--------- Heat. Heat. the board curriculum 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. The
committee has set aside this time for public comment, but as there are no members in the audience, I believe we are good to go. Move on. Um, moving on to procedural items. First up, we have our draft committee meeting
minutes from July 29th, 2025. Uh, trustes Pack or Vajaras, any changes from you? >> I just saw one typo. Um, under number four,formational items. A um I think there the date for the
education responsive steps and district data was from 2024 to 2025. >> There's just a one-digit typo and a number there. >> All right, just call me Eagle Eyes. Um, I think with that change, we're good to
move the draft. Uh, we we'll just the minutes will remain as as posted with that one small revision. Go with that. Okay. All right. Then moving on to the 2025 to 2026 TCAPS
district course catalog update. Um, I'll let Miss Holton speak to that. >> Yeah, we I I'm kind of surprised by this one. We don't have any changes. Um, and I'm only surprised because typically this year, this time of year, we will, but um, we might still next month. Um, but right now we stand, we did, you
know, look forward a lot. We knew we were going to launch the middle school program. So, we added a lot of those courses this past spring. We knew we were, um, having we're starting a new AP research course that we'd already gotten in this last spring, too. So, at this po moment, there's no no changes or additions for us.
>> So, I just have a question. If a kid goes to their counselor, like I can definitely predict this happening at the high school level. um maybe middle school and they want to take something virtual in M from Michigan virtual for example and we don't currently offer it could that would September
>> it it probably will happen with Michigan virtual depend on kids interest right now is sort of the student registration and NMC courses those are the other things you'll probably see next next month >> um new ones of those that students are now interested in or are now available
for students um and we'll need to add those but at this moment >> yeah zero Okay. All right, then. Consistent with our practice, we'll put that on the um consent calendar at the next full board meeting as usual.
Okay, moving on to our learning series, always the centerpiece of our curriculum committee meetings. Um the professional learning, opening the school year. Miss H Hotton and Mr. Tisworth. >> Thank you. Um just se several different items to go through that we've been
working on over the summer about professional learning. But just to reiterate, you know, we had the EA here in the spring and we talked about our professional learning and how Jesse and I always approach and Britney approach our professional learning uh meaningful and relevant. Um just in the 28 29 years
we've been at TCAPS, we've had some meaningful relevant and at times maybe some professional development that wasn't. And so we always have that filter to make sure if we're going to take people's time to sit in front of us and learn, we want to make sure it's something they can take, right? It's really nice if they can take it away and
use it uh immediately, but whether or not there's some scope and sequence to it. So as we go through our summer professional learning or or when our APs get back or our principles get back, just that you know, we have a lot of people in front of us besides teachers.
um like I said, administrators and every single one of them is in front of us. We try to filter through that. >> Yeah. So, here are some highlights of some um summer work that our teachers have done. A lot of people think teachers have the summer off, but a lot of our individuals are out there gaining new information. We sent about I think
we sent 11 of our secondary teachers to different AP trainings this summer um due to a couple reasons. We had an increase in our AP environmental courses um at both high schools, an increase in AP Seminar at both high schools. So, we're adding some teachers there. And
then we're adding, of course, the AP research. And then we've just had some um retirements and some turnovers, a change in AP World at Central, for example, as we had a retirement there, um a change in AP computer science. So, um 11 of our teachers, and that's a pretty intense training. they go away
for a full week um and engage in that but it's done by college board and always done to a great standard. It's one of the requirements when we offer AP. Um then we have a great partnership with North Ed. They host our CPM. CPM is the curriculum we use for secondary math. So from sixth grade all the way
through algebra 2. So they actually host a regional training here which is awesome because it's here in town. Um and we offer that to any of our new hires. So, and some of our uh returning staff who maybe changed preps or feel like they want to brusher brush up on that. They've got some folks coming in
from the national CPM group. Um so, I know I was just signing some time sheets this morning. We had a couple of our new hires um able to attend that and feel like they're really ready to launch into this next school year. We have the MASSP conference that's at the resort. Dr. Van
Wagner, myself, uh Mr. Esper, and Mr. Burgerer actually presented at that conference. Um, but that's a great conference, hundreds of administrators from around the state. Um, it's a three-day conference, so we sent a a good group of our secondary principles to that. Um, and then
>> you guys presented on the was it project based learning? >> Um, we presented on um just the way we've uh redesigned our high schools and tried to infuse some flexibility into the into the school day. We talked about TAI, the TAI programs at both sides and then we talked about the academic
communities um too. So really thinking about how are we and it was a well attended session. Um and since then too we've had lots of schools reach out and either want to come visit or get some more information or share and swap ideas. So it was pretty cool. >> Anything on the the manufacturing
centers in your presentation? >> Um we showed a picture of them and we talked about their connection to the STEM academy but that was that was it about that. Yeah, it really was around the curricular pieces of it. But yeah, >> the you know what we had done while it was elementary, we were just getting
rolling our summer camp for the elementary STEM. So yeah, you know, it's even so there's a good article that's actually out I think yesterday um >> in uh one of the um local newspapers that are that are distributed um for
free in the community. And uh the name's flipping me at the moment. Um and it and we talked about, you know, we didn't get occupancy until early May, you know, so we only had a small chunk of last school year that we were even in them. So talked about this will be our first full
year actually being able to plan in them. So that'll be exciting to see what we can begin to build with partnerships and that. So >> yeah, great. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> I'm just curious about MASSP. Do they how often do they come to the Grand Travers Resort for their >> Every year? That's their big once a
year. And I mean it is big. I mean it is I mean you would four 400 principal. I mean it's everybody in the state and their assistants and athlet I mean it's secondary principles association. >> Um and and Wendy Zeb who runs that does
a phenomenal job. They bring in great speakers and breakout sessions and um yeah it's it's it's definitely the conference to go to in the state if you're a secondary building administrator. >> Terrific. It sounds like the MASB, which goes back and forth between the Grand Traverse Resour and the Lancing
Convention Center. Every two years they swap back and forth. >> But anyway, thank you for highlighting um the district's efforts. I think that's really, you know, it's important because it gives Traverse City some recognition statewide and it grows your network and
>> um yeah, that's just very fruitful. So, thank you for taking that initiative. >> Absolutely. And then I'll let Britney talk a little bit about some of the work our elementary has done over the summer and then the book club. >> Yes. So um Jonathan Swiggles represented the elementary principles group and
attended the explicit instruction academy. So MIMTSS generally works to bring in Anita Archer in person to run a week-long um kind of uh comprehensive training course regarding you know all the elements tied to the work she's done with explicit instruction. And so his work is going to
be bringing that learning back to the elementary principles group um when we meet on a monthly basis. Um we did our uh two program overviews for our K2 uh CKA program overview as well as the 35. Um that occurred the Thursday and Friday
after school got out and that was well attended. I believe Dan, we had over a hundred participants who came. Um we maxed out each of our four sessions across the board which was great. um as that kind of work to not only build a foundation of understanding with regards to how CKA is built and connects to the
work that we've done surrounding the science of reading but also um eased some sort of anxiety heading into the summer to kind of be able to start to plan what that might look like ahead of them formally coming back um tomorrow essentially. Um, and then we had our
elementary uh district math team really work intentionally on their scope and sequence for the course of this year. Uh, primarily making some uh uh uh explicit links to the work that the district did with um kind of recalibrating our understanding on math
fluency and what it means to actually be fluent with our facts. Um so really making sure that teachers see that direct connection between best practice in math instruction as well as their um core curricular resource math um expressions. And then the last um professional learning we wanted to
highlight was uh we did a K5 summer book club surrounding Natalie Wexler's The Knowledge Gap. Um we had 39 roughly 39 uh elementary uh teachers, principles um and support staff sign up to participate
in that book study. Uh we took uh the structure that Andy Phillips has done with his uh staff in the past at Corteade and really scaled that up at a district level um to really provide I think some more differentiated opportunity to kind of uh build on the learning that they engaged in with the
reading league partnership last year. Um and so the premise of the knowledge gap is um to really highlight the importance of building students background knowledge through a coherent knowledrier curriculum. Um so really adding into that understanding before they come to
implement or before they start to implement CQLA this fall. >> Can you give me an example of what sorts of things you would have been they would have been looking at in particular supplementary supplementary
material for CQLA or >> no this is this is more building kind of their collective understanding and the importance of building background knowledge so more about the research that's been done highlighting the importance of background knowledge not necessarily additional materials to
bring into their implementation but understanding the why and purpose and intent of why CKLA is built the way it is >> so basically the theory of the instruction correctly absolutely >> yeah that's one of Our mantras this year is we don't supplement anything in CLA.
