[0:28] e [0:58] e [1:28] e [1:58] e e [2:55] we're going to call this meeting to order roll call Dr gersich here Dr hacker here [3:04] Dr kelzenberg here Dr laow here Dr Parker here Dr cander here CH Sherman [3:10] here you have a quum great let's stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge Al to the flag of [3:17] the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation [3:24] under God indivisible withy and justice for all [3:31] all right we'll move on to the approval of tonight's agenda is there a motion to [3:37] approve great director thelander with the motion is there a second second okay director lower with the second all those [3:43] in favor of approving tonight's agenda raise your hand and say I I opposed motion passes and we'll move on [3:51] to the consent agenda with our um payment of invoices I will go ahead and [3:57] make a motion to approve tonight's consent can I get a second second I'll second great Sarah with the second and [4:02] all those in favor of approving tonight's consent raise your hand and say I I I opposed consent agenda passes [4:10] under strategic Direction a ensure the learning process is adaptable to meet individual student needs we have two [4:17] reports this evening the first one is the ruford elementary building update and we're going to recommend or welcome [4:24] Heather here to highlight a little bit about Rutherford yeah come on up come on [4:31] up welcome Heather I'm happy to be here I haven't [4:37] met all of you but it's an honor and a pleasure to be here tonight and to talk about ruford so thank you for having [4:45] me um just to tell you maybe a little bit about myself some of you know me and some of you maybe um don't know me as [4:52] well but I've been in the school district for 23 years as an elementary principal I started my career out at [4:58] Stonebridge Elementary for 9 and after serving that amazing Community I moved over to Rutherford and I've been at [5:04] Rutherford for 14 years and been very blessed to be a Still Water [5:13] Pony um just to show you a little bit about our demographics with our school in comparison to the school district our [5:20] free and reduced lunch population is at 16% our ml multilingual Learners are at [5:26] 2.4% our special education is at 16.7% and then our children of color are [5:33] at 15.4% our total enrollment this year is 573 and that is K through five and we [5:41] have a capacity of 675 students at [5:47] retherford um just some some of our strengths and challenges I'm going to have an opportunity to share some things [5:54] about our staff our open learning environment our PTA our DCd cluster [5:59] programming our tier two and three swim process as well as some challenges and opportunity with our student achievement [6:05] time for collaboration space and systems for our social emotional [6:11] Learners I thought it would be kind of fun just to get uh a pulse on how many years of experience combined do we have [6:18] at Rutherford with our Educators and so I I surveyed our staff and for our [6:23] certified teachers we have a combined experience in education of 874 years I just a few teachers so that [6:31] number would increase and then our support staff which includes our pair professionals our office staff our [6:36] custodial team and our lunchroom staff is 248 years of combined experience and [6:42] education and then I just wanted to see how long have people been at rord and we have 26 staff that have been at [6:48] Rutherford 10 plus years and we have 19 staff that have been at Rutherford five plus [6:54] years and if um how many of you have had an opportunity to spend any time I'm at [7:01] rord great so as you know it's an open learning environment and one of the things that I think is is a strength for [7:08] us when I give a tour to our incoming families have been doing some of that for our incoming kindergarten families I [7:15] tell them that the biggest difference between Rutherford Elementary and Stonebridge into in comparison to some [7:21] of our other elementaries is the bricks and mortar everything else is going to be the same the state standards the [7:26] resources materials professional development minutes of instruction and how we are structured is that we have [7:33] five houses four of our houses are a little bit larger and we can have up to six learning spaces within those houses [7:40] and then our smallest house which is our greenhous has four spaces and this year [7:45] we have um four sections in every grade except for kindergarten we have five [7:51] sections in K and we have flexible learning spaces which is really great so [7:56] kids kind of move fluidly within their classrooms we um it's it's you're not going to see a Trad traditional [8:02] environment where you have Duss in a row although albeit I'm sure a lot of our elementaries you wouldn't see that there [8:07] either and so they have opportunity to be at like high tables low tables sitting on the floor our PTA has [8:13] sponsored a lot of grants that are staff have written around flexible seating within the classroom which has been [8:19] really great too because sometimes kids just need a wobble chair something a little bit different than um you know to [8:24] help help them stay engaged collaboration between teachers is also a high strength for us when you have a [8:31] grade level that is housed within the same house they have many opportunities to be together without throughout the [8:37] work day before school after school um if they have the common prep then they're together during that time if [8:43] they are in the same house they often have their dkks in a pod so they really are together a lot and another um [8:50] strength my own personal experience as a classroom teacher I was in a self-contained environment and I often [8:55] felt isolated there is definitely no isolation that is felt they're able to see what each other is doing which can [9:02] spark some really rich conversations hey I noticed you had this up in your classroom or you were doing this with [9:08] one of your your students can you tell me more about that so some of those pieces are really strong pieces for [9:14] ruer can I ask a quick clarification absolutely question um in with your houses are they divided up by grade [9:21] level all in one house or is it multi-g grades in a house that's a great question some of the houses have only [9:26] one grade level but most of them have more than one one grade level so right now the greenhouse only has kindergarten [9:33] but but like the all all the other ones have more than one grade level so our Blu house has all of our first grade friends but also has two sections of [9:41] preschool okay thanks yeah of course PTA who doesn't love their ptas I can tell [9:48] you that we are in a great learning environment because of our PTA we have a very strong PTA that helps us to engage [9:55] our our community this year if you haven't had a chance I would highly recommend maybe when the weather is [10:01] nicer to come and see the new playgrounds so in conjunction with our school district our PTA really was [10:07] instrumental in putting our playgrounds in place we have two brand new playgrounds that opened up this fall [10:13] they're amazing and the kids had um an active voice they were able to help pick out a standalone piece of equipment as [10:21] well as choosing the color and if you don't know it they are Pony colors so I think we have the only playground that [10:28] is um Pony colors and it's it's quite lovely they purchased 10 maker space [10:34] carts which are carts that are mobile they can check them out anywhere from Lego carts to connects to magne tiles [10:41] also with some cating they have Bots probots we have our Dash and dots so teachers can check those carts out bring [10:47] them right into their learning um environments not to Sur plant education [10:53] or or things that are doing but just to more reinforce and to enhance what's happening in the classroom they've done [10:58] a lot of grants for our classrooms they have Ashlin Productions that is up this year which is a theater program that is [11:05] happening before school and then just all of the back to school type things they do the back to school bash which [11:11] happens three weeks after the start of our school some of you were able to join us they usually do like jumpy houses and [11:17] then they have our food trucks it's a great way for parents to engage and get to meet each other outside of school and [11:23] for kids to have fun we have our monthly PT meetings we've had Bingo we do a month we do a mve Groove that happens in [11:30] the fall and we just concluded our adult night which was formerly known as wishes [11:35] that was really successful lots of fun to be able to watch I think we had 30 um [11:41] staff members that attended this year and then I think we had about 140 total people and that was a a great way and [11:48] they really did a lot of work um Kate Berg who is our PTA president has done a [11:54] lot of surveying families and staff to really try to be more inclusive and so they look lowered the cost for family [12:00] staff were free so I think it really made it a much more attainable um event for families to [12:09] attend our DCd cluster program if you're not familiar with that at El at um rord [12:15] Elementary we have the DCd cluster program which is developmental cognitive delay we house 18 students K through [12:22] five they are students that come to us through US throughout all elementary schools we have two full-time DCd [12:30] cluster teachers as well as as five pair professionals who help support that program it is very individualized and [12:37] very focused on strength based it's one of my favorite places to go and visit and a couple of their unique [12:43] opportunities is they've done a business are you hungry they surveyed staff and they run it like a business they learn [12:50] accounting they learn some functional skills that they can apply in the real world they it's it's housed it's just [12:56] for staff it's housed out of our