I'd like to call our meeting to order. Everyone who is able, please stand for our pledge of allegiance. I will read our land acknowledgement. On behalf of this board and the Cherry Creek School District, I would like to acknowledge that this meeting is being held on the ancestral and unseated lands
of the Cheyenne, Arapjo, Ute, and Oshetti Shakawi people who stewarded for for generations. The Oshetti Shakawi includes seven bands. So, I would also like to recognize that over 40 40 additional tribal nations likely use
this area for trade ceremonies and social gatherings. And I just would like to add that we have um our newest board member here today, Director Futrell. Welcome. So, this is your first your first vote. Are you ready? We have to approve the
agenda. Okay. All right. I'd like to call for a motion to approve the agenda for the October 20th, 2025 regular board of education meeting. >> Motion to approve the agenda. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Call please. >> Directors Allen
>> I. >> Bates. >> Egan. >> Iro. >> I. Motion carries. I'd like to call for a motion to approve the minutes as listed on the October on the October 20th, 2025
agenda. >> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Directors Allen >> I. >> Bates. >> I. >> Beacon. >> I >> motion carries.
At this time, we will have reports from the board, starting with Director Allen. >> Thank you and good evening. I'd like to first thank Principal Kibby and the entire Falcon Creek Middle School community for hosting tonight's meeting.
While Principal Kibby has spent her career dedicated to the students of our district, she became a principal of Falcon Creek soon after I was elected, and I am thankful for her leadership, partnership, and service. I would also like to thank our security and setup
teams uh for making allowing us to um hold our meetings in the communities that we and and the schools that we serve. As I reflect on four years of service and as I step away from this role, I want to briefly explain how I have
chosen my remarks. At a recent board of education candidate forum, I heard it said that school boards have three main functions in our district. That's not quite right. We are a policy governance board, which means we take our direction
from the policies we adopt. Under policy BBA, this board considers that its most important functions fall into seven categories. My comments this evening are a reflection of our work within some of those categories. Two of our critical roles as board members are communication
with the public and educational planning and appraisal. On tonight's consent agenda, resolution 2510.4 appoints the executive committee for the district accountability committee. Thank you to the parents, teachers, and
community members stepping for stepping up to serve and in helping us fulfill those two critical roles. Another critical responsibility is policym practiced in public paris transparency. I take this time to recognize the four
candidates who have put their names forward to serve on this policy governance board. Thank you for choosing to do this work without pay and for the sacrifices that come with it. The work is critical and the consequences are real. I encourage everyone to do their
homework to focus on what candidates have described as their vision and plan rather than on negative campa camp campaigning and to vote. As a board, we are also tasked with educational planning and appraisal together with staffing and appraisal
altogether. These tasks keep us centered on teaching and learning. October is dyslexia awareness month. The CDE reminds us that characteristics of dyslexia are present for many students statewide, about 15 to 20%. And we know
the signs are often missed. In May, the the legislature aligned Colorado's definition of dyslexia with widely accepted language, so there is no confusion about what dyslexia is and what it is not. Dyslexia is not a vision
problem, not a sign of low intelligence, and not something a child will simply outgrow. It is brainbased and lifelong. Students can learn to read with explicit evidence-based instruction that addresses phenom phmic awareness,
phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Many students mask the difficulty for years. What looks like inattentive or avoidance is often fatigue from working twice as hard for everything to make sense. When the evidence is clear, we
must act with a sense of urgency. Right now, identification too often depends on a family's time, resources, and knowhow. That means help can hinge on circumstances rather than need, and that is not acceptable. Senate Bill 25 200
moves us away, moves us forward by requiring universal early screening and by clarifying how schools communicate with families. Full statewide implementation is set for the 2728 school year, but I urge us to move faster. Students who have not mastered
reading by third grade rarely catch up. And students who are not reading proficiently by third grade grade are four times more likely not from high school. These are adult problems. We should solve them without asking our children to pay the price. And this aligns with our strategic plan and the
goal of universal grade level literacy by 2030. Literacy is not a privilege, it's a right. And when we teach a child to read, write, and comprehend, we unlock their ability to think, to speak, to understand the world, and to change it.
Tonight's agenda includes our data review, and that will be that review will be of both literacy and math. No single measure is perfect, but dashboards, interm assessments, surveys, and program metrics are decision tools. Sharing results in public is how we hold
ourselves accountable and explain what comes next. Staffing and appraisal also comes to life in our school leadership. This month is National Principles Month. Principles are are culture builders, instructional leaders, and crisis managers who translate district strategy
into classroom practice. A couple of years ago, the board strengthened that work by approving about 30 elementary assistant principal positions. Together, our principles, assistant principles, and school administrator, excuse me, school administrators partner
with families, coach teachers, organize interventions, and keep the daily work moving so classrooms stay focused on learning. So, I take this opportunity to say thank you to every school principal and administrative team. Your leadership and
your honesty have made me a better board member and they make our schools better places for our children. As a policy governance board, our authority exists when we sit together in public and act as one board. We earn our trust through open deliberation, voting our
conscience, and owning the decisions we make together. That is a standard we set for ourselves, and it is the standard our community deserves. I will end where I began. I believe public education is the bedrock of our democratic republic and the foundation of a strong local
economy where collaboration, transparency, and accountability help every child thrive and find a future with dignity and purpose. As I step away, my hope is clear. Universal early screenings in place ahead of the deadline, instruction aligned to what we
know works, and clear public reporting so families can see the difference in their children's lives. We must also stay focused on universal grade level literacy by 2030. That is how policy becomes practice, how resources become results, and how we earn and keep the
trust of our stakeholders, students, and fans. In doing this work together, we fulfill our promise dedicated to excellence and live our mission to inspire every student to think, to learn, to achieve, and to care. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Director Allen. Director Bates. >> Thank you. Good evening. And as always, thank you to everyone that makes our traveling board work, our boardroom work. Thank you, Falcon Creek and Principal Kibby for hosting us today. As
a board, we have prioritized well-being, whole well-being. We're incredibly proud to share that Buffalo Trail Elementary and Pine Ridge Elementary and others have been honored by the Alliance for a Healthier Generation for the exceptional accomplishments in health and
well-being. A huge thank you to everyone that made this possible and here's to continued wellness, kindness, and success across CCSD. My apologies if I missed your school listing here. We also love celebrating
milestones. Cherokee Trail High School celebrated the 75th anniversary of CCSD and the 22nd birthday of their mascot Felix last month. Birthday games were played during the week with classes winning accumulate
culminating in birthday cake with sorry with classes winning prizes and culminating in birthday cake and the reveal of Felix's best friend Claudia during the halftime of the September 26
football game. It's hard to believe that CT is 22 years old. It seems like yesterday when the first graduating class came through. Athletics and academics go hand in hand. Congratulations to Cherokee Trail High
School's Braden Forte for being named an Aurora TV athlete of the month. He shot a 60 at Murphy Creek this past fall. He helped CT to their first state championship in golf and has a 4.1 GPA.
He plans to career continue his career in Gulf San Diego State after graduation. We're proud to celebrate his hard work, dedication, and success representing Cherry Creek schools.
I was attend 2025. This event brought over 2,000 people to Thunder Ridge Middle School and there was plenty of PE. There was plenty of awe to go around from reptiles to
robots, rockets, and more. This annual steamfilled gathering was a true pulooa. Thank you Thunder Ridge PTO for your support of this event. If you are around this coming weekend, I would encourage anyone to also attend
their snakes and cakes event, which is always fun um with snakes and pancake breakfast. So, schools in the Smoky Hill and Eagle Crest feeder areas are now hosting this month's Cherry Creek Schools donation drive.
