Wednesday, May 13th. We will start with roll call and this time we'll start with Mrs. Tomlinson. We'll start with you. Mrs. Tomlinson? I wasn't ready. Okay. >> [laughter] >> Althea Tomlinson. Michael Zakin. Michelle Bisacquino. Joe Rutts, present. Rose Mealy. Donna Colletti. Kathleen Maguire. Abe Lucabaugh. And Krista DePallo. Present. All right. Um approval of minutes, item 3.1. Approve the minutes from the April 15th, 2026 Education Student Services Committee meeting. I need a second. Second. All in favor? I. I know. Item four, approval of the agenda. Be it resolved that the Education Student Services Committee approves the May 13th, 2026 Education Student Services Committee agenda as per the attached. Are there any corrections that need to be made by PA law? Okay. >> [clears throat] >> And then item five, community comments on agenda. We don't have any, so we'll move on to item six, information items. Item 6.1, upcoming board meetings and topics, Dr. Zakin. Thank you. Um we have our finance committee meeting tomorrow, May 14th, 6:00 p.m. Operations Committee meeting, Friday, May 15th, 11:00 a.m. School Board Committee of the Whole is May 26th at 7:00 p.m. And um I will also uh share some other topics and May is a busy month. Um Dr. Lucabaugh has been uh out and about recognizing outstanding achievement awards and we'll be bringing them to the board in the uh in the very near future. I had a and capped off the the fine arts festival with our art showcase this past Friday night, which is incredible. The planetarium was a remarkable experience, the Pink Floyd experience. Thank you. Yes. It was fun. Um uh thanks to an incredible donation, we have a summer reading send-off and our librarians are distributing books right now. At our uh last board meeting of the month, we will have a sharing of the end of the year data or local assessments by uh Mr. Rutts. Thank you. While uh I would like to just recognize we continue to um try to get as many grants as we possibly can for our planetarium. Thank you. We were unsuccessful in a dollar dollar grant grant opportunity, but thank you for applying. Thank you. Um however, we did get a CEF grant for the summer book backs, which should be recognized as well and I'm we're grateful for that. So, that is uh the upcoming uh board meeting and topics. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Zakin. And information item 6.2, grade 8 English curriculum refinement. Mrs. Mealy. So, as you're aware, our current curriculum for ELA 8 is SpringBoard and that has been sunset due to end annual renewals next school year. But as um being proactive, we have been bringing Wit & Wisdom up through the middle school with uh eighth grade set to do that next school year. Uh however, the office of teaching and learning in collaboration with the English department and grade 8 teachers has decided to um or have transitioned to look at a curriculum that we like to call Wit Wit & Wisdom 2.0 uh made by Great Minds, which is the same publisher. And [snorts] it closely follows everything in Wit & Wisdom with the exception that they have taken all of the feedback from teachers, administrators, school districts, students um for the challenges of Wit & Wisdom including one of the biggest ones which is the lessons are are to fit into a 90-minute block. And at the middle school we have 60 minutes. And so that's been a sticking point and it was a selling point for Arts and Letters um knowing that we're not straying or departing from our curriculum vision. We are just uh going with a curriculum that will reflect the same rigor, the same design, the same approach. It contains the same lesson formats. Um the assessments are hopefully going to give us more information. There's more uh opportunity for students to have that formative assessment chance and then also that summative assessment opportunity. Um the pacing is one of the biggest things but there's also just a more user-friendly teacher's manual in that lesson plan is structured with numbers. Um and so the the grade eight team and all of the really it was the department chairs. So they looked at this very thoughtfully with all middle school teachers knowing that if grade eight really loves Arts and Letters, we would potentially look to move Arts and Letters to all grades moving forward if it meets our needs better. So um we just wanted to inform you we're excited about this because we really feel as though um if you look down at the chart that was provided to you on page two, the publisher's consistent, the core texts are consistent, the instructional design is consistent, the standards alignment is consistent. So we're really not straying. We're really just taking and reflecting, being thoughtful, using teacher-informed decisions to align our approach a little bit better and ensure that we have that high-quality standards-aligned instruction. So any questions? Not for me but And this is going to be in the fall. This will be in the fall. Yes. And we'll be starting to prepare teachers for that. May 28th, actually. And then it's over