I you know when the boss is talking I'll call this meeting order we'll stand for the pledge i al to the flag United States of America andice I think Kimberly's out of the country is my understanding so that's
why I am here I'll entertain a motion to approve today's agenda Neil second Bruce all in favor say I opposed thank you seeing no action items
we'll turn to the study session and first up is the at PPS annual report hello I'm Kathy Bowman um I teach sixth grade science at Southwest and then also am the district coordinator for
atbs so um just to give you a little bit of History this might look familiar to some of you but it's the alternative teacher performance pce system which is our Q comp system that we're a part of and it's our 20th year that we've
participated in this and I'll let you take a look through the purpose and components that we work through our individual growth plan is probably um a huge component actually of
our system for our licensed staff to be able to help kind of grow professionally in in our craft and and benefit our students um what it's made up of in terms of teacher leader positions is myself the district coordinator um there's eight coordinators are
instructional coaches and then 41 are up to 41 instructional team leaders which would be like individuals within uh within individual buildings that help make up their instructional leadership team um job embedded professional
development so we meet every Wednesday um for a total of 34 Wednesdays uh throughout the school year in our plc's and that's for 45 minutes um it can involve anything to do with standards aligned curriculum instruction
assessment uh it could be also some book studies that have to do with whatever teachers are working on that year and what their goals are analyzing student data making changes to assessment work um the four critical questions that we cover and I always put plus one
because we add in our marzo work as well uh what do we want students to learn how will we know when they've learned it how will we respond when learning has not occurred and how will we respond when learning has already happened so these are the four questions
that we base a lot of our work around throughout the entire year going through different kind of cycle work through some of our units um how will we increase our instructional competency this is where we really focus on our instructional model of uh HRS Marzano
elements and so as a part of this process we do have a teach evaluation and peer review so there's two peer reviews which would include like an observation or coaching so kind of what we uh discuss in part of our coaching Cycles um with
an instructional coach or this could also include um for someone that's in cycle for an evaluation from an administrator uh the three evaluations by an administrator this is for probationary teachers this is required and then there's also three informal
observations required and that's when uh we as licensed staff get to go into other classrooms and be able to observe and this just kind of gives you an idea of what that cycle work is a lot of times we end up meeting as as a pre-conference whether it be with
the administrator or with our instructional coach and then they come in to do the observation and then we're able to wrap up and come back and have that discussion afterwards as well and process through some of the information and then our performance pay
incentive the total is $1300 the breakdown is below that we have the building site goal if that's met that's $150 that goes um to the licensed staff in the building if it
is not met that goes into um basically a pot that is specific to that building so that they're able to then use for professional development throughout the year individual growth plan that's our smart goal that's what we do our base a lot of
our um like our marizo work and things like that on as well and then those observations the PLC intendance and the cycle work is a lot of the paperwork that goes with that as well um this year for our smart goals uh I believe it was in the 50s last year uh
last year I can't remember exactly I have 52% in my head but I could be off by a percent or two but 62% of our teachers met their smart goals this year and this is based on student achievement
um this number can fluctuate not necessarily one that increases or decreases on a trend it's more so it really depends on each licensed staff and what they're choosing for their goals and what they're targeting that year with their students of course we like to see people
that can meet their goals because that means that our students are doing good things too but there's still a learning process within that so even if they're not meeting it it doesn't mean that learning's not happening it means that they're just working and and creating really some challenging goals for themselves which is
good and here is our instructional model which is the new Art and Science of teaching Marzano elements that helps guide our work this has become I feel like a real familiar St staple by now in our
buildings you see them pretty much everywhere you go which is great um most of our staff especially if we're not counting necessarily new staff it might be newer to new new staff but Marzano is not necessarily new to education by any means um are very famili very familiar
but becoming really well uh rehearsed in in marzo I feel that's something that I've noticed in terms of over the last several years that we've been a part of this it really has brought us collectively together and the conversations that happen have been
really great and deep in terms of our Focus um here's some recommendations that we have for next year um it would be continuing the professional development for HRS level one or sorry level two and level three taking a look
at that guaranteed and viable curriculum a lot of that comes around in terms of our proficiency scales which is really um standards uh centered and then we do have uh some movement forward that we would like to
make with level two certification this coming year uh the high school is planning to begin process in July Southwest is going to begin in January and the elementaries will begin their processes in March and some of these times have to do
with when they certified in level one originally Elementary is focusing on the recommitment to unit planning and cycle work we'll continue with the two formal peer reviews that were listed before an
observation and utilizing that instructional coaching model we really rely heavily on that feedback lots of great conversations that can happen when we have those instructional coaches coming into our uh classrooms sometimes for one of these
