Good evening and welcome to today's uh Lensing board education board meeting. First uh let's stand up for to the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Before we go to roll call, I just want to make sure that everybody knows that our president is has to tend to some family
business and that's why she's not here. So, hope everything goes is well. Uh, roll call. >> Can I >> Oh, okay. We can do mission statement if you Why don't you do it? Read it. >> Thank you. Mission statement for the L
school district. >> Thank you. We are in We are all together. Thank you. is provides a high quality education in a culturally safe and nurturing environment that supports all students to lead purposeful and
fulfilling lives. >> Thank you very much, Dr. Ludas. Appreciate that. Uh, roll call. >> Dr. Kavanaaugh, >> present. >> Mr. Herd, >> present. >> Mr. Lopez, >> present. >> Mrs. Moore. Dr. Nars Martinez,
>> present. Mr. Noveske >> present. >> Dr. Rodriguez >> present. >> Mrs. Strode >> present. >> Miss Williams >> quarum is present. Thank you. Thank you. We have quorum now. Do we
have any public comment? All right. No public comment. We'll go to approval of minutes. I have a motion to approve the minutes as presented. >> So moved.
>> So moved. Thank you. Um >> second. >> Okay. Moved and second to approve the minutes. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Post same sign. Thank you.
>> Presentations. Great. >> Thank you so much, >> Superintendent. >> Good afternoon. Thank you so much. Good afternoon, everyone. It's uh terrific to see you all. Um I'm going to invite uh Jessica Benovitz and Anna Deonio to the
front. Uh as they are collecting their things so that they are presenting, I just want to again uh remind everyone what this is. years ago, uh, what seems like a lifetime ago, the state of Michigan mandated that school districts
present their data and it was called the 98B presentation. The 98B presentation was um was asked by the state that we had to do this. We have not had to do this for two years now, but in a show of
transparency and a show of sharing, the district is doing this 98B presentation because we want to make sure that the community knows how our kids are doing. Good or ill, we have to be transparent. We need to make sure that we are doing
it. And then in a kind of a special thing, you also will notice that Dr. Caitlyn Kavanaaugh has left the horseshoe and is now going to be presenting not as board member Kavanaaugh but as professor Kavanaaugh uh who of course has a great and storied
career with statistics and in fact is supporting us with all of this. So, I will probably interject a little bit for those of you watching at home and in the audience, you know, but I really do want to thank um Jessica Benvdas, uh, Anna Deon, and of course, uh, Caitlyn
Kavanagh for their work on this. We care very, very deeply about our children's learning and we want to make sure that we are always sharing it with the community. Uh, you know, whatever it is, good or bad. I mean, we're h we're proud of what's going on, but we believe you
are owed this information. Even though it is now not part of the state requirement and it hasn't been for two years, we're still presenting it and we will continue to do so, although we might be changing it up a little bit because we want to actually present even more data and better data uh coming next
year. So, with that, I'll turn it over to Jessica Benovitz. Evening everyone. >> All right. Good evening everyone. Uh we are proud to be here this evening to present to you our end of year assessment review. Um and to remind you that this review is regarding only our
NWA data. It is not our MSTEP data because that information is still embargoed. That will be coming available to the district though uh probably in the end by the end of August. And then at that time we look forward to sharing that information with the larger community. So this evening we will be
presenting data on NWA. I have with me Anna Deonio. She is our director of data and accountability. She oversees assessment. So she's a a clear player in all of this work and organizing it and making sure all of our teachers are trained as proctors and that all of it
is well organized for our students across the district. So we do look forward to presenting you with this data this evening. And of course, Dr. Kavanaaugh is here, which our superintendent let let you know why she is here as our kind of statistical expert, if you will, and she has been
exceptionally helpful in taking a look at this data through a statistical lens and seeing the significance of that. So, she'll be sharing that information with all of you this evening. So, without further ado, I'm going to turn it over to uh Miss Donio, and we'll jump right in.
>> Thank you, Jessica. >> It's a trick. Is it a trick? Um, there you go. All I needed to do was turn it up. Okay. Good evening. Thank you, Jessica. I appreciate the opportunity to share our end ofear review assessment with you. I also want to say a special
thank you to Dr. Kavanaaugh for agreeing to present with us alongside with us tonight. Um, tonight, as Jessica mentioned, we're going to go over our NWA MAP growth data for both reading and math for the 2425 school year. I'll
discuss proficiency scores as well as areas that we can approve on improve on along the way. And then we're going to end our presentation with the strategies that we've put in place moving forward that we feel we need in place for our students. But before we dive into the presentation,
I want to talk about who are the students that we serve because these are the students that we're really going to talk about tonight. So our total student population is 10,641. We have 2,315 students with IEPs and 1,767
students that are multil- language learners or English language learners, otherwise known as MLS. Our three largest demographic groups are Hispanic at 38.14%, I'm sorry, African-American at 38.14%. I
skipped a line. um Hispanic at 28.18% and white at 20.92%. We also have students that identify as two or more that's 13.18%. And then we have American Native
American or Pacific and Pacific Islander that both are less than make up less than 1% and Asian are 6.22%. So, as we move forward with the the presentation this evening, we just want to recognize that every data point that we go over
tonight represents these students. So, moving on, as we've talked about, we're going to go over the NWEA MAP growth data for all grades K through 12 for both reading and for math. It's a normed and adaptive assessment, and it's also a great predictor of the MSTEP
proficiency. So for the 2425 school year, the students were assessed using this data with these assessments and they took it three times. They took it once in September. That's when we collect baseline data. Where are the students at instructionally? And then they took it the second time in
December. Then we look at that for a couple more reasons. We're looking at monitoring their progress. Have they made any progress from September to to December? And if they have, how much? And if they haven't, what supports do we need to put in place? what interventions do we need to provide to actually help
them along the way. We also say that the NWA is a great predictor for proficiency on how they will per perform on the MSTEP and the SAT and the spring standardized assessments. So, we look at that as well. And then as always, I
think I alluded to it, we use it as an instructional diagnostic tool to help us better understand what skills the students have mastered along the way and what skills they still need to master. So that's what we do in in the winter in December and then in May they take it for the third and final time for that
school year and that's when we look at our what proficiency what level of proficiency are they at. So for tonight's purpose, as I switch slides, we typically at this point talk to you about for tonight's presentation, we'll present to you both proficiency scores
and MET growth scores. And if you notice on the slide, I don't have MET growth up there. It's only proficient. The reason being that the original PowerPoint that I provided the board included slides with MET growth data and upon review before we were looking at it for the
final review before we presented it tonight. We felt there were many there were or may have been discrepancies in the MET growth data. Not proficient, we were confident with those, but the MET growth data we weren't sure about. And when we went to look at it in the NWA
platform, which is where we pull our data for that, we realized that the NWA platform is down for maintenance currently and it will not be back up until maybe next week. So, we weren't able to give you the most current and accurate data that we felt that would
verify all the information that we would give you. Now, I'd be happy to provide that to you at a later date, but tonight, in order to make sure that we were giving you accurate data, we took those slides out of this presentation, but we kept the proficiency slides in.
Also, for tonight, we're going to talk to you about the comparison between the 2425 data, the proficiency scores versus the 23 24 proficiency scores. >> I do want to just give another reminder about about the word proficiency. So
when we're looking in that for MWA NWA it is really important for all of you to know that we use a linking study that has been t has taken place which means that they take the information from NWA and they compare that to each state's um state summitive exams. So in our case
it's MSTEP and what that means for us is that proficiency is set at the 60th percentile. So students that score in the 60th percentile or higher are considered proficient as based on our MSTEP. However, it is good for all of
you to know that that doesn't mean that those are the only students that are at grade level. Grade level is actually at the 40th percentile. And so MSTEP is a much higher bar than just at grade level. So when we're looking at proficiency, I don't want people to
think, okay, so our score is 20% and that means that only those students are at grade level. That is actually not true. We have more students at grade level. These are the students that would be deemed proficient on our exams such as PSAT, SAT, and MSTEP. So I just want
to be clear that there's kind of two markers. So that's why this doesn't say at grade level. It says at or above. Um, but we will have students between the 40th and 60th percentile. not on these charts that are actually at grade level but because of the score would probably
only be in the partially proficient category for MSTEP. So I just wanted to be kind of clear about that too. The other thing that you'll note as Anna goes through these slides is this is different than MSTEP and that we have all of the kind of internal controls for how these tests are proctored and given.
When you give a state exam like the MSTEP or PSAT or SAT, SAT is probably the most stringent. They tell you how far apart the tables have to be and how many people can sit there and and all of those kinds of things. NWA is a diagnostic um tool that we use, but we
get to set the internal controls. And so one of the things that you'll notice with this is Anna is going to talk to you a little bit about how we set those controls up in a little bit, but I just want you to be clear that as we are moving through the NWA, we are constantly making tweaks and changes to make sure that we're getting the most
accurate data out of students. And so you'll see some internal controls that we've put in this year that are going to make a difference in the scores that you see this evening. So just to kind of preempt that a little bit. >> Thanks. Hi everybody. Um so for those for those
um our many fans listening at home, uh in addition to being a schoolboard member, I um am a professor at MSU and the class that I teach every year is the doctoral class in statistics. And in fact, that was my specialization as part of my PhD. So I love stats. It brings me a lot of joy. Uh but I also made a
promise to the voters when I ran for this office that was I would bring some of that statistical expertise to bear to make sure that our data were transparent and understandable and actionable. Um so that is why I am sitting on this side of the horseshoe today. Um so I just want
to talk a little bit about what I mean by significance testing. So um Jessica and Anna their team do a great job in pulling together the data, making some of the beautiful graphs that you're going to see. Um, however, it's really important that data go through what we call significance testing. And that's
because two numbers can be technically different from each other, but not in a way that's meaningful. Um, so I always think of, you know, now that now that I'm old and gray, I um always think about the fact that I don't feel any different when I wake up the day of my birthday, right? Like that one age isn't
that much more meaningfully different than the age that I was when I went to bed the previous night. So when we're looking at test scores, we might see that that from year to year averages are different, right? So maybe proficiency was at 20% one year and it's at 21% the
next year. But do we know if that difference is meaningful? Do we know if that difference is significant? The reason that that matters is we don't want to be congratulating ourselves um for a job well done and for saying, "Oh, look, test scores went up." If that
difference is not meaningful. So, what I'm here to do is tell us which of these differences in test scores, whether they're up or down from the previous year, is meaningful in a way that reaches the statistical threshold that we would consider um significant. The
way that we do that is by ruling out random chance. So, I'm sure you might remember from your own school days, every class is kind of different, right? And so, maybe one class just happened to have a lot of high achievers. Um, and so that's just due to random chance, right? that's not necessarily due to anything
that the district is doing. So, we want to rule out random chance in addition to making sure that test scores are meaningfully different whether up or down from one year to the next. Importantly, and I'm not going to get too mathy, I promise. Um but importantly
when we do significance testing the results are really influenced by sample size. So how big or small the school is as well as standard deviation which means how kind of spread out the scores are from each other. Is everyone getting the same score or are some people doing
really well and some people not? Um and shared variance. Um shared variance meaning kind of what is acting upon the numbers. Um, and so you might um see some results here that might seem surprising to you. Like, oh, hey, these two numbers seem really far apart, but you're saying that they're not
significantly different, whereas these two numbers seem kind of close together, but you're saying they are significantly different. That's because our results are influenced by that sample size, the standard deviation, and the shared variance. So, I just want to give that caveat. That's kind of all the math behind it. What I've done um in this
presentation is a series of couple hundred um logistic regressions. Um and a logistic regression is a statistical test where we can test for that significant difference. So we're we're making sure that these two numbers are meaningfully different from each other.
Um but it also allows us to um control for or hold constant the impact of other variables that might be related to the outcome so that we can get a more exact estimate. Um so for example um if we know something is related to our
outcome, if we know something is related to test scores, we want to hold that constant or we want to kind of like pretend it's the same level for everyone before we decide um how to interpret that number. Uh and so the reason that that's important is because it's a
robustness check on us, right? So um if there's a third variable that's acting on um our variable of interest, which is test scores, so something um that we know is related to test scores, um but we can control for it. What that means
is we can take out the part of that kind of other variable that's impacting our outcome to just focus on um the factors that are kind of within our control, right? And so in the case of a schoolboard that's instruction, curriculum, etc. Um, so I've done a series of logistic regressions. Uh, and
the reason that I chose logistic regression is because we have a binary outcome. So that's the logistic regression. Um, and regression allows us to hold constant um other variables that may be acting on our variable of interest. Uh, so in case we've got any stats nerds out there like me, uh,
that's what I did. What you're going to see, and then I promise I'm almost done talking. What you're going to see on um these slides, you're going to see some beautiful graphs um that uh that the team made up and then above them you're going to see one of four different symbols. The first one is an asterisk
that's black and that means that this difference is a significant increase. The second is an asterisk that's red. That means that this is a significant decrease. So in other words, if you're seeing an asterisk, that means that these two numbers are different in a way
that is meaningful, even holding constant kind of these other things that we're controlling for. And then black means it's gotten better. Red means it's gotten worse. The other two symbols you might see are NS, which means not significant. So that means these two numbers are functionally the same. Even
if they look like two different numbers, that difference is not meaningful. um and we we there there there's no action that we should take of suggesting that these two numbers are different. So the NS means two numbers are basically the same. And then the last thing is it's called a dagger. I don't know why that's
what's used, but it just is. Um and that meant that for whatever reason it couldn't be calculated. Maybe there um weren't enough um there weren't enough data points. Maybe we didn't have data from a certain year, etc. So the the kind of dagger symbol actually kind of looks like a T. um just means we
couldn't calculate it for whatever reason. So um asterisk means it's meaningfully different. NS means it's not meaningfully different and then the color of the asterisk is telling us if it's going up or down. Okay, now I'm going to pass it over. >> Thank you. >> Yeah.
>> So Jessica alluded to we've tightened up our processes and procedures as a district when it comes to testing NWA and I'm going to go over it a little bit more with you on this slide. What changes have we made? So NWA is our internal assessment. We set the policies and the procedures for the assessment.
How did the kids take it? Where do they take it? When do they take it? But for the state standardized tests, they have very strict rules and guidelines. And what we've tried to do this year is align our district assessment practices more with the state of Michigan state
standardized testing administration policies and procedures. We want to make sure that we're ensuring consistency and equity and the integrity of our assessments across all schools for NWA just like we do for MSTEP and SAT and
PSAT. So, two of I mean I'm sorry, three of the things that we really focused on was students only testing once, meaning a a teacher cannot give a student a test multiple times so that student can achieve a higher score. we've turned off
that that accessibility in the NWA platform. So, a student is only able to test once. Now, there are cases where you need to terminate a test and I can think of one example off the bat which a student with an IEP was not given the accommodation during the test. If that's
the case, then we are informed through the assessment office and we will make sure that that student does get a test with their accommodations. One of the second the second change that we made is only students with IEPs or 504 plans can receive accommodations.
And that means those accommodations are explicitly outlined in their IEP or their 504 plan. So if somebody feels that a student should get an accommodation, that's different than it being explicitly outlined and written in their IEP and 504. >> I'd like to give an example of that. Um,
so we will have teachers that will say, "Well, I would really think that the test is is testing um comprehension, for example." And so then they will say, "I'm going to turn on text to speech for all of my students in my class." Well, if it's a reading test, which it is because it's NWA for ELA, then that
means that we are not actually indicating whether the student can read and then answer the questions. We are only seeing that they can answer the questions based on listening comprehension. And so those were some of the anomalies that we had seen as we were reviewing prior test years in
preparation for this school year. And so those are some of the things if you're wondering well what kinds of accommodations are we talking about? Text to speech would be one of those. And so therefore we had um whole classrooms where the teacher had turned on text to speech that then of course we
found the anomaly kind of in our back history. And so we were able to shut those off and only make sure that the accommodations were turned on with students with IEPs. And so what we do is we align the same exact layers of accommodations that students would
receive with a 504 plan or IEP. They would receive those exact accommodations through the NWA platform. So it's a really apples to apples and then we're testing the way that we should be. So, in case you're wondering what kinds of accommodations might happen, that would
be one of those. Another and the third one is no additional assistance or no additional guidance during the test. Meaning a a teacher cannot read a test to or reading passage to the entire classroom unless that is in the accommodation like
Jessica Jessica just talked about text to speech, those students will not receive or they will not get the test read to them. Um, a teacher cannot offer guidance, meaning they cannot walk a student through a math problem or they cannot prompt them with anything to get
to an answer. Those things we have um really talked to the staff about, we've talked to the administrators about and that cannot be happening. Anna has done a great job on giving proctor guidance specific to NWA that we've mirrored again with our state assessment tests.
And so then um teachers were then uh given the proctor guide. they signed off in the proctor guide and there was some professional development that we've not typically offered kind of in that robust fashion like we did this year. Of course, no technology allowed. That's a given. But what we've also done is to
make sure that all these policies and pro procedures are being adhered to. We have sent staff members from central out to the schools during their testing times and monitored them to see if they're adhering to the policies that we've put in place. They've also provided feedback to the administrator
on the things that they've seen, things that they can keep working on that need to get better and things that are working well. So, um, it's worked well for us. We've received some positive feedback about it. The thing that we were concerned about was with instituting all these policies and
procedures and making things a little bit more tighter and streamlined. We weren't sure how the scores because we wanted the staff and the and the students to become acclimated and give them and they need time to become acclimated, right? We weren't sure how the proficiency scores were going to be. And looking at the f um in the future
slides that we're going to present to you, I think that um it actually worked out for us. So moving forward as I move we're going to talk about proficiency by grade level. So this is where uh Dr.