this 28th. Yeah, we'll be working with them at the end of the year for a few days to really prepare them and dig into Arts and Letters, which will be new to all of us. So, we'll be rolling out Arts and Letters, continuing to implement Wit & Wisdom, and then also transitioning to pre-AP. So, lots going on. Mhm. Item information item 6.3, Hanover Capstone Math Report, Mr. Watts and Mrs. Colletti Mrs. Colletti. I'm going to I'm going to turn it over to Mrs. Colletti to to start. Thank Thank you. So, Centennial has partnered with Hanover Research to do a review of our K-12 math program. They collected data based on surveys through teachers, families, students, and they also looked at all our assessment data from 2017, I believe, to 2024, as well as reviewing patterns in our math sequence to identify what areas we we can focus on as we do our curriculum review. So, a few of the key findings, I believe the full report is attached, but just a few of the key findings to highlight, based on teacher feedback, teachers felt like both programs, Eureka and CPM, Eureka at our K-5 level, CPM at our 6-12 level, did a great job of helping students tackle difficult problems, where they and building that conceptual understanding in math. Where they felt like there was an area of need was it didn't do as much skill practice. Um to which they felt that that required some supplemental resources, as well as providing some remediation that's built in so we required them to utilize some supplemental resources for that. Since the district implemented Eureka in 2021, there was actually a 12 to 18% increase in our achievement scores from the PSSA data. Is that good those numbers or should they be better? Just based on that the increase that's that's fabulous. It's great. We found that Hanover found there were some persistent equity gaps in our advanced math pathways. And we also looking at the math sequence Hanover identified what they called keeper courses. So for example one of them being our sixth grade advanced math class. We are because of that we are looking at reevaluating and looking into our placement criteria to ideally expand access for our students into the math the advanced math class. Do you feel like there's enough students? Yes, so we want to so we want to try to get get more students taking you know algebra one in the middle school for example just to expand that pathway for our our students to open up students [clears throat] opportunities to more advanced math later on in high school. And we we are also Hanover provided some suggestions for next for key take key takeaways to use. So for our next steps we will be next year starting in the fall we'll put together a math task force that involve a variety of stakeholders, teachers, students, parents, administrators to look at the key findings from the report, and prioritizing them. It's difficult to tackle every single one. Um, but we are going to uh, to collectively identify what are the priorities, and use that in uh, determining where we're going to go next with our curriculum That's just K8, right? K12. It is 12. Yep, K12. Anything that I No, I just want to add that this is uh, many of you are familiar with the Hand Over. We've had them for a number of years now, going on six years. So, this is um, not our first rodeo with these capstone reports. I think this is our fifth or sixth that we've used. And we've already used them for programmatic improvement um, in RILA, in reading and English language arts. That's what brought us Wit & Wisdom and SpringBoard. Um, we are um, we brought us Open SciEd in science from the science capstone report uh, that we aligned [snorts] uh, to the timing with the Steel standards being uh, produced uh, released by the state. Um, Ms. Mealy led the K12 social studies task force. We did the social studies capstone report about a year and a half ago. The work always lags a little bit be- because just the way the calendar is. And then we circled back um, to math. And uh, Ms. Caletti is leading that work. Um, so it's always robust um, and as she said, uh, most if not all of the capstone program evaluations list about eight to 10 recommendations. >> [clears throat] >> And it is nearly impossible tackle all of them. So, we have the task force giving teachers in the community voice and agency. They um, always rank, prioritize the top three. That doesn't mean we ignore the rest. The others get uh, focused on action steps, or can be um, delegated at the department levels, or school levels. Um, uh, and one thing that we've done um, to your question, we always look K12. Uh, but one thing that we've done philosophically as a department is moved our curriculum to a minimum K-8. K-8. Uh, there's research around the vertical articulation and alignment when you, um, go K-8, uh, because you kind of pass over the speed bump or ease the speed bump of the transition of fifth to sixth or sixth to seventh. Um, we've gotten anecdotal feedback from parents. We saw some of this in some of the thought exchange. Um, when we did thought exchanges, when