Links are hot. I called this meeting to order at 06:01. Claudia, would you please call Roe? Yes, ma'am. Director Carter's excuse absent. Director Duncan has not arrived. Doctor Gerken? Present. Doctor Kiki? Present. Director Reinhart? Present. Director Tasker? Present. Director Tomoy? Present. Thank you. Thank you. Would you please join me for, the pledge of allegiance? I'd like to welcome everyone in attendance, for joining us today. And next item is the approval of the agenda.
So moved. Right here second. Second. It's been moved by director Tom Wing, seconded by director Tasker. Claudia, would you please call the roll? Yes, ma'am. Director Duncan? Aye. Doctor Gerken? Aye. Doctor Kiki? Aye. Director Reinhart? Aye. Director Tasker? Aye. Director Tomwein? Aye. Thank you. Thank you, Claudia. And before we move forward, we know that this week is teacher appreciation week. And, as a former teacher, and actually special ed teacher for that matter, our very own director Reinhardt has something for all of our teachers.
Thank you, doctor Kiki. It is teacher appreciation week. It's a national week of recognition. However, in my heart, my mind, it's teacher appreciation week and day every day of every week. Our educators work tirelessly, endlessly, and wear hat after hat after hat. They're counselors, sometimes parents. Educators, of course, content specialists. They fill the role for the children in front of them day in and day out. So approaching the summer break, I know what it feels like to get to this point.
You've made it again. We all appreciate you beyond belief. Take some time, enjoy it, accept the recognition, and most of all, pat yourself on the back for the work you do every day. On behalf of the board, thank you. Doesn't sum it up, but thank you so very, very much for all that you do. Thank you, director Reinhardt. Alright. We will now turn it over, for the presentation of the report for goal progress measures four point two and four point three. Superintendent? Thank you, president Kiki.
Good evening, board members, members of the community. I'm gonna ask the IDs to come on up just so that they're here, in preparation for any questions at the end of the presentation. You guys don't be shy. You've done this before. So tonight, we'll I will be going over, progress measures four point two and four point three. Claudia, you got me? Okay. Thank you. And I'm really excited to share this data with you, as there are a lot of, positive highlights as you've seen already. So, Claudia, I'm not gonna share slide two. If you'll go to slide three, just as a brief reminder that these progress measures align with goal number four,
which is around grade, ninth grade equity, specifically looking at the percentage of ninth grade black and Hispanic, Latinx students, in our operated schools who are on grade level as measured by PSAT. And the target is to increase from fifteen point eight percent in 2022 to twenty two percent in August of twenty twenty six. So that's just a reminder of the specific goal that these progress measures are tied to. Claudia, if you go to slide four, please. And then, I'm gonna break if you you've seen the presentation already. I'm gonna go ahead and cover both. But just as a brief reminder,
4.2 is around ninth grade equity in evidence based reading and writing, and then 4.3 is around ninth grade equity in, mathematics. If you go to slide five, just a couple of bullet points. You've seen this this before, but I do wanna highlight as a reminder that in 2024, that was the second year or this year was the second year of the PSAT, Horizon practice test. And then, the other big reminder is that Horizon has worked to align the new PSAT assessment, which is digital and adaptive, among other adjustments. So there has been a a shift and a change into, the assessment to have it more reflective of what the kids will really experience on
the PSAT. And our greatest hope, even the hope is in the strategy, is that that will be evidenced when we get the results of this year's, PSAT test. Slide six. So specifically, focusing on ninth focusing on ninth grade, equity and evidence based reading and writing. You can see that the target is that students, the students who demonstrate proficiency in evidence based reading and writing on the Horizon practice PSAT will increase from 12.5 in 2324 midyear assessment to at least 45.6 on the 2526 midyear,
assessment. On slide seven, you can see the actual results. Again, really excited to share this with you. The major highlights are that there was a 20.18 percentage point increase between 2324 and '20 '4 '20 '5. In the black and Hispanic, Latinx, ninth grade students beating college and career readiness benchmarks in evidence based reading and writing. We do notice a slight decrease of, point six five percentage point between the beginning of the year and the midyear assessment in 2425. I would tell you right off the bat,
we're not exactly sure why that decrease is yet, but that's something that we're gonna dig into, and try to figure out. The other thing that I'll highlight is that that pattern although the data is drastically different, that pattern was the same in 2324. So, there's something going on. We're not exactly sure what causes that, but we'll continue to dig dig into it. Slide eight. When you disaggregate the data between the two subgroups, what we see is that our students who identify as black or African American had a nineteen point nine one, roughly a 20% percentage point increase between 2324 and 2425 in meeting those benchmarks.
However, negative 8.7 percentage point decline. And then for Hispanic Latino identifying students, there was a 20.24 percentage point increase, between the two years, but they actually had a 1.5. Those students had a 1.5 percentage point increase. So, again, acknowledging the great growth and also acknowledging whereas in one subgroup, there was a bit of a decline between the beginning of the year and the midyear, and then in the other subgroup, there was a small increase. So going to slide nine, giving you my assessment, we set a target, at 36.1.
We didn't meet that target. We missed it by 3.4 percentage points. However, you can see there was a drastic improvement from one year to the next, so we are celebrating that. Going into the latter part of this slide, as we look at some of the strategic inputs that were in place that we believe maybe, resulted caused us to to experience these results, we've talked a lot every time we're in front of you about the networks network structure that allows for common secondary, specific learning collaboration and support. We truly believe that this structure has been really supportive, responsive to the needs of the teachers and the kids in the classroom,
and allowed for the app adaptation to take place so that we can accelerate learning for our students. The universal piloting of the new English language development curriculum. As you all know, we have new curriculum, that we put into place. We feel like that is supporting the growth that we've seen. And then the use, of data from the Horizon practice PSAT to identify skill knowledge gaps and more intentionally embedding PSAT practice, and tools in the daily instruction. Slide 10, Claudia. To continue with the analysis, we do believe educators are becoming more familiar with the Horizon practice PSAT.
If the more familiar they are, the more they, understand how to what it is the kids will have to demonstrate so that they can, use that knowledge to plan instruction and and give kids the experiences that they need. ELD has a consistent high quality curriculum to best support multilingual learners. The tier one instruction, we continue to double down on that, use of study sync. As noted in previous reports, it's possible that the types of questions for the evidence based reading and writing were stronger in their alignment to the new PSAT. And, again, we're really hopeful that we'll see that evidenced in the results of the students that take the p s a took the PSCAT,
this past couple of weeks. And then lastly, during the, midyear administration, we just wanna point out that the Horizon platform has some technical issues that occurred when students were taking the, evidence based reading and writing portion of the the assessment. And so it delayed the administration and forced, or forced some schools to retest at a later date, and that may have had some sort of impact. Not exactly sure what yet, but, just wanna acknowledge that that did happen, and it could be could've had an impact. So that is 4.2 evidence based reading and writing. Claudia, let's go to slide 11,
and then we'll go through 4.3. Just as a reminder that the target for point, 4.3 is that the increase will be from seventeen point nine percent on the 2324 midyear assessment to, at least 29% on the 2526 midyear assessment. On slide 12, you'll see the results. Again, very, very happy about the progress shown here. 7.38 percentage point increase between last year and this year in the percentage of black and Hispanic, Latinx ninth grade students meeting the college and career readiness benchmarks in math,
and then a 3.9 percentage point increase between the beginning of the year and the midyear assessment in twenty four point five. So whereas in evidence based reading and writing, we saw a slight decline, in math, we actually saw an increase from the beginning of the year to the midyear. Slide 13, please, Claudia. So when we look again at the sub, we disaggregate between the subgroups. For our students who identify black or African American, there's an 8.35 percentage point increase, between last year and this year and a 5.2 percentage point increase between the beginning of the year assessment and the midyear assessment.
