Good afternoon everyone. I'd like to call this February 8th, 2025 meeting of the special programs and Centers committee to order. My name is Dr. Rasheed, I'm the chair of this meeting. I am joined by Ms. LaBelle and Mr. Refe as the committee members of this committee. And we have an agenda today. I believe no one signed up for public comment as of right now. And, um, I'd like to, well, well, first we need to approve the minutes from our last meeting. Has everyone had a chance to review the minutes? Okay. Is there a motion to enter? Well, is I'd like to entertain a motion to approve the minutes. Yes, Ms. Libel,
I move that we approve the minutes as read as Written. No, no. There's something wrong with the microphone. There we go. Yeah. I move that we, uh, approve the minute vote on approving the minutes as written. So moved by Ms. LaBelle. Do I hear a second? A second. Seconded by Ms. Re. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Alright. So the minutes have been approved. All right. So we'll go on with our agenda. We have one action item with, um, MCCS, the amendment to charter agreement. And we have the information item for special programs and academy's interest survey data.
So I will go ahead and move on to our action item of 4.01, which is again, Middleborough Community Charter School Amendment to charter agreement. Ms. Lehman is not present at the moment. I Any questions before we move on to voting for this item? Comments? No. Okay. All right. I'll entertain a motion to approve, uh, this item of 4.01. Uh, do I have a motion? Yes, Mr. Stree. So moved. Uh, moved by Mr. Stree. Do I hear? Second. Second. Seconded by Ms. LaBelle. Okay.
All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Great. Okay. So that will now that amended agreement will now move on to, So the intention of staff is to take this to the new board, um, in the new year, um, for, at their most likely the January 13th meeting of the, um, school board. Thank you, Mr. Slevin. Okay. Yeah. So that will then move on to the school board meeting that we will have in January. Um, and that's it. All right. That's great. Awesome. We will now move on to our information items 5.01, uh, special programs
and academies, interest survey data presented by Ms. Katie Clark, director Academic Programs. Thank you, Ms. Clark. Good afternoon. Thank you. Uh, today I'll share the results of the special programs and academy's interest survey, which was conducted, uh, this past September. For context, Latin County Public Schools adopted school board policy 51 15 special programs in academies back in January of 2022. This policy supports the creation of programs and academies that allow students to explore their interests, talents, and strengths, while meeting the goals
of the LCPS strategic framework. At that time, the specialized programs and centers subcommittee directed staff to survey LCPS parents to gauge interests in various programs and academies. This past spring, we were asked to conduct a new survey to ensure we continue gathering community input as we expand and create new opportunities for our students. Before we dive into the survey results, let me walk you through today's agenda for our presentation. So today we will cover, um, we'll start with an overview
of the survey, then we'll review current programs and explore potential new ones. Next, I'll share the top three enrollment decisions and key factors influencing them. And finally, we'll discuss next steps and open the floor for your input. So the survey was initially open from September 16th to September 30th, with an extended window until October 6th to allow for additional responses. Um, for outreach, we use multiple channels to reach families and students, including emails and newsletters. Principal updates. We had two special programs fair during this window
on September 18th and 25th, and there were also multiple social media posts. Here's what participation looked like for families. We had 88,025 invitations that were sent out. We had 3,613 responses, which is about 4% participation for students. This only went to grade six through 12. We had 46,251 eligible students. We had 12,079 responses, which is a 26% participation rate. We would like to take this opportunity
to thank those families and students who took time to participate in this survey. In total, we had over 15,000 participants. These surveys take an effort across multiple departments, and I would like to give a huge shout out to Dr. Blakelock here this afternoon with us and his team for conducting the survey and providing the graphs for today's presentation. And I'd also like, um, to give a shout out to Dr. Aponte and our communications team for all of their support around community outreach. The first part of our survey asked parents asked participants, both parents and students, to rate their level
of interest in the current specialty programs that we offer. This chart reflects the percentage of families and students who indicated they were interested in each program across all programs. Family interest is consistently higher than student interest. You'll see here a OS and a ET show the highest levels of family interest. Each above 70% followed closely by access and sci. While programs such as Matta and IV continue to show strong family interest, student interest remains significantly lower. However, keep in mind that participation rate for families
with significantly lower than for students. And that has an impact on these results with only interested families choosing to participate and students generally participating through a school day interaction regardless of their individual interests. On the next few slides, we'll dive into the specific pathway expansions expansions. For our current programs that offer multiple pathways, it is important to note that only survey participants who said they were interested in a specific pathway were given the following expansion questions. Therefore, the family student participation bias
that we might have seen in this general graph. Um, results do not apply on the following slides. Among participants interested or who showed interest in the A ET expansion, engineering emerged as the top priority for both families at 75% and students at 69%, followed by information technology. These results show strong alignment between family and student demand and help clearly guide any future a ET growth. Our next chart highlights the differing priorities between families and students regarding potential career pathway expansions
under the MAA program. While both groups show strong interest in caring for communities with 76% of families and 59% of students supporting it, families consistently express higher enthusiasm across all pathways. Notably, pathways like IB, or sorry, like building and moving and cultivating resources, show a significant gap with family support. Nearly double that of students. Now we're gonna talk about IB Survey. Results show strong interest in expanding the IB program.
