e e e e e e e e e here director kelberg here director low
here director Petri here director cander here chair Sherman here you have a quum great let's stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I alce to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation
under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay um can I get a motion to approve tonight's agenda great Dr kenberg with the first and Dr low I'll assume you can second all those in favor of approving
tonight's agenda raise your hand and say I I I I opposed motion passes okay we're going to look at first at the consent agenda up on the screen we've got um items A and B this evening I'll go ahead and make a motion to
approve tonight's consent agenda can I get a second second great director thelander with the second all those in favor of approving consent raise your hand and say I I I opposed consent agenda passes all right our first item we have
a couple different reports tonight we're going to welcome Gina doe from Aton Lakeland Elementary our first report um falls under the Strategic direction of ensuring the learning process is adaptable to meet individual student needs and we're going to first have a
little bit of a building update and just by way of background for the community who may not be aware this is going to be a part of a lengthy process where we're going to bring in all of our schools and just kind of have a state of the school little briefing for us on um on what is
going on so we look forward to what you have to share well perfect director Sherman and members of the board thank you for inviting me today um to talk about Aton Lakeland um it's my favorite place to be Aton Lakeland not up here um but um favorite place to be in it's my fourth year here so we've seen a lot of
growth in the last four years that I've been here so um just give you a little bit about our school so um down down in the South as far as you can go so Aton Lake Aton Lakeland lak Shor St C Beach St Mary's Point West Lakeland and Woodberry are the communities that make
up my building for the most part and Gina really quick did you say this is your fourth year yes I'm starting my fourth year here thank you um and so looking at Aton Lakeland compared to the district we're pretty close to most of the averages there's a couple things to note um we are 463 students prek through
five um our capacity is 500 just to give you an idea of space um but looking at our the district averages we're right about on um on free and reduced lunch students of color we have a lower percentage of and we um currently 7% ml
students at our buildings so a little bit higher in that respect um just giving you some current reality of our building our strengths hey go back a slide for a second so you're currently 7% in ml if you look on the MD
report card from last year yeah it says 2.6 if you were to look us up but with our growth we're at 7% that's a significant number for the board to understand so from we're growing in that respect um so current reality uh some of
our strengths building culture and I could say that because I've got some of my teachers back there too they're wonderful humans um building culture a family engagement databased decision-making that's something we pride ourselves on systems alignment and we're showing consistent student growth those are some great things that we're
seeing uh we do have some challenges and opportunities I can highlight through here is um our multilingual Learners reading proficiency just isn't where we want it to be yet diversity equity and inclusion and just strengthening that in our building and systems for Behavior andal
Support so just to give you a little bit about our building culture because anybody can say that's a great piece but that's something we truly believe and um my staff can attest to I say all students are our students we say it all the time because it's not just one you
know that's your kid in your class that's not how we operate so so all students are our students and with that mindset we really have a buyin so of staff and students um Team approach that's that's what we base everything we do off of it's not just silos um no
excuses so we've got we've got this so many hours with them what can we do in those hours so outside school we can try and help but really we're here for them the whole time um trust and finding joy in each day so on our morning announcements we talk about working hard and being kind and that's just our school modotto because if we're doing
those two things things we're actually working the right direction so that's something um also about building culture uh servant leadership is what I believe in fully so you can see in one of those pictures I do a mobile desk I'm out there all the time that's where I get to talk to teachers kids I know more about
what's going on in the building and what's happening in the bathrooms and anywhere because I'm out there and I know what's going on and they know I'm going to be there they'll walk around the hallway and they're like so that's part of it it's just servant leadership taking everything I can off their plates students and staff so they can do the
real job job of learning so yeah um Family engagement just another positive and strength we have is that our approval scores in the district communication survey we're in the 90 percentile so parents were happy with what we're doing um so they liked the transparency and the communication just
of what's going on and that was with teachers and with Administration so what I'm doing as well um also we started a newsletter uh consistent newsletter across our building last year so we all send out uh s'more newsletter electronic
newsletter on Sundays and it's consistent in what is asked for in it so parents if I have a third grader I'm still getting the same content as a first grader just at the different levels of what's going on in the buildings just to make it consistent and interactive with the parents um we have
high levels of parent community volunteers and a High attendance rate at all our school events so that's some positives with us can we ask questions as we go along is that okay um can you talk a little bit about what the um parent and community volunteers are
doing in the building oh sure um so I parent and community volunteers we've had for a couple years from chaper Valley and parents that come in and we have them work with our students on reading we focus a a lot on our K1 students and have them come in and work on the things we've identified through our screening that need the most work so
um they'll come in and work on kindergarten for example letter sounds and so we have them dedicated to work with the same students each week so they can see their progress and they chart their progress so they can communicate and talk with the teacher um we're using vessel this year as well we hadn't in
the past and I just kind of helped manage the volunteers but now we're to a point where could use a little more organization and help so I just met with them the other day and we had our system of how we do that so can you talk a little bit more about vessel because maybe there are more volunteers out
there in the community who might want to jump in well call Dave wmid he'll help you I think I said that um so vessel does organize the volunteers for for the uh for the buildings so they would call and say I would like to volunteer at Afton Lakeland and he helps get
everybody on board and connect with me and helps build a schedule of when they're available and then I get to say great please come in on Tuesday at 10 o'clock every every Tuesday and work with this kindergarten these kindergarten students so it's just a way to help manage and organize it so I'm
you know my building secretary aren't trying to do that on the Fly and it's it's been very very helpful good thank you someone that's not in the buildings vessel is that a district wide that's just you no it's it is I don't know if it's in every building in the district but they are um they all have access to
to the system and this is um and I could be misspeaking but he's he's outside of the like rotary rotary yeah so to sorry speak but um outside and then he coordinates with the school for the reading for and I think that there are a couple
of other schools that are um that are getting these volunteers now through rary I think the hope is to expand it to most of the schools if possible right and he and he's great he's like I don't want to interfere with volunteers you already have but he's like they could you could funnel new volunteers through
me um if you have more people and that would be easier on us to do yeah thank you yeah um another thing that we feel we do well at after lakland is databased decision making so we dig deeper into Data as a building and part of the way
we do that is through our systems which is a different one but um we get a lot of information through bar the building assets reducing risk and we use that to help students it's not separate so we put that together with everything we've had to streamline what we do so we're
dating information small block Sparks interest of students um big block how can we help some students that you know have some things that we need to work on to help support them use that with our U time which is another part of it andal and so we connect everything together so
we get that data and then we say what's the full picture of a student before we make decisions about supporting and how long have you been a bar school this is this will be the start of our fourth year when I I got the Grant in August before I started in um after so or we
got the um so one thing with having this great data is we've researched and found and implemented targeted resources so not that idea of just oh let's try this it's strategic so we try to be very strategic we' want to try something just to try something we're like oh this is
our need and we reached out and I'll give an example of that later of things we found um and then just using our green room that's something we do use we collect the data on it and we've made some changes over the last three years to make it more efficient um for us um
so using it for breaks checkin check out that's what cic is and we've added using it as problem solving visits as well so just thinking of things that we can help students solve the problems on their own but if I have 27 students in my class I might not be able to help facilitate
that so how can we use the green room better to do that too but we did that based on the data of what we were seeing in the building um this is what I've talked about before and they always laugh at me because I'm a systems person I'm like well we have a system for this and it's like oh here we go um but it's aligning
everything again so we're driving towards one Focus so we've we've worked really hard and that's through bar as well but um aligning oural academic behavioral interventions building goals everything's driving one way so we have a very focused building goal and we've
used that in our bar for goals for students and then collaborative action team is something you've probably heard us talking about that each second grade would have a collaborative action team third grade well in our building our whole building has the same collaborative action team goal because
we're all working towards literacy so we've decided let's all have the same goal so we're moving the same direction and not that and we decided as a group so it wasn't if you really want to do math I said you could do math but we found value and let's all Drive the same way so that's part of what we're trying
to do is move in One Direction as a building so and then vertical alignment is just something we're working on um to be better at making sure all our um experiences are Equitable and consistent throughout so if you leave afon you've had an eido experience and different
field trips and experience experiences those are some of the things can I ask a question um is the literacy goal new um as of last year or this year or when did you sort of all coal us around that as a goal we've done it for two years okay so this is our second year of of having the
same driving goal um prior to that just without the a the action cards are newer to us and so with the action card we've had a very defined um action card a is our literacy one and so we've very defined and we just stuck with that as a building because we thought we could
harness that as our driving force so two years do you think it's too soon to see some results from that from that Focus no I our data is showing it so we are seeing you know we we have an upward Trend but if I'll show a graph a little
bit and you'll see that we've had a we've had an uptick and it's because I I truly feel like all my wonderful staff knows where each kid student is at because of how we're progress monitoring so they can make decisions in real time
so we are progress finding a lot more on fluency things like that because we have this goal set up to already do it so during a cat team you're constantly monitoring data and making decisions so we're doing that all the time throughout the year okay but we're gonna talk a
little bit more about that later right okay good well actually this is the next slide so um part of it as you can see one of our strengths that these things add up to is this consistent growth so we've we can see so 2022 where
we were at and now after L at 2024 our reading proficiency um as a building is at 68% and so I put that as something we still need to work on that's not where I want us to be nor do any of us we just know we're going on the right Trend though so
and we're seeing that each year we're bumping up the last two years of doing the cat building my goal we've seen a greater Trend up so and then what kind of training um are your are your teachers getting in in
regard to literacy do they um are they and now I'm blanking on the letter letters are they getting letters training yes um okay they are getting letters training I did have so if I speak to my building I had five people or maybe it's six D sky that already did
the letters training on their own prior to the district initiative do this like they were on their own selfstarter is going to go do it through the other avenues that they could do it P previously so I had quite a few people that they could share their knowledge on what they've already learned so that was
great that sounds like a benefit yeah so it really helped so that that's part helpful and then um you know one of my current interventionist she prior was my instructional coach and she is now a letters trainer so she just had a lot of experience so we just keep pulling that
and that's why another reason the collaborative action team the cat having the same goal as we had all these people with this great knowledge that we could just share with each other and keep moving forward and then oh go the question regarding bar you know having been four
years and not all of our elementary schools have that you know and being very dayto D how you know how has that really think helped your school uh by having that support and training versus maybe not have you been able to maybe quantify
that I don't think I can quantify it right now well okay okay there's one data point I could give you I don't have the exact number but um so part of bar is using big block as to you know work get it information I have a student that's struggling in X help me out we
have vertical teams that give expert advice you know from them and you know their experience and then we can try to problem solve and create goals and keep helping the student what I can say is in my school I say we have to go to Big Block before we can even consider other interventions um special education and
so through that we've seen l special education referrals because we've problem solved and done a lot of work to help students in the moment so that I can show I can say that datawise but so one of the things you mentioned was the whole child
okay so I would have to contend that bar really helps Drive looking at the whole child as opposed to you know just looking at the data exactly so as student because of all these processes we have in place small block big block Community connect these different ways
to look at a student it's not like oh you're you're in the 60th percentile that that isn't the first thing that's ever said it's well this is where we're at and this might be why this is happening and can we dig deeper is there's some other thing we can um attend to that's going to help the
student rise up to the top and rise to the success level because we can take this barrier out of the way so that's part of it and sometimes that's hard to quantify um but it's like Dr fun was saying it's like just looking at a bigger picture of the student perfect thank you Gina can you maybe because I
know right now we're kind of on strengths I just want to make sure all our questions are we're kind of on the strength section before we move to your um challenges and opportunities but I just want to make a comment when I was a liaison in your building I was able to attend a PTA event and I was so
