Heat. Heat. committee to order. The committee would like to welcome the audience. Viewers may watch live board committee meetings online at tcaps.net/board. Recorded meetings may be viewed on demand at the same address. It appears
we do not have any requests for public comment at this time. So we will move on to procedural items. First up is the draft committee meeting minutes from October 28th. Are there any proposed changes to the draft meeting minutes?
Okay, hearing no changes. The minutes will remain as posted. And then secondly, we have the TCAP's district course catalog update. I will defer to Jesse Hoden for that. >> Yeah, just one course that we're adding
here. Uh we're adding this to our middle school virtual program. Again, that ACL stands for Aselis. So, this is a physical education course. Again, as that program expands over at East Middle School and students are interested in different courses, we start to add those as they are appropriate for that.
>> One thing I'll add is always people are like, well, how do you do physical education? >> Exactly. >> It has you upload different things and have different ways to verify physical activity and those kind of things. So it's not just strictly to the online module. >> So are they is it interactive or is it
uh asynchronous? >> It's asynchronous but you have upload to the teacher and those kind of things and you have ways to be able to demonstrate that you've done those things that are required physically >> because now are they going to be following the new
uh health education? >> No, this is just physical education. >> Okay. So not the mental health and uh >> correct this has that nothing's changed from that element you know all everything right now is still based on everything that's been in the past of if there if there is anything embedded in
it >> okay >> and I this caused me to think back to COVID time so forgive me if I'm not remembering things accurately but it did we do something different for physical education during COVID with the online
learning like trying to get kids in buildings things who are trying >> I wasn't here during that time so my guess is the teachers probably had kids take video and things like that with phones and upload and but >> some of that and some of our gym teachers try to do virtual gym classes
too. I remember kids virtually jumping around their houses and doing things like that um online cuz we had times that was that almost 5 years ago now um that we shut down and we had times that the courses met you know not every day all day um but the teachers were trying
to do as much of their content as possible. So yeah, >> it's hysterical. >> Yeah. >> Think of trying to do a touch football game >> virtually. >> Whoa. >> Yeah. I know this is Ryan Rers Wheelhouse at
EMS, but um you know, as you evaluate the success of this program, um it seems like for this particular class, it would be, you know, I like really lean on the teachers like how how much they really think these kids are getting the
physical activity and like is this something we want to continue to offer online or do we really want to get >> more kids back in in the building? >> Yeah, exactly. like we talked you know number >> yeah and I think that's the ultimate goal right but >> for the time being it is the right
placement for a lot of those kids >> about how many kids are in your cells program >> last count I mean and I didn't check this morning but was 24 um so and and I actually just overheard some conversations earlier this morning
about one or two that might be interested so you know as semester approaches we'll probably get more interest there too. Um, so but off to a healthy start. >> Okay, >> great. >> Any further discussion?
>> All right, then we'll move on to our elementary English language arts CK CKLA materials and professional learning purchase. Uh, deferring to Dan Heisworth on this one. >> Good morning everybody. >> Good morning. >> Um, just looking again at our 35M grant.
So, just a reminder, 35M was a non-competitive grant awarded by the state u based in the science of reading. So, there's certain materials uh that are only allowed for the purchase. We came to the board initially for the 76,000 that was for um some teacher
materials, made sure everybody had their supplies. We often did some uh junior kindergarten supplies. And then the rest of it, the approximately $650,000 we'd like to spend. Um, again, these funds have to be spent by September 30th of 2026
uh to go towards um some ESL programming, um some more licenses to extend the program out um and also do our tier 2 boost reading program as well as professional development. So, one note just we've got a couple of
things we want to look at um with the amounts there. I'm going to ask Cindy, our procurement uh uh person, to take a look at all of it, make sure that all that is all the grant dollars and there's anything we're missing. So, right now, we're just asking the committee to move this to the board. So, we will probably have an updated memo
for the board uh for the board meeting. >> Okay, that would be great. Um yeah, just to make sure we we clarify what exact amount we're asking for um including that contingency to make sure that that is all reconcilable. >> Well, once we get that, we'll send that
to the board, too. And then again, we'll have it for the board meeting as well. >> I was going to ask a question. >> Do you have to get extra materials for the kids, say they're moving from third grade into fourth and are struggling with reading and they're also coming
into this new program. >> So, these are kids that actually aren't hitting the ground with CLA as if they'd already gone through the whole uh preparation stage. Do you have to get
additional tier 2 materials for the kids that are just beginning to come into CLA? >> Yeah. So, what we have, so what we're seeing as far as filling in the holes as you go, right? So, the kindergarters obviously have the new curriculum and we hope that as they move through with with
research, science, and reading, we don't have to fill those holes like we do with the Journeys program that they had. So, they're specifically they're called skill sets. They're for fourth and actually third, fourth, and fifth grade. That's part of this purchase also. And it's also to help the teacher. It's more of a tier one because what we're seeing
when we do our data meetings is that we see that there might be a whole contingent of the kids that need help with comprehension in fourth grade. We don't want to obviously that's not a tier two. That's more of a tier one issue if we have more than half the class needing that help. So these skill sets often fill that in.
>> Is there any chance that we can see some of the materials? >> Oh yeah, for sure. Y >> thanks. You're welcome. >> Okay. So, with that updated memo, um, do we want to move this to consent calendar or
>> feel move to put it on the board agenda for discussion? >> I think consent. Okay. Great. >> Then that is what we will do. Um, moving on to our learning series and curriculum purchases. Jesse.
>> Yeah. Uh before we jump into the learning series, we just want to put a couple things on the board curriculum uh radar. More information to come on each of these, but we know that you hear um things happening in the district and you guys like to sort of know, oh, what might they be working on with curriculum
purchases. So, right now, um Britney Kay is heading up our middle school science and so she's bringing together our middle school science curriculum expires this the end of this year. Um and so she's been working already with different vendors, teacher leaders. Um
they have done some sampling of different curriculum, reviewed some units. They have narrowed it down to one curriculum that we will be piloting units in sixth, 7th, and eighth grade at both middle schools here. Um and we've got a training day for them and then we'll make a decision as to what we're
going to do with our middle school science curriculum. So that impacts those three grade levels at both of our middle schools. Um then both our AP chemistry and our AP biology, it just all kind of happens to hit. And science, those have expired. Um our licensing for
those textbooks, we got a one-year extension on both of those. Um College Board requires uh us to teach from a list. They give us a a narrow list of textbooks for us to choose from. Um and so we are bringing we have two AP Chem teachers and two AP Bio teachers. We're
bringing them here together next week to review. I already gotten their list about okay they're going to look at an updated version of the current publisher and then what are some other publishers that are on the list um they stay connected to a lot of their colleagues around the state what are they using what are they seeing impacts so they are
meeting next week to review that and make um some decisions so anticipate those coming to you guys at some point in time those purchases um and then the last one on there I know Dan is working with math expressions as it moves from HMH into Heidman the publisher has just
changed there and there might be some potential updates to that. >> Yeah, it'll be professional development if we need anything. So, we're going through that process right now. Early adopters get those materials for free. So, it won't be a materials purchase. We've already worked with Heiden and HMH
as far as that that change over, but it could be just um and we're going to the reason why we have the early adopters is they're going to kind of figure out the program to see if we actually need professional development moving into next year if it's changed that much. uh initial we had a webinar the other day
with Heineman and right now it doesn't look as if we'll need it. >> Okay. >> And that's junior kindergarten through five. Is that right? >> That's K5. That is not junior. >> Okay. Yeah. And do you remember how many years our contract was for math expressions? >> I believe it was eight and I think we
have three more. >> Okay. I'm sure the teachers will be too thrilled if there are significant changes with three years left on the contract, right? But that remains to be seen. >> I don't know. I think unlike journeys I think math expressions is was received a little more positively. I mean I think
with with any program after a few this is a nice opportunity for us to kind of reup again right as you work with a program and we've had some changes in leadership right that whole idea of curriculum and you know with fidelity and scope and sequence this gives us a
nice opportunity not even you know obviously we get fresh materials but we also can kind of get a reset on uh maybe some deimplementation of things that that we started to add that we aren't necessarily part of the curriculum anymore. I just want to go back to the middle
school science curriculum. Um, did I hear you correctly? You said it expires in the middle of >> at the end of this year. >> Yep. >> And so we're zeroing in on one new curriculum to pilot. >> Um,
>> is that the same company or a change? >> It is a change. It's a different company. So they came together this fall and they looked at um, first our science leaders on both sites. We have teacher leaders who lead those departments gave Britney a list. This is things we want to explore. Then they brought in um some
of those vendors and some of those samples. They brought a whole team of our middle school science teachers together. They went through all of those. They rated them all and then they got themselves to really one that they that they really liked. And what was interesting about this is our high school science teachers actually opted
to be part of that. um because they both felt Jelene Jenkins Wall and Ian McGregor and our leaders at the two high schools felt like gosh we're part of this sort of end of the journey and we really want to do a better job of understanding what the six seven and eight curriculum looks like. Um so that
was kind of cool. One came out as a clear winner as far as um feeling like our teachers align to their um standards and what they want to do with instructional practices in the classroom. And so Britney was like she came to me and said, "What do you think and I said if that's the clear winner let's pilot a unit. So they're they're
kind of the sixth grade teachers, seventh and eighth grade teachers are picking one unit out of that to pilot to use with uh students here between J like once the semester rolls over February March and then get some teacher feedback, some student feedback um and we're going to work on like what our
cost structure looks like for that too. So, >> I I suppose worst case scenario, if they feel like the pilot didn't go well, they can continue with a >> Yeah, we could ask for a one-year extension. I I will say the product that we currently are using is has a very
high price point and it doesn't have a lot of fidelity at both of our middle school. We have some science teachers who have sort of said this isn't working at all and have sort of um so we're really looking for something that we all feel like we can have some alignment around um and we have some consistency.
So >> in the background with all this we're doing those course audits too, right? So we're on year two of all of that for the secondary which really isn't about the curriculum. It's about our instructional practices, our assessments and all of that. So that's but these are the the three or four that we felt like hey
there's going to be some purchases this year probably in these areas. So >> yeah. >> Okay. >> Uh I just want to say in terms of science and social studies, I know our new strategic plan doesn't have performance measures on those subjects,
but you know, I I know I want to just recognize how important those subjects are to all of us and I really appreciate the hard work that goes into that because I definitely want to see our kids be developed in those ways. And I I know my own kids have really greatly
benefited from from excellent teachers in middle school and high school in social studies and science. And so um you know just as we think about molding kids into future careers and success. Yeah. Appreciate it. Okay.
>> All right. Moving on. Um we have our fall data and strategic plan secondary update. Oh, sure. Go ahead. Again, is it possible that I can see some of the works? >> Absolutely. >> Just to see how they're pacing and
connecting the sciences because we split them out so nicely, but in the real world, they kind of integrate. >> They definitely do that. You know, the next next generation science standards are very different. They do very much integrate all of those throughout. And that's one of the reasons why our high
school folks wanted to be part of it to sort of see what does that standard look like in sixth grade and then seventh grade and eighth grade and how are we doing a nice job expanding on that versus reteing and and and that type of a thing. So yeah, absolutely. I gave you some copies.