Bring in shelf stable items, individually wrapped snacks, toiletries, other essentials, and help schoolbased pantries, and support our students and families across the district. Donations will be accepted through October 31st.
If you do have questions regarding holiday drives, please contact um Leslie Navaro Walker and she can help you with that as well. By now, you should have received your ballot for the November elections. As I am term limited, I
encourage you to vote for Mike Ham and Terry Bates. Both of these gentlemen believe in the core values of CCSD and will strive to ensure that these values and priorities are continued. Since the first installation of these
core values and pathways of purpose, our district data shows that growth is happening. Change takes time and we are seeing improvements daily. As we have stated time and time again, CAMASS is only one
snapshot in time. Look at our other data and you will see growth is happening. You must look, we must look at the whole child, not just one snapshot. Thank you. And that completes my comments for this evening.
>> Thank you, Director Bates. Director Egan. Thank you and good evening. Thanks to Falcon Creek Middle School for hosting us here this evening. And many thanks to our technology setup, safety, security teams for everything that they do
enabling us to hold these meetings at our neighborhood schools. There is something refreshingly nostalgic and transformative about public school boards. A place where tough issues are discussed. Comprised of neighbors, parents, and community
members, school boards truly are modern-day town halls where self-government is not only discussed, but enacted. And as a result, one of the most vital and overlooked areas in American democracy. Schoolboard meetings provide a space
that encourages us to listen to our neighbors who don't always think like we do and make tough decisions with full transparency wholly focused on education. School boards can serve as a unifying force, reminding us what it
means to be an American and the ultimate expression of our vibrant democracy. As we approach this election and I enter my seventh year of service on this board of education, I am reminded of my why.
Just as in 2019 and again in 2023, it has always been about each and every student in this district, my northstar. Janice McDonald, former district board member and a very important mentor to me, always asked, "How are the
children?" I ask myself this very question now. How are the children really? My deepest hope is that they always know they are valued above all else as the northstar of this district. It's just over two weeks until election
day. I have publicly endorsed Mike Hamrich and Terry Bates in this election and know that with their experience and knowledge, they will help continue the excellence of the Cherry Creek School District. I'd also like to thank Director Kelly Bates for her eight years
of service on this board. Director Bates, like Director McDonald, always kept the children of the district as her number one priority. Kelly, you will be dearly missed and I wish you the very, very best in your next chapter. Best
wishes to you as well, Director Allen. The Cherry Creek Schools Foundation is still reviewing educator initiative grants. Colorado Gives Day is coming up on Tuesday, December 9th. Giving locally makes a big difference, and funding the future has never been more important.
Thanks to our community's generosity, Cherry Creek Schools Foundation has been able to fund educator grants, mental health, and support the basic needs of families in our district. For the fifth year in a row, Cherry Creek School
District has been named to Forb's list of America's best instate employers 2025. Recognition reflects our commitment to creating a supportive, inclusive, and inspiring environment where employees can thrive and in turn help every
student reach their highest potential. The next district voices of color meeting will be held at Overland High School this Wednesday, October 22nd from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. District accountability is scheduled for November 12th from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. at the
instructional support facility. Please vote on November 4th and remember our children are watching. This concludes our my comments. Thank you, Director Egan. Director Futrell.
>> Uh, good evening everyone. Uh, my name is John Claude Futrell, JC uh to uh everyone that would like to call me that. Um, and it's truly an honor uh to be here tonight uh as a longtime advocate for education and the arts. I'm
a proud Prairie Hawk where much of my experience was molded by Dr. Tony P. and I thank you uh for helping uh shape me into the man that I am today. I'm also a proud trailblazer
um now the Blazers uh and was greatly impacted by the influence of principal John Buckner. Rest in power. My children attend and Community Elementary. And I want to now shout out uh Ruthie Nolles whose seat I
now fill and her contributions to ensuring the students and the staff of District B are seen and supported. I have big shoes uh to fill, but I welcome the growth. I also want to shout out uh Superintendent Smith and President
Garland and the directors and the entire team at uh Cherry Creek for such a warm welcome and their support. I've spent much of my career at the intersection of creativity and community, teaching photography and graphic design at
Colorado High School Charter, developing arts programming and helping students connect their talents to realworld opportunities. My professional journey has included serving on the boards of the downtown Aurora Visual Arts, the Denver Center for African Arts, and Arts
Festival. I've also held leadership roles as the director of community and education at Redline Contemporary Arts Center and most recently as the associate director of youth and community engagement at the Denver Art Museum where I helped oversee
the school tours program, inviting over 60,000 students a year and reopening the Martin building after the pandemic. Beyond my professional life, I have dedicated myself to volunteerism and youth development. From supporting
school initiatives and serving on my children's PTCO to coaching both basketball and baseball through the Aurora Parks and Recreation uh system. And I want to give a shout out to Falcon uh Creek where I have coached many games
here in this gym. Won a few, lost a few. Uh but I've got some good memories here with my son and our family. I'm deeply proud of my family's legacy of educational excellence, especially that of my grandparents, John and
Mosley, who dedicated their lives to advancing education, equity, and civic service in this community. As I begin this new chapter on this board, my focus will remain unwavering
to serve every student, every teacher, every staff member, every contractor in this district with integrity, curiosity, and compassion. I know there will be a learning curve,
and I ask for your patience and grace. In that same moment, I promise to extend it to each of you as we work together to ensure that Cherry Creek continues to be the model of excellence and inclusion.
Thank you for welcoming me in work. I look forward to learning from all of you and contributing to our shared mission of empowering every student to reach their highest potential. Thank you.
Thank you, Director Frell. Good evening and thank you to the Falcon Creek community for serving us tonight. Over this past month month, I have had the opportunity to attend multiple forums, panels throughout the community. It's been a privilege to share the work
of our district. Cherry Creek has a history of working hard and doing new things. Our ability to be transformational and to do hard things has made us a leader in this community. the state, the nation, and the world. And to continue our excellence and
efforts and to educate and encourage the celebration of all students, I would like to encourage this community to vote for Mr. Terry Bates and Mr. Mike Hamrich. As many of you, as many have uttered in the past few weeks, is the board of
education okay and just stick to education. But I want to share why our four five our five core values especially whole well-being um have touched me personally. Many of you know that I endured an imaginable an an
unimaginable loss this summer. My cousin Elijah Ming a dedicated sheriff of Wand do county Kansas was tragically murdered while responding to domestic violence call. Elijah was doing what he had when what he had committed his life to do serving and protecting others. His
sudden and violent death stunned our entire family. We were heartbroken. Elijah's wife to chose to honor him with with a full fallen officer service. That service took place the same night of our August board meeting coinciding with the
start of our academic year. And while my my while my heart was with my family, I also felt the pool of responsibility and love for this community, this district, and the students we serve. It was a difficult balance mourning Elijah, supporting my loved ones and
standing in the role of service here. And yet, I didn't feel alone in making that decision. I felt the support of this district, from my colleagues, and from the entire leadership. You allowed me the space to grieve and the grace to be present with my family. And for this,
I will always be grateful. In that moment, I felt the heartbeat of Cherry Creek's core values, whole well-being. We often speak of excellence and we should but excellence is not sustainable without care without pri prioritizing mental, emotional and physical health.