And then for our students who identify as Hispanic Latino, there was a seven point, zero nine percentage point increase between last year and this year on the midyear assessment, and increase between the beginning of the year assessment and the midyear assessment. So the moral of the story is that there were growth, from year over year as well as from the beginning of the year to the end of the year in both subpopulations. Slide 14. The assessment is that the target was exceeded, and we are dramatically improving. As you can see, the target was 25.25. I'm sorry. The target was 23 percentage points percent,
but we hit, exceeded it by 25.25. My apologies. And then when I go down to the strategic inputs, similar to what we, discussed before, but, again, the network structure, is very supportive. The learning walks in the first quarter, that was followed by support from the network teams, the use of data from the Horizon practice PSAT to identify the skills, and then, intentionally embedded PSAT practice and PSAT tools such as Desmos, which is graphing calculator. On slide 15, I'll just point out this the last bullet. The improvement seen in math may be supported specifically by the alignment of pacing guides
and assessments to key skills that students need. And then deeper integration again of the decimals into instruction, so it wasn't new to them when they sat down, in the digital format to take the assessment. They knew how to use the tool. Students know how to use the tool. So to summarize on slide 16, what will be our strategic response to continue to improve performance? Our high school leaders were engaged in item analysis of the middle year practice PSAT data to support identifying and planning to implement high leverage, actions prior to the administration of the official PSAT.
High school ELA and math instructional coordinators identified and shared with high school leaders, high leverage instructional actions to be taken during the start of the fourth quarter. And then for 2526, we'll continue building on the work of 2425. Of course, we'll implement the STAR assessment to monitor whether students are mastering grade level standards, which will provide educators and leaders more meaningful data. And then ninth grade educators will have PSAT data of their incoming students who took the horizon PSAT in eighth grade that they can use right from the very beginning
as students come into the door into our high schools in ninth grade, so they can plan instruction around building those skills and making sure they're prepared to take the the next exam. So with that, I will pause and open it up for questions. Thank you, superintendent. And before we get into the questions and or comments, I just wanted to remind the board of its own working agreement, as we have decided to abide by it, and it is in the agenda. And I believe, we have also said, few months back that we were no longer gonna monitor ourselves regularly,
but we would do it before we have our self eval. So, I believe today will be this month will be the month yes. Thank you, director, Gerken. So this month will be the month that we will self, self monitor because next month will be our self eval. And then director Tasker will be the one to, be the monitor, this time around. And that being said, the floor is open for questions and or comments. Doctor Kiki, I did have a question. Yes. Okay. First of all,
thank you for this report, and yay. It is exciting to to celebrate wins and improvement. I'm looking on slide nine at, you know, we talked about it's interesting how there's a dip from the beginning of the year to the midyear. And we know that, kids from one year to the next aren't it's not the same kids. Do do we know that these are the same students or from beginning of year to midyear? Is that monitored, or is it just whoever takes the test at the beginning and the middle?
There's probably not that much different, but I'm I'm just wondering. Yeah. So we we do monitor. I mean, obviously, at the beginning of the year, it's all students that are that are enrolled that, take the assessment. So midyear, it's all those students. Now we we do have some transition between those those months. We monitor what enrollment looks like, but it's majority. It's the same students from beginning to mid. But there is some variation, and it depends by school. We see more variation at some of our some of our high schools, compared to others. Thank you.
Any other question? It's hard to ask questions when the report is so thoroughly written. One one other thing I will say. I appreciate, superintendent, that you said we know hope's not a strategy, and And we know that. This is going to knock me down on questions, effective questions. But I just wanted to say that I appreciate that so much, because years ago, I was kind of taught maybe, not to talk about hope, which is the the exact opposite of who I am.
And so, while I appreciate that hope is not a strategy, I think when when students know that we are hopeful and encouraging and that we we believe in kids, that that does make a difference. So I just I just wanted to say that. I appreciate that. And you all have been in my office, and you know I have a big poster that if doctor Cornell West would ever come, he'd probably I'm sure I violated some some sort of law by creating that. But, I love his his line around being a prisoner of hope. I believe hope you know,
I we all have to remain hopeful in order to to to to achieve and to succeed. So maybe a better quote is, hope by itself isn't, you know, a strategy. So Thank you. Thank you, though. Thank you. I certainly, am excited about the results and, how well we are doing. But I was digging a little bit more and, looking into slide nine and ten. So we didn't hit the target. So I noticed that, in previous in previous, presentations, we are told or we at least
given reasons why the targets were not met and then and then the different strategies. I was trying to find the real reasons why. I see all of the positives, which is great, but I I I don't see why we didn't meet the target except for the last bullet point on slide 10, which says the the technical, administrative issue technical issue. So I was wondering if there were any additional
reason. Let me throw something out there that I I was I'm curious about. When I look at the performance in 2324, so the beginning of the year, 12.42%, mid midyear, 12.52. And then we have a target in '25 of 32%. That's a huge jump. And I I asked the question myself, how do we set a target that high when we were only at 12 the previous year? And not to say that we shouldn't be ambitious. I'm just curious as to that's a very huge jump. And and the the reason behind it was because in order to doing the math
of how we can measure whether our students on the horizon practice test will actually meet the goal that was set, by the board for the PSAT, then the target was set accordingly. However, I don't know that anybody would say using scientific reasoning to go from 12.42 to 32 in a year is, you know, feasible. So I I offer that as a question to that I think is worth considering. And that's why we're celebrating going from 12.5 to the 32 and missing the target by just 3.4
percentage points. That is absolutely true. But it says right there, target not met. Yeah. We sent it to you. I didn't say we did. I'm I agree with you. Question is, in the past, we are given reasons why the targets are not met. I am used to that tradition. So I'm asking so that together, we brainstorm and we figure it out. I am still in celebratory mood, mode. I still have to ask the question, and that's all I'm doing. We're in celebratory mood as well. Let's celebrate together.
And And and we still have some work to do. Right? Yeah. And I think to your point, doctor Kiki and and members of the board, we are actually digging deeply into this data. We've had an opportunity this year to align by network. We are focused on high school. High school principals are working together. High school teachers are working together. It's beautiful and different because we are starting to ask a lot of those questions around this disaggregated data that we need to find answers to. And regardless of that is whether that is an attendance,
is it the course that they are, enrolled in? Is it that they had other interventions or supports that that we have and will continue to look at as part of the reasons why. I know you asked earlier around the clarification of students who take it at the beginning of the year for those that take it the middle of the year. We need to look closely at that data. If a student took it at the beginning of the year and did not take it at the middle of the year, why was that? Vice versa. And so we want to ensure,
that we are able what has happened for us has been as we have started to dig into this data, we are having more and more questions. And so while we may not be able to provide you the exact reason why, I do want to assure you we are having real conversations. Like I said, from everything from attendance to the course trajectory that they're in to the courses that they took last year in order to look at what we need to do next. Because last year was the first time we were implementing, this tool.
Right? And we didn't meet the target last year. And but we said it's normal. It's the benchmark. We don't have enough data. It's brand new to everybody, both teachers and students. Let's see what that looks like. Also, the curriculum was still brand new. So I was just Yeah. I I think that's a great point, and I think it is true. It's our second year, and now we have trend data. And now when we see a year two, especially if our black and African American students going down, we have something to dig into. It's not a fluke.
It's something we have to seriously look at why is that the case. I can speak to some preliminary planning for next year to address it, and we will continue to dig into it. But first and foremost, all of our comprehensive high schools will have a big rock around the ninth grade experience. That's more than just the ninth grade transition plan. It is what are we doing to target our ninth grade students. We know that the research shows that our ninth graders, if they are not on track to graduate at the end of ninth grade, they have less of a chance of advisory support. How are we ensuring that our students who come in from eighth grade or significantly below in reading are getting intervention block.
