So moved. I guess I'll second. >> I moved. >> Yes. Do we use the mics? >> Thank you. Um, I am uh um I'm I'm honored to to to be here at my first education committee meeting and share with you on the heels of uh the board meeting last night upcoming uh meetings um as well as topics. Um in in forthcoming uh tomorrow, the 13th of November, we have our finance committee meeting. And on Friday of this week, the 14th, we have our operations committee meeting. The finance committee meeting is at 1 o'clock. Our operations committee meeting is at 11:00 a.m. Tuesday, November 25th, we have our next schoolboard meeting, a committee of the whole at 7 p.m. And I am going to turn this over now uh to Mr. Rutz to give us a presentation on our state assessment and a data review in the 2425 school year. Thank you and welcome everybody. Uh this is a bit of a followup to October 28th's presentation. Got the mic. Uh Michelle, thank you. The mic here. Um October 28th's presentation which is on our local data. I ready. Uh today I'm going to be presenting on state data. Here we go. Where am I? Right here. Again, this is a draft here. I'm going to get to the heart of the matter here. Cut through here. There is a table of contents because there are a great number of slides in this slide deck. Um I want to pause here as I do every year um that we always share with the public uh and the board and this group uh achievement versus growth. Um achievement um and I think of Mr. Ginhard, he talks about this a lot about being a snapshot. um how the PSSAs or keystones are simply a snapshot in time. That's a student score. Uh an achievement compares you compares the student to a statewide standard. So how all students in Pennsylvania do on the PSA or Keystone, the student score or achievement compares to that. We've leaned in a lot growth the last couple years, which is the students improvement. So growth is how much you've proved since the last time you took the PSSA or the Keystone exam. And no matter where your starting score was, growth is often considered a a fair component because it compares you only to yourself and prior performance. And that's where we get our PEOS growth. But I know over the years we've leaned into growth and everyone knows I've said growth before achievement. And today I'm happy I'll be able to share some good achievement news. >> Thank you. Thank you. Um, God bless you, Jeremy. Um, I'll get to PSSA science in four and eight in a minute. Uh, but the assessment data you're going to see generally are grades 3 through eight math, algebra 1, keystone, 3 through 8 ELA, and then Keystone biology for PSSA math grades 3 through eight. making sure this works. >> Okay. Sorry, I gotta go to the board. I'm a teacher. All right. So, 44.7% of our students scored proficient advance. This is a 4% increase year-over-year from last year. I'm going to save uh the narrative at the bottom of each slide just so I can get to the data itself. We kept the trend line here um so you can see where we've been over the last 10 years. Our achievement is above the state average. We're at 44.7%. We're now above the state average of 41.7% for students in grades 3 through 8 in the PSSA Cal uh algebra keystone we had a slight decrease year-over-year. So our 37.1% of our students scored proficient or advanced again it's a slight decrease from 24 uh 23 24 to 2425. But what you will see here is that we are still above the state average. The state average was 31.5% of students statewide or proficient advanced. We're coming in at 37.1%. And you can see our trend line has been growing going up. So this is a slight dip uh just year-over-year. That was achievement. This is our growth. Pardon me with the mouse today. This is our growth, our PES growth uh in our schools with where we are. Um generally awesome. Um we're looking at um we're shining a light on where we are with algebra 1 at the high school because you could see that we were our trend line was going this way. So with that small dip in achievement scores, we're also looking to correlate that with scores um generally at the high school. That's for algebra one. So question in this regards because we see both clinger and log actually doing extremely well. >> What is the cause then for the dip you know in at the high school? >> It could be cohort to cohort. That's one of the things we look at and remember data only tells us what happened not why it happened. So Mr. Gutson that's what we're doing now. big umbrella is the math key capstone report that handover is conducting for us right now that will drop in January which will help shine a light on this as well. I know that at both log and clinger uh they were both in the blue for um algebra 1 um as well. They have a much smaller cohort as well. I think we're talking probably about 40 42 students I think at each middle school um if my memory serves me right. So, we're look looking at a much larger co cohort. Whatever is left of the ninth grade class, I I would guess um at the high school, it's got to be Jeremy or Joe might correct me. Pushing 400 students maybe. So, it's it's a much larger cohort. So, we're looking into that. >> Whatever happened uh between 21 22 and 22 23 is pretty impressive. >> Yes. Well, >> in the elementary schools, yes, that's a significant improvement. >> And part of that is curricular consistency with the tier one curriculum. Um, you're going to see that our math achievement, um, while we've been great with growth across the board, our math achievement has been ticking up. Um, it's not the only reason. You know, we talk about that a lot in here. There are multiple factors with all of this, but one of the one of the