>> Um so last uh board curriculum it was pretty much the elementary show led by Mr. Tisworth. Um and so it's like my turn, right? Let's see. Um, uh, so I brought, uh, some of our school leaders here with us today. So, I
brought our middle school leads, uh, Ryan Ranger and Kristen Studman over there. I brought our high school leads, Brian Gwinny, Ben Burgerer. And I brought our counselor leads, Jen Lee, and Brandy Ludka. And they will chime in and give you guys some specifics about, so what does it look like at the sites?
U, what is some work that we're doing? what are some new things we might be trying to go after that. Um, we framed this presentation just around our five goals. I know you guys have had a chance to go through it. So, we'll go through each of our five goals from the strategic plan. We've got some metrics,
right? Um, we did a midyear student survey that they're going to refer to and talk a little bit about what are the students saying because the student survey was a metric. We've got our fall PSAT results. All of our eighth graders, 9th graders, 10th and 11th graders all took the PSAT mid Octoberish. So, we've
got some results from that to share. Um, and then Brandy and Jenn are really going to talk a lot about that number four, that postsecary readiness. Um, our counselors do a ton at all four of our secondaries, but a lot at the high schools to really prepare our kids for
their next step and to help support what that looks like. So, we'll jump in with goal one, which is our student achievement data. Um, and so this what you're looking at here is our middle school. So, just keep in mind I I graphed some historical. Those are your
red dots for you, right? Those are spring data points, right? Percentage of students hitting those college readiness benchmarks on ELA and math. That fall um data point is in blue for you, right? So, that's where we fell this last
October. And then that sort of I don't know pinkish star that we use there is the goal that the board set for where we would like to be um in five years. Um so Kristen and Ryan if you guys want to talk a little bit about this was the
first time you guys gave the PSAT and some feeling about how that went and and where we're at with some of that. >> We uh we didn't plan who would speak first, but being a gentleman, he's deferring to me apparently. So, ladies first.
>> Yes. Yeah, I could read that one. Um, so like um like Jesse said, this is the first time we've given this in the fall, which is exciting because it gives us the opportunity to orient our instruction around where our kids, the current kids in front of us are. Um, we've always had kind of a post-mortem,
so to speak, um, look at PSAT data, um, where we invest a tremendous amount of energy and effort in the instruction in students who we no longer have. we send them off to the high school um as eighth graders. And so this year we started with greater intention with putting
historical PSAT data in front of our teachers right out of the gate um just so they can have an idea of how we've historically performed. And now we have the opportunity to look at okay, not just what we uh had in our rearview mirror, but what's in front of us now
this year and be more intentional with our instruction, which is exciting. Um, so Ryan and I have some time carved out over um, holiday break to sit down and um, kind of plan a series of staff learning around um, this data and how
we're going to um, you know, engage our staff in reviewing the LA data and perhaps adjusting instruction based on the data in front of us. And then also looking at at our instruction moving forward and in our assessment practices to make sure that what's happening on a
daily basis in the classroom accurately informs students um so that when they have these big tests and when they sit for the big tests there's not surprises. You know I I'm I'm getting an A in math and and there's a a discrepancy between my my performance on these standardized tests which is not it it's not a fun
place for kids and families to find themselves. We'd like the experiences in the classroom to match the experiences in the real world, particularly around those high stakes tests that set them up for, you know, career in college. So, that's a little bit of a overview of where we're where we're hoping to go
with this. Um, but it's exciting and I think that it just it better informs our work and our practice and it gives us an external indicator, not just how we think we're doing with instruction, and it gives us that external indicator early on in the year. um with historical
data and then midyear check with our current data. >> Yeah, I mean I don't have a ton to add other than like you're you're hitting it spot on in terms of being deliberate and intentional with not only the curriculum but also our instructional practices, right, which we're constantly looking at
and based around data and then also how are we assessing and is that truly reflecting what our kids know and understand and are able to do, right? So I think those are all pieces. Another piece we've thrown in are some of our tier 2 interventions, especially with our younger kids, to try to give them
some extra support or maybe help them to close the gap um and catch up. And that's um happening around Delta Math right now, specifically with sixth grade. So, we're excited about what that can do to help bolster some of these scores down the road, too.
Are you going to be looking at the Celis program too as a a separate group in comparison overall to your test scores going forward? You can't going back. >> Yeah, we will be able to pull that data out how they're performing
>> for sure. >> Um and I think that's that's an interesting Yes. >> Yeah. We're going to want to look at that, right? To measure success, >> for sure. >> Right. because it's not, as you say, all in the grade. >> Yeah. >> And it's not all, I don't think, in the
assessment testing either. You know, I think that it's still hard to get a real sense of how well could a kid use the material that they've gone to school for in real life. That is a very hard thing. And assessment tests >> are the best we've got apparently right
now. But I don't think that they are spot-on accurate across the board. Yeah, that more comprehensive approach. Yeah, >> this is a a big question, but I'm you know there it's been thought about and
talked about many times, so I know you can be concise with the response, but like how challenging is it to reconcile MDE standards with what a College Board test is look is measuring, you know, on a standardized test like the PSAT and
SAT. Like I just wonder how much additional work it is for a teacher to try to hit both MBE requirements and you know make sure our kids are learning that content, grading them, but then also preparing them to do well on a test like this. I I want to hear that the state and national standards are pretty
well aligned. But I just wonder if you could succinctly address that. >> I'll give my opinions first and then the team can go from there. Um I think most of it does I think there are definitely gaps. Um, and I think that this is, you
know, when I was an MD, we had this debate. I mean, the problem that you get into when you have different reference groups that are working on creating the standards >> is there was a real debate and a real controversy about every state being
exactly the same and aligning to a national standard. So there are some subjects that do it closer. So for instance there are the NGSS the next generation of science standards that are AC pretty much globally across the or
more across the country rather that are recognized in social studies for instance that's not the case Michigan definitely was very much like we have our Michigan social studies standards and this is what we do and it needs to be Michigan specific and when you have a
college board test that doesn't you know have different statewise you definitely have gap apps and I think the hard part for a teacher having done that in the past is you know you are obligated for the kids to try and do well on the on the AP exam. So, I think you take more
of what we call a power standard approach to what are the things that definitely cross reference between the two and then you you try and fill in those things um with Michigan, especially after the AP test is done. You've got a couple of weeks maybe to hit some of those more Michigan specific
standards, but is it a one forone match? I don't believe so, but feel free to refute any of that that you guys would like. Well, in math, we've got our math instructional coach, Julie Pucket, who's actually attending both of the middle school math meetings, and I was working with her on her presentation, and she's
helping the math teachers organize the standards into there's four primary buckets for the uh PSAT, SAT, math. There's four categories the questions are in, and she's some of it's just raising awareness to that. But I would definitely say those buckets are pretty representative of the skills that the
kids are learning in their math classes. I think math is a little bit more black and white in that way, but I still think there's some awareness that that Julie's helping them see. She's got sample questions so they can see when they say this, this is the type of question they would ask a student to perform to to
demonstrate that. And making that awareness is something that's new to our middle school staff. They haven't really dug through the PSAT. Um, as Kristen said, this is the first time they've given it in the fall and it's always been kind of they give it in the spring and then they send their eighth graders out the door, right? And now they have
an opportunity with fall data to say, you know, how did our kids sitting in our classroom do? And then what are these numbers actually mean? Like what skills were they able to independently demonstrate? Okay, wait, which buckets are those in? How do those connect with the standards in my course? Um, and that's some of the work that we're doing
this year with our middle school teachers. It's new um thinking for them too. >> That will be interesting from the PSAT standpoint, >> you know, that that how close that alignment, but for the most part, that's what it means. >> Yeah. And then um to what extent are the
teachers pushing the Khan Academy >> um since that is a free resource to kids? I know as a parent I've gotten a lot of communication about the Khan Academy and the students do too, but I'm just wondering, are they starting to use it? they get any classroom time to get
familiar with Khan Academy and so that they then they can also practice at home just to try to help themselves do better on the on the PSAT. >> I don't know if there's um necessarily uniform, but our ELA teachers um spend
time doing some general test awareness. Um kind of to to Jesse's point, you know, it even comes down to beyond Khan Academy, but just the embedded tools. do the kids even know how to use the embedded math tools properly um to be able to do the math they know or show
the math they know. So there's a there's a whole host of um preparatory things that that we need to do and that we need to look at differently. We need to adjust our timeline. Um but I think you rais a really good question and point that I'll certainly bring back to the building to see um to what degree
students have been made aware of Khan Academy. they're making their college board accounts now so that they can get dialed in um to where their scores fall and the predictors that come along with that. Um but yeah, we have we have a timeline that I think has historically lived at the high school that now needs
to be bumped down to the middle school um to not only bring kids on board, but families. Um, to your point, Josie, parents need to be part of the conversation, too, because often it takes parental prompting to get their child on Khan Academy, just like it takes parental prompting to get that
trombone practiced at home. You know, it has to become part of of the routine that uh and part of the family conversation that occurs in homes. >> Yeah, I I know college board likes to tout that they that, you know, users of Khan Academy can boost their scores by
100 points. Um, and I in terms of our equity work, what I love about Khan Academy is the promise that it really it's totally accessible and free to all. Um, that parental encouragement support is is important. So, the building level
communications, >> that's kind of where I see Khan coming in to the classrooms, not like a specific focus for that lesson that day, but more of an extension, more as a um practice tool, right? like just to enhance those skills and that's where home can help uh drive those home as
well. So um that's my experience >> overall these fall scores I mean the math score 39% reaching that college benchmark is more than our spring last year. We knew that 36 was low. We both these guys had some concerns and some thoughts and conversations with me their math departments about we know our kids
know more than this and and why aren't they able to demonstrate it? So you know the spring test is scored exactly the same. It's the exact same length. it's the exact same difficulty. So, I think those are nice benchmarks. We're starting at 70% in the English with hitting that proficiency mark and 39% in
the math. Um, both well above the state average. If you can imagine that 39% is actually above our state average um in Michigan, but still we we feel good about some of the things we have in place to see where our spring numbers would be. >> Good opportunities.
