Present Dr. Armstrong here >> Dr. Armstrong present Mr. Berkin >> Mr. Berkin present Mr. Castile Castile present Miss John here present Dr. Clark Dr. Clark is present that >> Mr. Harris Mr. Harris present Mr. Hollis
Mr. Holl is not present Miss Holloway Holloway is present Miss Meerine Melerine is present Mr. Vars >> Mr. Mars is present. You have a quorum. >> Uh, thank you, ma'am. Uh, next item, please. >> Your consent agenda is ready for approval. >> A motion to receive.
>> Holloway. >> Uh, Miss Holloway and Mr. Harris. Any objection to the item? No objection. Motion passes. Next item, please. >> Your first item is on page 13, item 3.1, consideration of an update report regarding artificial intelligence in Louisiana K12 education. The
recommendation is to receive. Right. Can I get a motion? Uh, Mr. Burken, Mr. Harris second motion. Uh, and I understand that there is a report. >> Yes, sir. Dr. D. Benedetto will make this presentation uh relative to uh some
of our work on AI over the last couple of years. >> Updated backup was distributed. >> Good afternoon everyone. >> Good afternoon. >> Um, yes it is afternoon. Okay, I got it right. Um, we
very good. Thank you. Right. Um, as they said, Adam Deminadetto with the department. I'm director of academic innovation and I am happy to update you all today. kind of a state of the union, if you will, of where we've been with artificial intelligence and these technologies and
our initiatives and efforts as an agency. So, um to begin, I would just like to give a brief overview of our timeline. And so, uh kind of what we've done since 2022, honestly, uh before I even came into the role. So, in November
of 2022, professional learning was provided for Zern. Um, and this was in anticipation of the roll out that came in January 2023 where all Louisiana students in grades K through8 received access to
Zern. In August 2023, the LDOE uh launched the Amira Learning Pilot. This was for grades 3 through 5, and this was an English learner pilot. In April of 2024, the AI task force met, which was launched around uh just shortly after I
began my position at the LDOE. We launched that task force and provided drafted guidance uh that was then brought to uh teacher leader summit in May of 2024 where over 800 Louisiana educators received that professional development
for artificial intelligence. very um very fundamental in that presentation providing them with a general overview of what some useful tools are and the work that the state was doing in this in this area. And then August 2024, the LDOE published the guidance which was
brought here uh to Bessie and then the Amira pilot was actually expanded from the 3 through 5 English learner for then for all students in grades K through five in uh January 2025. This one was a little bit of a late uh later start with
this uh particular pilot, but Conigo was launched as a tutoring pilot across 10 systems in Louisiana. And this was for high school grades 9 through 12. And then in June 2025, uh our most recent teacher leader summit, we were happy to
see that numbers uh the number of sessions around AI uh those those sessions were increased. We had we offered more sessions as I kind of mentioned in June. I came and gave a a brief mention of what sessions would be offered, but we had AI for leaders, for
teachers, and uh especially supporting English learners as well, and how technology could be uh leveraged to help those students and teachers do their day-to-day work. And so, we had over a thousand Louisiana educators who received professional development at Teacher Leader Summit. And all of this,
of course, is in addition to the work that we do as uh as often as I can. I like to get out and uh support school systems and those who request professional development on this technology as well. So today I would like to give the update on three
particular that I just mentioned in the timeline as well and I'll go into a little more detail about uh in reminder of what these particular programs are and what they do but I'll focus today on Amamira Learning KIGO and then Zern.
So I'll begin with Amira Learning and I am happy to give you a quick reminder of what this tool does. This is an AI powered reading tutor that listens to students read aloud, provides them with real-time feedback to help build fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension
skills. One of the newest features in a mirror learning is actually that this students uh the program can actually ask the students a question verbally. the students respond verbally and it can provide feedback to their answer whether it was correct or maybe they need some
guidance as to what the correct answer is. Um this was piloted uh in 37 school systems approximately 37 school systems across the state and at the end of 2025 uh at the end of that school year over
57,000 students were actively reading with Amamira which means that they were actually in these unique tutoring sessions if you will and receiving real-time feedback from the program. And then the number of stories read across the state of Louisiana across those 37
school systems uh that are participating in the pilot was 4.1 million passages being read or stories as air calls them. Many systems are already launching their use of AMRA this year. It is continuing and uh I've been able to attend some of those meetings and professional learning
uh around that program. And I want to note here, I know that number for active students looks a little low when compared to the licenses available, but um I I'll say first that this is compared to other educational technology tools. This is actually considered very high usage. And so we've seen that we've
seen some drop off here in this number because of the end of the year measurement. And so the numbers were a bit higher, but I wanted to give you a realistic number um as close to the end of the year as possible. So we have seen an increase. uh activation has been great for this so far as we've begun
this school year and uh we're excited to continue this project um and expand in some areas as well. Now I did want to discuss here uh some of the research that we've actually received since my last update to you all around Amir Learning. And so this was a
a study that was conducted by a third party, an independent research study um that was completed. It's a it was a study conducted by instructure and it was this was done to ensure objectivity and rigor in the um in the research. It followed the ESSA level two standards
which means that it meets those federal requirements for uh moderate evidence of impact. So it qualifies as ESA 2. And this means that they were able to um in this particular research and in this design, they were able to show moderate
evidence of impact with positive statistically significant effect on student outcomes through a well-designed and well-implemented quasi experimental uh study design. And so the sample size was over 79,000 uh K- through5 students across 12 school
systems in the state of Louisiana. And this was done using a matched sample. So uh these were students who were in uh similar with similar demographics. They were matched uh across those systems so that we would receive results that would be the most helpful in this case. um to
look at some of the results uh we were able to see that the study found in the key findings first they show that students who spent more time utilizing a mirror or engaging with a mirror experienced small but statistically
significant uh improvements in in reading outcomes and so uh we have some obviously some some work to do there with implementation to ensure that we're improving the impact that we can see here increasing that effect size for K uh for grades K through three, increased
usage was linked to slightly higher dibbles composite scores in spring 2024. For grades four through five, more time and more passages being read were linked to small gains on LEAP ELA assessment in uh in spring of 2024. And once again,
that was for grades four through five. And then across all grades overall, Amamira users performed modestly better than non-users on dipples K through three and LEAP ELA grades four through five. Uh though the impact size, as I said, was was not as the effect size was
not as large as we would like to see, we're hoping that through our partnership and continued work with Amir Learning, we will see improvements in that area. And so we are really tightening our focus and alignment with this particular tool. All in all, Amamira was uh Amamira usage was
associated with uh statistically significant gains when looking at both dibbles and LEAP scores. And these findings suggest that while AMRA is not a standalone solution, as I don't think anyone in this room thinks that it would be, um it does provide lots of help
where we need that supplemental tool that can help students improve in reading. And so particularly when we see usage consistent and embedded, we see uh we see that it needs to be aligned of course to a a broader literacy strategy,
but we see that the tool can certainly have value and we'll continue to improve upon that. The uh the next tool that I would like to focus on is KIGO. So I'd like to shift gears. I know it's a big shift now. We're going from
air to the high school pilot. But Kmigo is an AI powered learning assistant that's developed by Khan Academy, which is um pretty well-known company that supports students and teachers across various subject areas. Uh as I said before, this was for grades 9 through
12. And so we really focused on those subjects that had examinations at the end of the year that students would take so that they would have that real time support or um as Mr. Morris likes to say that they have that tutor in their backpack with them at all times. So if they have questions for clarification,
um they can pull that out and they can ask it a question. It'll provide them some feedback based on what it is trained on. And so the chart here provides some specific insight into the uh the usage in the months that we were able to use Conigo. We remember we
launched in January 2025, so kind of a late start there, but I think that these numbers are are truly impressive given that late start because we had 18,000 licenses available. Um, and we have we had over 5,000 of of those licenses being actively used. So that means
students were actively engaging with uh KIGO during that time and over 600 teachers actively engaging with the with the um with KIGO with that AI powered tutor at that time which can help with operational things, administrative tasks
and also planning efforts as well. So, as we move into the next school year, we will truly focus on um student and teacher engagement with the platform and collecting data beyond usage because while usage is a valuable number to know how how much the product is being
utilized in schools and in classrooms across the state, we want to make sure that we are aligning everything that we do all of our efforts especially with this technology to research. And so at the start of uh at the start of school there will be um it hasn't happened yet but we will have the launch meeting kind
of giving everyone time to settle in with the beginning all the beginning of the year festivities that we know occur right now during August. So um at the beginning of September we will have that launch meeting where we will have the participating systems come. Uh at the beginning of September we will also have
some visits to schools who are piloting this program. And so if anyone on the board is interested in um the more the marrier, if you'd like to come, I'd be happy to send those dates as well so that you could talk to teachers and students who are using um the program
itself. So uh with the pilot, I wanted to give a little more information to kind of give a direction of where we're going here. So, um, once again, we officially launched in January 2025, which truly marked an important step in Louisiana's efforts and initiatives, uh,
around integrating AI in the classroom effectively and safely. And so, over the first five months, we had we had 10 school systems who participated in that initial pilot. 18,000 licenses were u purchased across for uh, systems across
the state to utilize. Um and nearly 50% of the student students activated their accounts which is a strong sign of early adoption when it comes to educational technology like this one. And most notably 71% of roster teachers use the platform which means they actually use
it for one of the key features that the program offers. And this could be a lot of times it's it's around planning uh providing feedback as they're planning that lesson or um maybe it's uh how to activate student interest by making
something uh that they're doing in class relevant to a particular student and uh his or her interest and uh generally anything around instruction that they might need help with. And these early results truly help us better understand the potential and the professional
learning needs. So there are always lessons learned and I think that this has been an incredible touch point for lots of teachers, lots of educators across the state and students and we just want to make sure that we are keeping in mind scaling programs like this certainly takes a lot of work and a
lot of thinking. So we want to make sure that we are always looking for how we would scale this and provide the highquality professional learning that we would want around tools like this being integrated in our classrooms. So, a little more information about uh
professional development. From January to May 2025, uh Khan Academy delivered over 22 professional unique professional development sessions um to support the Conigo pilot and systems were also provided ondemand asynchronous professional learning modules where
teachers, educators could simply go in and find the video or find the feature they want to learn more about and do that just when they have time, a few minutes here or there. A lot of the videos are very digestible. They're not very long, so it can be done very quickly when they have a few uh moments
to spare, which it's not always, I understand, but once again, the the videos are short, and lots of teachers gave positive feedback on the asynchronous modules that are available. And then we also had the con team do regular check-ins with the school systems. The con team did come down uh
for Marty Gro and provide the schools who were using the uh the platform the most had the highest usage. They provided them with king cake and uh came down to visit and received lots of great feedback especially from the students who who saw that you know this wasn't
just a program now but there there are actually people who work behind the scenes to make this program happen and be be able to be uh utilized in the schools. And so, uh, exciting things happening in our high schools and I'm glad to see that that we were able to provide this particular tool for our
high school students. And then looking at, um, our our conversations with school systems and technology personnel, I know that, uh, Mr. Morris and I had the chance to visit Livingston Parish, uh, where they've especially um, kind of taken the idea and and been able to run
with it and provide lots of professional development. uh the teachers voiced that they were very confident in using the tool and integrating it in their work day-to-day work. And so what we want to ensure is that when we have uh tools like this that are being implemented,
everyone has a seat at the table and we are all having conversations, especially our educational technology personnel at the at the school system level. We have educators at the table and we we have our um our folks who are going to focus on the privacy standards that we want to
upkeep in piloting anything that uses this type of technology. We have all of them at the table at the onset. We've noticed that where that has happened, we have had greater adoption of the tool and usage uh as a result of that. And so
um as we as we continue we will see uh just to give you an idea of what some of the topics were uh the topics were that were covered in this professional development. We had uh con MIGO just an intro. So teachers who are or educators who are just kind of wanting to learn
the fundamentals what some of the features are that could be used that session was offered many times. They alo they also offered uh the students perspective and so giving educators an idea of what the platform looks like from the student side giving uh teachers
an opportunity to play around with that figure out some of the features and and kind of what feedback they will be receiving from the platform. And then also one that was obviously a fan favorite was time-saving techniques using con MIGO teacher tools. And so
these were features that were helping them as I said in their day-to-day tasks. Um I would like to now provide just some I have some quotations here from various uh teachers leaders from across the state. And so uh during one
school visit uh one school system visit a school leader shared uh with us that students cannot put something into conigo and have it give answers and complete the work for them. We looked we looked at the flags as it flags content if it's deemed something as
inappropriate um for copying and pasting and how to determine whether it is something to be concerned about or to dismiss. And so to kind of connect this to our guidance, this this quote from this uh Louisiana school leader truly speaks to one of the biggest concerns
that we've all heard, I think, uh about this technology, which is uh the concern about academic integrity, uh cheating, plagiarism, all of all of those things, especially uh when it comes to misuse of the tool in that way. And so this leader
truly explains how KIGO is providing a another resource to students and it's not certainly not encouraging them to misuse the uh platform in any way. It actually flags those conversations and sends the entire log to uh whoever the
school administrator is. So the teacher school administrator all the way up to the district level of who's uh being the administrator of that program in that particular school system. And so we see that through the use of the product, we're actually seeing students learning,
okay, that was obviously an inappropriate use of this tool. So here's how I need to adjust in the future. And teachers can see how that particular tool is being used for their class. Um, and once again, it it's not being used as a shortcut, but it's being
used as a mechanism to help students and have another support system in place for them. And then the next quote that we have is from a high school teacher. So in this case the teacher said that sometimes as teachers there are little things that we need to complete or
create but we don't always have the time to do it. Kigo helps with that. It is a gamecher. So what this teacher is describing is the type of support that I was talking about when it comes to planning and other administrative tasks that um typically take a lot of time for
teachers. Um, I I know I think back to my time in the classroom and especially teaching elementary creating those uh the agenda, creating a weekly newsletter, things like that took time. It didn't take a lot of time all the time. But something like this would
provide a quicker way for me to input that information, tell it what I'm looking for. if that's not exactly the output that I wanted, put it back in or prompt it again to make some changes and revisions and then come back to the table and say that's exactly what I
needed. So, um, having this as a tool is certainly something that aligns to our guidance because we are now asking teachers to enhance what they're doing, enhance their practices by using it for things like operational tasks that would typically take a lot of their time. and
then they have more time to focus on what's the most important which is instruction. And then uh another quote finally um we have some more insight from Louisiana high school English teacher. I chose this one because this is an English teacher and um typically when I speak
with English teachers, they have lots of concerns around um using this to write essays and different writing assignments. And so the teacher said, "I gave my students KIGO as another resource. they can ask it questions if they don't know what's going on and
start a conversation. And so this reflects how teachers are um truly encouraging students to take ownership of their learning and learn how to use the tool by simply using it to help them with their assignments, not to do their assignments for them. And so once again,
this is serving as a as a supplemental support. certainly not taking the place of the teacher, but it's providing feedback where maybe that teacher um can't get to that student right now, but that student can go to KIGO and say, "Hey, I need help with this particular
uh assignment or this particular issue. Um what support can you offer?" And so, um one of the great things we see in Conigo as well is where it provides suggested prompts for students. So if they don't know exactly where to get started, it provides them with those initial prompts and prompts along the
way to help them decide what the next questions are that they need to ask. And all the while, whether they realize it or not, they are becoming better prompt engineers in in creating what the input is that the program needs to give them the output that they're looking for.
