Education special board meeting to order at 05:30PM. Board members, I call you 9. Could you please say present for the record? Trustee King? Present. Trustee Rutherford? Vice president McIntyre? Present. Secretary Perkins? Present. Myself, president Mike Neal, four present, three absent. Absent. The board will not hear comments from the public. We ask that you state the reason for addressing the board and that you limit your remarks to three minutes on the matter within authority of the board and not address individually by name. The presiding officer of the board should have the right to limit the number of
person who may address the board on the same subject. Please state your name before beginning to speak. Proceed, please. Thank you. Good evening board members. Karen Christian, president of the United Teachers of Flint, 5095 Exchange Drive, Flint, Michigan, 48507. I'm here tonight just to, express our gratitude and finishing with bargaining and that, we hope that as you go into closed session that, we have a positive outcome when you come out so that we can, have have this two year agreement, that we
have collaboratively come to and, be able to continue on with the great works that we're doing in this district. So thank you so much. Thank you. Is there anyone else who'd like to speak? Seeing no other, we will proceed to the closed session. Board, ma'am, at this time, I need a motion and a second to go into closed session regarding attorney client privilege. I make a motion that we go into closed session. Second. I need a second. Support. It has been properly moved and second that we meet in closed session. The board member is gonna call your name. Could you please say yes or no to go in to closed session?
Trustee King? Yes. Vice President McIntyre? Yes. Secretary Perkins? Yes. And myself? Yes. We have three absent. Trader Luna, Trustee Boo, and trustee Relaford. We are not meeting closed session in the room next door. Test. Test. Test. Test. Test. Test. Test. Test. Test. Test. Test. Test. Test. Test. Test. Testing. I would like to call the special board meeting back in Florida That's a problem. At 06:11PM. What was this name of this country?
Board member, I would like to entertain a motion to second to approve the UTF contract. Am I right? Madam chair? Yes. I probably moved to, to move to approve the United Teachers Affluent contract. Support. It has been properly moved in second. Are there any question? Are there any question? Seeing no question, the motion to approve the UTL will be conducted by roll call vote. Board members, I call your name. Please say yes or no. Treasurer Looney is absent. Trustee Rutherford?
Yes. Trustee King? Yes. Vice President McIntyre? Yes. Trustee Boole is absent. Secretary Perkins? Yes. Myself, President McNeil, five, yes. Two absent, zero, no. Seeing no further business of the board, I declare the special board meeting adjourned at 06:12PM. So we're going to we have eighteen more minutes meeting. It's over. It's over. Board member, we have about eighteen more minutes before our next board meeting. So consider this as a recess. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations. Appreciate you. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Doctor Coleman? Steven, we're good to go. Good afternoon. Once again, I would like to call the Flint Board of Education regular board meeting to order at 06:30PM. Board members, as I call your name, could you please stay present for the record? Trustee King? Present. Treasurer Looney is absent. Trustee Relleford? Present. Vice president McIntyre? Present. Trustee Boos is absent. Secretary Perkins? Present. Myself, president McNeal, five present to absent.
I would now call upon secretary Perkins to read the district mission statement. District mission statement. It is the mission of the Flint School District to develop a community of learners who are prepared to live, work, and contribute in an ever changing society. The Flint Board of Education standards of practice in order to provide outstanding leadership and better serve the Flint community schools, we, the members of the Flint Board of Education,
commit to the following standards of practice. Number one, we will be consistent in our dealings with each other as well as students, staff, and community. We will model trustworthiness and honesty in our relationships with each other Mhmm. With our superintendent and with our constituents. We will focus on common goals of providing the best education process for the students in the Flint community schools. We will respect the diverse views that each of us bring to the organization, as well as the views of others that we interact with as we carry out the
business of the board of education. We will be open and authentic with each other. We will focus on I'm sorry. And our staff and community. As we work to make decisions, we will focus on issues, not personalities. Our decisions will be student centered and based on objective facts. We will practice good listening skills to better understand our fellow board of education members and consents. Thank you very much, boy. I seek a motion and second to approve the minutes from 10/08/2025 board committee of
the whole meeting and the 10/15/2025 regular board meeting. Please review your meeting. So moved. Support. It didn't properly move and second. Are there any correction? Seeing none, the motion to approve the minutes for 10/08/2025, board committee of the whole meeting and 10/15/2025, regular board meeting will be conducted by a roll call vote. Board members are calling your name. Please say yes for the record. Secretary Perkins? Yes. Trustee Booz is absent. Vice president McIntyre?
Yes. Trustee Relleifer? Yes. Trustee King? Yes. Treasurer Looney is absent. Myself, president McNeal, five yes. Two absent. No noes. The board will not hear comments from the public. We ask that you state the reason for addressing the board and that you limit your remarks to three minutes on matters within authority of the board and not address individual by name. The presiding officer of the board should have the right to limit the number of person who may address the board on the same subject. Is there anyone here that would like to address the board? If you so, please state your name before beginning to speak.
Seeing there's no one. Tonight, we have presentation, from the academic team. I'm asking board members to write your question down as you go. Do not interrupt the speakers. When they are done, you can present your questions in a timely manner. At this time, we have an academic data presentation from superintendent Jones and miss Tracy Davis, FBO consultant. Proceed? Yes. Proceed. Alright. Alright. Good evening, Board of Education. Hey. Good evening to our public, those that are online. Tonight, I'm I'm joined by our academic leaders, doctor Natoya Coleman, our Chief Innovation Officer,
Ms. Kelly Fields, our Director of Academics, and the Board Consultant, Ms. Tracy Davis, and Superintendent Consultant, Doctor. Wanda Cook Robinson. This team has come together together under the authority of the Board of Education to talk to you all tonight about the district's academic progress and the district's way forward. And this presentation tonight, we are currently gonna talk about the data and how it
connected to the goals and the in the NDE partnership that we were in, and the strategic plan. Our focus, for this presentation will be on district level ELA and math data and the pathway forward. We will review our current data and use this information to determine a clear strategic pathway, forward. As we all know, when we look at the data, we no one at the table, is is likes the data as it is. We know that there are issues.
We know that there are problems, but we have a way forward. And with this, team here, we believe that we can move this forward. So I I wanna thank, Tracy for, her expertise in working with the board, but also being able to define for us, what our board of education is looking for, but also bringing an idea and a perspective to the table, that we needed to be able to formulate what we have for you today, doctor Joyce.
So, we're going to, get kinda get get going in that, but I wanna just kinda give you, some information about, the literacy and the math, based on the partnership agreement that we were in. The m step is the state test that shows how well our scholars are mastering grade level skills. Some of you know that, but we wanna make sure our public and everyone understands the difference between the m step and, the NWEA that we use. The percentage of FCS and this goal that I'm talking to you about now was
the goal that was in our partnership agreement, But this goal was not created just by Flint Community Schools. This goal was in partnership, with the ISD, Michigan State University as a partner, and MBE as, leaders that brought Flint Community Schools into this partnership agreement. So this goal, the percentage of FCS full academic years students who score proficient on state assessments. And when we talk about m steps, we're talking about proficiency, will increase by at
least three percentage points over three years. Tracy, I'm a kick that to you so you can kinda explain that, a little bit more. I'm always used to keeping this off from my past life. Is it green? Yeah. Okay. Which means it's live. Members of the board and this team, sitting before me, I just wanna appreciate having the hard conversations about the work that the district is doing for the students and, having frank conversations about the look forward and this team and especially superintendent Jones leaning into this to work around the data.