We're going to try to gather some some input as the year goes on on where they think they should and if there's something we need to supplement then we do it all together and we structure it. But right now that's kind of what got what with journeys what got away from us. There was no structure with how
people supplemented and pretty soon after a few years they're not even doing a curriculum anymore. So, um, you know, with the curriculum based in science of reading, we're really trying to drive home with principles and teachers that we we stick with the curriculum and if you want to supplement, let's keep track
of that through the year and then at some point if we find something specifically that the curriculum is weakened, Britney and I can kind of have a have a strategy around how to how to supplement. >> What about diverse uh >> learners
>> books and and information out there? I mean classic literature if it's not included in the CQLA you're basically going to pass by it. >> Well I think it's scope and sequence. So Britney can talk specifically about how that looks but each you know each
teacher kit comes with a set of readers for each unit and there's 10 units. So everyone has approximately 10 readers to start with and then the novel kits Britney start what is it fourth and fifth? >> Third, fourth and fifth each have um a unit that is pertinent to a novel study.
So in third grade um it's uh Stella Diaz. In fourth grade it is uh the season of six Malone and then in fifth grade it's the science of unbreakable things. So they have an entire unit that is dedicated to actually reading and engaging in rich literature.
>> Okay. Yeah. It'd be interesting to see some of that you know because that's I was reading that's when I started become an active reader and I read everything. I mean there was not one topic area that >> yes
>> was the sole focus >> right and we have been working with um Stephanie light who um has been a really great resource to make connections between CKA outlines and uh pre-selects trade books that are actually they have
a lot of Calicott winners um and um other kind of well-renowned um uh children's books >> as they get older >> that too. Yes. And so they've taken um a list of trade books and direct have made direct links to the topics that students
will be studying across the course of their you know grade level um curriculum. And so Stephie has been working with us to partner how do we bring those rich texts into our libraries as well that not only teachers can go in and check out and bring into their classroom through readalouds but
also that kids will have that connected um experience with readalouds when they go um to library once a week as well. Yeah, it'd be real interesting to to kind of learn more about that. >> Uh Britney, do you mind if we go back
one slide? I want to just ask about big picture here. Um what if any curriculum materials are are are up for renewal or re-evaluation this year? If off the top of your head, I know this isn't something you prepared talking about,
but just >> for elementary, there's not. So if I just go through four core, right? social studies were in year three >> um of using um those the magazines for upper and lower L and in science we still have our FOS kits right we we were
using our FOS kits and continuing to do that math expressions I think is on year five of eight so that's on the back of our mind now starting that process probably the year after next is to start looking at pilot and different program and then Kelly we just started
>> yeah for secondary so CPM is our math math curriculum, you know, from sixth grade all the way through algebra 2 made we made that slight adjustment at 8th grade. Still stayed within the CPM umbrella products, but we moved from what was called the IC back to the CC3.
Um, that was before we saw the data that we had seen, but that was based a lot on teacher feedback and responses and classroom visits we had done. Um, and that's locked in until 2028, I want to say. And then my perspectives is our ELA, um, all the way through 611 as
well. and that's locked in. Um, our social studies doesn't have I would doesn't have a defined curriculum so to say through but what they're using a lot of is what's called DBQ questioning. They actually have a trainer coming in on Wednesday to work with them. The high
schools have used these a lot in their courses and then the they really want to kind of push them down to the middle schools. How do you read right with evidence and communicate with evidence? Um and it it that's really social studies is moving a lot towards like versus teaching topics to teaching
skills. Um you can't really cover all of history, right? And so how do you cover historical events and make connections between different historical events? How do you say we've learned this during World War I which then influenced these policies, right? Some of that type of connections. Um so that DBQ project is
probably well I know it's going to extend down to sixth grade this next year. And then for science, um the middle school science curriculum is up at the end of this year. So that's the one that we need to look at. The science team knows that. Um again, we do not
have a 612 um science curriculum. >> A lot of it has to do with the way their standards with N the NGSS standards are rolling out. They've got a trainer coming in. I'm jumping ahead on some slides here, but on Wednesday as well, working a lot on the way the science
standards work is one standard sort of runs all the way through all of our science classes. And so they're looking at taking those standards and thinking about what does it mean to be a sixth grader, seventh grader, ninth and tth grader with throughout this strand of um skill or knowledge. So they're doing we
call it like some vertical cohesion mapping and stuff on Wednesday. So >> but middle school science I expect to see. And then there's a couple APs like AP Chem is up for expert is expiring this year and AP there was one more that they told us it was the last year. Um I
want to say it's bio but that makes me feel like it's all science and I can't I can't remember off the top of my head but those are smaller because those would be a smaller subset. >> So um on the science one when you said there's no there are no standards grades 6 through 12 you mean state level
standards? No, no, no. There are standards um the National Next Generation Science Standards. They're just a very they're they're different than the way math and ELA um standards are written. Um >> it it just those standards are more sequential
>> and and kind of skill-based, especially we talk about math standards, but as far as science goes, >> um it's the same thing as elementary. You know, they don't have one standard that we're going to learn this in kindergarten and then we're going to learn this in first grade. It's the same standards as Jesse was saying. in K5,
but then how complex and deep you get into each standard. So they might talk about planets in kindergarten, >> but it's not to the depth where they talk about planets in fifth grade. What's the same idea the standards go through?
>> Okay. And then um for the AP, um how long do those textbooks usually get approved for? Or I know they're online now primarily. >> Yeah, usually they're six years. It's anywhere from like we get a better price break the further you go out but then also you're married to something for
longer right so there's like a you know a ying and a yang with that I would say the nice thing about AP is that so college board gives us a list of approved texts right for your course to be considered an AP course for transcripts and and for such you had to have had a teacher who went to training
you have to have a teacher who submits a syllabus to college board and it's approved you have to like there's certain standards and one of them is you have to use a text or resource that's from um their approved list. And so a lot of times what you'll see is our teachers will like a text, our kids will
perform well, and then they'll just kind of continue to renew it. And so then we'll try to stretch them out six or eight years. It gives us a better price break to be honest, you know. So >> great. Okay. So just to wrap this up, um the So the one that you said would this middle school science would be up for
evaluation at the end of this year. So, um, you're not looking to evaluate or pilot it anything this year. It would be like 2026 to 2027, >> maybe. Um, I have to That's like on our
on my radar. >> Yeah. Like we're going to get the team together and figure out like what's the plan. >> I could see us piloting some small units this spring or second semester, right? Grab some resources and get our hands into them and um potentially do that. Um, but we know at the end of this
spring, the current resource we have, we will not have access to it any longer. So, >> all right. We'll look forward to hearing those updates. And, um, when you get the chem the AP ones, um, even if they're up for renewal, I think it'd be beneficial
for the curriculum committee to hear what the teachers evaluation is when you prepare that memo. I know with environmental sciences last summer, for me, it was this spring, it went through >> finance. I apologize. Yeah, I'll make sure it comes here and to board finance. No problem. >> Great. It It's helpful for us to have
answer, you know, kids and parents questions, too. >> So, and obviously we've got an AP metric in our new strategic plan. So, thank you. Okay. Um, yeah. >> One last thing on science. Science tends
to change in some ways. There are basics. There are basics in science that you build on that are the foundational. But a lot of interpretation begins to change in certain areas. It
can be hard to stay a breast of some things >> if your main source is always referring back to a text that is a curriculum that goes for eight years, >> you know. So
>> that is one benefit of the digital versions is as things change it changes versus a hard copy that's outdated the day it's printed you know so the digital ones do >> the digital as soon as it it gets printed it it starts >> that's probably true but but at least it
can be changed quicker is is that is one benefit and again I think there are people think benefits and not benefits but that is one I think pro to the digital side is that those kind of things rewrites errors that are in that print tax, that element can be easily, you know,
switched from that standpoint. >> And does that also reduce the amount of books that they have to carry? >> Yes, >> there's a there's a lot of benefits and actually our kids have loudly told us they prefer the digital over um carrying
five textbooks. Um >> they're heavy ones. >> They're heavy. but also just the manual checking them in and out to kids, ensuring that you know and then if you have a teenager who's all over the place, if they just have their Chromebook, they have access to everything they need right there, you
know, so helps. It's pretty it's pretty funny at at the uh back to school orientation this last week, my kids went to the high school station to pick up textbooks, but there was nothing for them to pick up. was like, "How did you even have a stamp on that card that you went to that station?"
