kinds of materials. So so so like my mental model of like a textbook so like a social studies textbook or something like that Yeah we don have social studies textbooks because we they do for psychology and for biology for the sciences they have textbooks In that way, and that they use things like curated materials, like articles and different kinds of things to read.

And a lot of those are physical. Sometimes they are digital, too. I would agree. I just feel like the mental model of textbooks is a little bit different than what I was used to as a student.

The other thing of the benefit of a digital textbook, so this isn't going to be about the reading part, but the benefit of a digital textbook is that things change. And so the textbook changes more frequently. So the information can change more frequently. And so that's why we went in the places where we have used textbooks.

We've tended towards that. And we've also supplemented sometimes with a classroom set of textbooks, like physical textbooks. So that there's some choice that the teachers have within that piece. I don't know.

I'd have to think more about that because I don't really think about textbooks a lot just because I don't see us using them a whole lot. So that's what I want to push on is if we read differently with a physical book, a physical text, and we aren't doing that in our classrooms until they get to APs and then there is a textbook. We're missing something. So I wonder if, like, so STEM, as they go through, they start their year one next year.

I wonder if part of what we do with that group is to do a little bit of a sort of an audit of the use of textbooks and, like, what does that look like? So what are the teachers expecting to have? And does that look different by different levels? So that would be sort of interesting for us to explore to figure out then what's the decision that we need to make on the other side.

Yeah, I'd just be so curious to know, of the amount of reading that kids are doing, whether it's in English or one of the content areas, what percentage of that is from an actual book versus a screen? So I would say in literacy class it's an actual book the majority of the time because they're novels. But content areas, it's most likely electronic. Yes.

I mean, when you're reading to learn, like you said, you do store the information differently in the brain when you read from a screen versus reading from a book, so I don't know. And learning the annotating that you, too, wrote to me, like the importance of annotating and actively reading. And you missed that. These kids don't do that when they read on a screen.

But it's still reading on a screen. I don't know. I'm with you. I'm just saying, I don't want to lose that because now we have these styluses to do it on an iPad.

You know what I'm saying? When you use a stylus, the friction that you don't have from the actual pen and the paper is actually part of what transfers the information to your brain. So when you have a really smooth structure, that actually doesn't. Okay, we will think about that.

Thank you. Okay, the next one I want to bring up here is we heard from Paul Holscher the social studies perspective on the relationship between social studies and literacy. And I would love for the literacy department to speak to us about your perspective of that relationship. Sure.

So Paul and I started a few years ago looking at K-5 curriculum where we could like really think about like where we could partner, if you will. And so we really started with looking at our nonfiction unit. So thinking of, first of all, we had to pair our nonfiction reading and writing units together. So when students were reading nonfiction, we wanted them to be writing in that genre as well.

So like when you think about the different types of text structures that happen in nonfiction, cause and effect, chronological, problem solution, those sorts of things. We want the students to be able to read that and then try those text structures in their writing. I was like, well, why don't we just pair that with the social studies units that are happening at the same time? So if you're studying the American Revolution in fourth grade at that time, let's also have kids read about the American Revolution and then go off and do their research standards around, like, you know, whether it be, like, the Boston Tea Party or whatever.

It may be that little small topic, and then their research clubs, they're looking through that lens and then writing a paper, informational paper on that as well. So really right now our nonfiction units in K-5 are paired that way. Mark and I are already Talking, actually we're supposed to meet with Mark on Monday, and we're already thinking through the lens next year for 6 through 8. We're working on taking the K-5 writing screeners that we have in place three times a year, extending that to 6 through 8 next year.

So those writing screeners, how can we use, like, so right now when students write in K-5, they're given some sort of stimuli. So, like, we give them, like, two topics, we'll give them, like, two articles to read from, and they have to pick, well, K-2, though, we read the story to them. Like, do you like this sport or this sport? Tell us why, you know?

In the upper grades, it's looking at, like, you know, like, I'm trying to think of one, like, school uniforms, you know, things like that. They're having two topics they have to read about and then argue that side. So we're trying to lean into, from six through eight, what's a social studies topic that we can give kids two articles from, read through them, and then write their argument based on that. So more of an argument essay that we're looking at.

So we'll use that, using that time in social studies to write the essay, but social studies and English teachers coming together to score those. So mainly, like, the social department is probably looking more at the content of that piece. We're looking at more of the mechanics of writing. Like, do they have the right organizational structure for this piece?