main reasons or main factors is because we've had a tier one core curriculum longer with Eureka Math than we've had with Wisdom. uh ELA in the elementary school. So, it's a difference when you're five, six, seven years out with the same curriculum, curricular consistency for students and for teachers who have mastered the curriculum than it is for someone like Whiten Wisdom where we're only in in year three. Now, we've seen great stuff as you'll see in a second from Whiten Wisdom and downstream uh from uh English language arts, but it does make a difference. Time makes a difference. I do have a question on um the 24 25 and the elementarymentaries. So it looks like McDonald Willowdale held and improved and did well. Davis dropped significantly. So that can because that's a from 100% two years in a row to 83. >> This is 83% of this whole group. >> So 83 of our indicators. The fact that um they dropped from well above Davis uh Mr. Ghart to meet is something that we shine a light on. We start to explore. Remember that green is good. Green is still good because this means that students met >> their growth expectations for the year. Obviously we always want to be above and well above aim for the top. But the the minimum is meats because meats shows that the student like me, I'm sitting in fifth grade. I met my growth expectation going back to achievement versus growth with the state projected me to grow in one year on the PSSA. I've done that. I've accomplished that. >> So is it the high school that's you know taken the numbers down from to 83 from the 100? This is just of all these indicators whereas a 100% of all of these indicators met or exceeded in adding this into the average if my math is right 83% of these indicators and again it's we we we started this years ago obviously with adding this in obviously being very low years before the pandemic uh but just to give you a greater snapshot but you can see one change in any of the indicators can have a big effect on the overall average. >> These are these are all individual cohorts. >> Yes, this is just the co these represent the individual cohorts in that particular year. >> We have individual like the Davis cohorts that did great for two years and then kind of dropped off. >> This is a new I they they their growth was lower than this this year's previous year's cohort. Yeah. Again, I for the sake of this conversation, it is it decreased from the year before, but again, we want to keep it at least green or above. So, we're there and again, we will continue to look into and a cohort can change year to year with a group of students. Um, so that's also a factor as well. We've talked about >> it's too early to really get into why and what, >> right? We look at that. >> We're just looking at the numbers right now. >> We just look at the numbers right now. And remember, I'm reporting out students. I'm reporting out students that have moved on in some cases because this is last year's data. So, I've got a fifth grade cohort that's sitting in in CLA right now. For grades three through eight in PSSA English language arts, we had a 2% increase. We have 52.8% 8% of our students scoring proficient and advanced. That is above the state average. The state average for last year was 49.9%. So, we're above the state average in grades three through eight uh English language arts on the PSSA. Keystone, 59.8% of students were proficient advanced, which is a 3.2% 2% increase year-over-year. And you can see the trend line here. The state average for PA uh for Keystone Literature 51%. Uh we're pushing 60% uh with high school with literature. And for our growth, uh, we ran the table here 100% in ELA, English language arts, meeting their growth, uh, well above for their growth for 2425. Uh, real quick on the, uh, new PSSA test information, uh, we talked about this when we're bringing in open sed uh, for K8 and that whole process with the science task force. Uh Pennsylvania shifted their PSSA tests from grades four and eight to five and eight. Um so yes, last year our students got backto-back years in fourth and fifth grade of the PSSA. Uh the fifth grade PSSA science that was given in the spring was a field test. Scores do not count. No scores were reported. So I have no scores to report to you on that. Uh this spring 2026 test in April will be the first year that the state of Pennsylvania will start collecting data on the fifth grade PSSA. We're going to need three years of data before we have any kind of uh longitudinal growth data for our students. That gives us time to learn, deepen, grow with the open sed uh curriculum in K8. uh the biology keystone exam for the most part um I shared this to you before this group um to say the state has been vague with information on the bio keystone would be an understatement um what we do know what we've been told is that it's going to look essentially the same uh going forward there were some practice questions or field test questions on last year's test but those did not um get applied toward this score last year for students who took the bio There we did have a slight increase in our biology keystone scores up uh 0.8% up to 37 and a half% of students proficient advanced that was slightly below just slightly below um the state average but you can see we've been talking about how we've been trending up in that area. So we're just looking to continue to grow in that area. We talked about we've talked years past um the effect that it has had downstream on students those years of COVID not having any access with live [snorts] virt live labs hands-on science things were virtual for a long time and at least we're starting to see an