>> Well, they just confirmed >> all digital. >> So Deiana alluded to this. So early August, August 11th, we welcomed all of our administrators back. The majority of our principles, uh, with the exception of our four leads, uh, high school and middle school leads are, um, not year
round. So, we welcomed them all back. We had a nice full ad team retreat that morning. Um we were in the innovation center over at Central High School. Um it was one of those really really hot sticky days. So we were very happy to be in a nice big space with good air circulation. Um we followed that up Dan
and Britney and I was leading the joint principles for a few hours just going going through some things with our team setting the year. We're really we've been focusing on feedback what our feedback looks like to our teachers to our staff support staff all the way through to ourselves. um what is what's
the science of what good feedback looks like? What does the research say? And then sort of calibrating with what what with what kind of feedback their cadence is at and looking at what they give. And so we're going to dig more into that this year too with the principles. >> Um and then Dan and I followed up those days with um meeting with our teacher
leaders for each of our curriculum teams, secondary and elementary um to just sort of get our feet on the ground about like who are our new staff in our departments? What does our August PD look like? this week PD um and um what are the maybe some needs and some
pressing issues. So >> yeah, it's nice to get the district curriculum teams elementary and secondary they meet every the cores meet for elementary separately throughout the year but twice a year. Um I know they've done it in the past but we've kind of restarted it for elementary getting them all together in the same room. Some of
it's just calendaring, right, as far as the logistics goes, but also to get everybody kind of on the same page and those, you know, some crosscurricular connections that they can make through other departments. >> Terrific. And then we've already started welcoming some of our kids back to our
campuses, more so at our secondary sites here, although I know we got some open houses going on tomorrow at our elementarymentaries. Um, but our fall sports, we're almost a month into fall sports, if you can believe that or not. Um, our marching band camps are off and running. It's always really cool to go
listen to the drum lines. I love that. But, uh, and then we last week we had our student registration days at all five of our secondary buildings. So, those campuses were full with kids and parents and lots of good stuff going on there. >> Yeah. And our elementaryaries, as Jesse said, are open houses start. Majority of
them are tomorrow after the uh, teacher work day and then there's a few that are scattered over the next few days. And then the kindergarten signing day. So this is traditionally I think we used to call kindergarten roundup. We used to do this in the spring. Um but with all the growth that we see in kids, they decided
to do it now during this time of year to more accurately assess um where the kids are learning wise and especially with a JK at every single building. That that's always an option that those kids can take advantage of if they need it. >> So that's like for la would that be for
last minute kids coming to? >> Well, no, it's everybody. I mean to that point, you know, we it's kind of mapped off the idea of like the sports signing day and that and we have a backdrop for every school like you see the TCAPS one and we have a desk and kids sign that they're signing up to that school and it's a really really cool thing for
parents and things to do. But with the GK what happens is is that we still have some parents that really don't understand what that is or know what that is. And so sometimes it gives us an opportunity to have a conversation with parents and they recognize, oh, maybe my student could use, you know, or maybe
they didn't have preschool, you know, they didn't have that. So it gives an opportunity for us to have that conversation versus walking in day one and then a teacher assessing and beginning to have that conversation. So um I think like we have one elementary that I know I think uh we had about six
or seven families that ended up transitioning from kindergarten to junior kindergarten after learning about it. So um so that's what this day helps us do and it's not after school has already started >> and it's all kindergarten families. So we push our preschool kids up as far as
power school rollover from grade to grade. Uh but even then those those families also come to the signing days and they go through stations as just far as just quick assessments on on some reading. They do the like a PlayStation and how they get along with others. And because in kindergarten, right, we get
them from all different backgrounds. Some of them might have been in preschool with us for two to three years. Some of them this might be the first time that they're in in school. >> Yeah. >> So having kindergarteners sometimes like by themselves to families that feel, you know, not overwhelmed, it's a really
really good thing. >> Yeah. Not with every other kid and family member, >> big fifth graders that are walking all over. >> That's huge. >> Um so in terms of the spring what you used to have call roundup, are you still doing something like that to try to
drive enrollment? Oh, we do a >> No, go ahead. >> No, we have family night. So, we we do like a to a family night for incoming kindergarteners as part of some people do as part of carnival. >> Um or other they try to hook it up to some other
>> event they're having at the school. Sometimes it's our parent nights with with our title school as far as also if hey if you have kids that are coming into kindergarten next year this is a good opportunity to get in the building. it just starts to, you know, our AAS and our principles at the building level create these lists that are just ongoing
for several months to give us the best possible count um that we can have as far as staffing goes and other needs they need. Um, special ed Tiffany Palmville works very closely with them also because the more we get to know about our kindergarten, the less chance you have, you know, the student dropped
off on a first day that we've never had eyes on like Dr. Wagner said maybe they've never been in any type of structured school. >> Um, and they just struggle with with that structure and that adjustment, >> right? >> All right. Well, >> Sarah, you've probably seen it a few times.
>> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you for that update. >> Um, and then this is this week. So, this is really exciting for for our team and CNI. Um, so we've got all of our teachers coming back to the buildings tomorrow. They have a 2-hour uh building
meeting tomorrow, but a lot of those have been again calibrated during our joint principles. What are some of that's more of a logistical what are some of the things we go over every year to ensure we're all on the same page? Um, and then our teachers have some work time tomorrow to get classroom set up uh for elementaryaries to prepare for that
open house. And then Wednesday, the entire teaching staff is at Central High School for the entire day and they are broken into either elementary or secondary and then secondary are broken into their content areas for content specific professional development. So
for an example um our math department is brought in somebody from the building thinking classrooms which is a text that we have been using. It's uh written by a professor from Canada. He's amazing. Um, and it's on increasing engagement, increasing time to task, increasing
transfer of math skills. Um, so they've got a really phenomenal woman coming in and she's going to work with all of our 612 math teachers on what does high quality math specific instruction look like? What are some challenges that they have together? Um, science is going to
be working with the national next generation science standards and that progression um of one standard throughout. ELA is working. They've got a presenter coming in to do some vocabulary um work and some focus with them. And then social studies has the
DBQ folks coming in to really think about how do we do some evidence writing? What does it look like in sixth grade all the way through? Um our art folks, we have them connected with um the Denos Museum. They're going to walk over there, do a tour of what exhibits are going on at Denos, how can our kids connect to that? And then the afternoon,
they have a local artist coming in to talk about his craft. And then the teachers will think about how could we infuse some of that. Um, our PE department has Mson coming in in the morning working with some nutritionists and some kinesiologists and like what would that look like? Then they've got Patrick Mcmanis in the afternoon doing
some safety stuff. You know, when you've got a PE class and you're outside and you've got 40 kids, there's just different things that arise. So, he's going to talk to him a lot about just some safety and tips there. Uh, music. Chad Millius is leading the music group and they he's got a presenter coming in for them who's a phenomenal um
practitioner and they're going to do some modeling on that. I think who am I missing for secondary? Oh, world language. What >> world language? >> World language um is working with Danielle Brunstrom and our tech department really on how do we record and provide feedback and do listening with all of the speaking and listening
of world language and technology. sometimes that tends to be a hard intersection for them to figure out and figure out um in a way that is easy and efficient for their time. So Danielle's going to work with them on some of that stuff. And then Jamie Grants I think is going to do a little presentation too on
some um world language strategies that she's learned. So really cool. Dan and Britney and I have worked really hard. Now you guys will talk about elementary on providing on Wednesday subject specific professional learning that we really think are um and all of it has come from ideas from the teacher leaders. this is what we're interested
in, this is what we're and then Britney and I kind of worked on, okay, who would be people to bring in to infuse that day. So, um, co-f facilitated by our teacher leaders and an expert in that area for secondary. >> Yeah. And then elementary. Now, Britney, chime in. Just that that top picture you
see there is Britney organized coaches, admin, and our pilot teachers um together for a day. That's actually a monastery. That's another great space. And you know we talk about bond projects and kind of the secondary bonuses of these bond projects are these spaces
that we have for professional development that's happens to be our condition too. >> Um >> well Britney's ju just the implementation she's done has just been fantastic about how thoughtful it is and and step by step. So I'll have her talk about baby this day in particular because I thought this was just
phenomenal. Just the idea professional development doesn't have to be six hours of sit and get right. the professional development, professional learning should have embedded some time to digest the information during the learning itself and then work on planning with a team which she did a great job of
embedding in in these days. >> Yes. So, we spent the brief part of the morning kind of reorienting ourselves to the implementation plan and the role that pilot teachers have and really emphasizing this is a collective kind of charge forward. We all play a role in the success, right? And so we kind of
reviewed that. Um that was uh review from the spring of last year. Then they had time within their grade level teams because they are going to be facilitating a 15 to 20 minute district launch before teachers engage in the initial training provided by Amplify reps. Um and really leveraging, you
know, the why and the purpose and what this implementation means for us um as a TCAP school district. and then they had time with their building leader, instructional coach, and pilot teachers to say, "Okay, how are we going to bring some of this learning back and connect it back to our building and our priorities within our buildings on that
828 um building PD day." So, just a really nice opportunity to kind of reset the stage and and make the shift together um before this week, but also, you know, what it means for them within their staff in their building um and really giving them the autonomy to make those connections with um their pilot
teachers and instructional coach in their building. And the idea going back to meaningful and re relevant where we specifically have different groups like our social workers have professional learning outside of CKLA. Jesse mentioned all those specialist teachers have the opportunity. Last year they were part of that reading league
training as a requirement for the grant. Uh this year those teachers have their own specific professional learning they're going to do. And the professional learning provided by Amplify that Britney organized is grade specific. So we have six different rooms with we have all of our kindergarten teachers in one room. all of our JK in
the room, all of our first grade. And that'll roll over like Britney said on Thursday, the building can the building has their own PD that they've kind of set space aside to see after doing that professional learning. What's the next step? And then RSTD day, we have them coming back again on November 5th or the
fourth uh half day by grade level again >> after they had a chance to actually work in the curriculum. Then they figure out what's next steps with questions they have. Are we al I hear about the um advanced placement stuff.