And so that that work is happening right now. In addition to that, as you know, PLCs have been big in all of our schools for a few years. In high schools, it's still continuing to be some good work. But for the most part, our PLCs are focused on all the data, you know, holistic data, and we they haven't dug deep into those subgroups yet. And so we'll be working next year to have a more robust DDI process where, PLCs are digging into, subgroup population data to determine why are students not moving, why are we seeing these decreases, not just when we get to the,
benchmarks, but with our formative assessments as well that happen weekly and biweekly. So those are some preliminary plans we have right now to address this data, that is being demonstrated. And I'll I'll just add sorry. I just Go ahead. One piece to add on to doctor Graziani. Please. We're not doing this work alone either. So through the work of doctor Graziani and doctor Toussaint, our high schools are gonna be in a UVA cohort for the very first time digging into this work very specifically of looking at ninth the ninth grade experience that doctor Graziani just pointed to.
Not only working internally about APS, but also a part of that UVA experience is connecting with other districts. So a wider web about what are those practices that ensure ninth grade success. So not only do we have some internal systems that we're tweaking or doing differently, but we're also engaged in partners that are gonna help us do this work, over the next several years. Thank you. Director Duncan. Is the horizon test mandatory for students to take?
It is. Yes. There's no I mean, you don't opt out of it like you can for CMAST or PSAT SAT. So how are students able to take it at the beginning of the year but not middle of the year? I think what we're referring to is students who withdraw middle of the year. Yeah. I don't need to ask my second question then. Thank you, director Duncan. I was also looking, at slide eight, I think. So So when we look at what is it? So we took let's take e the EBR, w first.
Right? When you take black students, in '22 in '23, '20 '4, they came in at 19.6%. Right? Then that's beginning of the year. Middle of the year, it dipped a little bit. The following year, 2425, came in at 44%. And then middle of the year, it dipped again. Then we go to slide I think it is slide, 13, which is the math,
Beginning of the year, 2324. '20 '4 percent. Middle of the year, 23%. 24, 20 five, 20 six percent. And then middle of the year, shut up. I was wondering so this beginning of the beginning of the year, so that means that these are nine these are eighth graders that freshly come into ninth grade? They take it in September, so it's, like, a month and a half. But, essentially yes. Yeah. So they I thought they were taking it three months down,
but they take it freshly. There's about a month I have in school first. Yes. So these are eighth graders. Right? So they come in, and it seems like they come in strong. And then for some reasons, it dips a little bit in the middle of the year. And I was wondering, like, what's going on? What is happening? Did you guys notice that trend? Did you guys try to analyze that trend to figure out? And then the other thing I noticed is,
like, they come in strong in math. They they kinda stay strong in math, but, like, the dip in in ELA is, like so what are what is being done in math that could be replicated as well in ELA? So these are two prone questions. You are asking all the same questions that we've been asking. And so we are deep in. I'm just gonna repeat what I said a little bit earlier as well, but we're deep into our analysis Okay. Of really looking at that. So, similarly,
when I said around even attendance, are students attending more math classes than they are ELA classes? When we look at the courses that they're enrolled in, is there any difference that we're seeing when we have that trend data around courses that kids are enrolled and our students are enrolled in? I would say on the instructional aspects as well, we have had a focus this year on writing, and I'll let you hop in when you want to. And we know that writing and reading are correlated and integrated in all subject areas, but we we need our students to be able to write.
And our focus this year for both teacher professional learning as well as some of the leader work has been around writing and integrating that. We've also, worked for next year to incorporate common formative assessments that include a writing assessment so that we can really start to analyze and look at student work closely to help determine where they need to go next and what supports might they need or what instruction might they need next in order to improve. To that point, our current ELA,
benchmarks in high school don't have a writing component. And so we do plan to add a writing component to it next year so that teachers progress measure to build upon from year to year. As Jen said, we are still digging into the data as to the why, but an initial hypothesis is there's a writing component that is missing. Appreciate it. Director Duncan? Yeah. That's actually what I was gonna ask about was the writing. I applaud you all for taking the steps to improve the writing. I think that is a struggle for a lot of students, not at the high school level, but grades below.
Who grades the writing in the Horizon test? Do the teachers have to go back and grade, or is the system grading the writing? So currently, Horizon doesn't have a writing component because within the PSAT, they also they also don't write, but there's writing elements to it. So being able to identify, you know, misconceptions when it comes to grammar and conventions and, how to answer questions correctly in regards to writing. But with our new benchmark, with writing, and you know a little bit more about this, the the grading part is going to be generated through AI.
Correct? Yes. So what does a w stand for? An e b r w? Writing. It is writing. Okay. That's okay. Cool. I thought I was tripping. Alright. I wanna go to We we have to take that above our our our pay grade there in that one. But Thank you. Any other questions, Boyd? I have a couple thoughts Ma'am more than questions. I was using my teacher voice earlier. I'm gonna use it again. First of all, thank you. This is exciting to see the amount of growth. I think we can never lose sight of we're looking at two different groups of students when we go previous year to the current year.
It's a completely new class of students. New challenges for them, new challenges for educators, new challenges for all of you working with everybody else in all these buildings. And, I'm very excited to watch and see this coming into place as consistent curriculum, consistent expectations, consistent planning, because often in education, we can't get there fast enough, and we throw it out before we know if it really worked. That's not just not giving it opportunity and time, but that's money, that's energy, that's a whole lot of waste that doesn't always need to happen.
Sometimes there's something that you know just isn't gonna work, and you do it, and you move on. But I'm very glad to see that there are consistent pieces being put in place, not just for the students, but for people behind the learning of the curriculum, of the teaching of that curriculum, of the building the understanding with it for themselves and the students in front of them. Because we're not always given that time. And when you're learning it on the run and teaching, how many other things are coming before you? It's hard to do. So just just some thoughts as the broad picture.
We look and we say we wanna get there. We wanna get all of us to, I think. But sometimes you gotta let it come. You gotta let it work. You gotta test it. It might not work in trial one, but then become something outstanding in trial two. So patience is a virtue. Most definitely. Patience is a virtue. I was also wondering as I was reading this. I think it's on slide 16, the strategic responses, which are great. I really appreciate every single one of them.
But I kinda got hung up on the sub bullet in bullet number three. APS will implement the STAR assessment to monitor whether and it goes on. Is that an additional test? Is is that an additional test that will be added to the horizon? Or please. Are you good? Right. The STAR assessment is something that we have piloted with a few schools this year. We actually had one of our high schools come to us and say, hey. We want to try something. Actually had one of our high schools come to us and say, hey. We want to try something new to see if we can get some additional data. And so our ELA high school coordinator has worked with a couple of schools to
pilot the STAR assessment. It is a screener and diagnostic assessment. It takes about twenty minutes. It's much shorter than some of the other assessments that we've used in the past. And it will be used three times throughout the course of the year to inform instruction for all of our high school students. So, this will be new next year. You asked the question, is this in addition to? It is new. Right now, the current assessment that we use with high school is the I Ready assessment for those students that are on an I,
a read plan. And so, that is the shift there is we will not be taking the I Ready assessment for our high school students on a read plan. We will be using the star assessment. Just add on to that. So we also currently do benchmarks for ELA. So students in, general English classes take a benchmark four times a year. This will also replace that. And students in AP classes, IB classes, they don't take that benchmark because it doesn't align with the curriculum. STAR, when we implement it next year, all students will take it.