impressed with the the PTA volunteers that you had there and just your engagement with them but um the thing and then we I know with director Petri we went to your science fair which was also really cool and just a high level of Engagement I think it was a bingo I think it was science fair SL Bingo which
was very well attended um but honestly I just can't Rave enough about the mobile desk you have I I just I love that because you're just everywhere I mean literally you're everywhere and it's like in a very friendly way not in a you're everywhere oh here she
comes that happens but maybe initially it was perceived like that but I it was really a I just I wanted to call out some of those strengths that I personally observed those were really neat to see so thank you that has helped a lot just people come and talk to you about lots of things or should I try
this and because I see you and it's in the moment and so more present I can be students too they like to buy gnomes for my cart so I have a box of gnomes um that's part of it yeah um I have another question about the the
reading I mean you you know as building you have had some good read results here and it's sounds like you had you know the benefit of having letters trained teachers a probably a pretty high percentage the other thing that I would like you to talk about a little bit is
is the resources because um I know that I mean and you know this district is like pretty much every District in the state where you know we're not exactly sure what sort of resources what sort of curriculum fits in with the new literacy
um the read app that the legislature has passed and you know it's possible that some of the resources that we have the curriculum that we have will not be approved and so I'm just kind of wondering what are you using you know what are your letters teachers using to
get these good results what's tricky is um and if you look at math can be an example too is we are using the district provided curriculum like that is one I'm like we will use what we are provided we're not going to go on teachers B teachers and make up something new we do
go on there don't get me wrong but um you know things like that but we then have done a lot of research and supplementing either with letters like we're like what can we do what can we pull out of you know research based so we try to find things like that to add in um later I think in the next couple
for my growth is we were seeing we weren't was it we needed to hit up a little bit more and get more specific so we researched and found something called read Theory and read Works read is something that's free so it's just we just went through and did that and something we used to supplement as a as
a reading um more higher interest MLS special education vocabulary stamina building so we found some things like that on our own just a supplement because we see through our data we're seeing the holes that we're like well we need to do pieces like that the other
piece of that is and she just mentioned it and she's going to talk about it when sky comes up here when she's done with this presentation is what they're doing with the data I think that is significant um because because I think if we're identifying holes okay then we
can talk about what are some resources we can look at to fill those holes and so I think that that is a really key component of uh of what's happening in that building we hone in we try to really
look at what are we talking about not just because you can say oh we're not profession or anything but it's we really drill down to where we're at I can say math we've also had quite a bit of success too um and we just do our curriculum with Fidelity with math
expressions and that's just something all our teachers stick to um supplement when they need to but the language then translates as you go up Fifth grade's a different story which know we've talked about fifth grade math as a challenge but we do see that helping us yeah U
kind of jumping on the reading kind of and some of the things that you're doing from a best practice standpoint and you talk about high engagement of volunteers and parents and I think we all know it takes a village for a student to be successful is there things that you see that that maybe that your school is doing that from a higher engagement or
more reading at home or you know what other measurables can we do as part of helping educate families and students around it's not just at school it's it takes it takes um you know a lot more work as well at home that is one thing
that we try to drive home to our parents is we need your help to read at home here are the things that you can work on we tried to get better at communicating with parents as to what fluency means and what does what does some of these things mean what a phonics what does this mean so when we send out um you
know please read to your student we'll send out like what is fluency and we'll explain it um and so we have like a one sheet that goes home so parents can know you know I mean my husband is a data scientist and he'll be like I don't know what are you tell tell me what this stuff means and so I he I try to explain
that so I'm like well if I was a parent I'd want to know if I didn't live it every day so that's something that we need parents to know more about what we're trying to do not that they have to do it perfect but it just helps them to understand what we're doing because reading at home that that's the big thing going to the library trying to
bring all that as much as into your home as you can is something we need and so our volunteers do that that's another thing we have that um two people reach out to me we have two great reading core people at our building um and and quite a few buildings have them we just have
two consistent ones and so that's been very very helpful for our younger students as well as kindergarten through third grade can you um staying on the topic of reading I was curious we the board um under uh superintendent funk's recommendation added Librarians kind of
like media center staff so that you were kept o Open longer you had the ability to staff those rooms has that made an impact in your I mean we we saw some data that suggested it absolutely has but have you noticed anything in your building that yeah I can say when I started it was we our library was in a
little sad shape I'll just be honest with you just because we had changed on turnover and see we had some books I'm not kidding from the 40s in there and so we had to call and and having an additional person has been very helpful one to get our library in the best shape for kids to find interesting books to
want to read them right they're not looking through like what's this um so that's been helpful and also you know like I can say with our Media Tech being open more we've checked and we've checked out way more books I don't know the number um than we did previously because otherwise it would be I would pull prior to that I would pull my
building secretary to go down there and check out books not ad hoc schedule to make sure more books can be checked out so that has been helpful great um one other question I had regarding the strengths was the Green Room um we hear a lot about the green
room and um it's a behavioral can you maybe just explain how your your building sure utilizes it yeah um our Green Room has scheduled and unscheduled breaks so like many places so it can be we have some students that we know through I'll just use an example like
during big block it might be a suggestion we're looking at a students like maybe struggles like okay after after lunch they really need to go in and give them a 10-minute break and then we're seeing they come back to ready to do it right or something ready to engage
um in class so that sometimes sometimes it's like a students having a tough day they can go in and have an unscheduled Green Room break we do checkin checkouts because with one and this will come to my needs uh with one social worker and myself we can't get to everybody so that
checkin checkout they we use the our green room um PA professional for that so they're they're finding kids in the beginning of the day checking in are you ready for the day do you have what you need whether it's you know like materials wise or like just emotionally things like that and then checking out
the end of the day too like how was your day processing through things with them and so we we bookend with that and so we can get to way more students that way um and then I had commented previously we started adding problem solving more to our green room because sometimes students they can solve it on their own
but maybe we don't have you know in the hallway between library and lunch isn't the time to do it so it's a place to do it with a guided adult that can help do that as well and problem solve and be able to move on with their day and engage in learning rather than worrying about something that might have happened
between them so just out of curiosity like what's the average green room because I know ultimately the goal is to have kids in class yeah like what's an average stay for a green room no more than 10 minutes okay and that's yeah that's as far as we push it because
that's where we it's a check-in it's get what you need maybe regulate yourself either you need more energy or less energy um and solve it and then move on because our goal is to have everybody in class and we do track data we talk about our Green Room data every single month
um at our community connect meetings so our Green Room per comes to our meeting and we go through it and we see who is having a lot of unscheduled breaks like who's oh and I didn't know they were coming then then then and we can triangulate and then figure out a problem solving method if if that is
happening but look for Trends do you think that bar has reduced like where you I guess you I mean because you started and bar you started with bar but do you notice kind of with bar it's been less Green Room activity or I think it's more purposeful okay and I think it's
more directed so I mean and when I say bar bar took take some time to get off get going so our first year I I wouldn't say it was the best example so we kind of use I use that as our first our bar right like um like where is dat's at and watch it go um we're very purposeful
like why are they going what are we going for like is it and it's usually because we're like this might be a good time kind of thing or worked with a case manager so it's it's not and there when I say unscheduled that is much lower I mean I had I apologize I didn't bring it with but I did have my green room data
and I can share that with you way more scheduled visits than unscheduled because we're using it more purposefully great any more before we get into opportunities any more questions on the strengths um so some of my opportunities
um you saw with my data that it was at 2.6% multilingual Learners and now we're up to 7% so that is an opportunity for us to be more strategic um and then you know I talked about there's some things I we need as a building to make this
happen so when I run my data um again being data driven I've looked at my ml students in comparison to I mean you can look at it um as a whole for the district but in my building they are not showing as much growth or meeting on MCAS it's clear is day in the data um so
we are having a growing population but not adequate support So initially for point4 fun um Staffing was allotted for my 33 Al students so um just to give you that's not a lot let's just put it that
way um and so that what that means and translates into is that my level one and two so lower level kindergarteners should receive ml instruction f days a week I can only provide two days because my teach person to do that so that's
something needs support to do that um and then having a staffing model that's flexible so we can meet the needs because the population increases it does go up and down I'm on an upswing um but we have to have a a flexible way to do that and meet those needs as they change
so that's that's a big one in my building yeah um how many languages spoken at Apton Leland I believe we have seven seven I would I have to double check on that so
and not everybody chooses ml support too um so I want to say of those different dialects that's where we're at but it could be less okay thank you I ask a quick question um in terms of the Flexible Staffing model could you
talk a little bit more does that just mean like being able to shift more resources to to your school when you're sharing or like within the school day itself being fible um both um so for example I just kept going up but the fle it was already set what it was going to
be for my building and allocation wise yeah allocation wise and so we were able to move some around a little bit this year but then you can look at um other buildings and it it it just isn't equal if it makes sense like it could be a concern for the district is we do not have right of
assignment right so can't move if we start the school year at this a level of multilingual students and we have an influx of students and we may have less in one building and More in another we
don't have the ability to transfer teachers to cover that so that's a real challenge for us because then rather than balance the Staffing out based upon the needs of the students in the district we would have
to well we need more we have to go hire somebody else and if we have a really limited budget it's challenging for us to do that's real world so that shifting the other thing too and it's not quite on here but I had experienced it last year as I have
sometimes you have newcomers which counting that number is it's not it's not one to one right like it's that one student is needs three students worth of support and so um I did I had point4 last last year when that was happening
and so then the student ended up going to Brookview where there was more e available but then that's not your neighborhood it's just a hard you know so that's one thing it's just with the like Dr fun is saying like the staffy model and the resources just make it hard to um help these students get what
they need on top of so that students going to Brookview was that did the family make that decision no well I mean they were consulted in it but we didn't we the best support we could provide for the student was in another building right okay so then the trans I mean then
it falls on student it fell upon the district for the transportation there we go so shifting because of okay got it okay so those are kind of some ways that we adapt part of what what I want the principles to do is doing a great job is
to provide the board real world here's what's happening in our buildings and so so that you're apprised of okay these are you know because it's very difficult for me to sit up here and say okay we we're allocated this and we have this
many students um you know so why aren't you fixing it superintendent well this is how this is the Box we're we're given to start the year and so it's important that you're aware of of these issues in
a in a perfect world if you had 33 students now I get that number is growing um what would the Staffing be would it be a full-time you know it's really hard to answer that because we don't student huh level of student it's the level of
student too so I mean they that changes so I mean if you when I when I made my hey I need more I I took out their levels so their R scores so their screener scores where they at and so I had more I had more threes and you know ones and twos like they really need help
right versus that so that's what's hardest to say I don't know off top of my head and then also like it isn't clear-cut what a staffing model is and that we've talked about that like how because you can't say how this many kids equal this many ft it's it's just such a
such a fluid one of the benefits for the district is we've hired Dr U from well previously she was in Rochester and in St Paul who has a number of years of experience overseeing ml programming so I think we're going to definitely reap
the rewards of uh her leadership in that area awesome thanks okay um another one then I I'd alluded to this the reading proficiency so that's an opportunity we're we're making growth we're just not
where we want to be yet um so what Dr P has said before is current reading curriculum is is is not meeting our student needs we know it's not um and we know we need to read targeted resources for our bubble students and so I'll Define our bubble students as students
on Fast bridge between the 40th and 60th percentile just because they're at some risk that doesn't mean they're at no risk so they could still not meet MCA as our Benchmark so they they may not get there so we had to look for something else and we're were kind of like what
could we do um a teacher and my instructional coach brought this to me we had a research based um thing we you're piloting um read Theory and so it's a way that during something called our what I need time when time these are the kids that don't go to tier three intervention these other students that
