is a perfect. Thank you everyone. It's been a little bit more than five minutes, but we had a nice little recess and now we are ready to go into our study session. Um Dr. Thomas, purpose and agenda. >> Thank you, Chair Bullan and members of the board. Um this evening we got two we have two topics uh that we're going to cover. Um and if I if I may, I would like to request to um start with attendance and behavior. We have some staff who who have been here all evening and if we can maybe get some of our school-based staff um up ahead of that and then we'll go into the midyear assessment report. Um those are the two areas that we'll be uh in discussion with this evening. >> Very good. >> And uh we'll have Dr. Dr. Zambush um talk a little bit about our attendance and behavior and then we've got some of our school staff for some contextual conversation as well in terms of uh what we see on a day-to-day basis and some of the efforts that they are doing in the building to support. >> Good evening, Chair Bullion, uh members of the board, Dr. Thomas. Um I am here to talk about um attendance and behavior kind of a mid-year report. Uh this was supposed to be in the last one. Um I apologize. I was very ill. I could not not attend. So, thanks for your patience and um allowing me to give this presentation this evening. Uh we do have a number of um principles and deans in the building here. And if that you have questions specifically about how things look from an operational lens, they're really the folks that can tell you more about that. Um so, I'll start with the data presentation and then we'll kind of go from there and see uh where our questions lead us. So, um I'll start with attendance. I know that I've presented on this before, uh but over the last couple of years, I I'm losing track of time. Um year and a half to two years, we've been working to refresh our attendance codes. Part of this was um you know over time legacy codes or codes get created and then other ones aren't needed anymore and we don't necessarily have someone kind of cleaning up um and reorganizing all of those things. Um some of these things you'll see on our old code list. We don't even have programming for those anymore. So um the other thing we noticed is that we had some differences across sites. Uh we also had some um specificity to our old codes that we didn't think was necessary. Um so all of this led to uh really uh need to refresh the whole system. Um so what we did was worked with every single um dean at every level to understand which ones we needed, which ones could be rolled into others. Um and there you can see on the right hand side uh the refresh of the codes um that we're using uh K12. Um this doesn't en encompass early learning. Um but these are the K12 codes. And then um those columns on the right hand side if it has an X next to it that indicates that that level uses that code. Um so what this has allowed us to do is to um streamline. We also have had some other programmatic areas that wanted some codes for specific purposes. Um, so this really allowed us to kind of uh reset our whole system and make sure that we're all on the same page. Um, one thing to note is that um, attendance is tracked differently by grade level. Um, elementary attendance is taken twice a day. It's taken in the morning and the afternoon. So there's an AM attendance and a PM attendance. um in secondary it's taken um in every class period. So when we're comparing pure numbers across elementary and secondary it doesn't quite work um to compare uh the exact numbers because we're really looking at uh just a different set of uh number of times a student's attendance is taken during the day. So I've I've um presented these kind of chunked out by different levels so that we can kind of see uh level by level uh what the trend is looking like. Um so I'm suggesting you kind of look at one um in a bit is of isolation compared to the others. Um we uh I also want to be clear that while we've done this massive recode, we need a little time to kind of um you know level out and make sure that we're all um using those codes. We are um you know working on a more consistent cleaner reporting process. Um and sometimes there's going to be um this is for attendance and behavior. Sometimes you there's going to be a little bit of noise in the data as we write or or um find the balance in our new system. So this might be I think is more true as we get to behavior. Um but sometimes um we may just need to be uh working on collecting data more consistently or um you know using the codes correctly. So the attendance is tricky um because of the massive amounts of recoding we have done um it's really hard to compare year year-over-year um and so um and like I said before these charts are really intended to show patterns um this doesn't tell us individually what's going on with um individual families and students that's really um the work at the site level and so um really the intention of this is to to show patterns over time. Um, what we look at is to see, you know, does something jump out at us as something that's a major systems change that kind of indicates that we may need to pay closer attention to something. >> So, for our attendance, >> I ask a quick question before you begin. So, have these codes been going for this school year? >> Yes. >> So, from day one? Yep. >> To present. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yes. Um so at uh at each level we basically classify attendance into two categories excused and unexcused. Uh so the purpose of this chart is to really show the difference between um those types of excused. Um this is at the elementary level. Um the reporting is by month. Um this is a common way of reporting this. One um contextual factor is there's not exactly the same number of school days in every month. Um but this is kind of an ability to see it um consistently throughout the year so far. Um you can see that at elementary uh the vast majority of our um uh absences are excused and um that's a common pattern in elementary. Unexcused means, you know, we've attempted to contact families and and we don't have an excuse um listed in our um in our files. In terms of unexcused absences, um there's really three categories within um elementary. So, um we indicate whether um they're they leave early, they're tardy, or if they're absent and it's um unexcused overall. So, you can see in general that the tardy is an area that we have higher numbers than leave early. Um, so you know this and again this is a conversation you can um talk through with the deans but this could indicate you know some trans transportation challenges or other things like that that they work through as they see these come um come through their data set. >> Do you want us to wait till the end to ask questions or end the slides? >> Um I think if it's related to the data you can ask them now. If it's related to more specific processes at the school level probably wait. >> Okay. Yeah. related to the data on this. I was just struck by the number of leave early unexcused, especially in elementary when parents are signing them out. Um, what is unexcused? Like is is there something that classifies as unexcused? If you're picking up your student, is it like, you know, if you're gone for a vacation or leave early for a sporting event, is that considered an unexcused or >> I think that's where the site can help us. Um but yes, there are certain things that are excused and unexcused. Um it has to do with how much you've already been had excused absences if you've had a certain amount, but also there are certain activities that are classified as unexcused. Okay. >> Um so yeah, I think that would be better if we could talk to the um deans and principles about that. In terms of elementary excused absences, you can see um these there are other codes, but the other codes are very small numbers. So, I wanted to just start by showing you um the major reasons why students have excused absences. One example, there's a funeral code that is used very very infrequently. um that's not something that I felt was necessary to show on on the chart because that's not something that is um taking much of our data and we're just kind of cluttered up. So these are the major reasons why students would have excused absences at elementary. Um one of the things um I I think is pretty clear December had a higher number of illness. Um that really has to do with the student being sick versus um out for another reason. parent request uh typically has to do with vacation. Um so you can see October and December have higher parent requests at elementary. Um my hypothesis would that that would be something to do with the MEA break and winter break. Um that parents would increase parent requests around those times. Um appointments are any sort of doctor or dental appointments. Um and then there's excuse um leave early excused and tardy excused. Uh moving on to middle school, um you'll start to see as students get older, um I think there's just a little bit higher of a proportion of the unexcused um coming in because as we think about attendance, um you know, when you're at elementary level, it's really kind of a family measure on is the student coming, is the student being picked up, dropped off. as students start to get older, um it starts to become more of a measure of um a combination of the students decision-m and the and the family. Um so that's just something to keep um in context. Uh so a little bit more unexcused at the middle school level, not a ton. Um but you can see um there that our highest um absences were overall in October and December. Um similarly um in so because we don't have because they take attendance at every period we don't have a leave early or um an arrival late because they're either there or not there for a specific class. Um so here you can see the difference between an unexcused absence and an unexcused unknown. Um that diff that differentiation I would also probably need to refer to our deans to talk more specifically about that difference there. um slightly different kind of top reasons why students are absent in um middle school. We start to see student support service coming in. That's if a student needs to go see a counselor or another service provider within the school. Um and school activity uh starts to become a pretty big um reason why students are absent uh in the secondary level. Um so you can see in October and December there was also a high amount of school activity absences. Um and similar to elementary illness biggest in December and then um parent request around holiday breaks. Um here's for high school. Again you can start to see that unexcused um creeping up a little bit more um as the students get older. And um again, if you want to know kind of the difference between the unexcused, unknown, unexcused absence, um that really has to do with whether we know the reason. So sometimes we know the reason and it counts as unexcused. Sometimes we don't know the reason. And I think as the students get older and we get into secondary, it's harder to kind of track down that reason. In elementary, generally our front office knows the reason why a student isn't there or leaves early or