So it's gonna give data to all teachers on how their students are progressing throughout the year. To Jen's point, it's a replacement, but it is not as extensive. It is twenty minutes. It's a quick diagnostic, which is gonna give our teachers a lot of great data to help them, plan accordingly. So it will be a replacement to iReady? It'll be a replacement to iReady and to the benchmarks. Okay. And the way we have it paced out right now, it's it's it's pretty spaced out, so there's not assessment on top of assessment. So we're getting we are getting rid of two sub diagnostic testing,
replacing it with one that is hopefully comprehensive and providing much more data. Nice. Yes. That sounds great. Do we use that at the elementary level too? I know some districts do, but we're still using I Ready. What is if there is a standout difference between I Ready and star? I have a little familiarity with it at the elementary level, not giving it to secondary students, but if there is a real difference, what is it? So we will still be using I Ready for our k through eight students for
next year. The biggest difference is are you aware of a lot of the differences? Do you can you speak to that or no? I know I know the differences for high school. And the high school, it it it I already only test up to eighth grade and eighth grade standards. STAAR gives you high school standards. So the reports that teachers are gonna get when they're looking at the STAAR reports are gonna give them ninth grade, tenth grade standards that they can build upon. And we're talking ELA. Right? Is it available in in math? It is at elementary. I know. I just I I don't have no secondary background. It is avail available in both English language arts and math.
We are only using it for English language arts at this time. And I think that's where we are at the point you just asked about STAR and I Ready and what's the difference. And so this is our first opportunity to really look at that and see what's working, what information is it that teachers need that's gonna help them best plan for their students. So starting to to really ask those questions around what assessments are needed and how will we use them. Also, I just wanted to add the writing assessment that Jen mentioned all earlier,
the CFA in writing as well, which is gonna happen four times or three times over the year. Can you repeat that again? Sure. Jen had mentioned earlier, when, director Duncan talked about the w in e, b r. So she mentioned the writing assessment, also, which is a common formative assessment in writing to, assess students' writing over the year. So the STAR assessment, I believe, Jen, is about twenty minutes. The writing assessment is about four thirty, with AI tools to help grade.
Thank you. Any other question? I was begged not to ask that question, but I can't help myself. It is like No. The question I'm about to ask. So we we exceeded expectation in 04/2003, and this is exciting. But I was I was curious. I know this is for black and Hispanic. I can see the data here. How are okay. Let me ask it this way. Does that mean that we are closing the gap for black and Hispanic,
compared to their other peers, Because that's the whole entire goal. Right? That's the whole entire goal. And, again, I don't know if I should apologize for asking a question that is way outside of this focus, but I was just curious for equity purpose. Like, does that mean we're closing the gap? Are we closer to close the gap? How are the, you know, the other ones even doing? Because oftentimes, we focus so much on one group, and then the other one dips as well. So, again, I know it's, like, completely outside of this focus,
but I could not help myself. No. I think it's a fair question, doctor Kiki. I think the best thing for us to do, though, is maybe send that, in a follow-up because we don't have that data right in front of us. I think all this tells us is the progress we're seeing in the specific group that we were asked to report on. But we can pull that together and then send it to you all. I think it's a fair question. I appreciate that. I appreciate that. Thank you. Any other question, Boyd? Hearing none. Thank you so much, Steph. We really appreciate your hard work, and thank you, teachers. Thank you for hanging in there. And thank you, superintendent,
for your hard work as well. So I am left to ask this question then. Does the board agree that the report address the board's goal? I appreciate the whole team. And that takes care of our monitoring for the for this month. Doctor Duncan, were you able to take time? How much did we spend? We're done with monitoring. We're gonna move into community engagement here in a minimum. We're at forty three minutes twenty eight seconds. Thank you so, so much. And, director Tasker, are you ready to give a summary of your monitoring?
Yeah. I could share what I captured. For the for the most part, all the questions were great. They're fabulous. We're asking smart questions. They were data driven, open ended, and strategic. It led to great conversation. And I wanna encourage us to keep doing the great work that we're doing and ask the smart questions and hold ourselves accountable. And then you'll receive the transcription of those questions at a later date. Thank you so much, director Tasca. Now I wanted us to, dive into the our community engagement project.
An email was sent, and I do see that so when you open the email, two emails was sent. One was, for the board, listening session where, Claudia and I spent some time and and kinda clean cleaned up the, that spreadsheet, for outreach groups and engagement groups and then, tried our best to, find contact information and all of that. And I believe, you were asked to
put which one we should delete, which one we should keep, and all of that. Director Gherkin, the ones that you, suggested, we took care of it immediately because while we were working on it, it was coming. So Claudia and I were able to. Director Reinhardt, is asking that we delete a few. I wanted you I wanted the board to look at it and see if it's okay to delete those. I'll just say quickly, though, I think I put delete on two neighborhood association groups because when I tried to contact them previously, I could never find a person contact.
I mean, that's that's fair. Could be different now. But so how do we feel about it? Just right. Okay. Go ahead and delete that. Meet outreach. And for the engagement group, when you look, I I tried my best to find a point of contact. I obviously did not fill the whole column out. So this is what I offer. Whoever is the is board number one or together with board number two,
you can figure out the point of contact and put that on the sheet and then also, set up the up the time, the date, and and the location and let us know the type of meeting it is going to be. I see that some of us have already started to, put their names down. Please, continue to choose who is going to be board member one or board member two, and then start reaching out. Yes,
director Reinhart. May I ask a clarifying question, ma'am? Maybe just because this was a couple weeks ago and my brain went wherever. Clarify outreach group as compared to engagement group, please. So we grappled with that. And I'm not the only one. No. You're not. No. You're not. When you look at those two seriously, we could even merge these two because Outreach, from what I understand, is, I think it's yes. It's when we, go to to the stakeholders, and then engagement is when they come to us,
when we host it. K. But when you look at those two documents, really, there are stick you know, we are going to host very little, if if not nothing. It seems like the majority of it is gonna be for us going out to those stakeholders. So quite frankly, we could merge these two, these two columns. Did you say engagement? We would go out tonight. Am I Engagement. We will reverse. This We will host. We will host if when it's engagement, we'll host it.
Okay. And they'll come to us. And then, doctor, and I ask the rest of the directors. It also means, like, when we speak to these individuals Mhmm. That can change. Right? And then maybe we we I'm assuming even sending a survey. Maybe if they wanna send out a survey to the communities and options. So it's really just working with those contacts and their groups to figure out what's the best way to get in what works for them. That's the reason why there's the type. When you look, whether it's in outreach or engagement, you have different columns, and one of the last columns is type.
When you do the drop down, they would let us know if they prefer in person or Or both. Virtual or both or if they just want the survey. Kinda like the like the EPAC. Right? Right. If we're ready. So yeah. So based on that, I added the black parent network to this, and then that's the info Danielle had asked Claudia to send out to all of us in an email today. It's this flyer. Mhmm. I had talked to Stephanie Mason about this Mhmm. Who is very engaged in this. And they're doing this May 24 between 9AM and 2PM.
And as I talked to her, she said you guys could have a table. You could have a survey, ask people. They're gonna vendors every it it's to be a pretty big deal. Yeah. So I put my name on there. I won't be here that weekend. I have to go to fifth grade continuation out of state. But if anybody is available to attend that event, if we could choose to have a survey available, we could choose to have a couple of us us there for an hour, for two hours just to talk to folks. They're expecting a pretty good turnout That's great. At this event because they'll have various vendors available.
Mhmm. So if that's Something we wanna think about. I'm happy to continue to coordinate it. I cannot physically attend on May 24. And and thank you for connecting that dot. I didn't even think of that when I sent it out. I'm glad you did. It made me remember. Great. And then, yeah, I I will probably be be there. So, yeah, I'm happy to continue working with them and you to figure out what that would look like. I'll reach out to you then. Perfect. Amazing. So you will find out the location and all of that. It's at Paris, isn't it? Yes. Yes. That's in the flat. Yeah. It's and so I I think that's a a good point that as we're talking
through this with the contact people, you know, even I'm I'm trying to get a confirmation still on Aurora Rotary. Well, it might they might say come on down, but they might only have thirty minutes instead of an hour. So it would be is it okay for everyone if we adjusted sort of the format? That's what I was thinking. So or they might say ask to survey it. Just survey it. Yeah. So I mean More detail on this. Yeah. So if it's a say, let's we wanted to have because this is a come and go. People will come in and out of this event all day.