don't may not even get tier two intervention for reading so we needed something for them right because just go read doesn't do it we know it doesn't do it so this is a way for them to pinpoint know it's it's reading at their level and can challenge them and do that um
another thing with this is it also then can challenge kids where they're at so we could um have our GT students do something different too um so it's just something we're looking at to fill some of those holes to try and figure out based off what we know datawise we need to Target in them and that was a
partnership plan Grand so is that like a one year yep so and that's just an Afton Lakeland I would assume I think um yes it is currently just us y so working on that um that is one thing that I had worked with before making this decision I had talked to Sky hooker about like
what do you think of this she's like you could try this because this is something we could use in the future and pilot and see and we the nice thing about this one is it collects all the data for you so we'll be able to say whether it is making Improvement or not it's it's not one of those programs who you're like oops it's it actually shows us and so we
can see how each student is progressing so so I guess I'm not completely clear about what the um the grant is funding the ACT it's an online program it's an online program okay yeah sorry about that yeah so it's an online program that they can log in through their clever
account and it then it links with the teacher so they can track um how they're doing and reading and so it's comprehension vocabulary some of those things that we know that the students in that bubble area and our ml students because we're also looking for a way to boost the vocabulary with our ml
students because back to just not having possibly the support they need so what is something else we could do to Target and help those students I think the term aboard and I think this is a conversation as a board and with the superintendent but I I
appreciate everything partnership plan does um but I just question is this what you know in one school one I don't know I I have a hard time sometimes I mean we need to address the curriculum gaps that we have and um at a
system level I guess because it's it's hard to see one school get something and then if it's working which it I mean based on the data here I don't know how long you've had that Grant we've just started that this year okay so um yeah just thought well and I think that that
has always been the strength of the partnership plan that they they stand ready to allow teachers and and buildings to try something new and then to see whether it's successful and you know um and you hope that the district
can step in if it is really successful and then fund it for everyone else now you know dollars being what they are it isn't always possible but I do appreciate that they stand ready to you know um help you fill that Gap that you
can't quite fill with the resources that you have right now another um the last one I had on here was the second grade class ratio is just something we've seen for reading proficiency that I I don't have a number for this
but just like the teachers are struggling to get to students when the ratio is can go up to 20 I have 29 students and a 29.4 two is the actual number could be in a kid a second grade class so they're you have that now I'm at 20 no not at there yet I need to get
to that but um we're at over we're at 27 students in our second grade you're just saying the the the district grade level targets are too high yeah that's what I'm saying but you're not at 29 because I was like what no we're not there yet okay looking for second graders y send
them my way no um so with 20 if you have if it were to get to 29.4 two right like the what it is the high end of the range that's that's too high to teach that because they're still primary so that is the argument that you know my primary teachers are like they're still primary
but they're lumped in with the intermediate ratio or the high end of the range so it is hard because they're reading to learn I mean um they're learning to read you know their grades the switch right and so they're just not there yet with the high numbers that is one of the reasons we try to get a lot
of volunteers is just to lessen that and give more attention to so well and then also if it did jump to 29 I mean we're into the school year so what happens if it if her class if the class from where to get to that ratio do you add a section different strategies okay yeah
depends um just a couple more here just uh diversity equity incluses and I can go quickly on this one but again just in Aon you saw that our numbers we're just not as diverse and just inherently but that doesn't mean that we don't want to learn more and be more inclusive and so
we are just looking for ways to do that more our our media centers are great but that's two quarters you know that we have media Specialists that can pick and call books and read with them um you know and so that's something that we wanted extra things that teachers can do in their classrooms to to do things like
that so read alloud books we um have working on getting more diverse topics and so at every staff meeting we bring them out and we just you know whatever indigenous people's day coming up we have some books that we can offer to teachers just to do that and just learning more and being more open um read works is something that it's an
article a day research based um 10-minute routine but it's amazing scope and sequence of diverse and inclusive topics and um it's it's a really great way for us to do our whole building is doing it so you're doing it in different ways they have a book of knowledge they write about it and then they share as a
class it's real quick but it's ways for us to just get more diverse topics rather than you know reading the same things or the you know High interest for the kids but maybe not digging as deep so those are some things we're trying but that is something that we just could use a little more help on just is this
ever ever going and that's through the ReadWorks which is that Grant nope this is I know they both sound the same read the is different ReadWorks it's just something that I know I know um Anderson used that last year too there's quite a few this is something that people use quite often so this isn't just act but
that's just something we figured could help but there was no District level Direction on this no so that's something we s out and then um just this is one um lean systems foral and behavioral support um
so you know with 463 students one administrator one social worker it has its limitations um so help for students with Lal needs is not always timely or consistent with two of us it just doesn't always happen um time during the
school day is spent disproportionately I can speak for myself logistically and Behavior Support um I don't have the ability to focus on instructional leadership as much as I'd like to so today I was a PE and a music teacher because we don't have the subs to fill
and so instead of my teachers losing their prep I'm going to go do that part of what I believe in student leadersh or servant leadership because they need to prep and be ready for the kids so then that means my job well I had fun don't me wrong but you know then that kind of
thing so that's just talking about and I've talked to Funk about this just the leanness I'm not saying an AP in a at a school my size but think how can we think different to just get some more supports in the building to get the students what they need do you have a
instruction I mean excuse me a behav uh building substitute teacher this year okay I think we posted for it it's posted that it is not filled so I don't have that so yeah so in my building it's
it's through t Team um or teachers on call teachers on call okay but not a full-time dedicated right I I mean I can use te I mean we hope we have tried to get a building full-time building substitute in every building this year so we we we're not there yet that's why
I ask question through teachers on call yes through teachers on call okay so that'd be dedicated to me but they haven't been able to get one for everybody so and then um I I know a pair
professional shortage has been kind of an issue across the board what are you seeing at your school and at this point I'm very fortunate I'm fully staffed at my school so with pray professionals so and quite a few mind have been around for quite a while they've been part of
our team so um but yeah I I know other buildings have that have that need and I I'm very fortunate we're okay expect so yeah but yeah that is one thing could I don't have an answer because every building would look very different when
I bring this up too because what I need was different than what you would need just because of volume and things like that so but that is one thing I noticed would help my students um so just in summary so you got to hear about Aton Lakeland today um
I feel like we're really a right siiz school um High family engagement that's awesome um we really do believe that we're not there yet and so no matter what we do we're still going to keep driving and we're looking and every stone unturned what can we do next our book this year is the magical yet so we
pick our respons have classroom book every year that's ours and so um what can we do next what can we do yet um and we're moving in the same direction and I can't say enough about all of my staff from PA professionals to instructional you know everybody we're just working
the same way and everybody puts in before you're done I just it's timely for a shout out I think here so I am the parent of two Apton Lakeland alums and we actually have an actual Alum at the table hereon and um so but it was before your time but there is a connection here so
the teachers they had are still with you so they've been around for a long time I see a couple of them back there right now Mike and Kim special shout out to Mike direct because that 4 five Express back then was my child's best experience in his 12 years at still water and so um
I think you're keeping good teachers there and they must like working there and uh the kids are appreciating them so that's I want to make sure that shouted oute yeah I can't say enough about my my teachers just what they put in every day
so they're amazing yes um so your enrollment is uh 463 students Your Capacity is 500 um what's the what's the recent trend line in terms of enrollment do you happen to
know is is the 463 up or down or it's a little bit down um not not by much but it it's a little bit down I know um some of my my kindergarten for example was four sections but then Spanish Immersion opened another one so then that changed my numbers too um because then I those
six students went and so that changed it a little bit so it's a I mean it's it's pretty consistent it's pretty steady then over the last few years okay all right thank you final question for you um I love the idea that believe that we're not there yet um so I'm just curious you've kind
of mapped out a couple ways to continue to get there um but is there anything else that would help you get there wherever there is um some of the things I mentioned but I mean overall I I feel good I feel like we're going in the direction we need to go in it's just that consistency and you
know keep going and there's no other things that come in and steer us off our path so I think as I can say for my building as we work together if we just keep going the same path and can focus in um yeah I don't I mean besides the some of the other you know the sound
with multilingual learning those things that's going to help us right because if I don't make those changes you know we're not going to see everybody grow and all students are our students so I I can't be happy with where we're at because I know I'm leaving some students not I'm not bringing them along um to
that piece so I guess it's just the consistency and I'm hopeful over more years of data to see if if we're pushing it as the way we should that's what's hard is sometimes you think you're going the right direction and we just got to keep looking at the data to see and tweak so I don't have
anything up top of my head besides some of those other things that's okay you've done a great job so far thank you so much um I just kind of want to as I'm taking notes and though my main standouts and I just want to make sure that if you were leaving you know a message with us because a part of it we
love celebrating what's working but as a board with what we can control it's I want to the goal of this is to take away themes right that we can maybe apply and what I'm hearing is um multi- language resources um Staffing models are a
little inflexible and could be worked on to better support students um class size specifically in um second grade in that primary and um behavior management like specific class Target not size class
targets class targets what she's talking about is the board the district level targets yes not her class size yes exactly the sorry the St which results in a large class Theos that thees um but specifically what is being
noticed is in that that key second grade and I can't I can speak in my building because the with the primary and the focus on literacy and so when you're you know learning to read that's a high number right to bring them along um and then the seal kind of that behavior resources that a lot of your time
instead of being curriculum focused data entrenched your dealing with the behaviors and with only one social worker yes okay thank you that's very helpful yes
um what I love about you know mean your your approach and and your presentation here is I think it's like it's a microcosm of what I hope is going on districtwide which is a datadriven you know
resource you know Focus um and obviously there are good results and and I'm glad that you you know you want more um kind of along the lines of what Alison was just saying I are
there I mean if there was one thing I because a lot a lot of what you're saying it sounds to me like bodies help F to to fix to fix you know the challenges that you have is that like if there's if it's one thing is it I mean
would that be the the thing that would help the most I gu you know when you say that it's like because different bodies can give specialized things right so like when I think about it like if I had a full-time ml teacher we could drive farther with those students right and help them achieve if I had another
social worker a school counselor something then more students could get yeah so I mean yes that would help you have to have systems to be able to do those things so yes and um I think with a lot of people getting more schools getting in the bar system and being able
to build because bar I mean has great ideas but you also have to put it together with what you have right and build a system that then is going to get the results you want and and run it the right way so bodies would help so you can put it within your system to do it
so yes that would turn thank thanks for taking the time tonight appreciate it yeah I just want to thank you again um it's um really informative and a really great start off of a a building update so we're excited to hear about all the other schools and so thank you for um
going first but um you know one of the things around class Target you know which of comes up but obviously there's a significant cost class size reduction um it so taking a step back what's your building capacity look like so if new
sections need to be created you know how do is there space for that even uh because obviously that creates other more costly right um challenges that we might have to have versus maybe having more bodies so for example you know in a perfect world just you know I don't mean
to paraphrase but having something like an AP would you know probably be very helpful uh which is obviously a lot less expensive than reducing class sizes uh on an ongoing basis but I guess you know so it's interesting from I'm interested from a capacity standpoint and you know
what does that look like as we're looking look at the bigger themes across the District of where can we best spend the dollars that's going to have the best impact on student achievement and outcomes and helping the best support um all of our subject matter experts I I can speak to my space in my
building with um with 463 students capacity of 500 I have one space left you know one or two and then where do you put band is always the the question I would have space to do that because in my building that would only ever mean
four sections of second grade there's just because of how the numbers drive I can support that in my building I can't speak to other buildings to have like bigger classes come through um that would that would work for for me because then how it drives through because then