comes late. um that becomes harder and harder as we um as the students get older. So, we just have a bigger um number of unknowns that we we can't track down the reason why a student doesn't attend a a class or a day of school. >> Um excuse me, I have a question on that. >> Um are these all actual full classes missing or are these tardy more than 15 minutes or something with the unexcused? >> These are full classes. >> Okay. Um in terms of the excused absences, um it's similar to the middle school. Um again, student activities become a major reason why students are not um in class as the students get older. And um yeah. Okay. Any should should we answer questions about attendance first before I talk about behavior? Okay. This is a um democratic process here. Okay. So, what um what questions do we have about attendance before we move on to behavior? >> I have questions slashc comments if that's okay. >> Um first of all um I just want to so looking at our attendance it's obviously it's reported to MDE as well like as a total it's we also report it to MDE and so um it's something that is really near and dear to my heart and Dr. Thomas always says cheeks in the seats, right? Kids can't learn if they're not here. One of the primary reasons I ran for school board is some of the challenges that one of my son had in in high school. And I just want to say thank you to Dr. Bez and to the leadership at the high school because numbers don't lie. Back in 2022, our attendance rate was 71.3%. And now it's at 79.8%. So it's increased 10%. I also know as a parent who had a kid in their district in 2022 and I have a son in our district now there's been some dramatic changes up at the high school on what we're doing to encourage students to cheeks in the seats be in the classroom. So I would just love to hear um a little bit from Dr. Bez if that's okay with you. I don't want to put you on the spot, but I'm assuming that's why you're here. Um about sort of what are the positive things that you've done in the last three years that has helped to improve that 10point um attendance rate and then before you after you're done, I'd like to talk about the middle school because that's where we haven't seen we've actually seen a decrease in numbers and maybe there's some learnings that we can learn from the high school to the middle school that we could um that could be translated in our district as well. So, >> you know, the philosophy is trying to change behavior. So, you try to make relationships with kids and find out what the rationale is for why they're it's that same conversation. You're going to be more successful successful if you're there. So, uh we really look at any discipline as a try how do you how do you use the least amount of discipline to change the behavior in a positive direction. So, uh, you know, welcoming kids in, uh, you know, just being careful when they are coming back cuz sometimes we sometimes make those little comments that we think are, oh, it's, you know, hey, we're good to see, we're glad to see it. And just trying to again kill them with positivity and try and build those relationships so they see the connection to being there and being successful because you could be there and and get by, but if you're there, you're going to, you know, you're you're punishing yourself. So, it's trying to do those things. Uh, yeah. And trying to get everybody on board doing that. the PBIS type ideas of just again trying to catch kids doing the right thing and trying to reinforce that and uh trying to use incentives for you know hook kids into what do you like to do so if you got to be there to participate in your activities and and all those things so uh that's what you know what I would say and then you know you're looking at the 71 I'm looking at you know sometimes we pull them from different categories because I think ours is at about 90 you know about 91% But depends on whether you're pulling it from campus or what what piece you're pulling it from. But uh that's what we try to do on a regular basis. And the deans do a big big part of that and we've been trying to uh you know tie in tie in the grades and just connecting with parents and you know that tough piece. So we were just talking back there. I'm going do you what do you call an unexcuse? What do you call an excuse? because you try to work with the families because you don't want to be in this, you know, this little fight, you know, cuz sometimes people feel that they have a reason why they're pulling their child out. But we will if we're finding that the parent sometimes needs help because the kid is maybe a little more forceful and, you know, they just need some more support and sometimes they'll say, "Hey, hey, can you call in on an excuse? Can you work with can you help me here on this situation?" So, it's better if we have that positive partnership with parents. >> What about like sis? Oh, my might. What about what about systems you've put in place? Because I I know we've been so >> having the deans call them down at, you know, like when you start getting to like five tardies or five absent, you know, we start we started just pulling it back earlier. I'd have to look at the exact number, but they're intervening earlier and trying to call kids down on a regular basis. So, they're constantly meeting with kids. Like I did an observation the other day on a dean and they were just calling kids down and having conversations and they'd be looking at their attendance and looking at their grades and just tying that all together and you know when kids are making positive gains they congratulating them on that. And then we've been trying to do more recognition like student of the you know student of the week and get a goofy picture with your dean and it's usually kids that you know have been having troubles and made made changes and you know just trying to rec you know recognize them so that they're like oh hey this is a I always tried to tell kids don't dig yourself a hole. The the best way to get off the radar is just do what you're supposed to be doing and then people aren't on your back. So, uh, you know, it's those conversations over and over and over again and having the teachers do the same things and then being out in the halls and doing the sweeps, too, because, uh, right after CO, we had a lot of kids, uh, everywhere that were kind of present but absent, meaning they weren't not at school, but they were just kind of wandering. So, uh, having that having those hall monitors and having people out and about and just making sure kids are where they're supposed to be when they're supposed to be there because you asked about is this tardy or is this absent? And >> there can be a little bit of that >> that game too. In a big building like ours where we have kids on open periods >> and we have uh and I have 800 kids, you know, for an hour and a half out at lunch, it can be easy to kind of, you know, drift into an area where you're not supposed to be. So, uh, just trying to catch those things and tighten those things up. >> That's wonderful. I think from a parents standpoint, I mean, my my son went to a dentist appointment and I forgot to call him in and he got called down to the dean's office. So, it's definitely something that I'm I'm seeing um as a parent and um holding kids accountable to being in school is really important. So, so I appreciate that. >> Well, I appreciate hearing that because we get sometimes get discouraged because you you feel like you're chasing the you know, there's some things that are problems that don't have solutions. They're just problems that you got to continually work with. Like every year you get another group of freshmen and you would think that they'd be different, but they need to grow and mature and you know, you see some of the same issues over and over again. So you're like, man, am I making a difference or not on some of this? >> I think you are and I appreciate the parent partnership. It's really important. So thank you. >> Appreciate that. >> While you're up. >> Okay. >> Um I had the same qu Whoa. This mic works now. Um the I had a similar question to Director Mason in terms of Can you just give a couple of examples? And I know you you're just high school and then maybe the middle school too about unexcused unknown like what would those what are some examples? >> Well, sometimes you can't get a hold of the parent. So you you're trying to or the kid says I'm going to clear them up. You know we because we'll mark kids absent then we say hey we're not always perfect so you can clear that up. So sometimes they just haven't been cleared up yet because sometime it's the sheer volume. I have one person that >> kind of is the tend attendance person. So, we're some there's some that lag sometimes and it's like and there are some parents that aren't as receptive or have challenges or maybe just aren't in the picture. So, it's hard to get a verification. You'll keep calling and keep calling and and uh you know, sometimes there's some that just aren't in the position to to call back at that time or I hate to say it but have kind of said you deal with them. you that doesn't happen a lot but sometimes it does and uh you know you you'll step in and you know help keep trying to encourage the kid. >> Yeah. What about at the middle school level where they don't necessarily have their own car >> and I don't know if you know this, pardon me, but we do have the middle school deans here. >> Yeah. No, that that would be great. That Sorry, I didn't I didn't mean >> I think Dr. Visa could answer for the middle school, but they're here >> and they've been waiting. I appreciate your mail. >> Scooters now. >> Yes, they do have scooters. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Basic. >> Thank you. >> Sure. >> Gosh, it's nice and loud now. >> Well, good evening everybody. Um, >> we'll do just do really quick introductions. My name is Zach Hot. Um, I'm the dean of students at Twin Oaks. Um, I've been here, this is my third year here in the district. And then I'll let Rachel introduce herself. >> I am Rachel Offis. I am the dean of students at Hidden Oaks. This is my first year here, fourth year as a dean. now as a dean in another district before coming here. >> So I think that I'll go with director Olstad's question first. I think you're asking a little bit about those unexcused unknowns, right? A lot of those for us are coming when families aren't communicating, right, about when a student's gone, right? So when a staff member takes attendance for the day, right, and a student's marked as like absent, it kind of shows up as this kind of unknown piece. It's not automatically an unexcused unknown. And so we're trying to do everything that we can do to communicate with families about that. And so that's going to look like our administrative assistants send out um an automated email every day along with an additional infinite campus email every day that goes out to families. Um we have that an attendance email that's set up at the middle school level in both buildings so that parents are able to communicate both right through a phone call and through that attendance email. And we try to catch as much as we can right through through that. Um, but there's still times where it comes into an unexcused unknown. Um, and then in that case, both of us are reaching out individually to families, right, to try to get those pieces cleared up. It might be just for a period, right? It might be a kid got pulled for a band lesson and it forgot to get marked in Infinite Campus, right? It might be for a kid was gone for a whole day for a doctor's appointment and parents just forgot to reach out. And so that's working through our phone calls, working through our cultural liaison, sending out emails, um just trying to continuously communicate with families. Um I will say that unknown unexcused is a new code at the middle school this year. And so that is something that we have both been working with our teams fairly recently actually like in the last couple of months to make sure that we are all very consistent on how we're coding that. So, I think back on one of the previous slides, it had kind of looked like there was a large number of um of those. The blue one, right? Whatever. I can probably go back to that. >> Um yeah, the unexcused absences right there in December. That was us really working with our team, right, to kind of go back. So, we had gone back and done some recoding cuz in previous years it had just been coded all as unexcused absence. We now reserve that for truly it was a oversleeping, right? Because that's a a miss the bus kind of oversleeping. We still expect you to be in school. We reserve those for that kind of absence, unexcused absence. And the unknown is when we still don't know why. So oftentimes we have it in there, but we're still working with families reaching out trying to get it done because for you know all of our systems we need it to be kind of in that category of excused or unexcused. And then director Atinson, I think you were asking a little bit about systems, right? >> Yeah. And just to to clarify, um the numbers that I pulled are from MDE and they're probably a moment in time attendance, Dr. Bisk. So I mean just moment in time, anybody can go to the website and and pull attendance. In 2022, it was 81.5% of kids are attending. >> Yeah. >> Um and then and in 2024, it's actually dropped to it was 76.2 in 23 and in 24 it went up a little bit to 78.9%. So just trying to understand um >> Totally. >> No, I know you're you're fairly new, but like >> Yeah. And I think even the year you're talking about like when it started to swing up was I think the first year that we had a dean in each building. >> And um that was my first year. And I know one of the big things that we tried to do with the previous dean and myself were really look at our systems that were in place because we also had counselors, additional counselors in each building. And so what we've been able to do with those resources is we have attendance teams in each of our building that meet weekly. Um so mine meets tomorrow morning, right? And we go through we have a spreadsheet of kids and we are going through and tracking, okay, this kid has been gone x number of days. Have we sent our first, you know, notification to the family because we also know that when students are in school, right, and they're in school regularly, that leads to those better academic outcomes. So, we want to intervene early on those conversations. And so, we're notifying parents at like 5 days. Hey, your students been gone for 5 days for any reason, right? We're we want to just have that on your radar. And so, we have those communications. Sometimes those are going out via email. Sometimes those are going out from a phone call from a counselor, from myself. But, we're trying to work as a team to do that. And then, it's helpful on that team as well. We have our district nurse and we have our social worker on there because we also know that our kids come from a variety of different situations, right? And so we want to have those me people as members of our team to be able to, you know, consult on those pieces, right? Give us some additional information on the kids and then we work together as that team to make sure that we're constantly in communication with families. Um, another thing too that, you know, Rachel brought from her previous district that's been helpful this year is we're working on tardies. And so we started that quarter two where we have been um as deans tracking tardies, pulling students down and having kind of weekly conversations with a cohort of students as we look through those tardies and really trying to kind of build up um you know their capacity for their awareness on on when they're being tardy, how do they get to class. And our own internal data showed that from quarter 1 where we kind of had a large amount of tardies to quarter two, we were able to decrease that. And so we're hoping that as we continue this throughout the year and in pre in in upcoming years, right, we're able to help, you know, slowly chip away, right, and build some of those positive habits in our kids um through those conversations >> else. >> Um feel free to answer. It might be a a Jay-Z question. Yeah. Um >> how how far back can you go to edit? So, say you have, right, you've got a a family and they come back a week later, 10 days later, a month later to correct something. >> How far back can you go >> to correct those things >> in the current school year that we're in? >> Okay. So, at any point? >> Yep. >> So, we try to be really flexible with our families. Sure. >> Right. Um because we understand that there's different situations, right? And so I think that's part of our our piece with families is there there's situations that I've learned about where it's like, okay, we're going to go back to last month because I've been trying to communicate with you, but we don't have the correct contact information. You changed phone numbers, you know, so we want to be flexible with families there. >> Okay, cool. Thank you. >> Yep. >> I did have one more. Is that okay to come back to me? >> Absolutely. >> Um I didn't know um and this is either for uh Dr. ambush or anybody else, but have we seen and I know that you know January is not in here yet. Um, but have we have we noticed even anecdotally that there's been some increased absences? Probably I would imagine unexcused um with increased ICE activity or anything, people being scared to come to school. I mean, and I know it's kind of hard to quantify right now. I I 100% get that, but I didn't know if you've noticed anything. >> Yeah. And we do, you know, we we have that piece of it. And I think what we're where we worked really hard as working with our cultural liaison, right? Continue to work with families, have those conversations, right? And be understanding of where families are at as well, right? And so I think we've I know of I wouldn't say that it's huge, right? But I know of a handful of situations. >> Yeah. Okay. And >> I think that lends to a question I have. Um, we have a both a policy 503 and there's Minnesota law that um, guides the Minnesota compulsory attendance laws. >> Um, one of them is basically that a student who is absent for 15 consecutive days must be withdrawn. >> Um, and then there's also um, students under 18 who have a combination of seven unexcused absences will result in a referral to Scott County Human Resources. So I'm assuming that those are the same policies and guidelines that you're following regarding these unexcused and working. You mentioned five. So I just wanted to make sure I mean five is not far from seven, >> right? Correct. And five is actually >> I would hope that you're getting involved before five >> 100%. >> And five when we talk about five that's excused absences. So you kind of so these are unex seven unexcused. So that child could have seven unexcused and six excused. So there we guide when we say like the fiveday we say we know that they their family has communicated those five days. So we have that lens but then we also have they haven't communicated these seven days as well. >> So that could add up to 13 days total which then pushes you know the next level of 10. But yes seven we look at both of that too. >> And even with that as well in statute we are actually required at 3 days of unexcused to make that notification to families as well um uh via a letter. And so we are that's part of what that attendance team is doing is we're consistently tracking the data and I think that team has been pivotal because it's helped us stay on top of that. >> Um and so those pieces are all in there and there's actually just to kind of add on to that cuz I think it applies. Scott County also has a truency diversion program. It's called their path program and so that is another piece that we work very closely with referring students there. Um, typically that happens right when we've kind of exhausted our resources and there's something else going on there. Um, and that kind of even comes in before those seven days often, right? So that we have outside resources. Treehouse is maybe a program that you've heard of that often comes in and works with our kids in building and it's been a a tremendous resource for us. I >> think partner partnering with parents as early in the intervention process as a parent who's been down this path is is is is really important. So yeah, thank you. >> Yeah. else. Anybody else? >> I don't know if I truly got clarity on my question around unexcused, I guess. And I don't know if we have anyone from the elementary level here, but like how would we have an unexcused absence as far as leaving early, right? When we have parents signing them out >> in policy and in our schoolboard policy in 503, it's like, so if I'm leaving, I'm picking up my kid to bring them to a sporting event per policy that says it's unexcused. >> It's unexcused. Okay, that's what I was wondering. And vacation, like anything like that that isn't like a doctor or whatever. Okay. >> And and we do have elementary folks here, the team from Red Tail Ridge, in case you want to call them out of the bullpen. >> Speaking about policy, is there anything knowing the policies, is there anything you'd recommend that we could enhance that would make your lives easier, better, help support kids? I'm just asking is something you can think about and bring back. I mean we review the that's our job as a board review policies. >> I find it coming from a different district how you we have one set policy for like K12. >> Okay. >> But in Prior Lakes's policy they have like an elementary section and a middle school section >> and a high school section. >> So that's just kind of so that's how we knew about elementaryaries. I was like wait why are they? So we we looked that up. So that's something and you know just overall with coding at my previous district you were either AEX absent excused aux absent unexcused. So I my team always gets really conf they're like why are you talking like that because you're either green or red but then with kind of looking at ours it's you have parent requests and illness and it's just hard to manage all of those parent requests as well >> for attendance >> right and I would just say thinking looking back to the list um Dr. Zumbush, if we have changed the coding of our unexcused and excused, we need to change our