As I work with the board academic team and a big shout out to the board academic committee, like we did a lot of work, you all asked lots of great questions and understanding the partnership agreement and what those terms meant. And one of the things I learned was, like, there was a little confusion about the 1% increase versus the 3% increase, for some individuals. So when it was I talked to the team, explained it to me so I can make it clear to the board. And so I think what was very clear was, in the partnership agreement, it talks about a 1% increase every year over a year to get to the 3% between
2022 and '24. This is gonna be important as you look at data because there's going to be years where you see them make an increase or maybe not make an increase or even maybe go down, but they still hit the mark from 2022, the benchmark. So if you look at the data year over year, you you might see some anomalies in the data, but overall the partnership compares the year to the benchmark year, not year over year. What we have all agreed to is show you the data year over year versus
the benchmark year so you can see what all three years look like comparatively for students by student grade levels and also by schools. That was a big question asked around school data. And superintendent Jones, I just wanna talk about while we know this is K-eight data and everybody wants to know about the graduation initiative and what's happening with that, We have started working on the plan to put out for the graduation initiative. Unfortunately, MDE doesn't give out that data until February. Did I get that right? So we'll come back in February with an update around the graduation initiative and, the
graduation rates and all those indicators related to graduation. Thank you, Tracy. So then when you talk about so we we talked about m step, and then you're gonna get some data. You're gonna go through the data. But I I wanna make sure that all of, the board understands that the m step takes us to where students if students are on grade level or above, it tells you if they're proficient at grade level or above. But then NWEA talks about growth. And in the partnership we were in, the goal was during the twenty twenty four,
twenty five school year, each partnership agreement school was to increase by at least 10% percentage points or have at least 55% of their scholars meet their growth target on the NWEA reading growth assessment. So that meant and I'll just take a school to give you an example. That meant if Doyle Rider had 25% of their scholars meeting their target and they increased 10 percentage points, they would be at 35%, which would be, meeting that goal
for the partnership agreement. Okay? Or if fifty five fifty five percent of the scholars was meeting their target growth. So if it was 65%, then they were meeting that goal. So in the partnership, they had two ways to meet that goal. And NWA scores just measure students' growth in reading and math. The score helps us as educators identify strengths. Now the state only looks at proficiency, but we as local leaders, we're looking at
growth over time. So it'll lead us and lead the scholars to the proficiency. So it's like you're talking earlier about small wins. Those teachers need to be able to see small wins so that we can get our scholars to their proficiency. Okay? Tracy, is there anything you wanna add to that? I think the the importance to have NWA and you think about kids who students who are partially proficient, NWA will help those teachers do a deeper dive because what we're gonna have to do and our challenge is to move the system. Our first first move is to look at the kids who are partially proficient because
that means they're almost there and look at that data. NWA will help them look at those pieces and fill in those gaps for those students so that we can move them faster to get to proficiency. So at this time, the team is going to talk a little bit about the data. But as they begin to talk about the data, they're not only gonna tell you about the data, but they're gonna talk to you about a path forward that we have worked on collectively after they talk about the data that will lead us into how we're going to fix the issues and the gaps that we have.
So at this time, I'm gonna turn it over to, doctor Coleman, and she's gonna talk a little bit about the M STEP data. Kelly, I'm I'm I'm sorry. Kelly's gonna talk about the M STEP data, and then we'll go from there. I'll come back and we'll go from there. Not a problem. Pleasure to be here before you, board tonight, and I'll be talking to you a little bit about the M STEP data this evening. So one of the things I think that's most important that, that we make sure is out in the open and that we're talking about about this particular set of data is that the years '22 through '24 reflect full academic year students.
That is the information that's public facing that's on our Michigan data dashboard, and those are only students that have attended for the full academic year. Because of the fact that the school index scores are not out, the data that's listed for the 2025 is raw data. So those numbers could be subject to change once the, the scores from the state come out and those are, no longer embargoed and we're able and available to be able to see the full academic year students that they tether out. The results can vary across buildings and grade levels, and we'll continue to monitor those
updates as the final data becomes available to share, as as they were updated as well. So this is our, M STEP scores by grade level, k through three through eight. This is a combination of M STEP and PSAT. I think that the three most important things that stick out to us about this data is we've considered in conversations of data discourse. And as additionally, I'm I'm sure that these things will pop out to you as well, that proficiency remains low across most grade levels, that growth trends, just don't yet translate into significant proficiency gains, and that there's a continued focus and need on early
literacy foundations and comprehension is needed. And going into looking at the the additional points of data that the board had requested and wanted to know was to go ahead and see the trends in buildings, across the baseline of the partnership agreement of 2022, including all schools, that are listed there for us, including, some of the institutions that we've we've, shuttered in the last couple of years. We have the M STEP, and PSAT ELA achievement data by school. And I think the three most important things that we could probably lift about this
particular sets of data would be that there are some slight improvements, but still below the college readiness benchmarks, that the majority of students are not meeting their readiness cut scores, and that there's a need for a stronger curriculum alignment, attendance, and secondary course rigor, is evident in this particular set of data. And you'll hear throughout the course of this presentation tonight how we plan on addressing, some of these issues and, in their path forward. Let me go to the next one. This next set is, focusing on our math achievement.
And, again, this is by building level, looking through the course of, '22 baseline at the beginning of the partnership agreement and then following through the years of '23 and '24. Just a reminder that those first three years are full academic year students that have been, that have been measured for the purpose of the end result for percentages there. And that the 2025 data is again raw data that has not had the full academic year students tethered out yet. The three things I think that are most important about this particular set of data
and that's, most alarming and concerning for us as well is that math is the district's most significant challenge, that skill gaps are wide in the foundational math and problem solving, and that stronger tier one math instruction and interventions are urgently needed. So so now at this point, we we we really want you to know board of education that we know your North Star. Your North Star is proficiency. We know that we can't just focus on growth. The North Star is proficiency, and we have to put the tools and the things
in place to get us to, that North Star, which is proficiency. But we we also have to talk about the growth, that we're seeing and the growth we're not seeing and what we're doing about it. So I I wanna pivot just a little bit, so that we can talk about that growth, and then we're gonna get into how we're moving forward and the academic plan to make changes in the district. Doctor. Coleman. Thank you, superintendent Jones. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for this opportunity to really take a time to elaborate on, our status
academically with our achievement here in the district and the things that we, know and understand about our data and how we're responding to that. Also just wanna give a great appreciation to this team of powerful, professional, intelligent people who helped us to have this conversation today. I'm talking about the NWEA, and mister Jones has already laid the framework to help us understand that we use the NWEA. It really reminds me of the teacher as a scientist because the NWEA gives the
teachers the tools that they need when they're able to analyze and disaggregate each individual student's data to be able to track the student's progress, and it drills it all the way down to the standard. So it shows you the scholars growth on each particular standard over time. In the district, we take the NWEA three times, once in the fall, once in the winter, and once in the spring. And when we empower our teachers to be able to access and then utilize the data from the NWEA, particularly looking at the standards, those scores help educators pinpoint the
exact areas where students need to excel or they need improvement later about program evaluation. But we have tools within our district that drill down the standards and give scholars give teachers reports on how scholars are doing on the standards on a daily basis. There's programs that scholars can access every day focusing on the standard, which is powered by the information that teachers can access from the NWEA.
So they use this assessment to tailor instruction and set academic goals for scholars, supporting their student success. And so we recognize that even though we have this information and the tools are here, utilization of it. And so we're going to be concentrating moving forward as superintendent Jones talked about the pathway forward on how we can improve on our use of this information that's given to us by the NWEA and the tools that we have.
So for our NWEA, as already stated, our goal is to increase our our school wide, growth by 10% or reach a 55% growth target. This is measured both at the school level and the district level, and it's tied directly to the MDE state partnership. So when we look at NWEA, those are the growth measures that we're gonna be concentrating on. Starting with the baseline from 2022 and then moving to 2024, we can see based
on the partnership agreement how the schools fair in terms of meeting their growth projections. I like what miss Davis said about how sometimes data can be an anomaly. Because sometimes schools can move forward in their growth, and sometimes schools can regress. And this is very dynamic. If there are a lot of factors that contribute to whether or not what the data come turns out to be. However, we never want to misinterpret, underestimate, or or, diminish the information that's coming to
us from data. It's just that we have to look at things comprehensively. So as we look at our data, we see that there are some years where schools improved, and then there were some years where we saw a decline in the data. And so then we have to ask ourselves questions about this data and why this is happening. We see that some schools approach their goals and some schools meet their goals. And then, this growth tells us about the school's instructional progress, but but we can see without, uncertain terms that there's a continued focus that is needed on literacy practices
when we look at our NWEA reading growth. If we look at our NWEA math growth, we see, in alignment with our M STEP data that our math growth lags behind reading. We can also see that there are some building specific strengths and challenges that are evident. And I I look forward in the future to as we continue these data conversations to have more talks with you about what's going on in each of these buildings and the building wide initiatives that provide the growth that you see here, because I
think that that will provide it will provide some light on just some of the nuances that create those anomalies that miss Davis talked about in terms of the school wide data. And we also see that coaching and PD, is aligned to math discourse and problem solving. So we are looking, again, in our program evaluation, which we'll talk about soon, on what things we need to focus on in terms of aligning our math curriculum and our math professional development to continue to deepen the scholars access to grade level proficiency
and in and obviously grow, based on the NWEA. And then for me, as I step into this role, looking at this data gives me an opportunity to ask questions and plan the role ahead. So we're looking at trends, building why, district why. What is the data telling us? What trends do we see here? And that powers the dialogue that we've been having together about the pathway forward. So as we look at the district wide NWEA growth data, we see that although
the gains necessarily be obvious in some places, there is movement in the right direction. However, we need stronger consistency across schools. There are some schools that have initiatives and implementation shining gains. And there are some schools that have challenges that need our intentionals. And so our winner benchmark, which we'll be taking when we come back from Wonderbrae, will guide the next intervention cycle and will help us to see what things we
can implement, continue to implement to improve our data. So this this report here drills down to grade level. And we thought that this was important for us to be able to see, the trends of growth over time by grade level. And for me, it helps me to see what kinds of grade band interventions are possible. So we see I see consistently with reading that sixth grade is strong. So what kind of sixth grade what's happening in sixth grade that causes there to
be consistent growth across sixth grade? Grade? And then how can we strengthen our interventions so that the same growth that we see in kindergarten, we can also see in that very same grade band, which is, k two? So these are this this report just allows us to be able to look deeply into trends, based on grade levels and grade bands. As we see in math, again, this same, math data reflects the data that we've seen across the other assessments on the trends that are happening with math. Particularly, there is a need to really hone in on math regarding to grades three
and four and seven and eight. So we see opportunities here on what interventions need to be put in place for for math. Thank you. Tracy, I'm a pivot to you just for a moment before I go further. Okay. Thank you. I I just wanna talk about a a few quick things just for reference frame of reference. When it comes to the M STEP, that test is taken once a year. It's the kids one chance to show what they know rate based on proficiency. When it comes to NWA, they take that test four times a year, three times three times a year here, and that test is why it's like a dipstick.