as as it goes you know the class size ratio however we want to say goes up it wouldn't be a problem because then it would be on to intermediate the next year in third grade so then that I wouldn't have to switch third grade it would stay the same if that makes sense so it would be smaller in second and
then we'll get um or smaller classes in second four sections for example then we get to three and grade and that's for us would be okay because we've put the work in right and had more int I was going to say and that's probably like if you can keep that K1 and two smaller and man and
better more easily managed some of those be behaviors they become in theory less right because if you're putting and that's where our theory is like with our reading cor and our volunteers we're putting most of our time in effort to get smaller attention in the lower
grades because you're getting the most out of it and then can intervene targeted selectively as they get older if they still need it but if you put the work in there you probably won't have as many needs later so that's been that's been another strategy that
we've been doing well I just this has been very helpful I feel like from a board standpoint this is what the board was really looking for to hear from our building so thanks for being first in the alphabet alphabetical order and we appreciate it and thank you to you and to the staff
that you have here supporting you tonight that's actually that's really nice um but thank you to all everyone at Aton Leland you guys are doing a rockstar job and I'm know that the family's appreciated and she was told she was going to have a 15minute presentation but yeah I
know then he said you're gonna do another one I know and then you're staying up here and then um sky is coming up here and we're going to talk about data use planning as our next study topic welcome take
two so just shifting the focus a little bit I I spent a lot of time talking about after like in my school and then sky and I are going to talk about data and the leadership focus and how we use it in our roles and then how you know and I'll speak for Administration in general but um our
leadership Focus that was given to us this year was how purposeful are we and what we do and using the lens of how does it improve learning so how can we work together synchronize no more silos to um yeah and so how can we work together
to do that and how do we use data to do that so this is our leadership Focus for the year so um this is talking about how we use it for instructional leadership this guy is going to talk you through this me too chair Sherman other members of the board thank you for having me do
this one is you oh yeah okay I'm gonna do this too um so but back to one thing that we do with this instructional leadership is um using the data cycle and so we talked about this as principles to start the year out and thinking through this when we make decisions and how do we change student
learning and how do we drive it so informing shaping and driving so like what is it really what's the VIS and then how do we know if we're going on the right track and so we'll walk you through um parts of this and then give some practical examples at the
end so first is the inform section and truly this is where it makes or breaks the system because when you're in it you your natural instinct as an educator is to start with the student specific you see a student struggling and then it's an outlier so you respond but having a
clear system allows us to take a second look at it from abroad stance of nationally how are our students doing districtwide schoolwide grade wide classroom wide and then the student so we're able to respond to all students and then respond to an outlier student
in a more um responsible way I like to call this the Lifeguard approach of there's a reason the lifeguard's not already in the pool lifeguard needs to be at the higher level to assess who needs more assistance when they're in as well um and so that is what we do with informing and it's also important that
we separate out informative versus interpretive and so at this point we need to be informed of what the current reality is so an example with the science of reading here would be the reality is still what students are not reading at grade level at the level that we'd like them to be and then we move
into an interpretive approach from there of what additional data do we need and figuring out the why and so then we move into shaping what's next so thinking of the questions of what's the vision for the future um um and then how do we get
there unfortunately we are not a research institution of this piece and so oftentimes we have to Outsource this area to people who have made this their full career on it um and we are able to decide our theory of change is uh with the science of reading if we train our
teachers in the science of reading more students will read proficiently um and we have evidence so we don't have to go out on a limb here to decide this it has actually been proven in several States ahead of us um we've been able to Pilot it with groups of teachers who went through with mde and on their own time
um and then also other Minnesota districts started to adopt uh the science of reading training and with the react mde has done a lot of guidance for us and so in the shape pieces it's important to go from experiential and experimental um experiential being what
have we lived what have we seen what do we have evidence of and then where do we need to do our own pilot to apply to a Stillwater context because that is also an important piece of this how do we interpret this for our students for our staff for our system specifically as
well and then we have drive and so um one of the pieces here is it's important to have multiple sources of data so that you're able to compare it and be um a short-term a medium-term and a long-term evidence of success and within this as
well we have already our shortterm which is progress monitoring and Gina spoke to that as well tracking the individual student in response to any intervention or any system change that we do we also have three times a year our fast screeners and so that would be a comparison nationally districtwide and
also the state of Minnesota has now adopted just two approved screeners and so we will soon after this year actually be able to compare um Statewide in a way that we haven't before uh which is an exciting part of the react as well um and then we have our long-term of course
MCA is from year to year we want to see more students passing year after year especially after we implement this but also knowing we started implementing at K1 they are not yet in third grade and so it isn't an instantaneous kindergarteners pass the MCA this year because they don't take it
for a few years as well um and the other piece here is to have intentional adaptions um data can tell you a lot of things and it can tell you a lot of things all at once and so it takes a system to say where do we start where do we start shaping this movement um one
that we have in place right now is the science of reading we know that we have a curriculum Gap we've mentioned it already here but also the learning of our teachers and how they're going to take that learning and apply it to a new curriculum is what we chose to go with first to make sure the learning is
happening in front of an adoption of the curriculum which is still in um we are still in line with the new standards that don't actually start until next year and so we aren't as behind as um sometimes it comes across of because Minnesota moves to the new 2020
standards in ela next school year so using the status what sky is talking about it looks like how do these Cycles interact with each other how do we use it um data within buildings so if we think about this and you can see how it goes down there principles swim I
hope you know what all our acronyms mean you're supposed to your update last Friday it was a homework check for the board I know I think Caitlyn put here's a um a link here's a link to some terms that you might see in the near future so if you didn't look you're probably
wondering what she's talking about here I'll explain try whoever didn't do your homework I got you um so principles then you know we get this data so if you think about it like we have the data from the district level how does it funnel through and so you know I'll get this data I look at it and then that's
my current reality and I'm working with our schoolwide intervention meetings so people are looking at our data for the school whose needs an intervention what do we need to do goes down to build building in instructional leadership team so then we're tasked with where which direction do we go right with this
data down to I alluded to in my last one cat collaborative action teams what are we going to actually on you know boots in the ground teachers class down to students so if you think about that and we're using that to shape um our vision and then checking constantly with the
data what other data do we need what are we not looking at to to use this so um so this would be primar primarily on your plate as the building administrator right the this part of it so I'm kind of starting to see where if you're dealing
with the seal behaviors this which is so important isn't being done I mean done on my couch at home when time you know so yes it isit right but it's not being
done during the workday it's okay thank you M um I have a question for Sky I mean this you're describing a system here which I think is great um is this system in place in all of the elementary
schools or is it just being pilot tested at Aton Lakeland or it is in all of the seven Elementary buildings it's just that Gina is here to give us some examples about how it's working at Aton lak great thank you yeah and then last question I have um
Elsa who we've seen in the last couple meetings is she more in The Upfront inform process then does she stay involved in the process at all or is it more on the just the measurement ends yeah so having Elsa has been amazing
because it's another person to be able to look at these numbers from um that lifeguard view too of interpreting what it says um or and identifying what it says so that we're able to interpret it and then cross check of is this also how you interpreted it as someone who isn't
NE necessarily in the buildings and so that has been a great piece and then she um owns all of the biggest systems and so those MCA data crunches the fast screener crunches um anything that is large scale going out to all buildings starts with her and then gets filtered
through teaching and learning as well and then into principal hands so but our goal is always that by the time principles have it it's usable and it doesn't um need to be interpreted again for all of those crunching number pieces I know that principles do do that as to
compare it um but our goal is always like what can we take off of their plates so that it's ready to use and actionable by the time it gets to their hands as well we do have access all at the same time and I know Gina enough to know she is looking at it as well to say you know I saw it this way which is always a good piece um but our team
really works to make sure that it's actionable to filter into those teams yeah good thank you for that and I can say I I had some questions back to my ml students and it was I was able to get the answers fast and like well where are they and I can sit and crunch numbers of my own but it's been very helpful to
just be able to ask for that great so one of the questions um I actually get from both parents students staff um all the time is why do we have to continue to screen all students especially once we know they were performing at Advanced
or um beyond what we were expecting and one of the best answers that I can give is universal screening by Design continues to screen all students because it measures against um a predetermined but moving Target and what I mean by that is there is a predetermined Target
for a second grader in the fall that's normed by you know over 10,000 data points but that number actually changes in the winter intentionally because learning happens between those pieces um and so even if a student meets in the fall we never want to lose track of that
student by winter knowing that they also had to learn more than they started with and it also allows us to see the difference between what is you know a class room or school or District Gap compared nationally and then what is a predictable stretch area um that we know
it is going to be more challenging in math in a certain grade or they have to make more growth there than they would previously and so by screening all students were able to first and foremost address tier one or instruction for all and not just start with who needs an
intervention because it really does that's the last piece um so what do all students need what do some students KN need and then what do fewer student students need on a targeted level as well this is a chart that I've seen many
times come up at board meetings um this is a pretty common chart that you'll see from fastbridge fastbridge produces this um so still just receives this already in these colors and um risk levels and the best way to interpret this one is that horizontal black line indicates
what they've determined as grade level and so being above the line in that purple means you are at low risk or you are above um the minimal proficiency for grade level as a risk factor or a most likely to meet grade level expectations
and then below that black line would be that some risk and the further you get below that black line you're at higher risk to not meet grade level proficiency and so we always say we want to shrink the pink or um we want 80% or more of
students always to be above that line so that we can respond to all students and specifically respond to the lowest students as well when you say tier one tier two tier three does it correlate to these colors so can you just really quickly I'm assuming tier one would be like the the low risk yes
okay yep so tier one indicating just that one scoop of instruction that we would provide in a in a system of that um that one scoop they're at low risk they'll probably receive it on that one way um the sum risk would be that double scoop of you'll get the same thing as the purple students and in addition um
we might pull you for an intervention or a doubled um a doubled scoop of the same information and then that high risk being that's our intervention team um who are in addition to the first and second scoop you might actually get targeted services for an identified Gap
as well so yes we want 80% of students to be just in that tier one so that we can best support in smaller groups the other the pink area so just giv a little more than of what then we can do with this so like as a principal I can dig into the group
screening report this is the most common report we would use so it has the benchmarks that sky was talking about but then I can dig down I could stay shallow I can go as deep as I want so National level all the way down to I can look at a student um so just to give you
an idea so like again looking at how's our district how's my school doing how's this grade doing um what's this teacher data look like what are you know down to one student so just knowing that you can go as as deep as you want it's nice to have these because then you can look at
well you know some risk 28% are at some risk well great but what does that look like in other places and how can we use that information to move forward so just an idea of how we use that so I know you're using this information Sky how
are we doing as a district amongst the buildings it basically knowledge of diving into this information and so and just what are your thoughts on that from a from our literacy angle yes so this
summer um I was invited to actually join the admin retreat they have a admin Retreat Day a couple days I attended one of the days and we actually went through step by step how to access this how to interpret this and then what they um we're looking forward to ahead of
screening of what data they'll have access to how to drill down those different levels and then um The Next Step of that is then reviewing it with here's what's going to come up at your meetings here's what your teachers were doing and so I would say uh in my three years here we're the strongest we've
ever been in principles being able to find this data interpret this data and take actionable steps on the data as well in real time which is great about having um a norm screener is as soon as the students take it within 24 hours we're able to see those Trends as well
coming in um and the principles have access to that as well so they aren't it isn't similar to MCAS where they take it we wait several months and then we can respond to it it's something that is built for what is this data saying now and then they can see what did this data
say at this same point last year and also how did this cohort do from last year to this year as well yes one quick question on that L are we missing one level there you go from District to National is is State available in that as well after this