Whole well-being is not just a buzzword in Cherry Creek. It's a practice. It's how we live. It's how we lead. It's how we support one another as a whole people with full lives and complex stories both inside and outside of our roles. In
fact, I'm not the only one on this board who's had to step away to tend a family or to bury and mourn others. Other me that and that's their story to tell. That's not a weakness. That's a reflection of a well-run district. One that values the humanity of its people
and it's a reflection of our legacy. Board members, superintendent, and staff who are deeply committed to students and to each other. It's no surprise that Forbes named Cherry Creek one of the top places to work. That recognition didn't come out of nowhere. It's a result of
intentional decisions rooted in our commitment to supporting the whole human being. And tonight, I want to thank this community for living out one of our five core values, whole well-being. And in honoring Elijah, my family has reminded in honoring Elijah, my family was
reminded of something very vital. We have to do a better job of showing up for one another before the casket. We made a promise to gather, to celebrate, and to introduce our children to one another, not around tragedy, but around joy. We even set a date for next summer
to do just that. So when someone proclaims just stick to education, my response is that we are. We are not just educator board educators, board members or staff. We are whole humans with full lives beyond these walls and beyond our
work. Our students, our children are watching how we live. They need us to model what it looks like to take care of ourselves and each other. Because when we support the whole person, we build the foundation for true excellence. So yes, whole well-being matters. It
matters for our staff. It matters for our families. And above all, it matters for the students we are raising to be strong, compassionate, and resilient. Thank you for continuing to be a district that leads not just with intellect but with heart. Thank you.
And now we'll have comments from Superintendent Smith. Thank you, President Garland. Um hard to follow that. Um all of you. Um sorry for your loss. Um, and thank you for being there with your family as well, Miss
Director Egan being with your family and director Bates being with your family. As we talk about health of an organization, it starts with who we are as human beings. So, I want to welcome everybody back from break. I hope you took time to
re-energize. I took time to be with family, but most importantly to just be with you. making sure we come back to the why of what we do every single day in this school district. JC, welcome to the team. We are excited to have you.
Um, yes, you do have huge shoes to fill and they're not just Ruthies. They're the giants who lived before you and served before you and I'm sure you will do a tremendous job um in this role. Um, Principal Kibby, thank you for hosting
us this evening. We appreciate it. Thanks for everybody who set up and who sets up every month so we can be out in our community as director Allen said and sharing our commitment to excellence with everyone inside of the Cherry Creek Schools community. Thank you to our principles on principal appreciation
month. The job is a difficult one. You're managing people. You're managing students. You're managing crisis. But the most important thing you're doing is you're creating young people to be great older people. And as I watch certain things happen right now that is more
that as our young student shared with us, be a good listener. I think sometimes we always want to talk. We are very, very hesitant to listen. In a time that we're living in right now, it is important to hear the stories of
those who surround us. Hear the stories of those who disagree with us. Hear the lived experiences of those who had it different than we did. That is how we grow. That is how we get better. There is an election coming up and it's a critical one and I would ask you to vote
first, but I'd ask your vote to be informed. This district is moving in an incredibly positive way. We are innovative, we are creative, and we are learners, and that's what our students need right now. As we heard
from our high school students, our children are moving into a world we know nothing about. artificial intelligence, automation, lack of human beings. That's a scary place to be. It is our
job as educators to ensure the humanity does not go away in that process. It is our job as educators to make sure that these young people become great older human beings. Machines do work.
And we can say they think but they think when we ask the right questions they think when we look for the right problems and they think when we define the right solutions. They don't work without humanity. We cannot forget that.
So yes my commitment to 2030 is real. Every student being literate being able to respond to the information that's coming. It is deeper and bigger than reading. This world is changing every single day. Information is being
bombarded on our children and adults every single day. It is critical that we are able to decipher that information, what is real, what is not real, and look for solutions as we move toward the future. I am proud of this school
district. Two weeks ago, we had superintendents from all across this country visit Cherry Creek Schools. We talked about the innovation campus. We talked about Traverse Academy. We talked about Pathways for Adults and we talked about aspiring educators. On the last
day that we shared time with these superintendents, they had an opportunity to provide feedback. The critical piece of feedback that made me the most proud was that every superintendent in that room said, "We cannot believe the passion of your
employees in this district." the way in which they focus on students first and give their all every single day. It is vital and it shows on their faces that they love to come to work every single day. That's what's going to
change this world. And so I'm proud to be the superintendent of Cherry Creek. I was proud to share our success and we have a lot of work to do. We have a lot of work to do to ensure that our students are literate by 2030. So, I
want to thank this board. I want to thank the service. I want to thank my district leadership team. And I want to thank all the employees of Cherry Creek School District because it is those individuals who make this place great. So, welcome back and let's get to work. So, Director um Garland, President
Garland, our presentation tonight is our aligned assessment system. So, I'd like to introduce Dr. Diana Royal, our assistant soup for performance improvement. All right. Thank you uh for the opportunity to be able to share our first round of assessment data. And I
just want to um be clear that these assessments take place across our 67 schools like the second third week of school. So when we consider the fact that some of our elementary children as young as five, six years old, they have
a soft start the first week of school. The second week we're putting a computer in front of them and we are assessing them on skills they haven't been taught yet. So this data is a baseline of information of where we are and where we need to be by the end of the year.