What are we doing? Is there anything that addresses the kids that um have moved on but not particularly done well in the prior grade. The kids that are on shaky academic ground. the kids that are
borderline on which edge of the proficiency line they're going to fall. >> Are we doing because there's a fair number of kids. >> Oh yeah. >> Yeah. And I that goes back to our tier 2 structure and we talk about either tier two as far as pull out groups or or we talk about tier one. Britney, I've
talked a lot about tier one remediation as far as pushing in the classroom. So those teachers that provide those tier 2 supports are part of this training also for CLA um and part of the launch. that is definitely on our plate of kind of rebuilding what tier two looks like. um
cuz we've been doing tier 2 now for as far as a model of especially for reading I'm talking about elementary we're getting there as far as math goes and building that but for reading we've been doing the same thing for several years right where the idea of they take a fall on WA test they have a percentile they
score we create reading groups we pull them out we try to give them some more remediation um and honestly I don't know if we've seen the the immediate growth we'd like to see right the idea of that year after year these these kids are still not quite meeting grade level
proficiency um >> where they're on shaky ground >> and that's >> and especially after summer. >> Yeah. Bernie and I have talked a lot about that about what that next step looks like once we have you know a research researchbased I'll say robust tier one program for the first time in a
long time. Um how much that'll help as far as that remediation that's actually needed. And I'll just add that we're really trying to make this intentional shift to really focus our time and energy on prevention because we know that that's going to have the most lasting impact. Right. Um
>> it early. >> Exactly. And so how do we build on the systems and structures we have in intervention already to make that um a little bit better aligned to provide intervention but really focusing time and energy on how do we prevent as much as possible so we can really actually
start to see more of what we would expect to see in terms of like a multi-tered systems of support with 10 to 15% of our student population getting those additional intensive supports. Um right now we have well beyond I think
15% of um our um elementary um student body in in some buildings more than others that could require that additional tier 2 support. Um and then throughout the course of this year just to add to Dan in terms of the talking about the tier 2 system and structures
um I will be bringing together our interventionists at a district level six times throughout the course of this year. So, how can we consistently and coherently build an intervention system um that allows us to better intervene with our students and monitor the impact of that um in a way that's a little bit
more systematized. And so, the first time they're going to meet together um is on September 9th to start that work >> because those kids are also in the general classroom. So they're trying to catch up at the s same time they're moving ahead >> and you're trying not to lose them right
>> in the process, >> you know. So those are the kids that I think we really need to put some focus on >> and those lists carry over from year to year. So those teachers know, >> the interventionist know. So those kids are very closely followed.
>> And I will say in the secondary ones, all of them are about an hour this launch and recenter and what the best practice looks like. And then the afternoon is okay, how do we engage the reluctant kids, the apathetic students, the students who maybe don't have as much academic skills. How do we still
get them engaged in the learning and what does that look like? So all at least the four core at secondary have all expressed we want to spend a good amount of time thinking about that chunk of students and how we can um move them along too. So >> because yeah, you could easily be
talking 50% or more of your kids. Did you have any questions? >> No, just following up on that. >> Sounds great. Um, I just had a a couple questions. The that last goal about the high school teachers, are they looking at the goals for >> Yeah, those dates are wrong, too. And I
apologize about that. I was like looking at that screen thinking, I thought I fixed this. Um, >> a template for that. >> Sorry, I don't know. Um, yeah, it's actually really cool. Uh we worked really hard this summer with Sophie. So all of the secondaries will get a pretty cool grid of all their kids last year,
fall and spring scores, right? Looking at who grew, who didn't grow, what was the growth in my classroom, more kids who were already at grade level or kids who were slightly below, some reflection on why or why not. And then we'll re-roister it in um a week after student
schedules kind of settle down. and they look at, okay, here are my current rosters and how they performed last year to help them set some goals. How do I individually goal um set with a kid? How do I goal set with a group of kids? How do I use this information and grab some practice questions and the right content
range for those kids um and do some of that? So, um really excited. This is the first year we've actually been able to provide all that data to our secondary sites at all four sites. So, >> so I know our our strategic plan hasn't been fi, you know, the final version
hasn't been adopted, but I was just wondering with the new performance measures that have been drafted and revised for consideration as a full board tonight, are some of those trickling down to the building? Like I I looked at the middle school on Thursday actually are doing their day together
instead of at their sites and Studman's presentation I was looking at this weekend. She is using the same graphs and she's got that eighth grade target because that's what the middle school right and then her discussion is how do I as a sixth grade teacher feed into this? How do I as a seventh grade teacher? How do I as a science teacher
feed into this? Right? And so there you know that idea of bringing the ownership to everybody. she knows they're they're tentative until the board agrees, but I felt like we were at least solid enough down the road that this is the time to put those in front of staff and start thinking about
>> what's my part in this, right? So, >> um, about the art program at Dennos Museum, that just triggered a question for me to what extent do we have a a good partnership with Denos Museum or other artistic organizations like
there's the Elk Rapids Sculpture Garden, there's one out at Interlockan Arts, right? They do some stuff out there. Yeah. Yeah. Really, um, Danos is probably our strongest connection. Um, and this was the art teacher saying, "Hey, let's get over there now before the school year starts. Let's figure out
what all their exhibits for the whole year look like so we can know where things might tie in." And then they do have some scholarship programs for transportation and for tickets and things like that that then we can we can tap into. Obviously, Central High School is the easiest because the kids can literally walk out the back doors and
walk over and they go over quite often. Um, but I know that some of our other schools would like to get over there on a on a more regular basis. And then what they did for the afternoon was they gave me a list of local artists that whose work they just felt like would later translate well into classrooms. And so
then I just started cold calling asking who might want to come in. And we got a gentleman who's coming in and he's going to spend some time showing he's a professional artist. The art teachers what he does, what his um genre is. I don't know if that's the right term. >> Media. >> Media. And um and then they're going to
think about he might come back to do like a guest speaker in some of the classes. He's willing to do that like um or how could we morph some of his work into projects that we already do. So yeah. >> And they've already got people lined up for RSDD day too as well, the art department, you know. So
>> all right. Excellent. Um yeah. And then just big picture, you know, I know we've got the calendar set with professional development days this year, but just in support of our new strategic plan. Um, keep us posted on what your thoughts and needs are, you
know, going forward for additional um PD for growing our our staff. We want to help them succeed >> for sure. >> Okay. Thank you. So, we just wanted to put this back in
front of you guys uh to make sure we're all on the same page about uh assessments. So, what the first slide here is the required assessments. I actually just copied this one off of I think we talked about this in April um last year at board curriculum. So, this is nothing has actually changed with
required assessments. Um although I'm I'm still like hoping that like maybe the keys will go away. But >> which one? >> Word keys. >> Oh, keys. Oh, yeah. >> We'll see. go like swings on and off, you know, at the legislative level. I've watched >> that's for CTC students, right?