At the high school level, nearly 80% of families and 77% of students prefer adding the IB diploma program for juniors and seniors. There is moderate support for the Middle Years program with about 62% of families and 64% of students favoring expansion into the middle and early high school. Interest in the primary years program is much lower with only 27% of families and 15% of students supporting the elementary IB program. We currently have two Spanish DLI programs in LCPS.
This survey asked participants who stated they were interested in expanding DLI, what other language should be considered for future DLI cohorts? Survey results show that families and students have different priorities for future DLI languages. Families most strongly support Mandarin at 62%, while students prefer French at 62%. Arabic and Korean also have notable interest, especially among the students. The last program with multiple options for expansion is J-R-O-T-C. Among participants interested in expanding our ROTC,
the Air Force received the highest level of support with 76% of families and 58% of students favoring this branch. The Navy ranked second, followed by the Army. These results suggest that if expansion occurs, the Air Force, Navy and Army should be prioritized BA based on stakeholder preferences. Our next section of the survey asked participants to rate their interest in the following categories of new potential courses, programs or academies. These questions were based on the top career clusters
that were selected by our secondary students in LCPS per the school link's. Data pooled in March of 2025. Overall, you'll see STEM received the highest level of interest with 82% of families and 49% of students indicating support. Business management and administration ranked second with 72% of families and 45% of students interested followed closely by health sciences at 69% for families and 36% for students. Arts, audio, video, technology and communications, as well as law, public safety,
corrections and security had lower levels of interest with less than 60% of families and students expressing support. Four participants who indicated interest in a specific program. Again, additional questions were asked to gather more detailed feedback, which will be shared on the following slides. Among participants interested in stem, the most popular options were engineering and computer science with strong support from both families and students. Next, for business management, finance and business intelligence were the top choices among families at 77% and 73% respectfully.
For students, entrepreneurship and marketing were the top choices at 71% and 69% within health sciences. Physical therapy had the greatest interest at 82% of families and 67% of students interested followed by sports medicine. And then dental For the Arts Pathways. Visual Arts was the most popular with strong interest from students at 68% interested. Next for law and Public Safety pathways, pre-law was the highest for families at 76% and law enforcement was the highest for students at 72%.
The next part of the survey asked participants about additional areas of interest based on county and regional needs identified by LCPS. The highest interest among families was for programs focused on energy that was 55% were interested. The next part of the survey asked participants to identify the top three factors influencing enrollment in a special program or academy for families. These were career college preparation, number one, student career interests. Number two, and program location was number
three for students. The top factors were number one, career college preparation, number two, student career interest. And lastly, number three, program reputation. So to conclude, um, this survey as a reminder is just one of several factors that will inform decisions about expanding existing programs or potentially launching new ones. Moving forward, we will continue collaborating with Dr. Grubbs and the CTE office in particular to ensure that program growth and selection align with the priorities
that have been outlined in the CTE multi-year expansion plan. That concludes our presentation from the survey, and we'd like to open it up for any discussion and feedback you have at this time. Thank you, Ms. Clark. And thank you for putting all this data together. I mean, it's, it's, it was a lot and quite comprehensive and very helpful. Um, I was just wondering if there was a benchmark provided for the response rates. I think it was like the second slide or the third slide about overall the family responses and the student responses. Did we have an aim? Uh, and,
and you know, did we have like some sort of benchmark set up? If not, I was just curious for my own sake, Uh, the research office might be able to help, but I do have, from our last survey, I said this survey, we had over 15,000. We did include students last survey. Um, we only had 6,628 respondents. If that gives you kind of, And the same modalities, like the same, We did not, um, that one did not go out to students. That was just for families at that time. Okay. Um, yeah. And I'm also curious if the percentage changes in the interest after the acceptances go out for a OL.