I also want to emphasize the fact that all children take this assessment. We have um hundreds of newcomers, they take the assessment. We have hundreds of children, 300 just in kindergarten alone who are multil- language learners who
are not yet proficient in English and they take this assessment. So I just want to say that this data represents individual performance of 67 different schools and we understand that there are tens of thousand individual student
stories that need to be unpacked. And so while we're going to present very big picture data, each school leader has taken the time with their staff and they should also be including their community and talking about what this data looks
like for each individual school, for each individual classroom so that we can create action steps so that the responsibility is on us as the adults to hold that urgency, to provide that support, that care that sense of
belonging so our students will thrive and achieve so that we can get to that goal of the 2030 100% proficient. So this is just a very big picture entry level but it does help us plan a road map at each of the 67 schools of what we
need to do to help our kids succeed. So I'm going to turn it over to Norm. Thank you, Dr. Royal. Uh, thank you, President Garland, and members of the board for welcoming me back to share some more data. Um, see if I can So,
we'll, uh, start with just a general overview of the assessment system, some of the characteristics of it, how it supports uh, some of the things that, uh, some of the information that Dr. Roy Bal shared. uh we'll look at the results by uh grade, race and ethnicity and then by feeder and then I'll turn it over to
uh uh Toby Aratola to kind of talk about how that along with other assessments in our comprehensive line assessments system support our strategic actions to support literacy. Uh so you guys will this this might be a rehash for some things. I think we might have shared
some of this previously but uh early literacy is required in grades uh kindergarten through 2 grade. Star reading is required in grades three through 10. Uh 11th and 12th graders who are on a read plan are required to take the assessment as well, just the literacy assessment. And then star math
is required at first and 10th grade at the beginning of the year. Kindergarteners will take the tests at uh in spring. We have three assessment windows. We shortened the windows from previous years. It was uh I think three three four weeks. So it's two week windows now. Uh we just completed the
first window as Dr. Dr. Roy Ball shared early at the the beginning of the school year, then winter uh coming up in December, and then we have our spring window uh in April. That's after our CMS testing is completed. Uh you might have seen this before as well. The STAR test
is a computer adaptive test. So, what that means is the first log into the test, they'll typically get a test question that is at grade level. depend if they get that question correct then the next question that they're exposed to is at a more difficult level. If they
get that question wrong then it ratches it down to an easier question. This pattern continues until it zeros in and calibrates on an overall score performance score for the student. Takes about 20 30 minutes for that uh calibration to occur. as the kids are
responding to those questions, it zeros in on a scaled score and then that scaled score determines percentile rankings and then growth uh for the next test. So, it kind of looks like that uh like this uh the graphic that's up on the screen here. The t and it does
target student abilities uh either below slightly below grade level at grade level and above grade level at the beginning of the year. there are more questions that uh might have uh might be at the previous grade level but again as
a student responds it'll it'll start ratcheting up to questions that might be at grade level it or even uh at the grade level above so it does kind of adjust as the students uh continue with the testing what I like to to think
about with the star test is we give it three times a year it kind of serves as a flag for us because of the instructional information that we get from it in terms of where uh students are in relation to the standards but then also the types of support that they might need in terms of
skill level. So there are some diagnostic uh uh properties of the assessment that are helpful for our instructors. These are the instructional benchmarks. So they uh the colors kind of you know they look like the proficiency levels on
our state tests but for us what they really point to are the types of instructional support that our students might require based on where they are in their score and percentile ranking uh from the star assessments. So our students who are at or above uh the
benchmark in the uh percentile ranks between percentile and the 99th percentile they're considered at or above benchmark or uh needing some strategic support. So they're comfortable with grade level content might need some differentiated support in the classroom. Uh students who are in
the uh earn a percentile ranking between the 26th and 39th percentile are uh might require some targeted support. So in addition to that that uh universal tier one instruction that they get in the classroom, they might benefit from some small group uh instruction to
support what they might need in terms of uh some skill areas. And then students who are scoring in that first and 25th percentile uh uh rank uh they might need some more intensive instructional support uh likely individual uh student
support in addition to that that tier one universal instruction or if they are also receiving some small groupoup support. So they're not they should not be uh excluded from that universal instruction. The support that they're getting is in addition to
We like to think of uh looking at data at different levels. So we talk about our comprehensive line assessment system at the very high end of of the data that we look at is our like our CMASS data, right? It's at the end of the year kind of gives us information about programmatically how are we doing as a
system. Uh but when we start talking about uh what we're going to share tonight in terms of the univer the star assessment as our universal screener interim assessment uh we're really looking at this kind of map level data. So you know think about that satellite you got that satellite view. You get
down closer to what's actually happening. That map data the the star assessments kind of break down that data a little bit more. Give us information about skills standards and what instructional support students might need. And then as we get down into into that street level data, uh that's really
where when uh Toby starts to talk about our PLC work, we you'll hear things of like common formative assessments, formative assessments in the classroom, listening to uh you know the conversations that students are having between themselves, what's what's actually going on in that in the
classroom, observing the the uh evidence of student learning. That's where we talk about street data. And so this is how that uh the star data really just kind of is that connection between uh summitive and then our street level data here.
Okay. So we'll get into some results. Uh we'll start by grade level. So again uh kindergarten through 2 grade. I know you guys can see this. I have my glasses on. I can see that perfectly clear from here. Uh but just look at the colors. So uh what we can
see here is that uh when we talk about instructional support at the intensive level probably about a a fourth of our students at the beginning of the year again they're exposed to uh you know this is uh given that second week of school there's some grade level content there's a little bit of uh prior year
content uh but we get about 25% of our students needing some instructional support then we get between uh 40 to 50% of our students in that blue and and green category needing at either at grade level or strategic support.
When you go into grades three through five, we're looking at the star reading assessment. It's uh slightly different content, but again, what we're seeing is there's some consistency with uh across uh our targeted and at grade level and then also with our intensive support. So
again that tells us at the beginning of the year uh which of our students might need additional support in terms of skills and again there are some diagnostic tool assessment itself and then additional tools within our platform or teachers can can uh you know
administer some quick tests just to see what additional skills they might uh stu students might need some support with. Then this is the results for star reading in sixth through eight and then star reading for 9th through 10th grade. Now again we don't uh we
don't require it at 11th and 12th grade uh for uh only for our students who are on read plan. So we don't share that uh we won't be sharing any of that information here tonight. When we look at it by race and ethnicity, uh this is a combination of our kindergarten through 2 grade on the
early literacy assessments for the current fall. Now, I always like to point out American Indian and Native Hawaiian populations are typically our smaller uh in terms of N size, smaller uh size groups. So, when we look at the results, I always like to
to say let's let's uh use a little caution in interpreting what that what those results might mean. Uh but one thing that does jump out to us is that the Hispanic Latino uh percent uh needing some intensive support is fairly high. Uh when we dig into that data and
look at that intersection of uh multilingual learners across our different racial ethnic categories, multilingual learners on our reading assessments tend to uh if we get about between 70 and 80% of them scoring in that intensive category, needing that
intensive support. So in addition to uh language support, you know, it's support with with reading skills and of those 70 to 80% of the students in that intensive support category, 60% of them are typically our Hispanic student
population. So our again it's it's it's not a big secret, but our the highest percentage of our multilingual learners are uh going to be in our Hispanic Latino category. And then we'll also see some when we start looking at our feeder results, we can also talk about where
most of our multilingual learner students are enrolled across the district. Again, results for our third through fifth grade combined for star reading. Then sixth through 8th and then our 9th through 10th.
Okay. Okay. Then when we look at this by feeder, this is feeder by grade level. So you've got kindergarten, first grade, and second grade uh for early literacy. And again, if you look and see where that overland feeder is, that the students needing some intensive
instructional support uh is going to be higher than uh than our other uh feeders. When we look at our enrollment based on our oc October count from the previous year, uh just in the overland feeder alone of the students that are enrolled there, 42 point about 43% of
those students are identified as multilingual learners. Our other uh feeder areas that uh percent of multilingual learners ranges anywhere from 10% to about 18% for smoke. Those are the Smoky Hill and Overland are where we have our highest uh uh
percentage of multilingual learners. 42.7% compared to, you know, 10 through 18%. That's uh that kind of tells us where our support for multilingual learners uh will be. And I, you know, if Jen Hansen was here, I'm sure she'd be saying,
"Yeah, we got some really good plans to support our students in that in that feeder." Okay. Again, results by feeder. This is third, fourth, and fifth grade. Then sixth through 8th and then 9th through 10th.
Okay. Then we'll look at star math. Again, we don't administer a kindergarten at the beginning of the year. This is first and second grade and third through fifth, sixth through 8th grade and then our 9th through 10th grade.