>> One day it does. >> Okay. High schools student achievement results. So, the high schools have been giving the fall um 11th grade PSAT. It's our national merit qualifier as well. No, yes, it is for 11th graders. Sorry,
took me a second there to think about that. Um, and so they've got some although it's not on this screen, what I what I graphed for you here was sort of Okay, the red dots again are those historical spring numbers. The fall is where we landed right now. And then that star again was the goal that the board
set for our spring results in 5 years. These guys though, unlike our middle schools, do have historical fall numbers to actually look at and go, how does this year's juniors, uh, compare to last year's, two years ago, 5 years ago, and what growth did we see from them? So, if
you guys want to talk a little bit about your fall results. >> Yeah. And so, uh, different from the middle school, there's been a lot of work put in historically, and ELA and the math departments have led that. And so each of those departments have um some years they have release time to
work. Some in this year we have instructional coaches. And so um you'll see in both of those they have you know PSAT practice packets or warm-up packets. Uh and then the teachers in their department meetings are being intentional about starting and ending class using sample sets um pulling from
past tests. And so really targeted and easy connection points in those two courses. But then becomes the challenge of how do you bring the collective of your building on board and where are there opportunities for that? And so leveraging an instructional coach, an example that that we've done is um
academic vocabulary in science classes. And we've got Lissa Vandery pushing into 9th grade bio courses to focus on vocab that's coming up because, you know, as we look at the test, we're trying to dissect where are the connection points that are skill sets but are also content
agnostic that could be focused on in any course. And so academic vocab was one, exposure to real world text, and then the other is like looking at multiple data sets or graphs and being able to synthesize that information. And so those are like through lines that in all of our learning we're trying to say
whether you're in US history class or personal finance these are things we can focus on. Uh because again like Jesse said the trend is pretty consistent cohort to cohort. And so we need to update and change some things that we're doing in order to reach different
pockets of kids. you know, when we're talking, especially in the strategic plan about economically disadvantaged as a sub population and what their 8 to3 looks like and how do we inject um some remediation where we can in an already packed day um remains a question, but
leveraging those two instructional coaches has been a success point for Central so far. And >> I would add that um duplicating Lissa Vandery is is a really hard thing to do. However, we do have Amy Cole now at West who is um does have release time in her
schedule. Um so she has spent this fall pushed into our our freshman biology classes to teach um information literacy and specifically science-based vocabulary. And um actually today she is going to our social studies department meeting. She's on the agenda there
because we're going to expand that in the second semester to our US history uh classes as well. So, and going back to your question about like the connection um between MDE and the College Board, right? Like one of the um the buckets on
the the English side of the the PSAT is is vocabulary and context, right? And that that also matches up nicely with um you know the the common core state standards around what vocabulary expectations. So, uh, when you have someone like a Vandery or a Cole who
has, you know, is trained in teaching literacy skills and has like a, um, you know, the ability to connect with kids as well, like that's an invaluable asset to, um, to begin to like broaden preparation as we move from the fall to the spring.
>> Yeah. Great. Thank you. Um, I was just curious like because those are spring numbers obviously. Um, the I'm going to guess that the fall, you know, would have been a line even lower than that. But just wanted to >> defer to you Jesse if like you saw
anything different in the results. >> I was going to say the interesting thing unlike uh the PSAT for the other grades, the spring test is different with higher benchmarks. And so it's a little interesting looking at that blue dot on there because um the test that the juniors will take when they take the SAT
is a different test, >> right? Okay. Different benchmarks, a little bit harder, right? Um longer assessments. So the eighth graders, they take the exact same one. So they've got a nice like how do we do better? How do we get kids who weren't quite at benchmark over that, right? And they
have that list and they can target some interventions. these guys have a little bit more of how do we hold on to the kids who hit benchmark and even with a harder higher bar. How do we pick some of the other kids up too and move them along? So, it's a little bit of a trickier challenge for the high schools
when they're looking at that. >> I'm curious to see too like it's now it will be an eight test pathway, right? Like there's eight data points. If you look at one student from 8th grade to their junior year, that's it tells a significant story and and also the
cohort, right? like if you take a class you have eight data points now. So like one of our focuses, you know, back in October was getting as many kids at West taking the test as possible when I saw the participation numbers um like we weren't giving a makeup test which did
give a makeup test now like the you know the more kids we have taking a test the more valid the data is. So >> terrific. And I just wanted to clarify too. So for the kids who go to Career Tech Center for half of their high school day and junior and senior years,
they're still getting the PSAT and SAT prep that they need through their core classes that they take at their primary high school, right? >> It's all the same. Okay. I just wanted to state that for the record. And um
just in terms of like their futures um are are there any challenges with kids who who say, you know, I don't want to go to college. I always want to go, you know, be an electrician or whatever. Um vocational training. Like why do I have to take the SAT or the PCA? How do you
deal with that challenge? I'm just curious. I think I would answer that, Josie, to say that um like the the challenge of of helping kids um do well on this test comes down to like confidence and connection and like we know how to to
address the confidence piece. Like confidence to me is about increasing skill and our teachers know how to remediate and teach skill and coach skill development. The connection part is tougher. um how do you convince a student that like giving your reasonable
best effort on this day on this test is the best thing for you, right? So, and that that's a tougher cell. Um and I think it's it if I if I pull back on it, it's like how do we get kids to like connect to their peers, to value the relationships to their teachers, and um
connect to the content in the classroom. We find when when kids are doing that, they take the set that those tests far more seriously. Um but that is definitely a tougher cell for some students who um they know their pathway and it has nothing to do with the SAT. >> Yeah.
>> Right. Exactly. >> And so we say that that is how we measure success. And I think are we on target or are we off target? And that I think we have to keep thinking about while we're pushing this
big goal of the number. The number. The number. And the number won't tell you everything you need to know about public education. God will the only
>> So, so I agree with you. 92%. Okay. The 8% I go is if we can get kids to understand kids sometimes change their mind, >> right? And so like, you know, so a kid that maybe goes, I just never thought I was college material or maybe I'm a
first generation like >> we don't want to sell short, you know, we don't want to call the ball game in the fifth inning. We need to play the game out, right? And so that's the one thing that I think is really important is we still try to have that kid prepared to where if they go, maybe I do
want to go to college. Maybe I do want to have that opportunity. Maybe rather than being an electrician, I actually want to be the supervisor of, you know, or the CEO of a comp electric, you know, electrical uh providing company, you know, a utility. Who knows? So, I think
that I I I struggle with that. I I'm I think many times the same thing you do, but then I go, but what about maybe the kid that that isn't their endgame? And so >> or the kid that feels like I have spent so much time being tested and so much of
my class is focused on the test >> that >> it is >> why am I here? Why am I here? >> And I think that goes back to Brian's point of that's the challenge of how can you try to find the kid a connection to why why this could matter.
>> And I and I agree with you and you you know that. >> Yep. I mean here I am uh overly educated probably my father's point of view and yet what are my practical skills?
>> Yeah, >> you know and I think that the practical skills are going to be very important for daytoday life. Um and I think to some degree we we're ignoring them. Well, we're missing >> Good luck to you and Godspeed to whoever
can come up with the metrics for that. I'm with you. I think we're all with you. I >> I would say this too. All of our students all the way through their secondary will always have ELA and math. It's all four all seven years of their education every day for at least an hour. And you know, back to Brian's
point about our teachers, if you know, if we are engaging students in reading, writing, and mathematics every day for an hour at each, like are they able to perform? This is a nice metric for us to say, "Oo, what can we adjust? Are there some areas we're not as strong in? Are
there some areas we're doing really well in? How do we show our kids and build that confidence that they do have the skills?" So I I don't look at this as the only but it is an important metric for us to say how are we doing on that on that big level with our kids. I think the other thing you can't put on a slide
here is we give each teacher a roster of their kids and their individual scores, right? We're looking at a macro level bullet point and so then you can go what was this test apathy was, you know, and diagnose more specifically and then connect them to the Brandy Las of the world for their counselor to kind of
talk about their avenues. And so we want that metric to go up for everyone, but also the individual stories and are we supporting those stories as they want to, you know, close no doors as Dr. Van Wagner said. Yeah. Okay. Great. Um, just really quickly before we move to goal two and
you know I I know that in our new strategic plan we are you know we have the performance measures on eighth grade and on 11th grade but I think it would still be beneficial for us as a public body to show the ninth and 10th and even
12th grade um achievement scores as we have done in the past. And obviously we're focusing on those two grade levels, but just show that story and inter intervening in that final year to see are there trends are, you know, different cohorts, different curriculum,
you know, especially as we might change things. Um just so we all keep our eyes on, you know, all the the balls that we're juggling to keep the achievement moving along. But this is really exciting. I really appreciate uh all the data. love our data driven approach in
this district. >> And I will say I we did not break out the subgroup that Mr. Burgerer just talked about the economically disadvantaged mainly because we didn't quite know how to pull it yet. But I will say that I actually talked to Sophie uh last Wednesday and now we know
how to pull it. So actually I do have the economically disadvantage. So which is only nice these guys now have it too for their sides of Thailand, but also in the spring we know we'll be able to accurately report that and kind of give the update on that too. So >> will you cover will you include all three high schools?
>> The this data here is all three high schools. Yep. All of our when I say 11th grade it means all three high schools. Yep. >> Now TC High does not give the fall. >> They do not do the PSAT in the fall. >> Okay. >> They do it in the spring. Yes.
>> I don't have problem. >> Okay. Good. All right. So we have two metrics around goal two which is student well-being. uh we have our absenteeism rate and then we have that idea of students being connected to school and so we've got some percentages there. Um
so what you see on that chart on the left is the percentage of students who are chronically absent. That's a K12 percentages. You have last year and then to the far left you have the year before. Our goal was uh 15% of our students or hopefully less than 15% are
chronically absent. Um here's our fall data for you. I just pulled high school, middle school, and then I put both high school and middle school together. Um, way higher than the 15%. Um, I'll let these guys talk about absenteeism. I will tell you in general, our elementary
helps bring that whole number down. Our elementary absenteeism is much lower than these numbers are. But just to remind the board about um absenteeism by MDE is a student missing instruction. It does not matter if they're excused or unexcused. And we did, you know, change
our policy to acknowledge that if a student missed a day of instruction, they missed the day of instruction. Um, if a student is on a field trip or an educational um experience, they are not counted as absent. They are counted as present. They're with our staff. They're having that experience. And then I put
at the bottom just to remind you that chronically absent students, again, that's a definition given by MDE. That means they've missed 10% or more of the school hours. So, if you think about a week of a secondary student, um, six class periods times 5 days, you're
talking about 30 opportunities for that student to have an attendance code attached to them, right? We take attendance in every hour. Hopefully, >> that's the goal. >> That's the goal. Um, and so when you think about 10%, you're talking about a student having an an excused or an
unverified for three to four classes per week of school. So, I'll start with high schools. Do you want to talk a little bit about absenteeism, rates, attendance? >> Yeah, go ahead, Brian. >> You first. >> Right. Well, the process really begins
in our wing offices um in our assistant principles and their administrative assistants track their their group of students, right? And anytime whenever they reach that that first threshold, um we have a truency process. It begins with the letter home. Um and that
continuum goes all the way to involving our truency officer. Um getting them to the table with parents and the student. Um so like kind of that's the continuum which can play out over the course of the freshman year and we try to be more aggressive around our freshman than
anyone else um because um they're a little bit more malleable. Um it's a challenge though, right? they're trying to disrupt like deeply embedded habits um of student behavior and and family dynamics. Um so I I think it's our
assistant principles do a lot of work in trying to connect with families. Um and that can be they that can just be like they can be evasive. They can be um just not present. So, it's um the challenge is like making a connection to
the family and then staying in dialogue as you work through this this problem of like trying to get the kid to be in school more and more. So, um and at this point I if you were to talk to any of the six APS at our two high schools, they could they could whittle down on
like a very small group of kids that are chronically absent. Um, >> yeah. And I think like uh the word truency brings a lot of emotion to parents and kids at different levels. And at the high school level, we're getting them after 13 years of where
this habit may have followed them or it turns to avoidance. And so it's really figuring out how you can build that bridge and that connection. And so the wing offices help and the counselor and the AP um and the AA will meet, you know, weekly and talk about the kids
again to try and figure out that story. And I, you know, we had a student a couple years ago in our wing office that Brandy and I were working with where mom was third shift UPS. And so the student was just able to sleep in because mom wasn't there to get her on the bus. And so figuring out how to partner with the
parent and not drive them away, it's still not an easy problem to solve, but at least you're swimming the same direction as the parent. Um because again, you have to work really hard to to build that goodwill so that they're not avoiding your phone calls or thinking that you're a collections officer because we're really just trying
to figure out what the obstacle or barrier is, right? And so again, figuring out those stories so that we can help with the resources and get creative where we can get creative um and not just be sending a letter home or being that, you know, blank face that's knocking at the door.