two peer observations but I feel like we see it more often now where it's like hey can you just come into my classroom I'm going to try this thing I know it's a little bit last minute but would you mind giving me some feedback if you have time and that's been happening a lot more I really appreciate our instructional coaches and being able to
utilize them like that and then of course we incorporate from HRS we've really uh brought in those instructional rounds which is uh part of that informal uh peer review process so it kind of allows us time uh our instructional coaches set up
different times throughout the year several times throughout the year where we have opportunities that we can sign up and then go and um enter into other licensed uh teachers class rooms but at a short focused time that then you're
able to like collaborate with a few other people that with are within your group at that time and have discussions and hopefully gain some ideas usually and come out of there with something that you can use in your own classroom it's really great to be able to have
that and then of course our poor uh performance pay remaining at 1300 again for next year any questions for me so far any questions my I'm about the role of peer
Reviewer is there professional development for every year they need to take yep every year there needs to be that's according to even qom guiding principles and requirements um that our uh teacher leaders in terms of instructional coaches uh need to have some sort of
training is what they they call it but yes and so this past year what we did was we had a um a group come in and they were able to uh we also we went kind of beyond our instructional coaches and brought in some of our teacher leaders
as well in other positions to be able to have a day um that they taught focused on Adult Learning and adult feedback you know we are we go through a lot of pedagogy that has to do with uh gearing towards students
but we also need to be able to help each other in our own aspect as well so that was a a really really great professional development um day that we had back in January so there's a lot of positive
feedback from that anything else from the board yes yes no no all right no nor does it increase every year it has stayed the same for as
long as I've known about it I will say which has been longer than I've been in albertly yep yep you mentioned 62% of teachers yes does that no that just means that they didn't meet
their goal so whatever they set for their goal that year um mine was based around this year um we were looking at our really closely at our standards we've got new science standards and so we're continually trying to add in some
new units so that was something that myself and my partner teacher had wanted to focus on and so then we actually took one of the Marzano strategies to be able to help us Focus towards that so we made a smart goal based off of that and then
um use their assessments and their performance on that to decide if they're um making our goal I should say like for instance uh mine in short form I believe is pretty much 80% of all
sixth grade students because both of my partner teacher and I together decided to go with the same goal so we Ed the entire sixth grade would uh perform within 80% or better on their assessments throughout the year so once this when you put this framework
in the place annually my sense of it is is that it's an ongoing continuous Improvement of teaching and learning yes and you're you're adopting and modifying curriculum as needed based on individual performance too it gets down to that
level um that really involves adopting curriculum involves a little bit higher up in that but we do have conversations about that yes definitely and it's throughout this process because we have instructional leadership teams in each of our buildings which are usually consist of our administrator and then
our instructional coach and also the instructional team leaders of these uh CT collaborative teams that we call them in our buildings and then we also at the district level have a learning team which also consists of teacher leaders and administrators to be able to discuss
some of these things but you you used the language of continuous Improvement on the second bullet up there she highlighted unit planning and cycle work as part of that work at all levels K12 not just Elementary um teachers are really working on answering
those four critical questions to determine um based on our data and our assessments our students um meeting the expectations that we've set forward or not so that language of continuous Improvement um really is happening
planning that you do so that you are monitoring how did students perform did they meet the expectations or not and then really being careful about adjusting that for the future or are there pieces that I need to rete and go back to make sure that they are meeting
it so yes it is built in in that way yep yeah yep and with some of that data it's something that you can use like uh T had just said too with the um future there's a lot of times I go back to my igp my
individual growth plan where a lot of all of this is recorded um and are able to go back with uh my partner teacher and say Here's what went well last year here's what didn't remember here's what we wanted to change for next year if there's times where you don't always have time at the very end when you know
that there's those nuances that you want to make adjustments and shifts to but it's not necessarily something you'll go back and retach but you want to make sure that you make that change for next year we use that a lot so very helpful yeah as I understand this
program serves as a sort of vehicle to deliver a professional de development that we would be doing anyway as nowadays it's Mar Marzano approach so it's it as I said it serves as a vehicle to deliver something we'd be doing
anyway yeah and it's uh it piggybacks on that quite well yeah and really well organized I must say I I feel like I do say this every year but I come from a school uh prior to Albert Lee where we were trying to establish something and we didn't have q comp in that sense you know there's a huge long line if you
were to get out of it we would be well over 200 schools in a waiting list so um to be able to get back in which is nearly I mean pretty much impossible but um trying to get our evaluation system um established was tough and there's a
lot that you have to be able to make sure that you've got these requirements you know embedded in there as well and I just coming to Albert Lee that was one of my favorite things which originally you know this is why I wanted to be in this position is because it was
inspiring to see the work that is established here and is happening and so I really enjoy that and feel lucky to be a part of that here and I would Echo that is when when it's implemented with Integrity I think that that what that's what I've seen that's where you grow as