You take it, and then it drives instruction. The teacher looks at what you know. And I think it's important for people to understand the difference between how many times the test is taken for one thing. Also, in the presentation, I know there were some blank spots for grades seven and eight, and somebody might write down, well, why don't we see a number? When a number is too low, you can't violate FERPA because you can identify a kid. If I said to you, we only have one kid proficient, you could identify it. So we zeroed stuff out. If the number is too low and you can identify, you should not be putting
those percentages up to protect the rights of students. So that's why you see blank spots. And then as we teach and I share information about the data with the board, what we talk about is horizontal data is year over year is based off third graders only. But you also have to look at vertical data. Look at when they went to third grade, then go to their fourth grade data point, then go to their fifth grade data point. So you're not just going across. You gotta also look vertically because we know that there are some highlights in the cohort of students.
So what we call a grade level cohort because that's the graduation cohort they were in. Just as some clarifying points as you think about when you look at the data, there's other ways that we look at how kids are progressing. Thank you for that. So we're we're gonna now talk about how we're gonna move forward. Pam, if you can pass miss Beard, sorry. If you can pass that document out, we're gonna talk about, you know, to improve these outcomes, we are looking at growth and proficiency. We know the North Star is proficiency, and we're focused on that. However, to get there, there are some instructional expectations.
There are some key, interventions. There are some work that needs to be done, some things that need to change, and some to change, and some expectations that need to be monitored in order to ensure that we are getting our scholars where we want them to be. And so I'm gonna pivot this conversation to start talking about how we're going to be transforming education in Flint community schools. And I'm gonna pivot this over to doctor Wanda Cook and doctor Coleman to, talk
a little bit about, what's in front of you. This evening, we're gonna talk about the path of the forward. You see where we are in the scores. We spend a lot of time talking about where we are. And if you look at those scores, and I know you have experience looking at them year after year, you can see this happening. So we know there's some things happening in that instructional environment. So what we did was to come together and to talk about how do we look at short term the next two years including the, strategic priorities to put together a plan to start shaping up our academic instructional framework.
So in keeping in mind with our achievement data and thinking about realistic goals for where we are, as well as being aggressive about thinking about where we want our scholars to be, there are some things that we feel we can accomplish within the next two years. And then there are some things that we know in collaboration with you, the Board of Education, as you plan your strategic, goals for the strategic plan, in the 2027, 2028. Our our our goal and our vision is to walk lock in step with you as we think about what we believe is the next, trajectory for our academic growth
here in the district. So we start with our achievement data, of course, thinking about where we are with our NWEA growth and our M STEP proficiency levels. And then we move to a very rigorous and intensive focus on curriculum and instruction, focusing on a curriculum audit, as well as program evaluation, where we take the time with our consultants to really look at our curriculum and make sure that there is curricular alignment, as well as evaluating all of our programs to understand what they are
doing exactly and and how they are getting us to our academic goals. We also hope to implement programs that will help us to accomplish our our academic goals. Two of those programs, AVID, advancement via individual determination, allows us to provide comprehensive supports for scholars in terms of reading and study skills, providing them the resources that are needed to be able to access rigorous instruction in the classroom. We are also looking at Jason Learning, which is a STEM curriculum that was introduced
to us by doctor Wanda Cook Robinson to help to have alignment for early childhood to grade eight in the STEM curriculum, and the focus there will be at the Brownell Home STEM campus. We hope to continue our MSU fellowship sessions focusing on the lesser model to strengthen supports for teachers on rigorous instruction in the classroom. Accompanying that will be district wide learning walks and professional learning communities in schools to support professional growth and student growth. In addition to that, we did these things, and we have these things with the
strategic plan priorities in mind, focusing on teaching and learning, as well as resources, and looking at assessing our resources in order to implement conversations with scholars and with teachers around their data and looking at goals setting goals for scholars so that they can be in continuous communication and have that metacognition about their own learning and setting their own goals. Interventions and supports by utilizing tutoring. We're looking and excited about implementing the intervention support, with Green Education, as well as
continuing Exact Path Study Island and Amira and Wago, which are resources we already have. And then we are also committed to, social and emotional learning and well-being with our robust MTSS staffing using our community based resources and then our attendance and graduation initiatives. So we believe that the items that you see on this infographic, we can successfully implement by the end of the 2027 school year. And then we partner with the board of education as you lead the way for
us with the strategic plan for years three through five of the remaining of the academic plan. And we're excited about taking this work, digging our hills in deep to provide teachers the support that's needed to increase the rigor and instruction in the classroom and move the district forward academically. So let me let me let me say this too, that this is draft board of education. There's there's things on here that we have not brought to you yet. There are some things in in wait, with the state of Michigan that we're waiting on, and we wish we did not have to wait.
But there are some things that we we wanna make sure that we can, that are new, that we wanna make sure that we can get approved and have a long lasting relationship with. So this is a draft, and I wish it was a watermark here that I I'll I'll own that. But this is a draft, so that we can make sure that those things are brought to the table. So I wanna just make sure you oh, it's at the where is it? Oh, it is at the bottom. It says right at the bottom. Alright. Alright. Okay. Go team. Thank you. Yeah.
So, just wanted to say that so that because there are things here that have not yet been approved. But, but they also have not been approved at the state level as well. So we're waiting on that to be able to move that forward. So I just wanted to drop that in there. Thank you. Yeah. As we move forward looking at this academic plan that we have, the first thing we have to do is look at evaluating the initiatives across the district. What we found is that there are a number of initiatives occurring at the district level and at the building level.
And we are gonna have to evaluate them and look at the impact. Under the, supervision and direction of the superintendent, he brought a team together, which is these four folks. And we also added Thomas Parker to the team. Miss Thomas in? Yeah. Raise your hand back there, Thomas. It's on the team. And we've been meeting to figure out a tool that we can use. And you know what? As when we get the result of this, we might have to come back to the board and talk about some plan abandonment. In order to do some of those initiatives that you saw in that academic plan,
it's gonna take funding. We're gonna have to look at how much money we have, how we're utilizing it now, what's the impact, how effective is that money being used in those programs? And if it's not effective, we're gonna have to plan to abandon them and take on some new for example, Abbott that doctor Coleman is bringing to the district is fantastic. Districts that are high achievers have AVID in their instructional framework. That's something that we wanna bring, but we can't keep adding, adding, and adding. It does not work.