staff Lounge and they have a lot of ownership and pride in it and they Market it they [13:03] you know do the accounting and they order all of the food and it's it's like bubbly water granola bars snack type [13:12] things for for our staff and then they do a an annual giving feast and they [13:17] also take a lot of ownership in that they invite people they help prepare the menu and help prepare the food and they [13:23] do some speaking in front of all of us and it's just a it's a really wonderful program and whenever we have a family [13:30] that this is not their home school there's some worry and trepidation about leaving their home school because they do exactly what we want them to do and [13:36] that's they're connected to their home school so when we look at a different program for maybe what's going to meet [13:42] their child's needs I will tell you they've all been very happy and they are [13:47] engulfed in this warmth and you know care for their child our tier 2 and tier three swim [13:56] process this is something that I I really feel proud of the work that our school district has done under Sky's [14:02] Direction and then our interventionist so our schoolwide Improvement meetings happen four times throughout the year [14:09] and it really look looks at our tier 2 and tier three intervention and so we look at our CBM fastbridge data and I [14:16] know you had an opportunity to look at that as a school district as a board and so we're really focusing in that to [14:21] coding and fluency and so students who qualify for a tier three or a tier two [14:27] four times a year we will sit down and we'll look at our data so every four to six weeks tier three is with our [14:33] interventionists and tier two happens right within the General Ed learning environment with our classroom teacher [14:39] and it happens during our wind time which is what I need and so we've really um done a lot of work in and around that [14:45] it's also going to be an area that I'll highlight as an area for us for growth and opportunity and so the the [14:52] wellestablished team in case you're not familiar is our community connects team and that is our interventionists our [14:58] school psych our social soci worker myself sometimes our Green Room par and then we have a special ed staff member [15:03] too and we also meet with um classroom teachers for individual student needs as well and so a big celebration for us [15:10] from fall to winter was that 37% of our students who were qualifying for a tier 2 intervention within their classroom [15:17] move to tier one which is what all kids are kind of getting and receiving so it was a a big celebration for us can I [15:24] just ask and so this community connect team is that sort of your version of bar [15:30] what maybe other schools would have as bar or we renamed it so it's our mtss and I think we renamed it in order to [15:37] kind of align with what's happening in bar and then preparing us for some of that if we to became a bar school so [15:43] it's a little bit different because I know they have like a big group and a small team that so we don't have some of that vertical piece to it okay but yeah [15:50] and then actually um I'm glad you said that we've included two General Ed classroom teachers on this team too so [15:56] they're also a part of that that's that's a new piece that we added this year great thank you yeah oh yes Andrew [16:03] and um I don't have any um kind of a benchmark for the tier two to tier one but 37% seems like that's a pretty yeah [16:11] we were very very I mean if you look at our um the CBM data which is our um [16:17] within like second grade through fifth grade we have seen you know I'm sure you've heard the shrink the pink and [16:23] grow the purple that's that's the what we're seeing in those areas which has been a a big success and then as far as [16:30] like kids who are in tier three that's 15% or lower and then that 16 to 39% are [16:35] kids that would qualify for that tier 2 intervention within their within their [16:41] classroom student achievement this is looking at our MCAS and you can see in [16:46] 2019 both reading and math we were in that 75 percentile range around [16:51] Proficiency in grades 345 then covid hit and when we we tested we went down [16:57] fairly significantly ly and so we've been slowly trying to climb out of that most significantly looking at the area [17:04] of reading which is going to then lead me into some of our areas for opportunity and growth um if you look at [17:12] 61% of our MCA this last year was at the proficiency level three four and five [17:17] but one of the things that we've noticed even most recently looking at our fastbridge data is in that tier one [17:23] which ties into the a reading we're seeing that some of our kids in the up upper grades are declining and so we [17:30] know that that there's some gaps in our curriculum that's not supporting that and I'm super excited that we're going [17:36] to be addressing some of those needs as a school district we've also then in looking at that tier one instruction [17:42] which is more in that reading comprehension we looked at some targeted professional development so last year we [17:47] did that and and this year we did too for grades four and five and this year our full-time reading interventionist [17:53] help plan that for our grade level teachers to look at some small group instruction within the J and learning [17:59] environment around reading comprehension and I think some of the letters training has also been very pivotal and helpful [18:05] we were able to pull some of that to better help some of those classroom teachers and then when which is what I [18:12] need it's really been a three-year Journey from for us year three was a little rocky we kind of added it into [18:18] our calendar at the last minute so it probably wasn't the best time where kids would get that that need and basically [18:25] what it's supposed to be for all kids to have like what they really need at that moment and for our kids who are in tier [18:31] three and tier two they are getting some of that that's when those needs are being met with with what the teachers [18:36] are teaching and so year two along with year one we really worked on that tier [18:42] two and helping to support teachers on what it is they need to be doing with those kids with those targeted reading [18:48] goals in the area again of decoding influency and then what this year what [18:53] we've done is we we really talked at the beginning of the year what is when and what is it not it's not a homework [18:58] completion it it's not meant for that so we're really also then trying to focus a little bit on what are some of the other [19:05] kids needing outside of that tier two and three and so our we targeted three four and five with read Theory this year [19:12] and that's really that 40 to 59th percentile the jury's still out on whether or not that's made a good impact [19:18] but it's something that we want to continually take a look at and all teachers are really engaged in this work [19:24] so that's been really powerful and helpful and so I think we're we're we're building on everything that we're doing [19:29] year Frome and really trying to make that time count for all kids and I can [19:35] see where it' be a a great opportunity to also build in some of that GT [19:40] opportunity time for collaboration that's probably um for all buildings uh an area for an opportunity and I've [19:48] mentioned before so when you have a team of four you can't have the same prep time you either have a a group of three [19:54] and then one's on their own or you have a two and two so there isn't a Time for all teachers to be together during that [20:01] prep time they would have a different prep block and then again based on where the house structure where they're where [20:07] they're located sometimes it lends itself a little bit easier to be able to have some of those conversations before [20:13] after school which there's also meetings before and after school that so that might take away one of your teammates so [20:19] it's a little bit hard for us to have all of our grade levels together at once and in order to do some of that really [20:25] rich collaboration we find it wherever we can so not without that but it's just [20:30] a harder thing for us and it's something that we're continually looking at where can we build that into the day for them [20:35] to connect so I've talked a little bit [20:42] about our house configurations and how that is an area of of strength for us it's also an opport opportunity if you [20:48] look at our five houses one of the things that is different between a more traditional environment when I was a [20:54] classroom teacher I didn't move for five years I stayed as a kindergarten teacher in that classroom but in an open [21:00] environment and you asked that really good question like all all grade levels do they have their own house or are [21:05] there multi-graded so because of that we do have to have movement so if there's a team of three we try really hard to have [21:13] them in the same house so they have more opportunity for collaboration if it's two and two you we might have to split [21:18] you so what that means is that there's movement for teachers and we do try to minimize that but there is movement and [21:25] I think it's a little bit different than a more traditional environment there's probably less opportunity for movement [21:31] and then with the fluctuation of Staffing also right now our fourth and fifth grade departmentalized so we take [21:36] that in consideration that with their scheduling that kids might need to move and is that going how's that going to [21:42] look if they're not in the same house and then how can we optimize that if they do if they aren't in the same house [21:48] and then that middle space that I talked about at when they can have up to six classrooms within a house the middle [21:55] space is just a bit tricky because all the other classes surround it and so that we try to avoid