Like, I'm very curious to know once the, well, ACL once they're, once you have a ET and a OS, I remember the percentage was the highest when it came for interest for that. I'm just curious to know once those acceptances got or rejections go out, if, I mean for the future, for next year or the following years, if we know, do students interested then change and say, you know what, now more interested in IB or hams I or, or whichever it may, it may be. I'm, I'm very curious about that. And then, um, I also noticed that, um, again, these are just comments like for the matter program.
I was, I was curious about the creating, experiencing part. I wasn't sure what that category was about. 'cause it was, it was pretty high and it was almost proportional to the one of the top two on that same graph. That was On slide. It was on the Matta slide. Yeah, I have that for you. Hold on one second. Um, each of those gave some examples to families. So let me just have that, I have that pulled up. Why was that? Um, here we go. Did you find it? Thematic expansion.
Thank you. So Under, um, creating an experiencing under that category, what was listed as examples were computer and digital animation, television production, and digital movie making along with graphic communications. Interesting. Those were the, the pathways. Very Interesting. Very interesting. I, um, yeah, I was, I was just definitely curious to know about that. And then also, um, for the interest in law or communications is what I noticed in, in one of the slides.
It would, although I know some of the percentages were low for that interest. Um, I don't want like students to think it's always about stem. And I think Mr. Slevin, you and I had this discussion that it's always about STEM and it's always about always about, um, computer science. Um, it would be great to have some sort of law program as a pilot, uh, of course to a smaller degree since there's a lower, uh, percentage of interest. And then also what was interesting to know was that agriculture, and I know Miss LaBelle and I were looking into this, that agriculture,
the percentage of interest was low. I, I was hoping it'd be higher considering the fact, especially out west, um, especially those students that are out in the east that would be interested in coming out west and, you know, making use or taking full advantage or opportunity of the land. I would just suggest that this is just one piece of data that we're looking at in the whole, um, spectrum of decision making around special programs. While interest in agricultural, for example, may be low, it's still something to be said that 24% of our students are interested in it. And so we probably aren't going to be suggesting a,
an agricultural program that's gonna serve a hundred percent of our students. Frankly, we're probably not gonna be able to even serve all 20, like 24% of our student body. But there, there is interest that's out there. So again, when you think about, um, student interest, parent interest, you also think about job opportunities, um, availability of partnerships, available facilities. This is just one piece of information that we're gonna use to make recommendations, um, as the board and staff are having conversations about what's next as far as student offerings. Does that make make sense? Um, 'cause even with law, 54%
of our students interested in some kind of law program is a significant amount of students that have an interest. And so if we do have the opportunity to measure all of the different programs that we have available, you know, one might argue we have many STEM opportunities and very little in terms of law pathways. Mm-hmm. And so maybe we need to balance that out. Um, so that's one way to, to look at the data as well. Well, thank you Mr. Slevin. And then I noticed in one of the data when it came to all the different, uh, I think it was logistics like, like transportation and all that, one of the,
the top three rather, it was the top three slide that career and college preparation that had the highest percentage. And I mean it's, it's, it's pretty much of a no-brainer of of, of what the top three priorities were. I, I was surprised that demographics for transportation is not much of a factor. And I was actually happy to hear that. 'cause then you can open up pilot programs in further away, farther away places. Um, although we would prefer to have it close by, I'm glad to know that it's not that much of a factor for it being too far. Um, and then one more thing. I know I ran my mouth. I think it was, um, oh yes.
For the middle school, when there was IB interest for middle school, which was exciting to know that it was almost proportional the interest level as it was for high school. Um, do they start a language in seventh grade or do they start it in sixth grade? And is IB mandated to have four years of a language at minimum? I I, I don't remember if it was, 'cause I know once you start a language, you have to have four years, I think. And you're not, it's not recommended to switch over to another language in the IB program. Yeah. I know for, um, the IBDP, I believe they have
to have, um, the, at least level one and two to be able to go into the ib, um, sequence in junior and senior year. As far as the middle years program, I do believe language is across that program. Um, the middle Years program is normally a six through 10, so it crosses over. It doesn't have to, but typically it's a six through 10 program. So you would start in sixth grade and then those same students would matriculate into an IB program. You would have the middle year program in ninth and 10th. That's when they do their final project. And then that could lead into the diploma program.