a professional and having that cleal conversation and that's what's happening with our teachers so that's why I continue use with the depth that it is all right well very good thank you very much for the update appreciate it thank you and next we'll have the K5
literacy adoption before Kathy leaves I do just want to thank her um in front of the board as she mentioned on one of her slides there are term limits and Kathy has served us for five years as district atps coordinator so I want to thank her
for her service and we move on a new coordinator next year so thank you [Applause] Kath all right good evening Vice chair Schindler superintendent Wagner and
directors I am here to go over our K5 literacy adoption um share with you some information regarding wit and wisdom as you know I have said here with you many times and you've heard me speak
to the read act and speak to literacy initiatives in the state of Minnesota and so just as a reminder our primary read act goal is to have every Minnesota child reading at or above grade level every year beginning in kindergarten um
no longer using the language of readwell by third grade also um the state of Minnesota is being very um strategic um purposeful planning in making sure that we are folding in our multilingual
Learners and students receiving special education you have also heard me share information on tier one accelerated learning and those of you that sit on the uh District advisory curriculum committee have also seen that in this
information and we did a really nice activity um in our district advisory committee to look at each of these individual sentences and pull out the words that stood out to us and so as you look at each of those sentences we
focused on high quality evidence-based we focused on words like engaging and challenging we focused on words such as deeper understanding and progress um and
so we have had groups of uh teachers go through the Minnesota mtss process this year and specifically our instructional coaches and resource Specialists have also done training on tier one accelerated learning you heard Miss
Bowman speak to level three of uh Marzano being guaranteed and viable curriculum we need to start at the tier one instructional level that's what the K5 literacy adoption of wit and wisdom
that will be our primary focus and tier one accelerated learning for this coming year Dy will you click on the picture please and then the video curriculum let's explore what that looks like a wide body of research show
that when students know more they can read more complex text learn more vocabulary and write at higher levels each module builds students knowledge on a specific topic let's take a look at some of the
topics as you can see the grades k through eight topics come from literature history and social studies science and the Arts students build knowledge of the topics by reading discussing and writing about the authentic compelling texts in
the curriculum let's dive deeper to a few of the topics and see how sets of texts work together to build students knowledge as this grade one example shows some Whitten wisdom modules build students knowledge of literature and its
Universal themes and stories some modules build students knowledge of Science in this grade 2 module students learn about the human digestive system other modules build students knowledge of the Arts in this grade three module
students learn artists such as William Carlos Williams Marian Anderson Alvin ay and Jackson P this is just one example of an art focused module all Whitten wisdom modules include art as core and supplementary
texts other modules build students knowledge of historical periods events and people in this grade seven module students learn about World War II and its effects on some Americans here is one examp of a full Year's topics and
core texts as you can see grade three students read very texts as they learn about science history social studies and the Arts some grade level topics you may already know about others might be unfamiliar all we hope will be
intriguing as they build knowledge students are also building their English language arts Reading Writing and oral communication skills lessons in wit wisdom skills students read write speak
listen learn vocabulary and study conventions as they read module texts and learn about the module topic Whitten wisdom students use writing and speaking to learn and as they build their knowledge they also build the skills to
more effectively write and speak for example as they build knowledge of a topic students might work with the same text to identify key details discuss those details with their peers Define vocabulary record evidence
and write sentences to communicate their learning the curriculum's purposeful sequence builds students learning within and across grades k through eight modules are designed to be taught in a specific Order each Builds on the
previous in terms of routines content Knowledge and Skills in module one for example students May learn to do a certain vocabulary activ that is a prerequisite for work in module two students May write a single paragraph in
module one and a full essay in module two across the grade levels students purposefully build and deepen knowledge of topics and skills for example students build skills as speakers and listeners in grade one students work on
responding to what others say in grade two they learn to link what they say to what others say in grade three they focus on how to agree and disagree respectfully the integrated approach to English language arts means the Whitten
wisdom classroom is a busy lively place we hope you will find that this knowledge building integrated approach helps all students achieve greatness the black X thank
you okay so as you saw in that video really um two key focuses there were knowledge building curriculum and the integrated approach um our the wit and wisdom curriculum uh really covers
indepth those topics of Science History social studies art and literature um while I think that visual of the cogs really uh visually represents how it integrates all pieces in Reading Writing
listening and speaking and then there was also the visual of authentic texts kids are involved in authentic texts every day um which uh is different from what some of us have seen
as traditional basil readers um so it's nice that kids get um authentic Hands-On text approaches thank you um again this is not new information to you you have seen me share this information both here at the board table
and also in board updates one thing to note with wit and wisdom is as the state of Minnesota was uh going through the approval process for approved curriculums for reimbursement they looked at two types of curriculums knowledge building curriculums such as