And so um the final one, uh is from actually from a student. And so uh this particular quote uh is from a student in St. Bernard Parish and the student said, "KIGO will ask me what I know and if I say I don't know, it'll break it down
step by step." And so this is another notable quote and I'm glad to have included this quote and spoken to this student to hear this insight um because this is an example of students understanding that AI is giving them the just in time feedback or the uh the
personalized support that they need. Um they're receiving once again that real-time feedback and it's individualized to what they need because they can in fact tell it what it is they're looking for. And if they're not sure about that, as I said, the uh the prompt assistant can help with uh help
them with formulating what it is that they're looking for as an input. Um, now to shift gears a again, sorry to do this again to you, but we're I'd like to give an update on Zern. And I I I will preface it with I know that a full update will be given on Zern uh at
October, Bessie, but I wanted to provide a little bit uh of information about this program and what we've seen as far as usage goes and then also some impact research that was done uh for this particular platform. So just as a quick
reminder, Zern is an online math uh platform. It provides support um it provides support in real time much like Amamira and others do um that is aligned to highquality instructional materials. And so this is providing them support in
understanding conceptual uh concepts in mathematics increasing fluency and it's designed to help them uh students move forward in their math journey as I can tell you I wish that something like this were around when I were in elementary
school because I did struggle in math which is probably why I became an English teacher and here I am telling you lots of numbers and so math certainly comes back around and you have to know how to use it. So, um, when it comes to rostered students, we have over 300,000 students who are rostered in the
state of Louisiana. Zern is available for, um, for all students. And at the end of 2425, um, over 270,000 students were active in Zern. And so, that is uh, some great usage for this particular platform. I
believe we are in year four of this being done uh, statewide. And so we've had a a great runway and so to see this usage is incredible. Um and then students engaging the way Zern works it's a little bit different than um how we measure Amira or usage in con but we
look at students engaging in 90 or more lessons and so for uh this particular school year uh 60 almost 62,000 completed an average of three lessons per week which equates to at least 90 lessons for the year. And so, as you'll
see in just a moment, um, in the impact study, this certainly comes into play as far as usage goes. Um, but to give you a little bit more about the study design before we get there, this, uh, the center for research and reform and education at John's Hopkins University
recently conducted this particular research. And this is a study that confirms earlier comparative analyses for Zern and the impact of it as far as lesson completion goes on student achievement in math. And so this study was focused on students uh at schools
who were part of the accelerate tutoring grants during the 24 23 24 school year. And this study is ES level one um evidence of impact which means that it demonstrates a positive statistically significant effect on student outcomes
through a well-designed and well-implemented experimental study. And so for Zern some of the key uh the Zern study some of the key findings uh were the ones here that are on the screen but I'll break them down a little bit more. So um of the students in the accelerate
schools when matched to uh students in non-accelerate schools who did not use Zern we found that or the research found that students meeting the three lessons per week average completion or about 90 lessons per year performed about six points higher on the LEAP assessment
than the matching student who did not use Zern. This was true across all student groups and students meeting the lesson per week average completion that 90 lesson per year total performed almost five points higher than students
using Zern at a lower dosage rate. So as you can kind of see as uh with Amira and Zern here um the dosage is certainly something that you have to get right with this to ensure that it is being that supplemental tool and certainly not imp placing uh replacing core
instruction. All in all, Zern usage was again associated with higher performance on the LEAP assessment. And these findings along with earlier Louisiana research studies on Zern suggest that the tool serves as an impactful supplemental math learning tool
alongside healthy core instruction in the math classroom. The LDOE um is continuing to partner with Zern, scaling out the implementation and coaching support of the tool piloted in these particular school systems. And more will
be shared um as I said in the statewide implementation uh discussion in October at Bessie. And so as I reach as I near the end of my presentation, I would just like to give you some next steps that we have.
Um so this year we're continuing to build our research agenda um that keeps student outcomes at the center of everything we do. And so as you saw in the timeline, we've we've covered a lot of ground very quickly. And I think this is a great moment for us to really focus
on what we're doing and make sure we're doing that well. And so this means that we're not only evaluating um what's innovative and what's new, but what's effective in helping move the needle, not as a um a sole uh solution for uh
you know, all of the things in education, but certainly as a supplemental tool that can help us to move on the right track. And so we will explore some um some additional some new programs um that utilize AI and we will have some pilots uh for use in Louisiana
that have strong evidence ratings. And so where there is not research, we will certainly um request that that research be done as a part of the pilot programs. But to kind of flesh out some of the details a little bit more, um first we will continue refining our research
agenda and and keep student outcomes at the center. We will aim to explore some different programs and pilots for use in Louisiana that have strong evidence ratings. We will actually launch a uh career and technical education pilot utilizing an AI program. And I look
forward to sharing more details about that one as I as they come to me um hopefully in the coming weeks at our next update. And we're also beginning a writing program pilot um that will focus on uh middle school and this will focus
on supporting English teachers and English students um across the state in many systems. And this will be a program that will be embedded in high in the HQIM in the high-quality curriculum that's being used in those particular systems. And finally, we are going to
prioritize uh coherence to ensure that all of our pilots are certainly aligned to um what we are doing on the day-to-day and supporting school systems and instruction. And so, um one that I'm really excited about is we will have a
vetting process that we will launch. This will be essentially a rubric, if you will, where we will have, um we will intake these particular tools. Um, we will have lots of uh requirements that meet all of the security standards that we feel are necessary to ensure that
we're putting uh safe tools in front of students across the state of Louisiana. And we will make sure that they meet the instructional needs as well. And so we will focus on, as I said, focus on having a a problem of practice that we need to solve in mind as we move forward
with adopting new tools and having new pilots launched in the state. So really tightening that focus there. Um, I know I've shared a lot of information with you just now, but um, I I just want to kind of give uh give a little context and make this come back to the the fuller picture here, which is that all
of these initiatives are really uh building blocks. I know I gave a lot of details, but they're all the building blocks that we need to create this and maintain this firm foundation that we have in moving forward in the innovation and in the innovative work uh that we're doing at the LDOE and in Louisiana as a
state. And so, um, what I've shared today serves as that foundation and we will continue to add, um, add pilots and add, uh, update our guidance as needed, provide support to school systems as needed to ensure that we are having students and having teachers, employees
engage with AI powered tools in a way that is effective and it's meaningful and it's aligned to the work they're that they're doing um, day-to-day. I I wish I could tell you what this would uh this would clearly look like in in 10 years and 20 years, but as we all know
that's a little bit unpredictable, but I think that we've certainly set uh set a foundation and a strategic vision that is we're integrating this in meaningful ways in the classroom. We are having um we are getting lots of feedback. We're providing that we're working with
vendors who are certainly more than willing. I just had a meeting yesterday where vendors are willing to create what it is that we need. So, um, as I as I conclude my presentation, I I have my inbox provided on this slide, but I would also just, um, as I know the board
may have questions, I would also just like to ask the board if there is anything that you would like to see in particular piloted, um, any particular programs that you have interest in. If you don't know of any right now or you can't think of any, please email me and
I I'll be glad to certainly get that onto our research agenda so that we can start to look into those particular uh programs. >> Great. Thank you. Uh comment from Dr. Armshaw. >> Adam, I just want to tell you, you said two critical critical things to me that
I appreciated and you repeated them over and over. number one that AI is a supplemental tool. It's not a curriculum and our students are still using following their standards, following their curriculum, but using this as a
tool to support that. So I I found that very meaningful and the fact that you also said um that you are providing support because I think our teachers and our systems need that support, that
training, that knowledge, that sharing of experiences. So I think what you're doing is great in supporting our school systems and I thank you for that. >> Thank you. >> Great, Mr. Appel. >> Thank you. Uh well, Adam, you we've
shared some emails lately. Um you know, I disagree with you slightly on one of your last statements, which was that we can't project 10 years out. Um a little story. 20 years ago, I was on a small school board uh and school a board
of a small school and we were debating um laptops I pads um and everybody was, you know, we were old-timers. What do we need these things for? Well, today, 20 years forward in the future, they're ubiquitous. They're
everywhere. And it's kind of the same thing with AI, I suspect. Um my suggestion might be that what we need what what we really need is a vision of where we want to be in 5 years, 10 years and 20. Now we may not
know in house what that looks like but we may have in the state the and maybe nationally the resources to tap into to get that vision codified. And what I'm talking about is we have se a number of
doctoral institutions in Louisiana. uh maybe we we need to do is have a conclave of higher ed folks uh and then tap into people resources. I know for instance that Meta and Google and these other big institutions
will work with the state on future um you know future goals and I just think we need this big vision of where education is going to be in 5 years and in 10 years and 20 years because I suspect it's not going to look anything like you it is today. Uh, and in order
for us to be on the cutting edge, we've got to be we've got to have strategies to get to those points and we can't wait for them just to happen. So, what we got today is a bunch of models or trial runs of software packages,
but they don't fit into a grid of future education uh structures for Louisiana. So, and maybe this resolution goes that you may not have seen the resolution, but we got a resolution here. Maybe that goes
to a long way toward what I'm talking about. But my suggestion is that we somehow or other call together the best and brightest in our state and maybe nationally and we try to craft that vision four, five, 10, 20 years out and
then build our model out to that rather than just reacting to whatever the current uh best thing going on today. So that's kind of all I want to say. And like I say, maybe maybe this resolution is a step in that direction. Um but I I
don't think we can react. I think we have to be proactive. That That's my goal. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Other comments or questions from board members? I know Mr. Morris has some comments or questions. Mr. Mars.
>> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh so, first of all, I just want to commend uh Dr. Deenet Deinadetto. Uh I know you're a oneman shop. Uh it's a lot of work and it's moving really fast. Uh so just want to commend you on on your efforts. Appreciate your outreach to the to
school districts throughout the state, you know, giving them an opportunity to uh experience uh and recognize the value in these tools. As Dr. Armstrong said, uh extremely valuable tools, you know, uh the value of the tools is recognizing
knowing when and how to use the tool, right? Um so I have several thoughts here uh elaborating on your comments. Uh so the the first one for me is you know the tools that we've seen uh and you and
I discussed we we've discussed with teachers and whatnot just really impressed with the fact that uh the ones that you guys have piloted they're they're closed loop applications right so so school administrators school leaders don't have these concerns about kids going out on the internet and going
places they don't need to be um and uh and the fact as you said also that uh you know with these tools there's basically Every student has a tutor in the laptop, right? Just think how just think how what that impact is for a teacher. Every kid in my class has got
their own tutor, right? You're the kid in the back of the class that's zoned out and you're lost. You're too embarrassed to ask the silly question, right? Now you have the ability just ask your tutor. Nobody knows you're asking the tutor the stupid question. Right? You got the opportunity to re-engage, get back in the conversation. You're
unloading the teacher. Um and and then you mentioned u about how these tools the feedback you got from teachers and how it's saving them time. I wanted to reference a uh Walton Family Foundation uh Gallup study that was conducted and
released recently said that um frequent users of these AI tools save an equivalent of six weeks of time during the school year. uh and so this is early implementation of these tools and this is the feedback that we're getting from
these teachers. So you know things I read in the media as this technology rolls out globally across every industry on the planet that we're going to see 20 initially we're going to see 25% or so of these entry level white collar jobs
disappear because of the efficiency that the tool brings to these industries. So you ask yourself well where are all these people going to go to work? I I I would posit that a lot of them are going to look at a educator pathway because the efficiencies the tool brings to the
educator pathway. It it unloads the teachers. It'll it'll write my lesson plan for me. I don't have to go home and grade 100 papers tonight. Uh um student productivity is going to pick up. It makes the job more fun, right? It's more fulfilling. I think it's going
to be a draw. I think school personally I think that school districts that uh uh um that do develop the the PD in their school districts so that our educators are AI literate and they've got the
closed loop applications that that fit with the to support again Dr. Armstrong to support the curriculum, right? Those school districts are going to have a competitive advantage for recruiting and retaining teachers. I think that's a value that we don't want to underestimate, particularly with the U
situation we have right now with getting a certified teacher in every classroom. There's there's a huge value here and getting that message out to our school districts so they can appreciate those opportunities for for PD. And as you said, as as your team works to vet uh
the the incoming vendor gold rush, you know, on on this technology that's getting rolled out and you vet those applications, you you know, you can tell school districts that they're closed loop, don't have security concerns. Here's an estimated cost. Here's your estimate for PD support, etc., etc.