What we've decided thus far, and all of this is tentative, we're still working this out, is that at the district level, we're looking at initiatives that are $50,000 or above. But we're also gonna that's level one. We're also gonna have to look at level two because a number of our buildings have initiatives anywhere from 5 to $25,000. So we're gonna have to look at both of those levels, look at all of those initiatives, and then we're gonna have to evaluate them for effectiveness. Next. We're also gonna have to find a tool. One of the things that we're struggling with, do we have the capacity within this
team to do this or are we gonna have to bring on some additional help? So, Natoya has contacted a number of organizations that we're looking at that might be able to come and help us, do an evaluation across the district. And again, all of this is very, very tentative. So we're looking at a tier one and a tier two district level, building level, evaluate the effectiveness of those programs, and then use the data to come back and to drive our instructional plan. In addition, as we've been talking about the instruction in the district and, you know,
I came on board looking at the high school and looking at the vision. So we also took a look starting with the end in mind. So if we look at the high school, and I think I talked about this when I met with you the last time I was in front of this board, that you can't look at the end without looking at every other component down the line and making sure that there's alignment. And when we talk about a curriculum alignment, curriculum audit, that's going in and looking per grade level, making sure that the curriculum is constantly consistent across grade levels and
that we have effective instructional practices, including implementing those practices the way the professional development was supposed to, or showed, our teachers how it was to be implemented. And we're gonna have to evaluate the implementation of that as well. And looking at this total system, you know, we mentioned last time K-eight, and we wanna propose to the superintendent, for his consideration, to look at a preschool K eight
initiative. And we're looking at hopefully a pilot in two of our buildings. We don't think we can take it all on at once. But in the 2026, we will look at seventh grade and then 2028 eighth grade. And looking at putting those two pilots in place, we would be looking at the instruction. We'll be looking at, staffing. And we know that staffing is an issue, and we might have to look at some technology and some hybrid classrooms and do some innovation there. And we've been meeting with a number of organizations that have some innovative things that
we might be able to utilize. So we're looking at two years. We're looking at two schools hopefully. And I look at the superintendent because he's been pushing back hard and so I have to arm this a little bit. But that is what we're looking at for K-eight. Kelly, anything you wanna add? I'm excited about the, about the planning for this team. I'm excited about the heart of this team and the commitment to be solution driven, to be able to help our students be successful, but also to, include our community
in these conversations about what it is that we can do to support our community as well. So so so I'll I'll go to I'll end this by just really saying we're no longer in a partnership agreement. We don't have to follow the partnership agreement and what it was. The board has higher expectations, and I've heard that. And that's what we're trying to focus ourselves on now. Now if a partnership agreement comes, it comes when it comes. But right now, we're focusing on the expectations that I've been receiving from the board of education and trying to push in program evaluation and push proficiency as it pertains
to, the indicators that's going to be important for us to focus on. So this is a result, board of education, of the conversations that you've had about our academic data, The places we've gone and we've traveled to see how it has worked in other districts. And we're taking those opportunities right now, putting that plan together and working with these folks to ensure that we are meeting those standards. So, with that said, I I'd I'd like to just open up the floor.
Before I do that, Tracy, is there anything else you would like to add before we open up the floor to board members for questions or comments? So with that said, doctor Wanda, ladies, is there anything else you would like to say before we turn it over to the board of education? Great job. Got a long way to go. Lot to do. And those red areas, we're we're transparent with it. We're not hiding it. We're saying this is where we are, and we need to make change for our scholars. So with that said, we're turning it over to the board for any questions or comments. Okay.
I wanna thank you, so much, for sharing this information to the board and, as well, to the public as we move forward, looking forward where we're going. And I appreciate that, you listen to the board, especially with the program evaluation. They've been a pet peeve of mine. So it shows that, we're moving forward, and I think that's gonna be the key. Board members, raise your hand if you have questions, and now just call on, trustee Perkins. I would like to know what order have we done of our, K through eight,
the math curriculum to ensure skills are being built being building progressively from one grade to the next, in that vertical cohort that, miss Tracy was talking about. I very much appreciate that question, Trustee Perkins. So we have the Savvas, math program district wide, but we have at our STEM schools illustrative math and also reveal math that are at, at our, STEM facilities.
During the course of that time, we offered, hundreds of hours of support through the math for the math curriculum implementation. During the first year of implementation, which was 2022, I believe, Yes, '20 yeah. 2022 was the first year that we had that. There was a crawl phase that started with a, six hour institution to support teachers in the implementation of that, and then, like I said, over the past three years, we've literally offered hundreds of hours, in support, not just from the instructional perspective, but
also, supporting through the efforts of, NTN, which has supported that particular, initiative of curriculum, and we're in the middle of auditing it right now. So, I mean, you're in a usually it's three to five years that you measure a curriculum, and so we're in the midst of of collecting information and the data on that right now to be able to, conduct an audit for our math. You said reveal math. And what was the other one? Illustrative. Illustrative. Yeah. That's at only our STEM facilities. Savas math is the math that that the rest of our facilities.
Okay. And, so how long have you used the adapted math and reading curriculum? How are you ensuring the curriculum is taught with fidelity? And what evidence is being used to measure your success? So currently, we have a couple of different measures for us to be able to show impact. So we have our local and state assessments, which are able to tell us where we're sitting at as far as student growth and proficiency is concerned as we've just recovered. We also have observational, the observational model of Marzanos and the, principals monitoring of what's
happening in classrooms, and then we also have, recently instituted learning walks to identify and see what's happening in every single classroom in the district. Can I answer that? Yeah. Absolutely. That's one of the reasons yeah. I'm a use my teacher voice. Use your teacher voice. That's one of the reasons we have to do what's called a curriculum audit. Yeah. One, we've got to go get into those classrooms and make sure that every third grade teacher is teaching third grade math. That's what I'm saying. First of all, they feel competent Mhmm. To to deliver that.
Mhmm. Then we've got to go in and we've got to measure the implementation of that. Mhmm. And in doing that, we'll break that down into tasks. For example, when a teacher's teaching math, and and teaching certain standards, we know there are certain materials. We should see certain objectives on the board. We should see certain activities in the classroom. We've got to go in to that level in order to get the constancy and consistency that will stop this. And that's what you saw in those scores. I haven't seen evidence of that. This is what today.
This is what we plan to do when we talk about doing a curriculum audit and the alignment across grade levels. We're when the evaluation initiative, we got we have to go in and measure that. Yes. Mhmm. I agree. Great question. Follow-up with that. I asked you to follow-up with. Okay. I'm so sorry. Yeah. And I just you wanna follow with her over the No. I just wanted to clarify her question. Okay. So she asked, what audit have you done with the K through eight math curriculum?
And how have we measured to this point? Measured? And I didn't I don't I don't understand the answer. I don't where's the measurement? So, there's two there's two, approaches here. So when you adopt a curriculum, curriculum adoption phase. And it takes three years. There's training. There's right? Right. So no measurement yet? So we're we're at the end of the Yeah.
We adopted in 2022, 2020. And so we're that would be that there has We haven't gotten to that phase, when organically. Now. We're in addition with the, program valuations. We're at the curriculum audit phase, right? Now, actually very it's a really good time because we're able now, because we're in
this conversation of program evaluation to do exactly that. This curriculum that we implemented in 2022, it's time for us to see what is the outcome we implemented new curriculum for ELA, math, social studies, and science in 2022, 2023. So all four subject areas got new curriculum in the same year.
So this is a great time for us to take a look at that with the program evaluation and the curriculum audit and see what changes we need to make. Mhmm. How are we measuring the effectiveness of professional development? And do we have performance indicators for this in the, strategic plan? I say, how are we measuring the effectiveness of professional development? And do we have performance indicators for this in the strategic plan? So there's a couple ways that we measure the effectiveness of professional development.
Some of the ways are that we get feedback from teachers, and we have surveys that that can measure their their qualitative responses on their experience of professional learning. We have walk throughs that are documenting what's happening in the classroom. We have observational opportunities for the administrator, and we have reports that we can pull to show the effectiveness of those things that are supposed to be instructionally driven showing up in those evaluations or those observations. And then we, of course, have our local, state, and assessment data, which we've already
reviewed tonight that shows that we definitely need improvement in those areas, right? And so those are the measures, of some just some of the ways that we can triangulate data to be able to determine, is what we're doing working or not? Well, since the teachers are the first line of defense, And the numbers are what they are. How often do you take what the teachers say at heart? Well, that's only just one part of of a a conversation, right?
The triangulation of the data really is revolving around, the effectiveness of professional development, it's shown through our state and local data, it's shown through common assessments, formative assessments, how much that students are engaging in, instructional opportunities that lead to success. And so a survey over the the, quality of professional learning might be what the teachers allow us to know to be able to better support them through their learning
opportunities, but the effectiveness of our professional development is really measured through the student success or not having success. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Trustee relevant. Amen. First of all, that's it. Amen. Oh, wow. Church is on my mind y'all. First of all, thank you guys for the presentation. I have a bunch of notes, but I'm a go off the top of my head. Students are proficient, partial proficient proficiency, and what's the other? They have categories. Correct? They do. So I would ask, I don't believe it'll take two years to see improvement, first
and foremost. I would hope that the teachers will be able to identify the students that are Yes. Proficient, excellent, however, you guys know the categories. And what I would ask is that the teacher highlight those and those individual because learning is fun. First of all, it needs to be fun. Kids need to be rewarded and you can see results in thirty days in a student if you focus on them. Two students love attention. And I believe that the students that are that remain in our district, I believe
every every school so when you look at Freeman, Freeman is always consistent over the years. I just believe in best practices. I don't believe in changing curriculums. I don't. I believe in best practices because if you've been consistent for three years okay. Disclaimer. I worked at Freeman. So I know about the pods. I know how teachers support teachers is very important. And I know classroom management is on the teacher. I would love that teachers be able to report. I have this student. DTM, was the principal her the principal there.