How is their claim? Did they acknowledge the counter arguments? Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Good job.

Okay, my next question, which I think is the last, is this. In the middle and high school, teachers are now giving, it seems to me, mini lessons, and then they give students time in their class to do their work, and they do this one-on-one, and they do all that stuff that you guys have been explaining. It all sounds great. What, my question is, what is missing from the way we used to learn or the way that it was taught even five or ten years ago in this model?

Something has to be lost, and I understand the value of this, so I'm not questioning it. I just want to know what are we losing and how are we paying attention to what is being lost content-wise? May I ask a question to clarify? Of course.

Are you thinking like more of a traditional model where the teacher's more like the sage on stage, if you will, and like delivering that way? Sure. I mean, that was like 30, 40 years ago versus even 10 years ago. If we are now having students do more work in class, what is not being taught to them?

Frank agrees. I don't know that I would say something's necessarily being lost. I think we believe really strongly in the people who are doing and the people who are talking are the people who are learning. And so providing that opportunity for them to practice that and the teachers to provide feedback, immediate feedback.

So as I'm writing, my teacher is looking over my shoulder. My teacher is conferring with me. I'm not sure I see something that we're losing versus adults standing in front of the room talking. Okay, so I'm not saying that losing something is necessarily bad, but I just would encourage you to think through it, not right now, maybe, of if the sage on the stage used to talk for 45 minutes, and now the sage on the stage talks for five minutes, what was taught in those 40 minutes?

That students aren't getting anymore. That's what I want to understand that. Well, I guess there's what was taught and what was absorbed, right? I mean, that's something to think about.

Okay, so that's like a wonderful point. That is a great point. There's a part of it, you know, when I was talking about that professional learning piece that we did where Julia was modeling something, I think there's something, I think there actually may be something to inviting you to something like that where one of us can sort of voice over what's happening in a teaching and learning space so that you see sort of what that looks like in practice. Because I don know I struggling to be able to answer that question because I don I think it the difference between learning and teaching So the philosophy that we're looking at and that we're already implementing in the elementary schools, I think is accelerating learning.

Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Well, I haven't seen a kid diagram a sentence. So I'm, and I think what I've been told by teachers is that like the value of grammar has changed or minimized. But I do think that grammar, specific grammar, is something that is no longer taught, at least to the extent that it was to us.

So that's what I mean by something being lost. We have grammar lessons now, K-5. We're working on that for 6 through 8 as well now as we're working on a curriculum. But K-5, yes, we started last year with a – we have a whole grammar sequence developed for K-5.

And so – and they have a resource that's helping them teach the grammar. So starting even in kindergarten, they're looking at – it's more embedded. So like not how I was taught grammar. Probably – you probably was taught the same ways.

Like I – no offense. I love diagramming sentences, so I get it. I am that nerd. Okay, so I get that, but also I was taught to memorize all the prepositions, right?

We were probably taught that as well. That was not helpful for everybody, right? And so now we're embedding more, so look at a mentor text, like a Mo Willems text. Let's look at how his sentence structure works.

And kids are like, oh, look, he's describing maybe like Piggy and Elephant. Yes, you're right. Authors use characters in their books, and sometimes they're people, places, or things, right? Those are nouns.

We start with that piece. And so the little guys are just noticing things in a book, whereas the older students are really examining the sentence structure. How did this author start this sentence? Is it a compound sentence?

Is it a complex sentence? And so they're looking at more from a sentence-level approach and what are the craft moves that that student... So using grammar more as a craft versus not as like... This is like you have to know grammar rules.

My husband's a writer, and he would tell me, There are no rules anymore. So, and I'm like, yes, there are. Like, I know my rules, so I will tell them that every time. So just, like, thinking through the lens of, like, it may not look the same, but we're trying to really get kids to look at real text, real authors, and then try it out in their work.

So they'll, like, do a whole series of lessons where they'll be like, let's look at it and notice and wonder about that sentence first, and then let's try to imitate that as well in our writing. And so that's a different approach than the way I was taught. So you just said we just put in a new grammar thing in K-5, and we're working on that in 6-8. Does that mean that it does not exist currently in 6-8?