this year it will be so um Minnesota has gone with only two approved screeners that districts are required to use and so we went with fastbridge the other one is called Dibbles so after this year Minnesota will produce um Minnesota normed District or Minnesota normed
normed levels um that we'll be able to compare how our district is doing to other districts with our same standards within our state who are at the same place in literacy adoptions um as we are with the science of reading deadline yeah this this might be a question for
um superintendent Funk if it's not I can go here but we're talking a lot because sky you are literacy yes literacy teaching and learning coordinator I'm assuming a data process goes on for math science so this is something that all the coordinators corre your peer
positions are doing okay exact same yeah sky sky was in on the initial training with the with the principles so that's why she's able to speak right but so this is also being done in different indicators like obviously f is to what you're doing but okay thank you and and this will come up
later but this also I would look at the same thing for math so I would have the same availability just different indicators that are giving you the data like so because fast bridge is just reading no it's math too math as well oh it is yeah so we use it for both so you use it for both is there something available for SC
is science a fast no science is not okay different indicator for science then yeah okay um so just knowing how we collaborate together so how tnl and buildings work together so we have this overarching Universal screening that happens and then the data can go different ways I I can like I showed you
I can grab my group screening reports right away I can dig in and get going um the district does data analysis too and works to do dwim districtwide intervention meetings um so five times a year and so they meet and they decide who needs tier three instruction who
needs targeted intervention at that level then then it's taken to swim schoolwide intervention meetings and that's where we decide who needs tier two instruction and so who would we do those those dips that the teachers are doing in their classroom so tier two is done by teachers um and so I use my
analysis with the information from swim and then I make decisions on how to drive so back to that data cycle like where are we going with this I can see my building and my building's needs I know who's going to get tier three tier two I need to make sure it's done with Fidelity and then what else do we do
right because again we're not back to my we're not there yet all students where else are we going with it and that's with the cat meetings then we look at data in another way and then apply that to our tier one instruction so you can see the system all works together with the same data just kind of funnel it in
different ways it doesn't change the data so the next couple parts are just how I use this information in my building so I can't speak to other places but this is like this is could be done done by anybody this is just something for examples of the way I use this data that you just saw so I'll go
through each one um so you can see some are more in- depth than others um but we included a lot team interventions courageous teacher conversations and school by data how do we reflect so I can speak to it after data is ever present in grounding so data is
displayed at every staff meeting there's something I'm putting out there of like let's look at it what can we do um and using my interventionist to really help me with that um back to what I had said in my previous presentation is all building learning decisions are based on data so
we use data to ask deeper questions so before we make a decision what does the data say what is it telling us instead of let's just try this you know it's just it's really using the data to inform us and then um all data is connected so from screening all the way to a teacher decision you could follow
it and see where it went now teachers make day-to-day decisions all the time about their students but if we're talking about making changes to any tier of instruction it's using data to do that so it's just ever present it's just kind of always there um so back to what
sky had said before about watching cohorts and and things like that this would be something we this was I pulled this from our um August staff meeting because we were looking at well where are we and where are we going so this is just showing you where our students were last year so at 70 the same cohort so in
the fall of last year at 72% I'll just say proficiency just to use the top number for ease and by the start of this year those um by the end of that year sorry they had grown 6% okay so throughout the year so from 72 to 78
when we rescreen them this year they're at 77% so they held strong and then we're g to our goal is 80% because we're always shooting for 80% because that's a healthy system so we can help everybody love to be over 80 but you know 80 is for we're shooting for so this just
shows you how we actually use it in staff meetings to talk that's great um another way we use it is problem solving so this um this team looked and they're like we're just not moving students as much as we wanted to and so the team is looking at that we're
sending them off behind remember part of it um off you know behind we weren't making the growth we wanted to so that's that first set of data they grew three three points three percentage points so it's looking at the data and this was
with my instructional coach and I looked at it then we worked with them um are these scores surprising what are the goals for winter because we were like how are we not getting there um and then the realization the team had this is the team they're like oh if they miss one onset sound and reading they're not
going to make like we're just not going to get there so well then we charged with how do we think differently what do we do so this team decided after looking at this or seeing these in front of them is we're going to intervene before winter screening we progress monitor and realize we've got to do something before
we get there we can't just hope that it changes by the time we get to Winter and so they're telling me what they need we got a collaboration day so they could do some more data processing meaning I used my professional development money to give them that that's the time they needed and then you can see the results
so then the following year putting now it's not the same students right this is a different one it's a different different set of students but they put a different plan in place and they grew 16 percentage points because they knew what to do they weren't just like well I'll just keep trying what we're doing right
and not that that's like a fault they were working hard but looks like smarter so back to showing you shrinking the pink down there or shrinking it um and and moving up so that was just a great that's a way to use data in your
building another one is another problem solving one is this is something that actually when I meet with teams of teachers data is not to be hidden so we'll look at it and say you know this grade level let's look at our data together and so we'll look at it and it's it's not comparison like you're
better than you anything it's just how come we look at it so teachers are given their data we talk about it as a team what can we learn from it um I have that plus minus change like what do we need to do and then looking at the data and teachers had really great conversations
they're looking two teachers you know different kids right so we have to remember they have different students they have different challenges but if one is showing a lot of growth and the other one isn't making as much growth how can we change so what can we do in our collaborative action teams because
if you're doing something that's working how can we work together and that's the whole point of a collaborative action team so this is something um that they are given and we have conversations about and they ruminate on and then they work as a team and I say I can help but
this is your dayto day um this is so enlightening I mean I really appreciate your bring bring all this forward and you know and that you're using data to drive all this I mean and not only are you using it to try to help students achieve but you're
also using it it sounds like to help teachers be more efficacious in the classroom which I think is a great thing so I guess my question is is this something kind of new the way you're approaching it in terms of helping teachers become better at what they do
and the other question is how are you helping them do that I mean is is there some PD involved or coaching or whatever it might be so this year I can say like I've always talked about data we don't hide it we look what can we drive when I
did this this year um or started to do this it it's just opened up a lot more conversation so that's one difference I'm seeing it's like you're just going to talk about it like it's not you know I've had teachers come up to me they're like I thought about that all night and this is what I want to try okay great
let's try it so when you say of how am I helping them it's really giving the freedom to try different things or to ask the questions and then I try I you know I I was a secondary teacher you know I don't have all the answers but I can find the answers you know or find the people to help you with it so that's
where um on the other example I said well I use my professional development money for them to be able to collaborate to work on those things together so some of those things that happen or I don't have an instructional coach in my building anymore per se but like can the interventionist you know that H maybe has some skill
push in and help you guys out you know so different ways of just using your resources because I don't know what they need unless they can we can get to that where they can decide I need this right because sometimes you're like what do you need you're too overwhelmed to know what you need if we use this we can
drill down part of it though is you're able to identify the gaps yeah within the data and so if it's number and operations or or or whatever it may be okay we have holes here and and you might not have the answers maybe uh you
know one of our instructional coaches in a district or um Amy Fisher and math could come in and help out but at least we're able to identify okay here's gaps that our kids are not getting and and that is a I think if you don't know the
data you don't understand where the holes are you can't solve the problem and I think that's really what what uh um our principles are starting to be able to do do you do I feel like when I when I first started on the board and I know some of you were here with that it
felt like this the data part of it was a little archaic like I think I remember at one board meeting saying that like data would be like physically run to the schools like it just wasn't as handson um accessible do it has the tech Levy
that the community supported just two comments on that one you've heard me talk about the struggles we've had with power schull mhm I will tell you that a success that we have had with Power Skull is Unified insights and what we can use to dive into the data
and fast bridge and other data pieces can be fed into it and now having Elsa um really being able to Crunch the data and and provide some insights into what's going on has been really beneficial uh but again I I think part
of it is one of the steps we took this summer was we're going to make sure the principles all have a similar playing field as far as understanding the data um what are we able to do with our teachers um so that you know again
similar experience and before I so I want to say this now so I don't miss saying it at the the at the end of this presentation but I just want the board to reflect upon what they're seeing and when so so when we talk about test
scores all right and we talk about well here's where the district's at or whatever I I just want you to understand and and get a feel for the incredible amount of work that our teachers are doing that our principles are doing um
to identify uh you know where we're at within the system and devise Solutions and work together collaboratively I mean people are really just um you know working their tailes off and um I just
think uh we don't say it enough so so um but but this is just an example and again I think this is is great because it's purposeful we're following some systems and you know Sky mentioned it we're seeing some great results in in our kindergarten um we're not going to
see those for a few years yet um but within some of our vast Bridge results we're really starting to to see some uh great results so I just want to um compliment that glad I'm glad you said that because one thing I I mean our teachers are always working so hard but
this feels like and I know when you came on to the district it was like how can we work smarter not necessarily harder this feels smarter um and it feels like we're moving in a better Direction than when we even first came on the board at a lot of us um who have been here a few
years now this is just a reassuring progress that we're seeing so thank you not to interrupt but I will also say we are in year three of the system of um we've been screening for longer than that but actually having the resources from um The District in the system too
to have that dwim or that districtwide intervention meeting and so that's a preset date following um following screening data where all the interventionists the reading and math come together and universally make Equitable decisions for um services and
then also swim which is a subbed out time um during the teachers workday so that teachers aren't having to do this outside of the day and analyze it but actually um subbed out as a team that rotates throughout each building so that they're able to have time and space while their students are still learning
um during the day to analyze and do that data work makes a huge difference too um because otherwise it is consistently we know teachers work past hours all the time but it's nice to have a carved out day where we're going to do this work in a systematic way um preset before we get
into the day today as well and I can say as a principal I hold that day sacred I will be there the entire time because I want to know every student I want to know where they're going what's moving on so I can be a part of that too and so that's been something that's really helpful and then just saying you something you had said about like the
data and what's the pieces with it and you mentioned Elsa but I have to say like the teaching and learning Co is like Sky I just call her up I'm like explain this to me it just knows data so well and that's been such a great shift to be able to like I know who to go to and I I know I can get help and help me
understand or which direction to go to so the I think that's my last example um is go shifting away from Fast bridge data that we were showing you but another way that we use data um at Aton is we did this last year and it was helpful so we could start the year fresh
is you take MCAS and then you leave for the summer and so I crunch my data is or like sky is saying I'm usually crunching my data before like it's actually given to me because I just want to know where we're at and I work with my teams three four and five to look at their data as soon as we can
and I have them reflect on it and then we meet and talk about it and so it's and one thing you'll notice on it all this is in a math example so I said here's your math data like you know I I have and and reading they're both on there but if this was your math reflect what did you implement this year for
tier one tier two and tier three so back to all students are our students so it doesn't matter if they're going out for math replacement or um they go to math with me you still your students so what did you do to help these students achieve and so it's just like oh yeah what did we do this year and then
reflecting on the data what should we do different next year so it's just a planning piece I mean the meeting isn't real in depth because we're tired it's May but like let's put in what we did and then have a plan for next year and that's where some of our things that we came up with this year to Target Reading
came from this because they're like we need something else what can we do and it doesn't always have to be programmatic right or curriculum but like or what could we how could we think differently and so at least we put that in stone you know stone is Google Sheets is and then we use it later and then we
bring it back up and it's not it's not just a onetime thing so that's something we use it for as well so it's not the fastb data because they don't always go hand in hand right but we're getting better at using them to be productive