She knows how to calculate the students who's close to being proficient. I think, miss Fields, you you shaking your head. Yes. So my question is, why can't that be utilized at all schools so we can identify which student is really, really close to where they become proficient? Because you can have a you can be proficient, and one student can throw you off. And I do know you can adjust the number so that you can remain proficient. My goal is that we get raw data from the student. This student was once partially proficient, but after we put them with an interventionist or
whomever that can give them that one on one where they can see their growth, where, for example, if you're getting the the NWEA three times a year, correct? My notes say fall, winter, and spring. Yes. Why can't we measure that now? This is where you start. Show them. And I'm a be I got this from Mississippi. They show the students where they were. Students love to achieve. Use what we have? Can we empower the teachers? Talk to us. How can we move from where we are immediately?
It's November. How can we see this needle move by March? What can we do? You walk walk around, walk in class. If you need someone to step in to help you focus, your goal is to teach and increase learning. So to me, the culture needs to change. Hands on accountability. How can I help you? Where are you falling short? Okay. Alright. Hey, y'all. But anyway but no. I mean, I'm passionate about kids learning. Reading comprehension and math. The lowest increase I received was two gray increase.
And it took me three. How did you do it, Melody? I engaged them. Kids learn from kids. Yes, you have a teacher. But when you empower an efficient student to work with a non efficient student, they're able to reach the goal a lot sooner. But you must reward them and you must support the teachers. I don't know what that look like. That's why you all are in your position. But don't don't start over when you don't have to. Work from where you are and let's work up. But I truly believe this district just need best practices in place across the district.
That's it. Now stop clapping. I wanna I wanna stay on stay on task, but thank you. They do. Yes. So if the teacher has a lesson plan, how can you change the curriculum? I guess what what I'm saying is everything changed from day to day. What what is the significance of a lesson plan? To ensure the planning is happening for students and that you can to giving consideration to every student in your classroom. The lesson plan should reflect both the standards and the pacing guide for those particular curriculums, but they should also be intentional about engagement and differentiation and how you support
students in the classroom by engaging interventions, but by also specifically and intentionally planning for, where students need to go. And not just the students that are at the low end, but the students that require, enrichment as well. And that requires planning. Have you ever read, studies and statistics on districts that removed the, requirement of lesson plans? Have you ever read that? I'm sorry. Could you repeat that? Have you have have you done any research on districts that removed lesson plans from teachers? I actually haven't.
I appreciate that. Be surprised to see what happened with that. I I actually saw I gotta be told you how to switch you. And it frees up. It frees them up to run their class because it's different, especially in our district. We don't know who's coming to school. We can agree with that. We don't know who we don't know what's going on at night. We have a lot of things going on. I believe at Freeman when there's domestic violence or the police was at the house, we will receive a red tag or something knowing that the student has something going on. That wasn't in your lesson plan. So now you got to work with social services, CPS.
So I mean, I'm not saying do it, but my question is look into it because you're able to empower the teacher to actually, use their classroom management with with their family. Because your class is your family. They're your kids. And you pretty much know where they are. So to me, I just think we should look at that. And my last question, and I'll I'll I'll be done. I just believe what we've been doing is not working. So I think we need to step away from that. But however, let's use best practices that's already taken place in the district so that
we can move that needle before June 2026. I believe that this district can do it if you guys empower the teachers. Work with the teachers. Work up, not working down because that seems like that's what you all are doing. So kinda work up. And what I mean by that is allow the teachers to feed you the information so you guys can make the adjustment. Thank you. Thank you very much. Good questions and good points. Trustee King? Okay. Okay now. You don't have any questions? I do. Well, go ahead. Proceed. I'll let him go. Yeah. Proceed. Okay. No. I'm kept there.
Alright. Awesome. First off, thank you for presenting the information the way you did. Major improvement how information was presented in the past to how it is now. Thank you for that. You know, thank you my colleagues for expressing, the thought process towards how we like to be presented to. Thank you for taking into consideration. One of the things I did notice can we go back to the M STEP scores? What page you you got it all? This is in your Yeah. That's right. There you go. Awesome. So one of the things, I would like to know, similar to what my colleague
mentioned around breast best practices. So, like, what were we doing in one school that we could mimic into another, another school building? I'm curious to know, have you I'm sure this question has been asked. So what contributed to success in x school that we could mimic inside of another school? Sure. There's actually practices that may not be applicable to this particular set of data, but I can give you an example off the top of my head with, the strive for five initiative. We've been able to reduce our chronic absenteeism and our attendance, well, non attendance, tremendously
as a result of it. I think that I can't don't have the exact numbers for you right now, but that was an initiative that was implemented really well at Eisenhower, and it ended up having positive effects at other buildings as well when that was shared in the group of them. So there's I think sharing of practices is very, very important, and it's a way for us to be able to strengthen the opportunities across the district as well if that's where you're at. So okay. You wanna add something? Yeah. Related to academics, the which attendance does directly associate relate to academics.
But I know that Eisenhower and Nethercutt, did a couple of creative things in terms of how they, it's called platooning, where, teachers work together on, teaching a set of students. So So there was a teacher that taught the fifth and sixth grade math classes and a teacher that same teacher taught those two classes and then there was a teacher that taught the, math and science and there was teacher that taught the English and social studies.
So it would allow a more intensified focus on that core content area for math and ELA to provide the interventions and supports. That happened at Eisenhower and Nethercutt, which were schools that had the greatest gains on the M STEP. Mhmm. I think other things to consider are the certified the number of certified teachers in a building Mhmm. And, the number of, actual teachers in the building because, you know, sometimes you may have long term subs preparation programs, so they may not be certified. Mhmm. But they're on track and are able to deliver deliver instruction that is, in alignment
with a certified teacher because they're in a in the at the end of a program. Right? So I think the classroom instruction has a lot to do with that as well. Yeah. In terms of when you look at those two high scoring schools, this is one instructional technique that they both had. Mhmm. Gotcha. So I I'm curious to know. Sorry. I'm a Norman. I'm sorry. My bad. It's my turn now, miss Perkins. I'm a so my my question would be, how often do we engage the conversation of best practices? So this is working at two schools, like how often do we have the conversation
amongst teachers? Because, you know, teachers are the closest one to students that have impact on a child's education. We all know that, right? That's just foundational. I'm just curious, how do we mobilize having a conversation around, best practices so we can share that around, but not just more so you share it. And then, oh, I just got a sharing information. How do we implement that then at the next stage at a district wide level? Because I know, you know, Doctor. Robertson, you mentioned about planned abandonment. And and I appreciate you lifting that because there are many initiatives around, but if we see something that's structurally working, right?
Like, okay, where where are we willing to aggregate, to really adopt this to make this work for our kids? And so into your point, Doctor. Conall, when you mentioned, there's different between certified teachers and this certified teacher staffing. I will be curious to see data around each school building. I'm thinking of a school a school building profile. So it's one thing that we see that the numbers on the, the board here, but there's context around those numbers, right? So there's a number of certified teachers we have in the building, but you also mentioned, there's tools and programs inside the building for parent involvement.
Could you speak to some of those tools and programs that we currently have? If I could, just to piggyback on something you just said a second ago, one of the ways that we are collaborating right now is we've started the initiative of learning walks, which are led by our coaches on our academic team. Mhmm. And it, takes teachers into each other's classrooms so they can have conversations and they can see best practices in in real time. One of the reasons why we wanted to implement that was not just to strengthen those, professionals that have been doing the work for a long time and have the opportunity to, you know, coach and to be coached into something greater.