uptick at this point. Our achievement was up. Our growth was not where we wanted to be with Keystone Bio, but again we are getting ourselves still in the process of align to steel standards in the high school. Um so we expect this to change for next year. We have revised Earth and Space One to be aligned to steel standards, earth and space 2 to be a line of steel standards and environmental literacy and sustainability to align with the steel standards. So we got those changes coming. We're also, as we talked about before in ed committee with our big science roll out, we're going to be moving uh biology to 10th grade for the 2728 school year. And that will better align with steel standards and give students an extra year of science, engaging with science before taking the end of course exam. And I don't have any growth data to present because the test last year for five and eight was a field test. >> [clears throat] >> No question though and you have no data. >> Yes, >> but obviously we taught it you know. So do we have any internal information about where the trend is going? >> We do not at this time. We don't have any other outside of math and reading we don't do any other internal um local assessments of science yet. That's in the plan as we continue. The state has given us a window with our alignment to steel standards and coming out of the science task force Mr. Godson said and some of the recommendations from the handover capston report that was one area of need that we're still working on um but finding a finding an avenue to add another assessment platform uh given the recent um budget environments has been a bit of a challenge. So, we're looking at how we're going to to bring that on, but that is a priority because we need to check in these testable areas, not just reading and math, but in science for grades five, eight in the bio, what internal local assessments that we have in those areas. So, thank you for bringing that up. >> Just make a quick observation on the uh the bar graphs. [clears throat] >> Do you want me to go back to a certain one, Mr. >> Yeah, it doesn't matter. Just any one of them. Um, go back to one where we did well. So, um just coming at this as a lay person and as a uh um know when I used to have my kids in school being a parent and all right when I look at these numbers I'm looking at um proficient or advanced and are and we're in the you know the 40s 50 something percent. Um I'm locked in on I see the word proficient and 40 something percent. I'm thinking only 40% of our kids are proficient. So, I'm I'm thinking about that. That's in my head. And then the fact that we're above the state averages are great, but I think people might still be locked into thinking we're only at 40% proficiency and they're not really getting that. I mean, is there a way to maybe stress that more or doing the timing a little differently that people know that, you know, proficient advanced is people want those numbers to be higher because they think, well, I want my kid to be proficient. We should be at 100% proficiency. Why are we at 40? But you know, I don't want it to get buried that we're in a lot in most categories. We're doing a lot better. >> Yes. Yes. Well, if you look at this, and this predates many of us in this room, our high water mark was the year after the new. >> I'm not saying the numbers aren't good. I'm just saying the way it's presented. No, totally. might get lost where people are still thinking locked into that proficiency percentage and then they don't really lock into what you're saying about how we're doing better. >> Understood. Understood. Okay, we'll consider that. Thank you. >> Uh looking at some subgroups, um as we always do, this is our economically disadvantaged um 11 out of 13 or 85% of grade level growth measures met or exceeded uh growth for economically disadvantaged students. Um any areas that you see in yellow or red will most likely align back to uh algebra or biology uh depending on the level. Uh for EL learners, this is a continuing trend. Yes, Miss Tomlinson. Very good. Thank you. 100% of grade level growth measures uh met or exceeded for EL learners. I think we're going on three years of 100% I believe of meeting or exceeding uh our lowest performing 33% of students 92% 12 out of 13 grade level growth measures met or exceeded uh the one red area that we see for well below there is just our algebra 1 again which we're shining a light on and examining. And then finally, students with IEPs. Again, 92% 12 out of 13 met or exceeded. And I believe that is the same as it was last year when we presented this data. So that's a good trend line that we have there as well. In summary, in summary, uh PSSA math achievement was above last year's level and also above the state level. Algebra 1 had a slight dip. I think it was 2.7%. Still above the state average. ELA was both above last year's scores of proficient advanced and above the state average. Same for Keystone literature. You'll notice with that um with that uh data that we're seeing a lot of increase of proficient advance downstream students fifth grade afterward coming out of Whiten Wisdom going into now Whiten Wisdom in six, seven, and eight and then eventually going to preap English. um even though it's been springboard but going into pre pre-AP English and nine and 10 PSA science we did not have any data on Keystone Bio did have an increase um but not yet over the state average for um last year scores. I'm not going to read all this to you but you know that we lean into our evidence-based systems approach these areas and just some key takeaways and trends. um mentioned some of the same things