Um, and I wanted to share one particular experience that that you and I had that really touched for me as we were visiting with uh one of the Livingston Parish School Districts. The uh teachers were sharing with us their PowerPoint, all the things they were impressed with with the software experience. And I
said, "Okay, let's let's take it to the dark side. Uh, go to the prompt and tell it I want to commit a crime." Right? So they do that and Kigo comes back and says, "Well, you know, there are a number of different ways you could address this problem, but if you're really thinking about committing a
crime, I suggest you go contact an adult immediately." Okay. Then the principal comes in with his laptop and he says, "You know, I got a text from Kamigo recently. There was a concern about stacking dead bodies up against the wall." So he followed up with the with
this with the student and come to find out the students doing some research on Gingaskhan and back in the day Gingaskhan was stacking up dead bodies against the wall. But at the end of the conversation what you left with was the school administrators had confidence that it's a closed loop system. There's something internally that's flagging in
inappropriate uh concerns and and I get the heads up. Uh so that there was a lot of value there. Um, so, so now we get to, okay, Bessie, what are you going to do? That's kind of where my head's at. Um, to provide the direction that, uh,
Senator Appel spoke to. Um, so those of us that were able to attend the the secretar's visit uh last week, um, you know, I asked her about uh any kind of guidance that she could offer with regard to uh President Trump's executive
order of April 2025. And um I don't know if folks have read that executive order or not, but uh basically he set the runway for for AI implementation and K- through2 education in the United States. Um and and now
we're at a point to where this thing is moving so fast, we've got to decide, Louisiana's got to decide, are we going to be on the plane or we going to be on the bus? It's one or the other. and and if we're not ready, if we don't have uh
our ducks in a row with with all the deliverables that we need uh whenever the president's task force uh provides that definition, um if we don't have it ready to go, we're going to be on the bus. Uh I know
that we all want to be on the plane and we want to be in the front of the plane. Um so, so uh to Senator Pel's point, I drafted a a resolution. want to offer it to our our members. Um, advancing artificial intelligence education in
Louisiana. Um, I reached out to a number of different educators, number of different uh experts in the industry. Uh, got uh comments from some board members, captured Dr. Clark's uh recent comments on ethical considerations. Uh
and so I wanted to uh offer those to the board uh to provide us some direction so that when those funds do come available that we'll we'll have those funds available so that we can scale these opportunities across the state of Louisiana so that every student has that
touch point for that tool. All of our teachers have the the PD so they they're they're AI literate. they can carry the conversation and and and they can make those choices for which of those software applications are the best fit to support their instruction. Um, so I
don't know, do I need to read this, Mr. Castile, or we can just say it before the record or what's your thoughts? >> It's a long resolution. It's a very appropriate resolution. Might be lengthy to read. Um, I think the public needs to know what it says. So, we certainly need
to to publish it in some way if you are not inclined to read it. But uh I think it's worthy of the public's view. >> Okay. >> Do you have a preference? >> I I do not guidance. >> Uh it is a it is a long resolution to read, but having uh said that if there
are no objections, I would ask that it be published. Um all board members have had an opportunity to review it in advance. Um and if you want to summarize it a little bit more, then we can uh we may want to take and take action on. I
see Dr. Clark uh uh looking as if she'd like to offer some additional suggestions and guidance. I I think it's being pres Yeah, I think it's being presented for approval and so I think uh Mr. Morris points out that um
it is not yet a public document and we're about to take action on it. Mr. Morris, any other opinions with respect to it? All right. >> Yep.
>> Yeah. I have a few thoughts and Mr. Morris and I have talked about this many, many times, so this is not a surprise to him. Uh I'm I I have no problem with a resolution on AI. I definitely think that um uh we need to make sure that we're prepared uh as best
as we can be as this moves forward. Uh this is why, you know, when were you hired, Adam? >> 2023. Yeah, in 2023 we uh shifted some stuff around. This is why we've been running pilots. A couple of thoughts on the on the resolution. One, uh it it it
begins curriculum integration. I just want to point out the to the board that the department um nor Bessie selects curriculum um for school systems. Uh on number two, would like to mention that if we're going to establish a state
level vetting process and clearing house for tools, curricula, professional development, and provide districts with guidance on these things, it it very much reminds me of our process for the instructional materials review process. Um but with that, we we do have a budget
and a process where we select teachers across the state to to um use a standard rubric to do that. So there there would probably be some level of cost associated with developing the clearing house. Um and then the same would be
true on educator training. Um our teams push in for support and we hold our annual conference every year. But most of the training that we provide as an agency um is either legislatively um pass training such as the reading or
the math training or it is us leaning in on the vendors to make them provide training if locals are purchasing their product. So I just want to set out that we have might have some limitations uh there as well. >> Thank you for that superintendent. Um
Mr. Castiles had recommended I guess that I just go ahead and read the uh the resolution for benefit of the public. So if you would bear with me, I'll try to do this as uh best possible. Uh so uh so whereas on April 23rd, 2025, President
Trump issued an executive order titled Advancing Artificial Intelligence Education for American Youth, declaring is the policy of the United States to promote AI literacy and proficiency by integrating AI into education, providing comprehensive AI training for educators,
and fostering early exposure to AI concepts and technology to prepare an AI ready workforce. Whereas artificial intelligence is transforming every major sector of the economy and shaping the future of work,
civic life, and global competitiveness, preparing Louisiana students for this new reality requires that educators have both a foundational understanding of AI and access to instructional resources that are age appropriate, standards aligned, and relevant to Louisiana's
workforce needs. Whereas the state board of elementary and secondary education in collaboration with the Louisiana Department of Education, local school systems, and higher education partners plays a critical role in fostering digital innovation in classrooms and
ensuring equitable access to highquality AI instruction. Whereas the consistent evolution of education requires occasional updating of expectations, practices, and accountability, and Louisiana should be positioned to lead in this arena.
Whereas scalable AI education solutions such as modular curriculum resources, interactive learning tools, and professional development programs can enable all Louisiana schools, regardless of size or technical expertise, to
integrate AI into teaching and learning. Whereas advancing AI education is a critical workforce development strategy, ensuring that Louisiana's graduates possess the technical skills, problem solving abilities, and adaptability
needed to excel in high demand careers across emerging and traditional industries. Whereas Louisiana's public colleges and universities under the leadership of the board of regents offer opportunities for collaboration in teacher preparation.
micro credentials in continuing education that incorporate AI pedigogy and instruction. [Music] Whereas public private partnerships will be essential to ensure students and educators have the technology curriculum
and industry engagement necessary to to thrive in an AIdriven economy. Now therefore, be it resolved that as president of the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, I hereby call upon the Louisiana Department of Education, guided by an
ongoing research agenda informed by industry best practices, credible organizations, pilot programs, professional experts, and educator feedback to advance AI implementation in K K through2 education through the
following actions. Number one, curriculum integration. Promote the integration of AI education across K- through2 curricula and identify age appropriate resources aligned to state standards. Number two,
vetting and guidance. Establish a state level vetting process and clearing house for AI educational tools, curricula, and professional development programs. provide districts with guidance and recommended resources and assist local school systems in evaluating and
adopting adaptable highquality AI learning solutions. Number three, educator training. Expand AI related training opportunities, micro credentials, and ongoing professional development to prepare and support
teachers and school leaders. Number four, pathways for students. Coordinate with Louisiana higher education leaders and K- through2 partners to develop seamless AI learning pathways that prepare students for
workforce success, college, careers, and civic life in an AI enabled world. And number five, ethical standards. Thank you, Dr. Clark. Ensure that all AI curriculum tools and partnerships adhere
to clear ethical guidelines that protect student privacy, mitigate bias, and promote responsible use. Students must be taught how AI systems work, including their strengths, limitations, and potential biases, and
be encouraged to question AI outputs. And lastly, be it further resolved that Bessie will work collaboratively with education leaders, industry partners, and policy makers to ensure that Louisiana students graduate with the skills, knowledge, and adaptability
needed to compete and lead in rapidly evolving AI landscape and affirms Louisiana's intent to be an early and active participant in any federally funded AI education initiatives. positioning the state as a lead partner
in multiple state in multi-state or national collaborations, consortia, and grant opportunities arising from the president's executive order. Thank you, Mr. Castile. >> All right. Uh, thank you, Mr. Morris. And to the extent that that is being offered as a motion for the board to
approve, it's why I ask you to u to read it. Uh, the board is going to take official action. Uh, with that resolution, I think you're going to offer a motion for the passage of the resolution, which I'll seek a second. Um, while I'm not legal counsel, I would also suggest that to the extent that we
we've had a few very good resolutions that have been proposed lately, that those be made available to the public in advance. That way, we can save time on having to read them and and we can also get public comments to the extent that there is public comment. Um, so so having said that, Mr. Morris. I take
your reading of the resolution as a motion. Is there a second to Mr. Morris's motion? All right. Um there is a second to that motion. Uh but we also have another motion. So, uh Mr. Appel, uh following your guidance this morning,
we need to clear out just a motion to receive the report that was made by Mr. uh uh De Benadetto. Um and so can we have first is there any objection to the motion to receive? All right. Um there's none. Uh there is
some public comment. I'm going to get that in just a second. So uh and then finally with respect to the resolution, I've got two public comment cards and to the extent that you want to comment on the topic broadly and more specifically
comment to uh Mr. Morris's resolution will allow that uh as well. U Miss Melerin uh Mrs. Melerin, do you have any comments as I invite up those to speak? Can I'll say who those are. So there's only one person who wishes to speak. Mary Beth uh Derekson uh from LI
supports uh the recommendation which was the report but does not wish to speak uh Dr. Erin Bindley u uh supports the recommendation and wishes to speak. And as Dr. Bley makes her way to the um uh to the table, Miss Melerin, Mrs.
Melerin, if you'd like to make comments, please do so. >> Am I making comments to Mr. Morris's motion or to uh the presentation? >> Either one. >> Okay. Um I really appreciate Mr. Morris's enthusiasm and leadership on to in this AI field and you know helping
shepherd Bessie forward in this endeavor and I do think we should be thought leaders on AI and visionaries on it. With this particular motion though, I do have some issues that Dr. Brumley pointed out broadly and I would love if we could take this motion and work with
LDOE to uh solve some of those issues uh mainly the curriculum integration mechanism u number one is you know we we don't issue state curricula so I think that is a concern for me and right there and then the vetting and guidance that
funding mechanism is not present you know we are under LA doge orders to you know look at cutting 10% of our budget so my questions are, you know, do we have a funding mechanism for the items that are directing action in this motion? Has that been worked out? So,
those are just my thoughts, but I do share the enthusiasm for Mr. Morris on these, but those are two concerns that I have regarding this and also have some concerns about funding the educator training that's put in there. So, those those are my primary concerns with this motion. I am thankful for Mr. Morris and
him bringing it, but I would like to see that he works with LDOE to alleviate some of those concerns before this board passes a motion that requires action by LDOE. >> Thank you. >> Could I speak to the >> And yes, Mr. Morris. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, I just want to be clear.
Uh this is not a fully funded motion, right? The the idea here is to provide basically uh a vision for path forward. Uh I don't see it personally um as a commitment of any specific uh dollar
amount. We're not guaranteeing anything is going to happen. Uh the idea is to provide uh help members and the general public in the state of Louisiana to appreciate uh how fast this thing is moving uh the value it brings to
educators and to students um and to hopefully bring uh community leaders, industry leaders throughout the state together uh to work on the initiative. It it's certainly going to require funding. um that that's why the document
was put together so that we would be well positioned uh whenever the federal funding is made available. Um so I just want to be clear on my intent there, but h happy to work with LDOE on on any additional tweaks uh that they want to make, but uh I just want to be clear on
on that particular comment. >> Thank you. Thank you both. Uh Dr. Armstrong >> in listening to all of the discussion because we've had you know several on AI and how to move forward. I do appreciate Senator Appel's thought process of
pulling together experts in this area that can kind of help guide us in the direction that we need to go rather than us mandating or telling the department what we need to do. I'm not an expert in it. I'd love to hear from Dr. Dr. De
Benadetto and his task force or his conclave of experts to give us direction to work with the department on that. >> Great. Thank you, Dr. Armstrong. Dr. Bendley, >> thank you for the opportunity to speak. Aaron Benderly with the Pelican
Institute for Public Policy. We really appreciate the excellent presentation on this and all the work that's being done to be a support for schools across the state because not only is AI an incredible learning tool, but it's everywhere. It's all around us right
now. This is going to be a part it is a part um of our daily lives and will be for our students even more so. Um it is the future of workforce that um these students will be competing for jobs. um
AI will be a part of that and it will be um really important for them to be proficient in AI just as they are in reading and math and science and social studies. Um and it's the future of our economy which we want to be competitive not only here in Louisiana but certainly
um as someone mentioned earlier for our country in this in this race that we're in in technology right now. Um, we support the resolution, the spirit of the resolution and the majority of of the content within it. Um, it's not policy, but arguably it is a directive.
Um, and we know that where there's no vision, the people perished, a scripture in the Bible by the wise man who ever lived. But another person who was also very smart um and I actually consulted AI to figure out who said this. Um is
that a vision without a plan is just a hallucination. Um Grock says that was Thomas Edison. Meta AI said it was Henry Ford. Chat GPT said it was Willie Jolly. Whoever said it um you know was a smart person. All
of that to say that, you know, there is real work involved um in doing the things that are in this resolution. I was at the department when we started the instructional material review process um convening experts from all over the state um who knew enough about
their content area to do the job well and had the time to do it. Um and people don't work for free. Um so um we understand that this is something that you know this is likely a start a lot
yet um will have to be figured out um until we get to the point that this you know these things can be done fully. That doesn't mean it's not worth doing. It just means some additional conversation on the how is going to have to happen. Um I think the what is is
pretty obvious um um that that's the direction we need to go in. Um, but I do hope that whatever the will of the board is, whether that's to address these issues today or to come back and do it in another meeting, um, to not lose sight of this, uh, we do believe that
this is something definitely worth doing. Um, and hope that you all and the department can work on the plan to figure out how to make it a reality. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Benley. I would underscore something that Dr. Benley said that this is a resolution. It's not
policy. So um to the extent that it informs it u makes requests of Bessie uh the department it is it is it only carries the weight of a resolution as opposed to policy. That said Mr. Justin
Obni with OBni AI supports the recommendation wishes to speak. >> Uh thank you for the opportunity to speak. I will admit I am new to this side of the world. I've been longtime in tech. I've been a software engineer for
about 17 years. Most previously I was a CTO of a payment processing company. So very familiar with uh a lot of details. >> You speak a little louder into the microphone. >> Is this better? >> It better. Yes. >> So okay awesome. Okay. Oh wow. That's a lot
better. Okay. My name is Justin Obnney. I am the CEO of an AI education company. We teach developers how to build this into their systems. And we know it's going to come down to confidence in the accountability that they have to have with these outcomes. I'm also a father.