We wanted to be able to, mobilize support around uncertified folks, and so getting them into other rooms and having the opportunity to see those coaching models and to be able to see best practices to support them in their own classrooms. Those learning walks will happen three times throughout this year. We have baseline data that would probably be at some point in time would be a a sharing point of data that we would share with you to be able to qualify this conversation we're having right now, but also we've gotten really great feedback from it. And to your point, when you get folks in a room together and best practices
are modeled, they do get implemented very quickly. People get excited. They go back into the rooms, and they try the same thing too. So we've already had some feedback where that's happening on our first round. So To to Uh-huh. Can I Okay? If I may. What'd you say? Who what's the difference between the learning walks you're doing now that's newly implemented, than the learning walks that were being done in 2019, 2020? What's the difference? Very much appreciate that, that question, superintendent Jones. The difference is that this is led by teachers and it's led by coaches rather
than it being an administrative got you. One of the things that the teachers that, they're much more receptive about, and that I've actually gotten e mails and texts and, you know, phone calls about, is that they appreciated that we didn't bring 20 people into a classroom, and that we didn't announce that we were coming first, and that we didn't have all of these parameters in there that made it a dog and pony show, if you'd like me to be very transparent about it, that this feels very much like a teacher led initiative, that teachers can then support each other. We had great, great turnout as a result of, some of the work that we've
been doing for our mentor, our new teacher and mentor mentee program. Originally our mentors to those mentees and those new teachers are some of the folks that are agreeing to be the host and to be the, receivers of folks in their room. They had great conversation around the, new teacher, monthly, you know, opportunities that we're having for them to meet. We had a excellent turnout. And, I mean, it just I think it's really led to the collegiality and the trust that, you know, that teachers are in in they're embracing us with and that
understanding that we really do want not just the best for, you know, our students, but we want them to have qualified opportunities to share and to be celebrated as well. So when I hear you say there's more structure around Absolutely. This learning wall Yes. Prior to. Okay. Well, not just and if I could be transparent about that too, not just more structure, but that we really have worked to build good relationships with teachers so they could feel that they this is a part of an initiative that they can get behind, and that it's not just something that's happening to them, but it's something that's
happening with them, and they're able to also learn from each other. With input. Yep. Got you. So to the school building profiles. So I think it helps, from from my from my perspective. I can't speak for my colleagues, but I think it'll help in a larger, conversation around what each school building has versus, with versus each other. What programs do they have, those initiative that's already been put in place, what resources that you'll be able to see together, the number of staffing, that we have in the building, what open vacancies we have, so we can be able to be able to compare what happens at each building.
We had this conversation last week around, finances and HR. Like, what do our our, support staff look like around each building to be able to have that dynamic conversation, but also years of experience of teachers. We know veteran teachers know how to do classroom management and probably at a higher level. We also have an influx of new teachers that still have to be professional development because, our kids are different in some cases. Right? So that some people are not used to. So you have to be have that coaching and teaching around that. But what I'm curious about school building profiles to really compare that information versus years
of service. So Freeman has all teachers of years of service, higher years of service, so, of course, numbers will reflect. Right? But so let's see those gaps where we're looking at and how do we move move around to really, really erase those scores in that case. So I'll be looking for a, like, a school building profile, what that looks like, to have a deeper conversation around why each school building has score and where they're scoring. But also, I would love to know so we have NWEA for growth, you know, towards, MSAT for proficiency. What are we doing?
Do we have a progress monitoring tool in between to lead us towards NWEA? So we know NWEA is coming three times a year. Yes. But what are we using to really be indicated towards our next growth? So for ELA and math, embedded within the curriculum are, assessments. And the curriculum department last year launched the, district wide implementation of district wide assessments. Mhmm. So each school would take and each grade level would take that particular assessment around the same time. Okay.
So that the curriculum department could have conversations amongst each other and with principals around the the performance on those assessments. There we call them benchmarks. Mhmm. That was in we're in the early stages of implementation, I will say. There is some refinement that needs to take place and some systematizing that needs to take place, calendars, systemic effort. But it was it began in implementation last year, where, at least for ELA and math, there were benchmarks that were assigned.
So that and that's typically what districts do Yeah. Is do quarterly benchmarks on the core content areas. So they're all grade levels across all schools are giving the same assessment, and you're able to see the achievement on that particular assessment in advance those scores come out? So the district will have to district, curriculum department will have to establish a calendar for the bench months. When will the calendar be established? Do you guys have a calendar?
So right now, we are working to tether out the power standards, which will kind of, like, dictate that No calendar yet? No calendar yet? Nope. No. That's why I'm I just wanna make sure I'm No. We're get to so no calendar yet. So do we have expectation on when the calendar will be implemented? So probably somewhere around January, you know, honestly. January and then hopefully back into the next fall out. '26. Right. The second that's turned. Be on the same page. Yep. Got you. So when those, benchmark assessments come out, when do our the board will be updated on those benchmark assessments. I think it'll be helpful where we get the NWA scores, but if we have
progress monitoring along those lines where we know where our kids are trending towards when that NWA score hit, Okay, that'll help us understand, okay, what do we do? What are we doing differently now compared to the last one? But I would love to see those benchmark assessments. What does that look like and how our kids are shooting for NWE. So we shoot full proficiency. Thing to just say, I'm glad to hear that we're doing a district wide assessment piece. That's important. Just hearing those updates along the way because from my perspective, we only see those two assessments. And okay, what are we doing in between the fact to make sure we are
informed about those benchmark assessments? I would love to see that that data and also diving deeper, you know, our black and brown our black and brown kids that we serve. Yeah. Right? Like, okay, how are we, tailoring towards that conversation? So when we are in community talking to parents or how do we, help parents to, elevate their kids' education, we can also provide those programs and tools and resources that we're talking about. But also, I'm curious to talk know about the I'm sorry. I had it here. This plan about, abandoning and programming. When does that plan on Saturday?
Well, hopefully, we'll be starting in the next four to six weeks. Okay, what we have to do first of all if you'll we can share that with you, we're looking at the tools that in the in the uses, we're also looking at board policy. You know you have a policy for evaluating staff development, which is a part of this And then we have to determine a tool, and then we'll have to implement the tool. And that's where we are. We're looking at capacity because it's like one, two, three, exactly, across the district. But in the next four to six weeks, we hope to have a tool and
a plan for implementation that we can share with superintendent. Yeah. I think that'd be oh, you had something to add. Sorry. Yes. I was just gonna I was thinking, that, abandonment is it is looking at what we're doing and with a critical eye to see if it's getting us the results that we're looking to have and it and there's a lot of variables to that. Yeah, you have to look at program implementation implementation to fidelity. You have to look at availability of resources.
Mhmm. You have to look at, competence on the program and implementation of the program. So there's a lot of dynamics that come to play when you're evaluating programming. So it's very it takes it's a comprehensive conversation because there's a lot of different dynamics. And I love what you said about school building profiles because you'll look at a program implemented in one building and its efficacy and it'll look totally different Yeah. Yeah. In a in another building. And we have to get cost into that too. You have to look at how much bang you're getting for your buck.
Mhmm. 100%. One last question about the oh, okay. You I got you. So miss Davis, I thank you for bringing, raising a point between, miss M STEP and WEA. You talked about the proficiency, partially proficient, non proficient. When do we when will we start receiving data that, separates the three categories so we can tell how many students are partially proficient? Because honestly, right, when we look at this, this data here, it's like, oh, none
of our kid, it feel like none of them because it's not all, it's none in my opinion. But how can we start getting data around partially proficient and how are we working on those, scholars that we have to move them to the next level, to give more context around. We're working targeting this group here to get here and actually tracking that success in my opinion. Right. I was just because I am the consultant, not the person I wanna be sure. First of all, that data, the raw data is already online. Like, I actually have a spreadsheet and the academic team has actually seen non proficient
proficient. Mhmm. The district has it. So I just think it's a matter of you requesting it and they provide it. Yeah. I would I would ask for it to be implemented into the proficiency conversation. Right? Because it gives perspective around Absolutely. Here's our amount of students that we have proficient. Here's our amount of students that we have on that track to be proficient. So it's not more so it feels like all and nothing in some cases because, you know, we heard for our kids not being able to have the academic excellence that we used to, but to have the conversation around here's where we can make some moving adjustments, but not just also the kids that has non proficiency.
Here's what we need to target too. Right? Here's how we need to make sure we need to do some adjustments to get them into the next category to the next. So I'd be interested to see that. Thank you. Thank you. You asked some very you asked some very good questions, and I appreciate that. The next question is McIntyre, then myself. I am aware that someone's got planes to catch and someone needs to get back on the road. So, we're gonna go to Lauren McIntyre and then myself. And if we have any more questions, board member, you can send them in, to
the, communication log, and we'll make sure they get addressed. Madam chair. Proceed. Real quick. I just need to can I clarify one of the help state? No. It's just it's No. No. No. No. It's no. We're gonna follow procedure. Proceed. So, okay, I my questions are gonna be all over the they're not, like, in order because there's a lot and I just wanna try to get as much as I can in. So in terms of state standards and being under, as a state mandate, I just
want to say that we are not that we're not under that right now. And so I just wanna make sure that that's really clear that we're not operating as if we are or that we're anticipating that we'd be because we either we are or we're not. And I also wanna point out that with some of the state standards in terms of, like, proficiency and growth, 1%, over three years for the the 3% total, that's
the that's the lowest. That's the lowest. And so just because the state mandates something doesn't mean that that's where we have to sit. And I think that the board I I just need to reemphasize this, that it's not good enough. So approved by the state isn't the same as being approved by the board. We want, we're looking for more than, we're demanding more than 1%. That's just so low and we've been skating by on that so, you know, for so long and and and, you know, saying, well, this is what the state requires.