during our local assessment data review. We're having systemic success. We have continue our high growth in PEOS uh with a lot of areas meeting or exceeding uh increasing access and opportunity for all. I love that we're really seeing growth meeting or exceeding uh subgroups like English language learners, students with IEPs, economically disadvantaged, etc. Um next steps um some keystone literature uh keystone performance is mixed literature showing strong trend um bio was again raised achievement still below the state average but we're working on that systemically as a district K12 and looking into uh Keystone algebra 1 achievement again as you both mentioned uh strong with students taking the algebra 1 keystone and eighth grade shining a light on how we can uh make improvements for nth grade um Ela LA needs ELA needs continued support. Uh we've given support to math and we see the dividends of that paying off. Again, I mentioned this before. We're above the state average through ELA, but we have to keep our focus. K5 is only in year three. Feels like forever, but it's only year three this year. Grade two is in their second year. We're implementing in grade seven this year and next year's grade eight. So that we'll be fully K8 in wit and wisdom as a district. Any questions? >> Well, one you [clears throat] I mean we have you know half the group you know that is basic and below. What are we doing to really focus on moving those? >> That is all of our intervention programs. That's all of our MTSS programs. That's walk to win and K5. That's our intervention programs in 612 and identifying that's where we lean heavily on our local data, Mr. Goddess. That's where the Il and the I Ready given three times a year really plays a part. We've talked a lot about how much growth we'll see when I stand up here and present this in February when we have our midyear assessments back from I Ready and Il and having our students uh with our teachers with instruction for 12 to 14 weeks. we've seen the growth of getting them on uh uh grade level and how uh those area those tiers tiers two and tier three start to diminish. And what we've really leaned into the last uh couple years, you remember coming out of the pandemic, our focus really was on tier three and focusing on moving that uh student group of tier three students up to tier two, which had a very positive effect on our Keystone and PSSA scores. And then last year the focus turned to what I call the great middle tier 2 students and leveraging again our systems that we have in place for those. Again we're at the beginning you know it's it's a marathon not a sprint and our our we're showing you know as we did with the local we we're just started with students with their growth and achievement for this year. And it's always important to keep in mind systemically what we're looking at here because I I'm sharing scores with you from last year, right? And it's bit bit of a pain, but that points again shines a flashlight on where we can improve systemically. And right now where we're continuing our work is in science. So this is good news, right? to see where we are and see where we've been and to and to be able to point out and say, "Listen, we need to still massage and give some attention to high school science, which is exactly what we're in the middle of doing." So, we're getting our ducks in a row there. And while we're not sitting resting on our laurels or anything, um we're waiting really anticipating the handover capstone report for mathematics to drop because just like it did with RIA, just like it did with science, just like it did with social studies, which we're working on now, it's going to create the compass for us on our work over the next 14, 16, 18 months to improve uh identify improvements or areas of need in our K12 math program. The other thing you know I mean you you only showed that we were above the state level on you the most recent year is there a way to you know in include that you know on the previous year as well >> on the previous year >> so we can see you know if we're growing better or just kind of following along with the state. >> I can see if I can find that data. >> Thank you. because I think that's a that's a big tell sign for us to see you know where you know how much progress we're making. >> What I I don't disagree just one caveat that's going to be a that's going to be a moving target. So for example this year's average in math I think I said was 31.5%. I believe last year was 34 or 35.5%. So statewide it's dropped. So it's not going to be It'll show us where we were against the state average in that year. That number will still drop year or change year to year goes up. It goes up, >> but it might show the growth that, you know, we're presenting, you know, going forward versus, you know, >> in that year. Correct. Yeah. >> Great. Thank you. >> It's worked out. Michelle, thank you. programs and studies. It is not loaded up in here. >> Oh, my apologies because I'm looking 7.1. Good afternoon. [clears throat] I'm very happy to be here with you today to talk about the program of studies for the 2627 school year. Um before we start, I actually want to uh give a quick shout out to Mr. Wright who put this together for us. did a lot of reorganizing and taking a look at um just to make it a little bit more organizational so our kids have an easier time to go through it. It's 89 pages long. So when our students go into that, you want it to be as organized as possible. So thank you for doing that. I think it's going to be a lot easier. Um the the program hasn't changed much from last year other than we are coming to you with the proposal