I have a six and an 8-year-old. I became obsessed with AI about two years ago, teaching my then six-year-old how to read. At the time, I was a CTO of a payment processing company. As I mentioned, I tried to get a job with Kon Migo on that team. When that didn't
work, we started our own company. And so, we work with developers. We built an education course about a lot of this stuff. We build AI for companies because we do realize this is where it's going. And we really think that AI is going to make a place hopefully for the uniquely
human. And that's kind of our job. It's to use this technology to to both let it take away the parts to where we can focus on things like targeted training, targeted tutoring, and really bridging that gap for our our kids. So, I guess the biggest thing I want to
say is we believe so much in this. We took on homeschooling because we believed we finally had the tools to make sure we could do what we needed. So, it's very important that we do get a lot of this into the education of kids and that we really have a hand in it. In building systems, we have to realize
that we have to build systems that are going to build people. And so that is going to be their world. We have to build systems that as KIGO ask them questions on how they got there because someday when it is their job, they're going to be responsible for the answers that these things produce. And so we
need to keep people sharp. And I guess the I don't really know exactly where else to go with this other than showing my support and offering to be in the conversation in a lot of these like you mentioned. We are trying to do that across the spectrum. We've partnered
with LSU. We've started an AI engineering meetup that meets monthly to get the word out there. And so any other opportunities to really get this into our education system, we're willing to be involved with, including this resolution because of what it signals.
>> Thank you, Miss Abney. All right. Great. Having uh heard all of that, are there any objections to the motion? >> I I I appreciate Mr. Tastile that you're indicating that a resolution is not policy, but I know Mr. Morris um and
>> he's not policy Apple >> and uh he'll the next question will be and when can we expect the next update on >> Mr. If you could um I got some feedback from >> if I could finish. >> Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. >> No problem. Um I just want
>> Is that figuratively or real? >> Both. >> Okay. I want to I just want to be very clear that that at this point the department runs a very um uh structured process that I would envision doing for
something like this which is our IMR process for curriculum. That process is not a free process. That process takes talent. Adam is a one-man team. And so I just want to be very clear with this board and and setting expectation that
there there is not funding available to create that at this moment. So we can we can talk about how that might look, but actually putting that into place is going to take some effort from all of us to secure whatever funding that might require.
>> Is now the time? >> Now would be the great. So to address uh Superintendent Broy's concern and uh Miss Melerin's concern, she's offered uh a tweak to the resolution uh to remove the word uh curriculum integration from
uh Okay. So now I'm going to bring it up tomorrow. Okay. Where do we land? >> It it sounds like what I'm hearing, Mr. Morris, is that Mrs. Melerin would like to offer a motion to defer until
tomorrow and have this item placed on the full board agenda so that the two of you can work on those edits to bring back to the board for the full board's consideration. Is that your motion, Mrs. Mullen? >> That's my motion. And I'll explain. I do think this work is important but I want it to be in such a posture that we can
feel very comfortable with the resolution and that LDOE can carry out the items and be a leader in that and we can support them appropriately with the resolution. So if we can work with LDOE um with Dr. Brumy myself and you tomorrow we can bring get this in a
better posture that we'll all feel good about and will set forth the board's vision and AI leadership that we're trying to achieve right now. >> All right, that's a motion. Is there a second to that motion? Mr. our seconds. Um, we got a few of those. Any objection to uh the motion to defer the item. All
right. So, that should clear out uh that item. We'll pick that up tomorrow. Look forward to an updated draft of the resolution for consideration. Uh we also approved the motion to receive the report. That takes us to our next item. Next item, please.
>> H 24 item 4.1. consideration of type two charter applications in response to the 2025 request for charter school application as recommended by the state superintendent of education. The recommendation is to approve Louisiana Key Academy Jefferson with conditions as
outlined and deny uh Pine Prairie Charter. >> All right. His recommendation motion to approve make it a motion. Um um Miss motion from anyone from the board. Uh
Mr. Burkin moves. Mr. Harris seconds. Uh so we got a motion and a second that now um puts the motion in a procedural posture that we can hear the report from the Department of Education. Okay. >> Thanks, Mr. Castillo. Uh Miss Gillson
will give this report. Thank you, Miss Gilson. All right. Thank you, Dr. Brumley. See, as a charter authorizer, Bessie conducts a yearly and midyear request for application cycle for charters. As you
know, you serve as an authorizer for type two, four, and five charter schools. The written law and your bulletin 126 requires you to implement a comprehensive application process that is fair, rigorous, and executed in a
timely manner. If a charter is approved, the department and Bessie staff begin the process of executing a performance contract between the charter board and Bessie. The RFA process began earlier this year with the application window opening in
February. We received eight letters of intent and three applicants meeting eligibility criteria to move on. During the June meeting, three applicants presented their proposal overview to you for their charter. One applicant
withdrew from the process and two moved on to complete the entire application process. Just a quick overview of the application process. There is an internal application evaluation and that is done
by content experts here from the department. There is an independent third party who conducts a capacity interview and a thorough evaluation and review of the application. An additional review of information and
data is conducted by the LDOE and a final review of the third-party evaluation and subsequent applicant responses is completed by the LDOE. Just a reminder, the use of the third-party evaluator is outlined in
statute and in policy and the department uses the educational consulting company Schoolworks to complete its third-party evaluations. And now I'll move on to the recommendation. The school's mission, we're talking now LA Key Academy Jefferson. The school's
mission is to identify and educate students with dyslexia in its community so that they can reach their full potential. LA Key desires to open August 2026, serving students in grades 1 through 4, eventually expanding to
grades 1 through eight. LA Key had five unmet standards before their final response and review. The department recommends approval with conditions. one, completion of all pre-opening requirements set forth by
the department and two, development of a strategic academic improvement plan made with consultation from the department to address SPS performance with specific targets in the areas of mathematics through continued collaboration with the
LDEO's office of teaching and learning. That's the first recommendation, steel. Okay, thank you. Uh, questions, comments from the board. Dr. Armstrong, >> do we have matched samples of students
from dyslexia students in traditional environments compared to a cluster of dyslexia students in other schools? Because there's other schools that address dyslexia. Do we know how those students are performing? So, we do have
other schools that address dys dyslexic students that are not specifically for those students, but we do not have any data that pulls out the dyslexic students at a traditional school. That's what I think you're asking to compare. We are trying to get that, but currently
we don't have that. >> Okay. And I'm just asking and my concern is the three years in some of the other schools as an elf performing school. So, I didn't know how those students performance really compares to others.
Do you know why they were denied with the third party evaluator? >> For us, for our for school works for uh at the department, you must meet all standards. So, you must be at 100%. If
you're not at 100%, then the third party is going to recommend denial. So they had five unmet standards after they had gone through the third party. They then are able to submit a subsequent response and after that response they were only
down one one unmet standard. >> Um Ms. Holloway >> um I do I'm not sure if I can ask questions now or are we going to hear someone else? >> Yes. Now please >> now. Perfect. Um, all right. I have
questions in regards to um the approval. And of course, I do want to commend um Laura. You know, we've worked for several years on this on her her efforts, her dedication. However, my question here, Germaine, is in regards
to Jefferson Parish denied them. So, the question was why? And have we received anything from them? So what we're required to do to make sure that they meet the eligibility to even apply as a type two is to have board minutes
stating that they have actually been denied. We were able to go into Jefferson Parish's board docs pulled that they in fact had denied LA key. When we pulled the um third party from theirs, there really is no specific they
actually met all of the standards there. And at the top it says recommendation to deny. And so there there wasn't anything, Miss Holloway on there that says, "Oh, they didn't do this. They missed this standard." It's very vague
um that I was able to pull up as to why they did not. I have no idea, but the superintendent did recommend to the board denial and the board approved his recommendation. Am I missing something about um the district turning in a formal letter of
denial and why or approval or of some sort? If you had to go to the minutes, I don't want to get into that, you know. >> Well, I will say this, when they submit when LA or any nonprofit submits an application, they must also include it.
We simply go in to make sure that it's the one that's there. So we do our due diligence and we go into the board docs. It is included with their the actual board minutes. It's included when they apply to us. We just simply go back ourselves to double check it. Okay. In
regards to school works denied because of five uh standards that they missed. And so I see there's financial issues. Um, and also it talks about the uh the founding team capacity, but then
I I was trying to find what were the other three. I know they don't have a building intact to begin that expansion. >> That was not one of the standards that was missed as it relates to the finance. There was a finding and an audit. they
were able to submit a response not just to the third party but also they submitted a response even to our finance team which was accepted. Um as it relates to the capacity of the leadership schoolworks did not believe that they answered all of the questions
that they needed to answer. When they then submitted their subsequent response it all of those questions were answered. um the location, you might be able to ask um the actually the applicant about the location, but I know that they
actually had two uh different places that they were considering and so they may have finalized that. >> Okay. Because I think that's one of the requirements they should have. >> Well, they were able to present to us two different ones and and so I think it was just they were at the negotiation
phases of which one of those locations it would be. >> Okay. And then we go into the conditions of the strategic plan. And so the question is um the we're already mandated to teach
all content areas, you know, in in subjects. And I know in the past that there was a concern about not teaching math or LEAP wasn't given. So all these thing these thoughts have come back because of from where we were back then
in setting up a a framework for them to now. And so when you look at the scores the school performance scores and I had I made sure that um the board members had a copy of the school performance
scores and Baton Rouge has three Fs in a row. three years and Ketto has an F. Key Northshore has two Fs. I'm talking about two years in a row and for 24 they
declined still enough and also Northshore declined. So the question is how I'm h I'm struggling with expanding a school that has three F schools and do
we have anything in place and if not about allowing a school to expand with these low performing scores? >> Yeah. So I can answer I will say this um
if one just looked at the three years that you're speaking of and the scores and stopped at that I think 100% you would say well what would be the reason why the department would recommend this. If we look a little further we would see that they actually have two B's for
their progress letter grade. If we dig even deeper on a Bessie approved alternate framework, they actually made 80 out of the 100 points that you require, which actually allowed you to
approve them for three years. So, we have two different things. I will say this, you you already know we we want less than 1% of our students in a DRNF school in four years. So that's not something that we want which is why we
actually are saying one of the conditions is we want a strategic plan that we are going to hold you to to make sure that students are performing because they have to take the leap. I don't know of any instance where we have students or we have a report at this
school where students were not given the leap. If if if we had that I think we would I would have >> well that has happened in the past. and and that's why I I'm here talking about this because of knowing how we've worked together
>> in the past with the math believe etc and then setting up the framework. So when you're looking at the framework that has been set up and I think it was like maybe in 17 and this gives the opportunity for the children for the for
the school to have that um advantage of showing the effort of school improvement and this is max and not only key academy but max charter. So we're looking at a a matter here. is like what
can we do to help support these two schools especially these three that we're referring to and for expansion how can we answer to the public that we have three F schools and approving an
expansion of another >> so a couple of thoughts there one is um this particular school is a school that serves a specific population of of students um
um that are dyslexic. >> Sure. >> Um so it is a a student population um that I don't think anyone would argue needs specialized levels of support. >> Um the the letter grade arguably I can't
um obviously I would want that to be higher. There's no doubt about it. Um, but you know, these particular students and their families, and I'm sure you'll hear, I'm sure there might be some parents in the audience, but they they feel like they have a home at this
particular school setting that they may not otherwise feel that they have elsewhere um because of the uh because of their dyslexia. If you look at the um growth scores on these schools, as Miss
Dillson indicated, I believe they're they're B they're a B for for growth on that particular part of the store. And I someone put this on my desk, the alternate framework. Um the alternate framework which is used
for key and max is used for renewal purposes. That's what's used for renewal purposes. And when Key Baton Rouge came through the renewal process, I believe last year or the year before. >> Yeah. This is what was used and and they
scored an 80 out of 100 which allowed them to earn a you know a base level three-year term. So um I you know it it goes beyond it goes beyond the the uh letter grade here I think in this
particular recommendation but also um it goes the fact that we have created a set of conditions that will will create I I would say an additional pressure point for the school to make sure they are improving. I would just like to have further
conversations later with with the two charters in regards to the framework and how can we help >> absolutely >> improve them. Thank you. >> Yes. >> Thank you, Mrs. Holloway. Other comments
or questions from the board? Looking to my left, looking to my right. Um, we do have a number of comment cards. I'll first read those um who do not wish to speak. Uh Erica Dukes uh with Louisiana
Key supports the recommendation, does not wish to speak. Uh Julie um Matagino uh supports the recommendation, does not wish to speak. Uh Eli Babino supports the recommendation, does not wish to
speak. Uh Naomi Chavis uh supports the recommendation, does not wish to speak. of those who do wish to speak to the item. Uh I'll ask that three four come three come up at a time. Miss Gilson, will you remain there or you will you will move?
>> Okay. Uh four will come up at a time. Uh Emun Sanderson supports the recommendation, wishes to speak. Cody Smith supports the recommendation, wishes to speak. I think this is Norman Chavis. I'm sorry
I can't read the handwriting. Supports the recommendation. Wishes to speak. And um Alec uh Grant supports the recommendation, wishes to speak. If you uh four would first come up, each take a
seat and then we'll begin with your public comment. When you make your public comment, please state your name for the record so that we can identify you and then you may proceed. We'll start to my right. Um, ma'am,
>> can you hear me? >> Yes. >> All right. I am Imani Sanderson and I have the privilege of being a mother um of Brillan Rogers who attends Louisiana Key Academy. She just started this year in third grade.
So my story is unique. For the past two years, we were living in Cerville, Tennessee. And though we moved there because the resources, they provided occupational therapy, they provided intervention, but over these
past two years, we had challenges. And what we realized through different assessments, my daughter has dyslexia. Within those challenges, of course, comes a sense of identity issues and other challenges that we dealt with.