We wanted to have a survey available. Where do we draw that from so it's consistent with what we're trying to do? If we wanted to have a paper survey right there, a QR code scan, do it on your phone, I I don't know. I and I think that's possible. So that leads us to the other email that was sent that I forwarded from, Greg, and I believe Greg is in line, to answer any additional questions that I cannot. But, director Reinhart, if you remember the email from Greg with the sir the the scripts and all
of that, there are a few, there are two links on there. One is the the survey, And I believe, in the body of the email, Greg does say that the the survey can be on paper format as well, and we could also turn it into a QR code and, you know, the possibilities that with you? Yeah. Thank you. You had asked two questions about that Yeah. The survey part. One of them was you know, you'd said, I'm not sure we need all this, demographic data,
for instance. And and I was trying to think, I don't know that we need that either unless we were gonna use it specifically. And we hadn't talked about using it specifically. I mean, if we'd use it, then, yeah, keep it. But at this point, I'd agree with you and say or maybe I'm not agreeing with you. But I I would say let it go. I don't think we need it unless we have a specific purpose for using it. That's the reason. I I did, I did. And I asked I asked Greg a little bit. That's the reason why I asked him to to come on,
to be on standby and and because he started to explain, and I said, well, hold on. Probably better if you can explain it to the whole board so we can understand the, the purpose of that. So hi, Greg. Good evening, y'all. It's nice to be with you. Go nuggets. I watched last night. The so the only coaching around the demographic questions is simply so that months from now, when you are talking with community members about new goals and new guardrails and they're
like, well, you know, I didn't fill out the survey, you know, who even filled out the survey, you know, and who who even engaged? You you as a board wanna be able to say clearly that you heard from a fully representative, you know, sample of Aurora. And part of how you show you not just say it, but you have evidence, of that. And so that's why the demographic questions but what boxes you ask people to fill out or check out or what groups or the kinds of demographic, identities you want to include, that you should definitely, put your fingers on and and make it work for Aurora.
But the idea of being able to make sure that you've heard from a representative sample, that is the purpose behind collecting the demographic information. Thank you. That makes sense. Yeah. However, I still I'm I'm looking at it, and I don't know if all of these demographics, like, match our our community. Right? So I don't know if the board has any idea that we could, brainstorm on now so that, you know, we capture and then Greg and, you know, the council can will help us fix that. Can you give me the date of that email so I can just pull it
up real quickly? Ma'am. Or I can I can So Claudia just sent it to us? Oh, thank you. Just reforwarded it. Is it this four question online and you could fill it out and submit it that we're talking about? Yep. Yes. So it includes, are you Hispanic or Latino? And it asks, how do you identify within the APS community? I like that question. And do you live within the bound physical boundaries of APS? I struggle with that, but it makes sense after he explained. Right? What are your thoughts? It it does to me. Okay. Yeah. Because to me.
Me. However Mhmm. Is there I'm still looking to get this up here. But is there is there a question of do you are you a business owner within the boundaries of APS? I mean, I can understand that you would you would look to know are you a what kind of stakeholder are you? It is in there. Okay. Employer, business partner, and then there's also district vendor, parent, gen eds, fed, district employee, educator, classified, tribal community member, future parent. Tribal community member.
I don't think we need Yeah. I'm I'm not sure about that. I'm not sure because I've seen that anywhere before. And then there's a none. In the checkbox, it says none. So is that do you want should I delete tribal community member from that? We think so. You're doing a you're doing a quick, keep change, modify keep, delete, modify. Mhmm. So we good are we good with district employee classified? Are you good, Trejo? Go again to find it? I I'm just sitting. Are we good with district employee classified? We keep that? The employee surveys are given broken down that way,
aren't they? There's a classified and a certified and a APT and a mic? Some people are a district employee and a parent. Mhmm. Can they check two boxes? Yes. Or okay. Yep. Mhmm. What about general education parent? Is that a box we wanna keep? As opposed to special education parent. Oh, I guess we keep it in. Down. General education parent, special education parent. Can I do that? I think it's important to get. District vendor So let me let me ask. Yeah. What are we doing with these,
like, with the different information that we get from this question? So for classified district employee, I think all district employees are educators. But what what are we doing with the different responses that we get from the different Yeah. Is it just within this question. Is it just to say we're well represented? We got a group sample across the board, across the employee board, across the stakeholder board in general? Go ahead. Great. The main purpose is to just to make sure that you are that when you're all done, let you know, with all this with this round of listening that you feel,
yeah, we heard from enough voices from all these different groups that represent you know, so we feel like we have a representative sample of of Aurora. That's the main purpose. If you want some of the data analyzed, you know, what did this group say, this group we we can do some of that analysis in addition to the overall analysis for sure. And then is there a better word than because I agree, with director Duncan's comment about everyone's an educator. Is there a better is it is is certificated the word? What what what would be the right thing for you all? Employee classified.
Employee licensed. Licensed. Licensed? Yeah. Yeah. So just to be crystal clear, there's a few questions here that that regard demographic data, and you all can ask as many of them or as few of them as you want, and you can have as many choices or as few choices as you want, and you can decide what the choices are. Our coaching is simply that you just wanna be able to say on the back end that you know and you have evidence that you heard from a representative sample of the community. Yeah. I mean, I'm I'm not trying to be satisfied. I don't want to make sense for the people that are gonna be reading it. Mhmm.
I I I personally excuse me. I feel like it should just be district employee as a selection. It should be a a parent as a selection. As a parent, I would feel uncomfortable saying I'm a gen ed parent or a special education parent. That's really a good point. Mhmm. Yeah. We we could definitely make those changes. And parents if I have a parent and I have, you know, children with special needs and children without, I could check both boxes. But however whatever you want. So is that the I just want it's I can hear you better than I can see you all. And so, I, you know, I only wanna make the changes that you're crystal clear on as a board.
So but whatever they are, we will make them. So to make sure, we are clear, director Duncan, instead of having district employee classified, district employee educator, you rather, just have district employee all? Yeah. That would that would be mine. Instead of having it broken now. Yeah. How does how does that sound to everybody? Would you see the need or value of making sure that we in the future, we can say that we got certain amount responses from our teachers. I guess that's what I just wanna make see, do we do feel we need that?
Do we know me? I just I just asked, what are we gonna do with that information? I think if I back to what I think Craig was saying is that if somebody asked, like, hey. You got these 2,000 responses, but how many of these were teachers? We could at least have some sort of data to go back to. And how many were parents? And how many were parents. I think those are the general questions that people normally ask. Right? It's like, how many of these were actually parents, and then how many of these were, did we get the teachers' voices represented as part of this? That's what, you know Were these questions asked last time y'all went out?
We had we did everything virtually, I think. I don't know. I don't remember. And it was a if it was also a different time. Right? We're, like, right in the middle of It was like, the beginning of This is two. Pandemic times, and I don't think we did demographic stuff. But we offered virtual, several virtual gatherings. Yes. And we said teachers, parents, that kind of thing, but but we don't know how, you know, people mixed up in all of that. So So do we have anything was not broken down.
Correct. So do we see a value to break down, that data in our analysis so that we know or we we we shouldn't worry about that. I I think it's important because I know it's a question that's asked a lot. Like, when you get the data out of these 2,000 people, how many teachers were part of this. Right? And parents. Mhmm. It's something that the community ask quite often. Like, what they wanna see, who are these voices. Right? Is it the same voices we keep hearing from all the time or, you know, done? Right.