for four new courses for next year. One of them being one of them being an AP course, AP human geography. Um, we've had this um probably in the works for the last three years. We've worked with the teachers. We've gone back and forth. We haven't been ready to come forward to the board for approval for that course. Um, we do believe now is the time for that. Uh, one of the reasons is because we think this is the course and it's the right time to start offering an AP course for that ninth graders would be eligible for. So, um, we haven't had that opportunity yet. We do believe now we're in a spot with where we are as the changes that we're making in science and the things that we can offer. Um they don't have to take it in ninth grade, but it'll be an option for them if they were to come in. What's really exciting about that is if our gifted students are coming out of the middle school can have that option now. So we're really excited about that. >> You have any questions about that course in particular? >> You said human geography. >> Yeah, AP human geography. So, it's the it's the study of geog geographic concepts, processes, um analyzing things like maps and data and things like that. Um on a geographic um kind of outlook, um it's probably to be honest with you, it's probably one of the more difficult AP courses that are out there. I would put that in probably AP World at the top, the probably the two hardest AP courses that you could probably take. Uh but there is a there is a the students really pushed this. they wanted the option to take this exam. So, we were excited to say, well, let us work on it and see if we can't put something together to bring it, but we do believe that we're in a spot now to offer that. All right, the second course we're coming to you with is um cosmic journeys, exploring the universe. So, we're really excited about this because, as you know, we are we've been working really hard to revitalize the planetarium and we have not been able to have a course in the program of studies that actually utilizes the planetarium. So th this will be the first time I think in more than 10 years that we've been able to do this. Uh we have the we have the ability for the teacher to teach it. We have the curriculum already kind of in place. Um this was something that you know came forward probably seven or eight years ago and was just tabled and now we're ready to say okay now we have this revitalization and how we're using the planetarium and you know being it's in the high school we have the opportunity to use that every day. Uh we anticipate probably two sections of this running, no more than probably 25 students in each of those sections. Uh we took a student survey uh off the charts. They were like, "Yes, we would love to have a class like that." So we were excited about putting this together and you know, I tip my hat to the science department because they really got behind this real quickly because I think our teachers want to our science teachers in particularly want to be in there. The third course that we're bringing to you is um something that I I find really special to the high school. what's called Educators Rising program. Um, ALFA has been instrumental in getting this off the ground for us. Essentially, just to sum it up, what it is is a program that allows students who have an interest in becoming a teacher to start practicing that craft and seeing what that's all about while they're still in high school. Alth you can certainly add more to that because there is, but that pretty much sums it up. >> Absolutely. Last January, I brought to ed committee a a three-year proposal to bring aboard Educators Rising. And it is a national curriculum um really with the focus of of trying to um work against the teacher crisis that we don't have enough teachers um nationally. Um this area we've been we we've been very lucky, but we're not seeing as many um students go into the teaching profession. And what we have found is that in research suggests that students who when they're in high school say they want to be a teacher, 400% of those students are more likely to actually follow through with those goals of becoming a teacher than in any other career field. So if we can start them now, um those students are going to go off to school and teachers are more likely to go back and teach within 20 miles of where they grew up. And so that is is hopefully creating a pipeline for us to have teachers to be part of our um part of our ecosystem here in Centennial. And so the program is grant funded currently. Um and we have three years of the curriculum for free. Um we're hoping that that will continue um that we will continue to be able to get grants to pay for the curriculum and assessments and supplies that will go along with that in order to continue the program and build it as it goes. Yeah, the other the only thing I would add to that is she's right. We have a we have a teacher crisis in our country and the one thing I think this really focuses on and it's been a priority for me is to find those students that came out of our system who went on to be teachers and hire them and bring them back. This is a pipeline to that. It's so interesting because we actually had this conversation, you know, earlier this week, you know, in in regards to growing our own teachers and and working in that direction. So, it's very pleasant to hear this. >> Well, and just so you know, last year it was my my first year, we brought in three graduates that came from tenant. They're all working in our building under contract this year. So, we're really excited about it. This is incredibly innovative and I I