Okay. And this is a combination of first through fifth because we don't have uh we we we did K2 for star early literacy and then three through five for the reading test just because those are two different tests. When we look at math uh we're just combining the elementary
levels together. So first through fifth uh this is the distribution by race and ethnicity. Then 6th through 8th and then 9th through 10th. Okay, this is our feeder data again first and second
and third through fifth. sixth through 8th and then 9th through 10th. All right, I'm gonna turn it over to Toby to talk about how we're supporting instruction. Yeah, good even Garland board. Thank you for having us tonight. It's always a
pleasure to be with you. Um, I'm excited to be here tonight to talk to you about now that we have the data, how are we turning that data into information to make sure we're being strategic about where we need to go and what we need to do um to improve these results. And so, one thing I'll start off with is under
the direction of Dr.ic strategic planning team is looking at how we go from these random acts of improvement that typically happened when our schools worked in silos and were responsible for improving this on their own getting over to that right hand side where we're really headed all in the same direction with the same understanding so we can
better utilize our supports and resources to make sure schools are getting what they need and so it's a lot of exciting work a lot of good work um and it's really driving um the direction we're headed all of our coaches and principles have this book and what one
thing it talks about is we can't leave um changing our organization to hope. And so under Superintendent Smith's leadership with us strategic plan talking about implementing systematic plans to ensure that it happens. And that's where we're at. That's what we're doing each and every day. Um and I'm
excited to go through these next two pieces, big pieces that we're doing districtwide, um to implement these plans. And so the first one is uh Superintendent Smith really wanted to refocus and regground our work around professional learning communities. Um
and so last year and this year we have eight days of professional development um full days at ADCO where um we've also invited our instructional coaches to be a part of those days. And so it's more of a team approach and it just helps them build their understanding around the three questions and uh three big
ideas and four questions of professional learning communities. The other thing we're doing is working to build their capacity so they can now take this work and lead this work back in their buildings uh with collaborative teams. And so last year we had four days um three of which were focused on questions
one and two ended with a uh kind of a culmination from Dr. Louise Cruz who brought the house down which was fantastic u a lot of excitement from that day. This year we started off with Dr. Anthony Muhammad who is one of the top five educators in the world um came
in and talked to our coaches, our partners, our principles around what is transformational leadership within a professional learning community and how do you go back and implement this work in your schools and so a lot of great works happening November January we'll wrap it up uh with four and then Dr.
crews will come and wrap up the year for us in March. So, a lot of good work happening around professional learning communities. >> Toby, can you go back and can you talk to us about what the three big pillars of PLC's are, what the four questions are, just so we >> Yeah. So, the three big ideas that kind
of professional learning communities. First one is a focus on learning. How are we making sure all students have access and opportunity to grade level essential standards? Um collaborative culture. What are teams of teachers doing in order to make sure they're doing the right work? Because one thing
we have to take out of this um school system nationwide and also in Creek is the educational lottery is hoping your student gets the best teacher and reality is parents generally know who those teachers are um because you always get them as principles come uh teacher
placement time. And so how do how do we start to break down some of those barriers? And then the last one that Norm just presented on is really focusing on results. We've always been data rich. We've always had a ton of data, but now it's really diving into that data, knowing where students are, and getting information from that data
to make sure we're able to make instructional adjustments systemwide to to have a bigger impact on what kids are doing in the classroom. Four questions. Question. >> Can you repeat? You said focus on learning and what was the second part of >> collaborative culture.
>> Okay, thank you. >> Four questions. Um, question one, what do we want all students to know and be able to do? Really focusing on getting teachers back to looking at Colorado academic standards. What are the essential standards using our highquality instructional materials that
we need to make sure kids have access and opportunity to? Most students, even our uh gifted and talented students, need access to material twice. And so making sure that we're we're doing the right work around essential standards because when you look at the research,
it's impossible to get all kids to mastery of all standards. We'd have to add another 10 years onto our educational system in order to get students there. Question two, how will we know they learned it? Goes back to what Norm was talking about with our data and our comprehensive aligned assessment system. Yes, looking at those
big summitive pieces, but really enabling teachers and building their understanding of data literacy, looking at more frequent common formative assessments because through common formative assessments, we can make adjustments during learning, not after learning. Um, and that's where the power
comes in around that second question. And then questions three and four, what are we going to do as the adults when they don't learn it? And then what are we going to do as the adults when they do learn it? And so really diving in using the data to know where students are. Um how do we provide them tier two
and tier three after they get um a good grounding in tier one universal instruction. Um and then when you look at question four, what are we going to do if they already know it? It's getting away from packets. Like they know it, we're going to give them packets. Good luck to you. We've got to get them engaged in some different work um like
project based learning and those type of those types of projects. Next one I'm excited to share with you and I thank you for approving this budget uh is our work around 15-day challenge. I want to give a shout out to Maria Nielson. She joined us tonight. So Maria, thank you. It's always good to
have you. Um but this work is going to impact every teacher in this district, prek12. And so something that's never been done before in this systematic way. And so the power is getting this down to the teacher teacher level because they're the the most powerful tool to
impact student learning. And so making sure we're building their capacity really gives us a renewed focus on unit planning around essential standards so we can have good solid tier one instruction in place. Looking at PLC question one and again using uh our our
high quality instructional materials of um into reading is where we're starting and grounding ourselves in. But I know this Friday our coaches are going to get training around how do you do the 15-day unit planning within science and math. So we're starting to broaden that scope of the work. And so really exciting to
see that four-year plan. One thing I I know teachers have to have sustained PD. It can't be one and done. Um and through our success survey, they asked for that, right? They love it that principles and coaches are getting it, but they they want a piece of the pie, too. And so um through our district leadership team and
the board, we're able to provide that to them. And then one of the pieces I'm really excited about is just the cross department support around this work. We have um special ed teachers there. Uh neurode divergent student uh support services is
there. ML teachers are there. So it's a collaboration amongst departments. So we're no longer working in silos and we can continue to provide that support to all of our students especially around that tier one piece of it. I'm happy to let you all know every PE preK uh through fifth grade teacher has been
trained. Um feedback has been phenomenal. So that is finished. Eagle Crest has done their two days. Smoke or Overland had one day right before fall break and then Maria started with Graan View High School today. So she'll do one and two and then Smoky Hill will be
Wednesday, Thursday. So a lot of good work and a lot of momentum happening behind behind this professional development. So in 1964, John Holt wrote how children fail in our schools. And one thing that he really focused on through his research was we need to focus on practices and not people. And
one and what hits me about this is when he talks about they didn't they flunked their unsuccessful methods. They didn't flunk their students. And so we have to build that mindset within our teachers of it's okay when you have an instructional practice that isn't reaching your students the way you're
hoping it is. That's not a a student problem, that's an adult problem. And so, how do we change those practices? And so, what this leads to is the research of Hadtie, and you've heard me talk about this before, John Hattie. Um, one of the largest educational
researchers in the world, talks about the effect size of collective teacher efficacy. Collective teacher efficacy is the belief in their team that they're going to positively impact student achievement each and every day. And we're going to build that through success, right? Teachers don't go to
work hoping not to be successful. They want to go to work to be successful. So, how do we build their understanding and capacity of how to do that work? And those two two big items I just shared with you is the right work that we're doing as a a district and it's comprehensive work. The other one I'll
just share with you um teacher estimates of student achievement. just the belief that all kids can um we have a tendency to focus on um jumping to tiers two and tier three in the RTI pyramid, skipping over tier one because we feel there's an
urgency. Um but research tells us you can't fix your way out of a bad tier one problem by focusing on tiers two and tier three. So really looking at how do we revamp our our understanding of universal tier one instruction um to make sure all kids are getting what they they deserve each and every day. And
Toby, can you speak to what 1.34 and what 1.29 means in growth of students? >> Yeah. So the effect size uh of collective teacher efficacy is a 1.34. To put this into perspective for you, anything that Hattie found as a point4
is considered a year's worth of growth. And so that's grade level standard average that they're looking for. Anything above that is just a bonus. And so when you look at just the belief, it's not a program, it's not a curriculum, it's the belief that they
have and will impact student achievement um gets us almost four years worth of growth. Um just the second one, a 1.29 again with teacher estimates of achievement. It's a belief in our students walking through the doors of our schools each and every day that they
can um is a 1.29 29 and again almost four years worth of growth just in challenging the belief systems um that we walk into schools with each and every day. So that's it for our presentation. Any any questions?