I tried to help. I sought school systems nearby in Carville looking to see what are the options because as you know with dyslexia, you need specialized curriculum and resources. All of those options came with a price
tag of $25,000 plus dollars a year. I am a single mother that just not fit for my family. So I did what us good southern mothers do. We going to find something to help my child. So I looked and looked
and I found Louisiana Key Academy. And so in March we traveled down here and we visited the school. what let me know because I know we all talked about content curriculum and that's so important because I came to this
decision to attend not only as a mother but I'm a PhD student getting my PhD in educational studies of diverse populations with a concentration in health disparities. I've studied literature on diverse learners. So when I traveled and I came to this school, a
big thing for me, yes, they checked all the boxes and sport curriculum, but my daughter left saying I felt belong. I felt like I belong. I've never felt that accepted. That matters, especially in
those first couple of years as they're developing. Not just learning, but I feel a sense of belonging in my environment to learn. And so I made that decision to move here and we moved here in June. And since Railan has started,
I'm gonna say every day it's a joy seeing her joy and her sense of belonging and her talking about her school and why she's happy to be in school. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next.
>> Um, hello. My name is Aar Grant. Can you all hear me? Pull that microphone a little closer to you. >> This better? >> Yes. >> All right. My name is Alec Grant. I'm the first graduating class of LKA and
support it. Um I'm here to just talk about my experience being in the school for the from second grade all the way to 8th grade when I graduated and moving on to high school. Um before getting into that school, I was very behind. I didn't
even know I would graduate the first grade, I had to repeat kindergarten was recommended to and I did. Um, but uh, every grade I saw during the first grade as a child. Um, who was an F, a D,
you know, I'm a kid, but I didn't know I was going to graduate. I thought I would have to remain just like kindergarten the year before. I would have to remain and repeat that year. But thankfully, I got through and I moved on to the second grade. That's when a new school opened up. It
was LKA. And after getting tested, I found that I was di uh diagnosed to be dyslexic and uh my first day was just completely different from every other year of school. Um it was a completely different atmosphere and it
took me off guard for a little bit. I thought as though I thought as though that they went backward. They went over stuff I already knew. And I at first I was almost insulted. I was like, I should know this, but
um I very quickly figured out that they were just hammering in reading, writing, spelling. Not only did they teach me how to write in print, they taught me how to write in cursive because they believed that that one stroke of the pen for
every word helped dyslexics be able to read and write, which it did. I was able to go from those D's and Fs in that previous school to now making A's and B's. And I felt very confident with reading and writing all the way from
second grade to moving on to third, fourth, fifth, sixth, all the way to eighth grade. I made plenty of friends. I was perfect academically by the time I was out of the school. And when I did graduate as the first graduating class,
I moved on to Baton Rouge Magnet High School. Um, a very rigorous uh very rigorous school, but I still excelled there, proving that it wasn't just a fluke for seven years. Um, and that I was a bit smarter than I thought. Um, I
maintained being an AB student all the way through high school, taking rigorous classes, AP courses that allowed me as I graduated as a Magnum Kumlad from Baton Rouge Magnet High to go to L LSU and skip my first year because of all the AP
credits I amassed and I'm now still in college and making the best of it. So, I just I really recommend the school. I believe it's transformative to any student. >> Thank you. Great. Thank you. Next, please.
>> Hello. My name is Cody Smith and I'm the um special education director with Louisiana Key Academy. I have um letters from parents that wanted to support uh this mission but could not be here today. The first letter is from Miss or
from Dr. Trice Harris Lawson. She's the parent of two children, Carter and Cameron Lawson, enrolled in Louisiana Academy Northshore. It says, "I was first introduced to LKA a short while ago in 2024 when my oldest daughter, Carter, age seven, received a
diagnosis of dyslexia. As a parent, I was able to identify her early struggles in kindergarten with reading and mathematics and actively pursued resources and avenues to help my struggling child. However, I quickly discovered that those resources are not
readily available or affordable. My discovery of LKA began when it I was when it was recommended by the evaluator at Dyslexia Resource Center in Baton Rouge. As a current resident of Jefferson Parish, the thought of sending my child or children to school over an
hour away was not only extremely daunting, but instantly created many complexities. I have been challenged with not only the time constraints of driving 90 miles a day, morning and afternoon, but additional financial
costs such as gas and tolls. While I did not hesitate to make this extraordinary sacrifice, I am also disheartened that parents and children residing on the Southshore or near the New Orleans metropolitan area do not have access to the amazing teachers and resources that
LKA has to offer. Approving this proposal for a Southshore campus not only means an opportunity for my children but other kids whose parents are unable to make the extreme sacrifices it takes to receive a fair and quality education. Sincerely, Dr.
Chenise Harris Lawson. Another letter I have is from Miss Lynn Wyn. She and her daughter Carly Tran recently joined LKA after our family relocated from Dallas Fort Worth back to Baton
Rouge. LKA was an important factor in our decision to return and we are deeply grateful to have found such a wonderful school community. From the very beginning, the staff has been extra ex exceptionally welcoming and supportive which has made this transition so much
smoother for our family. Each day when we pick Carly up, she cheerably shares that she had a great day and she often tells us how happy she is that we move. Hearing this brings us tremendous comfort and joy knowing that she is not only striving, thriving, excuse me,
academically, but also cared for in such a nurturing environment. We sincerely appreciate the dedication and warmth of the entire LKA team and truly feel fortunate that Carly is part of this school. So, this is a parent that moved here from Texas. Then I have another
letter that's pretty lengthy. I won't read the whole thing, but this is from Miss Heidi Temple, another parent at our LKA Baton Rouge campus. It says, "Good afternoon. >> Just to let you know, your time has expired." That's okay. All right. >> Maybe you want to defer that last
letter. >> Okay. Okay. Um, let's see. This this student had a previous um horrible experience at school, but since she's been at LKA, she's thriving. Her confidence has gone up and she feels supportive, whereas in her previous
school experience caused her great anxiety and she is still in counseling for that. Um but it has improved since she's been at L. >> All right. Thank you. All right, Miss Chavis. >> Good afternoon, everyone. Hello. My name is Morgan Chavis. I'm the mother of
Naomi Isabella Chavis. She's a fourth grader now at LKA. Um I am completely for Louisiana Key Academy. Um reason being just in 2023 my daughter was diagnosed with dyslexia. Um at the same
time I was fighting well I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease and at that time I was you know still in school and I was pretty like perplexed on what I was going to do and I was living in Houston, Texas. I'm originally from Kansas City, Missouri. Um, and so battling health
issues, I told myself, let me go back, you know, home to Kansas City to be near to my family, all the while, um, trying to address the whole facts of my daughter um, having dyslexia, getting her an IEP, and getting all understanding what dyslexia really is.
Um, once I went back home to Kansas City, um, and I started doing my research there in Kansas and Missouri, they did not have any, um, dyslexic schools except for one, and it was a private school, and the tuition was $30,000. And I had to make a choice
between the 30,000 or 20,000 for my treatments. And so, of course, I was not able to um, afford that. And so, um, once my treatment was over, I moved back to Houston, Texas in 2024, and I continued with my daughter in charter
schools and public schools. And there was minimum um, she would get a little bit further, but it was starting to affect her mentally and emotionally. And so, she started to begin um, therapy as well. And um, there was only so much that the public school and that um, the
charter school that she was going to that did not specialize in dyslexia could do for her. And so I got to a point where I'm a person that I'm very solutionbased. I took her out of school and because I work from home, I started to tutor her myself. Um finding out that my daughter was two years behind her
grade. Um and I was not informed in any of the AR meetings. Um how you know desperate she was like how far behind she was. Um, and for 6 months I homeschooled her. And then I started doing more research around the country
and finding out that there's only 5 to 10 schools in the United States that is not um tuition based. The rest are between 30,000 to 70,000. And the more further up north and east you go, the higher it goes. Um, and so I happened upon Louisiana Key Academy, but at the
same time I was thinking about going to San Antonio and I signed up for celebration. I was put on a wait list and still have not been, you know, informing. So I went ahead with Louisiana Key Academy. I moved here from Houston to Baton Rouge. Um I just got did away with all my things and I moved
here and it has been a great experience for my daughter. Um she is learning and it is one of the things that is I know I have nine seconds but it is one of the things that is very important for children. I came here also with Teach for America and I um assisted with Big Buddy um through my practicum this
summer and there is a desperate need um for the kids in Louisiana um for their literacy and and becoming more literate. And so I am very for pushing for this and I encourage you all to
accept Louisiana Key Academy for Jefferson. >> Thank you, Miss Jay. All right. Thank Thank you all. Next up, I'll call four more. Uh, Andromeda Love supports the recommendation, wishes to speak. Joseph Marino supports the recommendation,
wishes to speak. Megan Lei, uh, supports the recommendation, wishes to speak. Bo Sheridan supports the recommendation, wishes to speak. And I'll call one more up. Uh, Amanda Francois. And if the, uh, following I I'll keep
the last four for last. Mr. Castile, as they're coming up, may I ask Germaine another question, procedural question? >> Sure. Absolutely. So a question that I have and just help me understand because I know that with our charter schools if
we have low performance scores over a series of years we have closed quite a few of them with the as I think I understood this morning that this year's SPS scores will be coming out in October.
So if we are showing growth in the three existing schools in those October score uh scores would it be too late for this school to come back to us for any consideration?
So remember their renewal is not based solely on SPS. You actually have a Bessie approved alternate renewal framework for them. >> Okay. So even when the scores come out and one of their schools comes up for
renewal, you're using the framework that you all have the copy of. And so they look we look for at least 50 of the 100 points. >> Okay. >> So theirs is totally their renewal process is different than just the SPS
>> then. Okay. I just need a clarification. Thank you. >> Right. Great. We'll start to my right and grab that microphone and pull it towards you. Uh, state your name and keep in mind the time limit that's on the screen. Uh, I'll I'll try not to
rudely interrupt your conclusion. >> Good afternoon. My name is Andromeda Love and I'm the chief academic officer for Louisiana Key Academy and I just wanted to speak with you all briefly about some data points um to talk about the growth of our students. So we know that for students with dyslexia their
core deficit is in the area of phological awareness and that is the strongest indicator for their ability to access the language system. We assess phological aware awareness using the ctop um looking at all of our three campuses comparing their performance
from 2324 to 2425 we see that our students showcase um very solid growth in performance and phological awareness. our Baton Rouge campus. So, our 75% of our grade levels move into or remain in the average range for performance. At our Northshore
campus, um all of our grade levels maintained average range performance across all grades. And at our Kado campus, all of our grades either reached or stayed within the average range. So, after students get to the average range in those phenology skills, which we just
spoke of, then the focus becomes on increasing their reading fluency. Um, these two reading acquisition skills are gained in first through fifth grade. Looking at performance of our third through fifth graders at all of our schools, they all showed double-digit
growth in their reading speed. So, their words correct per minute that range from an increase of 14 words to an increase of 44 words. Um, before moving into LEAP scores, something that I want to add just as a caveat that LKA works with
students who have moderate to severe dyslexia. We are a tier three program our whole school and our goal is getting students to prepare to return back to a traditional school. So one thing to keep in mind is that as students make progress including on the LEAP
assessment they do move back to a traditional school setting. At that same time we continue enrolling students who are significantly behind. So when thinking about that that often happens in third to fifth grade which are of course leap testing years. So, as
we're losing higher performing students, we're also bringing in those lower performing students. Um, additionally, the LEAP test is timed and it has a multiple choice format which assumes fluent reading which makes it a very poor measure for our students. However,
across all of our campuses, ELA ELA performance showcased um consistent and meaningful growth. Um, our KTO and Baton Rouge campuses posted double-digit gains in average scale scores in several grades. and our Northshore campus
showcase se um steady overall improvement. Um across all of our campuses, our third through seventh grade ELA scores increased by an average of 13.5 points. Um in regards to math, we give the MAP assessment
and on that assessment um from last school year, we saw growth in RIT, mean and median in every grade level across every campus. >> Great. Thank you, ma'am. >> Yes, Senator. >> Yeah, a couple of quick questions. Uh,
number one, you cited that um the goal is to trans to have kids transfer back to traditional schools. So, do do you track their success rate? First of all, how many do transfer? And then of those that do transfer, do you have any idea
of the success uh as they go forward? So we don't have a system in place to track every si single student. Students transition at different times. Usually students will transition in that time from fifth grade to sixth grade because parents feel like
it's a good space because everybody's going to a middle school. And with us being a first through 8th grade school, all of our students have to transition by high school. So it really depends on where the student is when they come into our school, how long, how severe their dyslexia is, and the parents preference.
All of that kind of goes, >> but you have no record of tracking their performance as they move into high school in the traditional school setting. >> Yes. So, we do have that data on a smaller scale. We don't have it on every single student who has graduated from LKA, but we do have that on certain
students as far as their transition into high school. Um, we have had some of our eighth grade classes who are now moving into college as you saw with um ALEC. So, we do know just it's just not as I'm sorry. I think her microphone cut out.
>> Sorry, >> that's better. It came on. >> So, we don't have that data on every single student, but we do know from continuing um communication with our families and our students that we do have students who go on to a variety of different high schools. Um most recently
I heard from about four families where um students went to schools such as Woodlon, Madison Prep and so on. Um some of them are continuing on to college to major in criminal justice. We have one who took classes in high school to become a CNA. So she's starting that and
wants to move forward with a four-year degree at some point. And we have another student who graduated from Madison Prep and is moving forward with a career in welding. So, we don't have that for every student, but the students that we do keep in contact with and keep up with, we feel that they have um
really great success. >> And then the other thing was I I should have looked it up. I apologize, but the um recommendation was, as I recall, I read it yesterday was that uh approval based on um a plan
to Yeah. Go ahead. Go ahead. Tell me tell me what Tell me what I want to know. So >> the approval based on the pre-opening conditions which are established by the department and then second the strategic plan that focuses on math uh and also
that be something that we would actually help them develop >> and that's for the the existing schools. That's for this. Well, actually the schools that are existing, we had already started a plan to work with them because of course we want to see these
scores get better and so we will do this for the new school should you um actually approve the charter. >> And do you have any results on that plan for the existing schools or is it too new? >> Well, too new and we're waiting on some beginning of the year data.