that if all [22:02] possible right now we have two houses at that middle space is not being used and then we have two houses that it is but [22:08] it's also our our younger Learners so there's not as many kids within a classroom so we take all those things [22:13] into consideration and some of the ways that we've kind of addressed that is we've created a system for space that is [22:19] communicated to all so my operations and safety team are the team that helps us look at space and then we communicate [22:26] how we do this to all all of the staff members so that they all know what's going to happen and they there's nothing [22:32] that's a surprise everyone can put space plans together and they can filter it through that if they have some ideas and [22:39] recommendations and then this that Operation Safety team is the one that makes the final decision on what that's [22:45] going to look like they've also created house guidelines that then once you're within a house these are some guidelines [22:51] on how you can work together and be most effective and there are times in the day where you might need to do something a [22:58] bit l and you're going to plan it when the other grade level is out at lunch in recess or at a special and so there's a [23:04] lot of that communication that needs to happen so it's a little bit of a family within a house and then um I also [23:10] support teams within a house so if there's a little bit we're not quite sure where we're going to land if they need some help and guidance I'm happy to [23:16] step step in and help them as well and then with this big beautiful open learning environments which we love it's [23:23] shared learning spaces so along that comes some obstacles around voice level so we've created created a system if [23:29] you've been at Rutherford you may or may not have noticed some different colored Flags in round that's a visual for kids [23:35] to know what voice level so the teachers go over this with the kids throughout the school year at the beginning of the [23:41] year they lean into that responsive classroom interactive modeling to practice practice practice and then we [23:46] dip back in whenever we need to and this is a running agenda item on our operations and safety team just to kind [23:53] of see how are we doing is there any area we need to revisit the only are is because we know developmentally it's [24:00] it's not always appropriate for kids to be completely quiet it's hard for us as adults and so we we the only area that [24:06] we're really asking for them not to talk is in that suring line so that the lunchroom staff can hear them otherwise [24:12] it's a one and it's a whisper voice and so they can point up to the flag to give them a visual they can do the number one [24:19] to also give them a non-verbal and redirect like oh remember we're at an area because how our system works down [24:26] below is our media center so they get to hear lots of different noises and some is UN is not avoidable but as best we [24:33] can we we want to try to have the best learning environment for our kids um the systems foral so we as I [24:41] mentioned before we have a really strong system for academics which is that swim piece that we meet quarterly on but we [24:48] haven't really had an opportunity to build in the social emotional so last year we saw a little bit of mismatch [24:54] between our Green Room data and our health office data and then the reports that the staff were making in Sabers [25:01] which is going to measure kind of where kids are at and so we were like hm I wonder why that is and we teachers [25:08] intervene all the time throughout the day but I think there was a little bit of fear if I put something down and I so [25:15] basically the Sabers is going to tell you whether or not a child needs a tier two intervention or a tier three which [25:21] would be then done by our school psychologist and social worker so we decided to do a clear and reset who [25:26] doesn't need a good clear and reset so we did that in the fall and we um my between my my school psych and I we [25:33] presented Sabers what it means what it doesn't mean how we're going to help support you and then after that meeting [25:38] I went around to every grade level spent about 20 minutes with them to talk a little bit about it and then in our um [25:45] November swim we built in a second day so they basically had two hours they had [25:50] one for academics and they had one for social emotional and so then we were really as a team able to wrap support [25:57] around that teacher and then the other thing we're doing is coming up in March we're going to do kind of a part two with that and also [26:04] revisit and we just feel like there's continued work that needs to happen in around that because we know if our kids [26:09] are are feeling good they're going to be better Learners and we want them to feel great about being at school and to help [26:16] support and address any concerns they might have and we've also taken a look at as as our our building instructional [26:21] leadership team at that tier one second steps how are we still like are we still all in on it do we need some PD around [26:28] it Refreshers like how's that working and then do we or maybe we need to look at something different but that would be [26:34] a more of a district lens and then I think just in summary um [26:39] I'm I'm I like I said I feel very blessed I've spent 14 years and you know we're definitely not without our [26:45] opportunities for growth as any building but I do believe that we have very highly dedicated caring staff who deeply [26:52] care about her kids and want to wrap support around them in any opportunity as well as our families and we are [26:58] committed to that continuous Improvement not only for our kids but for ourselves as adult Learners and then we just have [27:04] amazing families and students that we have the privilege of working with every day so I thank you can I any questions [27:11] well thank you for sharing a little bit about Rutherford with us um open the floor to [27:16] questions I I had one actually where does your preschool fit into the housing [27:22] structure here like how many sections do you have in we have two okay we have two sections and when we first got them we [27:28] were a little bit like where are they going to go because if you know of anything like programming that's a [27:34] different program like our DCd cluster it's hard to kind of butt them up and so at the be for a few years we had them in [27:40] front of two houses right now they're both located in the blue house but I did [27:45] talk to our space team and I would like to find them a permanent spot so it's like our DCd cluster programming this is [27:52] just where they live I want preschool to like this is just where they live so that they don't have to continually kind [27:57] of like flow with us and so right now um we have one at the front of the house in [28:03] the blue house and she's been able to stay there and I'd like to keep her there and then find the other one is [28:08] right behind it and the hard part is we have five sections of kindergarten if [28:14] that does go to Five sections of first grade then I'm going to need that fifth space for a first grader that's the [28:20] conundrum that we we face so then I would have to move that preschool so I'm thinking somewhere in the front of the [28:26] house to find nice home for our preschool because they're very important and we want them to be a part of our [28:32] Learning Community but we also understand I was a former preschool teacher it's very different than even [28:38] kindergarten so we we want to make sure that they're not feeling like oh am I doing something wrong so we we want to [28:44] find them a a home to like live thank you so Rutherford of the seven [28:50] elementary schools I believe is probably the most open of them it's just a great big open space and I imagine a lot of [28:58] people like that teachers or students or the parents of those students is what's the feedback there are there people that [29:03] want to either open en roll because it's so open or want to get out of there because they don't like the open is there any stats like that I don't have [29:10] any statistics with that I mean I think actually Stone burdge was probably more [29:16] open than rord at one point because I know it looks very different now but when I was there when you would go down [29:22] into the colonies you could see all of them for the most part but the big difference with bre of [29:28] is you when you go into a house it's contained that house is contained so there might be five classrooms that are [29:36] somewhat open to each other and they have some natural partitions and some walls of course but I would say you know [29:42] like any teacher you have to engage your learners and you're going to have to redirect even in a self-contained [29:47] classroom I think you know most of my kindergarten tours I ask them right away [29:52] how many of you this is your oldest and I mostly have them say this is my oldest [29:57] how how many of you know something about ruford nothing so that's great then I know kind of where to start and I think [30:03] like anybody I always talk about our elementary schools and how they are all amazing and wonderful and you as a [30:09] parent know your child best and you have to determine what you think is going to be best for them once kids are in our environment this is what they know they [30:16] know this open environment the other thing I meant forgot to mention is that children who receive special education I [30:22] think a great thing for them is that there's a lot of easy in andout there isn't when I taught in a self-contained [30:27] environment if a teacher or my principal came in it was like everything stopped that doesn't happen at ruford so if a [30:34] kiddo needs to leave for speech and language or a special ed need or ml it's a pretty fluid system for them there [30:41] isn't lots of eyes on them so I just speak the truth that you know