Kavanagh talked about we have these great uh graphs and she added symbols to it. So we're going to start with the reading proficiency for grades K through 12. While we can see some slight decrease in proficiency scores in some lower level grades like such as grade
two, we can also see and I'd like to focus our attention to grades 7 through 12, particularly grades 8, 9, and 10 because those are our transitional grades. We know that if students perform well in these grades, predominantly in grade nine, they're more apt to stay in
school, less apt to drop out, uh more apt to graduate on time with their four-year cohort, and be college and career ready. So, this slide also shows that while we have work to do, our students are maintaining across grade levels. And one
last thing before I turn it to Dr. Kavanaaugh, we have, and it says it, I don't know if you can see it. It's at the top to uh below the the title. This year for 2425 school year, we had 207 more students proficient in reading than
we did in the 2324 school year. Um, so just quickly since this is our first slide with graphs, I just want to kind of remind you of what we talked about before. So the NS that you see above almost every grade level suggests
that those two numbers are not different in a way that is statistically meaningful. So for example, we see in grade 1 um the average proficiency um appears to have gone up whereas in grade two it appears to have gone down.
However, those differences are not statistically meaningful. So that means functionally there's been no change from last year to this year in those two grades. Even though one looks like it's going up and one looks like it's going down. So all those NS means not significant means no change from last
year to this year. Where we do see those three asterisks which again means this is a meaningful change is grades 8, 9, and 10. Um because it's a black asterisk that means that it's an increase which we can also see with our eyes as reflected in the bars here. Um and so
what we're seeing here is kind of a whole lot of nothing. Um no change from last year, same proficiency levels as last year except improvements in grades 8, 9, and 10. So I think one thing I would like to point out um about this graph too is you
might be wondering why grades 8, nine, and 10. At least I know that's what I would be thinking if I was looking at this uh slide. And there's a couple things that I'd like to point out to you. one is that this is now um year four, year five coming up on year five of having our superintendent here and
changing our instructional model and year two of in changing our um literacy plan for the the school district. And so I think one of the things that you're seeing is if we kind of go back to four years ago, that's when students are going to be in grades four and five. That's when they're starting to really
um use their reading to learn concepts and by grade level and content area. It's also a spot where you see then as they come through over the last several years that is impacting their reading in grades four or grades 8 n and 10. The
other thing that I think uh we would like to say has an impact is departmentalization and the change in in our K8s. So prior to um a couple of years ago we had a sixth grade all of sixth graders were together with the
same teacher all day long. I'm sure they're wonderful like I was. I was only content specific in ELA and science, but I if I was uh self-contained, I would have had to taught math and um social studies. So now that we have moved to a K8 model with departmentalization, we
have teachers with more expertise in front of our students and we do feel like that is making a change for our upper grades um across the school across the school district, excuse me. Okay, moving on to the next slide. We
had 124 more students proficient in math in the school year 24-25 than we did in the school year 232 24. Also again we see a significant significantly significant change in an increase in grades 9 and 10 which I'll let Dr.
Kavanaaugh talk about in a minute. We did see a small increase in kindergarten and first grade. And for the majority the grade levels experienced an increase in proficiency with the exception of these two two grade levels. So after making our assessment protocols, meaning making them tighter
and more aligned with state standardized testing procedures, we didn't see our proficiency scores decrease like we were afraid that they may. For the most part, we experienced them maintaining. Yeah, I don't have much to add here. So kind of similar to the reading
proficiency that we just looked at, um, we see a whole lot of nothing, right? So that means a whole lot of last year was the same as this year except for a few um grade levels. So grades five, nine, and 10, we see an increase that is statistically meaningful. Um so some of
these other kind of differences, whether it's an increase or a decrease, that's not statistically meaningful. Um so we we're mostly holding steady both in reading and in math with a couple of bright spots where there is a statistically significant increase in
proficiency from last year to this. So these next two slides talk about reading and math proficiency at a district level. How have we done over the past four years since the 2122 school year up into the 2425 school year. And the left side is is proficient
and then the right side is talks about met growth. Over the last few years, reading proficiency percentages have remained steady and growth percentages have continued with small increases. As a district, we're maintaining with gains in certain grade levels in terms
of proficiency and growth for both reading and math. And you'll see that in the next slide as well. Um, reading and math scores over the course of several years. As a district, we've really been focused on increasing proficiency for students. And so, this is an area that I would like to lift because we do have a
statistically significant difference between proficiency over the last three years. And so I do think that that is an area that we can say at least what we are doing is working and it is increasing for students. Um like Anna pointed out um though we may have several schools that have an NS or not
statistically different for those students I would like to think that that is significant right because we have 200 plus students more significant in reading and 100 plus students more s more uh proficient in math. So for those students, they have seen an increase in
their proficiency and are well above grade level. So just wanted to point that out as we move through. Last thing I want to point out about this slide, I know sometimes it can be a little confusing to see the brackets over the different bars. Um and so I just want to make sure we're all on the same page
there. Um so the bracket is showing you um like kind of the tip of the bracket is showing you what two numbers are being compared. Um, and if you remember that kind of T-shape, it's called the dagger, means could not calculate. So you might say, well, why couldn't we calculate from the 202122 school year to
the 2425? It's because the data weren't collected in the same way. So it's like a little bit of an apples to oranges um uh comparison. That's also why the it's gray, I think. Uh and so that's that's why that's not calculable is because it's not a fair comparison. Um but it's up there for context. Um because we we
do still have that information. Um so what you're looking at um for the the kind of next bracket down then um if you follow the tip of the bracket down that's a comparison between two years ago the 22 23 school year and present uh 2425 school year. And so when we're
looking at um proficiency and also met growth both of those things improved um from two years ago to this year. Um and then finally the lowest bracket down um if you follow its tips is comparing that navy blue bar which is last year to the
uh brighter blue bar which is this year. And so for proficiency we see that proficiency um has improved from two years ago but also has improved from last year. Um and for MET growth and again remember that the website is down right now for the MET growth and so there's some data stuff to check with
there that we're not able to do. Um so a little bit of a caveat. Um but we see therefore MET growth has m been consistent from last year to uh this year overall. Although again caveat might change, we don't know. Um so what's cool about this, what I'm very excited about about this as a nerd is
that next year we'll have four comparable data points. Um and that means I can start to make you beautiful line graphs so we can see trajectories over time. Um with three data points, three years, that's not quite enough for a trajectory analysis. Um but that that'll be really helpful for us next
year to see you know are we over time kind of stable are we going up etc. Um whereas right now we have to just compare two years at a time. Um when we can do a trajectory analysis we can see what is the pattern over all of those years. Uh so coming soon to a to a stats
presentation near you. >> So moving on to the next um slide. Math proficiency. It seems pretty similar. We're we've seen both in proficiency and growth increase over the last few years for um from 2122 to the 2425 school
year. We anticipate that changes that we've made in curriculum um tutoring that we've instituted in the schools uh interventions strategies that we've put in place that this will continue to increase. And so we do look forward to
Dr. Kavanagh's charts next year. Did you want to say anything about this one? >> No. >> Um, looked exactly the same as for reading. So, >> nothing more to add. >> Okay. So, now we're moving on to proficiency by grade and by school. So, it looks pretty much the same except now
we're going to talk about by school instead of by grade level. When we look at proficiency by school, there were several buildings that made gains and I want to point three of our buildings out because those have made about 10%ish gains and that would be our two high schools, Everett and Sexton and
also our online school, Capital Area K through 12. As we look at that, we can also see that there has been a decrease in proficiency percentage in a few of the schools as well, uh, such as Atwood, Wexford. When we review the data, it will help us
target and implement additional supports for schools such as Atwood and Waxford. It also by looking at schools that are thriving or that are are showing increases like an Everett or a Sexton or a Capitol area and we dive into what they're doing at those schools, it helps
us take those supports and those interventions that they're providing for their students and use them in other schools to help with those uh those students with supports and interventions. So, as we look at this data, it really does tell a story for us. It tells us where the skills are
being mastered and who's mastering those skills. And then it also tells us where we need to improve and how we can help them improve with skills. Um, I don't have much to say here. I think we all um understand now how how to read this. Um, I will say it's not
surprising that if we break this down by school rather than grade level that we see some similar results. the results are the results no matter kind of which way you're slicing them. Um although to to Miss Deonio's um point, it does help us understand which schools um um we can we can celebrate and which schools might
need more support. Uh so what you're looking at here just as it was for grade level, we see a whole lot of nothing which means no change from last year, neither good nor bad. Um and then a few schools, so Guyire Park, Capitol Area um online and then Everett and Sexton, we
do see improvements from last year to this year in those schools. and then everywhere else holding steady. If there's a difference, it wasn't statistically meaningful. >> We go back. >> Oh, yeah. I was just going to add, I mean, I think it's really, really wonderful to be able to dig deep into
it. And I know sometimes it feels weird to be like, but there's a school. It went up by three points. Yes. But with significance testing, that is noise as it were. The good news is that when you look at the last piece on the right hand
side, that's the district. So at least as a district, it is sign significant that we are moving up. But you can see a lot of these schools high or low is just not significant. And I know it feels
weird. You say, but a school went up or a school went down. But again, the NS, it's a lot of the schools, but at least for the district, when you put it all together, and again, remember the concept of, you know, uh, sample size.
If you're looking at a small school that just has a third grade, eh, you know, it's pretty hard. But if you're looking at a whole district with hundreds of thousands of kids, there's at least something there. So, that last thing in red, I just want you to see that's the
district. uh as a total and those are both uh significant uh in in both uh graphs or whatever it is. Thanks. >> The next couple slides we've broken down by demographic data and then the slide after that is by gender. Um Dr.
Kavanaaugh, did you want to speak to this? >> Sure. Um so I mentioned before that we want to make sure we're understanding uh kind of what other factors might be associated with test scores. um so that we can like target um where what whom
needs to be targeted. Uh and so the reason that I did this additional analysis was to look at are there statistically meaningful differences in performance by race and then in the next slide by gender. And so the summary of my findings here is in that little box
on the side. Um and what we find is this was the same as last year. Um what we find is that black youth were statistically significantly underperforming all other racial ethnic categories. Um and white youth were significantly overperforming black Hispanic or black Asian and Hispanic
Latinx youth. Um whereas Asian Hispanic Latinx um multi-racial some of those other categories that um are frankly smaller groups um they weren't statistically different from one another. Um, but this is really important information for the district to have to understand um that black
youth are still not being served in a way that um helps them be as proficient as um some of their white counterparts. Oh, me again. Uh so this is the same thing except we're looking at gender here. Uh and so the first bar that F is
female, the second bar, the M is male. Um and the third bar X is for non-binary students. I want to give a caveat which is that there were there are very few non-binary students in the district and so there's not much to calculate there in terms of differences because you're
comparing like 10,000 to like 15. Um and so that's not really a fair comparison. Um so um and when it came to reading proficiency, there was no difference between boys and girls. Um, and we couldn't calculate any difference between non-binary students or students
who had another gender identity just because there were relatively few of them. Um, but the good news is that there were no gender differences in reading proficiency between boys and girls. So, this slide talks about math proficiency by gradeband in school. And if we compare it to the reading
proficiency that we just looked at that slide by gradeband in school there seems to be um a trend where we're seeing increases amongst the the high schools significant increases amongst the high schools and also in um one of ourmies
postto and also capital area K- through2 that we had mentioned on the reading proficiency slide as well. We continue to assess the data just like we do for the reading proficiency to make informed instructional decisions on a daily basis and how to help our students with the
mastering of skills that they still need to master. Only thing I want to add here is we have for the first time our red asterisk. Um so remember the red asterisk means that these numbers are statistically different. So they're meaningfully different but it's a decrease. Um so to this point we'd seen
a whole lot of no change from last year and then a couple of points of improvement from last year. Um for Wexford we saw a statistically significant decrease from last year to this year. So you'll notice that's why Wexford's asterisk is red. Um whereas comparing it to um Eastern right next to
it um Eastern's asterisk is black suggesting that that was a statistically significant increase. Um so don't get tripped up by the fact that it's an asterisk. The different color means that it's a statistically significant decrease. So that's a meaningful decline from last year to this year. Um although as Mr. DeFonio said, we did have one,
two, three, four, five. Uh we did have several schools that had a statistically significant increase in math proficiency from last year. So this is kind of a perfect example of how the school district uses data to make sure that we're supporting our schools. So for example, we've already started conversations with Wexford when the data
came out in June to figure out what might be happening. Do we have certified teachers in math teaching at that school? Is the Monasuri math curriculum impacting students in a negative way? Is there more training that needs to happen with our um students or excuse me, our teachers at man the monastery school?
How is departmentalization impacting Waxford? Did we have overaccommodations happening in prior years that now were um corrected by the tighter measures that we've put in place? So, there's some things that we're looking at at Waxford specifically. So as we are analyzing the data, we are really good
as a district that and I'm very strong feel very strongly about this that we are not just here to admire data. There are students behind this data that this is very meaningful for and teaching practices that we can therefore improve upon based on the data that we're
collecting. So I just want to give kind of an an explanation of how we as a school district would use this data. Another thing that we would do then, which I've already done again in June, is uh speaking with Jill at Post Oak, our principal Jill Colar. What are the things that you would attribute
attribute your mass success to and then how can we replicate those um things across the district? So, just to kind of point out how we at central office use the data, but also in collaboration with our principles and our instructional team and directors.
Oops, there we go. So here we we've got that same um test for demographic differences, although this time for math proficiency. So last time it was for reading proficiency. And we see the exact same pattern for math proficiency when we look um by race or
ethnic identity as we did for reading such that black youth were significantly underperforming all other racial ethnic groups and white youth were significantly overperforming black and Hispanic Latinx youth. Um so again, especially taken together with the very similar results for um their reading
proficiency, this suggests that our black youth are not being served as well as some of our other um demographics in terms of um their educational experience. The reason that I think this is particularly important is you might remember from the very first slide that a plurality of our students are black.
Um and so it's very important um that we understand how to support these students. And of course the first step to understanding how to support them is doing these sorts of analyses so we can say where are the issues. Oh me again. Uh so this is same thing
except for gender. Um and this time we're looking at math. So as you recall there were no gender differences in reading proficiency. However we did see a gender difference in math proficiency such that girls were significantly underperforming boys. Um we again not
really able to calculate any difference between non-binary students because there are so few of them. Um that's called low power. If you see low power that means like not enough people to make a reasonable comparison. Um but what what we saw here was that there was a gender difference in math proficiency.