Yeah. And then would that be an option where students, if they start a certain language, and I'm, this is just me thinking out loud in middle school, if they start a language like Spanish and then, and they're in the IB program at that time, if we have one for middle school, I'm curious in high school, if they're still part of the IB program, could they switch over to another language? Would that be an option? And they say, oh, you know, this Spanish wasn't for me. I'd like to go into French or something else. Yeah, the IB coordinator at each school would help each student navigate that. But yes, there are different, different routes. Same thing with our A GLS program.
Um, that is starting next year. A student might have started, um, Spanish one and two in seventh and eighth, and then they're gonna jump into either Mandarin or Arabic in ninth grade. So it, it is possible, um, to do that with IB as well. Because right now with IB program that we have in ninth grade, you're kinda like stuck in. Like you can't really change it while you're in the middle of, uh, the IB program in ninth grade. But it'd be nice to have that option if you start it in middle school. Again, just, I don't even know if these things are, are possible. And then I, I, it was very interesting
to see the DLI expansion, the inter the interest percentage was not proportional between students and parents. It was such a huge discrepancy. But again, that was just, uh, you know, good fun data. I'm gonna leave it over to my colleagues if they have any questions or comments. 'cause I hogged up the, the panel. So any, any questions, comments, anything like that? Thinking out loud? Yes. Mr. Thank you Madam Chair. Um, yeah, thank you for, for this information. Um, and it, it was actually, I agree with, uh, chair Rashid that it was actually very interesting
to go through all of the data. Um, and I thank you for the reminder about the difference between students completing this survey versus the parents and that being based on their interests. I wish we could kind of force the same thing on the parents, but, um, that's fine. I was curious about the DLI expansion. So, um, were these the only languages that were on the survey or is it, is this the top four? Um, and then why, like, do you know, weren't maybe other languages on the list if, if that were the case, like Hindi or some other languages? That's a great question. We partnered with, um,
Kelly James, the supervisor, and these are the four languages that she provided mm-hmm. That we were, um, getting feedback. So these were the only four that were mentioned. Now, we did have a thing at the very end of the survey where, um, parents and students could add additional interests. So there could be some in the Okay. The individual comments. But these were the four that we had listed as options. Okay. That, that helps. Um, no, I was just curious on some of the other languages that maybe we have, um, high representations of ethnically within the county, like, um, say Hindi, um,
how that would've compared against some of these languages. Um, but that's, that's great. Um, I'm trying to think if I had any, oh, I, I want to, to go back to, I think, uh, Dr. Rashid mentioned this already was the other areas of interest and based on county and regional needs identified by LCPS, what programs are most appealing and just seeing the students say none of the above to those. Um, I think it's, it's really, I think we should take it, like take it seriously, right? And the, and of course there's gonna be a balance of like,
we, we are trying to figure out how, how this information and our programming plays into the regional needs. Um, but not putting a lot of weight. I think you are also mentioning this is just a data point, right? It's not going to define, um, our programs. And I think when I looked at the, the title of the presentation, I, in my head, I immediately thought more on the academy side and the special program side. But when I looked at the data, um, and I think this is important for the public to know as well
that this is about pathways generally speaking. So it doesn't necessarily mean that we are trying to translate these into just special programs or academies that this would feed, feed into the data broadly for CTE. Um, unless, correct me if I'm wrong, but that's, that's, that was my understanding after going through the data. I think that might be helpful for parents and folks who are digging into this to, to see as well. Um, and then where I think it's also important, again, it took me a minute after going through the slides
to really understand that, um, where I saw a low interest in something and then we would dig into that data piece, um, and then I'd see high interest, it, it would have the note at the bottom that would say only participants who indicated that they were interested. So, um, again, I had to recalibrate myself when I looked at the data to say, well, that's not the entire, uh, survey respondents Right. Obvious stuff, but I just wanted to note that as well. Um, but really helpful. Thank you. Can I respond to one of the comments by Mr. Streff?