>> And all of our 11th graders, >> all of our 11th graders have Okay. >> CTC does give it as well, but um that was one that you had said before you were advocating the state to drop, right? But >> and they are debated. They're they always do about every two or three years, but it is back in conversation
again. I think the big thing for for you guys to just take note of is that we do ELA and math grades 3 through 11 in the spring, right? And um 3 through 7 do that ELA and math assessment through the
MSTEP. Once you start 9th grade, that 9th through 11th grade does the ELA and math through that college board suite of PSAT, SAT, depending on what grade level you're at. Um the benchmarks are different in 8th grade and 9th grade. If you're looking at thinking, oh, they take the same test, they do, but you
have to score higher in nth grade to reach that college readiness than you would in eighth grade. And it sort of scales that up. And then in those grades 5, 8, and 11, that's when the students take an additional subject specific science or social studies MSTEP on top
of the ELA and math. My access, they do both. >> Yeah. Yep. Yep. Um well, in all those grades, you do both. Uh my access is for our students who have significant cognitive disabilities. They are um usually on or they're not on a diploma track. They're on a uh assert of
completion. Our WEDA is for all of our English language learners. Um and then we do have a requirement uh to do literacy assessments. >> That is correct through our that used to be read by third grade. Now it's K12 um literacy
law. And that takes into account all of the conversation at the state level that is being had around dyslexia. >> So testing schedule for this next year for secondary. Um no change for high school. High school has been our 9th
through 11th graders take it twice. Once in October, once in April. That October is not required. We choose to do that. It's a one-day test for the majority of our kids. We choose to do that because we get the scores back and kids then are in their college board account. They can
see how they did. It connects to con so they can do targeted practice. Parents know really helps our kids who want to go postsecary think about what's realistic and where am I at and where would I need to score in April to to best set myself up. Um we do a lot of planning around that both contentwise
and with kids and goals and things like that. Um so there's no change there at the high school. Um, and then the middle school is the first where we have some change. So, NWA, we're not going to do in eighth grade this year. We're going to just do that PSAT twice. So, about
October and April, just like the high schools do. Keep in mind, in eighth grade, you still do the MSTEP for science and social studies, just like in 11th grade. That's why that's tacked on the end. And then our sixth and seventh grade will do NWA reading and math twice. So, October, give us the fall
benchmark. Where are kids at? do some goal setting, some content setting, due to again in February, help us see what the progress looks like. And then they've requested that their spring test just be the MSTEP as opposed to MSTEP and NWA again. So,
>> okay. So, we are still testing three times for NWA and sixth and seventh grade, right? What hadn't there been a consideration of removing the middle one? >> Nope. Twice. Just so twice. So NWA would be the October and the February and May
would be the MSTEP. So they would test three times. Yep. >> Okay. Got it. >> Um >> the middle schools really felt like this way they'll have some good baseline data which they'll do stuff with. They'll kind of check in on progress at February. They'll make some adjustments they need to and then they'll do that
final assessment in May. Um and they felt like that will give them a good amount of data leading into the year. And I I agreed with them. my fellow. >> So the but the MSTEP and the NWA test I I don't differently I mean right different content. So I'm just curious
because at beginning of the year with that October NWA test you have that end of year target if you're only testing in February. This is the debate we had and and what you get is the the tests are so close together you get fatigue >> and and when we sat and talked about you
know from that standpoint >> MSTEP's the one mark that again is across the state it's it's that norm so we have to take it. So, at that point, are you going to have kids do four tests? Like, we've always had this debate, you know, back and forth. You
know, the timing just is not great the way it falls. And so, we wanted to take a chance and just see like, can we do better on the MSTEP because we we would always take NWA just before MSTEP and And I can just tell you, you talk to kids, they're like, "Yeah, I I just the
second one I Yeah, I was done. >> Didn't even try." >> Exactly. >> Yeah. And so, you know, this is what if if we talk to teachers, we talk to principles, you I can tell you when Dan was at at East Middle School, like he pressed me hard like we need to do this, we need to do this. But I had that same
struggle, Josie, like from a progress monitoring standpoint, having those three gives you a steady, but yet then when we get to this, it's like, you know, so this is what everybody thought was the best way to try and go about it. The other thing is like
>> it's also a tremendous amount of time >> that we're taking out of instruction to do both of those. >> The kids are tired. >> The kids are tired, the teachers are tired. >> If we can do it like this, what we what we're seeing like what we're hoping we'll do with the data on the backside is imagine a report that has a kid and
has there it will be like a math and an ELA because that's what they both test, right? And so you'll have a fall NWA, a midyear NWA, and an end of the year MSTEP. And if we're going to get enough data where we can make some predictors on kids who okay, if I if I'm scoring this in the fall, this is most likely
where I'm going to land. And so what can we do to improve that outcome for that kid? Um is kind of our our thinking on this and us being able to read that data and use that all throughout the year with teachers. This will help actually narrow the field a little bit for them
um on that. >> Yeah. And I and I do remember the discussion we had earlier this year about it. So, I'm not I I get it. This has been a a really years in the making. >> We've debated this. Yeah. >> Discussion. I just I guess instead of February,
what you know, like did you think about March or April? Just >> we only get certain windows. NWBA lets us take the test. >> Yeah. >> And so that's when that window is. >> Yeah. I think the middle school principal said they wanted to stay off of January because some of our courses in middle school do have exams. They
were thinking what's nice about February is it allows them time to make some adjustments before the MSTEP windows open which are April and May is when those open for our kids. So they were thinking that would give them some time to do that. >> Yeah, we do have a a district. So when
we set the windows of NWA in the NWA server, there is as far as projected growth and percentile is depending how many days of instruction they have between tests. So, we have to with them with them moving a little bit in October
and February, we're still September and January. Uh, we wanted to keep it somewhat as close as possible to create that window so that that growth projection could be accurate. >> Okay. Well, we'll see how it goes, >> right? >> You know, this is interesting. Over the
weekend, I was reading an article. Texas is actually um statewide looking at um grades three through eight I believe of going with um either NWA or IEP as their state assessment
progress monitored three times a year. Um and they they think they'll get the waiver from the federal government to do it. And so it's interesting like there are now states that are starting to go rather than a one end date summitive test of having a progress monitor state
test that a metric is used by the federal government for all that meets you know the elementary and secondary education act. So it's going to be interesting to see if our state considers that tied. >> Yeah, we do get most of our NWA paid back through the state. There's a
requirement that we do progress monitoring and reading and math at least twice a year. The first one has to be within so many days of the school year starting. We have to provide parents with communications as to how their child did on the scores. And then the second one just has to be before the end of the school year. Um and all of our
NWA testing that you see here meets all of those. And so we do apply for um some fee payback from the state. And we did get a nice we got all of it paid for last year. I'd anticipate >> and here's hoping that the state budget has it again. >> Well, I'm hoping out of the district.
>> Yeah. Well, just to wrap this up, I I I want to acknowledge that um I think it's a you know potentially a net positive that we we give the kids uh less test anxiety, less test fatigue, and teachers
more time to teach. Um, I just want to make sure you all get the and the teachers get the useful information they need throughout the school year, the kids are on track. And one thing I'll just add, you know, add about MSTEP is from what I've heard from kids, um, and
part of this is fatigue, but part of it is they think it doesn't matter. Like they're excited when they get their NWA scores because they see their own progress. They know PSA, they know SATs matter if they're collegebound, but they're like they get this message
somehow that the MSTEP doesn't matter. I don't know where that comes from, but they'll say like the kids just fill in blanks. >> Yeah. >> And blaze through that test because they don't think it matters. >> Well, for the district and it does because we report out on it, we're going to be judged by that.