I would say there's not a resource right now, and so it's a little bit different the way it looks like. So there's not, I wouldn't say, like if you think about that being vertically and horizontally aligned, that's probably not vertically and horizontally aligned. If you looked at the 6-12 standards, it just like, all it says is that grammar and conventions will be taught. It's on, if you look at our Missouri standards, it's basically, it doesn't specify, like, sixth graders will master this standard, seventh graders will do this.

It's just as like... You mean, is it on our rubrics that we've created? Yes, yeah. So it's clearly embedded.

It's not in rubrics you're expecting. Yes, yes, exactly. It's in our rubrics. But if you look, so standards are very vague, and so, like, it's now we're trying to figure out for sixth, seventh, and eighth grades, like, what are actually sixth grade teachers going to be responsible for?

What are 7th grade? Because standards don't specify that. Okay, in 7th grade, you're responsible for complex sentences. In 6th grade, you're gonna be teaching compound sentences.

Like, it doesn't tell us specifics in our standards. So we have to figure out what is it and how we're gonna figure out what our grammar sequence is to align with those standards. I guess I just wanna, like, I'll end with this. There is some really interesting exercise, I think, that could be done looking at, like, What is not being explicitly taught and then explaining that away.

Well, it's not taught because it's not important anymore or it's not taught because it's embedded in these other places. But I would love to see that across I don know case eight or case I don know And thank you Chris I will say that that a really good question And my thought about that actually is if our outcomes in terms of our kids' writing skills, et cetera, are still, you know, as great as they were when we were doing things the other way, yeah, it's interesting. It's an interesting thing to debate, you know, because, again, we want love of learning, too. So maybe we didn't have that as much before.

Anyway, this is a great question. I see Frank has some thoughts about it, too. I can hear him. I know you can.

I know you can. But I'm kind of, I'm sort of giving you guys this understanding that I can see both sides of this really clearly because we've changed in the way we teach. And if our outcomes are still amazing, then clearly you're doing something right. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

So all these things, you clearly have got your wits about you. And so I just want to say I appreciate the fact that our outcomes are what they are. Our students are incredible. We had student rep interviews.

I mean, these kids are obviously being taught things by our teachers that are allowing them to write and speak in ways that are beyond many people. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. What learning that happens via screens versus analog, but also because of what they lack when they are on a screen. Obviously, there's clearly cases.

But, yeah, let's all continue to be really conscious about the health aspects, social and emotional and, you know, blue light health aspects. Because I'm on the Health and Wellness, SEL and Wellness Committee. And I can see this potentially being something that we look at really closely in coming years, which is, you know, is this something we really want to look at because we know that our families are really talking a lot about screen time, et cetera. So do we want to spin curriculum, have our curriculum be in a digital form, or is that actually counterintuitive to their health in some ways?

So I will say that I would encourage you to think about health and wellness like we do in such amazing ways as a district in your curriculum discussions as well. Clearly, tech's not going anywhere. And I've said before, Melina, we've got to embrace AI. So I'm not anti, but we have to do it really thoughtfully.

And we have to model it for our families because our families are struggling on how to do it. So I love the idea of us as a district, as a community, saying this is sort of like our healthy eating, right? We don't allow our kids to just sit down and eat a bunch of chips, right? There are a few chips in our schools, but you know what I mean.

There are standards on that. And even we can't decide what the parents do at home. They might be eating chips the whole time. But as a district, we hold these values.

We are going to teach our kids health and wellness in our schools. And I would say screen time is part of health and wellness is kind of what I'm getting at. And I'll say, too, one of the things that you say on page four where you say we are accountable to learners by, you say evidence-based decision-making. So again, that includes curriculum, but it also includes how curriculum is delivered, right?

So I'll just say that because it's right there and it's amazing and it should be, and so that it extends now that we're using so many digital. Again, like are we going to now accept digital annotations? Is that really the right thing to do? We really have to think about that before we just say it is okay, right?

Because if the outcomes aren any better when they doing it that way we do think there some losses there in doing it that way So you have to prove yeah it way better to do it this way you know or it you know not So we want to think about that and not just sort of do it I not saying that you ever done that in your life Milena but we have a new aspect now because of tech The other thing that it says on page four, it says, ensuring the curriculum instruction and assessment are dynamic, intellectually stimulating, and developmentally appropriate. So I'll just echo what Leo said about key stage one. I'm not sure there are many people that, it would be hard, I think, for you to justify to me that screens of any kind for curriculum or otherwise, recreation, are developmentally appropriate for those ages, truly. I would have, you'd be hard pressed to convince me of that.