appreciate the work putting something like this in place for a couple reasons. And I don't have the exact data in front of me, but I remember I was at a presentation a few years ago where I believe there was almost a 76% decrease in the number of teachers from I think it was 2012 to 2021. And in 2022, the state of Pennsylvania emergencycertified more teachers than it actually certified. That's a fact. And when you look at our salary matrix, we have a lot of teachers in the bottom right corner, meaning they have many years of experience and they're at the the top of the salary scale. And in the next eight years, thinking about setting the district up for long-term success, we will have probably about 23% of our teachers eligible for retirement. That's a lot of bench strength and a lot of institutional knowledge and a lot of pedagogical knowledge walking out the door. A program like this that you all put together to try to to build this and bring students back in is fantastic work. And the only other thing I don't know if this is the only other thing I wanted to add is um that the program also allows students if they attend Penn West or Slippery Rock afterwards that they actually can um they pass a series of micro credentials they can actually earn up to nine credits that they don't have to pay for uh beforehand. So that's also a great bonus. >> Yeah, it's a no cost to them which is great. So we're excited about that course as well. And then the last one is leveraging technology for business applications. One of the things that I know Joe has been talking about as well is that uh the state's moving through a requirement to bring in um financial literacy as a requirement for all high school students to graduate with. That's going to create it a little bit of a shift for us because right now all ninth graders take academic seminar. We're going to be revitalizing that class to meet the requirements by the state for financial literacy. So those academic seminar pieces that we were teaching kids, they have to move to something else. Um Jeremy's worked with our business department um to take a lot of those fundamental things they were getting in that in that academic seminar class and you know bolster it and bring it into this course so that way it can be offered to more students 9 through 12. Um so we're getting ahead of the game a little bit by offering this now because we didn't want to wait if we have this in place and kids can start doing it as we roll in the new financial literacy course we're ahead of the game instead of behind it trying to make up for kids who haven't gotten in this yet. Um and just to add one more thing with that, this will come along with uh the students the ability to earn a number of credentials which will go towards act 158 completion for our graduation requirements. So it makes it a little more meaningful for students who depending on what their goals are after high school. Um if they're going through pathway 5, they'll be able to uh go through uh this process, possibly go, you know, go through this course and really have a lot of, you know, fundamental skills that will help them later in life, too. questions. >> Absolutely. [clears throat] Because we're adding four more courses, not necessarily any more students. That means we're going to have less students in some classes. How are we going to accomplish this without adding teachers? >> So, one of the things we do with with staffing, obviously, as you know, when we get to the process for our kids to sign up for courses, some courses every year run, sometimes they don't. Um, it's through natural nutrition. So if students don't sign up for a course or we can't run a course because there's not enough in it, that's kind of how we phase it out rather than just saying to the student body that's not offered anymore. Um we've seen that like when we brought zoologology on board probably three or four years ago um some of the courses that we had in science naturally just faded out because there was more interest in that course. So that's what will happen with some of these new offerings. Um probably all you know the educator rising program is a kind of a a standalone and so is the AP geography. you won't have too much impact on that. But the leveraging technology course and um sorry leveraging technology course and the astronomy course yes that will be new but we are also that astronomy course is really important because we need to get back to utilizing the materials we have in our building. Like we have a million-doll thing in our building we don't use. This is an opportunity for us to get back and start using some of that that was purchased for that and the reason for that. So, we're excited to offer that. That may or may not have an impact on some of our science courses, but it always comes down to how many students sign up for the course and we make that decision with Dr. Lucall, with Dr. Zachon when we come for staffing. We'll be able to show them those numbers and that's how we kind of naturally fade some of those out. So, like and I think of it this way, it's easier to to do this way than to say to a student body of 1800, yeah, we're not offering that anymore. Because then you get a lot of push back. Well, I loved that course. If they don't sign up for it, they can't come back and say, "Well, I wanted to take that." Well, you didn't sign up for it, right? We don't have the numbers to do that. >> So, when we are putting our, you know, course uh book, you know, forward, you know, in the spring, >> will it then say there's going to be a minimum of so many students in order for that particular class to run? >> Um, I believe