>> And that's a part of it is the setup the state has. I mean, our kids from last spring haven't even gotten their scores back. So, I mean, even like your child who's high achieving, we're going to hand him his score in about a month and he's going to look at it and be like, "What is this?" Right? Like they took the test, >> right,
>> months ago, the parents, the parents, >> at least with NWA, they get immediate results and feedback and kids know even with College Board, they've got a nice kids can track their progress over time and see how they've done and they get that in a relative time. >> It's the delay of the time is it's it's
a killer for us. Maybe having the separation of time will help. But like just in terms of teachers messaging like this is this still matters. >> You know this this gets published our district you know is um evaluated with these results. It still matters and yeah
and next year's teacher gets your your MSTEP scores. >> We got to keep working on that one you know >> with the state. Yes. Okay. Thank you guys. Yeah. So for elementary we did discuss um specifically this is winter NWA is is the biggest change as far as
no reading goes. So, we I started with uh building principles um and then I went to ELA and math leadership teams and then we surveyed K5 teachers just to get an idea of if you were to eliminate we we're not going to eliminate fall uh fall NWA is too
important as far as baseline uh for tier 2 and just where the kids are coming and there's a lot of good data that comes out of our fall NWA. winter was one with Britney working with with schools and the addition of Ames web and having a similar data or data
that we can we can monitor students so to figure out in the winter in that second semester how those tier 2 groups start to look and do we actually need a winter reading to do that. We didn't think we did. So teachers came back at about 75% um with okay not doing the the winter
reading. math was a little lower than that, but they all wanted to still continue to do the spring. That was probably our highest percentage for both. We talked about not doing the math also in the winter, but we just started that process of using Delta math. That's
our tier 2 for math and elementary schools and doing our data meetings. Uh so we wanted to keep that momentum and uh do one year see how reading goes and then figure out if the year after 26 27 if we also take math off the table for
the winter. And like Sarah said that it it's testing fatigue but it's also the fact that you're you're burning at least 3 to five days of instruction. And with our tier tier tier three special ed students, um it could be up to two weeks of tier one instruction they're missing
by having to take these tests because not only do you have the kids that you know it usually takes two days to complete the test are all the kids done who's absent and so it flows into multiple days of disrupting the entire building schedule to do makeups like we
dedicate a whole week to makeups also. um and how we're going to get several days of tier one instruction back now >> for basically a look in the rearview mirror. >> Yeah. >> And driving your car with a rearview mirror is not always the best way to go.
>> I would I agree with Dan. For some of our special ed students, testing is such a it's just it crushes them because these are the students who need instruction more than a lot of other students to close gaps. And yet instead of them taking one day for the assessment, they have double time or
time and a half. And so now instead of it being a one-day test, it's a two or three day test. Well, when everybody's testing on the first day, that's fine. But on those other two days when they're pulled out to test, everybody else is moving on with instruction and these kids are missing that, right? And it it
it's it's the kids that you don't want to miss it even more. And so we do a lot of work about like what does that instruction look like? Could we do some supplemental stuff, right? So those kids aren't getting further behind. But it is is very tough for our kids who who have some type of accommodations to um to
test in a time frame that doesn't take a ton of instruction time. which is why when I was in that east middle that PSAT you know you have it's it's a one day you have all those tests on one day for for two to three hours and and then you
you move past it unlike MSE and NWA is >> so when we looked at this earlier in the year it was late April at that time you were thinking about moving the fifth grade NWEA math and reading >> to the winter because the fifth graders
take those four MSTEP classes in the spring. >> We did we didn't get a lot of fifth grade teachers and and admin wasn't real supportive of it. They feel that that spring is super important as far as um kind of ending up the year and giving an accurate look at what the what the
middle school needs. >> So keep work in progress. I think I just wanted to start somewhere as far as because I've heard for the last, you know, we're talking 10 20 years about testing fatigue and and we just keep adding tests is to start
somewhere by taking one test away. Uh seeing what we're missing, right? Maybe we're missing too much and we need to put it back in next year. Uh but maybe continuing after after people feel comfortable not doing it and realizing that we still have the data to inform instruction. Can we are there other
opportunities to remove other assessments? >> And we should you know the thing I want to point out here too is with the new CKA we should have common assessments across that are being done a part of that section so that are consistent across grade levels. So we can have teachers and I think this is work that
Britney and Dale do of taking a look at within the curriculum those assessments both formative and summitative that are there to be able to say okay are our kids meeting the mark with that curriculum that I think we had varying levels of that with journeys to be honest with you and I think we'll have
some consistent assessment built into that during that middle period to be able to see if kids are having growth >> well your social studies and your math is going to also focus focus heavily with reading. And so hopefully,
you know, there's ways to piggyback everything together. Kids should be greater than the sum of all these individual parts, you know. So hopefully I don't know. I I think
testing has its place, but I hate to see so many eggs go in in the testing basket. I really do. You either can use the material or you can't. Okay. Thank you. Um, this is just a a little FYI for the
board and for you guys just to know that we are really going to do a push starting on September 8th, which is intentionally that sort of that first Monday of the school year, but the second week of school to really get out information to our families about our free and reduce forms and um, we're calling it a district campaign. We did
have the free and reduced forms at all of our orientation and registrations. They'll be at all the open houses, too. We also want to be cognizant that a lot of times as we're kicking off the school year, parents focus sometimes aren't on some of these other details. They're really just focused on getting their kids schedule or meeting who the classroom teacher is. And so we're
really going to try for that week of September 8th and September 15th. Um we're going to have a heavy communication in our school newsletters which go out once a week. We're going to do a press release during that. Um I've got an interview with the record eagle coming up today to do a story on that. Um just whatever we can to encourage our
families to fill out and complete that. to make it as easy as possible. Um, we're going to send the link out as a standalone communication. So, they've got that. Um, it's it's more than just meals, right? Right now, we know that we have free meals through September for our students. We don't know until the state budget comes in on October 1st,
>> maybe >> at midnight. Um, as to whether that'll continue or not, but this is also how we get some of our state and federal funding that we support our instructional staffing materials, behavior support for students. It's also more than just meals for the families, too. students who qualify for free and
reduce get reduced athletic fees, they'll get reduced yearbooks, they'll get reduced um tickets to dances. I mean, all of those things. So, really working on trying to remove the stigma and saying like, "Hey, let's all do this as a community. Even if you think you don't qualify, that's fine. We still
want you to fill that out. We do get some of our funding just from having people fill the form out, which is very strange to me, but I'm not going to try to understand state or federal funding." So, >> yeah. >> Yeah. And are there Oh, go ahead. Sorry. Are there still people I know in the
past they've had them at open houses helping to fill those forms out. Will those is that still happening? >> The technology team to make sure we have five at least five kiosks at every at every open house so they can do the online >> posters were made with QR codes for open
houses to to try to get in front of this. >> Uh also as far as the online form is both filled it out. It's less than five minutes. >> Yeah. You just The biggest thing is once you get to the screen that looks like this is knowing you have to click that apply for benefits and then it just
walks you through it. It's super easy. I did it right on my phone and it took me >> Yeah. >> You don't need an account as far as as as my meals go. You can just go right to that. >> Yeah. >> Great. >> And this information, anything that you put in as far as your household income, all of that is secure. No administrator,
as far as the building administrators don't get that, we don't get that here. that stays right secure within our food service um department within actually two individuals who hold that information. So it's not there's some apprehension in the past by parents of I don't want I don't want building principles or my kids classroom teacher to know that we don't they don't they
don't know that at all. Nobody gets that information at at school sites um or even us in central office or even Dr. Van Wagner, right? really stays just with the people who who need to need that for those. >> I'm so glad you brought that up because I have heard that issue or that
allegation um that you know kids who qualify for free reduced meals uh are somehow stigmatized and I I've asked and asked about that um because if you know it's true if it's
true it would be a concern, right? But yeah, I mean you've just addressed that. So thank you. >> The thing that amazes me is the government which receives taxes, income
taxes, >> has databases that uh are enormous. needs another form to be completed to pull this information so that they can decide how to adjust some of the
benefits coming back from the money. The whole thing is just beyond my care. >> Beth, I have a treasure trove of GEO reports you could read about lack of coordination between federal agencies. But that and yet and yet
>> but the the problem is is here we are asking for more information creating another closet >> and another barrier >> and and it just drives me nuts. >> Yeah. The other thing is I think there's a lot of tie with information we already have
which includes the different educational plans that we have on kids and also we've we don't ask the question about single parent and that kind of got shot down although I was looking at data for
the state and they were saying and estimated this was two years ago over a third of the kids in the state are in single Single parent households. >> Single parent households aren't all about money. They're about time
>> and attention and latch key. >> Absolutely. >> It's a lot bigger than money. And that is where some of the pivotal points are in how well kids do in school. >> Yeah. >> And we're not looking there.
>> So anyway, whatever. >> Dr. Van Wagner, could you just do a quick summary of what happened last year when we did have well the last two years, right? We've had free meals >> and what that did to f, you know, families not filling out this form.