Um I will say that gender differences and math proficiency are a nationwide problem um due to to many many myriad factors most of them societal and cultural. Um but that's not what we're here to talk about right now. Um so I'll just say that in our district uh we do
see uh that trend repeated where girls are significantly underperforming boys. So what have we done and what do we continue to do to support our students? I'm going to talk about a few of these and then I'm going to hand it over to Jessica and she's going to talk about a
few more. We're committed to strengthening our tier one instruction to ensure that all our students receive a high quality education. When a student shows signs of difficulty or requires additional support in the classroom, we use assessment data to determine
appropriate interventions and then put any tier one or tier 2 supports in place for them. We're working on helping our students better understand the purpose of their assessments. We're streamlining our assessment processes and procedures to tighten it to look more like our
state standardized assess assessments. When students know why the tests matter, they're more likely to take them more seriously. They're more likely to be more invested and they are more likely to have a better performance on them. It's about building both awareness and accountability so they can show what
they really know and then we can help assess from there. The schools have also instituted test prep. they have tailored this test prep to what their schools and their grade levels needs are. And then the last thing I'm going to talk about is we're making it a priority to
regularly to use data to regularly guide our decision making. That includes both standardized tests, but it also includes formative and summitative assessments within the classroom on a daily basis. Um, it helps us make real-time adjustments to better support our students and it also helps us helps to
meet their needs. And one last thing I wanted to mention, Jessica has done a great job this year instituting what she calls edgistat where the administrators come on a monthly basis to the admin building and they talk about their data. They talk about the assessment data. They talk about what's happening in
their classrooms. They bring attendance data. They bring grad data. They talk about what is working. They're in a group. And then they also talk about their struggles and what supports or interventions they need to put in place. So that's communication at its best. and
we find that um collaboration is actually helping across the board. >> So there are a couple of initiatives that I just want to highlight. One is that I think oftentimes when we think about assessment, we think solely about how our students are doing, but I think it's also a test of our curriculum. So
when we look at our assessment data, for example, if there's strands of common core state standards that students are are clearly underperforming across the district, then we need to take a closer look at our curricular tools. Do we have weaknesses within our ELA curriculum or
perhaps our math curriculum? And then how can we beef up those particular standards or teach them in a different way that will impact student achievement? I think the other thing that people don't think about when they think about assessments is how is this impacting our instruction? The same thing can happen if we have a weakness
in a certain area that it may be because we're not supporting our teachers correctly in the ways that they need to be professionally developed. Right? So when we have professional development for teachers, are we robustly teaching them math? One of the things that our director for uh mathematics, Ivonne
Thomas, is doing is she really took this last year because we know we're adopting new math curriculum this coming school year, literally in three, four weeks from now. And one of the things she did was she took an entire year to steep our teachers in the math essential practices
and the math power standards. So as they are attacking this new curriculum, they now have a foundational knowledge about mathematics which is really critical. And so we do think those are things that as we're looking through our assessments that we are seeing the weaknesses perhaps of curriculums that we have
adopted and then how can we take things to implement better strategies through professional development for our teachers and or different types of lessons for our students. So, I think those are pieces that typically people don't think about when they think about student assessments because we typically
focus on the way that students are performing, but we know the most important person in front of a student is their teacher. And so, we need to make sure that our teachers are adequately prepared in the instructional models for our students. The other things that I would like to point out
that we're um we piloted this year, but we're going to um we're going full force and I'm very excited about this. it's actually happening the week after next is we have our new teacher orientation. So for teachers that are coming into the school district, they will be welcomed as they always are with open arms
because we're so thrilled to have them join our Lancing school district family, but we want to make sure that they feel like they're a part of something special that they are inducted into our new teacher project. It is brand new. It is not something that we have had in the school district. It is very um
innovative in that it is reflective of the teachers needs themselves. So, for example, we have a retired principal, Becky Stevens, who's kind of heading this up for us. And it will give um teachers kind of a I'm going to call them kind of year ones experience, right? So, you come into the district and you're a part of a colleial group
that you know, we're all in this together. You meet people in common grade levels. There will be once a month social events, so they'll be able to get to know each other on a social side of things to kind of build a network, but they'll also have once a month professional development. And then they'll also have what we call popup PDs
which will be based on for example if uh teachers are wondering how do I uh institute classroom jobs in my classroom then we will do a pop-up PD for them. We'll make sure that we kind of meet those needs and then we're taking month-to-month feedback on how is that working. We have had some new teacher
projects in the past um that I really don't feel met the needs of our new teachers. And so we did a soft pilot of that this past year and we met with those teachers to say if we could do it all over again, what do you wish the district would have provided for you? And they gave us some phenomenal
feedback. And so we're really excited to be able to jump into that with our teachers in a couple of weeks for new teacher orientation. And then lastly, I'd like to speak about our multicultural initiative which um the board has um kind of uh guided us to for the coming year. And I know we've
presented our plan to the board and we plan to begin that this school year and I do think that there's a definite need for that. I know that you'll see in one of the bubbles on here that we're utilizing the results from our equity audit that is not forgotten on us and I think everyone needs to understand that
that data provided us with um some very good statistics and data of things that we have to improve on which we know we have things to improve on. Our data even today shows that. And so we are hoping that through creating a sense of belonging for all of our students and celebrating all of the cultures that we
have districtwide and making sure that our curriculum is culturally relevant that we can then impact all of our student achievement in very positive ways. So I just wanted to kind of link um to the board some of the initiatives that we've heard us talk about, but how we also take our data to make sure that
we're making the best decisions possible um to impact our students from year to year. Thank you. >> Great. >> So, I'm going to just finish up and then I assume I will turn it over to the the acting president uh so that we could take questions. So, I just want to
really thank uh these uh the work. Um I will do a formal thanks at the end, but you know, all of the work that we do here is in service to children in the sense of how can we always do better? And so, you know, I think the overarching thing that we're seeing is
it is sign statistically significant as a district that we seem to be moving forward. However, that seems to be mainly on the backs of our high schools and there's a handful of schools and a handful of other grades that seem to be moving. The one thing I do want to h
highlight about high schools is that this data shouldn't necessarily be surprising because one of the other big data points that we've seen is that our high school attendance is higher than it was even precoid. And
so the fact that our kids are coming to school more and then being taught and then learning, I think that that's a really good thing. The other thing, of course, is that without the seventh and eighth graders in those high schools, it seems like it's a much more conducive uh
learning. I also want to really uh really highlight what Jessica said at the end. Um there is a huge equity issue here when it comes to white and black students. The our black students are underperforming and that's something
that we have to address immediately. It's something we have been addressing, but it's something that we really have to do. And I want to be clear here because there is within conversation this idea sometimes of um multicultural which is very very important and that's
why the multicultural work I think is incredibly uh uh important and that's why starting in three months or three weeks we're really changing our curriculums and doing things. But we also have to look at individual races and is there something the school district is not doing for specific
things. And then the second of course is the gender concern within math. That's something that we have to address. And I'll be the first one to admit that that is not something that we have like created a committee on or studied or moved. And I think that's something that I would highlight certainly to our team
is that that is not necessarily new information but it is now front and center and we have to take uh actions for that. So okay thank you very much for the presentation superintendent midas and all. Now we we have questions
here uh starting with trusty narees Martinez. >> Thank you so much for the presentation that was really great. Um, so I have a couple of questions. First, am I correct in my assessment or my understanding
that in all of the categories except for that one um math at Wexford um everything either held or increased. >> Correct. >> That's correct. Um and again I want to I
want to remind everyone um especially my board colleagues who have been on the board for a number of years. Um this was just the proficiency data. So in years past we've had proficiency and met growth. Um right now we only have the proficiency data due to again that that inconsistency that now can't be
reconciled because the website's down. Um but yes that is correct for proficiency um across grade bands and across schools with one exception. proficiency has either maintained so been exactly the same as last year or in a few instances increased.
>> Great. Um and I do want to thank um uh Miss Benides for bringing this up, but I do as the qualitative person on the board want to say that um statistically sign or statistical significance is important to look at the trends for the
overall district and how we can do better. But I do think that um those 124 students that did better in math uh will be significantly uh their life will significantly improve because they've done better. Same thing with the 207
students that are doing better in reading. So thank you very much. >> Thank you Trustee uh Trusty Williams. >> Good evening. Sorry, let me apologize first about my lateness. Had some things going on, but I'm here. Thank you all for the uh presentation.
I'm a little tired. So if it comes off hard, forgive me, but okay. So first question is, how many standardized tests are we taking a year? I middle school and then the high school. >> Oh jeez. Um, >> so the state standardized tests. So in
the the middle year or the younger years and the middle years, they'll take two MSTEP and Yeah, it's different by grade level. So, for example, for third grade, they will take MSTEP. That's ELA and math in the
spring. And then we have fifth grade. So, that's a little bit of an anomaly where they will take MSTEP, but they take four content areas. They take uh ELA, math, science, and social studies. Um, and then as they go up, but they really only take one >> one at the high school,
>> one at Yeah. one one standardized test per grade level. So, they might be on different content areas. So is the NWA the standardized test that they take every year, fall and spring? >> So go ahead. >> The NWA is our internal benchmark assessment. So it's different than the
state standardized tests. The state standardized tests are every spring and those would be the MSTEP, the PSAT, the SAT, and the ACT. The NWA is internal, so we can dictate how often or how little we give that test and when we
give it. and we choose to give it three times a year which may it will change this this fall but >> okay >> what what is it changing to you should >> so what's going to happen that's a great question thank you um what will happen is instead of a student taking it three
times within a school year it will be twice with the exception of there is a reading law so we need to make sure that our grades K through three are tested in reading so they will take the NWA reading assessment only not the math math, but the kindergarters need to take
the math as well because we need baseline data on them. So, kindergarten will take reading and math for NWA. Grades 1 through three will take only reading NWA. And then we have new students to our district, which we will need baseline data on. So, they will
take both reading and math. And then any students who for whatever reason missed the NWA in the spring will have to take it in the fall. >> Okay, that's my first question. I understand that the NWA is our internal testing. So, how does our internal
testing coincide with the state standardized testing um PR uh being maybe the SAT? Because I've heard that because they're so focused on studying in around the NW they don't get to learn the concepts on the actual standardized test.
>> The state standardized tests are always prior to the NWA. So the window for the state standardized tests open the the second week of April and they're usually a three-week window for PSAT SAT that's a three-week window and MSTEP is a little longer it's it's about six weeks
okay >> and then the NWA testing is after that the go ahead the NWA test mirrors these standardized tests so when we talk about that they're practicing for for example SAT the NWA is the practice for SAT so
for example the standards that are on the SAT and the standards that are on NWA are identical. They're the common core state standards for those particular grade levels. >> So then if you have a child that's performing very much so well on the NWA
but doesn't do well on the state standardized test, what's the disconnect there, I guess? >> So there's a couple things that can happen. One is the student says, "I really tried hard on NWBA and I didn't try so hard on SAT." That's one thing that could happen. The second thing that
could happen, which we're hoping not, is of course when we talked about the guidelines that we've put in place, is did they receive any additional accommodations or was the test not proctored in a way that would mimic an SAT test, which is what we made the changes for this year. But there really
is no reason why a student would not do equally as well on NWA as on SAT. I don't know if you want to share more about that or >> I mean I think it's a great question and I'm glad that Trusty Williams brought it up in general as a district there really should not be a difference. The way that
our district as a whole does in NWA should be as a whole how we do on MSTEP. They're correlated. What we did see over the years is that NWA at times was a bit inflated. And what we have found and
what uh you know we talked about is that the proctoring for MSTEP is very prescribed. It's very much uh through kind of the state rules and the rulings and the way that we support our kids
with NWA at times as the slide showed there were issues of accommodations. There were issues of multiple t take testing being taken. And so what we're seeing, which is a good thing, is as we are tightening up our testing procedures
for NWA, our NWA scores are mirroring much closer to our MSTEP scores. Now, an individual child, I will turn towards the professor of statistics. It's hard to tell, but sadly, and this is my own
problems with standardized tests in general, if you have a tummy ache, you're not going to necessarily do well. And so that individual kid who might have a high, you know, score on one and a low score on another, it's very hard to tell. But with the 10,000 kids we've got and not all of them take the tests,
um, but when you look at it as a district, NWA, MSTEP, they're actually pretty similar. >> Okay. Um, congratulations on the increase in proficiency. I was going to say that, but Dr. uh, Dr. Dea beat me to it. Um,
I also congratulations on having the accommodations in place for those students that need them. However, I'm a little concerned and disheartened because I sat here and did the average. We have about an average of 73.82% that's not proficient in reading and
73.71 that's not proficient in math. However, our graduation rate said we have met 85%. So, are we passing these kids not proficient in letting them graduate? That is disheartening to me right now because that's where my mind is going.
>> So, I think we have to rec we have to recognize a couple of things. Um, the first is when we talk about having a percentage, we're disheartened, too, because we want all of our students to be proficient, right? So, I think we have to just put that out there. Um, I will tell you though, and I think this is really important especially for the
community to understand because when we look at these scores, for example, for MSTEP, and I'll take third grade for an example, across the state of Michigan, the state average for the MSTEP score is 42% of students. So, when we look at our scores, for example, at a 20% in um for
proficiency, we are h I'm gonna say halfway there, right to our 40. Now, that's a state average. Of course, we want to be better than the state average because who wouldn't be? But when we think about the numbers, we have to think AC across the state of Michigan, for example, if the state average is
40%, the majority of high schools across the state of Michigan are graduating students at an 80 and 90%age rate. Right? So, when we talk about discrepancies and look at profess um proficiency that way, we need to think about is it really apples to oranges? The other thing that we're talking about
is credit bearing versus um passing standards, right? So when we talk about achieving credits, there are multiple ways to achieve credits and yet there's one test specifically for proficiency. So I think that there in the state of Michigan, it is much easier to attain
credits across the state of Michigan. It's not a lancing thing. This is the way that the state of Michigan is set up. And so that we can even break down for students that if you have a ninth grader that did not pass algebra 1, we could even um add the um standards up
over several over several years to make sure that we've attained that credit for that student. So now I wouldn't say that there's a a disconnect necessarily between proficiency and graduation rates, but I think you there they are two totally different systems. One is credits and one is proficiency. I I
agree with that, but I also struggle and I disagree with that because everything that we teach our children should align with the standardized testing that we're giving them to make them successful individuals. And to see that 70some percent of our kids aren't proficient in
reading. Um, and I've seen several kids that have graduated and not been able to do a job application. What what's again? But moving forward from there, how are we? Because we still I don't like that we compare ourselves to other districts
because we have a very unique district. We're urbanized with 67 different languages. So the things that we do here in Lancing can't compare to Detroit or Kalamazoo when it comes to our student base. And I think a lot of times when our kids hear this, they're getting
disheartened because again, we operate in a different diaphragm. I say Lancing has its own bubble, own population on it's its own world because you can't get a child from Detroit that's going to come here and say, "Okay, I know what that child understands because they're
sudin or they're immigrant." We have those. And so a lot of those things tie into this whole correlation and it's like how are we taking the reference out because our kids do hear this and when they say somebody will say well this
child is doing better than you because they're in Detroit schools that's disheartening. Kids hear this because people are talking about this. How are we going to lift that? How are we now with this stuff that we've been given tonight going to bring the family, the community, and everybody else in to help us elevate this? Because we're not even
at the state level when we should be. >> I agree. We're we're not at the state level, right, when we look at SAT or or MSTEP. We're not. Um I would like to say though that when we are looking at high school scores too, we need to recognize that we may not have kids that are
proficient, but that does not mean that they're not on grade level. Um, when we talk about graduating students, we may have students that are on grade level and graduating, but that does not mean that they're going to score proficient perhaps even on an NWA because the bar that we hold our students to is 20
percentiles higher than the grade level average for um the state of Michigan. So again, I'm not saying that we've we're not even we we're working we're working on it. We haven't arrived. We're not there. Um, I think the more we can incorporate families and make sure that they understand the standards that their
students are supposed to be achieving and doing, the better. And I do think this school year especially, we had tutoring at every single one of our schools. And so, I can't help but think that that is going to help to fill some of those gaps that you're lifting.
>> Okay. Uh, Trusty Strode, >> thank you so much. I too am a data nerd like Trustee or Dr. Kavanagh. So, I'm soaking all this in. I did go through uh your presentation before tonight um and jotted down just a couple of notes and
tried to make sure that I wasn't too getting into too much of the weeds of it. So, the big thing for me is like since this assessment data was adjusted, uh using some of that logistical regression to control the factors. So, we have gender, she's grabbing the mic,
uh we have gender, we have race, ignit ethnicity, and kind of like that rapid guessing, right? you know, like so we kind of I guess are we really getting an accurate picture of the student achievement? I I feel like I appreciate
the clarity. I appreciate the analysis, but I want to better understand how we're using it to guide what's happening in our day-to-day classrooms. Like for instance, we know and I thank you so much, Superintendent Ben, for lifting the conversation about our black students. Like they represent 38.14% of
our student population. But the logistical regression analysis shows that they're significantly underperforming and compared to the other racial ethnic groups in both reading and math. So I appreciated the
data controlled variables like gender. Um but the makeup of the disparities are very meaningful to me and I guess I wanted to kind of understand and maybe this isn't something we talk about right now today because we don't have the answer. Um but that targeted cultural
response intervention, what what are we addressing for that gap? And um how are we tapping into some of those existing strengths to kind of mimic or mirror? And I appreciate again, Superintendent Ben bringing up, you know, kids might not perform well if they have a tummy
ache or if it was just a rough day or if they had a sub all week. Like there's certain factors that doesn't really give us the full picture and I know that data tells our story. And so I'm so excited that next year we'll be able to see those trend lines and we can make some
real dents into what we're doing and how we're doing it because I guarantee you last school year the implementation that you guys have put in place to support this testing wasn't there. And so I'm I'm really happy that we'll have some structured things, but in the back of my
mind, one, without that trend gap, right, and two, for the African-American students, I guess uh what what's our plans? I said a lot. So, I'll let you take the >> I'm I'm going to quickly talk about the stats uh because you you raised a great point that I think I forgot to mention
in my other part. Um and then I'm going to hand it over to the actual expert experts to talk about what we're doing. Um but, um just quickly, so um as Trusty Strode is raising in a logistic regression, you have the ability to um the math term is to portion out the
variance. Um the kind of more colloquial term is to control for something. Um, and so the reason we control for something is to make sure that we're not confusing the impact of something else on what we care about, which is test scores. So it's a little confusing in this presentation because um the
information is actually presented in the opposite order that I do it. So the first thing I do is I say where are there differences among students because that tells me what to control for because we already know that those things matter, right? So the first thing I did was say are there racial ethnic
differences? Yes, there are. Um, and so that's something that we present to the board, but also something I say now I know we need to include that in the model so we're getting an accurate sense of the proficiency. Same thing for gender. Next thing I do, are there gender differences? Yep, put that in the
model. Um, third thing, the third one is called rapid guessing percentage. Um, and so what I have learned from our from our panel of experts here is that um there is a measure on the test because you know some kids might just go like click click click click click like answer A to every single one because
they want to get the test over with. They're like I don't want to do the stupid test. Um I'm just clicking I'm just clicking through. That's captured um within the NWA score as this variable called rapid guessing percentage. So it's it flags some um test takers as saying this person just kind of clicked
through and took the entire test in five minutes. Um, and so was that related to score? Yes, it was, as you can imagine. Um, and so then we put that in the model because we don't want to be confusing what's actually an issue um um a
disparity in gender, race, or this kind of nonsense clicking through. We don't want that to cloud our understanding of proficiency. So that's why those variables are included in the logistic regression model because the first thing I did was check to see if those differences existed and they did. Um, so
I just want to clarify that about the the kind of math behind what we're doing. It's not that I'm saying I know it sounds kind of weird to be like, oh, you're holding it constant. Um, mathematically that's what you're doing. But it doesn't mean, oh, we're being colorblind and pretending all the kids are that's it means the opposite of
that. It means we acknowledge that these disparities exist and so we have to account for that mathematically so that we're not patting ourselves on the back when these actual disparities are there. Thank you so much for clar I know our our colleagues are like Seria and
Caitlyn here you go. >> So first of all I love your question and the reason I love your question is this is a one-day test and teaching is not a one-day exercise right? So our teachers are in front of our students for 180 days in the school year. And so one of
the last slides that we had up there is that we do have a focus also on formative assessment. you have to. It's the day-to-day bread and butter of teaching. So, when teachers um attack a lesson, for example, I might know at the end of this lesson, I want all my students to know double-digit
multiplication. Well, I'm not going to wait till NWA to figure that out, right? That would just kind of be malpractice, honestly speaking, right? If I'm going to give students a task to do, then I need to find out, can they do that task? So, one of the things that our teachers are steeped in and one of the things that our new teachers will definitely be
getting professional development on is when you present a lesson, one, what is the thing you want students to know? And two, what is it you're asking students to do? What we do find is there is a disparity oftentimes in what we want them to know and what we're asking them to do. And those are things that we need
to be tightening up. And I'll give an example. If we want students to analyze something, but then the activity that we give them is not an is more a wrote back and forth yes no type of question. They're not openended. They're not looking and analyzing and doing things.