It's like, this is what Flint requires. This is what our community schools require. And and this level of purpose and seeing growth is just, I'm not trying to, like, tear us down. I'm just trying to look with clear eyes so that we can assess what we have, where we are, so we can we can fix it and we can move on and do better. Because a lot of, especially with with the title money, with the grant money, it's
just kind of like, well, it's it's free money. It's not coming out of the general fund. Let's just approve this again and again and again, and we're not going to look at it. And, oh, it's, you know, here it is. Oh, we need to spend more money. No. I think, doctor Wanda Cook Robinson is we have to have a curriculum audit, like yesterday. And I know that doctor Joyce and I have been calling for this for years, and it's got to be implemented as soon as possible.
And and with that in mind, going to planned abandonment, because there are some things there is a lot of wheat or chafe with the wheat. What is that metaphor? Right? Yeah. Okay. Alright. Alright. You but you know what I'm saying? There's a lot of dead weight. A lot. And it's demoralizing to teachers. I mean, as a I I don't teach K through 12, but even working at the university level, I can tell you the amount of assessments and BS that you
have to put up with just because it's there and it's institutionalized and there's, like, this this continuation of just how things have always been. And it it's it's an inertia that's or a momentum that is that is not very, good for morale, good for the culture, good for anybody. That being said, I wanted to just pivot to measurements. I hear a lot of talk about evaluation, measurement, data, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
It's I don't see it. Where is it? The measurements. I don't I when I'm asking how do we measure stuff, it's like, well, it's measured. That doesn't answer my question. I'm sorry, but I'm a data person. I teach social science. I teach research methods. I know what I'm looking for. And even when you're looking at qualitative data, it it's not, oh, I'm gonna talk about this and here's my written evaluation. I want data, and I know exactly what I'm looking for, and I know what
I need. And and just to hear this kind of bloviating is is really frustrating to me. So if we have observations, is it what? What? Are you just writing an evaluation? Is there is there a Likert scale? Is there any kind of scale? Is there a form that's filled out? Is the form consistent? You know, what's the the the feedback from the teachers? Is it I I'm I'm I'm getting a little. That's my question.
Thank you. It's like, where's the data? And and please stop saying that it's there. I want to see it. I want to see actual measurements that are reliable, that are consistent, and that we can actually look at and use to move forward. I don't want window dressing anymore. I'm I'm sick of it. And if we say that we're getting feedback from the teachers, I don't believe you. I don't believe you. Like, oh, yeah. We're getting evaluations from the teachers.
I wanna I wanna see it. So, also, I've heard some of the re like, saying that the results are well, the results are in the student scores. The student scores are terrible, are absolutely horrendous. In fact, they're so bad that you can't even put some of them publicly in front of us. So if that's the result of some of these programs and evaluations and methods that
we're using, we are failing. So we have to get rid of these programs because we are failing. And so we're going between, well, we've implemented this curriculum, and it was just two or three years ago, so we don't have any data yet. We have the data. Our students are failing. So let's do that curriculum audit. Let's do the planned abandonment. Also, there's a lot of talk about best practices. I just wanna reiterate and not to beat a dead horse.
Nethercutt had one of the highest performing schools, and we got rid of it. That's right. So why are we talking about best practices when we're I mean, it just sounds very disingenuous and and I am sticking to the question. I am absolutely sticking to the question because I'm getting some of the things that were said in response to this two year academic plan, which again is a lot
of fluff and and not enough substance for me. I'm not seeing I'm not seeing the actual proof in in the pudding. So if we cut Nethercutt, is there some way to go and look at what Nethercutt was doing? Where the students have gone? Where the teachers have gone? Some way of tracking that and and doing it more in a in a comprehensive way and bringing it back. Last one of the last questions, we've got curriculum and instruction under the two year
academic plan. I see that we're still using MSU fellowship sessions. How many years have we used MSU? And what is the where's the data for that? Has it been successful? I haven't seen any data showing that it's been successful at all. Nothing. And they've had plenty of time. So I want to I wanna know where it is. And it's like, here's MSU fellowship sessions, model. And then we have another bullet point that says professional learning communities and schools to
support special. What's the difference between the MSU fellowship sessions and the professional learning communities? Why are there two bullet points for the same darn thing? I I don't see, again, a lot of window dressing and no substance. So I'd really I'm glad this is a draft because I would like to see less bullet points and and the bullet points that are there that are full of meaning that actually say something. And I would like to, when I ask for measurements, when I ask for data,
to actually see maybe we need to go back and do a dictionary definition of what data is and what the difference between qualitative and and quantitative data is because they're these these are words that mean something. You don't just say them, and it's it's they have they have impact. So, yeah. And then I'm concerned about, the fact that there's district level and building level and
that there's not an alignment between those things. And that's really terrifying to me, as a teacher myself. So yeah. So just I have a lot of other questions and a lot of other comments, but I think those are the most important ones for me. Give me the data. Jerry Maguire, show me the money. Show me the data. Like, please. And curriculum audit and planned abandonment. And what is the timeline for that? And when are we gonna pull the plug on some of these things?
Thank you, trustee McIntyre. As you guys can see, the board has a lot of questions. We have a lot of concerns. And it's not to put anybody on spot. This didn't happen overnight. You're talking about I've been in school, You every one of those schools. I can guarantee you. If anybody know me, I've been in them four times. Three to four. Some schools I stayed at five years. I don't buy that myth that because you got a guest teacher. You get your teacher with a bachelor MPA, holding PhDs, they cannot teach anything. I cannot teach anybody.
And I have proven it. But it takes patience. It takes and we got different kids with different IEPs, different backgrounds. And you just can't teach everybody the same way. We can put a two I don't see nothing in this no against if we don't do something about classroom management and we don't get a hold to this behavior, it's not gonna work. And this is something that the board is gonna have to address, as we talk to our superintendent. You cannot expect a certified teacher to come in a classroom certified in secondary, third
grade, certified in ninth grade and got to go back and try to teach third grade learning to a main grade. It's just not fair. When a child go I have a niece. The kids were so low. She's certified secondary. Second grade. Three classes is at a kindergarten level. We got to stop allowing these kids to get to a level where the teacher cannot teach. And this is what's going on in Flint. Keep them two years in the third grade.
They don't get it. You can keep them two years. Skip them to the fourth. You get to the fourth. They don't get it. Skip them. I had teachers tell me, McNeal, they've been two years in fourth grade. Skip them. Classroom management in everything we do. Thirty five to forty five percent of the teacher time in the classroom is behaviorism. And if we don't get a hold of it, we spend all of this money, all of this time. Let's look at them. And this is something the board is gonna have to look at.
What can we do with some type of way to get that behavior? They ain't put two or three that takes away. That's stealing. Still an education from other kid because your mom and dad ain't taught you how to behave yourself. So we have to fix that. The board, we have to fix that. Oh, yeah. You guys have done an outstanding job preparing the data. This been happened over the years. McIntyre would tell you. We've been talking about this for five or six years, and now we're going forward. We're not talking about what happened yesterday, but we got to look forward. And that is what I would like to see for me.
I see everything that I had concern about. You guys haven't addressed it. And but I do like to see something like, let's go and talk to these teachers. Now where can we get these behaviorism? Are we gonna end up like Chicago? Bunch of kid jumping on teacher. I had teacher kid to throw bottles at teacher when they had the water by their freezer. And they call lights out. And they turn the lights out because there's some school don't have windows. And they turned the lights out on me. And they had the water bottles. But I went and flipped it. Now, they was getting ready to turn the light off. I can just flip the light off for them.
I'm gonna help you with this. But there's one teacher, you broke a face. One teacher, she broke a knee. So we have to deal with classroom we're we're spending too much money moving forward and not addressing the issue. You can you've got to address this issue here. Stop blaming on the water crisis. Pandemic is over. Atlanta proven that they had two school and they took them up to a 100% in Atlanta. So it's something that we are missing, and it's classroom management. And I've been there, and I had a school, and I created one for twenty
some year. Classroom manage is essential. I wanna commend you guys for the work that you've done. This is just a preliminary. We can't solve this problem tonight. We got great people, they're working with us. We got, mister Parker. We got, doctor Janelle Jamieson. We got all the resources we need. But what we're gonna dig deep in in board members, we got to look at this classroom management. And then we can see how we what we're really working with. We look in that program evaluation.