policy because they're not they're not mirroring as I'm looking at them right here. Um, the unexcused parties and absences. I'm not seeing there's a lot of these that are excused that don't align to the policy. It's some So, I think it's something that we need to circle back on. Well, it says unexcused examples are running late, oversleeping, a malfunctioning alarm clock, missing the bus, shopping, visiting friends, a haircut. Those are all unexcused, but in here, I don't know if that exactly lines up with some of these for they're excused. still unexposed. >> That hasn't changed. >> Yeah, they're just a little different than what was listed on the first page of our presentation. So, I just want to make sure there's alignment. If there's changes with the coding and the alignment, then we need to update our policy to ensure we're we have the accurate um of, you know, to help do help you guys do your job more. >> Yeah. And let's bring we'll bring that back to our teams and get back to you guys on that because I think that would that's a good idea to even just look at it. So, thank you guys. bring forward in particular. >> Anything else on that dental? >> Um yeah, thank you for the examples. I think that shows um the nuance to this data and how you know that September um component it out of context without the middle school deans explaining that was a change and and you know we're putting systems into place. You can already see that by December they've already um adjusted for that. So it's a complicated data set um and it's a continually changing one. Um so we will um this was the first effort at refining them. I think there's a lot of people that would be happy to even further consolidate the codes. Um but that will be something that we can think through over time. Um we have the similar process with uh behaviors. Uh we had um kind of similar to excused and unexcused. we have behaviors that fall into majors or minors. Um ju I want to um so we did do the same process where we were um refining could we roll multiple codes into one uh into you know could we roll three codes into one could we do some consolidation um and and we did that process there uh one thing that um and I think if you have questions with deans as well they'll um they'll affirm that behavior data is very complicated because it both reflects a student behavior But it also reflects um how the do adult responds to it. Um so one singular student behavior could be interpreted or documented differently by different individuals depending on um you know and we try to get make make sure that everyone's on the same page and we're coding similarly. Um but just inherently um it's it's a complicated data um component because it both reflects student behavior and adult response. Um I also want to indicate that um while we are looking at um changes over time, one of the things that can happen is uh we could maybe get better at documenting our practices. So it might look like our behaviors are going up. Um that could mean that we're actually doing a better job of doc documenting um behaviors that are already existed. So that's where I think the context with the deans and what happens on a daily basis at the site is really important to um take into consideration. Um when we think about minors um these are not uh especially um more at the lower level but I think across our whole system minors are really used as opportunities to teach students and majors are too um but minors really the purpose of those are to um have a learning opportunity for students and and to coach them. Um that's not necessarily a purely punitive um indication there. Um, and then trends over time and severity are really what we're trying to look at to see um whether major things have changed over time. And this one um I was able to cross reference codes um historic codes and previous codes in order to show some um uh some change over the years. Um so here is our elementary behavior incidents. Um this is basically two and a half years of data. So, um, two years ago, last year, and then, um, this year up until December, you can kind of see here, um, the cadence of majors and minors. Um, the vast majority of our incidents are minors. So, it's that coaching opportunity for students to to learn um, about a certain behavior and to um, improve over time. Um I also then took them and overlaid them so you can see them year on top of each other. So it's basically the same data but it's the sumitative um number of behavior incidents and I overlaid. So in the purple is two years ago in the teal is last year and then the yellow is this year so far. Um my takeaway on this is that the trend looks fairly similar. I know that we can, you know, there's there's individual differences we could point out by month, but um in general, I think we we're seeing kind of a similar cadence um so far this year as we've seen um in previous years. Um at the middle school, this is what it looks like um the same um by month two years ago, last year, and this year. Um again, most of our incidents are minors. Um and we're just we're looking at that trend over time. I think um deans would probably uh say that around breaks and near the end of the year is when you know we have that uptick in in behavior incidents at at school. Uh similar similarly this is the trend over time. Um we did see a shorter or a smaller um lower start to the year but then an increase in October. And again we would have to have a discussion with the deans to talk about what they saw at the site to see whether that might be a change in practice or or something that happened um with student behavior. And then similarly at the high school um same data here. Uh you start to get a little bit more majors. I think as we get to older students, we have higher expectations on what students um you know know and be a kind of know right from wrong a little bit more. Um they have higher expectations. Um so you have kind of more majors as the students get older. Not I mean it's still more more minors and majors but um kind of goes up a little bit as we have higher expectations for students. Um and a pretty flat start to this year. Um, so overall, as I'm looking at these trends, I don't see anything that's like drastically different um, from previous years. Um, but it's very nice to have the codes all cleaned up and to know that um, we have a better system moving forward. So, I'll pause again and see if there's any questions um in terms of behavior data >> to uh start with elementary schools. Um is there I know we've talked a lot of about the K through three discipline. Do you think there would be a difference within the data if that were different? And I understand that that's a hypothetical. If anyone is even willing to answer that, that'd be great. >> You're talking about exclusionary discipline. Yes. >> I don't think it codes No, it that that wouldn't code any different in terms of um the behavior or the severity of the behavior. Um, and then my next one on the elementary, what does what is a major like? Can you give me an example? It's just hard for me to fathom. >> Yeah. So, if we we go back here. Um, not >> I understand what that says, but like >> Yeah. So, >> do we want to hear examples? >> It's a It's a fight. It's an altercation. It's a phys. >> Oh, perfect. I really just wanted to, you know, we we signed shine a light on Principal Bezac and then the middle school, you know. Well, my name is Adam Brandell. Um, been the dean at Red Tale for about 5 years. Uh, majors, here are the categories. Defiance, disrespect, major, disrupt, disruption to learning, fight, altercation, harassment, leaving the classroom or building without permission, physical aggression, uh, severe technology violations, theft, threats, or property damage. So those are the categories that we put them in. Lots of times it can be repeated minors. So if if it's something that they've been working on and working on and then they feel like they need to take it to the next level, they'd put it in as a minor or as a major. >> Would you see that more of a repeated thing as something that you see often or just more of a one time occurrence? >> More of a one time occurrence. >> Right. >> Excuse me. >> Sweet. >> Thank you. I have a I was say I have a question. um about more about reporting data >> and um so of those mo majors how many of them are reported to MDE because like we have um MDE you can I'm I'm kind of a data geek sorry but I've been tracking our discipline um data for since 2017 and I know the codes have changed and um that's important to understand but I think what's more important is to see the data of which ones have we've seen a really big increase in >> and So I'm trying to understand when when you say major are those all being reported to MDE or they're very specific and I and I I question whether it's everyone because as a district for example we have last year we had 90 or no 2023 because MDA data lags there was 95 fights as a district. So that's what I'm trying to understand um how the data is actually reported and more importantly it's not just about the data but like who is reviewing the data and what are we doing how often is it reviewed and like what are we doing to help like put processes in place to to help those kids you know what I mean >> yeah I'm not really sure about reporting to MDE >> I'll clarify one thing >> um one thing that I did not put in this presentation I'm happy to include moving forward um there's a whole another category of data with behaviors that is our response data. Um so that would be what we do as a result of the the behavior. Um my understand I believe what you're referencing is probably the EUARS data and that has to do with suspensions um >> the whole category of things. >> Yep. So that would be more related to the response and um that reporting has to do with you know lost instructional time and things like that. Um, so that would be um a different kind of category of reporting. Um, and I believe that has to do with um suspensions and um expulsions. So that's >> that's super helpful. So you're basically saying what gets reported to MDE is only like if there's a suspension correct >> to that level. Yeah, >> that is incredibly helpful. Thank you. >> Okay. um over time if we want to include the response data again that's a whole another category of of information but um yes this is for our internal purposes um MDE is tracking something for a different purpose um so that would be the distinction >> well I think for me it's important to understand trends over time you know what are the what are the things where we've seen big increases and then also where are we seeing decreases like what type of systems are we putting in place to help our students whether it's with the where do they need more support or you know what are we yeah So >> sure. So sounds like you kind of wanted to know our systems for handling behavior and helping with behavior. >> Yeah. So >> and like Yeah. How often are you guys re, you know, reviewing the data and understanding which kids need support and all that kind of stuff. >> Sure. So Barb and the social worker and myself at our elementary work almost weekly to circle, you know, circle around and figure out which students need help and we work really closely with the classroom teachers. We put a lot of systems in place like things like check-in, checkout, which is um we usually end up with a behavior form and that's tailored specifically to the student what what the teacher feels that they need. We work at the parents and then they fill out that form daily and like with me they'll check in in the morning. We'll set goals for the day and then they'll check in in the afternoon and we'll see how they did based on that form. Um we that's a really effective one. Um we do uh social stories. So when kids need specific things we tailor a story to them. Um I'm going to do this thing to be successful. This is a thing that I struggle with. when this happens, this is the the result or the consequence. Uh we do social groups with our social worker and um individual problem solving and coaching. >> Awesome. >> So, lots of that. I've got seven in check-in, checkout right now, and I start to collect them at about this time of the year. So, >> I love the goal setting. That's awesome. I think it's really helpful for them. >> Yeah. And then the reward is uh is usually a not a not an item, but like time with a friend or time with a teacher or a special person in the building. >> Yeah. Those are the kind of things that like I like to hear about cuz perhaps that can be replicated in other buildings. You know what I mean? >> Yeah. And every building pretty much does the same thing. >> Sweet. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Any other >> I um Sorry, >> we got a couple. >> Yeah, just >> we're going to try to be mindful of >> Yeah, of course. Um just on the middle school, I I noticed that it looks like 2025 is quite high compared to the prior couple of years. And I know you mentioned maybe that's just more reporting, but um I know we've also like put several initiatives in place, a PBIS, we have GPS, we have the cell phone policy that we put in place and um you know we added staff of course to help address some of this. So what are how are we kind of measuring those changes or like is there any explanation for why we were seeing the increase in the middle school do you feel like? >> Sure. And I think that's also something that we were a little um perplexed by as well. And I think that's just that's an ongoing conversation with Dr. Zush because our >> prior to coming here, the data that we're looking at for this school year is actually showing a decrease >> um from what we saw in a previous year. So we just want to have a more of an open discussion on that. And that's just something that we're going to see is maybe there's something we're looking at that's wrong, right, that we want to look at. But I think we've also, you know, tried to put in a lot of different like similar systems, right, to kind of what you heard from the elementary school as well to be supporting kids. But yeah, we're actually, we kind of from what I'm seeing, it looked like, you know, 20, what would that be? 23 24 we kind of started to see >> it was here. We saw a spike last school year and this school year from what we're seeing is kind of going down right now. >> Okay. Yeah, it looks like it definitely has gone up this fall. So um and then like related to that like are there any you know I have middle schooler so I hear a lot about this age but I think a lot of what I hear is a lot of the issues on the technology that we have. Um do you see a lot of that or are there improvements that we can make on like our iPads that our kids have and trying to keep them focused in the classroom. It's an ongoing battle, right? >> Because I think it's it is it's an ongoing battle because it's a teachable moment, right? We see that with our kids, right? Where especially on the iPads and different things that we're seeing whether they're, you know, playing a game during class that they're having access that they're they find a way around to, right? Or whether they are deciding to message their friend and their Gmail account, right? Oftentimes innocent things, right? We're trying to have those conversations, have those teachable moments with kids. um often encourage staff to start with that and then sometimes if it becomes too much it trickles up to our level and we have those conversations with kids have those conversations with families. Um, we also have additional systems that we can put restrictions on those iPads. And so we do I know in at Twin Oaks I have a handful of kids right now who have just had a number of violations, right? Where they need that extra support to be able to say, "Okay, this is a struggle for you to focus right now." So we have a code on there that only teachers and the adults have access to to let them into that. And we don't say that that's for the rest of the year. We put a time limit on it, right? We earn it back. We say, "Okay, for the next four weeks, you need to show us that you can follow these expectations. There's some responsibility you have, and after that period of time, and you've shown us, hey, you can earn this back. We'll try it again." Um, and so I in terms of other things that the board can do, I don't necessarily know of other systems or things off the top of my head, but I think it's a very age appropriate, developmentally appropriate thing, right? Whether it is uh doing it on your iPad, whether it's passing notes like I did in school, right, to the back of like the bus, right? Those are those are age appropriate things. So, we just continue to work through those challenges. >> Yeah. I I was like even specifically thinking, are there policy changes around like the lunch period, not having iPads at the lunch table or things like that that would be helpful? I don't know. >> Yeah, those are things we could definitely look at. I would say anecdotally since we really put the the cell phone policy in place last year, we have noticed a huge just increase in the chatter in the lunchroom, the talking in the lunchroom. Yes, there are students who are on their iPads, but I would say it's not the majority. It's probably less than 10%. Um, and for some of those students, that's their >> their recharge time, right? That's the way that they recharge. And so I've enjoyed the flexibility of it, but I also enjoy the >> the chatter and the positivity in the lunchroom. It's a really good thing. >> That's really good to hear. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> I just wanted to say thank you. Um first of all, I'm sure that you know the documentation and stuff like that and the breakdown of the data. Um the granularity of it and the more conciseness of it as you guys get used to the system is really going to help >> and I appreciate the effort that uh everyone has made. kindergarten through high school and putting the system together and I'm sure it's going to get tweaked over time as you see things and as you include things, but that's what's going to happen. So, I appreciate it. >> Yeah, absolutely. And just to kind of to comment too on what you were saying about data, we review this monthly with a team of teachers, our PBIS team. Um, and I know, you know, Rachel, we're we've started at Twin, but I had a little bit of a head start. We have a student leadership team. Um, so I actually bring some of this data in a very small format, right, to students to get their feedback as well on what are you seeing out there? Does like your experience match what the data is showing? And then what are ideas that they have to kind of help um both engage with students and review those expectations, but also to incentivize the positive things, the reteing of the behavior that we want to see. Um, right now the kids are turning in their Pride tickets to dye my hair a color the first week of uh March. So, we do all sorts of things, right, to try to get those positive behaviors. >> Thank you so much. >> I think that's a Laker pride. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Thank you for everything you do. You guys have tough jobs, so thank you. >> Thank you for being late, too. We realize it's late. >> Yeah. Thank you so much for this conversation. And I think um it it's you know both behavior and attendance are such a um community um metric and it's something we can all work together on. So, um I am grateful that we went into this data coding project because I've gotten to know um the whole system a lot better and um I appreciate the offer to come back with um any sort of you know policy or procedure change that um the deans and principles think would be beneficial to their sites. Um so I can commit to that. Um yes, I do think we'll have some changes over time. I um I've kind of put into place we don't change things mid year. So we'll do a review at the end of this year and then possibly make some modifications over the summer. Um but just for the sake of some sanity um we're just kind of keeping them all the same um this year and then doing an end of year review and then we may um have some tweaks again. But um I think having um this um conversation and partnership is really important um to to all this data. So thank you so much for staying late. I know you guys have to go to bed. >> Um >> thank you. >> Okay. So >> thank you. Let's get >> All right. Well, it looks like next step is adjourning. We are going to um I'm actually Is it not going to >> We have one more topic. >> 28. >> Is it where >> we jumped first to 20B? >> Jay-Z's ready to leave it. >> Thank you. >> Not even close. >> Attendance and behavior. What? >> Okay, I think this is the last item. >> Okay. Um, midyear data review. Um, this was um asked last year and this year as well. Um, last year I believe it came a little bit later. I I looked it up. I think the presentation was in March. Um, so this is very preliminary. We actually um we the data has probably changed slightly from when I pulled it till now because um we're still kind of making sure that all students have completed um that midyear uh fastbridge assessment. Um so I will just um kind of go to high level on um what it's looking like and then just a reminder for fastbridge data. Um the purpose of FastBridge is to give teachers and um schools and district level feedback on you know what's working pockets of success. Um so that's really the purpose of it. I think um you know it's what we have available to provide um to you all in terms of a mid-year update. Um but the use of it really is for that continuous improvement process at the site level. Um just repeating uh Dr. Thomas's data beliefs that we may not um get any answers from this but uh as we saw from the last um presentation it it it helps us have a good conversation. So um we will move on to um the purpose of fastbridge is to give a screener. It basically indicates whether a student um has a risk factor in um the main areas of math and reading. and we use it for a lot of different purposes. We look at whether interventions are working. We look at growth trends. We look at um you know individual classrooms where we're seeing really great outcomes and trying to figure out what might be going on um there. So it's it's a multiaceted um purpose to to per to giving fastbridge. Um I will talk um a little bit about the shifts that we saw this year of the