So I think that um the clear process has helped and then raising awareness. You know, we had a lot the radio made some announcements earlier this fall that heightened a lot of families because it's, you know, after five absences, you're going to get a letter. And so we had travel hockey parents calling us and all these parents and and again I'm a
big fan of that because it's just putting you in contact with the school and I think that we lose that in the secondary aspect. There's no PTO's there's and we want that gradual release but I also anytime a parent is calling to give us information on what's going on at home that's helpful for us and our
staff. >> Great. Thank you. Um, and Jesse, I just want to give you credit for, you know, pulling out the secondary here and acknowledging um that it is different at the secondary level. I am actually re I was really surprised to see this because
when I, you know, and I look at our average being plus or minus 20%, it's going down. I would have expected it was the younger kids who get sick, you know, they catch more colds and viruses in in elementary school than the older kids. Um, and you know, my assumption was
turned on its head. So really, you know, if you think about averaging, the elementary schools are like in the 10% 10 percentile. >> I think part of part of it might be the attendance difference, right? As far as elementary is a pm. >> Right.
>> Right. While well while you have seven different classes and so the three to four classes a week and missing those throughout the week is a little different in secondary, especially in high school with the freedom of having a car. I mean, if elementary kids could drive, they probably out of there, too.
>> So, the attendance is definitely in apples and oranges, I think, between elementary. >> And I think when we looked at last year's I actually think the middle school students had the best attendance and that was a little bit of like there was no escape for them, right? >> So, I do you guys want to add anything
about attendance or anything that these guys? Yeah, I I mean I I I think it's similar and I I would echo the sentiments of the high school. Like it does start in our wing offices with those relationships and I'll speak to the successes I've had working with some families and I I I think of one that I'm
super proud of the kid to this day because it was a problem. Attendance was a huge problem in sixth or seventh grade where we did have our truency coordinator involved, but it was the support that was needed for that kid at that time and the kids having great success and really I still have a good
relationship with that kid and talk to him every day. So, I do think it goes back to that relationship and really getting in tune with that family and what they need and letting them know what they need to help support getting their kid and giving them a fighting chance, right? Because if they're staying at home, that doesn't give them
a fighting chance. Mhm. Yep. >> So >> that's right. Can't learn from your seat. >> I'm wondering again going back to the Celis program. >> Yeah. >> How many of those kids are there because of truency issues? >> I don't know if it's truency issues. I think it's more like some of the
anxiety, some of the mental health um issues that we're seeing kids >> that they swirl all over. >> Yeah. I mean, a lot of a lot of our truency issues are avoidance, right? Um what we're seeing with our middle school kids is with Aselis right now, we're having pretty good success with our
completion numbers and who's engaged and um who's doing the work and making progress um and hopes of getting them back in the building full-time, right? Like I know we've talked about that in the past, but the importance of that socialization piece as well. >> Yeah. I just so I have one comment and
and a question. Um several of you have heard me talk about Kalamazoo Public Schools story. They've now presented two years in a row at the Michigan Association of School Boards annual conference about their success story boosting um academic achievement,
graduation rates, and reducing their chronic absenteeism. And they've got a very tough demographic um you know, academic achievement proficiency is like 20 to 30 percentile. So they're coming from a more difficult uh basis than we
are, but they've been able to move that needle and um it's really been inspiring to me. So I you know there are success stories out there, but that's the comment. But then I also wanted to ask because of this goal in our strategic
plan. I want to obviously it's taking more resources to try to move this needle and I wanted to ask you principles like do you see your assistant principles having to give up something else in order to do this work? What's the trade-off because we do have
these scarce resources to consider as a board too and how we can support you. >> I I think that's a fair question. I think that truency and truency monitoring has always been part of the big picture and it's always been part of the conversation. So at the middle school level we have our student support
team which whenever there's a student who surfaces as having academic or behavioral concerns in the classroom we we look at that um at supporting that student through a tier one lens and attendance is is you know talked about there. Are there patterns of of missing
school that can create um gaps in in learning? um that can interrupt connections to the school community because it all goes hand inand you know parents don't send their kids to school to connect with teachers first and foremost they send them for an education however the connection to teachers that
encourages kids to come to school to give their all to you know enjoy the process and so you know I I I have not heard from my assistant principles that it's taking any more time um but I do know that we've been really careful to create systems that use our time
efficiently. And so we're doing bi-weekly um polls of attendance, which is more frequent. We've had done monthly historically. Um monthly is great until you get behind and a kid, you know, was gone for a big chunk of time in a month. So we're trying to have more of a
proactive approach so that there's less cleanup, so to speak, with bigger issues down the line. A and so you're going to invest in students one way or another. and we'd much rather have positive proactive investments um you know whether it's academics or or truency. Um, I don't know if you guys have heard
otherwise. >> I think it um, yeah, I think Miss Studman's right. It's been approximately the same amount of time, but I just think there hasn't been any formula of fix, right? And at the high school, it's just sad because they become invisible problems. Um, they h they have the
agency to leave the building. And so um we've got systems and we've tightened down how we're monitoring how we're staying on it, but we haven't been able to unlock resultsoriented change, right? Where you're able like the success story Ryan said is great and for every one of those there's probably
five to 10 that we don't get and they and and you know we're already a quarter of the way through the year and we've got our kids that are already so disconnected that we'd love to get them back but we just don't have a fix for that. And so it's not necessarily timeconuming on the 8 to3 for the
assistant principal but we'd need some results tools fixes things. >> Did you want to add anything? >> I I think one of the challenges too we face um is since the pandemic like there there is just a a different approach to
like being at work being at school. Um, so some of some of our truency can come from like unexpected places, right? Like parents that love to travel with their kids and pull them out of school. So, which is very different from like what you would typically think of a of a truent student being in in the problems
that cause that. So, >> I think it's important that like all of us are always leaning into that that narrative that >> um like we teach and learn every day. We're always here doing it and always keeping that healthy pressure on
families to know that like um like it's happening every day in our buildings and we never back off of it. >> Right. And as as Oh, go ahead. I was just going to say I think it would be interesting to your point, Brian, that those kids who are traveling are doing things differently what their grades are
>> because we know there are some kids who miss a lot of school and still are somewhat, you know, pretty successful >> and then there are those that are disconnected. >> So, I think that's we're seeing the absenteeism is really separated into two different pots.
>> For sure. And when you look at where the assistant principles have to focus, they're going to spend more time on the the students who are, you know, academically behind. >> Yeah. >> And as several of you have mentioned, that parent communication is is so important. I mean, you'll bust your
tails and so do your staff, but if the parents don't get the message of how important attendance is, it is difficult to move the needle. And I think that is something that we could learn from Kalamazoo and other districts. Um, you know, just putting it in weekly
newsletters from the buildings or, you know, graphics to say, you know, why chronic absenteeism, you know, is a problem like it leads to lower graduation rates, for example. Things like that. um really bring it
home for people because uh one thing that superintendent said that really stuck with me is >> you know he's just like a hard knocks guy and if parents are like you know he just said if if your kid says I don't feel like going to school that is just not acceptable you as a parent you
cannot tolerate that so I love that probably an old school approach but it sometimes old school's good right >> so two things on the topic right now I'm scheduled the 21st or the 22nd to meet with the KPS folks. >> Great. >> Got my email right here.
>> Um and then we've talked about um for strategic plan goals of starting a marketing, you know, a campaign um to, you know, to express this to parents. So, that's something you'll see soon updated in our strategic plan um goals.
You'll get later this morning an email that kind of gives you all of our initiatives and and work that's being done in those. So, that's something you'll soon see updated in that living document. So >> was that something that was started in the elementary schools a few years ago though? >> I feel like in the last
>> Yeah, we've got some activity. I wouldn't say yet is universal. And so that's part of the work we're going to try and do is make it more universal across the district. >> A lot of incentives >> again. Yeah, I mean it is a part of our PBIS, you know, work, no doubt, but again, I think it's a little bit building by building and so how can we
make it a little bit more of a uniform campaign? So it'll be interesting. I'm interested in seeing what what Kazoo like materials and all that they did. And so I'll kind of bring that back and throw that into our pot of thoughts as well. >> Great. Is that in person in Kazoo? Okay.
>> Y >> right now we're working the morning of the 21st or the 22nd. So >> wonderful. Thank you. Moving right along. Awesome. So the other metric we were going to track around goal two was uh students being engaged in activities. And I have a big banner that says work
in progress here. Um >> the big banner. This is this is a little bit this is just not something that we systematically tracked at either of our second in none of our secondaries. So, a lot of when I when this came out as being a goal, which I think all of us would say, yes, we want kids to be um
connected to school and then we kind of said, "Oo, how do we actually track that and measure that?" Um, we had to kind of wrap our brains around that. And then again, like to your point, Josie, like there's work to actually you have to do. You have to go in and label kids. Um, and so that's some of the work that these guys are trying to figure out who
owns that, where does that live, how do we even get those rosters. Um, so those percentages are deceivingly low right now because we are just working on figuring out how do we even label to pull these kids. So middle school >> what counts, what doesn't. I know that's
one thing we're looking at too as far as after school activities if they're related to school. You know, a lot of robotics work that we might do is necessarily a a school club, but they're still using the school as far as meeting afterwards. So I know we're we're sifting through that.
the middle schools. Do you guys want to start first and talk about this? >> Yeah, I mean a work in progress. I think our challenge is as a district is to really if we're using Power School as one of those places to track this and
involvement and be able to see where we're at, then we need to come up with, okay, you have career tech kids, we don't, right? We might have some robotics club kids that isn't the same type of robotics as they have. So really making a comprehensive list but not like
uh streamlining it I think is is a big challenge for us there. Um we have solicited feedback. I know Miss Studman and I were talking about that earlier um from our club advisers and organizers looking for those specific names so then we can mark and track that um and and
just get that baseline data I think is really what we're looking for and then look to grow that. We um to Ryan's point had one of our AAS, we have like 32 clubs and she spent the last two months getting rosters from
those and putting them on a spreadsheet and then worked with Sophie to make sure in Power School like under activities that those were represented. And to Ryan's point, like there are items on there that we'll never use, but we didn't really care. We just had her add the things that were needed and then we
did our first upload of that. So I had athletes and club participants and we our numbers show closer to 55%. And then paired with the student survey and they reported self-reported of the students that took it 70% were involved.
And so we're somewhere in the middle there. We don't have marching band added and some other items. And then the other challenge is is like is club participation static, right? Like I think some sometimes people go and then don't come. And so how do we measure and monitor that? We're not there yet, but
the other cool report is is we can now pull a report for any kid that doesn't have an activ activity field marked. And so I've got I'm looking at 560 kids that aren't marked in an activity. And shocker, a lot of those are attendance issues, too.