Then we know that the verb of that standard for example is not actually being met which means the rigor is lower than it needs to be. The only way we know that is if we have a good formative assessment. Could be an exit ticket. It could be a quiz. It could be a test. Um, I'll tell you the group of people who
are experts at this are GSRP teachers. And you might say, well, wait a minute, that's preschool. It is preschool. And what preschool does a really great job on is they teach something and they walk around with their clipboard or their paper in the classroom and they're taking anecdotal notes of which kids are able to do the things and which kids are
not able to do the things. And then what they do is they pull a small group and they teach until that child gets that standard. And so I think that we have to though the NWA is a really important test for us for a diagnostic because again an exit ticket or assignment is not going to tell me if a child is
proficient right it will tell me proficient in that standard but not in comparison to their peers which is this what this uh particular diagnostic tool tells us. So, as a school district, we may present this information to the board, but teaching really is an art and
a science. And so, we have to really say that when we have teachers in front of kids, they have to at the end of the lesson say, "All right, I taught double-digit multiplication. Can they do it?" If they can, then we know we've mastered that standard. If they can't, then we need to figure out which
students can't. pull those students for small groups, take a look at our own teaching practices and make sure that it's not all of our students because if it is, it might be a teaching problem, right? Um, and then we look at pulling small group, pulling tutoring, maybe the the student needs different accommodations, a different learning
style. And so therefore, we are looking at students on an individual basis. And that is where we're going to we're going to be able to tackle the disparities between students of different races in our school district because we have to look at students as individual students.
That's why I love when we have an IEP. It's an individualized education plan. I tend to think you shouldn't have to be in the special education program to have individualized instruction, right? We should be doing that for all of our students. And I think our teachers are really getting to the point where we
have these uh exit tickets or formative assessments and so we can make sure at the end of a lesson the students are getting these things and until we can track it at that granular level we'll never see the movements at the bigger macro level.
So I'm just really glad you asked that because those are just common things that we are trying to layer in layer in as we uh work with our teachers and staff across the district. we have to look almost smaller to make the gains um on a bigger level. >> Yes. >> Yeah. I appreciate that. And the second
part which is kind of again a more of a comment than a question um but looking at the IEP recommendations and testing is a huge huge one um especially for children who um have some struggles in those uh behavior plans. Um, so I just
was happy to hear that that is something that is being measured and put into place for those students who need that. Um, that's all I have. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Trustee. Uh, next we have Trusty Strod, I'm sorry.
>> Thank you for a robust presentation. Um, Dr. Dea, I didn't realize just how qualitative I was until tonight. Um and so um but I I do appreciate that. I do have um a few questions along that line.
Um first of all um there were a couple of trigger words that I got so just bear with me. Um there is something about student accountability. What is this? And do students have easy access to these scores?
>> Well, it depends on what test you're talking about. So, NWA, as soon as they're completed, as soon as they they completed the assessment, the teacher can see the scores and they can give the scores to the student or our state standardized tests such as um PSAT or
SAT. They will receive scores within about 3 weeks, give or take. That's beyond our control. >> Yeah. >> And then MSTEP is embargoed at the moment. They took that in May, but they will not receive those scores until about the end of August, maybe Septemberish. Again, that's beyond our
control. Um, so it really does depend on the the assessment that you're talking about. >> Yeah. And so I think I am talking about NWA and I think I would like to go back to my initial question. What is meant by student accountability? How am I the student accountable? What do I mean by
that in this presentation? If I don't have access to the scores, the teacher has to give me the scores. The teacher can see the score, but I don't know if it's the practice that they show the students the scores or is it something that they use? If I am the student and I've received the score, now what
accountable how and to who? >> That's a really good question. So, in the fall, like I said, they take baseline data. So, NWA gives them baseline data. And then typically what teachers will do specifically at well they do it at the younger levels as well but more so at the older level secondary
level um they will actually give the student their score and what NWA does is give them a prediction of how much growth they should make in a year because NWA is individualized to that student. It's tailored to that student.
So they will go through give them the score and also give them the metro score. So then throughout the year after that winter assessment after the student takes that they will give them the the second score and they will see if they're on the trae trajectory of
meeting their growth. So what they do is they typically have sheets and they give them and then they keep monitoring throughout the year. So then they know after the winter test how much more growth they need to make to make their projected met growth for the year.
>> Thank you. I just there were a couple of things um and I was supposed to say before I started my questions. Um I'm putting myself in a space where I'm not an education professional. Um the questions I'm asking you is not because I don't know what NWA is, but the person sitting at home and not to put down our
families. I'm not trying to say that anybody's not smart enough to understand what's going on here, but it's been highly academic this evening. Um even for layman for layman people. And that brings me to my second question, which is about transparency. Do you all have ideas about how we can get this
information? I know we've tried the best as we can to get the numbers to make sense to regular folk, but how can we get this out to people? Maybe like a scorecard or something in the most layman terms about how are we doing and what we're going to do to do better? No
education jargon. This is where we are and this is what we're going to do. Um maybe in a way that um can be easily chewed. Um, we've got this on camera tonight. Um, but for maybe the one that doesn't watch this or maybe the person whose eyes might have gotten crossed
like me and you know who will have a doctorate in education in a couple of months and I still my eyes were a touch crossed. How do we figure out a ways where we can um get this to be understandable um for for families? Do you have any ideas right now?
>> I have a few. Um, one is I will say that we have an NWA parent report that does break this down in a way I heard that too. In a way that is um, much more digestible and that really says your student does well in X and your
student's not doing so well in Y. And so I do think that the parent reports as our principles are sending those out or using those during parent teacher conferences are really helpful. Um, but as far as looking at how we are doing as a whole school or as a whole school district, I think there are some ways
that we can definitely make those more digestible to say, especially when it comes to I mean, as a as a parent myself, there's some things that if I knew as a parent, hey, I have a third grader, here's three things that would really be great if your child could practice at home or that you can look
forward to this year that they should be able to master. I think that um creating some parent um guidance around what children are learning in in a way that's one digestible, one understandable, and two that parents can really celebrate those growths with their students would
be really critical. So, I know my team is working on that as we're doing the new curriculum standards that we're looking to break those down for families to say in fifth grade, here are some things your children should be learning and then hopefully we can look at those with the parent reports to say, oh, here
are the areas that they're doing well or not in. Um, I agree with you this I mean NWA there's a we haven't even hit the tip of the iceberg, but there is a rabbit hole you can go down with every diagnostic report known to man. And so again, if we can't make it actionable,
then it's really like it's just it becomes very cumbersome. So I'm glad that you brought that up because I think there are some ways that we can make this more um accessible to all of our families outside of the out of this board meeting. >> Thank you. And I I had kind of a part B to that. Um have we the board of
education given you all you need for things like parent trainings to help students at home? um or any other of these um ideas that are you know great vision. Do you feel that you've been empowered enough to do this for our families? If not, what would be your
recommendation for us to support you to support our our our students? Really, I was going to ask Superintendent Shelmer that, but you're here. >> I think the the only thing that I would say is yes, I feel 100% supported. I know my team does. Um, I think that we have really wonderful meetings from our
executive team meetings to instructional division where we are always trying to think of better ways to meet our families and students needs. But I do know that um, sitting as a board member, you have a unique position and that the community talks to you, right? You have
people in your realm of people that will come up to you and I'm sure every place that maybe you don't even want them to come up to you in as you're trying to shop at the grocery store. I love it. Don't worry. Okay, great. Um, but I'm sure that they tell you things that they may not tell me, they may not tell their principal, they may not tell their
teachers. And so I think if you have those kinds of conversations, just lifting those to us so that we can better problem solve or meet the needs of our families. I think sometimes even as a teacher or as a principal, as I was, we think we're doing the things that are going to be helpful to
families, but how it lands and the intention sometimes are two different things. And I think you as board members get to see how it lands for the community. And so I think just sharing as you I think already have been doing with us, but sharing that information so that we can better serve so that their
intentions land in the way that we intend them to would be really great. >> I'd like to go to um consistency. There's another word that hit me. Um what does a constant model of instruction look like? Is it scripted curriculum? Is it uh shared
expectations? Is it shared practice or is it none of these? >> It's all of those. >> It's all of these. >> Yes. So, I think specifically when our superintendent came in, it was really clear that we didn't really have a consistent instructional model. So, what that means for teachers is um and I'll
just give an example, the workshop model. Um so, what that would mean is when students walk in, they have a task to do, right? They have an assignment waiting for them so that the learning starts instantaneously. So when they're eating breakfast, we're not sitting for 15 minutes, you know, that we can have
something in front of us to read, to write. It can be fun. It doesn't have to be, you know, like dense. But I think that's one thing. Um, having a workshop model means that we model what we're expecting. We have an assignment that we're going to give and then like we've spoken here tonight, we have a way to
check for understanding within real time. And so we spent the while we're still doing it, but the first year um that our superintendent was here, we robustly talked about the workshop model. We made sure there was ample training and professional development for teachers. So that's one. Um one
thing we're layering in, for example, for a consistent model is how do we look at data and act on it. So we call those professional learning communities. And so we're going to spend a year of learning with our teachers this year and our administrators on how do we look at lessons and data so that we can better
um create action plans for our individual students to make sure we're attending to the teaching. The more we can normalize the experience for students whether it's at Postto Wexford Lions the better we are and the better we can have our colleagues work with each other. As a teacher, it can be
really isolating because you're in a room and you're not often spending time with a team teacher or in a room with another professional. So, the more we have consistency across the district, the more there's like a standard of excellence for our kids, but another standard of excellence that professionals can speak the same
language and then improve their own skills as educators. So I think that is something that we are really being very conscious of because it really is best in practice though that we don't have pockets of excellence and then other students or schools that are underperforming because there isn't that
consistency. So >> thank you. Um and great segue into talking about faculty because what I also wanted to know um do you have any data or have you seen heard any um thing to um about teachers? Uh are they
overwhelmed by testing related rules? If so, how does the district support morale and autonomy while quote doing our job? I think I can't speak to the overwhelm. I've not gotten that feedback. That
doesn't mean that Anna hasn't. We haven't we haven't actually we've gotten the opposite feedback from teachers. They're welcoming it because now it's more streamlined. So, how they handle the NWA is how they handle the MSTEP, which is how they handle the SAT. So, it's consistent across the board.
There's that word, consistency. It's consistent across the board. And so the students now know what to expect when they go into the testing environment. So we've actually heard the opposite. They're actually welcoming it. >> So got it. And so there there is that
because is there a survey? Did you just get a a few emails from people? How do we know how faculty are feeling about proctoring the test, preparing for the test? Um what what happens to me if my students don't do well over time? Do we
have something like that that the board should know about? The reason why I asked that is because I want to be able to speak to something like that, whether it's in the community or how we're being seen in the media or whatever to say, you know, if it comes up, I want to say,
well, well, no, cuz you had an opportunity to have your voice heard. Um, we sent out this survey about how overall our faculty are feeling, including guest faculty, if we have those that are teaching our babies. Um, and it's just something that I would
like to see in a meaningful way. Um, to see how we can help more if that is the case. And great if people are saying we welcome it and everybody's feeling great. Um, I I I I love that. I have only one more thing and it's more toward administrators. um how are administrators being
supported um using this data or how are they being incentivized to use this data to further um to make more excellent school communities? >> Yeah. >> Oh, okay. Um so we have Jessica's great
about having monthly meetings called Edgistat. Administrators come to those meetings and then they bring data and it's all different gamuts of data. It's assessment data. Um, it's attendance data. We know that if the students aren't attending, they're not going to
pass class, right? So, we need them to attend. It's grad rates. It's everything that you can think of in the school. And they bring it on a monthly basis. And each month we kind of have a little bit of a different topic or a little bit different of a discussion, but we talk about, and Jessica can, she can add to
it if she wants, but we talk about what's working for them and what's not working for them. And it's great because they're in a group. So if we have maybe like a wax bird that something's not working well for them, but we have a postto and they are doing the same thing but in a little bit different of a
fashion and it is working, they bounce ideas off of each other and they are actually the collaboration piece we found is super key because when they collaborate with each other there's more power in collaboration, right? So they take those ideas back to the school to
implement them. And then the next month they come back and they tell us if it's worked great. If it's not, then let's try to go go back to the drawing board and tweak again. So it's a continuous revolving door of what's working, what's not working, what supports are in place,
what interventions are needed. But like I said, it's a total collaboration, but we get a a just they bring all their data. So, we're consistently looking at their data and monitoring their progress. >> Thank you for that. And I think more specifically, and I that's my fault
because of the way that I asked it. I remember you speaking about edge stat and I was going giving you the like the kids say clock that um because I love the concept of that, but more specifically what what I see for me perhaps on the qualitative side of all
of the numbers is a missing factor and that is the home. What I've not heard much is how are our families at home being empowered to partner with us so that our babies
are getting a more excellent education in our school communities. We can grab the reading. We can grab the math. And you know, you've said that pretty much every subject you can think of. Are there times in Edgiststat where
we um have model schools speak to us about how we are engaging families to help babies read at home? That's at the small level. I know we have big dreams about ways to bring parents in to help if they will come. Um but is that
working for us? Because what I'm missing is how mom, dad, auntie, whoever is helping our babies when they're not with us. And on the qualitative side in the big triangle, we've got the school community over here, but we've got to have the village over here for the
student to be successful up here. And it's the part for me, Mr. Superintendent, that seems to be missing. And it shows in the numbers. What are we going to do? I think I wrote that on one of my sticky notes. I said, "Okay, I've seen all the numbers. Now, what what are we going to do?" >> Right? I think we can definitely do
better on that. being honest. Um that is something that we've lifted with our schools, especially this spring, is the parent involvement piece. Um I think oftent times we um were hesitant to send things home or we're like, "What if this parent will help with this and this the
other parent won't?" Well, great. Then the one parent's helping. Like that's great. We need to we need to be extending those opportunities, not making assumptions that they will or will not be involved, right? We need to just put it out there. So I think that's one there's that's an area that we can do better on. But I also love that you
lifted up kind of like the model schools because we do have several schools that are really really good at this. And so one of the things that we've been doing is bringing them kind of as experts to our admin meeting to by topic to say please share out how you have done this thing especially because we call it like
a problem of practice. So if the majority of our principles are stuck on a certain area, they're not doing as well with parent involvement but we have two or three principles that are doing exemplary in that area. we bring them to admin meeting and we kind of say okay guys ask all your questions these these
are the three experts in the field because they're the experts right in our own community like you're saying Lancing is a unique community so I think that that is an area that I believe that we need to improve on >> so thank you for that so I guess I have
a question for you both now we have big dreams about this I I can feel it do you have everything you need to see it done So that to whatever the big dreams are and then when can we expect to see movement on it because it looks like
time is of the essence now. I'd like to see us move on this now. What can we do to empower you to do this now radically, boldly and in the community's face now? >> I mean I like radical and bold. You
know, I you know, I think there's a a couple of things I'd want to make sure I understand before kind of we move forward. I mean, the first is what we have here is a presentation about data uh and NWA. And so what we're
seeing is the district is moving slowly but surely in a positive direction. The question is how can we be even better? How can we go even further and maybe even quicker? And one of the things that I think we'd like all to believe is that by incorporating our families into that
solution, the better. And so the question that I'm hearing is how can we as a district with the support of the board incorporate more parents, more community, more, you know, whoever it is that the kids live live with at home or is supported and what can we do? I think
the good news is there are some schools that already do that and then there and then the problem of course is there are some schools that do not and so I'd want to make sure that we as a district are supporting the ones that are already doing it and not getting in their way but also want to make sure that we are
supporting the parents. I will tell you one really big thing and it might seem small but is really radical in some respects is for the first time certainly I've been here and I would defer to Sergio and Jessica in terms of how long it's been we're going to we've hold
ourselves accountable to having a PTO an active PTO at every school that doesn't even exist right now and so the first step by October I think 1st or 15th I can't remember what we wrote is we have to have a a PTO at every school then
we're going fund those PTOs and we're going to support those PTOs. So to to the point that it was made by trusty heerd which I think is really really important is are we as a commi community or as a district saying the community matters and do we want to bring in their voice and the answer is yes we haven't
done it very well be the first one to admit but I think doing that I think the second thing is we have over the last year looked at some software and some um uh resources that actually can be used with parents to read with kids and it's
multilingual and there's ways of doing it. We have to move on that. There has to be a way to incorporate parents or community or family more uh than we already do. Um and then you know what we I think need to do is probably sit
pretty pretty quickly around what we're going to hold all the schools to and then how are we going to support the schools that are already doing it. You know, it's July 24th. you know, if if the board and what I'm hearing, of course, is let's really do it, then I would certainly ask Jessica and the team
to think critically about not just the PTO, but the uh the way to incorporate families within the learning, you know, within, you know, within this year. And I think that that also uh would dovetail very nicely into the multicultural work,