we did thought exchange, um, some of the feedback and when we did some of the sandwiches with the superintendent back in the day, um, given our constituents and our demographics, we did get anecdotal feedback from a number of parents who liked the fact that they didn't have to learn new programs. They didn't have to learn new digital platforms. They didn't have to learn new jargon and vocabulary in the instruction of their students. And we all know how many of us have multiple children in multiple grades. So, for example, to go from fifth grade to sixth grade in Win Wisdom and not skip a beat with the same platform on ClassLink, with the same terminology, with the same instructional framework. Um, I think, uh, we see that not only is it a help for our students, obviously, but also at home. Thank you. You're good. All right. Item seven, presentations. We don't have any. So, we'll move on to item eight, recommendations. Item 8.1, recommendation. The recommendation is to move the Panorama three-year [clears throat] renewal to the full board for purchase approval. I'm just going to Yeah, I'm just going to go through and see if you have any questions afterwards. Uh, item 8.2, recommendation to move the databases, licensed software, and consumable purchases for the full board for purchase approval. Item 8.3, recommendation to move the digital textbook AP Human Geography to the full board for purchase approval. Item 8.4, recommendation to move the digital resources digital resource Learning Ally to the full board for purchase approval. Any questions about any of So, we'll vote on that. Second? Okay. All in favor? Aye. >> [laughter] >> Motion passed. Okay. Item 9.1, additional public comments. There are none. Um Before we adjourn, is there any questions or anything anybody has? I just wanted to ask about Yes. the reading you said you guys were talking about the grants and money that you got. Yes. So, I think you heard two things. One was the summer reading send-off, and that was through book donations. We had a very generous grant that we presented last uh education committee. And so, those books are currently being distributed. It's one book per student in K2, and the librarians have agreed to um assist with that, which was great. They're in their last two library cycles, they'll take some time to let the students choose one of those books. Um a letter will go out in the CSD weekly, and also it's been shared out through uh building principals just informing parents that it's happening so that if they don't want their child to participate, they can just let their child know they don't have to take a book that day. Um and then the other pieces, we did not get the Dollar General grant to support the summer book packs for next year, but we did get a CEF grant for $2,500 to support that. So, we're hopeful that we'll be able to resume that process summer book packs next year. That was the donation. Mhm. Yes, the book donation. Yes. Yes. The sitting box. >> [laughter] >> How much does it cost us? >> So the summer reading book packs the way that we have been do how we had done it with five books per student in K5 ran us around I think we had gotten it down the final year actually. They really worked with us learner to 50,000. Um that a certain funds for that. We did. We used as your funds except for that fourth year I believe that >> the fourth year fourth year >> We had carved out money out of the hotel budget. And so if you recall at the beginning of this year we >> [clears throat and cough] >> that we would try to get that down even further and also aggressively apply for grants. So I will continue to apply for grants as you know it's a lot of work and it could be a a whole another position but we'll do what we can. >> And now that we have the Lincoln Center because last last night because we already we already are on the move. Yes. Um with the board's approval last night so I I and something that we're going to we'll we'll put out in ad council too but last night with the move to the Lincoln Center their grant approval they have a grant approval piece with them. And they're actually approaching the billion with a B dollar mark and grant acquisition for school districts. So we have a a very powerful ally. Less than 24 hours on after approval. So Mr. Palo essentially the packs themselves from learner are 1995 a book pack. Um and one thing that we talked about going forward depending on grant funding is um either limiting the number of book packs we get so keeping them as a book pack of five but scaling it back to K3 or keeping it K5 but scaling the book packs down to three books per pack. But we continue to look for grants. um I you think this is just a temporary step one step backward to go three steps forward for next year, so continue to look for grant opportunities to fully support that. Thank you. Thank you. Any other conversation or questions? >> [laughter] >> That's good. All right. Well, thank you everyone for your time. We will go ahead and adjourn our adjourn our meeting at 5:06 p.m. Thank you.