>> So it's it's it's it's finding the four of us getting together and saying like, how does this work systematically? And then how are we fairly representing who's involved? And then once we're done talking about the numbers and the spreadsheets, like how do we get the kids involved and how do we connect? Because it's not authentic for like a
principal to go to a kid and be like, you should join Dungeons and Dragons. Like we need, you know, peer leaders or upper classmen to model that and invite kids in. And so how are we doing that? I think some of the issue and this is
speaking as a single parent is single parent households and transportation. >> And those are two really big ones. Um I mean the way I solved it was I went out and bought my kid a new car. >> Yeah.
>> Because she had a zero hour class and there's no way I could do it, you know. Well, there are a lot of parents that would have a hard time with that. If you're buying new cars, I got a couple kids I feel to adopt. >> But, you know, it was one of the best things ever. >> Okay, fair enough.
>> Beth, I do I do think that's a challenge for middle school kids especially, right? Because they don't have the ability to drive and transportation does get to be difficult. Another piece is this, like when we talk about activity engagement, there's kids involved in a lot of things outside of our schools
like Northtorm soccer, right? or Northshore volleyball, the Breakers, um dance clubs, there's a >> church groups, >> church groups, there's a lot of opportunities for them to be connected that we don't have a beat on. So, um that might be an indication, but it's definitely a work in progress and we'll
look to streamline where our kids are involved with our >> great school. >> But I'm systematically tracking it and having these conversations. I mean, Ben came to me and said, "Oh, this is so cool. You know, the best report they made was the kids aren't who aren't marked." And I was like, "Oh." And he's like, "Now I can start going, wait, that kid's in Boy Scouts, so we know they
have something. That kid's in nothing." Like, "Okay, how do we talk to that kid, figure out what they're interested in, and maybe sometimes it's show them what's available?" Sometimes it is find a peer who's in something that can invite that student to it. That's a lot of work there, but at least that like
when I talk to my kids, I ask them what they're involved in. So, I ask them every single year, what are you doing? So then I can track that they're involved in Northshore or they're involved in something not connected to Central High School. >> Do you find that there are a lot of kids that are uh connected in that way?
Connected in community more than excuse me school specific. >> Not necessarily. I think it's pretty equal. >> Yeah. >> And and for the purpose of our strategic plan, we're really trying to measure activities connected to the school in
some way to build relationships and that interest in in learning. I mean, >> we all know there are just some kids who like they're coming to school so that they can play sports. They they're just not gravitating towards the academics, but you know, whatever it takes to get
them connected and >> attending and you know, like John said, their life might take a different direction than they currently think in their when they're 15 years. >> I feel like you know my history, Joe. Um, all right. So, good stuff. And by the way, I just want to remind
everybody, make sure you lean into your microphone when you're speaking because sometimes the audio doesn't always pick up for the recording. And then the last piece around goal tool, I was just kidding when I said there was two, there was three, I forgot. Um, is this is a question off of our student survey. So, both of our
middle schools and our high schools gave this student survey. What did you guys give it? November. Early November. >> A couple weeks ago. >> Okay. Um so you see how many students responded there. So they did get great participation um from their students and then you're looking at the percentage of
students who said yes I can name an adult at school who I know cares about me. Um so last year we had 86% of our students. We really want 100% of our students as much as the board tried to not set unrealistic goals. But look at we're over 90 and both of our middle
schools and our high schools of our kids saying independently yep there's somebody here who cares about me. So we feel really good about um that number and and where we are with that. So >> I would add just like you know Ben was talking about the report that shows the kids that don't have any activities um
like our administrative team right now is working through the process of the 7% of kids at West who said they don't have an adult. So like in in my building that's 100 students. Um, so taking those 100, filtering them, assigning them to
the APs and counselors and like, okay, not all 100 are totally disconnected, but um, we need to know who those kids are and then respond to them. I think the other thing though, there's 500 kids not represented in the survey. So, I'm guessing that kids that chose not to
take the survey don't have a connection to an adult. So, we have to also then take, cool, we had great participation on our survey results, but who are the kids that didn't take the survey >> and and you and look at that, too? >> Yeah, >> good point. Way to make the numbers not feel as >> I'm just trying to ground this. I'm just
trying to ground this. >> Grounding's good. >> Anything that you guys want to add before I >> Yeah, I think that this is another area that we went after this year with greater intention at the middle schools. We um launched the year with these moments of genuine connection basically
um coaching our staff and and bringing awareness around um just taking time to know students personally and academically. Um and we created a system to track that so that we don't miss students unintentionally. We know that sometimes there are quiet students who
may not get the daily attention um you know as much as those who are just naturally outgoing or who catch our attention in other ways in the classroom at the middle school. Um and so those moments of genuine connection um we we gave our teachers lists and it actually is part of our PBIS meetings that we
have regularly throughout the year. So we have teachers bring their lists, we have them problem solve around kids that they're just struggling to connect with. um so that we take a you know a fresh look at at how best to connect with students. And you know to the point um that was raised earlier about the
students who um identified as not having a connection that's our next staff meeting. We're putting that data by grade level in front of our teachers um and having them collectively problem solve around that. How can we go after these students in in natural strategic ways? not bombard them next week, you
know, where everybody has a a new teacher best friend right out of this meeting, but how can we be intentional and mindful um about making sure that each kid um is connected with? And I think, you know, having that list of kids who didn't respond is important, too, because there's I think there's a
reason for the non-response and so looking at that is is important. >> Is there a way then to get that less? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. because we tell the students which was a good shift that it's confidential but not anonymous. So it collects their email and so we can just cross reference
that and you might have been absent that day and absolutely and again I think it's also to add that with our activities list like what students didn't take it are they involved. So >> your your percentages might actually go up if you got full participation because usually it's >> that's what I'm saying it was positive
who you know are more inclined to answer a survey. So yeah, Jesse's cringing that I'm not sure. >> Um and then our third goal is around student behaviors. Um so again on our student survey, we have three questions
that get at the student uh behavior pieces and two of them the board has asked to monitor these. It's do students treat me with respect. So you're a student answering this. So that's that peer-to-peer relationships. And then the other one is how are students treating
our staff? um do we see our students being respectful to our staff? Um that is one too that is a bit lower than where we would like to be. The third question that we don't monitor is does staff treat students with respect in general that is a lot closer to the 90%.
Um you see kids realize yeah these adults are actually pretty kind and patient and gosh kids aren't as kind and patient back to the adult. Um so that's why we kind of chose these two to monitor. So really thinking about how are we building positive peer relationships as as both of the high
school principles alluded to like you know as great as our counselors are and our wing principles kids don't actually want to sit and eat lunch with our adults right they want to sit and eat lunch with like another 15 or 16year-old who will be their peer and their friend right I mean >> right I mean that's what we want
ultimately so how are we building communities in which our kids are having positive interactions with each other and then how are we ensuring that our staff are respected by our kids teaching is a really hard profession. Our teachers go to work every day and work really hard and the counselors do too and they care a ton about these kids and
it's hard when um they're not treated with respect um back. So, how do we how do we do a better job with that? So, >> do you want me to talk? >> Yeah. Okay. You guys can talk or you guys >> I I think it um when we look at these like it always baffles me or it's
concerning if you go into a classroom at any point in the year and the students don't know the people they're sitting around. uh because I just firmly believe that if you know something about your neighbor, you'll treat them with a little bit more kindness. And so it for this it's the simplicity of do you when
when teachers are asking students to work in groups, are they setting up parameters so that there's safety so that students know who their peers are next to them and that they're have an opportunity to learn about them a little bit before they jump into content. And we like that even woven into the content. And so that's where we look at
these numbers and then pair it with our classroom observations to say, you know, sometimes I'll sit and be like, all right, who's at this table? And if they if the student can't name that, then that's an area of concern. >> Yeah, I think when I look at those numbers, I'm like, hm, I'll notice a little dip there, right? Especially from
a peer perspective. But that might be a positive. It might be a positive in terms of maybe our kids now understand what it means to be more respectful, right? Like I know we embed um being safe, being respectful, being responsible. Those are just part of our
PBIS lessons and then we bring in our P2 uh positivity project which is around social emotional learning. I think they might have more awareness of what that really means and are easier and more able to identify it, I guess, is what I'm trying to say. So, um I'm not I'm
not as alarmed by that as I was initially because I I do think that's an opportunity for us to continue to drive that message home. Um and now how to teach kids how to not engage in that type of behavior if they see it happening. And then the next step as a bystander is how do you intervene or
stand up for that? Right? Sorry, didn't mean to hit that but hand talker. And this is something that um Ryan and I talked about um inserting in our student voice. So putting it back to our our students who are there to have that conversation with us and asking them how
they can own the solution um because it can't be adult driven, right? We have to be able to teach kid the kids the skills to be respectful to one another and adults. Um and then also um you know give them the opportunity to own those
situations. So, um, asking them how best we can set them up for success. We had a conversation around respect last year. Um, and students helped me to kind of define what respect looks like, what it doesn't look like, what it feels like, um, in different, um, times a day throughout West Middle School. And now
I'm curious how they can help me own the solution. Um, and that's something that I'd like to put back out to them as the year goes on. >> Yeah. >> And that's a life skill that I think is crucial. >> Absolutely. Yeah. You know, one, this is a technical point, but it struck me
that, you know, these are sweep general sweeping statements and and it's always important how you ask a question in a survey. >> So, I wonder if just saying like >> students generally treat me with respect. students generally treat stuff because the kids gonna could think very
well like oh yeah you know in general but that one kid's really mean to me or that that one teacher is really mean to you know harsher question >> and then they answer in the negative and >> or that one time right I I totally agree with you I think I think that
>> is a very valid point >> um and then the other piece around student behavior is our suspension data um so again let me make a couple clarifications ations here on this. So when I say 72% was our last year's baseline, that doesn't mean 72% of our
students were suspended. It means of the students who were suspended, 72% was a one single suspension, then behavior was changed. And and note too, when we're at a point in which we are we are removing a child from education. It's more than just a suspension. These guys can talk
at length about there's re-entries, there's education, there's restorative that we do as well. Um we I mean kids make mistakes, humans make mistakes. That's part of the process. Um we just would hope that when we intervene and are at this point, behaviors change,
kids learn, they grow, um and we can all move forward. And what we're looking for is 85% of our students who are suspended, it's just that single time and then behavior has changed. Um so right now at the secondary we are at 76% of our students were just one time suspended and then behavior has changed
and 24% um have been suspended multiple times um throughout the year. So >> Mr. Gwenny, I'm going to kick it to you. >> Yeah, when I think about suspension, I'm going back to um we had a small group of students who were suspended from um some
onampus events that were actually before the school year started. Um and we we thought long and hard about what the consequence would be and the duration of the suspension. Um but to just kind of like complete the picture, right? Those
kids came back to us um in late September and have been closely monitored by APS uh by security um and like they're doing really well. Like they're both in activities. Um and I'm I'm beginning to stop looking for them
now, right? like in the in the cafeteria like I'm like, "Oh, there they are." And I'm not like, "Right." So, um, but I had we not had that incident and had we not suspended, um, I feel like we would not be in as good of a spot as we are now
with with those with that small group of kids. So, man, there's a story behind each one of those numbers. And, um, sometimes suspension is the answer. Like, it it can have a really positive effect. when it doesn't, yeah, you know, you have to to go in a different direction. So,
>> and sometimes, remember, there are some extreme cases that are mandated by the state that must, >> you know, for a long-term suspension or expulsion. >> I will say the other thing that's particularly helpful with this team is that we have the ability to calibrate
with one another. And so I think that the responses at our secondaries are um as consistent as they can possibly be given each individual student who's in front of us. So, you know, we're either calibrating through uh the middle schools or the high schools or with
Jesse, I'm constantly calling her to make sure that we're on the right track because we want to be so careful with how we handle situations even though it's routine to us. um you know, this could be the one time that this happens to the family and it's a really impactful situation. And so handling
each suspension with care um and helping the student to recognize that the suspension doesn't define you, right? This is a misstep that it's important to uh realign yourself back to who you were prior to the suspension and make sure that the behaviors moving forward are consistent with this moment. Um, I just had this conversation yesterday with a
student um, who did receive a suspension and as I was going through the process, the first thing I pulled out of the backpack was a Titan ticket, which is a recognition for being a great kid in our school environment. And I just pointed out to them, this is who you are. This conversation is not who you are, right?