the I've been in open learning environments for [30:47] 23 years this has been my experience but again I would never put down any other [30:52] learning environment if that's what you feel is best for your child by all means that's what you should do and I don't I [30:59] don't I have more people on a wait list to try to get into Rutherford and kindergarten than I and not to say there [31:06] aren't some that are going to like you know that lake elmoo onos or a ly Lake I mean of course you're going to have some [31:12] of that for all of our schools thank you great [31:18] question great well thank you for sharing a little bit about roord with us I know um I think we've all raised our [31:24] hands that we've kind of been there before but it's um it's just nice nice to hear a little bit more about your community and what's going well and [31:30] what's a challenge for you so thank you very much thank you I appreciate all of you and the work that you do in supporting our our school district I [31:36] know it's not always an easy job so thank you very much thanks [31:43] other thank you so our next report is our elementary literacy curriculum [31:51] adoption proposal so an update from Caitlyn and sky [31:58] and apparently a few literacy commit love the support um you know [32:04] Heather actually teed that up really nicely for us and she didn't even know it um or maybe you did [32:11] thank uh so I feel like this has been a point of [32:17] conversation okay uh we've been talking about all fall which is we need a new [32:22] Elementary literacy curriculum so we have um wrapped up our curriculum review [32:28] process and we're here today to talk through what our recommendations will be and then in two weeks we'd be asking for [32:35] board action to approve the funds to purchase the recommended curriculum and [32:40] sky is smarter than me so she's gonna talk through some of the other components the more technical components [32:46] of this adoption or if you have really technical questions she's she's here to support us with those well thank you and [32:54] I am not smarter than you but I am very excited to be here because our committee has done incredible work to get us here [33:00] and it's an exciting time um so I wanted to open with a little very high level I [33:06] promise I'm not going to bring you all the way into the weeds but um because I think it's really important this is a [33:12] high level piece of the science of reading and so what you have here is um scar bro's rope and you will find this [33:19] on absolutely every marketing for every curriculum at this point because this is the big shift and so the main parts here [33:26] that we're looking at is up on the top you'll see the red colored strands and this is Rich content knowledge so you're [33:33] going to have that background knowledge your vocabulary this is where um like verbal reasoning and all of those pieces [33:39] that we typically think of when we think of a robust Ela curriculum come in and then on the bottom uh the blue parts we [33:46] have word recognition so that's that strong foundation in decoding and word knowledge and then the idea is you can [33:53] pull a rope apart but the tighter you make it and the thicker it becomes um the stronger it is so you become [33:59] increasingly strategic increasingly um uh accurate and you become a skilled [34:05] reader so what why this is important is because up until this point or up until [34:10] this switch over to the science of reading a lot of curriculums were just in the red and that's where we fell [34:17] before we adopted um so when you think of Lucy ckins like that's the red strand only that's not addressing any of the [34:23] blue strands and when you think of Letterland that's just the blue strands and none of the red strands and the [34:29] reason that I bring this up is because we are going to make a recommendation for more than one curriculum um which if [34:34] you didn't have this piece of it might be a little confusing of why don't you just pick one and so the reason for that [34:41] is because they do different things there we go so today in the blue [34:48] strands um we have two different areas so kindergarten through 2 grade that is going to be a a right so matching those [34:57] letters with the letter sounds and then blending them together to be like at makes cat so those very technical pieces [35:05] and that's going to ensure that our decoding and our fluency is really strong the new piece to this is that [35:11] although we don't teach phonics right now in fourth and fifth grade um what we have found is that we actually do need [35:17] to continue these blue strands third through fifth grade and even Beyond and what that looks like is no longer you [35:23] know a a but actually looking at our fluency our VOC vocabulary growth and [35:28] then the parts of speech so those prefixes suffixes roots and the um morphological or that meaning part of [35:35] our language which is exciting I'm having trouble here oh [35:41] there we go and then in our red area this is the more familiar piece so this is going to be your reading comprehension your vocabulary building [35:48] that background knowledge and then those writing skills as well any questions about the science [35:54] pieces before we get into our recommendations [35:59] can I just ask one just to clarify right now and I'm remembering did we add some [36:05] of the blue strand to the third grade recently yes okay we did okay just so [36:11] I'm clear so we had we did start to kind of recognize that this third fourth fifth needs those blue strands and we [36:18] added that okay yes so my understanding of still water's history this predates me a little bit is that it was first um [36:24] all of the red stands with Lucy ckins and then it was identified we do need to add some of those blue strands in and so [36:30] they adopted first a K1 phonics realized that wasn't far enough then adopted a [36:36] second for a year and then we also added hegerty so we've like pieced it together [36:41] at K2 and then as a final piece of it it was identified as third before so we've [36:47] been peace mealing to kind of get us to this point in the past years yes excuse [36:52] me I have sort of just a like a nerdy in the weat question about this if I look at scar Bar's rope yes um it it looks [37:01] like it's from 2001 yes so what was going on for such a long time that this [37:06] was sort of where it was like just one piece was emphasized yes it doesn't seem like new [37:12] science then it's like yes so you should attend letters it's very interesting but [37:17] a science of reading actually dates back to 1989 and so it's about as old it you [37:23] know like hook on Phonics yes and so so then it became the reading [37:28] Wars so if you Google the reading Wars it became very political of a swing into balanced literacy like do all students [37:35] actually need phonics or you might have heard of like whole word theory and so there was a huge debate on how you might [37:43] actually learn to read but the science hasn't changed and so um this is 2001 [37:48] and it has been proven over and over again that they haven't had to update the Rope because it hasn't changed at [37:54] all but it is not new yes so this is people talk about the pendulum swing back and forth um and so we swung all [38:01] the way and then slowly have gotten back into the middle of you do need both sides of these ropes um and it's good [38:08] for all kids but it's essential um for some kids because if if you do not have [38:13] the blue pieces um you will not learn to read in a lot of cases um but 40% of [38:19] students have been proven to learn to read even without direct instruction there so thank you yes very [38:26] controversial we could could give you all the nerdy facts one day [38:32] yes all right so then just a review of our committee timeline and what we were [38:38] charged with um as a committee which was great it was made up of a lot of teachers we had grades represented every [38:44] school represented we had special education ml um and Amigos unidos was there as well to go with our um [38:51] committee and we first met to launcher committee to talk about what we were going to be doing then we had had two [38:58] full days of literacy curriculum um presentations so we brought all of the ones in we got all of the fancy [39:04] presentations we got to get our hands on all the materials it was great um from there we narrowed it down to ones that [39:11] would both work for our Stillwater environment our teachers um and ones that we felt were really solid we got it [39:18] down to two um two in the red area so that knowledge building area and then two in the phonics area or that um word [39:24] building and then we had our um January 17th which some of you did attend and [39:30] thank you for coming to that um our community and larger staff got to come and get their hands in it ask the [39:35] vendors questions um and then make recommendations as well after we got the [39:40] feedback from that we met again as a committee reviewed all of the feedback um and dove in a little bit deeper and [39:47] then work to reach consensus before coming to you [39:53] today so our selection process um our purpose was a thorough collaborative process to select the best literacy [39:59] curriculum for all of our students um and so this is just a step by step of [40:04] how we went through that and we've got two of our kindergarten kiddos um there the one on the right is my little buddy [40:11] who's very excited as well um who would be enjoying the curriculum next year so [40:17] from our January 17th day uh the feedback that we got from the larger Staffing Community from that open house [40:23] was that 94.6% of Staffing Community surveys endorse adopting Benchmark Advance um [40:30] which is what we will be recommending as well and then 55.7% of Staff um and [40:35] communities support the committee's foundational skill recommendations so that's that blue strand um the main [40:42] feedback survey from there and why we looked