which is about of course having the the families see themselves in the curriculum. actually let's bring in the families and then they can actually be part of the curriculum. So, but it's a great question and I think we should kickstart ourselves in this. We're already doing some of it but we're not doing enough. So,
>> do you have everything you I know I always ask >> do you have everything you need? Has the board of education empowered you Mr. Superintendent to move on this now? I I would say give me some time to think about that question because as we uh ideulate around what specifically we
mean we need there might be some requests but I think that we are certainly able to do a lot of it. >> Thank you. I want to say on the record I am not going to forget this question. >> I'm going to be back and am going to want to hear real answers about this
trust hear it from trusty herd on the record. I'm going to ask about this again and I'm going to want to hear like and if we need to do something, if I need to do something, you know, in the committees or whatever, Mr. President, um, let us let me know. Let us know. Um,
and I'm glad to be very loud about it. Um, because after I'm done being disheartened, I get fired up to do something about it. And that's why I ran for office. Let us help you. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you, Trusty Herd. Let me go back to Trusty Strode and then
I'll go back to Dr. Rodriguez. You good? Okay, Dr. Rodriguez. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. I enjoy so much this educational conversation and I can follow that for hours as an
educator. I starting the night by reading the mission statement. >> Provide a high quality education. And that's what I am here for for 16 years. How many times do we give to the student
the test? Three times during the year. >> Three times >> is the same test. The same questions every time. >> No. No. >> Okay. The the how is that? The first test is about something, the second test about something else. How how are the
three tests? >> Okay. I think I misunderstood your first question. So what they do is they take the NWA and it's always reading and math, two different subjects and it is pretty much the same test, but it depends on how they answer it, the
questions that they receive during the test. It's grade specific. So if they answer the first question correctly, the next question will be a little bit harder. If they answer the first question incorrectly, then the next question will be a little bit easier. And it goes, it keeps going on and on
like that. Um but it's the same subject area. It's reading and math both time. Both all three times >> and the questions are different every time. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Now standards >> few day few weeks ago we um approved the
curriculum >> and I'm so glad you mentioned teaching teachers lesson plans. Do we teach um do we teach to the student to a test or we teach the curriculum? What do we teach them? No,
>> we teach the curriculum. The curric the test is what tells us if the curriculum is working or if the students have learned the material. But we teach the state standards. >> Then are we going to train I don't like the word training. We are going to do development professional development to
teachers about the curriculum or about the testing or about both. I think to do a good job, you need to to to um provide them professional development on both. For example, our our teachers in third and fourth grade, they will take an MSTEP practice test because they need to
know what is the state actually going to hold us accountable to. So, they have to have knowledge of the types of questions that our students are going to be asked, but at the end of the day, the tests are based on the state curriculum. If um we do provide professional development to
the teachers and the curriculum and the testing and we provide the system in the district and how we are going to evaluate what the students are learning. Do we can provide more than one professional
development? We had to do it many times. Yeah. >> Then my point is first of all is if we had to have the system that show me how the students are proficiency are getting
proficiency in the curriculum they affecting the testing that that is something that you can develop any time about the PTA um I think that can be part of the whole professional development and the PTA EA
maybe the administration here develop a kind of common values, common um objectives, common ways and how develop and the parents how to do meetings, how to involve the community, the whole
district is under umbrella and how we facilitate the the parents the education system. I can go on and on the lesson plans and go there because the lesson plan has to have objectives clearly
objectives not pace 20 to 25 >> clearly objectives and that is another thing the the person in charge in the in the in the buildings the what I used to call the director or the department or
they should be part of this process >> clearly and we don't have to wait long time. We can do it after five weeks or in the classroom. Uh looking in the result results, I can see a schools in
the law area, I think they have similar characteristics. For instance, the social economics. Maybe we had to find out
where are the social economic families in our district and how are the result in the schools. What is the percentage of minorities in these schools compared of the other one they are having better
and I can see here we can group some of these schools according on some characteristics and maybe if we develop that what we had to do at this school because they had this deficiencies the other school don't have
and I don't want to mention a school's name But later on if you want me to I can talk and say this this and this and later you can find because you are the one who knows more than I do about the characteristic that you can find in the
schools and group then know every school this need the same the same help is we don't have individualized teaching for every child anyway. We should, but we don't. >> Yeah, Dr. Rodriguez raises a great
point. Um, so when um, Miss Miss Strode earlier was asking about like, oh, what are you controlling for on these logistic regressions? Um, so one of the things is race and Dr. Rodriguez, to your point. That's why we do it because we know some schools have a different racial ethnic breakdown than other
schools and we want to make sure that we are honoring those differences while still making accurate comparisons across schools. So race and ethnicity is already something we control for. Um and you're you're kind of spot on there as far as um socioeconomic status. Um
that's not something that appears in the NWA data. Um however, I do I don't want to speak out of Taran, but I do believe it's possible for us to get it via like other data sets and then potentially merge that data and then that's something we could potentially also control for. Um but again, I that's me
speaking as a board member, more making a request than a promise. Um but you're you're absolutely right on track, Dr. Rodriguez, that yes, um our schools have very different populations. Um and so statistically, mathematically, that's why it's important to figure out um to
to Trusty Strode's points, where are those differences? Um and then account for them mathematically so that we can get a more accurate picture of who needs help and where. >> No, not at all. >> Yeah, absolutely. That's what we are
trying to do going back um create systems and what we can answer your question create the system they can answer your question and you don't have to worry in the future. >> Thank you very much and what I said we
can spend time here and Mr. Lopez for so much time you were talking about a special committee for student improvement that is what we are doing tonight and and that is our job >> trusty working together
>> I'm sorry that is it >> trusty Williams >> I have two more questions so um you were speak uh trusty her was talking about the curriculum or the core of how when the superintendent first came in we had nothing in place so now it's been that process and the teachers is working for
the teachers. I'm trying to remember the word trying to remember what what was it the the the what was the what was it the word you now it was it's based on consistency however it's working for the teachers but how how do we know it's actually the teachers are learning the
models and everything but how do we know it's working for the students is there some type of demographic information statistics or even collaboration to say that okay we're teaching our teachers are getting this and they're working it and it's working well for them but The counterpart to that is, is it working
for our students? Because again, it can work for the adults, but it doesn't necessarily work for the students. How are we meshing that together to ensure that it's successful? Because I think all of this plays into that. >> That's my first question. Yeah. For me, and not to be like really short about this, but if it's not working for the
kids, then that's the only thing that matters. Like it it can work for the teachers, but a quote that I often say in my department is there is no teaching without learning. Right? So if we teach something and nothing is learned, then teaching actually did not occur, right?
So I think it's great that something can work for the teachers, but if we're not seeing the the the outcomes for students, this is a school district for children. And so we need to really be focused on the outcomes for students. And if it's not working for them, I mean, it's great that it's working for
the adults, but what does that mean exactly? If I'm a teacher, the only thing that I'm worried about if it works for me is if it's working for my students. So, I'm really glad that you lifted that because I think in most school districts, um, we tend to we can tend to be adult centric and that's not
why we're here. We're here for the kids. And so, the more that we can be student centric, the better. So, I'm really glad that you lifted that because I think oftentimes we'll say, "Oh, teachers, what do you think of the curriculum? Is that important?" Of course it is because they're they're the teaching expert. But if we're not seeing the outcomes for the
students, you got to the heart of the question. That's what really should matter. >> Okay. And my second and final question is we know that we're in the summer months right now and a lot of this plays into summer months going into how are we collaborating with community partners
who have the funding both in school time and out of school time in the summers to help these students maintain or are we being selective? I'm sorry the way I said that, but I'm being selective because I do know some schools have these programs, but if
people are coming and they have the funding to provide this, why are we not capitalizing on that? Because that gives us more opportunities with communities, family engagement, and less money we got to spend to keep our students successful while we have those partners in play.
So, I think we're open to any community partners that want to to help us during the summertime or during the school year. Um I do know that we've partnered with many community partners even this summer that are doing things around literacy um a sc tutoring working with
families around reading um mathematics and so forth. Um, I think sometimes the one thing I will say that's a caveat and we love all of our community partners, but sometimes people come to the table and have a lot to offer, but then kind of the inind meaning the work that has
to be done or the personnel that they're counting on from the school district, we're not able to to do. And I don't mean funding wise, it's just a it's just a competing, right? Like if we have afterchool activities that the um principles are doing or the schools are doing, we only have so many personnel at
schools. So, I would say we'd have to take these each of those kind of by a case by case basis. But I don't think that we're we're turning anyone away for any reason, especially if they have funding. But it does have to match our values. So, I think we have to at the end of the day know we as a school
district have a laser light focus on student achievement and students being successful. If the community partners allin and it matches what we're doing, great. if it's going to make our kids go kind of farther left or farther right, I do think that we have to have those conversations and we've been having
those with our community partners and most of them are more than willing to say, "Oh, what curriculum are you using?" We're happy to use that or what books are would you rather have us read with kids. So, to answer your question, I don't know that we're being selective. Um, typically if a request comes into our superintendent, he turns it over to
our instructional division and we reach out to them to um see if we can incorporate those in into the programming that we have. Thank you, Trusty Nolinsky. >> Yes. Um, one question very off the top. The total population, can you tell how that relates to our student count data
and what that actually means for the group we're assessing here? >> Great question. That's a great question actually. So, our total population is how many students that we have currently enrolled. That's what makes up the 10,000 641. Our count data is who actually we
can count. So that means the students that came on count day, the first Wednesday of October or the second Wednesday of February or the students that came within the window that we can still count them within that count window of count day.
That that's our count number. Um, so it varies a little bit differently because like the population number I gave you tonight is everyone that we have in our system, our student information system. And then count is how many students actually appeared on count day or within
that window of count. >> We also have certain populations that we don't receive per pupil for. And so those are students that we serve that would be in our our total enrollment number but not necessarily in our count number as well. >> Thank you. A couple times you mentioned
the difference between the proficiency benchmark and a grade level benchmark. Would it be possible to have this same kind of data uh on the grade level assessment? If it's just a different number, it's all the same. Maybe that gives us some better uh clarity at least opportunity to look at that or include
that as well. >> Um another question I had was are there other districts that we do look at as peer districts for certain characteristics? Every district obviously is unique, but are there certain places we tend to compare ourselves to when we look at this in
aggregate and what are those schools that we tend to try to measure against? >> I was just going to say the one the one report that I will that I can kind of look at um is this the Harvard and Stanford study that just came out where we looked at and we've shown that to the
board where we show we're really excited about the having the most growth right um in the area of reading. So that is one that we can compare ourselves with the socioeconomic and then also kind of population size and those kinds of things. So I would say that's one area that we do that. But I know
superintendent with middle cities and those kinds of things you're more acute with. >> Yeah. >> I mean I think there's two things. One is we absolutely use the MSTEP scores and all of the Michigan data systems and we'll always look at Kalamazoo, Battle
Creek, you know, all of the kind of middle city uh districts. We'll of course look at Detroit as well and that system is public and so we just run those numbers and say, "Oh, what was our MSTEP scores and what was theirs?" With NWA, it's a little bit more difficult because we don't necessarily have access
to all of the others folks. Um, but the other thing which you know and I appreciate the board for this is we are members of Middle Cities which is a great professional organization that not only gives us our property insurance but also um allows you know once a month
meetings with the superintendent of Kalamazoo, Battle Creek, Grand Rapids and so we do share this information but the hard and fast like actual numbers those will get from uh MI school's database that's public and we will
absolutely look at that and then the Harvard Stanford study that's public and so we can pull that as well. So >> uh my last question is kind of continue the conversation about when we see strategies that are successful or whether whether within the district or somewhere else how do we go about
implementing those? Is there a a pilot process in a certain school or place? I guess my concern is that I would be excited to try radical things, but I've also seen in the district over the last 15 years that we've tried things that maybe are radical, put seventh and eighth graders in a high school building, and we're now hearing that
didn't work and it actually did worse. So, how do we not make a radical change that's going to negatively impact us before we maybe have some sense that it's going in the right direction? H how do we do that safely without saying let's flip this switch on everything and find out we didn't want to do that?
>> Yeah. So, we absolutely do pilots across the district. Um, I'll give an example. Um, number Corners was a program through the ISD which brings, if you remember, calendar time for when you have little kids. Um, there's number Corners and it brings math strategies to little to
students that they're able to do kind of carpet time with their teachers in the morning. And so, what we did is uh they were offering us free professional development for our teachers. And so, we piloted those in 12 classrooms across the district. And then we compared their data with the data of students in classrooms that didn't have number
corners. And so in that case we had they needed 12 kind of for this pilot to make sure that you know we met their kind of regulations. But there are instances like that across the district of things that we will pilot and then at the end of the year we kind of look at the return on investment or the data that we're getting to know are we moving in
the right direction without exactly what you're saying like let's full boore you know spend all of this time money professional development in something um when it may or may not be successful. A prime example really of that is our math curriculum. Right? So, we have
illustrative math that we're doing in a couple of our schools next year. And we have reveal math and based on their school improvement teams, they've chosen which math curriculum to look at. This is the first time we've ever done something like this in the district um outside of the year of pilot that we had and we're going to very closely look at
that data to make sure that we've made the best choice in math curriculum for the next seven years of time. And so, yes, to your point, we do do smaller pilots like that. that we even have individual teachers that will do pilots of various programs. Um, our special education department did one recently
where it was based on IEPs and they took um it was a AI program that they were using and then we tested to see does that actually work or not and do is it something we want to invest in buy in is it worth spreading to other classrooms and so forth. So yes, we do do that in the district.
>> Thank you. >> Well, thank you very much again for the uh presentation. Uh and also I want to thank the board trustees because they brought up a lot of points very valid points that that we need to continue to discuss. Um in terms of professional
development I constantly see invitations to professional development you know for for teachers different things. So I think there's a lot of professional development going on on a weekly basis for teachers which is great. No, the question is are they using it and are
they benefiting from it? So I guess that's that's your problem. Um um when we give this test we you have proctors. Does the teacher proctor the test? >> Yes. >> Could we bring some people from the outside to do that?
>> Yes. So that >> so one of the things that we are looking at for next fall is for in the fall we kind of want to do a small pilot to be honest because we have the kindergarten through third grade in fact we were just talking about this today about how we're going to be rolling this out for the
fall and what we want to do is come up with um proctors that will come in to do those whether it is the AP the reading specialist a person from our team to be able to proctor those and then that way again we can offer more consistency and make sure that the same parameters are
being um given to all of our students to hopefully get the most accurate data that we can. >> Super. Um the other thing that was uh lifted by uh Trusty Herd is terms of parents. How do we bring them in? I think that to empower parents, you know,
goes along with that is we need to know who the parents are. We need to know the the family in order to be able to help them. Uh we have all kinds of situations in the Leslie school district. We have single parents to parent families. We
have kids living with grandpas and uncles and aunts. So we don't know that necessarily. So that's why sometimes students may not be paying attention. Obviously, I'm just, you know, is so there's so many things that are
impacting students nowadays that that we need to try to find out who their parents are, what their family group is in order to, you know, make them feel welcome in the school building. And, you know, you come in, you're going to learn, you're going to kind of have
respit from whatever else is going on. and also to get our other community members organizations to kind of help us with that because we can, you know, farm some of the families needs to appropriate organizations, you know,
housing, food, basic needs. So, so the kids could be prepared to learn. And finally, I think as we get together uh at a retreat, we're going to talk about the student achievement committee, which should be all about this. All right? And
so, uh, great conversation. Thank you very much. Thank you, Superintendent, for for that presentation, Miss Benzas. We >> appreciate >> and and and the guest presenter. >> Okay, we're going to move on to
Mr. President, is it is it in order to um make a motion for a fivem minute recess? I would like to move that the board have a fivem minute recess. >> Second. >> No objections. We're journed for five
minutes. >> It's so cold. >> No, I'm okay. >> Really? >> Is it crazy? >> Oh, thank you. look at your message. Although there is one little tiny quantitative part of me and that is my
GIS side and when Nino was talking about um you know the SCS my mind a map came up where I'm mapping the schools the grade the the proficiency but also
>> because so postto is in gross book right >> resources >> and but does really well and it's in war two on the south side. So like also mapping what is within like what churches, what community centers, what like within like
the rad a certain radius and like how does >> Yeah. Basically understanding like what are the hot spots for overperformance of expectation, >> right? >> And what can we learn from those schools? >> Yeah, >> but I'm not going to do it. So maybe I'll get a master student
>> to do it for But I mean that is a city project. It's an opportunity school, right? >> Like it's a it's an opportunity match. >> I mean we could apply for funding and do it as a >> and do it as a paper.
>> You would >> and then use the data for >> Yeah, of course. City we could we could see who wants to fund that. >> I mean >> even if it's like internally like if DRN Um
they have really >> I'd be down for sure. >> Oh, cool. >> Cool. >> Actually, that's fun. >> That's fun. I love this stuff. Yeah, me too. >> I'm such a >> dork. >> Yes.