>> Okay. All right. Thank you. Great. All right. Next up, Mr. Marino. >> Thank you. Uh, my name is Joe Marino. I've served as a state representative uh with some of our Bessie members here. I didn't
enjoy with Mr. Appel, but that's okay. Um, because I was in the house and he's a senator. Um, I started with Dr. Laura Cassidy with bills. uh in 2020 I think was the first one we passed where we revised and
updated the definition of dyslexia. Um I'm not I'm not an educator. I'm not my background is not in education. I'm a criminal defense attorney. But we came together and we started working together and I've passed many bills uh in the last uh five six years that had to do
with dyslexia and improving identification so that we can identify these children so that we can start testing them and and to your question uh ma'am I don't know your name I'm sorry the the the failing schools you have to recognize that what I learned about
Louisiana Key Academy is they're taking all these students from schools that have not they were not diagnosed with dyslexia and failed their way into Louisiana Key Academy, failed their way into going to this school for them.
They're taking students that are grade levels three, four grades behind and starting over with them. So yes, academically you might not see that they're performing at the highest le level, but they're taking and they're feeling a need for a specialized
education and and I did serve as a uh Jefferson Parish Councilman earlier this year on an interim basis and while I was on the council, we passed a resolution which we sent to Bessie where the entire Jeepson Parish Council
is supporting this application for Louisiana Key Academy to come to Jeffson Parish. The councilman who took my place that was just elected is also in support of the Louisiana Key Academy coming to Jeffson Parish. I also brought a letter from Lorie Slaggel, who's the current uh
chairman, chairwoman of the House Education Committee. She's a Jefferson Parish legislator as well, supporting the Louisiana Key Academy and asking to please bring that to our parish to to to meet this crucial need. But what I
learned in talking to a lot of other families as well that from people that go there, when you're a child with dyslexia and struggling and you don't even know that you have dyslexia at other schools or even when they do identify you and then you start getting accommodations, you're different. You're
not like the rest of the kids. You are not you're there's something different about you which kind of stigmatizes them. But that doesn't happen here at K Academy. They sorry they belong
and it's important their confidence. I don't know why I'm getting emotional, but we want and need this school in Jefferson Parish, and it will make a difference.
I'm going to stop. I'm over time. >> Great. Uh, thank you, Representative. Uh, and I do note that we do have the the letter from, uh, Representative Schlaggel, uh, who is chair of the House Education Committee and also represents this particular district. Thank you,
sir. >> All right. Next, ma'am, Miss Lei. >> Uh, no, I think she left. >> Oh, she left. >> Shared. >> Bo Sharon. >> Bo Sheridan. Thank you. >> I'm a current parent of an LK of two LKA students um that are here in VR. And the
first thing that I want to say is it's not about the test scores. It's not about the test scores. And I'll tell you why. I live in Central. My school is an A+. My school is A+. They're everything. We're state champs in football. I have
every reason to send my kids to central schools. And I don't I choose to travel to Baton Rouge because they started in central schools and like you said, they were failing. They were doing 30 minute interventions out of their classroom.
When my third grader got to LKA, he couldn't even write his full alphabet. That's an A+ school for you. And that's what they're not learning. I currently have an 18-year-old that's in Central High School. And guess what? Due to the Disabilities Act, he doesn't even have to take the the leap. He doesn't have to
pass it. He failed it and now he's bypassing it. So, what does that say about even an A+ school that that kid isn't even having to worry about test scores because it doesn't matter. And it truly doesn't. These kids are there because they are being encouraged. They
want to go to college, not because their teacher told them they couldn't read or they're making D's and Fs. Their teachers are encouraging them every day to, hey, what do you want to be when you grow up? How can we help you get there? They want to be a civil engineer and a pilot. They're already doing things that
are helping them get there. They're taking these steam classes. They're taking classes that are going to help them in high school be prepared for what they want to do. And so, I think we need LKAS in every parish. I would love to see it in my own community. I've talked to my own schoolboard members. What are
we doing about dyslexia in our current schools? Nothing. 30 minute interventions. And now I think they're even doing away with that because it's technically like you're judging kids. So now they're just bringing Paris into school. I have a kindergartener that's
currently at Central. She goes to she's in first grade at Tanglewood. She is already showing signs of dyslexia. You know what they said? We're gonna have an extra teacher come in her class every day and just walk around and, you know, kind of watch over her and what she's
doing. Next year, she's going to LKA. Like, that's what where we're headed because there is not there's not enough people in our school system currently to help this whole school. That's all they do. Every person there understands that
the these kids have dyslexia and they understand that it's going to take them a minute to read. when they got there, like you said, they were failing. They wanted to hold my kid back. In fact, I did hold him back. And now looking back, I shouldn't have. I should have just let him go to the next grade at LKA because
you know what? In his ELA class, he had six kids. Do you know what it's like to be in a room in reading with only six kids versus 25 in like a public school? So, I mean, I'm all for it. I'm all for having them everywhere. Put LKA in every
school. Sorry I'm so passionate. >> Thank you, ma'am. All right. Uh, next up. >> Hi. >> Go ahead. >> All right. Mine. Can you hear me? >> Yes. Introduce yourself, please. >> Amanda Francois, and my, uh, speech
might sound a little bit different. So, um, as you can see, I have my Spock fan on. If anybody's a Star Trek fan, um, it was actually recently revealed on Star Trek Discovery that Spock is dyslexic. Yes, Spock is dyslexic. Um, and his
mother Amanda reads Alice in Wonderland. Um, to show him that because in Alice in Wonderland, up is down and left is right to show her son support and that his
perspective matters. This is my son, George. And he matters. He runs track and he participates in Boy Scouts of America. I'm sorry. He loves music. His favorite
bands are the Beatles and Fleetwood Mac, especially after he found out that Mick Fleetwood is also dyslexic. So there you go. He wants to be a Disney imagineer and create rides and special effects. He is
important. He is awesome. and he is dyslexic. Before Ki Academy, I had a child that felt defeated. LKA has made George feel important every day. He gets the support both
emotionally and educationally that he needs there. They champion effort. Effort. Just effort. And as my husband says, and our family motto is, it doesn't have to be perfect. It just needs to be your best. And if that's
your best, then that's awesome. At KI Academy, they celebrate his accomplishments. And I don't hear all the time just focusing on how he's falling behind and all the things that he's doing wrong. George says that LKA is helping him
learn how to use his superpowers. And to me, that's awesome. As board members and educators, we know that y'all are taking care of thousands of children. And I get that. But this one right here is mine.
This one's mine. And you want every child to succeed. And we do, too. As parents, I'm going to bring it back to Mr. Spot. The only thing that we really want for our children is for them to live long and
prosper. And I think that my child will definitely be able to do that with the support that he's receiving from LKA. I have no doubt that he will. >> All right. U Thank you all. Thank you very much. I'm a Star Trek fan, so I'm
trying not to try not to do something, you know. >> Mr. Castile, I have a question for Andrea. I'm not quite sure. James. >> Okay. If I may, I'm not quite sure I heard correctly, but if you can clarify,
and I'm asking as a veteran professional educator, there was a statement made that the board and the administration didn't think that the students could perform better. Is that what was stated? Can you clarify? I just want some
clarity on that. >> Sure. So I I feel like unfortunately there's a misinterpretation of the work that we're doing. So for our students, as has been discussed, the students that come to our school or students who have experienced
academic failure for years. So as we think about those students, we know that their outcomes may look different. So, we know that they're using kids with dyslexia are using an inefficient system in their brains to read. We know that
they're always dyslexia doesn't go away. We know that they're always going to be slower readers than someone who isn't dyslexic. So, they may not meet a average percentile on a certain assessment. But for us, our goal is to make sure that each student is meeting
what is individually their best. And that's going to look different depending on how severe their dyslexia is. And our tier three program is targeting moderately to severely dyslexic students. We may have some students who can get by with dyslexia in a
traditional school system through a tier one program. Our program is targeting the kids that get left behind in each school. So when a school has an A on the LEAP, we're pulling out all the kids who would bring that score down. So for us,
it's so much more than just a score. But because even with knowing that our goal is still to have our kids be successful and that looks different for each child, but as I talked about, we may not see certain growth that we would expect for someone who's not dyslexic, but our kids
make growth in the areas that we're targeting, which is increasing their phological awareness, increasing their oral reading fluency. And even though LEAP is something that is not an appropriate measure for our students, it's not something that is easy for them to do, there's things built into the
LEAP assessment that make it very difficult for a dyslexic child to do. We still work with them. We still provide support even on that assessment and we still see growth in that also. So while our students growth may look different, we are very passionate about being that
place for students who don't have somewhere else to go. So I just wanted to make it clear that and to understand your statement because as educators we believe every child can learn and succeed but I I was picking up on uh am
I understanding that they don't think kids can succeed beyond so you clarif thank you for your statement right we have a few more uh Hunter Leighton uh supports the recommendation wishes to speak Arian Dukes supports the
recommendation wishes to speak and then the last two u Caroline Romer um to provide information only wishes to speak and then um Dr. Laura Cassidy supports the
recommendation wishes to speak and we'll we'll start first uh with Mr. Leighton if you would state your name and you have three minutes. >> Okay, thank you. Can you all hear me well? Yes. >> All right. Good afternoon everybody. My name is Hunter Leighton. I uh I'm in my
senior year of high school at Woodlon and man. Um I went to Shannidoa Elementary up until second grade. Every morning before school I would be crying and jittery
like shaking like actually like physically shaking before school every day. Like I I hated school. Like I really did and it messed me up mentally at a young age too. Teachers did everything they did
they they could do to try and get me on track but it was like I was behind like I couldn't catch up. And I'm so grateful for my parents. They got me tested. They were trying to figure out what was the problem cuz I'm I'm a
smart kid at home. What's going on in the classroom? Um, they found I had dyslexia and after looking into different schools, we found LKA. It's like an immediate like change. Like
within my first day of school, I was expecting to be the same way, shaking and scared and crying. And it was an immediate change. Like I'm lifech changing. I was happy to be there. I was learning like I I was top of my class like
succeeding. This is a huge change. Imagine how my parents felt you know what were they going to do with me if I continued staying at Shannido Elementary. I went to okay up until my eighth grade year
and afterwards I was fully prepared. I went to Baton Rouge High and I got student of the year my freshman year. I graduated with a 4.0. I felt so comfortable at school. I was
stressed out, but I mean that's because of how much I like applied myself. Um afterwards I switched schools to Woodlon to pursue basketball cuz I figured, you know, I only have so much time to.
But this school really did change my life and my parents' life for the better. It really did. And I believe that not having it expanded is taking away the ability for other students like me
for their lives to change and their parents' lives to change. Thank you. >> Great. Thank you. Next, Miss Dukes. >> Hi, my name's Arion Dukes. Um, and I'm currently a senior at Liberty Magnet High School where I have a 4.0 an 0 GPA
and I also have a 27 on the ACT. Um, and then my super score is a 28. And I would just like to say that LK really helped me become the person I am today. Without them, I don't think I would be able to achieve everything that I have in high
school. And I truly believe that LK has helped me um be more prepared than some of my peers in school. Although I do go to Liberty Magnet High School where our I think we're a school. I'm pretty sure
um I am scoring better than the kids who don't have dyslexia and that is a true like showing to LK and how much they helped. Um, I remember one day at LK I was
struggling with like a writing assignment we had and my teacher came and sat by me and she was like, "It's okay. Like, everyone struggles with everything and you're special because you have dyslexia and you view things different than other people." And since that day, every time I have struggled
with an assignment or struggled with spelling something or pronouncing something, I always think of her. Um, and it really just showed me that it's okay to be different. And it's really nice that I had someone in my corner because one thing I can tell you about
being at such a big school is that there isn't enough people to help people who are struggling and there's a lot of kids that go unseen in schools and they just end up failing out or they feel dumb or they feel unseen. And I think that LKA
is really showing, you know, families and students that it's okay to have dyslexia. We're going to help you. You're going to get through it and we're going to work it out. Um, so thank you. >> All right. Thank you, Miss Romer.
>> Good afternoon. My name is Caroline Romer. I'm the executive director of the Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools. We're a membership organization uh supporting, promoting, and advocating for charters across the state. Um I give
this speech every year and it's been 18 years. Um we don't as an organization come to the table and support or um not support recommendations around applications. That's not the work we do.
Instead, we work with authorizers like the Department of Ed and Bessie to ensure that we create policies that recognize what charters are about. And I think you've heard that today from this particular school. Charters are about
giving families choices in particular when families don't feel like they have choices. Charters are about giving educators the opportunity to innovate and make decisions as close to students that they're serving as possible. But
it's all backed up with accountability. And the idea is that we set high standards and high expectations. Our goal is that all children meet their full potential. And that potential is going to look different across all kids. And we know
for a fact that not all schools can meet the needs of all students. And so to create special mission charters brings us joy. And we have all kinds across the state. Some doing foreign language, some doing STEM, some like dyslexia. We have
charters that are serving students with severe and profound needs such as autism. So that idea again, special mission, understanding not all kids need the same thing, that choice for families, it's very powerful. And I am
so happy to see these families here and be happy, right? And and feel like their students are getting what they need. Uh but I say to you again, I think we have work to do around the accountability. If we believe that all schools are
different and that they may serve students in different ways, then how do we create frameworks and policies that will recognize that? Because your job at the end of the day as an authorizer is to have a rigorous process that clearly
sets the expectation and then figures out how to measure the data. Datadriven decisionmaking. A lot of times in education, it's very emotional. Families want their schools to stay open. Happy schools, happy
families. It doesn't always mean though that things are getting done in that building on behalf of students. So, you need policies and measurements that give you the data you need to know if this school and future schools
deserve the privilege to do this work. And so whatever you decide here today, just know that your decision impacts your future decisions. And what I try to remove when I'm working with people like Miss Gillson, when we are working together, it's trying to remove
subjectivity and get to again measurable outcomes and then just be consistently clear on what those expectations are and how you measure them. And so whether it's Key Academy or some other
applicant, Louisiana has one of the most rigorous application processes in the country. We created and put in law the requirement for a third-party evaluation because we felt like to put independent
eyes on an application and remove all the politics all the again subjectivity everything else and just to the best of our ability on a piece of paper does it make sense to give an organization this opportunity.