into this even further was um [40:48] Benchmark Advance also has a phonic area and that was the one that from the larger community and staff was found to [40:55] be the one that they would recommend when we Dove deeper into the comments left on it it was it would be simpler to [41:01] just have one thing um this would be a responsible decision for Teacher management and pieces that way um as a [41:08] committee we took that into huge consideration uh but we also found that it it was a weaker program um than the [41:15] one that we are recommending today since then um so since then it was actually on [41:21] Monday Minnesota produced their react final results on Benchmark um and [41:27] Benchmark Advance as a whole product both the blue Strand and the red strand areas is on the partially passed area [41:34] and that is due to their scores in the phonic area and so um knowing that now [41:40] this aligns with where we were going the exact thing that our committee was seeing is that we were not finding that [41:46] it was as strong as it needed to be in the phonics area which is why we're recommending a separate product for [41:51] phonics and we have consulted with a couple of other districts um one stands [41:56] out that it's a comparable district for us they have already adopted Benchmark [42:02] and they are looking now into adding um a foundational curriculum because of the [42:07] gaps at the the foundational and the phic awareness and phonics [42:13] components yes but we will be just so work we're buying both when you're buying Benchmark you're buying the set [42:19] so you're buying both strands that they have but we've identified the blue strand as needing more right support so [42:26] that's right and there is a different in price which we'll get uh so we do get a discount for [42:32] not adopting the foundational skills of it because we're not going to be buying you know all of the materials that would [42:38] come with that um like a different materials come with the phonics pieces and so there is a discount that's [42:44] applied and uh Benchmark Advance pairs with ufly and so they have the ufly [42:49] package um that we were quoted on and so that means the decodable books are all organized to follow the uly scope and [42:56] sequence um because they are finding that this is a common adoption that people are doing we love your knowledge [43:01] building pieces of it we don't love your foundational skills pieces of it and so [43:06] they do sell it as a combo now as well yes and so getting into that blue strand [43:12] our recommendation for foundational skills K2 is going to be ufly foundations and so ufly stands for the [43:19] University of Florida literacy Institute um and so what this is is there are researchers continuously putting this [43:26] out um it is partially open uh and so you can get to the slides you can get to [43:31] a lot of pieces everything except for the teacher manual is completely free to use um because they want people using [43:39] this and they're also continuously updating them based on the research that they're doing and finding um it is a [43:45] multi-sensory approach and so students AR kinesthetically moving with it um it's going to have that oral call and [43:52] response they're also reading within it and so um it's consistent and easy to [43:57] Implement and our Amigos sunos last year because they did have to adopt English [44:02] all the way down to kindergarten this is the program that they were using as well and are seeing great results um it is [44:07] also the program that our tier three adopted a few years ago and they are seeing really great results as well so [44:14] we have internal um Pilots that have happened and every piece of feedback [44:19] from people who are using it is extremely positive and we're also seeing that students are benefiting from the [44:25] program as well in addition um this is one of my [44:31] favorite Graphics to explain the 35 Edition here and so these are the layers of English so we know that there's [44:38] English and then there's also words like garage where the G gets to make lots of sounds in the same word right um and so [44:45] that would be our uh French layer we've also got a Latin layer we've got a Greek layer and an Anglo-Saxon layer and so [44:52] this actually teaches kids to break down the code of um Chalet L is not spelled [44:58] with an sh because it's French and in French words we use the CH so I like to think of a spelling be and if you've [45:04] ever watched those spelling bees on TV and they always ask what um what's the origin of the word the reason for that [45:10] is because it is predictable spelling then based on knowing where it comes from and so we want all of our students [45:16] to have both that and also knowing that it's Latin um in general you will then [45:22] know like I bet chunks of this have word meanings on their own right um and so [45:27] that starts to help kids break down really big words in science right and so all of a sudden if you know ology you [45:34] know okay it's the study of something and so we get to give kids those pieces to make reading more accessible to and [45:40] through um as far as they want to go in their education as well um this is out of the University of Minnesota it is the [45:48] only program that was approved in the react um that was reviewed to serve this area and it is very similar to youly [45:56] it's coming out of a university it's used for research it's going to be continuously updated um as we adopt it [46:03] and is widely being adopted by um a lot of elementary schools being that it's both internal in Minnesota and the only [46:10] one that was approved yes what is it called it is called Foundation um it's called um [46:17] functional morphology functional morphology yes I wasn't sure which of the three titles look at so the blue [46:24] strands are what that these are going to be addressed dressing the blue strands for foundational skills and then it's [46:29] called functional morphology um and their acronym instead of youly is carry all c a r eii we love [46:37] an acronym in education you know yes and know Funk is not with a K there [46:43] Funk is not with a K it it's it still has fun in it though there we [46:51] go and then for our red strands for K5 it would be that Benchmark Advance is [46:56] our recommendation here um some of the highlights of this is it has Rich diverse text um it's a focus on critical [47:03] thinking and writing and so right now in our program we have a reading program [47:09] and we have a writing program and they don't always speak to each other and so if you know you're running two [47:14] simultaneous things it gets really complicated but this is a program that's like the purpose of this is so that [47:21] you're able to write about reading or write to express and so it gives kids both the GR itical pieces but also [47:28] building in how to respond and how to express yourself um and your answers through text and uh the other highlights [47:36] are that there are differentiated instruction right in it and so it's going to have those ml components right [47:42] in there it's going to have um tips on if students are not at this level here [47:47] are the vertical alignments to teach backwards and then get them back on so that accelerated learning um and then it [47:54] has teacher support and professional development which is something that I know as a teacher I always really look [48:00] at of how do I go deeper into this material and how do I understand this better so that my students can as well [48:07] the public feedback was also that they very much valued the parent um the [48:12] transparency of the work from home to school and school to home so there's a component that's actually in both uh [48:19] curriculum but that came out very clearly in the feedback [48:28] and I love data you know I've been up here a few times with some graphs so I couldn't resist giving you this one as [48:34] well and so what we're looking at here are a lot of graphs but I'm going to zoom Us in on it and what this is is [48:39] this is Nationwide students using Benchmark Advance um and Minnesota students are in here and what they found [48:46] is that students who are using Benchmark Advance grew um their growth and proficiency was 2.5 times any other [48:54] program and so those blue bars repres present um Benchmark advance and then the purple is every other program of [49:01] students who were growing to meet proficiency and then on the bottom the [49:06] fourth set over is a district hour size and so it's actually 3.64% um because it is serving a size a [49:15] sizable district and then I made it still waterfi and um what that would be [49:20] would be a 3.7% growth in the number of students in grades 35 would be 65 more [49:25] students reach teaching proficiency per year that we adopted it and so in your first year and then add an additional 65 [49:32] that next year so a compounding growth of this um and then at those top bars is [49:38] showing that all students but then it also is showing huge growth with our English Learners as well as economically [49:45] disadvantaged students and so it truly is hitting all of our highest needs as well as serving all [49:54] students just like to pause for a effect on how great the data is [50:00] there see our data it's good data right I can't wait to show you that one um all [50:06] right so our recommendations here on a timeline so simultaneously looking at both side by side it we would do um [50:14] we're recommending a staggered adoption on the blue side of that and so in year one we'd want to adopt K2 youly um and [50:22] then in year two we would add the 3 five morphology and one of the reasons for [50:27] that is that most of our um K1 and a lot of our K2 teachers will be finished with [50:34] letters at this point um and our our older teachers will still be in year two of letters and so the learning for that [50:41] actually aligns better with the knowledge building side make taking into account um our teacher time and what [50:47] they might have