>> Thank you for that presentation and we will start our questions with director Allen. Thank you for the presentation and for um the opportunity to hear this more than once and to um you know familiarize it helps us I think or me familiarize
myself with the language and your methodology um and so I want to start with a question that I'm sorry I was just thinking about it now so I didn't give any forewarning um but your first question uh that you ask is what do we want our students to know and how will
we know when they know it. Is that is that Yeah. >> Um in in looking at the um how do we using that question for PLC work? How do we how do we how will we know when our
teachers know this? >> Yeah. >> Is that like does that make sense? >> Yeah. So evidence will be so when you visit schools and collaborative teams what they should be focusing on is are those essential standards. So they will go through identify where those fit within units and within that 15-day plan
we we're we're already seeing evidence of they know where those essential standards are within the uh units of our um into reading also where they're going to be assessed. So when is a CFA going to be given so we can check on the status of their learning. um ultimate
impact will be overall student achievement on um end of unit assessments starting impact on star assessments and then impact on camass as well. So um you know it's just kind of that gradual progression of seeing the work happening and then the impact on
student achievement and growth over time. >> Sorry to throw that curve. It didn't sound like it's a curveball. You were already you already know. So thank you. Um, one of the questions that's come up a lot, I think, now that I have, you
know, a as my kids get older, I am experiencing different things. And now that I have a freshman in high school, um, one of the things that I've just been hearing really from other parents and and just other community members is why do we need STAR data for
and and also does it align with the PSAT and SAT so that we know is it a good reflection of how our students are going to do? Is it interrupting learning too much? That question has just recently come up. Yeah. And I I you know this this
question we've I've had some high schools ask me the same question. Uh I I do know that the college board assessment it's based on common core standards which you know common core standards Colorado academic standards uh about 85% of our Colorado standards are
based on common core that other 15 is uh the fed federal government allows uh states to have that flexibility in adding additional content. So in terms of the standards that are being measured, the star is also based on our Colorado academic standards which is
also common core standards. So uh things are similar. I think it's the presentation of uh the items and the content right that uh is not fully uh might not be fully aligned with college board. Uh in the past the what star has
Renaissance has done with our state assessments in grades three through eight is they run these correlational studies. So they get data from uh districts across Colorado. They get their star data and they also have access to the this CAMASS data. they run
these uh correlations on them and then they can establish predicting uh predictive analysis to say if you score here on star you're expected to score here on the CMS at the end of the year. They haven't done that for college board yet. Um and they I don't see that on
their road map right now. So we don't have that information. Right. So there's this the question about alignment. I think that comes up. there's really uh no data that we we can point to to say well if you score here expected score here on the uh PSAT or SAT one of the
issues has been that in the last couple years college board has shifted their uh the way their test is designed so instead of being a paperbased common assessment for all students it's now this uh computer adaptive type of
assessment kind of like the star where uh you know kids are exposed to a uh module set of questions, they get those uh most of those questions right, then the next set of questions they get are probably going to be a little bit more difficult. They don't get all those questions correct and it so it shifts
again. So there's uh just that change. They don't have historical data analysis. It's kind of a long-winded way of saying uh what schools are asking for is something when you know uh Toby talks about common formative assessments.
Those are typically short standardsbased types of assessments that are aligned to the standards and they're common. So kids get the same types of questions. Uh the value of that is that when a collaborative team is sitting down looking at their data, they can identify
based on the standards that were measured in that common formative assessment where students might be struggling on a specific standard. And you know do they uh then also have conversations about how are you teaching that? How you know how am I teaching
that? Where might we see some misconceptions in uh our students thinking about how they in how they respond to that question? And a bigger version of that is what we call our common benchmark assessment. So those are about 15 to 25 questions. uh again
common kids get the same uh types of questions measuring the same set of essential standards. When that's administered then the value of that is that teacher teams can look again to see where are we showing where are students showing mastery. So we we did have some we do have some schools that are
interested in creating a an assessment like that that they could uh I I think for them it's because again we're focused more on standards when they start getting into these collaborative teams that information along with a common formative assessments uh might
more uh useful. that when we start talking about math, we know that we get uh different math courses across our school and within those classes. They're not they're not organized by grade level, right? The you don't have a ninth
grade class, you have a algebra one class and you can get students across a different grade level. So when you talk about the STAR 9th grade versus 10th grade, it might not fully uh align with what students are taking, but there are some algebra type questions, geometry
type questions in the STAR. So we're starting to look a little bit more at how and what we're doing at high school in terms of testing. Um, and what we're hearing from some of our teachers and from some of our schools, they want something that makes a little bit more
sense for them and how they look at data >> thatability piece. Yeah. Okay. >> We're open to suggestions. >> I'm just asking the questions. You But thank thank you so much. I appreciate it. And um I I love the how we've been
able to watch this progress through through the beginning stages and where to where we are now. Thank you. Thank you, Director Bates. >> Thank you. Um, thank you again for this presentation and I know we've seen most
of the information previously, but um, I had a question on when we noticed the um, multilingual learners. Um, thank you. I was um, so is the test only the test is obviously only given in
English. Well, so currently in our district, we only give it in English. However, I was having a conversation with Jen Hansen, who is our new director of um English language services. Um in having a
conversation about our options of providing the assessment for students in Spanish, that is another very um widely utilized option in the state. um so that we are able to identify the proficiency uh levels in the native Spanish language
and then making meaning of that and crossing that over into where they need to grow and learn to gain their proficiency in English. So it is an option that is available that many districts use. Um so it is something we are exploring. So that's what I'm just I'm just
wondering if we would have different numbers obviously I would think >> if they were taking it in their native language I'm thinking we would see a >> especially because of the number of multilingual learners we have >> so that's my question and I believe and cass is the same way correct
>> yes >> so if we have the same situation there >> you're absolutely >> our numbers would show to be different and not to single out any group but >> right >> I think we would see that because we have so many newcomers Yes. >> Thank you.
>> That's that's really my only question for this evening. So, thank you again. >> Thank you, Director Bates. Director Egan. >> Hi. Thanks. It's good to see all of you. Thanks for being here tonight. Uh I wondered uh for you, Mr. Aratola, if we
could get the slides from the last two questions. Those were new I think to the data that we seen before. I hadn't seen those four questions or the expanded last slide. >> Yeah, we can definitely share those with you. >> Okay, that would that would be helpful.
Uh I'm also just curious. I understand that we don't want to, you know, stick with programs that aren't working and we but I'm also cautious about jumping into the next bright and shiny thing that
education has to offer us. So, I'm just curious about how we are drawing the line or kind of finding the middle ground on that decision. >> Yeah, I think that's the work we're doing currently.
looking at different ways to use inter reading as a resource to make sure we're getting all kids to our 2030 goal. And so if if it was easy as just purchasing a resource, um we wouldn't be having this conversation. That's the reality of it.