This is a misstep and we're going to move forward from this. So, you know, it's being careful with how we handle the conversation, careful with the support and structures that we put back in place. So, the guardrails are there because oftentimes we need a little bit of of that guard rail to to save us from
ourselves, so to speak, um, from certain decisions. >> Consequences are an important concept to learn. >> Okay, thank you. Good stuff. Okay, moving on to goal four is our
post-secary readiness. That's graduation plus is the first metric I have for you here. So, this is the percentage of our students who are currently uh at the high schools receiving some type of post-secary experience right now while they're as a TCAPS high school student.
We've defined that post-secary experience as AP course work, dual enrollment, CTE experience, certification. They could be in work experience or career internships, right? So, these are students full-time high school students and they are engaged in some piece of that. We the board, you
know, this was something that we didn't really have a hard um baseline metric on. 60% was about where we felt like we were. Um we had just done that by auditing our last senior year transcripts. Um, but I'm really excited to to tell you we're at 77% of their
current juniors and seniors at both of our large high schools, including TC High as well, are engaged in some type of post-secary uh readiness. So, this might be a metric that we get to the first end of the year. And the board might say, "Hey, 75%'s not enough. We actually want our kids graduating on
time and we want even more of them to have this." Um, part of this is because our staff does a great job um on exploring these and providing these opportunities. These guys have both done a great job and seeing like what else is out there? What else are kids interested in? What could we bring to our high
schools? Um Brian and I were just talking about, you know, potential community partnerships and career internships that he could expand at West Senior High. So, um they are constantly thinking about um how do we prepare our kids for that next step and what that looks like. So, >> and our counselors too, I feel like they
have a like a wealth of experience on what the pathways are, whether it's military, whether it's the trades. Um, and obviously the the work around, you know, October and college month and college applications. So, a wealth of knowledge that like they're always
dispensing it to kids and and keeping that information in front of them. >> I I do want to say one thing on this as far as while I love the metric number, do know to do all those things we have is a strain already on our budget. like
the dual enrollment one specifically is like kicking our tail budget wise. >> Can you explain that more? >> Yeah, >> because we do get right like >> Yeah. So, essentially we we get money from the state that we use to be able to educate a student. So, when a student
selects dual enrollment, we pay the community college tuition bill at NMC for that student to be able to do that. Okay. Our problem is is that, you know, while we're paying that, we still have to take out of that student's aotment
money for heat, buses, diesel fuel, you know, all those other things, everything we have across the district. And so we are we are pushing the point of that that the the cost of all that is more than the amount we're getting per kid
when you include all those ancillary components. Okay. When I look at the amount of kids that are trying to do work experience, so we have how many work experience coordinators at each high school? >> We have one >> one. >> And unfortunately, we don't have work experience or a career internship
anymore at West. >> Right. So that gives you an idea for us to expand and do more. When we talk about resources to the board, this is an area that consistently comes up when I have meetings at Travers Connect, when I
meet with manufacturers. these folks, we would love to do more, but every time I go to those meetings and every year it seems the meeting comes up, I'm like, we need resources to have human capital to be able to work with our kids to be able to do more of this in a lot of ways. And
then like I say, the dual enrollment one is one on a statewide that I'd encourage the board to be thinking about when we do talk to state legislators that there was conversation about making it to where any kid that was a high school kid that did dual enrollment, the state would directly pay the community college
for that would be huge for us. For others maybe not as much, but for us it is. So when we continue to look at this, I I really kind of gravitate towards this one a lot because when we talk to our kids a part of the uh board superintendent student advisory committee, this is one of the topics
they bring up. They while we have kids engaged, they would like even more even more opportunity to have, you know, and and our our counselors do a fabulous job, but again, our ratios are 250 to1. >> Well, that's what it should be. >> That's not what it is.
That's the 50. >> So that that gives you an idea right there. That's where we are underresourced big time in this area. And I'm amazed we we are doing as well. Like that number shocks me to be honest with you of how
well we're doing in this. But our kids are thirsting for more and and and as superintendent and and our team I know we would love to be able to do more. When we talk to the Msons of the world that say we need more kids day of opportunities that this is an area we
could expand and expand and expand but we are stretched already to an extreme our resources to do what we're doing right there. >> Does it cost us to send them to career tech? >> No, it doesn't. So that's one bonus that we have that does help us out in the
overall but you know right now from a budget standpoint that's allowing us to do what we're doing on the you know the ancillary from that standpoint at the high schools. Um >> when I looked at it percentagewise
it looked like maybe 9% of our high school kids are going to career tech. >> Yeah. >> You know >> will it pay for early college at Career Tech though? Yeah, that would be the only few pathways for that. >> Career tech is only for juniors and seniors. So when you take that bottom,
you know, denominator, it's not the whole high school size. It's just So like what what are your guys' numbers with career tech right now? >> Just over 200 >> 196 >> at West 200 >> and over 200 students at Central. So you're talking that's almost a third of
those graduating classes >> out of 700 kidsish. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Okay, that's good. >> It's closer to 35% of our >> and that that's a and that's a huge, you know, benefit to us. No doubt about it. I can tell you I have superintendents in other ISDs that do not have a career tech millage
>> that would literally, you know, would would scream and holler and celebrate if they had a half of what we have. So, love that we have that. But this is the other part we don't have a millage for. we don't have. So either state support or even community, you know, companies
when they're looking to maybe want to expand, that's something somehow as a community we have to grasp of how we can get our kids more into some of these opportunities outside of what I call extended learning opportunities outside the four walls of our traditional schools.
>> And then comparatively, how many kids are in dual enrollment? Do you think >> we have 228 in in dual enrollment? >> Okay. >> And then we have early college which um probably >> it's about 110
>> the whole district. Yeah. >> Yeah. We probably have 50 or so early college in our building. >> Okay. Yeah. >> Okay. >> We have 188 dual enrolled students at West. Mhm. And with West with the dual enrollment with going back to the cost is for any student that's out of
district um NMC bills us now they've changed their out of district price to help us a bit but it still costs us more. So any students that are Benzy County or outside of Grand Traverse County which we have quite a few of our
kids we're paying more money for those kids. Oh, >> they don't bill it as us being the home >> senior high. They do the address of their home. >> It's not in the community college district. So, so that is a strain and that's it's the right thing to do for kids. But I will tell you it's it's it's
definitely a stress right now on our structure and system. And so when we look at advocacy and you do talk to legislators, that is one that would help us greatly. >> Community college guarantee, it's free for two years if once you graduate right now. So if that could just trickle down.
>> Yeah. So if a kid >> just trickle down, >> that seems like an oversight and >> it it it really is. And that's just if we just said any kid that's in high school and dual enroll or when you turn 18 and graduate to do it, it would solve it. But but we we need that
legislatively somehow done because it is just a stress right now. >> And just to give you guys a dollar amount, we will spend these two high schools together. their bills for the whole year to NMC is is north of $700,000 and we anticipate next year we will spend a million dollars to pay our
NMC bills. So that is coming off of their site budgets which both of those and and I and Dr. Dr. Brad Wagner, we've all had conversations about how do we make that up, right? Um and and that's been tough, right? Um do we cash in
staffing, which is like a hard do we not staff so that we can pay for that bill, but we know they're coming and um and then the counselors too, we've talked a lot about like, you know, what options should we make sure we maintain with dual enrollment for students, but what options do we know we have at our site
or have at career tech center that at this point we should point kids towards those pathways, >> right? and with the early college too in terms of the kids um and Jesse's been working very closely with NMC on this um because they bill us based on contact
hours versus credit hours. So an early college student, they start an agreement that yes, they're going to do earn their associates degree. TCAPS will pay for that associates degree, but as they take advanced math classes, their science classes with labs, the instead of being
12 credit hours, it might be 15 contact hours. And we're paying that bill. And so students truly can't get through the program with early college without exceeding a full-time aotment. So, we're paying more. >> And the full and the full-time aotment
is the dollar amount that we have to pay, but that's up to the foundation. And that's the whole amount. Now we But how do we pay for buses? How do we pay for all those things? So we're actually going in the negative. >> Yeah, you are. >> In the end, from that standpoint, >> that would be a good thing to present to the full board.
>> Yeah, >> really and truly, I think that'd be a good thing. >> Yeah, good point. >> Okay. >> And then the other piece with this is our student survey. So we ask a question um at both of our high schools. Do our students feel prepared? Do they have a
plan or a goal? This is self-reported. Um, our goal is 95% of our students at this point. We have 78% of our students reporting um at our high school. So, they have some type of a a plan um midway through their year. So, we're hoping that uh by the spring more of them will say that.
>> Um, and then I want to turn it over to uh Jen and Brandy for a little bit to talk just a little bit about what does that post-secary work look like from our counseling lens. We hear a lot about that. We hear a lot from the students at the advisory committee talking about um
wanting more support and and ensuring that we have it. And both of our large high schools have counseling teams that work really really hard and and there's a lot that they do with our kids and our families to ensure that there's information out there and organized for them. So, >> Sure. So, I'm going to start with our
ninth grade and what we kind of um start the process with them and it really starts with our counseling office. Um, our counseling office is pretty darn amazing. It fosters a college career military going culture just when you
walk in. And I've had students at Sarah and Jos's and when you walk into the counseling office, we have banners and of all different two-year, four-year, public, private colleges, universities all across the United States, not just
locally, as well as militarymies, um, military branches, um, trade schools. So, right when you walk in, we have posters, all sorts of information for kids to always see something new as they're walking down to our office. And
um in November, we actually meet with each 9inth grader for the first time since we met with them initially at the 8th grade when we were enrolling them 8th into 9th grade. So, that's our first conversation with the kids. But then in uh November, many of these kids have
made their way to our office already. But we want to make sure every single student knows where we're located. And so we have a conversation with each ninth grader. First of all, how is the transition going from middle school to high school? How are you doing here? Um any concerns that you might have, a
favorite class. Um and we start to look at kind of a blank transcript. Um some have some high school credit, but just to kind of go, what is a transcript? And guess what? Right now, everything you do in high school is really, really important because not that it wasn't
important in middle school, but your grades are going to be posted to this high school transcript and we're going to start your cumulative GPA right now at the end of your first semester of high school and um we sit down with them
and we begin looking at their education development plan throughout high school. looking at the four-year, what will you need to have all four years of high school to graduate? And this is like November of their freshman year. But we also are asking,
well, what are you thinking about doing after high school? What what careers have you thought about? It doesn't have to be set in stone. You don't need to know exactly what you want to do, but what are some interests that you have? And this can help me then help you as we're picking classes down the road. Um,
going back to that engagement and what Brandy said, we do this every single time we meet with these kids every year is we're like, what are you involved in? We want to make sure that each of our students has some kind of a connection beyond the classroom. So, we keep notes.