So particularly around this part of none of the above, um, I'm gonna look at Ms. LaBelle here and I'm gonna put a plugin for the IC model and the way that we talk to our students about career and career. I'll put another plugin for Dr. Smith's podcast. He just did an interview with, uh, ed Hogo, who's been helping us talk through RY ec. Um, and the emphasis there is less on, I want to be a plumber, I wanna be an electrician, I want to be a pilot. It's more about the type of things that you're interested in, the type of people that you wanna be around the activities that really motivate you. And so, um, it could be
that students don't fully understand, um, what it mean, what a career in aviation might look like, all the jobs that are available when it comes in our agriculture sector. So it's not just about having these opportunities, we also need to really think about how are we talking to our students and families about career development. Um, that's just as important as having these programs. And so you'll be hearing more about that as we progress throughout our CTE or CTE pathway expansion. Yes, Ms. Al, I'd like to follow up on what Mr. Slevin said with the EC model. I think as more students get into, oh,
now I'm starting to understand what these career pathways are, um, we'll see a lot more interest in certain areas because they'll have a better understanding. But I think at that point, when I look at the responses to the surveys between families and students, I think that as an educator, and especially one that knows about RAA second has been working with it for the last 12 years or so, that, um, I would put more emphasis on what students tend to want than what the parents want.
Because the parents have expectations that may not fit with what the students want. And I think a lot of these students, especially the ones that responded, none of the above is because they haven't been shown other options. And I think that, that this whole thing will change as we start using more of the EC models, especially at a younger age rage. Yes. Mr. Thank you, Dr. Rasheed. I, I, I'm, I don't know if this is stretching a bit, but is there a way to anchor some of these assumptions around the data that we have in the surveys such
that we like, are, I wonder how many of the student respondents selected that they were interested in health sciences and public safety or STEM and the arts, or they selected all that they were interested in all of them. Um, would that be some, could we, could we see if, uh, if there are trends in the way that they're expressing their interest in the survey? I don't know how useful that is, but it might be nice to give us an indication of like, how we are thinking about the way
that they're responding in the survey at the highest level. I don't know if that is that you think that's helpful. I'm looking at my friends and razzy and they think would be helpful and we could, we could, we could play around with that and see what, what, what trends we can identify. Thank You. Would you agree? Yeah, I would agree. And also, I think we said this is just one data point. I know Mr. Slevin said that I said that. So we also have awesome data within our schoolings from our counseling team, and that is student driven. So I think that's another resource that we can tap into.
And quite a few students have participated in that more than this unique survey. So I think that's another data point, um, that we could really dive into and look at, um, as we continue to grow pathways and programs. Um, I think we have some great data at our fingertips. Yes, Ms. I'd be curious to find out, I, excuse me, I know that Schoolology, they have a section where you do career interests. Have we any way of going through that and seeing what kinds of responses there are from students,
um, when they're presented with that? Because I know they're interested in looking at career pathways and that might be another data point based on what we're finding out. Are you referencing school links? Yes. So that's, that's part of what, um, Ms. Clark just mentioned. Um, and I just acknowledge that, um, there's, there's continued opportunities for alignment between the conversations we're having here in school counseling, and that's work that's happening now between Dr. Grubbs and, and Ms. Ross and the, and the school counseling office to make sure we're asking the right questions using the tools that we have. Thank you. Appreciate that.
Okay. Thank you so much. Um, and now moving on. I think we are done with this item. So I wanted to, I think, did we have any new business? Anybody have any new business? Okay. All right. I wanted to thank Mr. Refe for his thoughtful and engaged participation on this committee for the past two years and your commitment. If you had any final words to say before you, we adjourn, adjourn the meeting. No, I, I really wanna thank staff. I think this is, I mean, we've come a long way when it comes to all our special programs and all of our CTE pathways.
I'm very excited about what's, what's ahead for LCPS in this regard. Um, and this is one of the most creative spaces that I've been able to have. I'm not gonna go as far as saying it's the best committee. You still, you still can't, I'm just joking. It is one of the best committees. Um, but I really appreciate, um, you know, all of everyone's dedication and hard work. Um, and I'm sure I will have thousands of questions that I will, uh, be able to ask my fellow school board, well, my school board members, um, as we go on. But this is exciting. Yeah. Thank you. Appreciate that.
And we appreciate you Mr. Phy. And with that note, our next meeting is not scheduled yet. Am I right, Mr. Slevin? Correct. We will schedule after the, um, organizational meeting of the board, and we'll go from there. Okay. And so unfortunately, we cannot mark your awesome calendars right now. So if there's no business, I entertain a motion to adjourn the meeting. Uh, yes, Ms. LeBel, I move to adjourn today's meeting. So move by Ms. LaBelle. Do I hear a second? Second. Seconded by Mr. Refe. Alright, those, uh, that are in favor of adjourning, say aye. Aye, aye. Okay. See you next year.