I I agree. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, no. I was just I was thinking at the same time as what I was going to say. But, yeah, I think it's best to disaggregate the data between, like, for instance, district employee classified, district employee educator, because it'll it will definitely help, like, looking within the future because I noticed that that is the question that comes up a lot just within for instance, I can give an example through, like, board meetings that we have through our board meetings. You'll someone will ask if we have what if it's whether it's how it's broken
down. But it's sometimes information that we have to go back and pull or they may not have, and they have to go back and look at it, and then they'll send it out. So I think it's, good to disaggregate that. Just Just making sure we have representation from across our community. Right? So let me play devil's advocate here as I always do, really. Mhmm. Say we get 10,000 respondents and 8,000 or less I'm a save a larger number. 9,000 are district employees. Is that credible data to use to then go out and say these are our
new goals for the community? You're right on that. Greg, you remember in our conversation, I did ask this type of quite a question similar. So what do we do if we realize that one group, right, is more represented than the other? And I believe your response was then there might be a need to go back and resurvey. Well, I wouldn't the only twist on that, I would say, is I wouldn't say, necessarily, resurvey. All the data you got is still the data you got, but the board only the board can decide when it's done sufficient listening.
When you have, you know, heard from your community to the extent you feel you need to. So in that scenario of, I think it was, you know, 10,000 respondents and 9,000 are, district employees, if if that represents, you know, if the board decides that that works, then the board can move forward, but the board has to make that call. And and if the board decides, you know what? We really need to hear from more, students or parents. In addition, we're not gonna throw out the data for, you know, the 9,000, then then the board could make a decision to, specifically host more,
you know, opportunities and and advertise them specifically to those groups and try and get more responses. Yeah. Well, that's how we started. Right? We only had a few people that showed up at our first community event. Right? And that's how we built our list as well because we were very strategic in who we wanted to hear from. So I think it's important that we capture that. And then to Greg's point, like, yeah, if it turns out that we only got 1% or one type you know, list demographics, then it's our responsibility to make sure that we do that outreach to the other communities that we're representing.
I just wanna I just want us to be mindful of the timeline that we have ourselves on about it having this done by September. I I I just feel like with us have talking about leaving this dis disaggregated question in the survey is gonna have more work for us to do because it may unveil questions that we need to uncover, which is gonna prolong us moving past September into doing this work. So, I mean, hey. If that's what we choose to do, we choose to do it, but I don't think we should be welcoming more work when we already know we're in a short timeline.
I I I want to know, I think. I want to know that teachers have replied. Parents have replied. Students have replied. And we can say what age group of students, but parents, teachers, students, other district employees, not classroom facing, but others, and then other stakeholders, whether you know, we can define that. Yeah. That's a good call out. We don't have students on this list. I was yeah. Is there a way you want me to cap just student? Do you want, you know, a breakdown of student?
Before you break down, you would be getting a chance. Well, I can't I think I said just students. Yeah. And I think well, I think we're still having a conversation if we do need that many breakdowns. So maybe it's just parent, like you said. I mean, I would like to call out teachers because I think that's important Yep. And students. So we can make those three call. I don't yeah. And then maybe others like district employee, but oh, non teachers. I don't know how to say that. This is what I captured from what director Gherkin said. Teachers, parents, students, other district employees, and other stakeholders. I don't know why we'll put others,
but I guess, I don't know. Be community members. Other community members. Yeah. Clergy. They don't they don't have, parent. They're they're not a parent or a guardian of a kiddo. They're I like that better than none of the above. Yeah. And I would add if by combining some of these parents, sometimes when parents enroll their students in our schools, they're coming in. And on your enrollment form, you can check whether or not your student has an IEP or special needs or anything along those lines, and they'll skip it because they don't wanna share it.
So I don't know that we need that special education parent selection on there. Some people don't even classify their IEP. Would you use your my Some some people don't even, like, categorize their kids as special ed. Right. So I always say you're a special ed parent when I don't even look at my kid as special ed. Special ed. So let me sometimes it's just not something a parent wants to put out there. And granted, we wouldn't know who did it or how many didn't check it who have students with disabilities, but I don't think that needs to be broken down like that.
Yeah. Right. I agree. So I think we could just leave it as future parent and then or parent. And then what parent? Just parent. Yeah. That's APS parent. Just parent. Parent, teacher, other dish other district employees, like the Sorry. Student district. And Community member? Community member. That's five. Let me repeat what I have written down. Teachers, parents, students, other district employees, other stakeholders, other community members. Did I miss anything? Just it's I would say other community member instead of Stakeholders.
Stake other stakeholders. So it should be five groups. So Take off stakeholders. Okay. Keep everything else. And say other community member. Yep. So that does simplify it, and that captures, I think, key stakeholders. Stakeholders will fall within Other community other community groups. Yeah. And then, obviously, any employee other than teachers will fall within other district employees. K. Any other idea? The only question is just because I don't know how many people real know on this really matter is, the physical boundaries of APS.
I don't know how if people know that for certainty if they fall within APS boundary. I know for I I I I think okay. So here's one idea. I think teachers would like to be called licensed employees. Okay. Okay. So not teachers. Just replace that with licensed employees? Okay. We have other licensed employees who aren't teachers. So if if you're wanting just teachers And then and then teachers. And then that will add you know, it would it would be, like, the nurses, the But then the other Wouldn't that go back to director Duncan's point of just
saying district employees? I don't know, but I know that. Licensed employees will include all of these folks, teachers. I am saying that because the president of the union is nudging. And she's also referencing SSPs, special service providers that are not listed at CPARS. It is. Another title. So so who They're all licensed. So the question for the board is then, whom do we want to make sure that we're hearing from? Student facing? Is that just I don't know. I think if it's licensed employees and
did you say something beside who said something besides licensed or just teachers? Other district employees? Other district employees. Other Was that license is a big broad bucket, if you will. Teachers, SSPs, admin, PT. Other is all classified. I don't know. Because APT and that that would all go under licensed. So we leave it as two. One is licensed employees, and then the other one is other district employees or classified employees. It would be classified just like the Is one district. I've surveys are but they're broken down even more so with the licensed category.
I think just licensed and classified. Okay. Is one opinion I'm sorry to repeat. Opinion more, like, received than the other? Like, why do we need to decipher between the two? It goes back to what director Tom Wing was saying that we wanna know, right, who I don't think there's I don't think anybody's more valued than the other or any group is more valued than the other. It's just to have receipt of how Yeah. You know, the percentage of That we feel confident that we got a good response from our
teachers. So then we need to disaggregate student step. Right? So we should have students by race. So we can ensure that we got I think I'm just saying. So we so we're sure we have a great representation of our demographics within the system. Right? Because we can put arguments on each one of these. And, again, I'm not trying to really be combative. I just want this survey to be digestible for the people who we're preparing it for. So you recommend less is more. I mean, that's your thinking in general.
Yes. Because if not Certainly easy language. Well, because if not, I'm a open this up. I'm speaking as a parent. I'm a open this up. Oh, that's a long survey. Click. We wanted something else. That's just how Yeah. That makes sense. Well, they do have race. So if you choose student survey, though. It is it really is. I mean, by the time you scroll down, you are at the end. Yeah. Would I would think the race, I yeah. It does it does have race and and it does It's fine. For the what? Sorry. So I'm just saying if the person chooses a student, you can also they they have their demographic included there under race.
So that does break it down unless I'm missing something. That question stays on there. How do you identify? Mhmm. Oh. We did we did say that we we want that question to stay. Right? Or are we gonna We said yes. Which question? How do you identify? Okay. Yeah. The only suggestion I would make, and I might have missed it, is when we're when we're talking about how do you identify your race, instead of selecting one option, we make it multiple selections because people identify as more than one. There there is the option that says two or more, though. Just FYI.