There's something more that has to happen. science tells us, educational science tells us that unit planning around essential standards is the work that needs to take place um through unit planning within um uh of high quality instructional materials that a district
adopts. Um and so it's really blending those two things together, but it's got to be built at the teacher level because I'm not going to teach a single class this year. That's the reality of it. I know it. I can talk about it, but how do I get that to the teacher level so they understand that,
right? And so it can't just be turn the page, turn the page. It's got to be what do my kids sitting in front of me need um at this moment? What are those essential standards? And then how am I going to make sure my instructional practices and strategies are getting kids to the levels of mastery they need
to get to? And if they don't, what does time and support look like? Kids deserve time and support, right? And so, um, it's really looking at using our resources with some science such as 15-day challenge and and really looking at those essential standards where we're going to assess and then pacing as well
because you'll have teachers who will spend 8 12 weeks on a unit that probably should have taken three or four lot of instructional time left. So, how do we be more intentional um with our planning around using our district uh provided resources?
Does that help? >> Yeah, that is helpful. >> Yeah. Okay. >> And it it makes me think about SS for those who don't know, multi-tered system of support. So, I wondered I don't know who would like to talk more about that, but these results are
certainly not siloed. These are a body of evidence that follow with students. So, I'm just curious about how that works together with our other testing. So I think um in education we often mix terminology. So when we think of
multi-tered systems of support from a state from Colorado Department of Education, it's several different components like a comprehensive aligned assessment system. We can check that off. We have that in our district. It includes datadriven decision- making. We are doing that. It includes
collaborative teams. We are doing that through our PLC work. So it's it is a lot of things but I think what you're asking specifically is is around tiered systems of support which is part of the big umbrella of MTSS which means let's
first make sure we provide good first instruction which is focused on our standards and knowing our students sitting in front of us knowing what is essential for them to learn and how we're utilizing those resources to meet those needs. Then, as Toby mentioned,
um, how do we know if they've learned it? We're not waiting eight weeks later. We're checking on a daily basis. Did they get the target that we were intending for them to get today? And then we're asking that question, how do we know? So, how are we measuring it? And then question three and four is what
are we going to do now as adults? What are we going to do? So, that could be in tier 2, which is often provided by the classroom teacher during what we call win time. So there's different structures in different schools. They call it some different terminology. Um we have interventionists which often
also support tier 2 and sometimes also tier three. So we are getting to clarity around those areas. Um and so that's what we're getting to. But I think first step number one is ensuring good, strong, universal instruction first so
we can get back to a mindset that all kids need to have access. Because right now we we often enter into a space of what do kids need as an intervention and intervention is driving our action versus ensuring that kids have great to
strong instruction. And then the number of students who need the intervention should be smaller numbers and it shouldn't be a long-term thing, right? It should be flexible grouping. Get kids what they need and then get them back into universal or continuing that universal but get them what they need.
It shouldn't be something that lasts all year. It should be fluid. Um, so we're getting there, but we're building that foundation of universal first. >> And I hope that helps. >> Yep. And I'll just add one more thing. And I think the other piece that you were asking, it's not one data point. You have CMAS, you have STAR, you have
common formative assessment, you have teacher observations, you have all of those different things that come into consideration around exactly what you're asking. Then what? You know, but it's not it's not one shot, one moment in time. Every time a student takes a
benchmark assessment, every time a student is working their way through a lesson, those are the stories of data that teachers are taking back to say what is the big picture of this child, right? And so, you know, I appass
I also realize it's two weeks of sitting down in front of a computer for 45 minutes. If if we only had if we determined that was the only snapshot of a child, we're doing a huge disservice to every single student in this school district. >> Yes, I agree. Absolutely. So, thank you
for explaining that for us and also good job on the PLC's. I'm so encouraged when I continue to hear the good news about the PLC's and the cross departmental support. I think that's so helpful and I think that that's going to be huge as we
go forward on this. So, >> yeah, I'll just share with you through through Maria's work talking about her experience with RTI through the 15-day challenge. Um, one thing we just sent out to coaches to share with all staff members is how do we give kids and families access to grade level text so
it's consistent with what they're seeing in our instructional materials. And so, um, I'm happy to announce that's out. So they now have aligned resources to get families u grade level text. The next thing we're working on is how do we get teachers to record reading these so our
ML families um can go home and engage with kids in a different way than ever before. Um and then they'll just have a QR code they can scan and those videos will pop up. So some really cool stuff happening because of the work we're doing. >> Great. Well, thank you so much. Appreciate your time and um great to
hear all this good news. Thank you, director Futrell. >> Thank you team once again for uh you know collecting this data and then presenting it back to us. Uh I I want to extend on a question about the PLC's. Um it's it seems like great work. Um the
the three main tenants um are are excellent as far as indicators driving uh change. Can you talk about how these numbers uh will help focus on reallocation of resources or the allocation of resources back into uh the
places where they need them the most um especially into the overland feeder. >> Absolutely. I think the thought process around PLC's and the idea of exactly what we were just talking about what is the data story that we are we are seeing
not only what are the data story that we're seeing in a child what's the data story that we're seeing in a school what's the data story that we're seeing in a feeder that then will help us guide our resources equitably not equally so that is the work that we are starting to do right now and I think you know the
work we started last year of of having the opportunity to sit down with administrators and say our data in this building is showing what do you think as the leader of this building might be the tipping point to move that that data in a different direction. So not only
thinking it from a a district perspective but also going down um to the site level and asking those questions because it's not always an extra person. It it could be a a consultant who is working with the staff
to train the staff alongside Maria Nielsen in this work around PLC's. It could be, you know, I'll use one of our middle schools for example, we had a lot of students who were missing class time because they were having conflict with one another and they were always down in the dean's office resolving conflict.
So, one of the requests was, can I have someone who is understanding of restorative practices so I can get them back into the classroom faster so that they're not constantly having this conflict every single day? Um, we sh we in that school, we showed academic gains
through restorative practices because they were getting extra academic time. So, to your point, it's not a one-sizefits-all. It really is the conversation and the trends. As we were going through this presentation, you know, I continue to see our Hispanic population at a level that is
unacceptable. So what are the trueations that we are having not only with our MLL learners because 40ome percent is not just MLL learners it is our Hispanic population. So what are our students not receiving? What are what are the parents of our students not receiving? What is that community not receiving that we
need to think about in different ways? So so being how we we break down the data will also allow us to be strategic in the resources also. Um there's brilliance in this district and that's what I'm that's where my focus is. How
do we have schools support schools? So when I have a school who is blowing it out of the park, how can I take that information from that school and share the information with that school to other administrators, you know, so we're not constantly trying to reinvent the
wheel. Um and and while it might not your wheel might not fit my bike perfectly, I can manipulate the wheel enough to make it fit my bike. Um so so that those are the questions we're having right now. So we're excited about that movement and the work that
with Dr. Perry and the strategic plan is really digging to that granular nature of it. And I appreciate the question. Thank you. Um I had a similar question to to um director Bates and it reminded me of the episode of Lucy. I love Lucy
where she's explaining like the words that end in u gh um and how it's rough through thorough and truff and you know like and so I'm just thinking about that concept and particularly for our English
language learners and learning that the test or not in their native language and then just how all of the laws or rules of grammar and stuff that we have, how do how does that translate for them or does that I mean I guess how are they
I don't know that's a big question like how are they fusing all that together in a test? Well, I think that's what we're we're going to focus on. And I I want to add and I don't think I'm going to answer your question specifically, President Garland, but what I will say is um in
our work cross department uh work within our strategic plan team, we are becoming clear on how to better support our multil- language learners. For example, this year is the first year that our ELS co-teers, these are our teachers who are
specifically assigned to a school to support our gened teachers in supporting our multil- language learners. They were never pushing in and supporting this year. Their focus is in supporting
our multil- language learners and they're getting provided with a type of instruction on how to teach reading to answer that question. I can't answer it, but I can tell you that they are receiving really specialized instruction and training this year on a regular
basis so that they have the tools on how to cross over from a person's native language to the English language and help to equip that crossover. Um, so I'm really excited about the work that's happening in that department and just the unity and the transparency and
collaboration um, with all the things that are happening with our professional learning communities with common goals with data literacy with considering assessing students in their Spanish native language because that is the other option in the state. So we are really examining um and looking at our
practices so that we can set up our students for success and to really address what you highlighted Chris to better serve in this system our students specifically our Latina students. >> Oh and then Norm has something to add.