time for and I want to call out that this is different than what we have maybe just talked about [50:54] very abstractly earlier in the year which was more of a k235 banded approach [51:01] um and most of that came from feedback from our teachers who are in letters um [51:07] specifically at those three five grade band levels where there's such a huge disconnect between the curriculum that [51:12] they currently have access to and what they're being trained um and how they're being trained to teach in letters and so [51:19] this would help bridge that and and frankly hopefully we'll even save them some time and make that learning more [51:24] meaningful because right now the teach teachers are having to curate lessons and resources that are better aligned to [51:30] the science of reading to bring into the letter space for Learning and collaboration this would close that fill [51:36] that gap for them yes and so based on that we would be recommending a K5 full [51:41] adoption of the knowledge building um to align with what they're learning in letters while then staggering the [51:48] foundational skill piece so K2 would do both sides in one year and then 35 would [51:54] start with um that those red strands and then add in the blue strands later on um [52:00] the following year and then years three plus would be that Mastery and sustained growth in both sides of the reading [52:09] room and then this is a lot of words but essentially we would break down how we [52:15] train teachers into a three plus year we don't want to do a oneandone training of [52:20] if you were here the first year that we adopted it that's good for you and then if you come in later it's like I hope [52:26] you C catch on um instead we would actually intentionally add on over the [52:31] next three plus years of how we are training teachers and how we are sustaining the growth within our [52:37] curriculum and getting better at it each year and then I know board tables love [52:45] the you know to know what are our expected outcomes here what's the accountability how do we how will we know when it's working and so the big [52:51] idea here is that we would be monitoring both side by side our end goal is that very tight skilled reader at the end of [52:58] the rope and to get there we have to manage both of them at the same time um and so that would be regularly assessing [53:04] making sure monitoring progress monitoring of students on both side was happening as well as collecting feedback [53:10] from teachers more than how's it going but actually curate a good survey that's [53:16] asking specifically what's going well and specifically where do we need more training um real time so that we're able [53:23] to address things before they become a problem and get in front of them um for our teaching staff as well does any of [53:29] that accountability and outcome measurement include the um parents or Guardians like do you solicit feedback [53:36] as a part of that process what are you seeing at home what are you seeing or okay absolutely I think especially in [53:42] Benchmark Advance one of the big things is their online portal is a big piece of it of students actually would have [53:48] access to a digital version of the text that they were reading in class so they can go over it again and it has um their [53:55] mindset on parent communication is here's what I can do now here's what I've mastered in class and here's what I [54:02] can do at home versus I'm not great at this yet could you help me with it it's [54:07] actually proactively Advanced of let me show you what I've worked on in class which is a great piece of it and then [54:13] with youly it's also that parent communication so getting real time updates on what are my strengths what [54:19] are some areas that I can keep practicing on um in a predictable scope and sequence that would be sustained [54:26] throughout the year yeah and I'm basically just here to talk [54:31] about the money like she got to talk about all the fun things and I get to [54:36] talk about the money so um based on our recommendations and the the quotes that [54:42] we were provided by the um Benchmark Advanced and youly and functional morphology we would be looking at a year [54:49] one um expense of $815,000 year two closer to that 7 ,000 Mark [54:57] years 3 to six closer to that 100,000 um Mark years one so the the [55:04] knowledge building curriculum would be a case uh sorry a six-year adoption [55:10] schedule and the foundational curricula would be a threee and then it would have [55:15] to get renewed at the other for another three years and then we would re-evaluate at the end of six years are [55:20] we going to continue with this are we going to make some kind of change um [55:25] knowing that that three years after that we would be back here with new standards having this conversation again so the [55:32] years three and six are those renewal cost yes you have y so year two is the adoption of the additional functional [55:40] morphology um and then some just continued materials costs um some [55:45] professional development costs are built into that as well so this does include the cost of professional development as [55:51] well but sorry The Benchmark Advanced that that [55:56] is the six year so that's all accounted for it's so Benchmark Advanced is a six year cost and then that covers Us for [56:03] six years and then the both of the foundational curriculum need to be [56:08] repurchased after three years okay that's okay um the 97 is that uh annual [56:16] or is that a sum of those that's a sum of those three years uly is I just want [56:22] to call out is most of it is free so we're buying the manuals and the recurring costs for youly is just [56:29] continued professional development for teachers who are new new to us or need more professional development um and [56:35] some materials cost some consumables is it three years or four years for ight is the three through six the that would be [56:42] three years so four five six sorry it's four years year three year four year [56:48] five year six okay four okay and then [56:54] okay um how much of this is incremental costs going outside the district and how much of this is professional development [57:01] that would be already in other budgets um well the the professional [57:07] development would be coming out of our literacy Aid so that would all be part of this budget okay y so we wouldn't you [57:14] know sometimes we do offset costs with like our general fund to pay for certain professional development with the react [57:21] and What's the allowable expenses for use of react funds both the literacy incentiv a and both the react Aid we can [57:28] use those for professional development so we built that into that same funding [57:34] source and that that was actually one of my questions just since we're talking about the funding does this assume all the react funding that we're eligible [57:40] for is already factored in like I think we talked about the 300,000 it yeah yes [57:47] yes okay um staggered over that those six years okay so it wouldn't be like we [57:53] just reimburse ourselves 300,000 out the front gate the reason for that is um The [57:59] partially approved curriculum so as of right now we can't use the read act the [58:06] one-time read act aid funds for partially approved curriculum so we can use it for both of the foundational [58:13] curricula but we can't use it for the partially approved I will be curious to see if [58:20] that stays that way given that there is only one fully approved knowledge building curriculum [58:26] and most of the districts we're talking to are not necessarily going that direction they're going The Benchmark [58:32] Direction so I don't know that it will stay that way I wouldn't be surprised if in future years that were able to you [58:39] know liquidate those towards the larger expenses associated with the curriculum adoption so your costs here incorporate [58:46] kind of a staggered application of yes yeah cost this is cost to the district [58:51] or is this taking into consideration any Aid this is total cost [58:56] with so if you take off 300,000 then so this is total cost with the 300,000 [59:02] 300,000 that's what I this is your Allin cost so when when you when we were originally kind of projecting right we [59:08] talked about potentially 1.4 1.5 we came in much lower got it than we expected [59:14] part of that is because of the committee work and the direction towards youly which is extremely affordable thank you [59:22] University of Florida literacy Institute um because some of the other like magnetic magnetic reading for example [59:29] which was on that list that's fully approved it's not the direction we're going it was very costly so um yeah this [59:37] is with the 300,000 Incorporated but staggered spending of that over six [59:44] years I think Marie would love it if we could just dump all 300,000 into year [59:52] one director theer um thank you both for the great information and all the work [59:57] that you and the committee members have done on this so it definitely seems very robust and um we very much appreciate it [1:00:04] in regards to the staff and Community feedback obviously the you know the Rand the knowledge building was overwhelming [1:00:11] you know within the The Benchmark Advance being supportive what you know being obviously a less of a majority for the [1:00:18] foundational skill recommendations I'm assuming that's just because it's being split between youly and morphology and I [1:00:24] guess you know you have the community input that might weigh down the averages I guess from a staffing standpoint as [1:00:29] well I guess be interest to see what how that came out at so one of the reasons that we took the time to kind of ground [1:00:36] you in a really high level of the science is because that was our takeaway from the community event is in absence [1:00:42] of that understanding your your question is why can't I just adopt Benchmark Advance it has a foundational component [1:00:49] and so that's why we've like