for this um so that was it so just summary we always say hope is not a strategy so we're just not going to hope it gets better so that's how idea of data like that all students are students they get your 100% of your tier one and tier two no matter who they are um what does the
data say that's some these are things we say all the time we lean in what can we do not the kids or parents so we can ask them to read at home but we can't control that so what can we do at school and control and help students um so that's what we say what we do what my
role is as a principal and this is what we talked about before is Building Systems so they can see success um that back to alignment acknowledge the challenges like basically look look at the data together let's not hide it or what are our barriers like be honest
like tell us and I have very honest people that will tell me and I whether I can do something about it in the moment I don't know but what can we do celebrate successes so always always using positive data and then just being visible that's part of what is a principle I do with data and in general
so but talking about the technical yes so data informs us but it doesn't make decisions for us we are the decision makers similar to um tools don't teach teachers do and so we have the responsibility of interpreting and
acting on it and also being strategic on when and where to act on the pieces um and then adaptive would be that interpreting and acting right so they have to be separate so they can both be strong when they're together um because otherwise you go into Data analysis
paralysis where you can overanalyze until the point where you actually can't act and then you're so far behind it's too late because new data has come in and so creating those systems where it's set aside before the data is in makes it so that we're not just responding or
reactive we actually are proactively um going to look at these pieces and then also the piece of there's not a single teacher in this District who wants to do poorly and so seeing it as data doesn't need to be scary it informs where support is needed and then um I think a
strength of our district too is just teachers willingness to work together especially in your example of it's not a competition it's it's actually a collaboration so those collaborative action teams I think are a really powerful piece that's going to continue to propel Us in the direction we
want um one question I had to was is so is this I know Gina you're from the elementary schools is this also a similar process that's being done in middle school is it is this reflected in our secondary schools as well a process like this so um I would say we're in
year three in elementary schools and in early phases of getting Baseline data in secondary and Beyond um not because we are behind but because the read act actually moves slowly one year at a time and um we used to use map we're now transitioning to f bridge and so we will
actually be able to follow a student in the same system from K12 um but this year is just collecting Baseline of what is a typical Stillwater sixth grader scoring at where do we respond um so I would say it's really collecting tier one data um but it's going well so far
we have screening results we're happily like looking at it as it is in an overwhelmingly negative situation um where it's saying everybody's in the pink which you never know what Baseline is going to give you um but is a really good start so that we're able to make an
informed plan going into years forward of how and when our students move from elementary to secondary making sure they're set up for success as they come through as well so to be determined but excited for the future
yes any other questions just kind of a general comment um thank you so much for this presentation this was so informative um and as Alison was mentioning like when we first came on the board it felt very very much like our teachers and our principles were asking for more support um and
desperately needed it and the district um really needed to step up and do a better job of supporting um are the people who are teaching our kids and working with their kids every day so this is really reassuring that we now are really being diligent in creating
systems finding and collecting data and giving teachers time to analyze it and teaching them how to analyze it so it's not just piling more things on on a the full plate so I'm really excited about this work um and the idea of bringing those teachers together and letting them
collaborate and not hiding the data I feel like that is so critical and yet so vulnerable at the same time of having to admit like I I'm not a perfect teacher or my kids are struggling when that is universal so um I love those conversations are happening I hope they
continue and that our teachers continue to be brave in what they're doing because it's helping it's working so thank you for all your work I really appreciate it yes I would just add one more thing um you know I obviously it's great to be able to use the data and you know teachers and administrators and
everybody to be able to use it all and help students and obviously that's our our primary goal going up the you know up the the the comparison ladder it also gives us an opportunity to share that data I I feel like sometimes we get lost in well
this school's MCA scores are this and then that's comp compared across you know the district and the and other districts getting more granular with the data and having a more standardized way
of sharing that with our parents so that they know gosh we're actually you know we're not just hoping that that our scores get better we're not just relying on on teachers to you know pick themselves up and you know get get get their students smarter you know they can
actually point to the what what they're doing with with a little bit more clarity and so um you know it does go both ways and maybe gives the community a little bit more you know a better understanding of of how seriously
everybody takes their their jobs so thank you and one thing and actually it's interesting because the last question I had here was and director ler brought it up um what does this process look like for families I mean I guess we're up here representing the community
is it do they ever see this kind of information the families or how would that present itself I guess to a family well I can say coming up October 11th they will be getting their family reports sent home so we do send home this data we put it we try to send it home in a way that is understandable for
parents um at conference time when they conference with teachers they'll talk about this data to see where their students are and relation you know District state things like that to see where they are they're percentile and so they do find information that way um so that that's one way we do send
this home so right currently we do backpack it home or send it home that way is that through all of our schools then yeah we all have so I can say like on that date we all you know elementaries are sending that home um so we do we are doing it that way that one thing and I'll just say it because Dr
Funk brought it up I would love for it to be online in the easier way for parents to see too um I think that's something we've always been working towards so it can be ever present on there um Power School to find it um so that something too and then we we try I
could say our building teachers have dabbled with different ways to give more up to dat because data does change right so like we screened It Ready set go kindergarteners that's not you know like it is an initial Baseline but within a month they've just grown amazing right
so by the time we send this family part home in October that's old data that's it's hard you know so it's like okay can we put something else in there to show like progress they've made but that has ever Chang in so that part's really hard and I can see where that would fall in line having that accessible data to
families when we have our conference format that changed so that they could be so having that on demand I can see where that would be a natural fit did you have a question com yeah I just I mean similar director law I mean wow I mean this this like how the
sausage is made you don't really understand it when you're outside looking in even at a board level I mean it's it's it's it's impressive so thank you thank you to all of you and our principls and teachers and staff I mean I think this should be like a a family one-on-one learning of this is what
actually happens and this is why you know you know we love our public schools and our teachers and our staff and our administrators so so thank you uh one question in terms of those family reports and talk about some of the you know your increase in the multilingual students
um how is that being you know is that being done in different languages so families can better understand that or you know how are we helping to maybe meet some of the needs and the challenges of of our more diverse families and that achievement Gap because I would imagine a report comes home and if it's not in their dat of language I mean it's what's the point
one of the things we're doing at the district level is looking at systems that are effective at translating for our different families and I don't think we're there yet um but that is definitely something that we're taking a look at okay and I can Echo that we
don't have a great answer for that yet um we find ways to translate or ways to communicate in different ways whether sometimes it's with traditional conferences we were bringing a translator that can talk through well just kind of we'll kind of explain what this report means and then hope that it
makes it through that great question I think one other piece to speak to in the family reports is uh maybe why it goes out a little bit later than you know with we screened and Ready set go so we actually make sure that before the reports go home a student who is going
um maybe in the summer risk or highrisk category that there is a plan in place for that student and that there is time for the teacher or interventionist and sometimes both to communicate with the family before they would receive like your student is at high risk in Reading it's actually a conversation of um
before you get this report I want you to know here are the plans we have in place here's how the screening went um and so that they're not receiving news they're receiving a plan because there's a big difference between receiving information and receiving a plan that's in response to information
and so that is um the difference and then um you spoke to progress monitoring earlier as well um so I happen to be a mom of a kindergartener this year in our district and on seesaw have already gotten updates from kindergarten teachers on he went from this many letter sounds to this many letter sounds
because there is such a a change from um you know late August to October so because of our systems it's able to be real time um especially if a student's um in a risk category they're already we've already started interventions before they get a letter saying um you
know uh there's any concern it's actually here's a plan would you like us to respond um before we start intervention too so that is that Gap yeah well I mean just reiterating this is really informative thank you so much for coming in it's great to see you both
and I'm excited I mean I can see the definite progression from where we are three years ago to where we are today and I'm sure where we'll be in another three years it's just really exciting to watch for our families for our students for our teachers and just kudos to like
Dr Funk said I mean our teachers work unbelievably hard our Paras our administrators teaching in learning instructional Co I mean everyone in the district works so hard to make this happen so um lots of unon unon Heroes here so thank you very
much thank you thank you you survived Gina good [Laughter] job and now Paul we're here for policy it's not really fair to follow that let's see but I do
want to iterate and I know that the board you know feels that you know policies are very important and they and they keep our district where we where we need be so um so we do have three policies that we're just going to look at today and it's the first reading um and all three of them have to do with
Transportation um and it does follow kind of with our kind of the the policy committee's um goal and Mission to review all of our policies and get them um up to up to where we'd like them to be so um and I'd like to say you know with through transportation we need to
get the kids to school so that they can experience all this amazing learning that does happen here um with that so with that said um the first policy is um 707 which is transportation of public school students uh this is a would be a
new policy for us it's based on the msba model policy it does contain legal requirements um that are consistent with what our practices are with Transportation um in our current practices we do follow all the legal and statutary requirements this just kind of
puts it you know into policy um so I think it's the recommendation that we we consider this U policy so um the purpose of the policy is to provide for the transportation of students consistent with requirements of Law and this uh specifically this policy it's the policy
of the school district to provide for the transportation of students in a manner which will protect their health welfare and safety the school district recognizes that transportation is an essential part of the school district services to students and parents but further recognizes that Transportation by school bus is a privilege and not a
right for an eligible student um the policy goes through definitions um and and kind of talks around some of the specifics of our um our requirements and transportation so we'll uh we'll put that up for the week for people to
review and can I just make a quick comment absolutely um so in this policy for policy committee we actually had a discussion about um there are certain areas where we go above and beyond what is required by the state um so we were like do we want want to put that in the policy and I think that where the
discussion landed was that we would actually have a link it is on our website of what our um what the differences are so if you're just reading the straight policy this is what is required um but that there would be a link to something connected to our policy for like more of a procedural
piece for how we're doing it if there are exceptions um so if you guys have any thoughts on that um in either direction that'd be good feedback to give us too excellent excellent and I also want to say that Mark was in the room too so like part of the policy committee I feel
like we've done a really good job as a group um getting the decision makers and the ne subject matter experts in the room so when you're looking at this people have already seen it that live this work so exactly so the second uh
policy is 710 this is this is a new policy as well and it's an S msba recommended policy it's uh it's titled extracurricular transport um and it really kind of lays out what the kind of
the district's position is on extracurricular Transportation um and kind of goes through the the arrangement and how that's how that's done so it's in a systematic way and process for people to have a reference
to to that in policy so there's any questions about that otherwise we'll let people have time to review that further as needed and the third policy um is policy 711 uh video recording on school
buses this policy actually replaces a policy that we currently have which is uh it's 7-Eleven but it's titled uh video surveillance um and so this policy um the our current policy was last
approved in 2012 so this policy is updated and revised by msba has really the same content with a little more detail from the original um 711 component so it just it uh it's not
a very long policy but um outlines how we use video cameras on buses to support safety of students so and staff so again when reading through these if you have any questions um start with Paul and um
and we'll go from there great thank you thank you all right our last item on tonight's agenda is a bond update and we'll welcome Mark I see W is here too welcome good evening chair Sherman
members of the board um I have two guests with me here again um Paul owski and Valerie Peterson from um world Architects um couple things here so a bond update first we're going to talk about um Bayport and the updates to the New Bayport elementary school and then the second piece of this is we're going
to show renderings of um Oakland Middle School both the addition and the remodel um based on our user group feedback so um update here on Bayport Elementary so we started um kind of little little history going back with the church so