Some of the things are outside of the high school, but I want to see that each kid has something. And so, that's how we then track is we're meeting with the kids. Well, maybe we can suggest some different things. And
so we had the list of clubs. Okay, so if you're not part of the band or you're not part of a music program or athletics, look at all these different clubs and extracurricular activities. We have some co-curricular activities like yearbook or school newspaper to get involved in or the robotics team or if
there's nothing that looks good there, but you have an idea, go ahead, you can create your own club. I had a student create the guitar club and it's still going today, you know. And so there's lots of different things, but what the biggest thing is it's like what do you do beyond the class and what are some of
your interests? So then um getting into the careers each year we um go into classrooms. We go into an English classroom twice a year each semester um and do the Zello lessons that start at the middle school. So, they've already done their career matchmaker and
sometimes the kids go, "Oh, we're doing this again, but it's like, oh my gosh, you're going to learn so much more about yourself. Your interests are going to change throughout." And so, we have that career matchmaker. And um some kids just kind of went through it and they're like, I don't know why I have these
careers. Well, let's go back and look look at your likes and your dislikes. Do it all again or just um look at different answers that you chose and you can revise this. you can update this all the way through high school. They look at learning styles with Zello lessons,
um, work values, um, different interests, but each year we do different lessons in the classroom. So, it progresses each year. So, we're not doing the same thing every single time. Um, and what's also nice about those Zello lessons is kids can go back in and
then see what it is like, what a typical career looks like, a day in the life of that career, what is the job outlook, what is the salary, what kind of preparation do I need, a high school diploma, a two-year degree, a trade school, four-year, maybe a master's or a
doctorate. And then it will show for each career what the kids can do to earn that degree that they might need and then compare colleges, lots of different things. So it kind of goes through career and college on those yellow
lessons. Um we do career day um in the spring every year. We um bring in 50 community members and students in each grade get to choose three different sessions to go to. They're 20-minute
sessions. They're we try to have them highly interactive. So, sometimes, you know, the people will bring different um props in so that kids can have some hands-on work with that. Um but a bigger hands-on day is for our whole ninth graders. In May, we send them to my
quest, my career quest, and this is highly interactive. And this is um usually six different careers that are high demand careers in our area that the kids get a chance to actually physically
go in and try. Randy and I have tried some of these things. I'm not really good at using the um cranes and the all that kind of stuff. Um we've welded. We've done a lot of stuff with these, but um >> welding's hard. >> It's hard surgical instruments.
>> So hard. Um, and those are that's just just like a that's just a sampling of what we do in the ninth grade. Um, and a lot of these things like the Zel lessons, career day, again, those are every year of high school. Um, and of course the education development plan we just build
each year and revise it. Um, 10th grade we do the career tech visit. The kids did this in 8th grade, but it was kind of a general kind of career tech visit. But in 10th grade, we required the entire 10th grade class because once again, we don't always know what we want
to do. And career tech programs vary immensely. There are some very rigorous programs like engineering academy you have to apply to get into. So sometimes kids think, I'm just don't want to go to a tech school. Well, there's so many different options there. in our health
sciences. Oh my goodness, the kids can then go in their second year and work at MSON and then that can lead to going to NMC and then having your NMC help pay for your nursing degree based on your job that you started back at the Career Tech Center. So, there's lots of
opportunities there. Um, but tomorrow our kids are going to be exposed Wednesday. Yep. Um, and I'm or excuse me, Career Tech is going to be coming to the high school and talking to the kids about their 22 programs over at Career Tech. And the kids will sign up for
three of their top three. And so then in February, we take that entire 10th grade class over to Career Tech. They go to their three different programs and we intentionally do at the very beginning of February because that's when we do enrollment for next year. So therefore,
the kids see Career Tech, they're interested in it. Now, we're going to go ahead and we're going to get them enrolled in career tech for the following year. Um, in addition to career tech, we talked about the dual enrollment and early college. And so
those presentations um really start freshman year, but sophomore year, the second semester is when students would join early college. And we have an NMC admissions rep. Um Beth Weaver comes to our high school
twice um a month. She has office hours and then does presentations like at um parent teacher conferences. Um so we are talking to those kids on our individual appointments. They're also we can refer them but they're getting lot they're knowing about these opportunities.
Um 10th grade enrollment meetings. Of course this happens every grade level. Um, but as we're looking at 10th grade, we're looking at the graduation progress. We're looking at post-secary goals, what is now that we're like got
through our first year and a half of high school, what are we thinking about? If you're looking at a selective school, guess what? I want to see that you're taking some more AP classes. We need to really Junior year is really important in terms of college applications. Um, if
you're going to be going to the Career Tech, this is the time that we're going to get you in because two years at Career Tech gives you more options to do some work experience credit with them. Um, we'll talk about you can still um, if you didn't start the early college
program, second semester of sophomore year, the latest you can start it is your junior year. Um, but dual enrollment options and the dual enrollment would be if we've exhausted our AP or if it's a class we do not offer the advanced placement course,
then we can look at dual enrollment. But if you're looking at taking psychology at the um college, no, we offer AP psychology. We're going to be doing that here. Um, and our AP classes when I in terms of colleges and what they're looking at and rigor, our AP classes are
incredibly rigorous. It's a national test that all the kids take. NMC is a great college and it is respected by our local schools, but if we're looking at going out out of state, community colleges vary, schools vary,
but the AP, it's a standard test that everyone takes and that score in that test really um stands out strong for colleges. But that's kind of like ninth and tth grade. So, they're in they've guided into high school and now we're continuing on. >> All right, I'm taking 11th and 12th
grade. Um, so 11th grade is super important for the college application, like starting that conversation because the following year they're going to be doing their applications in 12th grade. So, we really highly encourage 11th graders to visit our college admissions
officers that come to our building. Um, several local colleges come. Um, some out of state will come. It's just not as consistent as the in-state colleges. But it's an awesome opportunity for the kids to talk with that representative. That is the person who's going to read that
application, read your essay. It's great to put a face with a name, all of that, and get really good information about what each college has to offer and what it takes to get in. Um, so we post those and we put those on the announcements.
We send them out to the kids so that they know that they can sign up and visit um during the school day. College night is outside the school day and there are 40 plus colleges that come from all over the state, some out of state, but that sets up at NMC and that's an awesome opportunity for them
to just walk around. I would tell 10th graders to go to that. 11th graders for sure. Maybe 10th grade is more of like a perusal and walk around and then 11th grade really talk to the admissions officers, pick up that information, put your name down, give them your email. um set up a secondary email that you can
use just for college applications um so that your TCAPS email isn't inundated. Um and then we also do um a ton of just exposure to as many careers as we can with them. I I like to talk to kids
about if you can't see it, you can't be it. So like you got to go see it. So do something at Career Tech. Go to NM we get NMC to come to us and show them the programs that they offer. We as a counseling department, we want to see everything that NMC offers. So when I'm
talking to a kid, I can say, "Hey, you like to tinker with stuff." Like we just went to um a presentation on the unmanned aerial systems and those are drones. And these drones are like taking over all of these cool like areas that I didn't even know about. Like drones are
now not only delivering packages for Amazon, they're delivering medical equipment from hospital to hospital. They are doing, you know, pesticide spray on all of the crops. Um, >> and soon to be taking humans.
>> Yes. Soon to be delivering humans. Um, and you know, you have your own personal drone. You can just fly from one location to the next. Um, and NMC has an awesome program for that. So, knowing of those things is really helpful in those onetoone conversations.