I don't know that there is any data that would say that and that's why you'd be hard pressed to convince me of that. So if we're going to say in here that we're doing a developmentally appropriate practices in our classrooms, we really got to think about technology being part of whether that's healthy and developmentally appropriate. So that's that. The other thing I will say is I love this whole ownership and agency you're doing and people and the kids really knowing what they're good at.

I think that's the most amazing thing. I know that that works for – that way they're understanding reading and writing in skill sets, but then they also have the love of it. But there's so much confidence that's gained by knowing I have that skill. I know how to critically look at this.

I think that's just a fantastic thing you're doing, and I appreciate it. The other thing I'll say, I think it's my last thing. On page 10 of this incredibly long but very informative report, you do say, I read every word, you do say that you're talking about multi-tiered system of support. You say the integrated supports are provided in varying intensities through multiple levels, universal, targeted, and intensive.

And then you say based on needs-driven decision-making. And I want to expand that. I know what you're getting at in this particular sentence. Makes perfect sense, you know, what we've already talked about.

But I want to expand that out a little bit, do a little out-of-the-box thinking like I've done earlier tonight, and say if we're going to talk about needs-driven literacy curriculum, et cetera, you know, individual support, Spervantage of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Thank you. And again, I know there's pros and cons to all these things, but I just want to give our learners that are behind in literacy a chance to catch up by fifth grade. I would love to see more opportunities for them on a daily basis.

Spanish is one idea. There's all kinds of other ways we can do it. But what else can we do to pull them into the need that they have, which is they have to be able to catch up to be of certain proficiency in order to really be successful as they move to the higher grades? So, just thoughts.

I don't need a response. If you want to respond, you can't. I'd love it, but I don't need one. I will respond.

There are very unique instances where we will make a decision like that. Okay. But it's unique, and it requires a lot of conversation and a lot of thought about what we're denying a child So, it's not going to be the first place that we would draw from. Children who have, who are doing a lot of work to become proficient with reading, so with reading, for example, who are doing a lot of work with that, we have systems in place right now, and the RSPs, I think, are really helping us to be much more systemic about how we're approaching that, that we have systems in place for them to provide I don't think that's actually healthy for children.

And so, So the spaces, like you, I think an easy place for people to think about, because I think we would philosophically agree with you that children reading is important. I figured you'd hop that. No one's going to argue that. You actually think it's important.

So we're not going to argue about that. I think we agree with that. I think the challenge that we consistently have is what's the right sort of allocation of support and that type of stuff. And I did an interesting exercise a few years ago where I followed a child who was receiving multiple instances of support.

And what that did to influence our practice was what we recognized was multiple people were supporting this child all in different ways. And so that was not effective. So what it influenced us to think through was like if we have multiple instances of a child being supported, that we need consistency across that support. Which sounds like duh, right?

But everybody was doing what they thought was best at that time, but nobody had actually looked at the child's experience until I followed that child. So I think those things influence our decisions about how we're supporting children, particularly in reading. I think because of the changes that we've made really in the past four years, I think everybody would agree that there's a much more systematic approach to supporting readers. And what we're seeing slowly with data is that we're seeing that kids are graduating out of those supports because we're being much more intentional about the way that we're doing it.

So I just want to caution. Sometimes I think the parallel is with school funding things where people pull things from specials in order to put things into core things and those types of things. I think the same thing with this of like experiences for children. I think it's important for kids to have experiences in music, in art, in Spanish, etc.

So I wouldn't say we would never do that, but it's very rare that we do it and it's not without a lot of like blood, sweat and tears and like hard conversation. Because I think ultimately the goal is we need kids to be able to read. And so what are the right ways to do that? And I don't think that's necessarily the same for every child either.

Sure. Like there's a kid who could experience a lot of success in Spanish because what we're focused on is like, especially at the early ages, what we're focused on is like receptive language and those types of things, and like acting things out and singing songs and those types of things, which are important things around language acquisition. And if a child feels success there, I don't want to pull a child from every place that they feel success. Correct.

And I would never think that that would go. I totally agree with you. So I think we're in the same ballpark. Just pull it from where you can, when you can, for the kids that absolutely have to have it.