requirements due to CAPD. We have a very heavy assessment year. So trying to um make some difficult decisions on how to adjust our assessment system kind of mid year in order to um provide necessary relief and then um knowing that we actually have to kind of rethink it all for next year. But I don't think that's a tonight problem. Um okay. So, one of the things we did um to to relieve some pressure this year was to um uh remove the requirement to do kindergarten, first grade um math data midyear. Um that's a one-on-one collected assessment. We had a very difficult time with it last year. Um we paid for a lot of subs. There was high illness. Um lots of different reasons. Um but that was um not collected this winter. So overall our A math which is the overall math uh screener in grades two two through nine um we saw a slight increase overall um of students who are at risk. So um if you remember the line basically indicates that um indicator between whether the student is at risk or not at risk. Um purple means that they're on track and pink means that we need to take a further look into what's going on with them. So, um, and then the the different, um, the darkest pink is the highest concern area, then lighter pink, then dark purple, then light purple. I don't make the um color choices, but so purple's good. Um, I just uh pulled uh the data by grade. So this is um on the left hand side of the chart you'll see the number of students that are screened out of the total number of students and the percentage screened. Um the the numbers in Fazbridge are not perfect. We it's um there might be students who you know are no longer attending. Um but but for the most part you can get a sense of um the percentage of students that we have screened. Um in second grade we saw um that increase there. Um and third grade stayed the same. uh fourth grade we saw that slight decrease um as well as fifth grade. Um just to look at previous year's data, we do typically see across the board a winter dip. Um and then oftentimes it rebounds in the spring. Um so that's a common trend that we've seen over the last um lots of years that we've had basically since we've had fast bridge. There tends to be a little bit of a winter dip. um in sixth and seventh. Um this is obviously at the middle school level now. Um a slight decrease in sixth and in seventh as well. And then um slightly less for 8th. And then um we chose not to um collect the data at 9th grade this year because of CAPD. Um for reading uh we did do the kindergarten first grade. Uh this is a requirement of the readact. Um so that that has to happen three times a year. Um so you can see in our early reading uh a slight increase. Um we have a number of teachers doing using pilot resources. Um but we wouldn't have any sort of indication. I don't I don't believe that putting that into place in the fall would immediately show an outcome um midyear. And then a slight decrease in grades 2 through eight. Um I just want to indicate that grade one um that low completion when I pul lower completion when I pulled it um was due to Lola has a whole another uh set of assessments um that they have to do in Spanish. Um so they were still finishing up the the English screener there. Um when I pulled the data and then that's second and third grade, fourth and fifth um sixth and seventh and then eighth and then again um we did not collect it in ninth grade because of um the the pressure of the CAPD assessment. Should I pause there? Any questions on FastBridge before we go to >> is there a reason the seventh grade reading percentage is quite low? Um part probably also partially because of >> yeah because of capy as well. Um that would probably be a factor there. >> Um I think as we as students get older too um you know there's >> you tell us an elementary student to take an assessment and they do it. Um I think as you get older it's it's it can be more challenging. Um so it's probably a combination of a number of reasons. could also be absences. >> Um I have a question >> for the sixth and seventh um middle school math um assessments. Are you doing fast bridge testing on any of the students who currently are opting out of CPM math? >> We are not. >> You're not. So this data would not be reflective of of their >> No. >> Do they How about MCAs? Do they take MCA scores? They do take MCAs but not FastBridge. >> Correct. >> Okay. Any other questions before she moves on? Okay. Um, CAPY is a new requirement that we had. Um, we kind of got late warning warning um of the requirement to to implement it this year. Uh I did do a more extensive presentation at the TAC committee this week. Um but just wanted to loop you all in a little bit on to what we have on our plates in terms of assessment this year and why you know we're seeing some of the stresses in our system in terms of assessment. Um so CAPR read basics is um you know similar administration to a fastbridge. It's an online um you know di it's an online assessment that students take on their devices. Um, it's called a diagnostic. Uh, we don't actually diagnose anything including dyslexia. So, I just want to be careful with that word, but that is technically what it's called as an assessment. Um, but really what it does is we take students that are not meeting at grade level and we use it to figure out what is that root cause of what's causing them that challenge in reading. Uh, so this is the one and only MBA approved screening tool. We had no, you know, other components of the read act. they had, you know, we could choose ABC or A or B. Um, this one is the only state approved um diagnostic for grades 4 through 12 um and was required to implement this year. Um, and it's given to any student who is not reading at grade level. And it's really to understand um what is the gap in their um foundational reading skills. And um so just to go um very high level, there's a lot of things that go on in a student's brain when they're reading or an adult's brain um but more so in a student's brain and their brain is developing. So when a student is reading, they have to know a lot about the technical part about decoding and the alphabetic principles, how different letters and um correspond to sounds, how phone names work together. So those are all kind of the technical um components of reading. But the other part of reading is you have to know a lot about the background knowledge. You have to understand vocabulary. you have to know how the structure of the English language works. And all of that gets woven together into your final um assessment of of whether a a student is at is at grade level or is a skilled reader. Um, so we know from our, you know, assessment data and other data whether a student really has that all woven together or if they don't, but we haven't had systematic data on understanding where that key gap is um at the individual student level of what they need to work on um in order to get to that that end result. Um really what we learn what we focus on is making sure that these bottom parts of the the rope um when we read we don't have to sound out every word because we have automaticity. That means we can automatically look at a word and I can see that this says Laker. Um I don't have to sound that out. So that allows your brain that is doing a lot of work during reading to really focus on the the content and the um the meaning of the words. So really that threshold is once students get to that automatic level they can really read fluently in order to learn information. What we want to make sure students um know how to do is be able to um have all those foundational skills really automatic. Uh for a lot of different reasons the student may not have that in place. Um it reading is not a natural human skill. It is something that has to be explicitly taught and we actually have to build pathways in our brains in order to do it. Um, so sometimes that works out um in the instruction we provide or the um the the reading that students do and sometimes they need something um a little bit more specific in order to help them. Um so when the students take CATI um they're basically we're untangling that rope a little bit and determining whether the root cause of their reading challenge has to do with um decoding vocabulary morphology. So that has to do with prefixes, suffixes and roots. sentence processing, reading efficiency and comprehension. Um, so every student that is not reading at grade level um has to be given this CAPY to understand what the root cause is for their reading challenge. Uh, when we did our data poll this fall, about 30% of our students in grades 4 through 12 were identified um based on my conversations with other districts. I think this is um about on par from what we're seeing from um colleagues um maybe not districts that have had you know explicit science of reading implemented already but um this is about what my colleagues are seeing as well. Um so when we pulled fourth and fifth grade we've already this year given um 331 students that assessment um in fourth and fifth grade and in middle school we've completed 545 assessments in grades 6 through 8 and then at the high school um again this was pulled on Wednesday uh I just looked at it I think it's closer to 600 now so we are making our way through this massive amounts of students who um need need to take this assessment. Uh we don't really know a ton about it and I don't believe anybody in Minnesota has used it. So the whole the whole state is on this learning curve on how to read the assessment data, how to make sense of it. Um we have a committee that's working on interpreting the data and coming up with next steps. Um and so it's it's a very new very um you know every day is kind of unfolding how we're implementing this and how we're looking at the data to uh figure out what it means and and building next steps. And the culmination at the end of this year is to uh modify our um local literacy plan in order to come up with specific plans on how to address the data that we saw um in this assessment. um parents did have the opportunity to opt out. We saw um much higher rates at um the high school than we did at middle school than we saw very few at the elementary. Um so this is just a little bit of context as to um why our assessment system is is pretty strained right now trying to get all of these um assessments complete um and figuring out what they mean. Board member comments, questions. >> Dr. Zumbush, thank you for this. I love how you said the components of CAPD, you're untangling the rope a little bit. I liked that analogy. Um, so when families and the district get kind of these results, if you will, of this diagnostic tool that shouldn't be diagnostic, are they going to say like student A really needs to work on number one and student number two, we're noticed we meaning the test notices that number six really is the issue or whatever. Again, not diagnostic, but >> is that kind of how results come through? Like it's kind of one of these six buckets. >> Yeah. And it's kind of um it kind of builds on itself. So, if a student has um trouble in one, they're not going to be able to receive and they they have a they have challenges in two through six also, we have to address