we need to ground Us in what is what does the science reading say and then come back [1:00:56] and say okay well our committee and our experts in the district and frankly at [1:01:02] mte which is why Benchmark Advance has partially approved have said there are gaps in the foundational components of [1:01:09] Benchmark advance so we're choosing to adopt different curricula for those found foundational [1:01:15] skills so it' be kind of fair to say this from a from the subject matter experts the committee members and our [1:01:22] staff that split is kind of the the [1:01:27] um being most recommended even above the 55 overall is that a safe assumption [1:01:32] yeses that make sense yes yes okay and we did um have a pretty lengthy conversation at the committee of what [1:01:39] does this mean to go against definite like there's a bunch of people who want differently um and so we really looked [1:01:47] into we would have to supplement to get where we want to go in the direction we want to go and without digging all the [1:01:55] way in you know just looking through it which was kind of that open house piece instead of sitting through the presentations and seeing those gaps in [1:02:02] it uh we didn't feel that if they had all the information they would [1:02:07] necessarily make the same decision just because a lot of the comments were based on um let's make this simpler which I [1:02:15] agree with um we do want things to be simple but we want them to be right and we want them to go deep enough so that [1:02:20] we're not chasing our taals and having to fill holes because we've already kind of done that we want this will be [1:02:26] simpler than okay that lesson wasn't strong enough so we have to build up that lesson instead just replacing it [1:02:32] with the one that has proven success in our district and also success in our state as well it seems like a win-win [1:02:39] that through youly it's actually going to be less expensive by using them versus using all of the uh Benchmark [1:02:46] Advance okay absolutely Dr uh for professional [1:02:52] development is this like an hour here and an hour there is this going to be like the entire professional development [1:02:58] schedule for a school year great question um so how we were looking at it is that it would be um about three hour [1:03:05] chunks and so it wouldn't have to be sitting through eight hours a day of professional development which we have [1:03:11] gotten feedback on of that's like drinking water from a fire hose you know of like it's too much and so having [1:03:17] three hours of learning three hours of application on it is really where we want to go we want teachers to have okay [1:03:23] I just got this now I can go deeper plan for this piece of it and so we would chunk it out um in a reasonable way but [1:03:30] it wouldn't take up all seven days because we know we also have to do the other subjects um and we also have to [1:03:35] finish letters and so it would be setting really strategic goals around what does it look like year one how are [1:03:42] we going to go deeper year two year three and then beyond and knowing which pieces we can go deeper on so that [1:03:47] teachers feel Mastery over it rather than just overwhelmed I think it's important too we had great [1:03:54] representation across all of our buildings and grade levels on this committee so we have a very um strong [1:04:02] Foundation of adults and teachers in the district that are piloting this that have become knowledgeable both on the [1:04:09] implementation of the science of reading but also these curricula so I think there's opportunities there to leverage [1:04:17] our current internal expertise so that we can continue build you know it's it's much easier to learn from your colleague [1:04:23] that you're teaching beside day and and day out right than it is to come to a second building sit down get a sit and [1:04:30] get go back and try and apply that so that's stuff that we will be working on [1:04:35] throughout the rest of the spring and summer in into the school year and [1:04:42] Beyond if this gets adopted um it'll be replacing something what's going away [1:04:49] then at that point and is it something we're we're currently paying for are we yes so Lucy ckins [1:04:56] um will go away which is our knowledge building um and we've referenced that there are significant gaps in that [1:05:02] curriculum based on the science of reading um the science behind the science of reading and then it will uh [1:05:08] letter land will go away for sure hegerty will so there's some uh [1:05:15] recurring expenses with both of those subscriptions materials so that will [1:05:21] replace this will become our tier one foundational and knowledge building [1:05:26] curricula and then hegerty can move into an intervention place and so it wouldn't necessarily come out of the classroom [1:05:33] but it could be that double dose for some students that might still need it uly does have a phonological awareness [1:05:39] piece to it that is research based um but teachers may want just to go a little bit deeper with some of our [1:05:45] Learners that need a little bit more and that is still a great program that is um [1:05:50] being considered it just doesn't cover all of the blue strands it actually just covers one of the three that breaks down [1:05:55] down um for some more robust pieces so it becomes a good tier 2 tier three [1:06:03] tool than so I think something I've observed um just as a community member [1:06:08] and as a board member and I don't know how to ask this question and how you it'll be interesting how you answer it I [1:06:14] guess but um it seemed like it took I know it seemed like it took a while for people to like it takes some time for [1:06:21] our staff to get on board with new curriculum this frustrating part is we pay a lot of money to have access to [1:06:27] this curriculum and you're looking at renewal costs and it's six years I mean are the is Staff supportive do they see [1:06:33] the why behind what we're doing are they excited to adopt it are there is there hesitation at all I mean so I have one [1:06:41] answer sky might have another and it'll be interesting to see um I think the fact that we we've had a strong early [1:06:48] adopters of letters in the district has helped so we have some very veteran um [1:06:53] very well-respected teachers that very early on said we're going to go out and we're going to do this letters training [1:06:58] on our own and so then they're bringing that knowledge and information back to their colleagues and then also because [1:07:04] we started with the letters implementation and training already for K2 and they're starting to apply that [1:07:11] even with the not great not approved you know react approved curriculum they're seeing gains in the classroom that is [1:07:20] then increasing the motivation to say okay now if I had a curriculum that was also science of reading aligned how much [1:07:27] more growth will we see in our classroom there more that need so there's a little bit of momentum built because the [1:07:33] foundation of learning around the science of reading has been established I also can speak to I have [1:07:39] several emails from teachers asking you know do you need more pilot teachers I hear it's going really well um and we [1:07:45] have some pilot teachers here today who also um were like I don't really want to stop teaching this so can I continue on [1:07:53] in the pilot so we went from a short pilot to an extended pilot to now if we do adopt can we just finish the year [1:07:59] with it um please don't make me go back to the other one type of thing I'm seeing such gains with my students um as [1:08:06] well as youly we have several teachers who have purchased it on their own [1:08:11] because they've heard such great things through letters through other districts and things that way so I really do think [1:08:17] there's a want and a hungry like it's time and our students deserve um strong [1:08:22] curriculum and they're seeing it work too of um the difference between the rigor of what we currently have adopted [1:08:28] and this and what students are being asked to do but also how teachers are supported through getting there through materials um is a pretty extreme [1:08:41] yeah the uh survey data or the the study that you put up that showed the [1:08:46] differences between the performance uh where is that published where can we find that that is on Benchmark Advance [1:08:53] um and it is published by third party but I'd have to look that up for you okay so that's from [1:08:59] the provider of the yes vender [1:09:05] yep we can get you the link absolutely I was very impressed with the [1:09:12] open house just saying I know a couple board members did go there including myself and I really appreciated the [1:09:18] opportunity to to see everything in action and um do we know how many community members actually took [1:09:24] advantage of that I would have to look up total I don't know if we disaggregated it by community [1:09:32] members versus parents versus staff but I think we had [1:09:38] 60 responses now there were people that did come in and did preview the [1:09:43] curriculum that didn't respond to the survey so we obviously didn't that would [1:09:48] be me great right so there was a couple of more you know feet people and there [1:09:54] were um responses and these costs are in the [1:10:00] preliminary budget okay just to make sure great they are and under [1:10:08] budget at least for Allin any other [1:10:13] questions I just have a yeah you guys took all my questions ask really good questions here um I just want to say [1:10:20] thank you for all this work um it's been really fascinating to kind of see the whole picture come together um and to [1:10:25] and I very much appreciate the flexibility that you guys have in the direction that you're going taking [1:10:31] feedback changing a little and moving forward so um I'm just really excited to see how this all comes together so thank [1:10:37] you for your work on this thank you the