You know what I mean? I think also with the reading success plans, like part of graduating from an RSP is that you're able to independently sustain in a Tier 1 setting. And so it's not always about pulling. Sometimes it's about pushing in and providing support in that way because that's ultimately what we're building towards because a kid cannot come off of an RSP without being able to have two clean data points in only Tier 1 instruction.

That's a big, that's a tall order, especially when there's a lot of complexities going on. Like when there's something really tricky going on, that's a pretty big, like that's going to be a long haul. Yeah. Okay.

Okay, thank you so much. Can I make just one comment? So if I were to say, if I were to look back at my experience being a parent in Clayton, one of the highlights for me would be when my son needed some special help for reading. This is a long time ago.

He was a little guy. And I got to say, it's like all the thinking and the kind of collaboration that came with that And also the sort of, I think maybe you were touching on it a little bit, Melania, is the kind of de-stigmatization of that. You know, because it's like, it's hard when kids are like, why am I doing this, but nobody else is doing it. So I think there's a lot to it, and I've got to say, it's like people ask me about Clayton School District.

I'll say, if your kid needs help, needs some kind of special, of course we have incredible performance academic, If your kid needs special help, this is the district to be in. For these kind of things. It's tremendous. Thank you.

Okay. Anyone else? Going once, going twice? Alright.

Then I guess we'll take a vote. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

Alright. Okay. Thank you. We'll see you next week.

Thank you. Thank you. Bye-bye. Bye Bye Bye Bye Bye It approved You all tired of me yet Because I got another three Take three minutes so it's limited to five.

Thank you, Julie. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

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

All right. Next up is... I would recommend that you accept these changes as presented They relatively minor changes and they related to essentially I kind of scared to say this digital materials And ensuring that digital materials, like when we're purchasing digital materials, that we have a process for protecting the privacy of students and being in compliance with policies and practices related to privacy, security, Spervantage, and legal expectations. So those are really the changes and everything else is just sort of small language type changes.

So I would recommend that you accept them as presented. Any questions or comments on this policy? I just have to observe, since we were talking about grammar instruction, that we've correctly switched the restrictive clause from which to that in the second to last line. That's a big improvement.

I really have no responsibility there. MSPA did that for us. It's good work, whoever did it. It shows grammar fundamentals are still...

And you knew the name of that grammar fundamental. I Googled it to be sure, but I did basically. All right. Any other pieces of feedback on this policy?

Mead apologizes, but she has something to say. Sorry. The only thing I'll say is that I went and looked at the referenced EHB and EHBC, which are part of this, and with regards to what the staff making selections need to do in terms of, so the sentence that's added is district staff will evaluate and select materials that meet district expectations for privacy, security, and legal compliance. So those two policies that I just mentioned deal with what staff should do.

There's a lot of pretty loose language around staff are encouraged to do such and such, you know, and we try to select materials that are, there's just language that I think should be tightened up, especially in light of just all the concerns around privacy and data. I would hope that our, I think that the policies that are probably already in place, or procedures that are in place, I should say, probably are up to the standards that we would want. I don't think that the policies reflect the, probably what we're doing and how important it is to make sure that our systems are secure and that we have content filtering. There's talk about content filtering and all those, so just that we might want to go update those in the future.

I'll leave that to Luke. Any other comments on this? All right. Okay.

So then, policy IIAC, again, I would recommend that we accept the changes there. It's also language about, the language is being updated to provide better language around material selection And clearly state that parents can engage with the district on matters of materials for their own students. The policy that, or the administrative procedure that's attached to this, we've done some work both with that and with our materials review stuff. So, like, we've done that work internally to update those things.

And so, this language and this policy reflects, essentially, the changes that we've made in those administrative procedures. Any questions or comments? Erin. I just had two quick questions.

One, and this may be so trivial as to not be necessary, but in the paragraph that starts, although parents and guardians, that paragraph, the very end, because it does already specify that inappropriate for their student may request that the school not make those materials available to the student. Is there any value to saying their student again, just to be super clear that what the student refers to? And then the very last line, I noticed that individually identifiable library records, that wasn't changed to personally as the two changes above. So we might want to...

The very last line of the... On the very, yeah, the very, sorry, under confidentiality, last line of the first page. Sorry, sorry, I'm minding that now, that person. Okay.

Yes I hear my values reflected in what you saying All right, and then the last one is... Yeah, the last one... I'll let you explain what's happening. Sorry.