>> You know, essentially what's happened is is there's just been a misunderstanding of because this program was in place that people didn't need to fill the forms out anymore. And the reality is is that the numbers um that are are realized from the forms being filled out
directly affects our state and federal funding grants, our 31A funding, um some of our title funding is based off of those numbers. And so while providing all of those meals because people didn't think it was there anymore actually
lowered about a million dollars of of funding that we'll get this next year because of of people that could have qual would qualify under the program that didn't fill that out and the amount of people just filling the form out period as a part of the equation that's used that it hurt us to be able to
actually give resources to our our kids that you know are most at risk. So, um that's why we're really making a push on this regardless of how the state budget comes out. Um but it's really vitally important if the universal meals are not in the state budget, the only way that
to qualify for a free breakfast and lunch will be through uh qualifying under these forms to be filled out. So, that's why it's really important. >> And as a district, we have to hit a certain threshold of of families filling out the form, right? >> Correct. >> Yeah. Do you remember what that is? Um
it just depends on the building. It's all depending on the So some buildings are considered C buildings and so they don't have as many um but essentially you know we we are our our goal is to try and at least get 50%. >> Um from that standpoint to to feel that
we've saturated >> uh from that standpoint >> and and you talked to state legislators last year remember about holding districts harmless. >> Yeah. and we've been held harmless, but this year we are not held harmless from it uh from the state. And I had the same conversations with them about can't you
get this data from the IRS, from other resources, and they said at this point they can't. This is the only way. >> So, you know, we we we've been held harmless as that program's gone. They recognize it. Statewide there's everything from 7 to 25% of less forms have been filled out across school
districts across state. So, this is not just a TCAP thing. Uh we are seeing interestingly enough this year we are seeing social media things from other districts that I've shared with the team that districts all over the state are making this push because they're in the exact same situation as us. So um I
think our team's doing a great job of getting this message out. We're going to continue. We have posters that have been done. All of our building administrative assistants and building principles understand it well. So, um, we're going to really, really make that push and try and get 100% of every one of our
buildings is our goal to try and and make sure that we have every resource we can. >> Great. Thank you. >> So, you'll see that on the social media and so anyone who's willing to share that and just spread the word that like this is really good for all of our kids >> regardless of income levels, we need the form. >> Yep. >> It helps us.
>> Yep. >> Duly noted for those of us on social media, we'll share. >> Right. Right. Um, and then I think our last photo here is just some of our student registration days. Uh, high school, middle school here. Look at those excited kids getting their Chromebooks.
>> It's great. >> And we're off. >> That's it. >> Okay. Um well, just to wrap things up, um regarding future learning series, I just, you know, want to reinforce to you
three in particular how much I appreciate the learning series. I I think they were launched maybe two years ago on the curriculum committee and I think it's just really useful to help us trustees know what's going on in the district, be able to answer questions from >> from students, from parents, um even
staff. So, in the future, um, I just want to remind trustees that if you have any requests, special requests for topics, let me know. I will work with Dr. Van Wagner and and Jesse and Dan to um, see what can work with your
schedule. I want to respect your time because I know you it takes it takes some planning time on your part and preparation time for these and and I I really respect and appreciate that. And also the sequencing, right? because you have certain topics you want to cover at
certain times of the year. Um, >> yeah. And if you want to know, like we're already thinking for the September one, we're hoping our MSTEP data is public then. It's not yet, still embargoed, >> which we've been told repeatedly lately. Um, we're hoping we'll be able to get that out to the community and to you guys in that September one. We're also
that September one thinking about bringing our English language learner teachers, um, our secondary lead and our elementary. we've re recount of toolled that model of service to kids and that's a really important part of our community that I think you guys hear a lot about um when they have specific needs. So, we wanted to tell talk to you guys a little
bit about how we're supporting those and then in October at the end of the month as our next one after that and we've been thinking about um doing an update on here's kind of what fall academically looks like. At that point, we'll have our NWA window done. We will have like rolled through the first six to eight
weeks of school. We will learn some stuff about who our who our students are and where they're at. So, but we're always happy to take suggestions or give you guys a preview of topics, too. >> Yeah. >> All right. Um, and one more thing I just want to give a shout out. Um, this is
probably just one example, but it's the one example I witnessed as a parent. West Senior High's back to school freshman parents um session last week was really good. Uh, well attended at the West Senior High auditorium. I don't
know what percentage of freshman parents attended, but it was it seemed like it was a a good number. Um, and I just really appreciated how they emphasize grades and attendance and the cell phone policy >> for incoming, you know, high school
parents. And and I just really believe strongly that we've got to engage our parents. That's like a piece that is integral to student success. So, I thought they just did a really good job and um I'm sure that Central High School did something very similar, but that
just is what I happen to witness. So, with that, um I will just uh announce that the next board curriculum committee meeting will be Tuesday, September 30th at our regular time of 8:30 a.m. here at the administration at Glen Lewis building. And with that, we are
adjourned. Thank you everybody. Part: 2
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The board curriculum 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. The committee has set aside this time for public comment, but as there are no
members in the audience, I believe we are good to go. Move on. Um, moving on to procedural items. First up, we have our draft committee meeting minutes from July 29th, 2025.
Uh, trustes Pack or Veraris, any changes from you? I just saw one typo. Um, under number four,formational items. A um I think there the date for the education responsive steps and district
data was from 2024 to 2025. There's just a one-digit typo and a number there. All right, just call me Eagle Eyes. Um, I think With that change, we're good to move the draft. Uh
we we'll just the minutes will remain as as posted with that one small revision. Go with that. Okay. All right. Then moving on to the 2025 to 2026 TCAPS district course catalog update. Um I'll
let Miss H Hotton speak to that. Yeah, we I I'm kind of surprised by this one. We don't have any changes. Um, and I'm only surprised because typically this year, this time of year, we will, but um, we might still next month. Um, but right now we stand, we did, you know, look forward a lot. We knew we were going to launch some middle school programs. We
added a lot of those courses this past spring. We knew we were, um, having we're starting a new AP research course that we had already gotten in this last spring, too. So, at this po moment, there's no no changes or additions for us. So, I just have a question. If a kid goes to their counselor, like I can
definitely predict this happening at the high school level. um maybe middle school and they want to take something virtual in M from Michigan virtual for example and we don't currently operate cadets that would September it it probably will happen with Michigan virtual depend on kids interest right
now sort of the student registration and NMC courses those are the other things you'll probably see next next month um new ones of those that students are now interested in or are now available for students um and we'll need to add those but at this moment zero Okay. All
right, then. Consistent with our practice, we'll put that on the um consent calendar at the next full board meeting as usual. Okay, moving on to our learning series, always the centerpiece of our curriculum
committee meetings. Um the professional learning, opening the school year, Miss H. Hotton and Mr. Tyworth. Thank you. Um just se several different items to go through that we've been working on over the summer, but professional learning. But just to reiterate, you know, we had the EA here
in the spring and we talked about our professional learning and how Jesse and I always approach and Britney approach our professional learning u meaningful and relevant. Um just in the 28 29 years we've been at TCAPS, we've had some meaningful relevant and at times maybe some professional development that
wasn't. And so we always have that filter to make sure if we're going to take people's time to sit in front of us and learn, we want to make sure it's something they can take, right? It's really nice if they can take it away and use it uh immediately. But whether or not there's some scope and sequence to
it. So as we go through our summer professional learning or or when our APS get back or principles get back, just that you know, we have a lot of people in front of us besides teachers. um like I said, administrators and every single one of them is in front of us. We try to
filter through that. Yeah. So, here are some highlights of some um summer work that our teachers have done. A lot of people think teachers have the summer off, but a lot of our individuals are out there gaining new information. We sent about I think we sent 11 of our secondary teachers to
different AP trainings this summer um due to a couple reasons. We had an increase in our AP environmental courses um at both high schools, an increase in AP Seminar at both high schools. So, we're adding some teachers there. And then we're adding, of course, the AP research. And then we've just had some
um retirements and some turnovers, a change in AP World at Central, for example, as we had a retirement there. Um a change in AP computer science. So, um 11 of our teachers, and that's a pretty intense training. they go away for a full week um and engage in that, but it's done by College Board and
always done to a great standard. It's one of the requirements when we offer AP. Um then we have a great partnership with North Ed. They host our CPM. CPM is the curriculum we use for secondary math. So from sixth grade all the way through algebra 2. So they actually host
a regional training here, which is awesome because it's here in town. Um and we offer that to any of our new hires. So, and some of our uh returning staff who maybe changed preps or feel like they want to brush brush up on that. They've got some folks coming in from the national CPM group. Um so, I
know I was just signing some time sheets this morning. We had a couple of our new hires um able to attend that and feel like they're really ready to launch into this next school year. We have the MASSP conference that's at the resort. Dr. Van Wagner, myself, uh Mr. Esper, and Mr.