>> Okay. You have Wi-Fi? >> Um, I don't know if there's Wi-Fi. There is electricity. We are in kind of like a how to describe it? Um it's like a big the cabin is like a big room with then like kind of partitions in between so we can't like see each other's sleep. It's
a boy's dorm, a girl's dorm. Um and then it's like these little twin beds. Um and I would definitely bring a fan of balls, >> but there is electricity and I'm pretty sure there's Wi-Fi. Um but we are
>> yes at at the very least we have like cell signal. I know that for sure for sure. Um >> I don't know. We did this once before and I was not prepared. I just like previous times I hadn't spent the night or we' like been at a hotel or whatever. Um and so like two years ago the first
time we did it ever so I was like what? because I was likewise not prepared. It's not that bad. It's fun. >> What is that? >> Seria is not a camper is what we've learned.
Not if you stay inside >> there is in the in the in those individual cabins. >> But now where we stay, >> are we going to have individual cabins? >> I mean there are lots of options for the board to decide what they're doing.
I am certainly not going to tell you where you can sleep. Um I there are the buildings that we're gonna like do our work in like classroom build.
>> They're more like >> I'm trying to find you pictures. I'm like having a hard time finding these are like buildings and houses. >> It's not It's definitely not >> It's not
in a tent. You're not in a like now I don't remember. >> But there's no air conditioning and there's >> outside. I mean we're not meeting outside. It's only if you want to like take a walk to the lake or anything. >> Yeah. There's lakes, there's paddle
boarding, there's if you want to do archery, >> there's hammock. >> I mean, it's 15 minutes from Grand. >> It's not like I'm going to >> listen take that up with Robin because >> what is happening here? >> Can you get up with Robin? Robin is a
big believer in >> But when I we get to like sleeping a take a look and see it look like
I was like why I I am a city girl. Around the time I was when I was a city girl that sounds like I will say it is as far from real
camping as you could possibly building. It's not like there's >> no central air. >> We were comfortable last year. That's what I said. It was It's not that bad. >> We got We brought fans. >> They brought air. >> And I mean, it's not like we were I think Kaitlin and I got up and went for
a walk. She went one way, I went the other way. Then we sitting on a little porch. I sat by the lady. We sat by the >> Yeah, we like you bugs. >> And I'm asking for a cottage this year, please. And thank you.
>> Well, we all have our own is at us. >> Well, see, no. Okay, so we can talk each other over the world. >> Okay, make a correction. We were not adjourned for five minutes. We were in recess for five minutes. So now we're back from recess and we'll continue with
the agenda. Um so we have committee reports facilities committee and that is me. Okay. And um Trusty Williams will help me out. >> I sure will. >> Nope. You skipped the secretary though. >> I'm sorry.
>> You skipped the secretary report. >> Did I skip somebody's report? >> Yes, sir. >> Oh, secretary. I apologize. >> I could have come back to it, but go
ahead, Madam Secretary. >> Yes. So, we have some exciting things coming up. Um, August 5th at 4 p.m. we have the grand opening of Mount Hope. Uh it is beautiful and um there's going to be I think a press conference and then
also some tours for folks that want to um um see what it looks like and what our students are going to be enjoying um this fall. August 18th is the first day for our teachers. August 20th is the
first day of school. And as for our next board meetings, on August 1st and 2nd, we have our board retreat at the Eversol Center. August 7th, we have a regular board meeting. And August 21st, we have a regular board meeting and information study session.
Thank you, Mr. Vice President. >> Thank you, Madam Tre Secretary. See, I'm just going to call a treasurer. So, now we'll go into committee reports, and the first one is facilities committee. And like I said, um, Trusty Williams will help me with this one as
well. >> I sure will. Okay. >> I sure will. We met on Monday at 2:30 with all of our architects, engineers, everybody. Uh, Trusty Lopez and I and we are there. There's going to be a couple of bid uh recommendations that's coming
out. Installation of air conditionings in some units. Um, the looten demolition and the things that's required there. And then the looten fence that needs to go around while they're doing the de demolition as well. Um we talked about the EV board
uh buses and getting ready to purchase another seven. So you'll see some contracts and stuff coming about that later that I'm sure Miss Christina is going to talk about more in detail so that we don't have to. But overall everything is moving ahead of ahead of everything. Willow is advancing um while
we're not going to be opening until next year. therefore seeing that we may be done with everything mid February to early spring um unless there's some changes that's going to happen. But I think everybody's getting really really excited about the grand opening. I've been asking fingers crossed that we're going to be able to do it that we can at
least introduce one of the EV buses at that point so people can see it which work. My hope my hope my hope that's all I I did ask for that but just we want to make it about our families our communities in that area the students and everything. So I'm excited about what's to come. I'm excited about
everybody's going to be able to breathe fresh air with central air units through all the schools. Um some little small my we're getting new playground equipments at some of the sites. Um playground equipment, you guys. I did go check it out. It is so cool. I love it. My grandbaby loves it. So, I'm excited
about what's to come. So, that's our facilities committee report. >> Oh, thank you very much. >> Anybody have any questions? Uh Dr. Mr. President, um I was absent a few meetings and I don't know I can somebody
can tell me when we approve the PR prints for the new Luton. We approved the the prints and all that for the new Luton >> when that is going to happen. >> We haven't we've we're going to we're getting ready to go out to bid for the
main construction. At this point, we've only gone out to bid for the demolition and abatement part. So, the designs, we're tweaking the final designs um and those are about done and then we'll go out to bid for those designs. So, those approvals have not come out yet.
>> And and those um drawings will be brought to the board before we move on with them. Uh the Luton the Luton >> to the board facilities committee. >> Yep. >> And it'll come back here too, >> right? >> Okay. Yeah. >> Oh, just a second.
>> Well, I that is my question is without the board approval how they can build a building. >> Well, and that's what I'm saying is that it comes to facilities committee >> then from there it comes to the board. Now, we could also ask the our building
committee to make a presentation to the board on the perspective president who >> No, no. The the other thing if I if I may just finish uh the Luton folks are are approving this before as well. Right. So there's a group of Luton
parents uh everybody actually is invited to help uh the architects design the school and based on their recommendation then that's what's going to move move on. Uh but that's I just want to make that
point. Go ahead. >> That is my question. Who approved the building of the new school in the Lancing School District? >> That hasn't been done yet. As a >> Oh, I know that. But >> right, we as a board will do that once everything >> That is my question. >> Can I Can I
>> Yeah. >> Um, >> go ahead. >> Thank you so much. I don't believe that's how that process actually works. Christina, can you give us an update on what occurs in that process? >> Sure. So the designing aspect um is
worked on with the facilities committee. The facilities committee consists of members different members of the district, construction firms, architectures, engineers, and then we involve both the community of the new school that we're building. So that
includes teachers, parents, um we involve our instructional staff to come in, take a look at the spaces. So there's several different partners that we bring in. We go through several rounds of design tweaks. Then we all settle in on a design. Then we get a budget estimate. We make sure that the
budget is within uh the budget estimate is within the budget that we need. If it is not um which the first round of Luton was not, then we look at different tweaks and things that we can cut back from the building, different design aspects that we can maybe make, you know, a hallway a little bit smaller,
which takes a little bit away from the footprint, but the students aren't going to feel it and it costs a little bit less money. So we do several different tweaks. Then that design, that final design is settled upon um among those team of people. Once that design is settled upon, then we simply go out to
bid for that work. So there isn't an actual board approval for the design. There is a board approval for all of the different work to complete the design. >> Does that answer your question? >> Yeah. Can you ask
>> if if we don't approve? So, we have to approve the budget anyway. >> Then I I want to look at the policies and find out how we do it. I don't want to be responsible for something as a
board member that I didn't approve. So, I didn't have the chance to vote. Well, okay. But then again, you know, the the facilities committee meeting um notice is sent I want to send it to
all the board members so you be aware when things are coming up and then you can voice your opinion either way. Um but yeah, we're still in the infant stages of of all of that that Luton. And
right here we have a um uh an approval request for the um installation of air conditioning units and Luton demolition and Luton fencing temporary fencing. >> So th those are the bids that we're asking for approval >> and you'll see in one of our bids we are
taking on a new contractor. So we are excited about that. Also in the facilities committee, it was mentioned that if you know of contractors who may be able to be on site that's here in town that can possibly work with the work with the district to maybe even do some little jobs, please see Christina
and provide that information. We still according to our policies, we are still trying to make sure that they're Michigan bred, city bred. We're even we're really looking at women and minority companies. So, even if they're small, please, if you have that information, provided to our CFO and we
can vet them and see if they will work for the district. >> Thank you. Yes, ma'am. >> I want to be clear to to just go back and be clear about the bidding process. We want to be fair and equitable. So, if
there's any person that um you know, they all have the opportunity, it does not have to just be a certain minority of company. Just to say that for the record. so that we don't have any issues of concern with liability later of fair process. Thank you. >> Let let me sorry let me provide
clarification on that. In our policy it does we did write it where we want to look at locally but we want to capitalize on everybody. I mean we have big contractors but we know we have small small groups that can probably do some flooring and changing of locks. So we want to just look at everybody and be
able to say that we're wellrounded and diverse like we are as our students are in our comp competitive bidding and everything like that. So let me provide clarification for that. >> To the extent possible we want to give everybody an opportunity to bid you know and sometimes
they can sometimes they can't but the opportunity should be open to all biders uh that provide any number of of uh work at the job site. So that's what right now like I said we're uh um
asking for or we're bringing forth the bid recommendation again for installation of air condition units that's in uh Kavanagh and what's the other >> Kavanagh >> Kavanagh and >> Cumberland Kavanaaugh Guyire Park
>> Post Oak and Sheridan Road >> so as a note most of our schools will have air conditioner >> air conditioning coming up >> by the end of the summer. All with the exception of a couple. >> Good. Good. And and again, the um bid request for
Luton demolition and the uh Luton temporary fencing are here. So, are there any other questions on those items? ABC. And I have a motion to uh approve those. >> I appreciate them. >> Yes, sir. I move that the board of
education approve item A through C as presented. >> Second. >> Second. >> Trusty Stro seconded. Okay. Any other questions? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. >> I.
>> I. >> Oppose. Same. Okay. Now we move on to our next report is uh finance committee Dr. Kate Kavanagh. >> Hi everybody. Excuse me. Um, I know that this is a time of a lot of financial
uncertainty for a lot of folks and especially for school districts. So, I'm going to briefly give the um the May treasures report and then um I'm going to turn over to the superintendent for a longer discussion about the potential for um budgetary impact on our schools.
Um, however, I I do want to raise that we have a meeting of the finance committee this coming Monday uh which is the 28th, I think. 28th. um at 12:30 p.m. here in this room. And so, of course, uh folks are welcome to attend that meeting. Um however, the detailed
uh treasures report for the period of May 1st, 2025 through May 31st, 2025 is attached to this evening's agenda, and the following are the highlights of the report. The beginning cash cash and investment balance was 76,413,274.
Receipts totaled 17,224,938 while dispersements equaled $30,197,66. Net interfund transfers totaled 1,310,188 in interest from fund investments to the student and bond funds as well as journal entries to remove the due two due froms in all funds. The monthly
transfer to the general fund for bond expenses was1,349,227. The ending general fund cash and investment balance on May 31st, 2025 was 66,100,562. the general funds the general funds cash
and investment balance is 2,879,041 greater as compared to the same time last year. Uh we also received a number of donations during the month of May totaling $10,188 which we're very excited about. Um a few
that I want to highlight um are some major donations to the BIPO care closet uh which Dr. Sue Wheeler presents to us about in her um health and wellness updates. And so we're very glad to see we want to thank in particular the Greater Lancing Optimist Club as well as
the LPS educational advancement foundation for um their donations to the to the bipot closet. Um, we also want to thank the Greater Lancing Foundation, the Black Bout and Accenture, my school bucks H Heartland, Feldman Chevrolet of Lancing,
My School Bucks H Heartland, um, Black Bout and General Motors, as well as Avid Exchange and the Gene Hos Foundation, um, who all also made donations. Uh, I just also want to raise the Gene Hos Foundation. They made a sizable donation to the Eastern Robotics team, whom we
got to hear from. We've heard from them a few times over the years, but most recently um when we were doing our special meeting about extracurriculars. Uh so we're very glad to hear some of these important ancillary programs in the district are being supported by some of our donors. We always really
appreciate that. Um before so I'm going to conclude the actual treasures report. Um but before we conclude um our conversation about the finance committee, as I said, I do want to turn it over to the superintendent who will speak a little bit more about how the district specifically um is thinking
about some of the financial challenges um that we're facing due to changes in the federal and state budgets. Sure. >> Uh thank you so much uh Trusty Kavanagh. you know, I will have my time to speak kind of in the superintendent's uh comments, but I do want to take this
time within the treasures report to just uh talk a little bit and hopefully to assuage any kind of fears around what's going on with the two most important budgets. So, again, if this sounds pedantic or if everybody's bored because
it's already 8:26, I apologize. Uh but the good news is for those of you at home, you can just watch it another time. So here's the deal. There's the federal government and the federal government, as you are probably well aware, is cutting back on their
budget in general and education specifically. That conversation that you've been hearing in the press and votes that are being taken, that's about next year's budget. But something very interesting happened on July 1st is
money that was already allocated by the federal government which was supposed to be sent to us on July 1st did not get sent to us. It was not sent to all of the school districts around the country to the tune of about $6 billion.
Now, the impact for the Lancing School District is that we were expecting that money to come. However, as you might know, over the course of time between July 1st and now, that $6 billion bucket
that was not released, it is starting to be released. One section, which was for the 21st century grants, which was really for after school programming, has been released, and some other pieces have not. specifically where it impacts the school district is what's called
title two and title three. This is money for professional development and it's also money for language acquisition uh and students uh that need extra support. This money we were expecting
J July 1. It is not here. The good news, as you have seen from our budget, is that we have a very robust fund balance. The reason why we keep a fund balance is for times like these. We will make sure
that the services and the people uh that are funded by these uh title 2, title three, as well as title four and some other things, we're going to support them as best as we can moving forward. But I do want to make sure that people know that this is money that was
supposed to be allocated on July 1st and it has not been, but some of it has been over the course of the last couple of weeks. We are waiting to see what happens from the federal government. But again, the really good news about having a robust fund balance is I don't want people at home to think, oh my god, the
Lancing school district and like every other school district is getting hurt and so lots of things have to happen. At this point, we are okay. Now, I can't promise that something else won't change, but I want folks at home and certainly the board to know that that
money, that July 1st money, the district is able to cover uh for now. And then we're going to wait and I will always give you an update at our at every board meeting if you want uh once a month. It really is up to you. But as of now, we're okay. I will say that's not the
case for other school districts around the country. And what I want to make sure is that if you are reading articles of districts that are firing people or letting people go or cutting back on things, please just don't think that that's us at this moment. We're we're we're okay. There's a second budget and
this is a much much larger budget and that's the state budget. For those of you again that are part of this world, the state had made a rule to itself and that rule was they were going to have a school budget by July 1st. Well, it's
July 24th and that budget doesn't come. But again, I don't want people to freak out. Just because that budget hasn't been approved, that won't impact us yet. Why? Because that budget doesn't really go into effect. The money doesn't start
flowing from that budget really until October 1st. And it's really about payroll for October 15th. So though it is unsettling, I'll use that word, to know that there isn't a state budget and and the great Kim Adams has to kind of
look at the stars and try to figure out the best estimation of what we think is going to happen, be it a governor's budget or the Senate budget or the House of Representatives budget or whatever combination of those three. I don't want people to freak out that just because we
don't have a state budget here today on July 24th that that is going to impact us yet. If there is no school budget by October 1st, that is a different story because that is when the money stops.
And again, we are lucky that we have a $50 million fund balance. We could continue. But I do want people because people call me all the time. They they email me. They'll even literally stop me in the street and say, "I saw this article. Are we going bankrupt?" And
it's like, "No, but thank you for asking because I love that you like care about this stuff and you want to care about our kids." Is that at this point we're okay. But I do want people to take notice that if the state does not pass its budget soon, then we're going to
have to start to make some decisions as to what can or cannot happen. But that any sort of decision does not have to be made until kind of October 1st when and if the state money doesn't come. The likelihood of that is very very small.
What is more likely is the federal money won't come and if the federal money won't come, we will have to make a decision around you know October, November as well. But I'm certainly happy to answer uh questions from the board on those specifics. Um, but I also
am happy just my promise to the board and to the community is at every board meeting from now until these things are resolved, I'll give a little bit of an update because this is new stuff, folks. You know, the in my lifetime, this hasn't happened in the federal
government. Um, I've only been in Michigan for four years in one month, but in my four years as superintendent, the state's always had a budget on time, which just it just hasn't happened right now. So, I know people are freaked out. I get it. But please let me assure you that at this point, we're really doing
fine and today is going to be just like tomorrow, except tomorrow's uh summer Friday and we get to take the day off. So, that's nice. Okay. Um with that being said, I'll give it back to uh Dr. Kavanagh. >> Great. Thank you so much. Um I don't have anything else to add. Um so, I I
welcome um any questions from my colleagues. >> Mr. Dwinsky. >> Yes. Um, one question on the, uh, May financial report. I see the transportation line item is quite a bit under budget. Do we just expect another major expense in June or did we have a
significant savings in there? >> So, the transportation budget um was under spent at as of the end of May. We hadn't received the May invoices yet. They came in June and then we have June invoices and summer school still. So
approvals are still in process um and we should see a better update in the next two months. >> Thank you. And then my other questions were follow up on what the superintendent said. You said we expecting the federal funding July 1st. So would that have been in the 2425
budget or in the new 2526 budget? >> So it's a great question. that money that was to be released 3 weeks ago was for this now current time the so that money was going to be spent July 2nd
basically so it is in our budget now I don't want to be pedantic here but there are two kinds of budgets there's the July 1st to June 30th budget and then there's the October 1st to September 30th budget but no that money that has not been sent to us is impacting us
today we were expecting the check and we were certainly expecting to spend it. It hasn't come. So, as of today, for the last three and a half weeks, we've been covering those expenses. We are in good enough economic situation that we will
continue to cover that up until a time where we feel either the feds are going to give us the money back or we're going to have to make a decision. And if we do have to make those decisions, it's something that I would certainly be very transparent with the board on. And just as a reminder, we're talking about maybe
1.2 2 to 1.2 to$2 million in total, but there's different sections. And what the feds are showing is that they seem to be releasing it bit by bit. So it is possible that title two might be released let's say tomorrow and but yet we still have to frontload title three.