Uh, but I I just wanted to share too that the the Spanish version of the STAR assessment, it's not just a translated version of the STAR assessment itself. It's actually a a an assessment that is designed for uh Spanish speaking
students and measures their literacy skills in their native language. So, uh that's that other layer of instructional support. So working closely with the specialists at the schools and the Jenna teachers. It's like uh learning the English language but also supports they
might need in their native language with with literacy and proficiency. >> And I think President Garland in the study session you I think you kind of conversation just because I don't understand your language doesn't mean I'm not capable and an intelligent
student. And I think we have to find ways that we are not providing assessments that are giving them a different impression of who they are as a learner. So I do think we need to delve into these um practices and strategies quite a bit more because I
think when I when I look at some of this data I wonder if some maybe unintentionally we we are causing this problem from an adult perspective. So, how can we remove some of these barriers to show no, you are a learner and and we just need to help you learn our language
in the process. So, you know, we're we're working through that and I think um Overland Hub has been a really good example of that, showing that the opportunity, yes, we want to immerse students inside of the classroom with with language and they also need an opportunity to be with their like peer
group to have a moment where where they feel like they belong at Overland High School, too. Um so being a little bit more flexible in what we do and not just focused on one particular model i.e. co-eing. >> Thank you. Um and then also that kind of
dubtails into my next question in the when you showed the text um how children fail and where you said um we need to flunk unsuccessful practices not students. And so, um, have we assessed like how our teachers are feeling about
all this new stuff and PLC's and even how they learn and, you know, if they're like at grade level for, you know, for being able to teach and I know that they're professionals, but just having to learn something new, you know, I think is is sometimes hard for some people.
>> Yeah. I I would let me break it up into two separate things. The implementation of PLC's has been an absolute success on all levels. Our teachers are excited. Our teachers are
delving in. Our teachers are fullbore inside of the PLC conversation because it gives some of that expertise back to our professionals. It it we're we're sharing with you. We trust you as an
educator to look at the standards and you can help develop with a resource not with fidelity with a resource to teach the students who are sitting in front of you. In contrast, when we came out of
COVID and we hit them with a K12 or K10 aligned preK10 aligned assessment system, a brand new technical um curriculum in language arts, a brand new technical um curriculum in phmic
awareness, a brand new technical content inside of science. That's when you have a lot of push back from our educators and we had to do that too because the state said you have to do this. So I think it's two different things. I
think the initiation of the technical side of the curriculum was really hard for our teachers, you know, and they shared with us this is really hard. This is a lot to learn in a very short amount of time and I don't I'm starting to feel I'm not the expert that I thought I once was. And so we made it over that hump
and now we have the opportunity to say you did all of that hard work. Now let us give you your profession back through PLC's. And so I think we needed to do that hard work first um to really ground ourselves in a strong tier one resource.
And I want to continually say that word resource um to allow the flexibility for our teachers to then use their expertise to teach the students who are sitting in front of them. So I hope that answers your question. Um, yeah. Okay, >> President Gardner, I'll just add too
with the work of collaborative teams, what we're hearing from teachers is they don't feel alone. They feel like they have a team to lean on, look at job embedded professional development. So if they need help, the person they get help from is right in the room next door to them um to help them through it. And so
it's no longer this close my door, I go do what I do. It's we're all in this together. So, there's a support system for grade level teams through this collaborative team process that's been super beneficial. The other thing I will tell you is through feedback we've gotten from teachers around the 15-day challenge because that's another
component of it is we feel like we can finally use this resource in the right way. And so, um, again, building that efficacy that they can make a difference each and every day is, um, pouring into them, um, and making sure they have what they need to be successful.
>> Thank you. Um, that concludes my questions. Um, does anyone have any follow-ups or we can move on to audience comments? Thank you. It is at this point in our meeting that we make time for members of the audience who have completed the online public comment form prior to 12:00 noon today
to address the board of education. In order for everyone to be heard, please limit your comments to a maximum of two minutes. A buzzer will sound at the end of the two minutes and the microphone and audio will be automatically muted. Each speaker may only speak once during public comment. Speaking time may not be
shared between two speakers. This is your opportunity to make comments to the board of education in accordance with board policy. Question and answers. Please confine your comments to matters that are gerine to the business of the district. Further, please recognize that students
attend most of our meetings. Any speaker whose statements are are unrelated to the business of the district appear threatening or unsafe or inappropriate for K through2 students may be interrupted or warned and their opportunity for comment terminated.
Audience members who speak are asked to do so in a respectful manner and the audience is encouraged to listen respectfully. Any speaker or audience member who disrupts the good order of the board meeting including the speaking time of others may be asked to leave. We are very interested in your feedback and
will listen carefully. On behalf of the board, I want to thank you in advance of your comments for taking the time to come to tonight's meeting. Mr. Conig, would you please call our first our first five speakers? >> Carly Holiday.
Good evening. First off, I want to welcome and thank board member, Director Frell, for stepping up and contributing to our community. I am Carly Holiday. I am the president of the Cherry Creek Education Association. And tonight, I wanted to talk about a unique
partnership the union and the district have collaborated to develop over the last few years. As we came out of the pandemic, almost everyone in education was focused on this question of burnout. In our district, we went so far as to negotiate anou focused on analyzing and
mitigating educator burnout. As part of that work, we came across a unique one-of-a-kind union affiliated organization called Educators Thriving. This group, born out of a Harvard educated doctoral students research has led to the first real understanding of
what contributes to both educator specific burnout and well-being. With support from our superintendent, we have begun to offer professional development courses to educators, and they were invited to train our principles and ARs in conflict and communication. We're
already seeing results. In addition, the superintendent and I are excited to share this work next month at the National Center for School University Partnerships. For me, this work reflects what I hope we can continue to accomplish in Cherry Creek Schools. I wholeheartedly believe that the union as
a collective voice for our educators helps make this district what it is and our union district collaboration can be an exemplar for other systems as to how to make sure we take care of our educators so they can take care of our students. Thank you and don't forget to
vote. President Gar, that's all we have for tonight. >> Thank you. I'd like to call for a motion to approve the consent agenda resol resolutions 2510.1
through 2510.9. Approve the consent agenda resolutions number 25.10.1 through number 25.10.9. >> Is there a second? Second >> roll call, please.
>> Directors Allen, >> I. >> Bates, >> I. >> Egan, >> I. >> But >> I, >> Garland, >> I. Motion carries. I'd like to give a special shout out for to director Futrell for breaking up the all girl
band. And I would like to announce our next meeting is Monday, November 10th, 2025 at 7 pm at Fox Ridge Middle School, 20 26301 East Arapjo East Arapjo Road in Aurora. I'd like to call for a motion to
adjourn the October 20th, 2025 meeting. >> Move to adjourn. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Directors Allen, >> I. >> Bates, >> I. Egan >> Iro >> I >> Garland
>> I motion carries our meeting is adjourned