number one because if they can't decode, they can't then, you know, figure out vocabulary from context. So it's a little bit building from the ground up. So we kind of identify the first area that is a concern um kind of more or less in this order. So if one is a challenge, we start with one. If one and two are fine and three is a challenge, then we would start there. >> And so in a sense, when all of these results Whoops, sorry. um when all of these results come through. So you could we could ideally give gosh I I just if something comes through and you're giving first of all let me back up. When are results expected again? I know I asked this last time and I can't remember the answer. >> That's complicated by by primary. >> So elementary elementary families are getting them at conferences. Okay. Um, we're still trying to figure out the best way to communicate it to secondary families because it's >> it's just complicated to give family reports. I I probably going to end up having emailing everybody. >> So, it Okay, so it's kind of like an email. It's not like we get in the mail or like through everybody gets their fast bridge and their MCAs and things like that. Like this is a little bit different. In terms of the delivery, >> I don't Yeah, I we're still working through that. FastBridge does get put into Infinite Campus and we've provided interpretation guides and I think it's been in our system long enough that families and teachers know how to walk families through um the reports and they can also speak to it. This is a little bit more challenging because um the secondary teachers have not even gone through redact training yet and don't have um so it's it's a bit of a challenge to figure out the best way to communicate to families. Um >> so that's kind of where I'm going actually you were reading my mind. So especially at like the secondary level right that hasn't received the readact training yet. This is being mandated correct. you have to do this screener and I'm a fan of data. I think we all are a fan of data like every piece of data is helpful but okay so say you're a eighth grade teacher who okay now you've have these results say what what can you do with that and and this is I think more of a question for the for the state I suppose >> but it's just kind of like how are we supposed to a analyze this data and if I'm a teacher okay well I've got three students of the I don't know 10 in my in my English class that took the CAPY test. >> Um I've got, you know, two that really need to work on number one. I've got three that really, you know, five and up. >> Yeah. >> How as a teacher am I supposed to >> customize I guess this is rhetorical. >> How am I supposed to customize my teaching when this could potentially be any different way? It's kind of like throwing jello- at a wall >> to kind of see what sticks. Do you know what I mean? I guess it's rhetorical, but I mean, >> I think part of the answer is I I don't know. I'm not sure anyone in any district knows entirely at this point. Um, the other thing I would say is that there's a number of students that already have something in place like an IEP or um, they might be receiving receiving some type of intervention, in which case this information would be used to make sure that we're hitting the right root cause in that um, service that they're already receiving. So that would be one thing that's immediately actionable is we can take that and make sure that the frequency and the type of intervention they're receiving is exactly targeted to what we needed to. Um in terms of the students that are left that haven't, you know, necessarily been identified um and starting in fourth grade, we don't have we don't have fourth and fifth grade reading interventionist. We don't we have one reading interventionist for both middle schools. So we don't have a lot of um structural support in order to provide those services. So it is a little very challenging because um there's no other location um in order to do that. The other thing I'll say is our middle school and high school have started um crosscurricular teams to figure out what this means and how to start working on addressing it. It's a little bit of a grassroots process on who's ready to start having these conversations. Um, but we do have that component going. Um, and the other component that I think is important is we're revisiting the structure of our schedule to make sure that whatever we put into place down the line has the right um, structure in our day in order to be able to um, to make sure that this can be addressed. But I think overall um you know while we're doing some of those things I think the question of what is a you know average 7th grade teacher going to be able to do with this I I don't think a lot at this point >> and I and I guess too my last comment which is kind of rhetorical too is when we say you know this is diagnostic we can't diagnose dyslexia I'm worried that there's going to be some results that come in and Again, we haven't seen what results look like. >> Um, you know, if I'm a ninth grade parent and my kids CAPD results come back, it says, "Your your child is showing characteristics of dyslexia." And I'm thinking, "Well, holy cow, what do I do? Like, my kid's already in ninth grade. I I fear I fear there's going to be some preemptive fear and not and there already is. I've talked to tons of parents that are already having those because we did have to inform parents that this was coming. >> Um, so I've talked to an extensive amount of parents that have had that exact concern. Um, and I don't you I don't know that I I think, >> you know, the messaging has and I have a six-page FAQ from families. If you want to see the all of the questions that are being asked and how they're being answered, we have that um resource. But I think um we have more questions and answers for sure. >> Yeah. Thank you. This is interesting. Yeah. >> And I just thank you for asking those because I I had this similar question on just like how parents were notified in reporting but even in like the reporting are parents getting results back as a report or >> they will um they haven't yet. Fourth and fifth grade families will get it at conferences because fourth and fifth grade teachers have gone through read training. We were able to go to every elementary site and train them on what does this mean? What does the family report look like? How to have a conversation with families at conferences. We just don't have that same infrastructure at secondary right now. So, we're still working through the best way to get it to families and how to um but the our commitment is to get it back to families. We just don't we're still working through how exactly to do that at secondary. >> Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I was curious and even I would comment like on the fast bridge scores too like me reading this deck prompted me to go in to look for my kids because like you don't get a notification that that scores are done or when they're taking those tests. So I think if you know if there's a way we can better communicate that with families. It's >> fast scores have not been uploaded into Infinite Campus yet. We have to wait till they're all like the makeup window is totally complete. Um so then after that they will all be uploaded into Infinite Campus. Director France. >> Um, first of all, thank you. I know that we talked about this and there was a ton of questions in the teaching and learning committee about this too that basically the capy is pretty much putting the cart before the horse uh with where um with where we are with the read act and trying to understand how this all works. Um given the fact that other districts have had uh similar conclusions and I assume that with everything hitting so fast and um also assuming that this test was meant to get data sooner, not necessarily quality data at that. Um, is there any thing that we can do as a board to also try to talk to to legislators, especially in this policy season, about maybe waiting on something like this and actually understanding the impact and how it's supposed to be measured uh considering that it is happening concurrent to every other assessment. um as well as before the full roll roll out of the readact. Yeah, I think from me personally, just from overseeing assessment, it's been um challenging because the the timelines have changed multiple times even since um since July. It, you know, we had one thing in July, we had another thing in October, then we had another communication. And I think the challenge is we already had our fastbridge, our contracts are due July 1st. We already had all of our contracts in place. we already had are we we can't really you know we're not able to make really quick adjustments like that because there's so many many interdependencies. We can't just pull fast bridge away because so much of it so much of our system for intervention for special ed is reliant on that. Um so it just takes a really long time and a lot of conversations in order to understand all of these mo moving parts. Um, so I would say with the readact generally, I don't really get to have these types of opinion very often, but I would say with the read generally, um, I think there's been changes that have made been made based on how it's been rolled out. I think what would be really really great is if we have a firm decision on what we're doing um significantly before the end of like the start of the new fiscal year because um it's just really hard to make these midcourse corrections um as we go. So um more time to be able to plan all of this out would be probably my number one thing. But yes, I I don't think we can go backwards in terms of the cart before the horse. I mean it's here and um you know everyone's doing it. So I think there will be feedback from my professional group about how this all worked and how to try and um you know I think I have a concern about just the assessment strain on our students right now. Um you know >> thing too they're getting tested >> the number of assessments that our students are having to sit through especially at you know grades five and eight. Um, I think I personally think it's too much. So, how do we um really dial back into what we really need for actionable data versus um you know, we're I just don't I don't like testing for testing sake and there's a lot of students that did have to spend a lot of time on this. Um >> Okay. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> So, just one question for you. Oh, did you go ahead? >> I'll go after you. >> All right. Thanks. Um, so you said this kind of came up all of a sudden. >> Yeah. >> Am I paraphrasing you correctly? >> Um, it didn't come up all of a sudden. The um specifics of what was required and when changed a few times over the summer and in the fall. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> And the timing of it all. Can you kind of explain how that happened? because it all sounds like everything that you just said to director France's question like sounds wrong right not wrong right but the implementation of everything right the way it's all being done the fact that we have teachers who like aren't even fully trained on the read act right but now the state is asking us >> to implement something that clearly should not be implemented. Yes, you might have the correct intention, >> but if we can't do anything about it and it just seems like you're just causing us more work. Kind of like unfunded mandates, >> right? That's pretty much what it is, right? It's just another unfunded mandate you're going to throw at us. >> Am I getting all of that correct? I'm just trying to make sure that I'm >> and I would say the funding the cost is time of instruction. >> Yes. Yes. Again. Right. Same thing. >> Well, and we had to buy the >> county. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> All right. I just want to make sure I was I was interpreting all of that correctly to >> if I were to fully get it >> guess. I think they want I I think they want um a sense across the state of what does it what does our landscape look like for 12? Um, which I understand their rationale for wanting that. I'm not sure that it was fully fleshed out exactly what that would mean for districts and communicating with families. >> Got it. All right. >> That's my personal opinion. >> No, I completely agree with you. Thank you. >> Um, I just wanted to add a couple things. Um I did have the pleasure of attending as an observer the teaching and learning committee and a couple of things that came out of there that I haven't heard um talked about this evening in regard to the CAPY presentation is um you know as we continue to are we're strained with resources um one of the members of that committee made the comment about as we're finding out these results and communicating with parents what do we do with them? It's kind of the same, you know, the same question. I personally think it's great. I I don't like a lot of assessments either, but I think it's I think this is necessary for our older kids especially because we have older kids who've been on iPads and phones for the last, you know, how many years and they can't they simply can't read, right? And so I think I I I understand the reasoning behind it, but now what do you do with it? Right? And so my challenge to the district is this might be a perfect opportunity to engage our community partnerships as it relates to our strategic plan. And um this community member said why don't we work with why don't we have parent volunteers come in and um you know work with our parents work with our communities to come in and and what do you do with this data? How do you support the kids? Um, and if it's whatever it is, sitting with them, I mean, I I I won't get into more details, but but I think we as like data is great, but now what, right? I mean, and identifying these kids and what do you do about it? I think I mean, you have to have a plan. That's what that's I guess the whole point of it. Um, the other thing that I think is really challenging, um, is that this is not being started until fourth grade, but correct me if I'm wrong, our fourth grade teachers aren't even not even teaching phonics, right? They're past the teaching phonics, right? Because it's only K through third is my understanding. So, I find the timing of it test starting in fourth grade to be very interesting because the kids are really learning how to read in kindergarten through third grade is my understanding. >> So, >> yeah. And that's and that was also discussed at the TAC as to why >> that came up. >> You probably missed that but yeah. >> No, no, I didn't miss it. I was there. I was I paid attention. Um I'm just that that challenge was brought up like why are we not doing this you know right >> so that night on that question that night when that question came up at the TAC um the K3 is where that foundational instruction starts. So the reason why it starts at fourth is because now we want to assess did the K3 foundation set, >> right? >> So we wouldn't test it while they're actually learning it because we know that they're in the process of learning. So that would invalidate the assessment. >> So fourth grade is where we start this assessment um to to now assess those early foundational years of K3. >> Yeah. And I would say the the fourth and fifth grade teachers um through the redact training and through um you know the pilot resources are learning this um may not have learned it necessarily in teacher prep but um know that now as a fourth even sixth 7th ninth tth grade teacher we all need to understand the foundational reading skills and how to teach those. Um so I think that's uh a learning across the entire state is that um you know we want to put as many processes and procedures in po in place as possible to prevent that from happening after third grade. But knowing that every teacher now needs and and probably parent as well needs to understand what this looks like um across the board because it is everyone's job um to to look to help students through some of these things. Um, so that's a that's a shift, that's a mindset shift, that's a cultural shift, that's a um systems shift across our whole state that now we're thinking about every teacher as a reading teacher regardless of age or content area. Um, so that's part of the um the shift that needs to happen, >> right? And reading being so foundational to other subjects. Um, understand that completely. There was one other thing that was brought up in the TNL meeting. Um, I believe one of the admin in the that was in attendance also mentioned how they may be not doing some other assessments to to to take away that assessment load. Um, could you elaborate on that as well if that's happening across district or >> Yeah, I I tried to allude to it a little bit in the Fazbridge. Um, but we did um remove that really timeintensive um K1 math um screener for the winter because of that. Basically, I I went to all of the sites and said, "This is the reality of where we're at. How how would we like to proceed um as a as a team and how do we want to think about assessment and what do we need?" And um so it's been iterative, but um the biggest the biggest shift I would say for all of this is at the high school level. I don't know that there's any high school anywhere that has a comprehensive screener in every single grade. like that's a that's a new um there might be some I I don't know for sure but it's it's a shift and I've heard that from my colleagues as well that very few high schools have this in place and so that was the reason why um I pulled back on the 9th grade fastbridge for um winter was because this was a huge lift for all of the sites but in particular um the high school and then um at the middle school we really focused on making sure we had that math um midyear here because of the um resources and because of the teachers wanting to make sure we're implementing with fidelity. Um and that's probably why you saw some lower rates at English as well because or yeah for the um reading fastbridge is because we made it clear that the CAPY and the math fastbridge in the winter was the priority. Um but um we're also t now in discussion on how does this look at the end of year um because fast at the end of year is already tricky and now you know it's just an we're we're racking up the hours and assessments. >> Right. Understood. Thank you. I appreciate you sharing that. one final kind of thought if I know it's late um but I I was just thinking like you know pro I would speculate a large number of the students that are taking these are probably already on IEPs or have some form of supports in place. I know there's a lot of reading supports throughout the district or whatever else is there like I guess speaking as a parent of someone I if I get this report back it's going to be like okay already knew that we're already doing a million different things right so I guess if I was going to offer some advice like to prioritize students that maybe aren't getting the services already that you know maybe haven't yet been identified to provide those results first or maybe perhaps including the report as part of IEP meetings or you know through some channels that they already have, right? To make that easier. >> Yeah, I thank you for that. Um, we are working very closely with special ed. They've had um a very heavy hand in all of this. Um, so we are working with them to really think about the IEP component. I wouldn't say, well, I don't know the number off the top of my head, but there are quite a few students who um are not on IEPs. So, um I I do think that is a um and and like I said before, our special ed staff is are kind of the one staff that are trained all the way through 12th grade. Um so to be able to make quick adjustments um or just make sure that our IEPs are hitting the right thing is I guess the lowhanging fruit of all of this. um providing additional structures for students that you know don't have any sort of structure for support is definitely the bigger lift with all of this. >> Sure. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Um yes, I just I wanted to make a clarifying statement. Um you know how sometimes you say things and then you sit in it and you think that's not how I intended to say something? I I didn't mean to perhaps say uh to say that if something comes back with dyslexia that there's a fear there. There's nothing to be scared of. So, I just wanted to clarify. I I did not mean it perhaps the way it came out. So, just been sitting in that for the last five minutes. So, I just and I actually think >> needed to clarify that. >> I actually think MDE is moving away from their verbiage about characteristics of dyslexia because it's confusing and we're not diagnosing dyslexia. So, I think they're actually moving away from that. Um, >> it really confusing more than fear. >> It's really it really has to do with like are we missing foundational skills. Um, so that's um really the way that I prefer to talk about it. Um, versus using something that we're not actually diagnosing. >> Correct. >> Well, thank you very much for all of that information. Um, thank you, Dr. Zimbush. And uh that concludes our study session portion of the meeting. I'm actually going to ask for a motion and a second to adjourn, even though we don't typically do that for study session, and transition into closed meeting in accordance with the open meeting law, Minnesota statute 13D.05, pursuant to discussion of the superintendent midyear evaluation. >> Second. Um, and I will take the roll call vote. Director Smith, >> did you open or just close? >> I'm just following this. >> Okay, we're closing a meeting we didn't open. >> It's been open. >> Oh, no. We >> We're just >> We adjourned our business meeting going into a study session. >> Mary, do you want to do this? >> No. No. Martha, I would ask her. >> You have to read the >> I read it. >> Okay. Okay. >> I had I have to read this for going into close session. So, >> are we good? >> We're good. >> We have a motion in a second. >> We have a motion and a second. And so, I will take a roll call. Director Smith. This is >> This is to go into close session. I >> Yep. >> Director France. >> I Director Olsen. >> Hi, >> Director Mason. >> Hi, >> Director Johnson. Hi, >> Director Atinson. >> Hi. >> Thank you. That we meeting is closed at 10:10. >> We will