Uh but I will let you know. So >> any other questions? Dr. Rodriguez, >> thank you very very much because I had people asking about the same topic. Um I hope them the retreat you can use 30 minutes to go over with numbers.
Um me Michigan healthy or healthier program has about 15 millions. We have 97 millions they are coming for grants and others. I think we should have a vision and I think the I will be happy if we can receive information during the
retreat. >> Absolutely. It's my pleasure. Anyone else? Uh, Trust Stro. >> Uh, superintendent, I just want to clarify for a question. You're stating that we have frontloaded the funding to support us not receiving that payment,
but we have not dipped into the fund balance. Correct. >> Well, no. The that would be fund balance money. Um, so but we're our expectation is that we're going to spend it now and eventually the feds are going to send us the money. That's what they did with the
21st Century Grant. Um but if they don't then yeah this would be an expenditure of the $50 million of fund balance. >> Thank you. >> Trust Williams. >> Superintendent. Um my question is should
they not and and you know I think long term should they not send the money versus laying staff off? Have we looked at other potential outlines and outlayers so that jobs are secure? our students are getting what they need
until funding or whatever h needs to happen. >> Absolutely. And that's a great question. So, because at this point we feel comfortable kind of just paying it that um that those decisions haven't been made. But as of July 1st when that money
didn't show up, uh Kim and her team are have been sitting line by line saying what of this grant money do we really need to have and what isn't? Because to your point, if it's student centered, if it's for the kids, that has to be the
last thing we think about cutting. But if it is, you know, an extra, you know, um, conference, well, you know, maybe that's going to go. And so, at this point, we haven't had to make those decisions yet, but we're creating the plan for it. And what's also happening,
of course, is because we don't have a state budget, it becomes a little bit more difficult. And why particularly this year it's difficult is that some of the federal money that we use for uh
Sergio's department, we are hearing that one of the budgets that might be approved by the state would increase uh section 41. Section 41 is very much what the titles can fund. So if we got extra
41 money, we could just use that to support the title 3 money. But we won't know that. So that's why holding on and just paying from fund balance now makes the most sense. But we absolutely are creating plans. I'm happy to go in more
depth during the re retreat, but what I would probably do is if the next time we have a board meeting, we're still in this situation. I'll try to have some numbers for you in terms of what we can do. So >> other questions?
Well, thank you uh for your report, Trust Kavanaaugh and Superintendent, just keep going. We got >> approve. >> Oh, we have to approve it. That's right. Have a motion to approve the finance. M >> Mr. President, I I move that board of
education approve expenditures as presented for May 2025. >> Second. >> Been moved and second to approve the finance report. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Post same sign. >> Okay. Now, >> all right. Item C. >> Sounds good. Well, so at uh at 8:38 uh
you know, I do want to say some things, but I also of course uh understand that there's lots more to do and I don't want to belabor the point. So, I wanted to talk about three things today. One is the presentation that you
saw. My takeaway, of course, is that it is statistically significant that the district as a whole is moving forward. And that's a good thing and I'm happy and that is I think showing that the
district is on a good path. But what we also saw is that there were a lot of places lots of grades, lots of schools that there was just not a significantly statistically significant move forward. And that just says to us that of course
we have more work to be done. But the good news is that as a district as a whole and I'm the superintendent of all the children uh not just you know from one neighborhood or you know one one grade and so it gives me uh a lot of of
positive is that what I think it says to us and you saw also the data that from two years ago and from last year there is this kind of growth is that we're at least the things we're doing seem to be moving the needle. So to the point that was made earlier by the board, what I
don't want us to do, of course, is to kind of switch horses in midstream, right? Is that I think we we own what we're doing and we move forward. And if you've been noticing in the press, there's been a lot being made on the state of Michigan and how the education
in the state of Michigan is quite not so good. It's the 44th in the state in the country. and that they've talked about uh Mississippi as the Mississippi miracle that Mississippi, you know, was a state that was 49th in the country and now is in the top half. And what did
they do? And when you read all the articles or if you talk to the people and certainly, you know, I've I've spent uh time with many educators from Mississippi because they are being lauded as these great things. They'll say over and over again, it's two things and really two things only. High
expectations hold people accountable. That's it. High expectations hold people accountable. And so what it what I'm proud of is that this board and I want to give credit to this board is that you are really pushing us to have those high
expectations where we want more and more and more of our kids to be proficient. And then it really is about holding uh folks accountable to getting there. And of course, what Mississippi has shown is that you have a curriculum, you do it to fidelity. You make sure that the right
people are in the classroom. You just make sure that the people that are with the kids are doing right by the kids. And if not, try to support them or certainly bring others to that. So, I think we're on the right path. I really do believe that this coming year with curriculum and with the structures in
place uh we're going to see a kind of hockey stick growth moving forward. And then the good news of course is that we haven't seen the MSTEP scores yet. But if the NWA scores are increasing with a
more stringent testing requirement, that says to me the MSTEP scores should be good. Now they are embargoed so I have seen some of them but uh the essay part hasn't been graded and things like that but we are feeling uh pretty good. But where we have to really really be honest
with ourselves and hold ourselves accountable is that there is a gender dynamic in math and that there is a racial dynamic in both subjects. And if we do not say that that has to be one of our main focuses of this year, we're
going to do our entire district a disservice. So, I want to just highlight again that we as a district have to make sure front and center that we look at both the gender and racial inequities that are happening in this district.
Putting that aside, we talked about the budget. Again, I want the board and the community to feel comfortable that we are in very very good shape, uh, especially comparatively to other districts. But the longer these budgets go un
agreed or the money that was owed to us isn't sent to us, the more difficult it might be. And just know that certainly I will be um, uh, transparent about that. And the third one, and you know, I certainly don't want to end on um on
something negative, but clearly as a superintendent and somebody who lives in the community and in the district, you know, I would be remiss if I didn't point out that this weekend uh there was quite a bit of violence uh some of which uh on children and some of which by
children. And I just want to say to this community, I want to say to our families, I want to say to our children is that please, you know, whatever we can do to help support you, uh, so that violence is not thought of, that it is
not an answer, and that if you are struggling with anything, if you do need support and help, we are here for you. but then also to thank the organizations that have been really active in the community, specifically Advance Peace,
uh, and the, you know, and many other nonprofits that have been helping our community, is that the reactions to these things in the first summer that I lived here in Lancing, there was a lot of conversation around retaliation and
and, you know, large groups of people and things like that. and just knowing that the community has really come out in full force to support the families and to support these actions so that our community can heal and get better. I really want to thank those. But, you
know, certainly as a superintendent, as somebody who cares about all children, if they go to our district or not, if they live in the Lancing lines or just outside of it, all of those children are very, very important to me and I know to this board and to this community. And so
I certainly want to just give my respects to everybody uh and make sure that you know that we are here for you uh to support you. And it's also the adults. I know it's odd for a superintendent to say that, but you know, when somebody is shot who's 30 or
40 or 50 years old, I wouldn't be surprised if their child or grandchild was one of our students. And so we want to make sure that all of our people that live in Lancing are here and supported and healthy. So my thoughts uh certainly go to you and to make sure that you know
that the district is here to support you in any way. Uh with that I want to turn it uh over to uh the president uh acting uh Senor Lopez and uh thank you very much for the time. >> Gracias. Well, we'll continue moving on with this
with this agenda. We're now to new business and we have in front of us board resolution for 2526 MSSPO. Yes, sir. >> I'm sorry. I did have a question for the superintendent about his last point. I've missed a few meetings. Um, and I
wanted to follow up on a conversation that we had when I was here last >> and I want to ask you this this way since we spoke about this last. Have we given you the support that you need or the the green light um to enact some of
your really great ideas about ways that we can be a visible resource to families for gun safety um and safety in general? If not, tell us your nine bosses in one what we can do to help you to take action now.
>> Absolutely. No, f first of all, I do want to thank this board for I think empowering me to do quite a lot. My one request will be that during our retreat uh coming very very soon uh is that we have a conversation about some specifics because I always want to act with the
full faith and support of this board and I think we've talked about some specifics but also a lot of generalities on terms of what we can do and so I look forward to the conversation this coming weekend uh so that we can get kind of clarity and then move very strongly towards it.
>> Thank you. >> Trust Whiskey. >> Yes. had another question about finances in the longer term. So, we talked about the current funding being withheld, but now that we have a federal bill that is going to impact funding that would go into effect on October 1st, do we know how that's going to impact our budget
assumptions and will we need a different budget amendment than we typically do? >> Sure. So, that's a great question and I mean, you know, this is where it gets complicated and I apologize and I really am trying to channel my inner trustee herd to make sure that what I say is understood. uh not people are brilliant
but I am not and so the more I can be clear here the better. Um the bill that was passed by Congress uh a couple of weeks ago as of now we don't
see that greatly impacting us per se. What we don't know is the impact on the department of education and what we don't necessarily know is if any sort of funding streams will change moving forward. So for instance, title one
which is the largest amount of money we get from the federal government doesn't seem like it is gone. Now that can change when the uh true budget adoption of the um of the
government of this country is done later on this year. But the the bill that was passed um they did a kind of weird procedural thing where it was not necessarily the full budget of everything of all the funding we would
ever get. It was certainly about tax breaks and things like that, but we don't know, especially with now the court case being what looks like finished, that the Department of Education is now going to kind of be
eviscerated. Um, we don't know yet. So again, my promise to you and the community is once we start to know things, uh, we will. But if you remember, I did say to this board is that we already sort of saw this coming and we have some budgets. They're light
budgets, meaning that they're not detailed because we're not going to go to individual people until we know for sure, but we do have light budgets with the idea of losing federal money, losing partial federal money, etc., etc. So,
right now we're okay. Tomorrow is another day. >> Any other questions? All right, then let's move on to new business. And you have before you a motion
to approve the MSBO bus program. And uh if there's any questions on that, Christina can answer them for sure. We've we've seen this before, by the
way. So, okay. There being no questions. Do I have a motion to approve this purchase? >> I recommend that the board of education approve the resolution for 2526 MSBL bus program as presented. >> Second. >> Mr. Hurt. Thank you very much. It's been
moved and seconded to approve this uh resolution. Is this uh Oh. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Uh please call the role. >> Dr. Kavanaaugh. >> Yes. >> Mr. Herd. >> Yes.
>> Mr. Lopez. >> Yes. >> Dr. Nvar Martinez. >> Yes. >> Mr. Noisque. >> Yes. >> Dr. Rodriguez. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Strode. >> Yes. >> Ms. Williams. >> Thank you. Pass. Thank you. It passes.
Thank you very much. Okay. Our next um bid recommendation is for the purchase of EV buses. And again, we've heard this before unless you have any other questions. >> I don't have a question, but I have a comment. Um we talked about this before.
I haven't had the opportunity to talk about this again, but I will say that during our National Association for uh board members conference, I was able to uh spend a great deal of time for a day um looking at their EV bus slate. I did
share some photos with our president, superintendent, and vice president um about that experience. And I will say I learned a whole lot about EV buses and the differences. Of course, I asked questions that all the down south people
didn't have about the winterization of the buses and the extra mechanisms that we would have to utilize when we have that beautiful fluffy snow outside. Um, so I just wanted to lift for the caliber of this group. Um, that I am definitely
in support of this for our school district and I was able to see, feel, breathe, drive, charge the bus all in person at the conference. So, I just wanted to add that. Thank you. >> Thank you very much, Trusty Stro.
>> Oh, I would love to make a motion. Uh, President, I move that the board of education accept the bid recommendation to purchase EV buses as presented. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded, seconded to approve this uh, purchase.
>> There being no other questions, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Oppos. Okay. Passes. We're going to item D, square facilities management. Um, it's in your packet as well, but can
Christina, can you give us a kind of a quick >> This actually isn't me >> or or >> surprisingly enough, this is not me. Even though it says facilities management, it's a different type of facilities management. So, I'm gonna hand it over to Miss Jessica Benvdas.
>> Well, good evening everyone. Uh DS squared is a company uh Ever High School is in partnership with Ducket Brothers Security and Staffing to contract hall monitor services for their school. This is to ensure safe, structured and supportive school environment at
Everett. And these contracted professionals uh referred to as the perimeter will be operating under the supervision of the school administrator and in collaboration with our public safety. So the um what's in front of you tonight is to pay for approximately five
to six hall monitors for every through the um it's cutting out. Sorry guys. Uh through the through this particular CSA in the amount of $189,000. >> Questions? >> Did you say just for Everett?
>> This is just for Everett. >> Can you explain why just for Everett? >> Certainly. So, when our schools go through school-based budgeting, this is the only high school that wanted to employ hall monitors. They've actually had great success with those. And so, um, we've had CSAs prior. And so, this
is the CSA that we're bringing in front of the board for, um, a CSA for hall monitors just forever high school. >> Okay. Uh, the whiskey. >> Yeah, that was my question. Is this the same company we've been using or a new relationship? >> This is a new relationship. So, I mean,
I I I'll go into some detail here and certainly happy to answer. So, just as a reminder, um, as a school district, we are allowed to have contracts with companies. We're allowed to have contracts with individuals, but what we really aren't supposed to do is have
contracts with individuals and treat them like employees. Now, there are some exceptions. It's an emergency. COVID seemed to be an exception for every rule known to to humankind. But but we've had
uh hallway monitors at Everett more in a kind of individual manner. And what we're trying to do is to be really thoughtful about how to do this properly and the right way. And so Everett came to us and said, "Look, we really want to keep them." And we kept saying, "Well,
we got to follow the rules." And they said, "Well, here's the way to do it." And so I want to certainly thank uh the um budget office and the office of schools for working with Everett to get them what they needed but also following
uh correct budgetary uh rules and regulations. >> Okay. Um Miss Williams. >> Okay. I I I like this concept. I I guess I'm a little concerned that it's just going to be forever. Is there some way
we can possibly look at our budget and cover all the high schools and maybe what school am I looking at? Gardner because again those are our high-risisk areas. Maybe that comes from another fund. Maybe not right now but versus doing schoolbased budget look at those
the three high schools and uh gardener for maybe next year to look at having security in all those buildings. >> Yeah, I mean we could certainly happy to do that. I think the issue here is that let's say Gardner and I I can't speak to
it. I'd probably defer to Cordelia or to Jess, but they made a decision as to how they with of course the office of school culture wanted to do their safety and security. So this is Everett's choice to do this. We don't want to bring in an
organization or a group of people that is not being asked for by the schools. So again, they might ask for more public safety, they might ask for more deans, they might ask for whatever it is. So this is really about not a money per se,
but about the decision of Everett saying they like this. There have been other schools that did not like having hallway monitors and so they said, "Look, that's not what we want. We want something else." But I don't know, Jess, if that's >> Yeah, I certainly can speak to that. Um,
we had the conversations with all of our schools and exactly like our superintendent said. Um, and I won't name names necessarily in this venue because I don't want to call any specific, you know, principles uh on the table for their choices of running their schools, but we've had we've had high
school principles that said, I'm choosing to use my budget in a different way. I'd like an additional public safety officer. I do not find the hallway monitors to be helpful in the way that my building is run. And so all of our high schools have actually had this option and they had the funding for
it too. So I don't want you to think that there's any fund there's any school that was limited to not getting home monitors. But each of the individual um principles based on their staff current staffing and the way that they choose to run their schools have chosen to not
move forward with hallway monitors except for Everett. If they make different choices in the future we they certainly can do that. I think Kim can talk to the fact that they had more than enough funding to be able to do this at any of our schools. So, it is eartoear.
Yes, >> just a short >> uh I love the opportunity for conversation and collaborative efforts to give our principles agencies and their culture and their buildings and their schools um because they are the expert of what the needs are for their
location. Um I do have a question. Do you have any data metrics or anything that supports how the significant changes of certain situations by them having the hall monitors um when they gave you the dialogue as to the why and
how we got to this at the table? I think it's great that they had agency and and advocated what their needs are. Um, but I'm just curious if we're voting on it. If you can just give us just a quick little rundown synopsis of how this instrally improved any setting for their
monitoriization throughout the halls or the uh behavior management throughout the school. So any of the budget proposals that you're seeing come through from the school level have all been weighed in through their school improvement planning. So while I don't have the data in front of me based on that, it is based on the school-based
decision which is then based on data. So in the school improvement team, they would need to look at their behavior data. They would get their kind of as Trusty Herd has talked about their their staff has has turned in their information around if they find it helpful or not to have. So all of the
voice of the staff members is based on that. So I don't have hard data in front of me, but I will say that um each of the staff members has said this is how we choose as a school to to um allocate our money. And then based on the data that they've collected either through
decreased office referrals or um one of the metrics I know principal Boilles looks at is students getting to class on time, right? That's the number one thing to make sure that we have students in classes. So her attendance rates would show that of getting class kids into
class in a timely fashion. Um those would be the couple of the metrics that I know that their schools would look at. Um but I don't have that information with me this evening. >> Yes, I appreciate that too. And um I'm in complete support of supporting what their need is. I was just bringing it to
the conversation um mainly because I love to make trends and points of you know if they're having the hall modders you can see that out of our high schools their school has been on target and task at 20% above average with no tardies or you know something along that caliber.