IAC R1, so this regulation is being rescinded because the contents, the contents exist in a different, in a different administrative procedure. So we would again recommend rescinding this because we have it in other spaces. Any questions or comments on that? At the top it says the content has been updated and recoded to IIAC AP1, which is also in this update, but we didn't get that?

Yeah, because you don't get the administrative procedures. Our team does that. Okay. So all of this is just, we don't need this because it's now an administrative procedure.

Correct. Okay. In all my piles of papers, I lost that. All right.

Sorry. Melaina, I think you made it. Okay. Thank you.

Okay, so we'll make those small changes and bring them back the next meeting. And then I'll be back with other coordinators. Okay, moving on to consent agenda. I move to approve consent agenda items 8.2 through 8.6.

Second. Great. And before we vote, just want to recognize the recent donation on behalf of the district. The Board of Education would like to thank the Optimist Club of Clayton for their generous donation of $3,500 to the high school robotics team.

So thank you to the Optimist Club of Clayton. Is this the club that used to be like a speech When we were growing up, I taught you how to give speeches. All those in favor? Aye.

Any opposed? Great. It passes. Board Communications, Erin, by chance has there been an equity committee meeting recently?

There has. Great. Tell us about it. Okay.

So the Equity Committee met on the 22nd. We discussed that the staff affinity space questionnaire is out and being completed as we speak, hopefully. The survey will be open until mid-May, and then we'll discuss the results of that at the end of the May, at the end of May meeting. And then also had a discussion about 2026, 2027 professional learning priorities for the group.

And Dr. Poole shared a link for a survey for committee members to fill out, looking for areas, priority areas for staff learning, gaps in current knowledge and practice, and opportunities to better support all student groups. So that will be coming later. Great.

Pam, and teaching and learning. So it was a world language presentation, which we just got, so there's not much I can add. I would just want to share two quotes that were fantastic. It says, we believe that language learning is about more than vocabulary or grammar.

It's about connection, identity, and belonging. And I thought that was beautiful. And the next one, the goal of their work is to make our curriculum cohesive, our expectations transparent, and our students' growth. Visible.

And all of the content we were presented here tonight. And Ben and Mead, Head of Technology Study Committee. Yes, so as mentioned, the tech study with the having completed the student device piece has now is, in addition to AI, which has always been kind of a thread going on, We have now model of instruction, which Melaina led, and we mostly sat in part as part of that. And there's also a group focused on parent survey information.

So, talking through the various kinds of questions and how they want to identify, you know, Those that have concerns and then kind of dig in on that more, or those who have fewer concerns, and then also age appropriate as well. I don't know, Erin, if you want to add any. Yeah. So, you know, I'm thrilled to be going to these meetings.

I thought it was awesome. I was hearing the teachers talk about kind of they split in the instructional practices group. They split up into one group was focusing on sort of teacher-facing materials that they might, that they're kind of workshopping to provide some sort of a playbook, as Melina called it, for teachers. And then another group working on information that would be parent-facing.

So explaining the resources, the technology resources that are used, why we use them. And there were some cool ideas floating around there. And then the AI portion, Luke is working on kind of essentially establishing some goals that they're then going to hopefully flush out. But really I think with AI it constantly evolving and they have to almost you guys almost have to like do pre before the work to then finish the work It feels like a lot of steps to determine what the priorities are Are we putting guidelines in place?

What are our guiding questions? It's just such a big, vast topic that it's hard to narrow down. All of it is. So anyways, it was great.

Thanks for letting me be on that committee. Yeah, and I'll just, a couple more things. So I think, just as having been an observer since the beginning of the school year, I really feel like this group is really like, first of all, I kind of feel like they're really accelerating what they're doing. But the level of thought and the way the collaboration is going, it's really, it's great.

I mean, it really is. And, you know, I think one of the things that Melania introduced today was, had to do with kind of sort of like a, you know, You know, if we're using technology, this is particularly for the younger grades, like what are some of the kind of criteria for why that's a good idea or not a good idea. They call it the analog option I remember it one of the columns So you know it just like it becoming more and more infused around this intentionality of use you know which is really what we striving for you know So anyways that it Thank you That great Sounds like some really good work I just mention that last Saturday Ben Mead Aaron Leo and I and Dr Patel were all at the CEF Hall of Fame gala dinner and it was good to spend time outside of the board meeting with these folks But also, I just think, you know, the CEF seems to be headed in a really good direction. And there was, you know, it was cool to see these people being honored and people like talking about their connection to the Clayton School District after all these years.