I don't know if that answers your question, but Yeah. There is the two or more. K. We can fix that. I still like the I don't know how everyone else feels, But being within my studies, it would probably be best to have a selection. That's fine. We it's that's the easiest thing to fix. But I'll do are we good with the different, the how to identify the community? So what we come down to? Thank you for the question. So licensed employees, other district employees, parents,
students, and other community members. How does that sound? I like it. We're all good with that? Just just Go ahead. I don't know how this works in Aurora, but, like, the and I've captured that. The language of, like, other district employee or other community member, is that do people feel comfortable with that language? Because it could be, like, licensed employee as one option and district employees who are not licensed as opposed to other. I just wasn't sure. Like like, o u. Yeah. I hear that. And what if it's more specific and it's licensed employee,
classified employee, and then APT? Because people in the APT grouping, if you will, are going to know what that means. That's true. Okay. Say it again. Licensed, classified, but then add, a p t, as it which is admin professional technical. And Okay. And I would suggest maybe because, director Duncan thought folks might have a like, this is a long list. If parent was number one on the list Mhmm. Or student was number you know, if those are one or two Mhmm. Then that's pretty easy to I I'm the I'm the parent.
And then they don't have to study all the way through to come up with where they where they fit in that. Thank you. What about the rest of the questions on this, on this form? Looks great. The survey questions themselves, we're asking. Well, I know we we already talked through this. I like that there's just four questions. Question three and question four, though, I was wondering if I weren't a parent or a guardian, if I, you know, how would you describe your experience within your school community? Or what are your expectations of the school when you send your student?
Now I don't have a student, or I haven't been in a school for years. You know, how would we Well, you could also put because I've seen surveys do this as well. We can also remove the question. Speak a little louder. Yeah. We can remove the question if you all like. But, how I've seen surveys, if the question doesn't apply, you just put NA, and that would take care of it. I think people that don't have students currently enrolled could answer, if they chose to, the third one with you live around that school.
You you express what's happening in the community, your neighborhood around the school, maybe. And, definitely, you could put NA on anything. Yeah. And I don't if a future parent is an option, then I I would assume if I'm taking the time as a future parent to fill this survey out, then I know what my expectations or should know what my expectations are when I send my student to school. Right. Future parent is no longer Yeah. Future parents will not into this parent. But I I think the way the question is, like, is, like, how do you identify within the com UPS community? And so if you identify as a parent,
future or not, they would choose parent. Right? Mhmm. The way the question's phrased. Like, how do you identify? Like, what it how do you see yourself within the KPS? How are you being represented? And if they they choose parent, then they'll answer the questions. If I don't have any kids, I'm not gonna choose parents. If you don't have kids, does that does that mean you Right. Yeah. But does that mean you don't have as a business owner, does that mean I don't have expectations of what a student should be receiving in school? Absolutely. You do. Do. So should we shorten that question and take off the student part?
So it's like, what are your expectations of the school and not just leave it at that of the school community or what are your expectations? Yeah. Just leave it at, like, what are what are your expectations of the school and take off, though, when you send your student so that it applies to everyone. What do you all think? I think that's inclusive. Could it be something like, what are your expectations of the school for your community and or for your student students? I like that one. Can you repeat it again to HOA, or ask hard questions?
What are your expectations of the school for your community and or for your students when, when attending, when you for your student for your student? Student. Yeah. Thank you. Certainly. Any other thought on this form? Greg, do those rewrites of those two one or two questions make sense? Does it make better sense? Okay. Well, so that last one, you're trying to make sure that non parents feel like they can access that question
when they aren't sending a student to the so I I get the problem we're trying to solve. I I what I heard was, what are your expectations of the school for your community and or for your student? Student. Correct. Okay. So, yeah, I think people I think it's reasonable that people will I mean, you'll see what you get. If you find what we can do is we can certainly, as you start to collect responses, you know, we can start to share some of the the information, and if, if you're not feeling like you're quite getting what you want,
you you can you could you could maybe add a question, you know, or something like that, if you really felt like. Ideally, you you get it all sorted out in the beginning, but better to to make a small adjustment and and and make sure you're getting the information you need. Like, if you find the question is just, like, not a valid item, you know, if you're not getting the responses you thought you'd get. Yeah. So what about this for number three? Again, thinking of non parent. Mhmm. How would you describe your experience of the school within your community or within your
neighborhood? Or say that again? Well, there's something like it reads now, how would you describe your experience within your school community? Mhmm. Someone could still say, I don't have a school community. But you do live in a community where there's a school. How would you describe your experience with the school in your community? How would you describe your experience with the school in your community? Or maybe we need an and or like Vicky added. Sorry. Director Reinhart added in the fourth question with, how would you describe
your experience of your child's school or the school in your community or something like that. Because they're trying to get it the school that they attend. Mhmm. The the student might be attending. Mhmm. Is that is that just too wordy, director Duncan? I appreciate your your concern and and your attention to that. I do. So I I I truly want your opinion on it. Could you use the mic, please, sir? Are we trying to eliminate question number four? No.
We're trying to reword rewrite it. You Reword it. Revise it inclusively. We're we're trying to rewrite number three. Three? Yes. Because I think we did number four. But it sounds to me, if we switch it to what you're asking, how is it not getting at the same thing that number four is getting at? One is experience, number three. And number four is here's my expectations, which could be different. Whatever works for you. Thank you. And four specifically states when you send your student. What was the first before you put and or into that restatement of the third one?
What did you say? I said something like, how would you describe your experience with the school in your community? I like that. Okay. Just like that. That's just me. Everyone agrees with that? Are we good with that that rewording? Yes, ma'am. K. We'll export director Greg in. Okay. So we reworded, question four and question three, and then we shortened the identifying with the community boxes. Okay. Are we good with this one? Yes. I do have another thing because, going back to the raise question because this is my studies and it's so important
to me. When we're looking at everything, there's African American. But when we say Asian, we just say Asian and not include Asian American. And that's, very important to make sure we include that. Okay. Any other one? And then so if we make it a selection, I would say take off the two or more races and keep the other or prefer not to answer. I think the two or more races has this thing. Just gonna stick to myself. The two or more races. Okay. Yeah. Well, I don't know. I was saying if we make it a selection that they can select between the
boxes, select multiple. But if not, the two or more races is fine. Okay. Right. What I hear you saying is that, by by selecting your by self selecting Yeah. Then you are self selecting the two or more. It's not just Yes. Any two. That's correct. Yes. Yeah. Sure. Great. I like that. Sounds great. So do we decide to remove the two or more or keep it? I think we decide to remove it because then we're gonna have multi select on the different races. And make sure we say check all that apply. I'm ready to get out of here too,
but I'm a throw a curveball in here again. So what if we remove two or more, and the race that I identify with is not on that list for me to select? You have other and then or if you're uncomfortable with answering, they'll prefer not to answer. And can on the other choice, can you also write in what the other is if you'd like? We should include that. We'll we'll can But would that would be too difficult, actually, if we have a write in.
That would be too. I think it's easier. I think I think we're making it very complicated. We're gonna keep two or more because in all of the surveys in APS, there's always been two or more. So that's gonna stay, but I'm okay with making it instead of making one select making it one selection, it will be an up an an option to select anyone that anybody likes, including if you're Hispanic, black, and African American, and also Caucasian, you will have an opportunity to check all four boxes Okay.