What I have seen over the years is we are not consistent when we accept the third party evaluation recommendation and when we don't. Some have missed 30 standards and they get approved and some
have missed two and don't. So I do believe we have work to do and I want to compliment Miss Gillson and her team. We work very closely and full agreement on the need to be consistent around those things. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Dr. Cassidy. >> Okay. Um I'm Laura Chaff. Some of you >> pull those microphones a little closer to you. >> How's that? >> Much better. >> I get two of them. >> You get two. >> Okay. So, I know many of you. I don't
know all of you. I'm Laura Cassidy. I'm the interim CEO of LKA and I've been with organizations since inception. So, um my background is as a physician. I work with the Shayitzes who have uh
done the science and my job has been to try to bring the science of what dyslexia is into the classroom. I have several articles that I do want to touch on and and I think the discussion today has
been great. I I actually thank you everybody for the criticisms and whatever because I think dyslexia is an important topic. Now Caroline got five and I got three but I'll do my best. Uh the first is from the journal of
pediatric neurosychology and it's May 2020 2025 com it compares traditional school model of reading instruction to a more intense instruction as seen at LKA. On a positive note, schools identified
and provided interventions for threearters of the dyslexic readers. Unfortunately, this data indicates that the in interventions were ineffective, contributing to an everinccreasing existing gap between typical and
dyslexic readers that extends into adult life. Our findings provide strong support for the need for more intensive and comprehensive interventions. That's what our school is. It's the science of reading on steroids. It's 90 minutes a
day, six kids or less with a trained teacher. And the reason this is important is that we have data that shows that kids that are not identified and and taught are more likely to drop out of school, more
likely to have reduced wages, and more likely to be incarcerated. The second study is um a study from nature journal of learning and basically what this study shows is that early
reading levels in first grade along with the tra trajectory of reading development through the first five years of school were associated with reading scores in adulthood. Basically
for dyslexic readers, reading in first grade in particular, that trajectory is strongly related to reading in adulthood. So where you read at the end of fifth grade, that percentile, that's where you're going to read as an adult.
Your reading will improve just like other students, but it is going to be in that percentile. Our smallest class is first grade. Our second smallest class is second grade. We have an onslaught, well, not an onslaught, I wish it was,
of students in third, fourth, fifth grade. Usually by sixth grade, they're in our school. Sometimes it's it's later than that. The achievement gap is there in the first grade. This study is has been submitted to
Nature. It's uh in peer review. I'm the first author. It says, "The findings from this longitudinal study provide compelling evidence for the effectiveness of a specialized structured literacy environment improving reading outcomes among students with dyslexia. Consistent with
prior research indicating early, intensive, explicit reading instruction is critical for this population. Students at the LKA demonstrated robust gains in both decoding and reading comprehension skills. Importantly, these
gains were sustained over multiple academic years and were particularly pronounced among students with the most severe initial impairments. You see, we have lots of crying at our school because they're failing. They're moderate to severe. And the other
important thing is the lack of significant differences across demographic subgroups is noteworthy indicating that the benefits of the intervention at LKA extend across racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic lines.
So I've got 42 seconds. In summary, we we have this window in first through fifth grade. I wish we could get them all in the first grade. That's when the gap's there. That's when we can do the most. But we take kids at any point in
time. And as was alluded to, some come in at the first grade and they transition out. And we we we call that success. and it might be in the fourth grade or the fifth grade, but we've got that certain amount of time. We are an
intensive um science of reading which I talked about 90 minutes, six kids. We teach them how to read and we give them grade level material. And lastly, what you heard from the parents,
some of these kids aren't going to be great readers, but we're going to give them what they need to learn to be successful, and we're giving them their self-esteem that's been robbed or damaged, but that
is part of what we do. I again, I appreciate what y'all do, and I'm can take questions or we can call it a rest. Great. Thank you, Dr. Cassidy. Thank you to all who have made public comments. Are there any other questions or
comments? Uh, Mrs. Holloway. >> Yes. Laura, can you um verify the location? Have you worked on it? >> St. It's in Me St. Mary Magdalene Catholic School. >> You've had a contract. It's it's a definite
>> No, I'm not signing a contract until this is approved, but they have >> Yes. And and also as far as the Jefferson Parish application, we asked to be denied. We're a type two charter. We have to be a type two charter. That's the process that's in law that we go
through the type one application first. We asked to be not and they they denied us uh favorably. >> Okay. Thank you. Because of the word we were getting that there were two and there was no verification on it. Thank you. >> Sure.
>> Great. Other questions, comments for Sorris? >> Yeah, I certainly appreciate, I'm sure we all do, the um various perspectives that have been shared. Um I guess a couple things really stand out to me. Uh certainly Miss Holloway's concerns about
the uh the low SPS uh is a concern that that's the method that we use to evaluate. Um I I share Miss Romer's comments about uh consistency and um uh you know what role subjectivity plays in
this decision making process. Certainly you guys have some great stories coming out of there. So uh there there are some really good work that's being done. Um, I guess the thing that probably for me personally I struggle with the most, I
can remember back, I guess five years or so ago now when I first started serving in Bessie and I and I read the book that you guys provided. Um, and the estimate at that time was 20% of all of all of us
have some dyslexic uh concern to varying degrees. I I wasn't aware of it at the time that it was so prevalent uh and I guess over the years it's gotten more and more attention uh in some degree because of
the work you guys are doing. Um but but uh it's apparent that uh you know in the traditional school systems um I'm not really sure you know how well we identify the concern and and in the traditional school system uh even when
we do identify the concern the level of expertise that we have to address the concern. Um, so that that bothers me. You know, what what what are we doing in the traditional school system to address the concern? And then if parents uh are made aware of the concern and and they
do have the option to uh to choose a school for their children that specializes in the concern, that that seems a value added to me and at least you're in the right direction. Um but but then we get back to okay, how do I evaluate
u progress? How do I evaluate success? How do I evaluate a kid's mental health, you know, in a in a different environment that's maybe more nurturing than the general public? Um, so I understand in a traditional school, you know, you you look at the school
performance, it's a bell curve. 72% of the kids are economically disadvantaged. Um, but then I look at the population of Ki Academy, which I visited three or four times. um 100% of the kids have dyslexia
uh >> to to to one degree or another. Um so I'm not really sure I don't understand anyway how you evaluate that student population's performance uh and compare it to a traditional school system and
expect to have the same type of outcomes. Uh so I I struggle with the evaluation system. I I share Miss Holloway's concerns about some of the school, you know, the scores, but but I'm also concerned about the method that's used uh to to assess uh the
performance as well. Um so I I don't have the answer. I wish I had the answer, but but uh that that's my perspective from where I sit. Just wanted to share. I >> want to offer one comment uh Mr. Morris. So whenever we do um uh our
accountability to meet the federal guidelines, you know, we have a uniform system. Um which is why, you know, to Bessie's credit in working with um Key and Max, Bessie developed and approved
an alternate al alternate um scoring system for their renewals. So whenever you have a a a key or a max come forward, their renewal decision is not based on the way in which we would base a traditional school. It's based on the
alternate rubric. Um and so the last alternate rubric that we reviewed for a key school was the T Baton Rouge school where they scored an 80 out of 100. So I I want to I want to give you all as a board credit because you are through the
ways in which you can address that concern addressing it. >> Yes. So make sure I understand. Uh so what I'm hearing is that uh the annual uh SPS review the same approach is used but whenever the charter comes up for
renewal there are special considerations that are made with regard to renewal. Is that is that the right interpretation? Okay great. and they're scoring 8 80 out of 100 on that. Okay. Thank you. >> Right. Uh Mrs. Holloway, >> I just need to clarify statement. Laura,
I assume that fi the dyslexia students are on 504 plans and you indicated IEP. >> Yes. All of our students have moderate to severe dyslexia. They all qualify for an IEP and they all are on an IEP. We
are a tier three curriculum. >> Okay, thank you. Um, >> so they get 90 minutes of reading every day, 90 minutes of math. Our largest class is 18. The the reading is uh again in groups of six. We get 14,500
from the state. We we spend 21,500 on a student. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, I have a couple of questions for the board if there's anything. I My concern is still why aren't we focusing on how to assist her
three schools in improving before expansion? I'm going to leave you with that thought because as an authorizer on Bessie, we are obligated to have higher performance schools, student success, etc.
Um, is there any way we can um talk about a substitute motion to um look at more data and growth info on the three existing schools
before we consider reconsider and come back to reconsider? >> You certainly can make that motion, Mrs. Holloway. So I presume you you just have >> yeah a substitute motion that we can look at more data on the three schools.
What does their growth look like their targets and come back and reconsider this >> right there? There's a substitute motion and there's a second to the motion.
Uh this is Shanine. So there's a motion, there's a second. Is there any discussion with respect to the substitute motion? >> Uh my question is what if anything does that do to the timeline for uh start of
the school if it if it does get eventually approved? Does that impact the startup for the school? If we delay it until October, does two months make any difference? >> Uh Miss Gilson or maybe I'm not sure,
Miss Dr. Cassidy, that might be a better question for you. Either one of you if you know the answer. >> Not quite sure what data we are we're looking for. Are you looking for the next >> So, so Morris, Mr. Morris's question was how does that impact the opening or clos
the opening of the school given it timeline and perhaps Dr. Cassie might be better to comment on >> if we if we delay until October to review and and if at that point the board did decide to approve the the application, my question is, you know,
would that two-month delay uh impact the start of the school? And if so, to what degree? >> Well, they're definitely I'm not saying it can't get done, but as soon as you all approve, we start the pre-opening process. And so there's a series of
meetings as you know they need to sign a contract to actually get into a building and then you need to do a lot of other board work. Um and then there are reports that we we require here at the department. But I think my question is
what data between now >> and October. >> I I I think it's a relevant question. I was going to get to that also next. you know, ask Miss Holloway what is her specific date request. But irregardless of her request, if we delay the decision
until October, then you know, I think first of all, we need to understand um you know, does that uh what's what's the significance of that with regard to the school's startup process? If we delay our decision for two months, I I don't know if they can still open the school,
you know, in the same time period or not. So I guess that's really what I'm looking for because if they say well now you know we can't open the school right if you delay us two months I think that's going to impact the decision that that's on the table right now. So to me that's the first question. >> I think for me I will say I think it
probably will put the school it would challenge the school to be able to open. Um again the school then Bessie and the department begin working on a contract when you guys actually approve and with that contract then the school can actually go out and get funding. It just
sort of puts things behind because there's a lot of work to be done for school to open successfully in August and also there are probably grant opportunities that they may miss out on. So it would probably be a challenge and again I still don't have I don't know
what's the extra data we have for you um for next October >> right so so I would go back to Mr. Castile's question and pose it to Dr. Cassidy, uh, same question. You know, if the board does delay a decision for two months, then, you know, what of any impact does would that have to school
startup? Um, if in fact the board did approve the application in October. >> So, we will be ineligible for the CSP grants. >> Okay. So, it's a showstopper is what I'm hearing. >> Yes. >> Okay. Let me >> I guess I've got a different question
and and maybe comment because what I've heard so far is that the concern of the board is that we have a framework by which we judge all schools um in terms of our our letter grading process that
is giving the the board some some pause. On the other hand, we have an alternate framework for determining whether a school is approved. And that framework which by which we judge them, they key academy scores 80 out of 100.
If that alternative framework or the the the metric by which we measured them against all schools, they would I don't know what an 80 out of 100 given this framework would be a B or whatever it would be. But if it's a if it's a B in
that regard, maybe our challenge is that because we've struggled with how to appropriately uh judge the quality of the school that maybe there might need to be some consideration to realigning our assessments so that they're they are
consistent because perhaps we might be communicating mixed messages. when the letter grade comes out as FF out to the public and and to the board, it's it's suggested that the the school is not performing very well, but then we adjust, if you will, u for consideration
of of approval. I don't know the and those are questions and and I know Superintendent Brumley is is ready to respond but having said all of that I'm not sure that that's something we will solve in two months but but it's but it's a discussion that probably should take
place for uh the other schools who are who are similarly um that are similarly positioned. So I think it is a very very worthy conversation not one that I think we're going to solve for um solve for today. I will just say the the testimony
offered by those who are taking advantage of it and uh particularly the the parent who spoke of her child in central an A+ school um and but but the performance of the individual child within that framework was very very
distorted. So, I I do think there's room for lots of conversation. Lots of conversation. I certainly agree with that, but um I'm just not certain that we will solve it within two months. Dr. Dr. Clark, I'm sorry, Dr. Brumley. And Dr. Clark,
>> I just I just want to remind you of what you can and you cannot change here. So you you you cannot necessarily change the way in which we have to calculate performance scores for the feds and and
that manner in which we have to do that. Um obviously the school's letter grade is is not where we would like to see it. Um but their progress is a B. So what you have under your control and what you
have taken action to address is through the alternate framework for this school. So let me just Louisiana Department of Education. This is the Bessie approved alternate framework alternate charter framework. Louisiana T Academy and Max charter schools. These are the two
charter schools that that that you have that are serving 100% of a dyslexic population. when when we put the school up against the framework that you all approved for schools that are for 100% dyslexic children, they store 80 out of
100. So I I I I just want to call out the fact that you we we can't solve for things we can't solve for, which is the universal SPS and letter grade, but you have solved and I want to give you credit for solving for what you can
solve for, which is the way in which you determine renewal and you and you've done that. And if there's a specific data request, um, Miss Holloway, I'd like to know what it is just because I think Miss Dillson probably has that available.
ask a quick question. >> I think what I'd like I know we're talking about their performance of 80, but the reason why the board members have this information in front is because I requested it so you could understand the
framework. And if you look on the back side the the what supports improvement is the progress monitoring from dibbles to steep to see top or the numerousy with star math. These are progress monitoring
scores. It's not like an it's not an assessment like LEAP. So it it >> yeah so it's the training of the knowledge of what this framework is about compared to LEAP assessment etc.