And so it was really, you know, it was well done. All right. Oh, yeah. Okay.

Not an official thing, but I want to just mention that last night I was at the CHS award ceremony. Dr. Patel was there. It was just a fantastic event.

Of course, obviously, it feels good to see kids getting recognized for their incredible work. And it's amazing to see the faculty be excited about it, too. Spervantage of Education Proposition O levy agenda motion carried We have incredible students and it wonderful to have a night where we really are looking at them and saying look at this amazing thing We recognize you being you know your growth and your excellence in these areas It was you know awesome So yay Oh, yes, thank you. That was the other thing I was going to say, Nisha.

Leo and Dr. Patel and I finished up our board rep interviews today. We had our second round. Last week was the first round.

This was the second round. So we have officially seen all the folks that we're going to see, and we will be talking and picking a board rep, And that person will be announced in the near future. Next board meeting, in fact. So they will be here, and we're excited about it.

Again, we had incredible candidates. It's not an easy choice. We've got students that are passionate and articulate and wise beyond their years. We are just totally impressed.

But we do have an excellent person coming forward, and we're very excited about it. Great. All right, motion to adjourn. I move to adjourn the meeting.

I second. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

1

Board of Education Meeting - April 29, 2026 Minutes 7:00 PM Admin Building Board Room #2 Mark Twain Circle Clayton, MO 63105

Board Present: Mr. Jason Growe, Ms. Chris Win, Mr. Leo Human, Dr. Erin Linnenbringer, Dr Pamela Lyss- Lerman, Ms. Meade Greenberg, and Mr. Ben Beinfeld Also Present: Dr. Nisha Patel-Superintendent, Dr. Milena Garganigo-Assistant Superintendent of Teaching & Learning, Dr. Cameron Poole-Assistant Superintendent of Equity and Student Services, John Brazeal-Chief Financial Officer, Gina Tarte-Chief Communications Officer, Luke Heitert-Chief Technology Officer, and Heike Janis-Executive Assistant

1. Call to Order

1.1 Call to Order, Statement of Adequate Notice, Pledge of Allegiance The meeting was called to order at 7:01 p.m. and the Pledge of Allegiance was recited. Adequate notice was provided.

1.2 Adoption of Agenda DESCRIPTION: Adopt the agenda as posted. CONTACT: Board President

Move to approve the agenda as posted. Moved by: Dr Pamela Lyss-Lerman; seconded by: Ms. Chris Win Votes were all aye Carried

2. Recognizing Our Own

2.1 Recognition The Board of Education recognized Jewish American Heritage Month and viewed a video student recorded to honor Jewish American Heritage Month. Dante Zou, 12 grade CHS, shared information with the Board members regarding Asian American, Pacific Islander Month and invited everyone to the Taste of Asia event.

3. Public Comment

3.1 Public Participation at Board Meetings No public comments were submitted.

4. Superintendent Communication

4.1 Superintendent Communication Dr. Nisha Patel shared information with the Board of Education and the community.

2

5. Student Representative Update

5.1 Student Representative Update Nina Satorius, Student Representative to the Board, shared an update with the Board members and the community.

6. Presentations

6.1 Facility Updates by Design Team & Construction Management Team John Brazeal and the team from Paragon, BLDD, and BSI shared an update with the Board of Education.

6.2 English Language Development (ELD) Curriculum Dr. Milena Garganigo and Sarah Gottemoeller presented the work of the ELD department and shared proposed long-range goals for the ELD curriculum.

Move to approve the ELD review goals, the district written ELD curriculum, and the financials as outlined in the report. Moved by: Dr Pamela Lyss-Lerman; seconded by: Ms. Chris Win Votes were all aye. Carried

6.3 World Language Curriculum Dr. Milena Garganigo and Dr. Michael Crowell presented the work of the World Languages department and shared the proposed long-term goals.

Move to approve the World Languages review goals, the district written World Languages curriculum, and the financials as outlined in the report. Moved by: Dr Pamela Lyss-Lerman; seconded by: Ms. Chris Win Votes were all aye. Carried

6.4 Literacy Curriculum Dr. Milena Garganigo and Julie Paur presented the work of the Literacy department and shared the proposed long-range goals for the literacy curriculum.