wit and wisdom and also um comprehensive curriculums a comprehensive curriculum will will cover both strands of the reading rope the word recognition strand at the top and the language comprehensive comprehension strand at the
bottom our district already had a foundational skills program in really great reading as we looked at curriculum adoption one of the things that was important for us to consider is what was the lift going to be for our teachers
what would the professional development requirements look like what would they need to learn in order to successfully deliver uh the curriculum Whitten wisdom did not not having the foundational skills
component um allows us to focus on the langu language comprehension strand of the Rope for instruction and professional development our teachers already have received the professional development in foundational skills programming so we um paed with our
letters training in K3 we'll continue the really great reading foundational skills curriculum and um move towards wit and wisdom for the knowledge building uh curriculum in language comprehension thank
you or comments TR I know it's waiting but doing ahead and all this we have all of the training for wit and wisdom planned out for school year 2425 training starts uh next week June
12th is our first Training Day with um uh principles and key instructional leaders like our mtss literacy Specialists and our instructional coaches next week they'll do what's called launch that is really planning out what does the vision for a
successful influence mentation look like and then they will help us strategically lay lay out milestones for year one and year two of the program um later in July we meet towards the end of July we'll go through that
same group of individuals we'll have professional development called lead lead will bring us to what will it look like to lead successful implementation so now that we have the plan laid out what will that look like August 15th is the first day
teachers will receive training so K5 uh buildings will receive training uh six hours of training in implementation coming back one of the academy days September 30th um that will
be our first uh they'll work in grade bands K1 2 three and 45 and that will be called module and lesson study you saw um in the video how it laid out each of the four modules for every grade level
on September 30th teachers will be working on how to do the comprehensive lesson planning they call it lesson study module and lesson study and that is at the recommendation of Whitten and wisdom to do that approximately six
weeks after you start the school year um what they didn't talk about in this video but I can link in your board update is uh what's called module zero module zero actually happens in your first 30 days so that's kind of a launch too so they'll be going through the
launch in that first six weeks and then again that module lesson study will hit on September 30th um additional professional development there are also coaching sessions uh so coaching sessions are
planned each building will get two half days one in the fall and one in the spring late winter actually um for coaching sessions where Whitten and wisdom implementation Specialists come on site and um follow our instructional coaches
and our literacy Specialists and help with some coaching of what it the implementation is looking like in our buildings so it is planned out for the whole year ready to roll thank you for your question NG um with these changes
between read act in this new curriculum how will students who have fallen behind in Reading how will they be handled and and coached and brought back up okay so one piece uh you saw my second slide there really focusing on tier one
accelerated learning we know that we have to get back to a solid core instructional program um we have been missing some of those components over the last few years so that's Step One is making sure we have a strong core tier
one programming um from there uh using the four critical questions using data to make database decisions from there we'll implement the tier 2 um interventions as needed based on the data each of our buildings will continue
to um be able to manage uh uh intervention model of some some capacity um we still have time set aside in both reading and math for students to receive targeted interventions if they
if they are um exhibiting that another piece of the read act um that I don't believe I've discussed here or in a board update is if students are behind one of the requirements is that districts provide families with um
learning options at home um so that'll be built into our August communication with families based on their students data and if I can add to that is you know the curriculum is just a tool so we're really supporting the development of our teachers through the letters and
giving the strategies of of actually teaching reading and those foundational skills so that's where that letters training comes in as well so this is the tool that was adopted but it's really building the capacity in our teachers thank
you any other questions for me anything else okay all right thank you very thank you very much pursuant to Minnesota statute section 13d .05 subdivision 3B for confidential discussion with legal
councel regarding pend pending litigation the next item on the agenda is a closed session the Minnesota open law uh meeting law Minnesota statute section 13 d05 subdivision 3B allows the school
board to close a meeting to engage in attorney client privilege discussions the board seeks to meet with his attorney to obtain confidential legal advice related to the litigation of Hernandez versus Albert Lee Schools during the closed meeting the attorney
will update the board on the status of the case and settlement discussions there is a need for absolute confidentiality because of the district's position would be compromised if such discussions took place in public and could be overheard by adverse
parties it is in the district's best interest for the board to obtain legal guidance and a confidential setting to obtain uh or to maintain attorney client privilege I will thereby entertain a motion to close the meeting pursuant to
the attorney client privilege for the reasons that I have stated motion by Bruce second second by Angie all in favor I I opposed hearing none we'll now move into close
session all right now that we are back into General Session I will entertain a motion to approve the settlement agreement motion motion by Dave second second by Bruce any other
discussion hearing none all in favor say I I opposed all right that motion carries now I will entertain a motion to adjourn Neil second Davey thank you all
in favor say I opposed thank you very much everyone