So um I would love to get that later not tonight but I am in support of it and just wanted to bring it for the group. Yeah, absolutely. And one thing I can add that we do have and I'll look at Cordelia for this is, you know, it's a little bit complicated to compare what let's say Everett would do visav a
Saxon's decision or Eastern's decision. But what I can say is in 2021, the suspensions, the fights, the all the things at Everett and now you compare it to what we had last year, it's night and
day. And so that to me says, "Hey, keep on keeping on, right?" And so, you know, we we look at that data and to Ston's credit, let's say, if Sexton is deciding to not do whole monitors, Sexton also from 21 to 24 has changed, but that's
changed by doing different things. And so again, but we're happy to bring you hard data, but I certainly can tell you, and I'm looking at Cordelia, I know she's shaking her head. The those kinds of large-scale fights and things like that has dropped precipitously. >> Trust Williams, >> I have one more question. So, their
start date says August 1 to June 30th. Why are they starting so soon? Oh, I'm sorry. Their start date says August 1 to June 30th. So, they're starting at the beginning of beginning of August and then ending at the end of the month. Well, actually uh I when I'm speaking
with uh principal Boilles, they are only going to be contracted for the days that students are in school. So the contract may start on August 1st, which just means that we can invoice then uh for the hall monitors. So they can start to procure the hall monitors, make sure that they've gone through the vetting
process, they've hired the hall monitors and so forth. Um so training, etc. But actually the days that they will be paid for um are only the school-f facing days that they are there. >> Any other questions? I have one. How
will how do they interact with with our security folks in the schools? >> Very well. >> Very well. Uh we >> what's the pecking order? I mean you know >> Yeah. Uh public safety of course >> report to the principal. Mhm. They they
report to the principal. They do not report to public safety, but they work very closely uh with public public safety. They check in with public safety. They share important information in regards to um areas to to you know
monitor uh pay closer attention to. Um my observation of the hall monitors is I mean I you walk through the halls and I agree with Ben. It's a totally different Everett High School uh than 3, four
years ago. Uh the halls are empty or you know for most part. Um she Amy's done a really good job with you know placing uh the monitors in specific locations um that so that she can target uh various
areas of Everett High School that she wants to focus on uh that may be a little bit um more busier or have more traffic uh than usual. But getting back to the point of public safety and the relationship there, they're they work just fine together. Um, of course, our
director of public safety, uh, Dale Pson, uh, works very closely with Amy, and so between the two of them and the the the two forces, um, we've seen, uh, significant change at Ever High School.
>> Thank you. Any other questions? question. Just a quick very quick um comment to um Miss Black's point. Um here I am bragging I'm I'm Everett's uh board liaison and um I I think I've praised them in meetings before um about
the monitors and um going into the school several times over the school year um and seeing the way that they interact with the students more like mentors and less like public safety. It's a different vibration. they they know the kids. Um they um and the the
students respect them. It's a very clean way that they do the transitions. They're in the hallways. They're interacting with students. Um and um really in from what I saw sometimes even deescalating things that would have to be addressed by public safety. It's a I
mean to be the performing arts school, it's a very quiet place um in the best way. Um and so kudos to them. Thank you. Thank you for those comments. Okay. Um we have a a motion and a second. Uh all those in favor of the motion signify by
saying I. >> We're voting on the resolution. >> Okay. >> I I >> again all those in favor of the of the resolution say I. >> I.
>> Next time I'll say say no. Anyway, any oppose? Thank you. Okay. Uh our next item is D playworks agreement. >> Uh Mr. Superintendent.
>> Yeah. So um so for D playworks agreement uh I'm really happy with this one, but I don't want to take uh uh this first. Jess, do you want to talk about this or then? Okay. So, PlayWorks is a national nonprofit
that does partnership with schools to bring structured and inclusive safe play to school environments on site via full-time coaches. Um, this proposal is for seven of our schools, Patentill, Lions, Forest View, Riddle, Averil, Dwight Rich, and North these seven
schools. So, just to give a little bit of a history, um, our previous director of enrichment and engagement um, had had worked in districts prior with PlayWorks. Um, in fact, he was a coach at one point. And so, he was able to link us with this nonprofit to begin
with, um, Director Draper. And the Playworks people came to all of our K8 schools and met with them, um, to talk to them about Playworks to see if it was going to be a good match for them during recess time, lunch recess. Uh, of the
schools that they presented to, these seven schools wanted to move forward. their school improvement teams voted um to utilize their school monies. Uh typically this is an area for 31A, but it could be general fund or title one really on any of their budgets. Correct.
>> Oh, all general. Okay. >> Perfect. So again, they're utilizing their schoolbased budgeting and making decisions through SIT team because they felt this would be a great addition to their school. Uh what's really neat about Playworks is that it may start out at lunch recess, but the kids get to
learn these cooperative games. And so then and in their own recess time, they become student leaders of these cooperative games throughout the day. And in talking with other districts that have had play works in their school districts, they really saw that there was a huge benefit and they reported
overwhelmingly better behavior at recess, fewer conflicts and greater stu student safety. and which then in turned increased instructional time because they weren't having problems after recess for lunch. So, we're really excited to see what this can bring to
Lancing next year and if approved by the board, this would start this fall. >> Thanks, Jess. Um, what I want to add is that the idea of structured play is one of the most important things that a school district can really
take on. Um sadly schools tend to think that like well recess is hey kids go away and like run around. And you know, when schools start to understand that recess and outdoor time can be structured in thoughtful, fun ways, what
you end up seeing, and research is really clear, is the kids not only learn how to do more teamwork building and kind of get along with each other, but that the problems that occur sort of normally in the recess time really don't. And what we of course have seen,
and again we could show you the data, the number of kids that get written up during recess, during outdoor play, during whatever, during lunchtime is much higher than normal time during the day. And this also represents, I think,
the the reason why you do school-based budgeting. You say to a principal, "Hey, principal, your school, your budget, what do you want to do?" The good principal goes, I want to ask my staff. and they go to their school improvement team and they say, "Hey team, what do you want to do?" And they go, "Well, you
know what? We have heard of this playworks thing. Let's try it out." So now they agree to it. The principal agrees to it. They know that there's good research behind it. And then we're able to as a as a district have an agreement with this uh organization as a
as a district so that we can then work on lowering the dollar figure and having economies of scales and things like that. And so bringing it to the board is this kind of great final structure to say, "Hey, look, these teachers want it, the school improvement teams want it,
the principles want it, they're willing to pay for it. Hey board, we'd really love you to allow them to do that." And the reason why something like this comes to the board is because the total dollar figure is over, you know, whatever our threshold is. And so if this had been
paid for out of grants, it wouldn't necessarily have come, although I always like to share it. but because the district, the schools think so highly of this that they want to use general that that's why this is here. So, I'm really thrilled because I've heard of Playworks for years and it's I mean Jessica can
tell you one of the things I've been frustrated with over the years is the number of incidents that happen outside in the playgrounds during lunch after you know that kind of stuff. And I think this will help solve a lot of those
problems. So, >> thank you. Any any other questions? Uh, Dr. Noinsky. >> Uh, yeah. So, throughout the program, planner refers to Americanore coach. Do we know if Americanore is still operating in this venue or if not, what happens to the program?
>> That is a great question. Uh, it's certainly a conversation we've been having with Playworks. Um, because this is the contract with them, uh, our expectation is they're going to figure it out. Um, but you know, we we understand that there might be some some
changes, but a lot of the work that they do isn't necessarily contingent on Americanore. But the good news is that the lawsuit and I I'm I I have to tell you I haven't been paying attention too much. I know that there was some change of some Americanore money just lately
that is being released, but again, this is a contract with Playworks. It's up to them to figure it out. Trusty Hart, >> that was my question. >> Yeah, thank you. Was mine, too. All right. Uh, hearing no other questions. I need a motion.
>> Mr. President. >> Yes. I move that the board of education approve the Playworks agreement as presented. >> It's been moved and second to to approve this agreement. Having had discussion, all those in favor say I.
>> I. >> Post. Thank. Okay. Thank you. And now we go to our last item here is uh E elevate K12 master service agreement.
>> Happy to start this one. And do you want this or Christina? You want this? >> I got it. I know it might seem odd, but this one's me. >> Sounds good. Elevate K12. One of my favorites. Go to it. >> Sure. Um, so, um, I'm not sure if the board remembers or not, but we entered into an agreement with Elevate K12 for
the previous school year as well. Um, so I'm sure the board is aware we have had, uh, different openings, teacher openings throughout the school district. And so, Elevate, Elevate K12 is a unique partnership that we have that provides virtual learning with certified US-based teachers across the country. So we have
a mentor in the classroom when we have an open position helping the students and then we have a live teacher on the screen in front of the students providing uh the Michigan standardsbased um instruction. Um so we use this in lie
of or while we are searching for a teacher. Uh we leave the posting up for our teachers and as soon as we hire a new teacher then we will reallocate uh those funds and use it in a different open position. Um, so for right now, um, Everett has committed to starting the
school year if we do not find a couple of teachers, um, for a math, um, for some math periods that we do need. However, if we find a teacher before we get started, um, then we will reallocate those funds should another position come open. Um,
>> what what I want to kind of talk about is twofold. One, we are not using this for that many positions. We're talking about very few. But where it really is super helpful is with dealing with something called breakage. So you have a
large high school. You have, let's say, let's say you have 26 algebra 1 classes. Well, five algebra teachers teach five algebra 1. That's 25. There's one class
left. You're not going to hire a full teacher to teach one class. What this allows you to do is have a certified American-based teacher teaching that one class with another adult in the room who's ours so that you don't
necessarily, you know, not have that algebra class. Now, the hope of course is that we have zero vacancies and never have to deal with any of this. But we have found and last year we used it and it worked pretty well was fixing these like little tweaks within a district of
10,000. We also and this is our promise to the union and to all of our members of course is we're never shutting down a vacancy because of this. So if let's say we had a teacher opening, let's say we needed a second grade teach well we're not really
doing it for little kids but let's say we needed a math teacher at Everett. We're not saying, "Oh, we have a calvate elevate K12." We're not looking for a math teacher. We're always looking for that math teacher. And then hopefully when we fill it, we can then move on to something else. But what we have found
is having a certified math teacher, let's say, even if it's digital, is better than a daily sub who might not have the credentials, especially when there's another adult in
the room helping the class. I would not think, and I have not ever seen it work very well when it's just a person on the screen and kids in a classroom. Kids are liable to do all sorts of fun things, but to have a district employee in the
room with the children supporting their learning with that certified teacher on the screen, we've seen it work relatively well. And I don't know, Jess, on a pedagogical level, if you've heard, you know, if you have a story or two or I know we talk about it. So,
>> yeah. So, we have also utilized this at Lancing Technical High School because again like the breakage that Ben was talking about with some of our smaller classes of course and math is one of those two, right? That it is very difficult to find a math certified teacher and especially one that we need
for two classes. It's hard to find a part-time person who wants to teach math. So, I would say that um the feedback that we've gotten is good. The rigor is excellent with these courses. And of course, what I've really thought is great is having that one person in the room that almost turns into a
co-eing situation so that that teacher's wandering the room making sure that they know things. But again, when we have substitute teachers in the room, especially in the area of math, I know that if I had to substitute an algebra 2 teacher, the kids would not be for the better. Um because that would I would
have been that's topping out on my math skills right there. Um, so to have somebody certified who is steeped in this that can be into the classroom and the kids are digital natives. I mean, this is not a huge stretch for them to be able to do a hybrid with someone in the room. And then the technical, of
course, a live teacher in front of kids is always going to be the best, which is why we're committed to keeping those vacancies open. But um no, we found it to be very positive and there's been less gaps for students in their learning because they're not in front of substitute teachers um that are not
skilled to teach these subject areas. >> Thank you. Any questions? No more questions. Just just go ahead, doctor. >> This contract and the previous contract has been reviewed by a lawyer or we don't need it. >> Yeah, the lawyer.
>> It's been reviewed by Trun. Okay. Thank you. >> Just to clarify, Mr. Superintendent, these are certified teachers that meet the state requirements for our kids to get their grades and not have any issues. >> Correct. >> Okay. Thank you. All right. We have a
recommendation before us to have a motion. >> Okay. >> Um I Oh, >> okay. I move that the board of education approve the elevate K12 master services agreement as presented. >> It's been moved and seconded to approve
this service agreement. Um all those in favor say I. >> I oppose. Same sign. Okay. Motion passes. Now we're at the point of public comment on agenda items. Do we have We don't have any public com.
Hopefully they're watching on hopefully they're watching on TV and we'll ask questions later. Okay. Comments from the board and I'll start with Sai. Yeah, Trusty Strode.
>> Short and quick. >> It's really quick. I just want to highlight the conversation this evening and the pres the data presented um in regards to our schools and what we're doing and how we're doing it and um so I
just appreciate the presentation today um and all the great things that are coming to the district and I'm excited about the school year. Okay, Miss Williams, >> I have >> you have >> I would just like to remind everyone who
is watching um that there is a citywide primary on August 5th um and obviously the decisions we make um around the elected officials in our city sometimes have direct implications for uh the school district. So, I would encourage everyone to first make sure you're
registered to vote. Uh if you're not, get registered. It's pretty easy to do in Michigan, so that's great. Um and then um research your candidates and then make sure to vote on on or before August 5th. >> Thank you, Mr. Ninsky. No. Trusty Hurt.
>> Thank you, Mr. President. Um I too would like to congratulate the presenters tonight. Mr. Superintendent, it's just the sort of thing that I'd like to see at just the sort of caliber I'd like to see it. You are to be congratulated as is your team. Thank you. Um also, Mr. President and Mr. Superintendent Board
Colleagues, I wanted to take a moment um to honor one of our Lancing School District alumni who has passed away tragically um after his battle with cancer. Kenneth Robertson Jr. JW Ston High School, class of 2001, passed away
this past Saturday after battling a very rare cancer for the past few months. This has been a significant loss to the greater Lancing music community. Um, and to the national art scene, as Kenny, as
we call him, was one of the finest multi-re drummers the city has ever known. Kenny has been heard in venues across the United States and Europe with his most recent appearance with the Lancing Symphony Orchestra during the Holiday Pops. He will be greatly missed.
He is a testament to the excellence of our district and the beautiful spirit of our community. colleagues, please join me in standing with his family, his wife, his only daughter, and his extended family, Sexton alums all over, please send kind thoughts to his
families. Also, if you've been considering sending your baby to the Lancing School District so you can be a shining star like Kenny, um, and you want them to realize their greatest potential with the finest faculty, staff, administrators, and also student achievers, it's about time you came
home, too. Thank you very much. Thank you, Trusty Hurt. Uh, Dr. Rodriguez. >> No. >> Yes, ma'am. >> I think I think that was a great great meeting again for everybody. I want to know how we are going to go to Eversol
Sat Friday or we have a stage coach. >> I'm going to send direction to all of us. >> It It's It's a pass. >> 4:30. >> What time? 4:30. >> Yeah, we we'll resend that information.
Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. Just a quick reminder from my um uh report that August 5th is the primary, but also the grand opening of Mount Hope and the community hopefully will come out to see our great new
facilities. >> Thank you. And I just want to thank the board for great discussion. It's a little longer than usual, but I think it's well worth it. And so now we're going to go into close session. So I would like a recommend uh motion, please.
>> Mr. President, I recommend that the board of education recess into close session for the purpose of considering material exempt from disclosure as is permitted in the open meetings act section 81c for strategy and negotiation sessions connected with the negotiation of a collective bargaining agreement if
either negotiating party requests a closed hearing. It's been moved and second to go into close sessions. All those in favor say I. I. >> Oh, do we? Do we do roll? >> We do. I'm sorry. A roll call vote, please.
>> Dr. Kavanaaugh. >> Yes. >> Mr. Herd. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lopez. >> Yes. >> Dr. Nibbars Martinez. >> Yes. >> Mr. Navis. >> Yes. >> Dr. Rodriguez. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Strode. >> Yes. >> Miss Williams.
Thank you. Passes. Okay. We'll adjourn. Not adjourn. We'll go into close session. Very very >> Okay. >> Alice is going to hand you motion. Oh, we are not yet.
>> Oh, we're good. >> Oh, we're good. >> Wait. >> All right. We didn't see our our mugs up there. All right. We're back from close session. And we have one action item to take care of before we adjourn this meeting. So, may I have a motion?
>> President. >> Yes, sir. I move that the board of education accept the tentative agreement between the Lansin School District and the Lansin Association of School Administrators, LASA, as presented.
>> Second. >> We moved and seconded. Any other questions? Okay. Will you please call the RO? >> Dr. Kavanaaugh? >> Yes. >> Mr. Herd? >> Yes. >> Mr. Lopez? Yes,
>> Dr. Nars Martinez. >> Yes, >> Mr. Noveske. >> Yes, >> Dr. Rodriguez. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Strode. >> Yes, >> Miss Williams. >> Thank you. Motion passes. There being no other business, we're adjourned.
>> 9:41.