Um, junior year, we also have a futures day in May where we go over the college app process with them to prepare them because they can start working on that stuff over summer. Um, common app opens August 1st. So, we want to get in front of that. Um, for those that are using common app, um, we also have a military
representative that will come talk about all the military options and then NMC programs. So, we take all of our juniors to NMC and they go through those three presentations um for the afternoon. Um what else? Juniors also do like an
outside of school field trip. Um, I think I I went on one last year, the year before. We went to the Grand Travers Resort and I had a small group of juniors and the Grand Travers Resort gave us a huge tour of their facilities and all the different career opportunities that they have within
their um organization there. So, that's a really cool opportunity for them to see different careers. And then moving into 12th grade, we have senior meetings right off the bat. We want to get in front of our seniors right away in September. Um, go over the senior
timeline. Senior year is a big year, big decisions. Um, I always want to encourage them to start somewhere. There's a lot of undecided kids that just don't know what to do and they sit in front of me and they're like, I have no idea. And at this point, since NMC is
free, everybody should apply there. Like, just put an application. It takes 15 minutes. There are some awesome programs there. And even if you start there and you don't like what you're learning, you can switch. Like I tell them all the time, the the average amount of jobs that a person has in
their lifetime is 12. So we all switch careers so much through our lifetime. So just because you start at 18 years old in um I don't know like engineering and then you hate it and you switch it like that's okay. Everybody does that. That's normal. But I feel like they have so
much pressure that they need to know sitting in front of me like that they have to know exactly what they're going to do for the rest of their life and they don't. I just want them to start somewhere where they're interested and if they don't like it make a change. Um so that's a huge conversation in the fall and then helping them with the
process like okay you want to go to the trade school that's you know here. What is that application process? When are your deadlines? When are your due dates? Um if you're looking at going to NMC get them there. the college applications. There's just so much around the scholarships, the test scores, should I
submit it, should I not? Um it's a high stressed um process. And so just navigating that with them and helping them, you know, one thing at a time, you're going to be fine. Make sure you have, you know, your safety schools, you have your reach
schools, you have your match schools. Um and it's a super exciting time for them. And so like it's a super exciting part of my job to be part of that process and then hear the final result of like yes, they got in somewhere that they really hoping to get into. Um FAFSA and
scholarships. We do FAFSA nights for parents. NMC is also helpful with FAFSA. They're FAFSA experts and they help our kids all the time with questions. Um and then we have a huge scholarship list that we give to kids. We have local
scholarships that are awesome and we get them applied in January. Um, senior interviews with a community member, so getting them out and talking to community members. We they have that and then at Central, we also have the senior English project where they have to present their research in front of
community members. Um, so that makes connections with different people that might be able to offer them career opportunities or a job or whatever, like things like that. Um, and just making sure early on that they know of all of the opportunities that they have. Like
letting them know community college right now is free. So don't let that stand in your way. Or like if you're a first generation student, so I like to ask them those questions from freshman year. Do your parents have a college degree? And I'm not just being nosy. I really just want to know because that would make you first generation and
there might be opportunities or scholarships for you along the way. um asking them, you know, we get the tip list of tuition incentive program. We let them know early on you have tip money from the state of Michigan that will pay for a lot of your college. So, don't let that stand in your way. Um if
you're on free and reduced lunch, that's really helpful. You can take an SAT test and not pay the $50. You can apply to all colleges and I can wave your application fees. So just talking to them as early as possible so that they just don't sit sit in front of me senior
year and say I can't afford any of this so I'm just not going to do anything. You know like if I'm telling them in nth grade, 10th grade, 11th grade then they're actually going to start looking at all the different opportunities because those things aren't going to hold them back. >> It's a great overview. Thank you. You're
welcome. >> Any questions? Okay. Well, thank you so much for all the hard work you do. And I heard your average case load is 450 students per counselor, and it should be 250. >> It should be 250. That 250 numbers
looked really sounded really nice. >> I could do so much more with 250. >> Well, we've heard about special ed and math shortages and we know counselors, that's got to be another area. So, we as a board really need to be mindful of that. Um, you know, when we get to, oh,
look, what's next? Goal number five, high quality staffing. >> Yeah. And and I will just give a shout out to our counseling departments as a whole. These guys do a great job staying connected to um colleges. They do a lot of they go there's a um a workshop that we send one counselor to. There's lots
of colleges and admissions officers helping educate these guys so they can pass it on to kids and parents. What do they want to see in apps? um they just they spent their RSDD day, their regional staff development day, part of it with a military academy admissions officer. So that we've got kids who want
to apply to those really top tier schools and they want to help those kids and families. And so they need to know like what do we need to know as a counselor to do those types of things. And and then also they do stay highly connected to what are the industries in our area that are employing kids that um
provide a living wage or maybe invest in like they alluded to Mson will employ you and then invest into your education if you don't know where you want to go. Um, so they really, kudos to our team. Um, with 450 kids on their case loads, they still very much want to know how
can they best support kids and so they're always growing and learning. I'm very impressed with questions they ask me. I'm like, "Oh, I didn't know about that. I'll see if I can figure that out." So, >> thanks, Jesse. And our professional development opportunities have been amazing. So, um, going to promoting the public's that, um, I went this fall and
it's all the public um, four years. It's just the public, but it's still the big schools like what's happening and going to University of Michigan because sometimes things trickle down from them. What's new this year? They're doing early decision this year. Well, now I can come back and know what's changed,
share with our colleagues. Um, we just got to go, thank you so much, the Michigan School Counseling Association conference with two middle school counselors as well. And then we actually got to listen to a West Point Military Academy. And so we had the Naval Academy
at our last RSD and then we had this um and then each PLC day we are going to be going to NMC all the counselors middle school and high school and then we're going to different programs at NMC to look at different um what they offer
talk with them and then like this is where we get our hands on and we can take this information back and share it with our kids. So it's been so valuable to have that. Thank you. So, it's been a great These guys are great. So, any parents that have questions or are thinking, I need help with this really
should reach out to middle school or their high school counselors because these guys are have a ton of knowledge around it. So, >> yeah. And I and I just very quickly as a parent want to publicly acknowledge the work you that your buildings have done
to build scholarship spreadsheets. Um, you know, some are merit-based, some are financial need-based, some are both, but that's a really great resource. Um, and every year we hear that money's left on the table because kids don't apply. So, you're raising awareness of that,
enabling families to pursue those is is greatly appreciated. >> And then the last goal, goal number five, um, our high quality staffing. One of the biggest things that we were really proud of as secondary principles is the number of teachers who um did not
uh call in an absence on our regional staff development day which was on November. We definitely went down to 58 of our secondary actually that's K12 staff that called out that day which we're we're really constantly trying to ensure that the professional learning we
provide our staff is relevant and is meaningful and um is what they need to do a better job in their practice. And all of these guys really helped us think about the bigger picture this year. How do we connect our August PD, their um their staff meetings that they lead and
have each month at their sites, their PLC's with our our district learning, too. How is that all connected and part of the piece to support our staff? Um so we were we kind of were like, whoa, the numbers really spoke to us as far as what that attendance for that day looks
like. Um and then just some numbers for you to know, we have 26 new teachers. So, in year one or two with TCAPS or in one year or two of teaching and five, our administrators are new too, right? We're a large district. There is always some attrition. Um, and then when I
talked to these guys about staffing and what they see as their future needs, these were sort of the top three positions that um I know Tiffany, you really like number two. I snuck it in there. >> We'll always need them. >> Um, that we just we need high qual high quality people. Um, and we struggle in
math ma math. We have some big retirements coming in secondary with our math teachers. That is um a tough area to hire credentialed staffing, special education, and then counseling too. So, >> okay, >> great. Thank you.
Celebrations and successes. >> Yeah. So Jesse just um our regional staff development day and just again shout out uh Jesse all of our secondary admin our content leaders as far as the relevance um and I've seen that in the
attendance and people wanting to attend as far as even our specials um Jesse worked with content leaders to get guest speakers here art music uh PE we had somebody come in do a handball presentation as far as their curriculum is concerned
>> pickle ball pickle Pickle ball. Sorry. >> Pickle ball presentation. >> Same thing, but >> it's a hot sport right now. >> I'm really good at it. It's the only thing I can still play. >> Um, and I just wanted Tiffany also had uh worked with North as far as a special ed presentation.
>> So, we were very lucky. Dr. Shelley Moore, if you've never seen one of her podcasts, Five More Minutes, um she is a worldrenowned speaker. um and she came in and talked about inclusion to all of our special ed teachers and um ISD
staff. We had over 500 staff member attend uh ending with a standing ovation. She was um an amazing speaker. I know some of our principles were able to step in and see part of her presentation. Um but our team is especially lucky to have heard her. Uh
and we will continue to do work with um some of the stuff that she presented to us. and TCAPSA staff. You had some of your special education aids, instructional assistants there too as well. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Um we had building uh bridges with music
here to present to you about what uh they offer to our district. So this is just a photo they took a swing by at Central High School. Um just they just do phenomenal programming. I know. Um >> yeah, it was a great day. um our music department students got to interact with them and it's just the instructors were
beaming because these are like worldrenowned talented musicians and in that picture there you've got a couple central students on stage playing with them so it's pretty cool >> fun >> uh same at Silver Lake. So our building the bridges program that we have every
school participating in this year uh either they come in and do assembly at the school or they go offsite uh for a field trip um downtown. So again, same idea with our third, fourth, and fifth grade teachers. Just using that music to kind of uh build that trust and that um
really work with their PBIS in the buildings. >> This next one's from West Senior High. This is their Spanish National Honors Society. Just um doing some connection there with um some indigenous people um raising some funds and I know having
some communication and correspondence too with that. I think that photo is probably from your craft show, Brian. Yeah. >> Yes. >> Very cool. >> Then our fifth grade month in uh healthcare immersion day. All of our fifth graders went to NMC. Uh NMC was
gracious in allowing us to use space. kind of a double dip there for our kids to be able to experience um NMC and know it exists and that that's a resource for them eventually, but also to understand all the different careers that are available at Mson outside of just uh
medical, right? There's a lot of HR, there's technology and they make sure to hit on all of those. >> And an example here from East Middle School thinking about math and how do we engage kids in that and Trish Bryan and her class not in the classroom, Mr. Ranger?
>> Yeah. Yeah. And and you'll see this uh on a regular occurrence in our math classes. They take them around and just try to get them to experience math and everyday life, right? Which is which is really good and relevant and just using the building and the space provided. So I just thought I'd capture that photo.
And >> yeah, also shout out, look how good that atrium looks. Nice work by you and your >> trophy banded >> and kindness and thanksfulness. So, Miss Helman's class at Corteade, an extension
of our CKLA curriculum. Um, every classroom, uh, new book and handmade kindness cards, and then celebrating the holiday at Long Lake with thanksfulness using a classic feathers on the turkey. >> It's really cute. TC High is cons
continuing with their enrichment days. Those uh occur on Fridays. Uh Jen and her team also hosted a school from downstate that's looking at expanding their alternative education programming. Um they came up, it's been a Thursday and a Friday and on that Friday they were going to the beauty college and
they're going to the Coast Guard. Um but here you've got some students at Raining Liberty Ranch and then some other students at Oriana. They come in and they um have all the food and the kids uh prepare and cook a complete meal. And Oriana has been so generous. they um donate their kitchen space and all the
cooking materials and everything. Um and they have instructional staff there for the students and um Jen said that's one of the hot ones that now fills up right away. Kids like to go there um and do some cooking at Oriana. So, thank you to that local business to >> um for donating space time and and and
opening up and allowing our students to come and make a mess and and learn. So >> the only thing I want to add on this, so we have a state waiver that allows us to be able to do our alternative ed to be able to have these Fridays to do it. So this is the kind of stuff we're even looking at how can we start to incorporate in our traditional high schools to be able to create some
flexibility. So we're continuing to work with the state new state superintendent hopefully to be able to create some of these opportunities. >> You said this is every Friday throughout the whole >> every Friday. >> Every Friday. Okay. And every uh student who is fully face tof face um attends at
least two of the visits if not more if they have space. Sometimes there's some space issues as to how like the beauty college could only take nine students just based on their space and Jen said well we had like 25 sign ups. So we're going to have to you know come back to that again. So that's great.
>> Yeah. Yeah. >> And the bookmobile still exists. So, the bookmobile from our local library came and visited the junior c the junior kindergarten at central grade school. Um, every first and second grader, we have a field trip that they go to the
the um library and get their library card. This is just an extension of that for our youngest students. >> And here we are, West Middle School, with the fan favorite, the constitutional day. >> The tradition lives on. >> The tradition lives on, student.
>> Um, and it's a worthy tradition for sure. you know, it not only helps students to immerse themselves in historical events, but it promotes public speaking. It helps them to really have something to look forward to. Um, cottonball sales locally go through the
roof. So, there's a there's there's always interesting like when I I don't know exactly what day is happening and then I see it, you know, I see the beards, I see the wigs. Um, but it really is fun. It's a great connector and very relevant activity.
>> And then finally, we just want to give a shout out to our food service. Um, you know, right before the Thanksgiving holiday, they do a Thanksgiving meal at all 16 of our sites. And, um, I will tell you, as a parent of a child, that is like her favorite thing is to get the
Thanksgiving meal at school. One year she was sick and it was very sad. It was very sad because we missed that. But >> you had to cook, didn't you? Uh, I got >> love from the >> No, she just missed out.
>> So, but we thank them. I mean, it's a huge feat and we've got great people um behind the scenes, but really wanting to make sure that all of our students have that experience. So, >> there's so much pride in this day. I mean, there's pride in the work that's done every day, but you can just see it. Um, and so it's it's extra extra special
um what they do, not only for students, but for staff, too, to see staff members come out um and join in this community meal. It's great. >> So, big thank you to Tom Fredus, his whole department. They just they're kind of behind the scenes. Um, but they do a
ton and we really appreciate it. So, >> thank you. All right. Well, thank you everybody for being here today and sharing your your expertise and hearing indulging our questions and just really
want to give a shout out. I know you've got important work to do in your buildings, but we appreciate you and this is, you know, the learning series is really at the heart of our work as a board. Um, if we don't have you visit and share your insights, we're none the
wiser. Maybe you don't want smart board members, but I do. The more we know, the better we are at our jobs. So, thank you so much. Um, and with that, I want to announce that our next board curriculum committee meeting will be Tuesday, January 6th. So, nothing at the end of
the month. >> 2026. >> Yes, in 2026 at 8:30 a.m. here at the administration Glen Lumis building. And with that, we are adjourned. Thank you. Thank you.