>> Can I ask a question? >> I'm done. >> My question is >> are the schools considered alternative settings type schools or are they not? they are not on an alternative school
that actually uses the alternative accountability formula. >> So then my question is when we talk about the 80 out of 100 and I think this is going back to what Sandy is asking. I don't want the board to believe that it's based upon LEAP assessments because
it's it's not. So my question is what standardized assessment is being used to measure that 80 out of 100 on that framework? Is it consistent across all the schools? If it's not considered in an alternative setting school and it's not being under the alternative
accountability but just a framework, I just need to understand the consistency of of how that's happening. And again, show me the standardization to get to the 80 because then allow me to give any test. I can get to the 80 to 100 out of 100 too. I just want to make sure that
we are consistent going back to what Miss Roma said and making sure as we do these approvals they we're consistent and and I don't feel today that we are. >> So can I answer that? >> Yes. >> Yeah. Actually the leap is on the
renewal. We look at our students growth. Part part of the problem is there's less than 1% identification of students with dyslexia in Louisiana. And and again, we have all
um moderate to severe. So there if there was a comparison group, we would take that any time to look for growth in any measure you want to. But we don't have that data. But we do part of that re renewal is based on the LEAP. It is and
I think whether you want to consider it as valid or not the COP is a standardized test and it is assessing whether the child can access the language system. It is the prerequisite
for the child to learn how to read. We have 40% of students that read below basic in Louisiana. they are functionally illiterate and so that is what we do which they are not getting in
a traditional school is and that's some of the data that Andromeda spoke of we are getting them into the average range of that funological assessment then we work on oral reading fluency that's what they're looking at because if they don't
have that gateway they are not going to learn anything and that's why that they are on the charter renewal framework And again, and I'm not going to just point this toward you because then my question becomes for a traditional regular school such as mine, maybe am I
given that same accountability option for the students that I am serving who are dyslexic. I just want to make sure we're consistent across the board because it's even harder for schools that are traditionally run with all types of kids that we're we are still responsible by
law to administer the still accom I mean the same accommodations and all the different items that we should to kids who are dyslexic but now when we have a specialized school why is there a different alternative framework given for that accountability versus a
traditional setting it's just a question. >> Thank you, Doc. Dr. Clark, what what I would address your point is that the same standard is used for for both your school and and that school because that's the SPS. What's what what's
different is the method that's used for the charter renewal. That that's what's different. But the the regular SPS evaluation is the same for both schools. What? Help help me understand what I'm missing.
>> But but the system that my understanding is the system that traditional school uses today uses the standard SPS evaluation process. The key academy uses the same SPS evaluation process. They get a score. Traditional schools get a
score. Right now our perception is that their score is extremely low and we're trying to understand, you know, what's going on there. But then superintendent runways explained to us that there is a different evaluation process that's used for renewals. So, so one is a snapshot
in time. You know what your SPS and the other is for charter applications for them to be renewed. Then for that renewal process, there are special considerations that that are made in that system because of the unique student population where 100% of those
kids are dyslexic as opposed to the traditional school where you're looking at a bell curve. That that's the way I interpret. >> So you understand like we are charter schools too regardless and that framework is not used for our students who are in charter schools outside of traditional school setting. And then
there's also alternative setting schools that do exist that also have that framework that's used for them. So I do not have that framework in the chart in my charter school >> for renewal >> for renewal for anything. >> But but I but I think for renewal not renewal. >> But if I'm understanding you though I
think where your conversation is coming from is you know should should it be used for your renewal? Is is that where you're going? >> It should be used consistently across the board if we're going to if it's not an alternative setting type school. >> Okay. that that I'm just making sure if we're going to be consistent, let's be
consistent all the way through. >> Mr. Harris, >> thank you. The this is a good conversation. Um I know as when I was chairman of education and in the legislature, state of Louisiana ignored this problem for many,
many years, dyslexia. Uh me and that gentleman back there, we looked at the data. This is, let's get back to what this particular item is. It's approving this school in Medie to help kids with
dyslexia. We've opened up a lot of other questions about is it fair to my, you know, to any other schools and everything else. And I think that's a good discussion to have, but it's a different discussion. This is about opening this school in Mey, getting
these kids the help that they need as soon as possible when she can get open. And my question on the substitute motion is what data? Well, we don't know for sure, but what is two months going to do? My I
if I was a betting guy, I'd say we'd be back here in October because the Department of Education is recommending we do this with conditions that we're going to vote this through in October. The data is not going to change much
with this. We've already got this alternative grading skill score. So either let's approve this charter or don't. This discussion about this whole thing should have happened months if not years ago about how we
need to make it more consistent. But today's question is do we approve this charter school. So that that's my comments and I will object to the substitute motion. Thank you.
>> Make an observation and uh Mr. Harris, I I think on many levels you're correct. But I'll go back to what Miss Ror pointed out and that this is a a policymaking body which sort of speaks to some of the issues that Dr. Clark and others are raising and that is that
while we do have presented before us the particular issue of the particular school which is what we will ultimately have to vote on very very shortly. it does raise some policy issues that that probably need to be addressed and and that we don't want to leave and they
never resurface again uh until this comes up again with respect to a particular uh charter. So it warrants some some consideration. I'm not sure the process by which we do that but because we are a policymaking body and and these issues present some policy
considerations that at some point uh we should revisit that. Uh that said, I um I think Senator Pel, did you have your hand raised? Okay, he waves his additional comments. There's a motion uh by Mrs. Holloway um to defer this item
until October and a second. Uh are there any objections to that that motion? We have at least one objection. Uh are there other objections to the motion? There are two objections. Can roll call vote, please? and we'll state the motion just so that
we're clear what an affirmative vote is in favor um and any objections to that motion. >> Okay, Mr. Pale, >> I'm sorry, Mrs. Holloway. >> I'm sorry. >> I'm sorry. I think she was going to
respond to stating what the motion is and um is everyone clear that there's a motion to defer uh this item? And all in favor of that? That's where we're going to start with. Okay. Roll call.
>> Mr. Pel, yes. No. Mr. Pel, no. Dr. Armstrong, >> yes. >> Yes. Uh, Mr. Berkin, >> no. >> No. Uh, Miss Champan? >> Yes. >> Yes. Mr. Dr. Clark? >> Yes. I can't hear. Uh, Mr. Harris?
>> No. >> No. Mr. Hollis is absent. Mr. Holloway. Yeah. Your motion, Miss Miller? No, Mr. Morris. >> No. >> No. Or Miss Castile, do you want to vote? >> No. >> You're saying
>> I'm saying no. I'd like to vote and the vote is no. >> Six. No. One, two, three, four. Yay. Motion B. Right. That brings us back to the original motion, which is the motion uh to accept the recommendation by the
department to approve uh the charter application for Louisiana Key Academy Jefferson. Um any objections to the original motion? We have one objection. Any other objections to the original motion?
>> All right, there's two objections. Uh uh with those two noted objections uh the motion uh passes. All right. Next item. >> Your next item is on page 48 item 4.2 consideration of a report regarding
types 2 four and five charter contracts and request for amendments. The recommendation is to approve as outlined. >> I'm sorry. Do we have to do the other? We have but we have recommendation number two which is to deny the type two charter application. >> Okay.
>> All right. So so just for clarification as a part of the motion that just passed we also accepted the recommendation >> to deny >> uh to deny. We probably should have bifurcated those just so that we uh we clarify and and in fact why don't we do
that? Uh I I'll note for the record that we pulled that out that there is a recommendation for this particular item to deny the request by the Department of Education. Is there uh a motion to accept the department's recommendation with respect to that particular item?
Mr. Burkin, do you move? Yes, he moves. and and Senator Pel uh seconds. Any objection to the motion to accept the department's recommendation to deny this particular charter application. Hearing no objections, that
particular motion passes. All right. Now, the next >> Now we can uh page 48 4.2 consideration of report regarding type 24 and five charter contracts and request for amendments. The recommendation is to approve as outlined. >> Is there a motion to approve uh this
particular item? Mr. Harris moves. Is there second? Second by Senator Appel. Any questions or comments uh by the board? I'll note my recusal for the record, but that item uh passes.
All right. Next item. >> Is there a presentation or >> is there was there a presentation with respect to No. >> Yes. >> He's refusing. >> Yes. >> 4.2. Okay. Your next item is on page 52, item 4.3, consideration of the 2526
request for applications timeline and common charter application framework. The recommendation is to approve authorizing the LDOE to amend the timeline as needed and noting Bessie will be notified of any revisions. Is >> there a motion
broken? Seconded by Mr. Morris. >> So Mr. Mr. Castile, Miss Gillson uh will make a brief presentation just to provide you information on the timeline and the application uh for chartering moving forward. >> Thank you, Dr. Brumley. And so we did
update you all on one of the newsletters. This is the timeline for the request for applications. Um this will start for us after applicants have gone through the local and then they move here to the Bessie. This uh also
does uh provide for you the application and the rubric used and so this will be posted on our website. We have had no changes. Remember we did a lot of work last year on making sure that the application was up to standard and so there have
been no changes to the application and this just provides for you the timeline so that we can get this to the locals and they would know uh when they would have to get their decisions to us. questions. >> Any questions or comments?
>> Any objections to the motion? Motion passes next item. Did you have anything else? I'm sorry. All right. Your next item is on page 96, item 5.1, consideration of revisions to bulletin 126 charter schools in response to legislation of the 2025 regular
legislative session. The recommendation is to approve as a notice of intent. >> All right. May I get a motion to um accept this item? Miss Shampine. Second, Dr. Clark. All right. Um
>> uh these are just um uh promaggation of rules relative to three acts of the legislature. >> All right. Questions, comments? We have one public comment. Mr. Dr. Baker um weighs he wishes to uh does not wish to speak anymore but supports the
recommendation. All right. Next item. >> Your next item is on page 99, item 6.1, consideration of an update report regarding the LA Gator Scholarship Program. The recommendation is to receive. Motion to receive. Mr. Burkett, uh, Miss Champine seconds a motion and
we have a presentation. >> Yes, sir. So, uh, this board had asked over time to, uh, continue updates on the Gator, uh, scholarship program, and, uh, we are now up and running and, uh, that's a ton of credit to Miss Gillson,
uh, Mr. Moore and the school choice team and the work that they've been doing. Um, so Caleb, do you want to give this presentation? Absolutely. Uh happy to share with you this afternoon a quick update on the implementation of the LA Gator Scholarship Program. Of course, we'll go over some milestones from the
last two months uh including this month as well. Uh information about the students participating in the program and then the support information for the program. Uh starting off with milestones here. Uh in June, schools were confirming enrollments and setting tuition. Uh so the schools would go into their Odyssey
profiles and set their tuition amounts. Uh parents would then see those and confirm their tuition amounts. Uh families would then go to their school of choice uh do the school's enrollment process um and then if they changed from that point on to now um Odyssey would help them change their school enrollment.
Uh in July the accounts uh were funded in the marketplace opened. Uh student accounts were funded in the rank order up to the amount of the uh appropriation from the legislature. Uh awarded accounts uh prompted to opt in or opt out of the program on July 23rd, I'm sorry, by July 31st. And then the
marketplace open and accounts were funded on July 23rd. Uh this month in August, tuition payments began in the marketplace uh opened and would remain open for the duration of the program. Uh student accounts continue to make tuition payments. Marketplace remains open for families to make purchases. Um and the
vendor application will actually remain open throughout the duration of the program as well. uh as of July 23rd and this hasn't changed too much uh the satisfaction with the Odyssey platform is still around 88.7% and I will point out that this uh is for any interaction with Odyssey support so
including those families that uh may not have been awarded this year everyone who's interacted with Odyssey support uh from our uh side and the the reviews that we've been able to see uh have been very very satisfied with the timely uh and quick and helpful support that they've gotten from Odyssey.
Uh so information about participation in the program. Of course we had over 39,000 applications over 34,000 eligible students. Uh of those at the time this was pulled we had 5,867 awarded students. Uh 5,190 of those were formerly in the Louisiana scholarship
program and 344 of them uh have a validated uh tier for uh as a student with this uh disability under IDEIDA. Uh top awarded uh top cities by awarded students. Of course, we'll see uh New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Monroe, Morero,
and Slidell in the top five. And then uh the rest of these still pretty consistent with what we've seen throughout the application process. Uh we have 269 registered Bessie approved nonpublic schools participating and accepting students in this program. Uh I believe I have an updated number. I
know the registered service providers number is now over 500. um with thousands of offerings on the marketplace um all of which are approved under the categories uh that were set by this board. Um 255 of these service providers uh pretty consistently 50 to
60% of the providers on the marketplace um are Louisiana providers. So it's you know great to see those Louisiana vendors offering their services on the marketplace. Of course we'll always share the support information um for any family seeking support with the LA Gator program. And I'd like to add as well,
our team is in the field um now and throughout the duration of the program visiting the schools, ensuring quality um and uh doing they'll continue to do that throughout the uh school years of this program as well. Um but with that, that uh concludes the update report on LA Gator.
>> Right. Thank you. Any Senator Pal? >> Two quick questions. Um could you give us a not right now but send us a rough breakdown of the type of services by some kind of categorization that the service the four I think it was 448.
>> Yes. >> How many of these are are tutoring providers? How many of these are computer whatever they just in general categories? >> Absolutely. >> I'd like to see that. Number two um >> can we go back to slide seven for one second? I want just ask a stupid
question. All right. You got 5,190 scholarship previous scholarship. Shouldn't that over time go to zero? >> So this uh >> that was the previous scholarships but we as they're aging out.
>> Yeah. As they metriculate out of out of the system that will consistently decline. >> That's what I thought because it just seems like I keep seeing that number but it seems like it should be diminishing and it'll eventually go to zero. >> It will. Yes, sir. >> Yeah, I thought so. Thank you. Um
the satisfaction rate has dropped by five points. Um what's what's the beef >> from what we've seen? Uh there a lot of that correlated with the time that families were notified uh of their
funding status. Um and then uh this uh score correlates to all interactions with Odyssey support. So families that uh may have been funded or may have not been funded uh all accessed odyssey support at that time. We think that uh those interactions may have may have skewed that a bit. Um we've seen a few
isolated cases of issues with um scheduled callbacks but those have been few and far between and to my understanding we haven't gotten any of those recently. >> Mr. Burke, I'll streamline the answer. Um 39,000 applicants, 5,000 were awarded. So
there were a lot of people that weren't happy. >> Thank you. >> Great. Thank you. And yet >> very satisfied. Any other questions or comments from the board? Hearing none. Any objections to
the motion? That motion passes. Next item. >> That concludes your agenda. All right. >> We are adjourned.