this land um was owned by St cry United Church um we started negotiations with church uh probably about 14 16 months ago so kind of beginning of of last summer um and looking at purchasing this land um before we purchased it we we
walked it um numerous times I did at least three times I know Dr Funk members of the architect team kind of walked and kind of see just certain aspects um the way the land's currently used with the garden and the Labyrinth and um kind of where they have their service and just different aspects of of the land um
based on those walks and some of the conversations that we had with the l or with the church they were interested in selling us the property so we entered into a a letter of intent with the church um in last October um a year ago at this time um that was from those
walks conversations meeting with the leadership team Etc H after winter break kind of the beginning of the new year we were into negotiations with the church around specific parameters of what that contract would look like so kind of from January through June um we met several time both with our legal team their
legal team kind of setting the parameters of what is the agreement and we come together to kind of um design an outdoor classroom kind of what are the parameters around that so at the June board meeting we approved the um purchase agreement for um the S cre
United land for us to purchase that land after that meeting we started um kind of bi-weekly every other week meetings with the church to talk around a lot of different things first off is location of where the Outdoor Classroom would go and so um at the beginning of the summer
we walked the land again we kind of identified three different um spots within this um site plan that you can see of what options that the church was interested in and were interested in and then we kind of explore different options so we kind of put all three of those on a piece of paper came back with
the church and kind of talked about pros and cons of what those three um would look like and we kind of settled on where it is right now so if you look at the diagram up on the screen you're going to see the bottom right hand corner kind of that Southeast corner of the property it says Outdoor Classroom
so that's where the the property is right now it's right next to the playground you'll see a softplay and hard play So Soft play is the actual playground structure itself and then hard play is the black top so think basketball courts Four Square Hopscotch those sorts of things so it's uh located
um right next to that you're going to see a trail system kind of right next to the Outdoor Classroom that trail system um starts from the parking lot so if you look in the upper right hand corner or that nor northeast corner it says parking that is our Bus Loop so our bus pick up and drop off and then that trail
kind of goes all the way through the back of the school to kind of the lollipop there in the bottom left corner that that road is for emergency vehicles um emergency vehicles whether it's fire or ambulance or whatever needs to have access all the way around the site so that lollipop at the end is the
turnaround for fire trucks to have that the radius for them to turn their trucks around and head back out so um when we we talked about site locations um we talked about seating arrangements within it we talk about storage talk about ad accessibility all those sorts of things
so we talked about kind of where um they would you know Park their cars and drop off so there is parking in the Bus Loop which you can see a stripe there we also talked about that if there's people that um have some Mobility challenges that we
could drop off kind of at the edge of where the emergency vehicles because the city really wants to keep traffic off that trail that's really just for emergency purposes only so that we could drop off right at the corner of where that trail starts and then that trail all along and our Outdoor Classroom
meets ADA requirements by statutes we want to make sure all the facilities that we create with the New Bayport Elementary School meets our ADA requirements and so we had this the city looked at it um and met all their requirements we went last Monday to the
Planning Commission at Bayport there were um a couple speakers with um the S United Church that had um some concerns about the ad accessibility um around the length of how far a person have to walk or how far they'd have to travel from
the drop off site to the um Outdoor Classroom they thought there there's Ada restrictions around the length and it's not really the length of the the distance it's really with the slope and I know Paul you probably have a better job of giving us what that statute actually entails but to know that the
trail meets all those ADA requirements so in the meantime we have had conversations with the city around what our next steps um moving forward with will be and the city um kind of looks at our plan and and is is taking it from there so there was an article in the Star
Tribune in which Ada accessibility was raised okay this is an ADA accessible site I don't think that has been I I think that was not accurate or
but it is Ada accessible the conflict and it's really as much of a conflict between the city and the church as anything else is Bayport is really clear they don't want any traffic on that road except emergency
vehicles and the church well we should be able to bring our cars down here and drop people off and so it's Paul tell me if I'm wrong that's a pretty level it's a level enough to be considered Ada gently slops down uh and
the real requirements of AD are to meet all those requirements and then it's to provide Equitable access so a person has to walk that distance then a wheelchair can also make that same distance that's kind of the spirit of the law so it's not an ADA issue as far as what the
school district um we are firing We are following all the statutory requirements regarding that it's well we want to be able to drop our people off closer and and you know we've said you can use the edge of the parking lot there um to drop
folks off and and walk is it 200 feet maybe roughly yeah um so that's that's where there's some some conflict right now and what do they do now for their services if they're out they well that's an interesting thing because you know their services are to the to the it be
the East over over a little bit um it's closer because they're they're parking in uh parking lot that's closer but they don't have accessibility they have to go over grass they there's no paved road that they're on so it's a challenge
there um in that regard so would that not meet Ada accessibility then if it's I'm not I'm not gonna I'm not going on that road but this is an improvement this would be an improvement accessibility wise yes correct the other part that the angle from the city is obviously that the all
of our schools have emergency access all the around the buildings and it's just for that the other part is that they want to keep um playgrounds in near safe spaces for kids you know so they're not worried about traffic you're playing four square and a ball gets away and you have to worry about a car coming back whether you know you drop off or whatever so for security reasons they're
keeping that safe area for kids they want to keep those Vehicles off that emergency Loop so go ahead and correct me if I'm wrong so like um Rutherford Elementary who I'm most familiar with they have a a path and there's ways that Vehicles can make it down I'm assuming that's cross the board a pretty
consistent best practice all of our schol that's used for emergency vehicles so it's we're just staying accurate you know to what is the protocol across the board fire martial orders require that in all of our sites okay so we're trying to trying to stay Solutions focused okay
how can we work through this and you know um meet the needs of uh um our students the community the Bayport Community but at the same time follow follow the laws and uh in you know Municipal Code of what Bayport wants to
do so we're working through this but I wanted to since this was in the Star Tribune I wanted to give the board an update on kind of what the reality of the situation is I we appreciate that thank you guys for doing that any other questions before we dive into
Oakland all right so now we get to look at the at at the wonderful pictures and renderings we have here so Oakland uh middle school has both an addition and a remodel so let's talk about the addition first there's about 30,000 square ft of addition there's six classrooms as well as two
science labs so we'll get about another additional 230 kids off of this we're going to add a two-station gym two-station gym which means there's two full-size basketball courts currently right now there's a one station gym and actually it's a little smaller than a full-size basketball court within you
see gym two gym uh station as well as storm shelter so if you remember per code a few years ago anytime you would do an addition you have to have a storm shelter that can withhold um a tornado that can fit the size of the entire school as well if has restroom facilities inside of that storm shelter
so in the gym you'll see um there is a storm shelter built within that so that's the addition the remodel or the renovation is we're going to take the current gym and turn about three4 or about 80% of that into a media center
currently our media center is very small for a a middle school standards and then the other part of the media or the other part of the current gym will be a new music room just based on number of sections you kind of take this year's um Staffing of number of sections for each department and then kind of extrapolate
that with about another 200 250 kids and to figure out how many rooms you need of each of the curricular areas so with that addition of kids we're going to need a new music room so part of the current gym is going to be an extra music room um for our music classes also um we're going to relocate the current
media center now to student services so student services are counselors and social worker and then also just with with additional students coming in um renovation for a specialed site based program our CIP our our autism program we're going to have two classrooms um
for CIP programming here within our Oakland Middle School so schedule-wise um we started with our core planning back last spring um with the design team which we had an update on that within our design team we also took tours we also had a student feedback um group
that looked at their feedback options for both the classroom as well as the Media Center so as you see here you can see some of the student um input here in this presentation as well then we went into design kind of May and this summer with user groups um the second week of
school we actually went back to um Oakland with all the different user groups we had about 10 different user groups here to get their feedback and input and then these um drawings are based off of Staff input and then CD issue is our construction drawing so the construction drawings with the street about a month from now um we'll open up
bids here after the new year and then our uh construction timeline is this summer we're going to do the additions so it'll start with the science rooms and the six classrooms and the gym and then next uh summer will be the remodel because we have to get the gym open first before we can take the current gym
remodel it into um the spaces that they need so that's kind of our construction timeline looking at um kind of the site plan here kind of looking North and South the other key component of this you'll see the red lines running North and South currently we're on a well and a septic system we are going to be
hooking up to city sewer and water So currently city sewer and water is across 10th Street just north of it so part of this is to get this facility and we want to do that um from a district pect perspective is to get this on city sewer and water um as you look at the site you can kind of see the existing building
and the two green spaces so if you look at the bottom um the bottom Green Space is the six classrooms if you look at the bottom left the blue is the gymnasium and then above the blue that little green area is our two uh class science rooms so that is the additions um here
to this space the other part of this in the bottom right hand corner is um our parking and queuing for parent pickup there currently is some queuing that goes back to Manning so we're working with the city and actually more closely with the county because it is a County Road about what are some options that we
can have do with queuing with our parking lot to take some of that pressure off of Manning and bring it onto our parking lot so we don't have that exactly figured out but we have a couple different options that we're working with the county right now on about queuing parent pickup both before and after school can I ask something
really quick so we're on the well water now we're going to hook up to City Water what h i mean the well system just kind of goes away or do what so it's an it's an older one that would need to be replaced so this is good timing so um we're working with the city now on how
do we if we just kind of cap it off or how does that look but we're looking to transition completely off of the the septic and well system and moving to city sewer and water so so what what do we have to do with our septic fields anything we'll have to do that's where right now yes we have to do some work
there to okay yes so the those specifics have not been worked out um we had a Planning Commission meeting last week and had some early renderings of this and they had some questions about irrigation so we have to kind of have that conversation about how irrigation worked out first before we can get to um what the final determination is for that
septic and Wells okay so to be determined on okay that's I was going to say and then now kind of looking at the um overall floor plan uh kind of looking on the right side where you come into to the main that first on the right that orange area is the current media center
and you can kind of see how small it is there's really just four offices for our three counselors and social worker um and then a little conference room there for our um student Support Services going to the bottom you see the six classrooms there that bottom green you see the six rooms if you look on the
left the blue is the two cha two- station gym working on the left all the way up you see the two science in the green on the upper left in the upper left as well in the Orange is the CIP or the special education site based programming and then you look in the middle of the site that blue is the New
Media Center with the red being the music room and then part of banking the CIP um program we had to relocate um a design a make classroom and another classroom to a different spot because those are currently used as classrooms right now so we relocated those areas and kind of designated them up here on
the screen so now we'll kind of talk about some of the um design features and kind of some of the inspiration between some of the renderings that we see so I invite Val and Paul to all right thank you um just like with the elementary schools we like
to come up with what we call a concept to help Inspire the look and feel of the building and obviously at Oakland there's a whole bunch of square footage we're not touching but we really wanted to make the most of the spaces that we are working with so for this we're proposing the idea of um using the
Prairie as inspiration um so it is a lightly forested grassland where the um where Oaks are the dominant tree and it often is a transition between forest and Prairie which is kind of poetic for a middle school that's the transition for students um some of the characteristics
that are interesting about oak trees is they tend to be they kind of grow in a spiral pattern the branches grow in a spiral the leaves come off of the branches and Spirals and so that's you'll see some of that in the design um that the the trunks layers to them that is an interesting in the in the bark and how that forms on them the kind of the
textures of that and then the great idea of this big canopy spreading out and we've all seen these great pictures of Oaks these big Majestic ones in a prairie so that's some of the inspiration for how we're shaping space and then we're contrasting that with the idea of prairie so more Open Spaces um
the big Skies um clouds and things like that some of the ways that we're interpreting that in the building then is uh layered ceilings um some of them with some spiral pattern patterns that help draw off of that theme um we have kind of feature pieces that are wood based that are meant to feel a little
bit like an oak tree trunk uh and then some play of The Light Within there to have some lighter and darker spaces so that it feels a little bit again like you're Under The Canopy of a tree and likewise for the Prairie elements we're um using when we can we're using some of the space in that gym for instance to