We're looking at all of these things here. But this is not the time and place that we'll be here all night long trying to fix this. We got a starting ground. And we'll go back, you see question, you can ask, we meet with the superintendent, we'll be meeting with you guys, and we can get this, process done. I wanna say great job team, especially the one that, traveled aboard, doctor Tracy. I call her doctor Tracy. She comes all the way from Vegas. Doctor Cook comes all the way from down the highway. Why? They're here because they care.
And we're not gonna let this go in vain. Doctor Janelle Jamieson, sitting out there because you care. Mister Parker sitting out there because you care. You got teachers came in here today because you care. This boy gonna make sure your care do not go in vain. So on that note, I really thank you for your presentation. Hopefully, we have some more of these engagement and board members saying that we have what else we got to do? Looking at your you guys are done. Looking at your agenda, we have BarTechs.
Do anybody have any question for BarTechs? I'm not wrapping up. I'm just saying something. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. I'm chairing. I got this. You said we was done. No. No. I was done with the presentation. Okay. I just wanna make sure. Okay. That's alright. We're gonna give you time to do this. I just wanna say this before. We are gonna be having a special meeting coming up for the board. I don't know exactly what day it is. We're working on it. And you're working on it. And you're gonna get a lot of information that you don't have that we cannot give right here, right at the moment. Is there any comments from the board before Madam Chair?
Proceed. I like to clarify, about the, lesson plans. I was talking about submitting them. So I do believe teachers need to do them. But however, one of the, suggestions also is to have administrators walking around with a card. Point of information. That's my comment. Oh, no. No. We just closed out the presentation. It's my I'm coming. It's my comment. But are you asking my question or you just making a comment? My comment. Proceed with your comment. I know. But, normally, that's not the process. Normally, I need you to let me back out the floor. Proceed. Stay right there. You do too. Come on. Let's go.
So to walk around, one of the cart is to have administrator walk around. That allows support, instant support and that kinda cuts down on a lot of behavioral problems just to have when students know that that administrators are always in the hallways with their cart and that's everything that's on their desk could be on that cart. And also just just, with the push, it's gonna take a lot. I mean, I applaud you guys for rolling up your sleeves to make a impact, but I just would just love for you all to just utilize what we have.
As it relate to data, as it relates to school closing and things like that, someone stated we're not gonna look backwards. It's not gonna help us. Let's just look forward. And I think if we just put all our efforts into making this district what it needs to be from the inside out, I think we'll be okay. I'm on this board to take take the ails to take the shots. I don't take it personal, but I do have passion when it comes to young people. A lot of people may think it's anger, but it's not. It's passion. I'm very passionate about this district.
I'm in Flint because I choose to be in Flint. I could be anywhere in the world making an impact, but Flint Community Schools has afforded me the opportunity to do the things that I'm able to do. And I'm never gonna shy away from that. I will always expect the best at all times because students deserve that and this administration deserve that. And accountability is not attack, but it's definitely a stepping stone towards improvement. Thank you. You have come trustee Magdalena. So I just wanted to say thank you, to the the academic team.
Thank you so much. I know, like, that I I come across, like, you know, really, really harsh and everything. I'm just trying to, like, get to the analysis of of everything. So I I definitely appreciate each and every one of you and tremendous effort, tremendous work. And I do want to shout out to the UTF, with the bargaining, with ratifying the the contract. Congratulations, teachers. We love you. We appreciate you. I wish we could do, like, a million times more, but, you know, hopefully, you
can see that we're really we're really we're depending on you and we're reaching out to you. And and this it's really nice to see us, you know, like with with any other partner, to see this this collaboration, blossoming and and advancing so much further than it's, you know, has been in the last couple years. We've we're really committed to you, and we're really working hard, and congratulations. This is this is a a monumental historical, contract.
And so I, thank you. Thank you. We love the teachers. Yeah. I from the comments that have been said, I I wanna kinda level set where for me as it stands for me. I'm not happy with the numbers. No one in this room is happy with the numbers. No no teacher in the classroom is happy with the numbers. Parents are not happy with the numbers. The community is not happy with the happy with the numbers. One of the things today, that the board asked for, we hired, a board consultant and we hired doctor Wanda Cook Robinson to help with, future planning as we plan
on embarking upon the building of new high school, really transforming what Flint does as as normal, what we do now to something transformational in the future. But there were some comments made that I don't I can't sit complicit around. The data that was presented was similar to what we asked for, what I asked for in some areas where we can elevate, that I mentioned, but I don't think you're deplorable. I I think the presentation that you as you all presented was good information. I think there's, you know, there's room for having more conversation around data, what that
looks like. But I don't wanna leave here you all feeling defeated for presenting the information Because it's one thing where I'm presenting all this information. Let let's also be have perspective where I'm presenting all this information I'm getting, berated on. Like, it's all on me. It's on all of us. Because at the end of the day, not one teacher can fix the whole district. Not one superintendent can fix the whole district. Trying to move in the steps of, you know, academic achievement, but it's not contingent upon just point community schools. There's community involvement. Right? There's parent involvement.
How do we engage? We talk about wrap around service for the whole child. That includes the parent. It's not just on the scholar. And I think it's there's tension but I think the value behind the tension is we want every kid to succeed. I think that's what everybody wants, just how we communicate it out. I can't sit by and, you know, allow that to speak for me. I value the information that's presented. I know you are not happy with it. We've had this conversation multiple times. There will not be one quick fix. I would, you know, encourage those that, push the data to push the push the
envelope to for success and achievement to use that, energy and that effort to talk about solutions. Yeah. We can talk about problems all day long. We have multiple problems. We've been having problems since, education was founded real quick, honestly, right? I always lean towards using my energy and effort. And instead of just pointing out the negative, what can I do differently to impact this? Okay. Soon as we all have that that same mindset, not just as a school district, as a community, as a country, as a world, it's just how do we be involved with having to co create a community where community is involved in the high
I mean, the high school building from the cube. We have the cube that we're building on. I think doctor Janelle Jamieson mentioned this at the, ribbon cutting about the community, parents, and the school system being a cube. With three square, something like that. Right? Power of three. Yeah. Power of three. We sit in the queue. Right? He mentioned that before, but when you really think of it and grasp that, Flint Community Schools are own the responsibility of achievement in the district, but there's also room where how do we engage the community more to have, let's say, tutoring services where there's retired teachers come back for tutoring, how to engage parents. Hey, do you not know the programs that you're able to offer for your kids
at home for homework pieces? There's room we could do. But I hear in the conversation today, I think we all value kids education and achievement. We do just how we communicate it. For me, I value the information that's presented. Do I I believe in to believe in us. Because if you all do not succeed as a superintendent of the district, we don't succeed as a community, as elected board of education. The community expects more, but we succeed together. If one fall, we all fall. We all own the on on the data regardless of how we try to put
it. I think there's more conversation we had, just how we get there. Just for me and my for how how my viewpoint, I value value you off of presenting the information. That's what we hired you out to do, present present the information, come up with some solutions. Cool. You got it to us. Let's have a conversation about what those solutions look like. But just for me, I just wanna make sure I communicate that my appreciation, but also look forward to higher academic achievement. Thank you. Thank you. I can take the time to come here because I do wanna thank everybody. And those laws that we saw, this is a result of parents in this result of parenting as well. You know, I hope the parents are watching and they can see what the children
are doing in classrooms. Not that everybody is telling the teachers, but it also is also reflect on the community as a whole. And as we move forward, look at both Oh, sure.
So, we we will definitely, we we take all the comments. We prepared our team to understand that the comments will, come at you and the questions will come at you. We're gonna take this forward, but you better believe that, we are going to make sure that we're turning the ship around. I I think it was you, mister, King that said big ships turn slow. I'll try to speed it up as best as I can, but we we are going to have to do the hard things, and we can do hard things, team.
And I appreciate the time and the effort. But, boy, we hear you. We hear you in every way you speak. But we're gonna take, what we've heard, and we're gonna go back and do the work. And thank you for the consultants, and thank you for allowing us to have the team we have to do the work. We're we're encouraged. I'm not discouraged. I'm encouraged, to to do the work and to do our best work. And we do hear you about, listening to staff and talking to staff about what's working and what's not. We have an obligation to do that, and we will.
So thank you, and and thank you to all of you that stayed and listened. The time is 08:12. Next week, next week, December 17. Okay.