Including two or more. And then also change the Asian tab, Asian or Asian American. Do we have to make a difference between Asian and Asian American? Yes. Tell me a lit tell me a little bit more. With going in my studies. Outside of your study, tell me a little bit. Yeah. It's important to identify that because, for instance, some I'll use black or African American. Some people, for instance, I actually would change that too. But, anyway, some people may have origins within that country and some people may classify themselves as
also having origins within being in Asia and America. So it's essential. If you do it for one, say, black or or African American, you have to do it and be inclusive for the other. I agree. K. So Asian or Asian American? Yeah. That's fine. Okay. And then we keep the give this. And our DEI expert agrees with that. Alright. So anything else? We're keeping the two or more, though. Anything else? Alright. How about we look at the, APS Board of Education listening session?
How does that one look? I'm not in the script. The script. The script. So, Greg, did you wanna explain why, this second form, you you offered the second form for the sake of the board? Sure. So you just went through the form that, survey participants will will review. The second form is just an offering for board members, in the moment, like, as you're listening. If you wanted a place to capture, you know, exactly what you are hearing, the words you're hearing from from community members.
It would just give you a place to put in the phrases, the sentences that you're hearing. I remember, when I went back and rewatched the video, AJ and you all reviewed the difference between observation and interpretation. So this is still, this is still about observing the community, not interpreting, but that it's just an offering, that some board members in other districts have found helpful that they just had a they just wanted a place to capture their thought, not the thoughts, but the words they were hearing, from community members. So that is what that, feedback form is, that board members themselves could use.
How does that sound? I like having options. I like being able to type something in, the poster paper, chart paper. I mean, you know, depending on your group and how many people are there and, you know, making it, I like less script than more, but I like us making sure we're Capturing. Yeah. Right. What we hear. That we're not going off the rails somehow. And it's optional. We don't have to use it if we don't we don't want to, but, you know, for some of us who is starting to suffer from memory loss would be perfect.
Yes, director. Oh, memory loss. Yeah. So, there's that option. So thank you, Greg, for that option. So we did it backwards, which is fine. Now looking at the script itself, What are our thoughts? So there are a few slide slide decks or there is a slide deck in there. If you haven't had the chance to open it up. I can just share briefly, you know, we got some feedback on just wanting to make sure that it's board members didn't
want, you know, long, long winded openings and everything. You wanna, you know, frame it up for folks and then use the time just listening, and that that definitely resonates. So as you can see on the script, I I I've struck through. I made a I did another passage just cutting down the the intro kinda before you get into the questions just to get you, to just fewer words. And so I didn't I didn't accept those changes. I thought, you know, you all I wanted you to be able to just see them, but you all might wanna take a pass at cutting it down even further if
it's still not meeting your needs. You know, this is for you. You all get to decide, how much script you need. So the purpose of a script is to make sure we stay on point, stay on message, and don't go off the rails, And and to help us make sure we're framing the conversation. Mhmm. Can we, can we trust each other to you know, whether it's struck or not struck that we can skip that line if you wanna just keep moving, put it in your own words, make it your own voice, all of that kind of thing? That seems like it would be better than just script it out,
yeah, and reading it for sure. Yeah. Because I think that's the that's the feedback that we gave each other the last time. Right? We felt it was a little too scripted. We wanted to be a little bit more organic, a little bit more genuine, conversation as opposed to presentation. And I I think that's the reason why preparation would be key. And so as we read it several times, we can just start to be familiar with it and put it in our own words or whatnot and, keeping in mind as well that being in person will be different than being, you know, virtual
but doing it as a focus group Mhmm. Type, will be different. So I don't know. Yeah. If if I may, there's definitely no expectation that you, you know, memorize a script or, you know, have to say it verbatim or anything like that. Certainly, reading it probably is also not the way to go. Completely agree. You wanna, you know, connect with your with your community. It can be helpful to have a script that you're all working from in common just so you're all practicing from the same thing. But again, to your point, putting it in, you know, your own words. The the only part that I would say you would,
you know, stick to the script, stick to the words, is when you actually ask the questions or read them out loud. I I do recommend those you try and be precise with. Okay. Good point. Thank you. Sounds good. Alright. And and I'll have to go back. I haven't the script is not now up it needs to be updated and the slides need to be updated with the work you just did with the survey questions. Sure. So we'll get all excuse me. We'll get all that when it's been revised and updated in the next few days. Yes.
In the next few days. We'll revisit that again on the thirteenth. Put the final touch and, so that it's ready to go at least by the June. And then Can it be ready to go by the May? Of Of course. Because Yeah. If we, you know, if if there are things that we can get going on I agree. Yeah. Because in terms of outreach, you know, trying to plug in to where groups can have us is important. And that might be May. If it's ready to go Yeah.
By all mean, we'll do the last, iteration of that on on the thirteenth. And by the May, we'll be ready, as we continue to fill out the the engagement list. K. Sounds good to go. Still want to encourage, us all to continue to fill out this form. I know it it's a lot. Looks like a lot and looks like we're gonna have a lot of fun this summer, but, it's all for a good cause. Any other comment? So speaking of that Yes. In terms of, you know, it's unlikely that we'll get to all of these groups.
So will this be how else are we gonna, like, put out a survey? Website Mhmm. APS Connect. How how else are we gonna do this so that we can everyone has the opportunity? Is it a good idea, Greg, to put the survey even on our website, for anyone to take it? I've seen districts put on their website, put it on QR codes on flyers in grocery stores, put it on the local bus billboards. You you all the website,
you can you use whatever tools that you you all wanna use, to make sure you get the sample that you need to hear from. So Yeah. The social media platforms. Yeah. Yeah. Deal all the above. So so this is just an offering. It is definitely more work, so I wanna be mindful of that. Some boards choose to, like, record, a little intro, you know, from a board member or two, maybe a little bit from every board member, put it all together, like, on a little video, little YouTube video or something like that that then says,
so thanks for, you know, basically, you know, the it's the board explaining a little bit about the survey, maybe two minutes, three minutes, and then it ends with the link, so that people have the little, you know, hear from you, you know, thanking them for for participating. Thank you. Sounds great to me. Yeah. Short and sweet, but because we want them sticking through to get to the So who'd like to volunteer to be the board member to do the short video so that Patty and her team can plan around that for us.
It doesn't have to be in a video like that, or can it be an individual, like you said, using the social media? For Right. Doing an introductory video. I I mean, that can be supported. I'm just asking. I also heard him use talk about social media platforms if each of you or one or two of you have your own social media like, director Carter had talked about potentially doing too. I'm just offering that as another option. Sure. I'll help. Thank you. Okay. It will be short and sweet. Mhmm. K. Thirty seconds. Yeah. K. Awesome. Any other comment? I'll just share it's it's great to see you all. Sorry. I couldn't be with you,
last month. And director Tasker, I also, tried to describe the questions. Happy to, calibrate with you too on that. But but I also thought you guys asked a lot of good questions. And maybe I'm getting soft here in my old age, not quite, but I I didn't I didn't mark anyone off for some of those those self aware opinion, comments. I I I I hear you on all those. And sometimes you just wanna celebrate or make a brief comment, and that I think there's room for that. I appreciate it, hon. Thank you. Thank you.
I do appreciate appreciate that. Okay. Any other comment? And you always appreciate it. Thank you for your help and, everything else. You're all very welcome. You're doing great work, and you're all available or I'm available to each of you, between board meetings. So if there's anything I can help you with or clarify, please reach out. Thank you. Thank you. Hearing no other comment. Director Duncan already give us the time we spent together, and director Tasker also made her report. That being said, our next board of education meeting It's going to be May 13,
at 6PM. Yes. Pretty much next week. Do I hear a motion to adjourn? So moved. Do I hear a second? Second. It's been moved by director Tasker and seconded by director, Gerken. Claudia, would you please call Roe? Yes, ma'am. Director Duncan? Aye. Doctor Gerken? Aye. Doctor Kiki? Aye. Director Reinhart? Aye. Director Tasker? Aye. Director Tom Wing? Aye. Thank you. We are adjourned at 07:50. Great work. Thank you, everyone. Good night.