make it feel big and open um and then also having some sheltered places within there to provide some contrast to the spaces um so the media center um as Mark indicated is really the former or current gymnasium right now um one of
the things that Mark alluded to is that we had an opportunity to actually meet with students about this and we didn't have um any of our renderings or any of the design done when we met with them we literally just met with them of what are your favorite things about learning what are your favorite things about engaging
with your um classmates how do you best learn how do you use the media center um and so some of the things that came out of that really started to inspire not only the design but also a lot of the function um one of the Beautiful Things is it really coupled and doubled down the things that the core group was
already um envisioning and dreaming and then furthermore supported by the user input process that came after the student feedback in the uh Core Group um commenced so some of the design criteria at the uh Media Center should be accessible by by the community as well
as accessible to the students um it should include um the storage that's needed for all of its materials and then um try to uh capture natural daylight because it will be in the uh center of the building um one of the students I thought was really a stute and said this is really an opportunity for it to be
the spark in our building um that it should really be the thing that draws the students in um and that they really do desire going to the media center for group work as well as changing their their environment of where they're doing their work so they wanted a destination
to seek out and do work at so as you can see the media center does have all the traditional items that you would expect there's group learning there's actually a couple different areas of group learning so in um so more than one class size could go here um there will be some
book storage for that um you can see at the north end of it too there's some common circulation so a little bit of relief to some of the cafeteria space at lunches and even provide in a space of auditory separation for some students that may need a little quieter place to
eat um is being provided and then that uh additional music room just because more students and more um of those curricular needs another significant uh Improvement is we're creating another way to go north south in the building so that what's designated as yellow there is another way to get through the
building currently there's only two hallways that go north and south during passing times it's very congested and there very narrow hallway so this is actually be in the center of the building building which is almost twice the size of that to help relieve student flow during passing time so along those oak trees it was
really creating a a a single um Majestic Oak Tree in the middle of this Media Center so it's using the woods it's using the greens um of the leaves it's the expansive Skies um that are beyond that the different layering of the leaves and the trees and the shading
that it provides as areas for students to sit down and learn and do their group work or um their activities and even socializing so you kind of see the hallway there we had talked about there on the right and the media center on the left you'll also on this view on the upper right see some daylight so we are planning on cutting some holes in the
existing gym wall to bring a natural daylight to this space too again another view of kind of that Central um o tree language and then here's a view of kind of the um additional student common slash um kind
of cafeteria overflow area so it's highly supervis also from the media center with those windows in there too so not only from the hallway but also from the med CER uh next is the uh six classroom Edition um so the uh Core Group
definitely wanted some variety of learning spaces in their uh uh building because they building is a pretty traditional double loaded uh Corridor uh or setup um so they wanted some flexibilities to do some multi-purpose
learning there are some um teachers that found great benefit of doing some team teaching and wanted an environment that supported that um and then also wanted to do some small group work so some of the student feedback that we heard um was they also wanted do small feed or
small group work and have that ability they also recognized that they feel like they do better when they are seen so they wanted to be seen doing small group work and knew that even in their existing conditions I'm going out to their hallway to do that small group
work they're not being seen because there's no windows between the classroom and the hallway and stuff like that so they actually um understand the importance of superv supervision and wanted some supervision so that they would have opportunities to do more independent or group work they also
really liken their team teaching they liked it when their teacher uh uh teamed with their peer to do uh large group work they found that beneficial so this feedback again kind of organized how these classrooms are um laid out as well
as the idea that um a core Heart level of 120 140 students could meet in this area too um to share some of that core learning or messaging together so we do have um the bottom row of five
classrooms and then a single classroom up top you'll start to see some of those larger group areas outside of the classrooms where the walls between the classroom to what would traditionally be a hallway are again operable as well as
um allow Vision through that so that allows these classrooms to be able to be expanded out it allows students to be able to be supervised to do more independent work or different type of work and then it allows all of that uh really really large group setting um for common m messages or lessons that would
be shared one of the thing that kind of hit an AA with the staff here is kind of in the future as kids matriculate to Oakland the majority of kids matriculating to Oakland this is going to be the first time they actually have four walls and just comin to their four walls because if you think of where Brook viws design you think of the New
Bayport you think of the new Lake Almo and kind of the learning environments they're used to they want to try to see if they can have some spaces that kind of replicate some of those Flex learning different small group medium group large group spaces here in a middle school setting so that was kind of a a driver here to to try to do something a little
bit different than what they currently have this design also incorporates um the idea of pairing classrooms so the the four classrooms that are sticks farthest down have an operable wall between them so you have the option to combine those into double classrooms um so here are some images
from the spaces outside of those classrooms so again we'll start to see um a lot of the same materiality that um you guys saw in the media center so we have our Woods we have some of our tree canopy language do start to indicate where um you can sit and do some work together and then you'll see some of
that glass operable walls off to the right even the small group rooms which is the ones that are in that wood area um again have glass so that they're being supervised if not directly by their exact teacher But the teacher that is across
there another view of that you can see the little small group rooms a little bit closer here then again some more of those open breakout rooms in the back corner you can even see um that one single classroom all the way kind of back there so as transparent as possible and really open and flow um that should
also help with um just moving around the space Duke and lastly um we have our gym so this all wouldn't be possible without the gym so we had to move the gym over so it is to full basketball court size um this is also again the storm shelter so um as Mark alluded to the storm
shelter requirements do require some um toilet and sinks in that so there is some restroom areas with that um and then the location of the gym is now really accessible to the track so there's some immediate exterior access for f to be able to go use those green
spaces that are outside of the gymnasium um so this is a view of that entry um that goes out towards the track that goes to the West Direction and then just looking down the hall um to the new gym access
and we're just trying to um again use some of the Oakland use this as a space for some Oakland Pride that's here um we're suggesting that maybe we even use the Center Court logo of the existing gym floor and Salvage it and put it on the wall as um a little bit of a a
remembrance to the former gym so and then lastly we'll start to get into exteriors that um so we are doing um there's also a maintenance project to replace some of the metal panel on the building so we're going to get that all to be similar material around the
outside in the new additions which is what this shot of is of we're not planning to do the sloped manard roofs that are on the rest of the building but we're taking something about a similar height and putting metal panel around that so it all match in that way and then we are planning to kind of mimic
the language of the windows there in a little bit more Modern Way um so that it has some cohesiveness and these renderings don't do a very good job job with the brick it will look like normal brick it doesn't look like a strange stamp pattern when it's done you can see a picture of the brick on the right so
it should match pretty well when we're done then this is just stepping further back on the classroom Wing looking at um the South West corner of that this is a view of that entry that back at the gym that goes out towards the track so the gym box is on our right
um again that is the tornado shelter we are putting ballistic glass in there so so I can have some daylight in the gym and that is able to withstand the impacts of the tornado then just a little bit further back view of that and you can see on the outside we're using a little bit of the cloud theme on the pre-cast just to give
it some interest and then this is the um the expanded entry by the new science room so the science rooms are kind of the bo box in the back and then we're adding a new vesu at this location as well that's that questions that you
have yeah the uh the current gym part of that's going to be a new music room anything special for the music room besides just some square footage for it um is it going to have risers in it and we'll have any kind of Sound Treatment because it's a music room yes
to the Sound Treatment I think we're doing a flat floor though flat floor yeah y most of the music rooms we do now are flat floors because they're more flexible you can use risers to create the rise um not always but that was the choice here and then it's it's if you might have noticed in the plan is not quite square that is a help with
Acoustics and then we have an acoustic that will help us design panels and the ceiling and the flooring in there to make sure that it's a good environment and will it be that I think the current gym is probably two stories now so will it take advantage of that two story it'll have a higher ceiling than um the exist some of the existing musical
spaces are we able to do any acoustical work in the other music rooms that is not part of the schope through like long-term facilities or could look at that y okay I think if we're doing it for one room it's something we should probably take a look
at yeah I just want to follow up on the music because I didn't see any um drawings of that and I was curious because I know that there has been some discussion over the years about um the music rooms at Oakland um especially as they are compared to music rooms at
stillw waterer middle um and and I know that there's been some dissatisfaction about the music facilities there so um I'm just kind of curious what you heard in the user group discussions about what they wanted and were you able to you
know deliver what they were asking for I guess is my question yeah so what we heard from the user groups is really around Orchestra and so the orchestra space is tight the way it is constricted right now low ceilings things that we talked about so the thought is to we created this around this new room being
the orchestra room and then the current Orchestra room becoming the flex music room for an over full cler General music some of those sorts of things and restructuring and so there's um instrument storage in there there's humidification some of those things that um when we met with the orchestra
teacher that we they they wanted and needed um to get their Orchestra room up to to current modern standards are in this design I'm glad to hear that I'm also glad to hear that we're gonna think about using some long-term facility
maintenance to make sure that we can um improve some some of those existing rooms because I think Acoustics have been a a longstanding problem there so so I was did you did either of you go
to Oakland I mean did I went to St I mean how did what's your impression wow are really cool I'm like I want to experience them I mean that's really cool I'm happy that um especially with the uh gym becoming a uh the media
center and the music room I'm really excited about that excited to see how that will Lo turn out for students yeah that Media Center we met in there for a board meeting that was I mean I don't even know if you can call it a media center I'm just really excited about all
the collaboration spaces especially like being a public school and that having so many different ideas and like diversity of students I think it's really important to have those spaces where students can collaborate those ideas and I think it's a really great learning
opportunity thank you for including that student feedback in your user groups too I appreciate that um I also had uh just a a question I mean since this is a um an addition and a renovation you have to sort of like make it be consistent as
much as you can with the rest of the what is the color scheme inside that building I'm not even sure I mean does it fit in with what you've got going here this the green and the gray and the brown a lot of the building is that brick color on the
inside Brown um there's Green in there for some of the lockers um it is kind of a brown tone um Tazo floor that's in there too so the colors that uh we picked do show up in the existing palette and um we frankly have your
existing colors at our office too that we are comparing our new material color selections to um also with the idea that even though the colors might D not directly Collide on day one but it could be a palette that the district continues forward as they as you guys do your own
projects or future ltfm funding etc etc down the road okay thanks and will this the school's already in use so you're G to have construction going on while kids are there or is a lot of it just going to be SummerSlam you know
runting that gym um as Mark was alluding to the additions will likely start next summer they will go into the school year because they can work out on the additions when kids are in there um and then they'll use the Summers to get as much done inside the building as they can so the goal would be the 2026 School
summer they would knit the whole thing together and hopefully be done our hope is to try to get the gym done before next summer so we can start April May kind of when most ofi classes are outside to get a head start into the current gym just the size of it to turn into a classroom music room or in the
media center just to get a little more time to to get that constructed so that would be our goal is to finish that a little bit earlier a little bit earlier is the spring of 26 correct no and everything will be done follow but we if that needs to be done in order for the current gym to be renovated right I
didn't know if this was in scope or not but is there anything like for staff like is anything getting addressed for their space like I know sometimes like their copy machine area like their work space hasn't been ideal or in the media center they had this tiny little Spa is
there anything being done to address I guess the so a couple different things um currently The copier is in the media center right now right um we did provide space for copier mailbox those sorts of things in this media center now whether
the building chooses to switch it or not because now with the media center leaving that does free up some space to to kind of redo in just internally the current mail room copy room um kind of setup that they have so they haven't really made a building decision where
they want to keep it there or move those functions down to the media center but there's options to do both depending on which way they'd like to go and moving student services frees up space in the existing office to correct Ops okay
perfect great thank you thank you a than right um that is the last thing on our agenda for the evening so we're Jour thank you e for