committee the committee was phenomenal so thanks to all of um their our [1:10:44] teachers and support staff that served on the committee because it was it was really fun for me to just sit back and [1:10:50] listen and learn great well if you have any other additional questions um this will be an [1:10:56] action item at the next meeting guess funnel those through Caitlyn um and let [1:11:01] Mike keep Mike in the loop as well great thank you so much [1:11:11] thanks okay so under um strategic Direction C utilize systems and align [1:11:17] resources in an efficient manner to support learning we are going to be um having our final third read on policy [1:11:24] 5245 personal electronic communication [1:11:29] devices welcome Paul yes good evening chair Sherman and members of the board [1:11:35] uh it's certainly a pleasure to be here tonight uh to present uh for the third reading of this uh very important policy [1:11:42] uh personal electronic communication devices 54.5 um since our last reading at the [1:11:49] last board meeting and the the second reading I've not received any input um regarding um [1:11:55] the wording and and the policy and so there has not been any changes made between the second reading and the third [1:12:02] reading um so with that um kind of present that um with that piece great um [1:12:10] we're just for the third reading are there any comments or questions I know I had asked one of Chrissa just making [1:12:16] sure smart eyeglasses were included in the language I felt like they were but I just wanted to put that out there [1:12:22] because I got that question from a couple community members so they felt it was included yes yes there's specific [1:12:29] language that that says wearable devices so I think that that cover covers it [1:12:34] pretty pretty cleanly [1:12:40] um so thank you for that third read okay oh yes sorry did we get clarification on [1:12:47] I can't remember where this landed I apologize uh on Long field trips [1:12:53] or um tournaments if you're at a tournament for like a wrestling tournament you're [1:12:58] gone all week or gone for a full day How's that gonna yep and I think I think where that where you're find that [1:13:03] addressed in the policy is in section four um subpart B of off-campus school [1:13:10] sponsored activities and the way it reads currently in the policy is that school administration May establish [1:13:15] guidelines for personal electronic communication device possession and use during off-campus school sponsored [1:13:22] activities such as extracurricular activities acties outdoor and service trips and school field trips these [1:13:29] guidelines will be provided at preactivity meetings activity specific permission slips and by other means as [1:13:36] appropriate in the circumstances thank you y okay um that was the third read we I [1:13:46] would like to open this up for public comment specific to policy 54.5 is there [1:13:51] anyone in the audience who would like to speak uh to this policy [1:13:56] okay no one is here to speak to the policy so I'll move on to the action [1:14:02] item approval of policy 54.5 I'll make a motion to approve this [1:14:07] policy can I get a second second great Dr thelander with the second any additional questions or discussion [1:14:13] before the vote Yes when will we go over um [1:14:19] procedure or what is the I can't remember the implementation what is that called yeah I guess it will let you [1:14:25] sometime later this spring early summer May or [1:14:31] June so we'll have a report to the board just to inform the public and I'm assuming there'll be much broader [1:14:37] communication around this procedurally um one thing well did were [1:14:42] there any other questions or comments one thing that I just wanted to [1:14:48] say and I I did get this from a few community members and I think it's helpful is um teachers and they ask of [1:14:55] teachers and staff would be included in this policy and I've stated no um but [1:15:00] people in the community can look at policy 428 um if they're interested in that and [1:15:06] our staff is there is language about how cell phone use and and mobile devices [1:15:12] are limited and it shouldn't interfere with the instructional day so there is that policy already out there for staff [1:15:18] but because I'm just seeing community members I just want to put out there policy 428 addresses that for those that [1:15:24] are interested so one one more thing yeah um did we as [1:15:31] far as implementation goes did we budget anything for this at [1:15:37] all for next year not formally as of yet but but the other thing I can share with you is there is a bill and I don't have [1:15:43] it on my update which I'm going to talk about in a minute but there is a bill in the legislature to provide funding for [1:15:50] for this very issue so but we haven't officially sat down and taking a look and we're waiting for board action to [1:15:57] see what we're going to need to do so that certainly will be part of any sort of update procedurally as we move [1:16:04] forward here thank you thank you great we have a motion and a second uh seeing [1:16:11] no further discussion all those in favor of approving policy 54.5 raise your hand [1:16:16] and say I I I opposed policy passes so thank thank you [1:16:23] I appreciate your work on this and to the committee so thank you guys all right um we are going to have [1:16:31] our next item which is a legislative update Dr Funk so three three items [1:16:37] tonight real real brief um first one is really applies to [1:16:43] our technology Levy and there is a you know I think for for 10 plus years I can [1:16:52] remember either testifying or supporting testimony to allow school districts to [1:16:59] approve operating levies renew them at the board level and so that finally came [1:17:05] into fruition you know last last session um so this session they now have a [1:17:12] resolution or a bill I should say that authorizes a district to reauthorize a [1:17:18] capital project referendum through a board action so our technology Levy is a capital project Levy so I'm not sure [1:17:25] what the date is when that expires did you was it a 10 year ly was a 10 year okay so probably five six years down the [1:17:32] road board would not necessarily have to go to the community they could if they so chose but the board could could [1:17:38] reauthorize that and that's good to see because again most public entities in [1:17:44] Minnesota um counties cities can there the Cy the boards of those entities can [1:17:51] approve um referendums they can approve things um school districts often have most the [1:17:58] times have to go to the voters so I appreciate that too because the renewals just to go out usually renewals do pass [1:18:04] if you're not asking for more and it costs money for school districts to put those kind of efforts to voters so it [1:18:11] saves District resources um house file [1:18:16] 1582 um not because I'm 59 and almost 30 years of service but uh I wanted to uh [1:18:26] inform inform the board that uh um they're looking at uh you know I think [1:18:31] you've heard of rule of 90 for a number of number of years and we went away from it back in I think 1989 1990 and so a [1:18:41] lot of teachers um were able to qualify for the rule of 90 but most teachers [1:18:47] don't anymore and so really what it does is if if the rule of 90 were in effect [1:18:54] teachers could retire without penalty um with at a combination of 60 and 30 or or [1:19:00] combination of 90 years and right now teachers have to go to 65 um to retire [1:19:09] without uh a reduction so this bill would would bring that back um the other [1:19:15] thing I I I had an emsd superintendent meeting about a week ago and they had [1:19:21] somebody actually calculate the cost of school districts um because you're keeping your highest paid teachers for [1:19:28] additional years and there's significant financial impact to the district on that and so um there's a significant [1:19:35] financial cost to this as well but again I think this is going to continue to come back and uh um to the legislature [1:19:44] because it really is um having two tiers in in a teacher Workforce um it's not it's not right you [1:19:51] know I think oh if you start working on this day uh these benefits apply to you but not [1:19:57] to you poor people who started working after here so this is an attempt to address that but it's very expensive so [1:20:03] I don't want the likelihood of that happening yes when did that two-tier thing start was that 90 you said [1:20:10] 8990 yeah it was like about right before I started teaching um wouldn't most of that be aged out by now I think last [1:20:18] year they said 133% of the people who retired were retired under rule of 90 um [1:20:24] so it is starting to age [1:20:30] out and then the uh last one there is and again I I think we've talked about [1:20:36] this here the uh the fact that we have free free lunches for everybody has [1:20:43] impacted our compensatory Revenue which used to be established based upon how many free introduced students we had in [1:20:50] the district and that's impacted us I think we're looking at a $300,000 hit to the budget budget next year for us so [1:20:56] they are there's actually a bill out there in the Senate that is looking at calculating it based upon direct [1:21:02] certification and some other factors and then they're also saying that we should be establishing a compensatory Revenue [1:21:08] task force I've been listening to speakers from the Department of Education for two plus years on this [1:21:14] saying we've almost got this figured out um because they're trying to hold districts harmless in this transition [1:21:20] but they're not and so I think that's why this um bill is in place and why we [1:21:26] want to establish a a task force to look at this issue so those are the three [1:21:31] things I've got tonight thank you very much all right um [1:21:37] any legislative questions for Dr Funk that was easy okay with that we're [1:21:53] adjourned e