that's written somewhere in policy. So I don't have to put it into the we don't really put that in the program of studies but that's already written in policy so we have to abide by that. I think the number's 15 >> but how will the student know that you know >> oh well we tell them that. So once we have the staffing meeting and we're set um our counselors then go back if there let's say that there was a class that won't run. This always happens with some of our AP courses right low numbers we only have five or six kids. They'll go back before the end of the year and say to them hey we don't have enough students to run this. We have some other options for you. So, they'll work that out before they leave. Um, Mr. Wright does a good job of that over the summer, too, because there's some classes you go, "Hey, listen. We thought we were going to have, you know, five sections of this. We can only run four of them now." So, that some students that may have to choose another elective. >> Um, and the only other thing I'll add is sometimes we'll run courses in alternate years, too. So, that might be a situation where, you know, an AP US history course, that's one that sometimes we don't run. What we'll try to do is ensure that students at least have the opportunity to take it. So this year it's running. It may not run next year. Things like that. >> Yeah, we all >> before we move on. >> It's exciting. I mean >> Yeah. I mean we're really I be honest with you. We're very excited. >> Not a question there. Yeah. >> Did you have a question? >> Uh yeah. Well, not with this specifically, but before we move on, um since we're talking about program of studies, um just like to ask everybody's indulgence to just let me throw something out there. Um, there's something that I really means a lot to me and I really wanted to address in the coming year. Clearly, that's not going to happen. So, I'm just throwing it out there at everybody. I would really like us to start investigating expanding our civics curriculum. Um, I think that needs to be done in a big way. I mean, huge. It's, you know, we get it, but it's not enough. You know, you know, >> I'm gonna let go. He's gonna he's gonna he's already got an answer for you. >> [snorts] >> I don't know if I have an answer, but yeah, we're looking at that as part of this, if Miss Mil is here, she could speak to it better than I can. We're looking at that through the social studies task force. >> Okay. >> Um, and one thing we've talked about is uh because it was mentioned in a handover report is um more civics, where to put that and adding uh history or social studies course to the high school. Now, what that would >> actual history, not social studies, >> correct? Actual history. Uh that has more of a civics bent to it. We do have government and public policy that comes in 12th grade. But part of the larger conversation is going to be how are we sequencing the courses we have secondary K5 is pretty locked in with that social studies, but how are we sequencing courses 612 and are we exposing students to more civics? That's near and dear to my heart as well. And that will invol I don't think it might. I think it's going to uh reach a point where we have to discuss about adding a fourth credit possibly or not. um or how to reign uh history standards um content, excuse me, to get students more exposed to civics somewhere more than once between grades six and 12. >> Yeah, thank you. Um yeah because what you know what id envisioned was um you know as important as that is and you're you know it is >> um >> you know a lot of the problem where we stand today is regardless of where you stand is because people don't really know enough about how it works. They get led by lies. They don't they don't know how it's supposed [clears throat] to work. What I wanted to try to make happen was I wanted our kids to come out of school >> to be able to listen to a politician lying to them and say, "You're lying to me and I know you're lying to me because I learned it in school and I know that's not the way it works." That's the only way >> we're going to we're going to produce. >> Yeah. That's the feedback we get through >> involve students and the future leaders if they know how and why things work. Absolutely. >> How important it is that things work. >> Foundations. >> Yes. >> Yes. No, we're Mr. Mr. Gard, we're looking in that we always have to balance that. This is this is a reason, not an excuse. But the challenge is always balancing that with state standards, what the state requires because as Mr. uh excuse Mr. Dr. Carrick just mentioned, they mandated personal finance, which I'm all for, but we have to find a spot for that. And someone who appreciates history like you do, uh history keeps marching. So, uh, to to to have a course that teaches, uh, history World War II to the present, um, is a lot longer than when I was in high school. I'll just leave it there. [laughter] >> A lot shorter when I was in high school. So, well, anyway, thank you for the indulgent. >> Well, thank you both for your support. We appreciate it. >> Going on to recommendations. I'm kind of questioning why we have, you know, 7.5 because, you know, we would automatically, you know, list the four that we have. So, I'm just questioning why we put five on. [clears throat] >> Yes. just doesn't make sense because we will list seven one two three and four you know it's automatic >> yeah by default they're getting moved on so >> other than that you know I'm in favor of moving al passing two Nothing. That takes us to the end. Um, next meeting is going to be January 14th. No meeting in December, I guess. Thank you. We are journed.