Move to approve the revised Literacy review goals, the district written Literacy curriculum, and the financials as outlined in the report. Moved by: Dr Pamela Lyss-Lerman; seconded by: Ms. Chris Win Votes were all aye. Carried

7. Policy Policy is how a board sustainably exercises its authority to govern. Through policy, school boards establish cohesive guidelines to advance vision into reality. Missouri School Boards Association (MSBA) provides policy services to the School District of Clayton. Periodically, MSBA recommends policy revisions due to legislative changes at the State and Federal levels, or due to precedent setting court rulings.

7.1 1st Reading - Policy IIA: Instructional Materials Board members heard the 1st reading of Policy IIA: Instructional Materials.

7.2 1st Reading - Policy IIAC: Instructional Media Centers/School Libraries Board members heard the 1st reading of Policy IIAC: Instructional Media Centers/School Libraries After some discussion two changes were recommended to the policy and the changes will be sent to MSBA for approval and revision.

3

7.3 1st Reading - IIAC-R1: Instructional Media Centers/School Libraries - Selection and Reconsideration of Materials Board members heard the 1st reading of Regulation IIAC-R1: Instructional Media Centers/School Libraries – Selection and Reconsideration of Materials.

8. Consent Agenda Our adopted rules of Parliamentary Procedure, Robert's Rules, provide for a consent agenda listing several items for approval of the Board by a single motion. Most of the items listed under the consent agenda have gone through Board subcommittee review and recommendation. Documentation concerning these items has been provided to all Board members and the public in advance to assure an extensive and thorough review. Items may be removed from the consent agenda at the request of any board member.

8.1 Requesting Board approval on consent agenda items as listed.

Move to approve consent agenda items 8.2 through 8.6. Moved by: Dr Pamela Lyss-Lerman; seconded by: Ms. Chris Win The votes were all aye. Carried

8.2 Financial Reporting DECRIPTION: This financial report provides an overview of the district’s financial activities for the period ended March 31, 2026. CONTACT: John Brazeal, Chief Financial Officer 20260331FinancialReport-agenda.pdf

8.3 Disbursement Report DECRIPTION: A report detailing disbursements for March, 2026 is attached for Board approval. CONTACT: John Brazeal, Chief Financial Officer

Move to approve March 2026 disbursements in the sum of $2,239,832.61 Carried

8.4 Personnel DESCRIPTION: • Certificated Staff Employment • Certificated Staff Resignations and Retirements • Classified Staff Employment • Classified Staff Resignations and Retirements • Part-Time Temporary Employment • Substitutes CONTACT: Dr. Kelly Sollberger, Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Certificated Staff Employment.pdf

Certificated Staff Resignations and Retirements.pdf

Classified Staff Employment.pdf

Classified Staff Resignations & Retirements.pdf

PTTEs.pdf

Substitute Employment.pdf

Move to approve the personnel actions as presented. Carried

4

8.5 Donations DECRIPTION: On behalf of the District, the Board of Education would like to thank the Optimist Club of Clayton for their generous donation of $3,500 to the high school robotics team. CONTACT: Board President

Move to approve the donation as presented. Carried

8.6 Approval of Minutes DESCRIPTION: Requesting approval for the meeting minutes as listed. • April 15, 2026 Board of Education Business Meeting Minutes - DRAFT CONTACT: Heike Janis, Executive Assistant to Board of Education 4.15.26 BOE Meeting Minutes - DRAFT.pdf

Move to approve the minutes as presented. Carried

9. Board Communications

9.1 Board Committee, Community and Liaison Reports Dr. Erin Linnenbringer shared information from the Equity Committee meeting. Mr. Ben Beinfeld and Ms. Meade Greenberg shared information from the Technology Committee meeting. Dr. Pam Lyss-Lerman shared information from the Teaching & Learning Advisory Committee meeting. Ms. Chris Win shared information from the Clayton High School Awards Ceremony. Mr. Jason Growe spoke about the Clayton Education Foundation Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony that was held at the Clayton High School.

10. Adjournment

10.1 Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 10:26 p.m.

Move to adjourn the meeting. Moved by: Dr Pamela Lyss-Lerman; seconded by: Ms. Chris Win The votes were all aye.

Carried

Jason Growe, Board President Pam Lyss-Lerman, Board Secretary