Burgerer actually presented at that conference. Um, but that's a great conference. Hundreds of administrators from around the state. Um, it's a three-day conference, so we sent a a good group of our secondary principles to that. Um, and then you guys presented on the was it project
based learning? Um, we presented on um just the way we've uh redesigned our high schools and tried to infuse some flexibility into the into the school day. We talked about TAI the TAI programs at both sides and then we talked about the academic communities um too. So really thinking
about how are we and it was a well attended session. Um and since then too we've had lots of schools reach out and either want to come visit or get some more information or share and swap ideas. So it was pretty cool. Anything on the the manufacturing centers in your presentation?
Um we showed a picture of them and we talked about their connection to the STEM academy but that was that was about that. Yeah, it really was around the curricular pieces of it. But yeah, the you know what we had done while it was elementary, we were just getting rolling our summer camp for the
elementary STEM. So yeah, you know, it's even so there's a good article that's actually out I think yesterday um in uh one of the um local newspapers that are that are distributed um for free in the community. And uh the name's
clipping me at the moment. Um and it and we talked about, you know, we didn't get occupancy until early May, you know, so we only had a small chunk of last school year that we were even in them. So talked about this will be our first full year actually being able to plan in them. So that'll be exciting to see what
we can begin to build with partnerships and that. So yeah, great. Thank you. Yeah. I'm just curious about MASSP. Do they how often do they come to the Grand Travers Resort for their Every year? That's their big once a year. And I mean it is big. I mean it is
I mean you would four 400 principal. I mean it's everybody in the state and their assistants and athletic. I mean it's secondary principles association. Um and and Wendy Zeb who runs that does a phenomenal job. They bring in great speakers and breakout sessions and um
yeah it's it's it's definitely the conference to go to in the state if you're a secondary building administrator. Terrific. It sounds like the MASB, which goes back and forth between the Grand Travers Resort and the Lancing Convention Center. Every two years they swap back and forth. But anyway, thank you for highlighting
um the district's efforts. I think that's really, you know, it's important because it gives Traverse City some recognition statewide and it grows your network and um yeah, that's just very fruitful. So, thank you for taking that initiative.
Absolutely. and then I'll let Britney talk a little bit about some of the work our elementary has done over the summer and then the book club. Yes. So, um Jonathan Swiggles represented the elementary principles group and attended the explicit instruction academy. So, MIMTSS
generally works to bring in Anita Archer in person to run a week-long um kind of uh comprehensive training course regarding you know all the elements tied to the work she's done with explicit instruction. And so his work is going to be bringing that learning back to the elementary principles group um when we
meet on a monthly basis. Um we did our uh two program overviews for a K2 uh CKA program overview as well as the 35. Um that occurred the Thursday and Friday after school got out and that was well attended. I believe Dan, we had over a hundred participants who came. Um we
maxed out each of our four sessions across the board which was great. um as that kind of work to not only build a foundation of understanding with regards to how CKA is built and connects to the work that we've done surrounding the science of reading, but also um eased
some sort of anxiety heading into the summer to kind of be able to start to plan what that might look like ahead of them formally coming back um tomorrow essentially. Um and then we had our elementary uh district math team really work intentionally on their scope and
sequence for the course of this year. uh primarily making some uh uh uh explicit links to the work that the district did with um kind of recalibrating our understanding on math fluency and what it means to actually be fluent with our
facts. Um so really making sure that teachers see that direct connection between best practice in math instruction as well as their um core curricular resource math um expressions. And then the last um professional learning we wanted to highlight was uh
we did a K5 summer book club surrounding Natalie Wexler's The Knowledge Gap. Um we had 39 roughly 39 uh elementary uh teachers, principles um and support staff sign up to participate in that book study. Uh we took uh the structure
that Andy Phillips has done with his uh staff in the past at Cortaid and really scaled that up at a district level um to really provide I think some more differentiated opportunity to kind of uh build on the learning that they engaged in with the reading league partnership last year. Um and so the premise of the
knowledge gap is um to really highlight the importance of building students background knowledge through a coherent knowledgrich curriculum. Um, so really adding into that understanding before they come to implement or before they start to implement CQLA this fall.
Can you give me an example of what sorts of things you would have been they would have been looking at in particular supplementary supplementary material for CLA or No, this is this is more building kind
of their collective understanding and the importance of building background knowledge. So more about the research that's been done highlighting the importance of background knowledge, not necessarily additional materials to bring into their implementation, but understanding the why and purpose and intent of why CKLA is built the way it
is. So basically the theory of instruction, correct? Absolutely. Yeah, that's one of our mantras this year is we don't supplement anything in CKLA. We're going to try to gather some some input as the year goes on on where they think they should and if there's
something we need to supplement then we do it all together and we structure it. But right now that's kind of what got what with journeys what got away from us. There was no structure with how people supplemented and pretty soon after a few years they're not even doing the curriculum anymore. So, um, you
know, with the curriculum based in science of reading, we're really trying to drive home with principles and teachers that we we stick with the curriculum and if you want to supplement, let's keep track of that through the year and then at some point if we find something specifically that the curriculum is weakened, Britney and
I can kind of have a have a strategy around how to how to supplement. What about diverse uh learners books and and information out there? I mean classic literature if it's not included in CLA you're basically going
to pass by it. Well I think it's scope and sequence. So Britney can talk specifically about how that looks but each you know each teacher kit comes with a set of readers for each unit and there's 10 units. So everyone has approximately 10 readers to start with and then the novel kits
Britney start what is it fourth and fifth? Third, fourth and fifth each have um a unit that is pertinent to a novel study. So in third grade um it's uh Stella Diaz. In fourth grade it is uh the season of sticks Malone and then in fifth grade it's the science of
unbreakable things. So they have an entire unit that is dedicated to actually reading and engaging in rich literature. Okay. Yeah. It'd be interesting to see some of that you know because that's I was reading that's when I started become
an active reader and I read everything. I mean there was not one topic area that yes was the sole focus right and we have been working with um Stephanie light who um has been a really
great resource to make connections between CKA outlines and uh pre-selects trade books that are actually they have a lot of Calicott winners um and um other kind of well-renowned um uh children's books as they get older
that too. Yes. And so they've taken um a list of trade books and direct have made direct links to the topics that students will be studying across the course of their you know grade level um curriculum. And so Stephie has been working with us to partner how do we bring those rich texts into our
libraries as well that not only teachers can go in and check out and bring into their classroom through readalouds but also that kids will have that connected um experience with readalouds when they go um to library once a week as well. Yeah, it'd be real interesting to to
kind of learn more about that. Uh Britney, do you mind if we go back one slide? I want to just ask about big picture here. Um what if any curriculum materials are are are up for renewal or
re-evaluation this year? If off the top of your head, I know this isn't something you prepared talking about, but just for elementary, there's not. So if I just go through four core, right? social studies were in year three um of using um those the magazines for
upper and lower L and in science we still have our FOS kits right we we were using our FOS kits and continuing to do that math expressions I think is on year five of eight so that's on the back of our mind now starting that process probably the year after next is to start
looking at pilot and different program and NC Kelly we just started yeah for secondary so CPM is our math math curriculum, you know, from sixth grade all the way through algebra 2. M we made that slight adjustment at 8th grade. Still stayed within the CPM umbrella products, but we moved from
what was called the IC back to the CC3. Um that was before we saw the data that we had seen, but that was based a lot on teacher feedback and responses and classroom visits we had done. Um and that's locked in until 2028, I want to say. And then my perspectives is our ELA
um all the way through 611 as well. and that's locked in. Um, our social studies doesn't have I would doesn't have a defined curriculum so to say through but what they're using a lot of is what's called DBQ questioning. They actually have a trainer coming in on Wednesday to
work with them. The high schools have used these a lot in their courses and then the they really want to kind of push them down to the middle schools. How do you read right with evidence and communicate with evidence? Um and it it that's really social studies is moving a lot towards like versus teaching topics
to teaching skills. Um you can't really cover all of history, right? And so how do you cover historical events and make connections between different historical events? How do you say we've learned this during World War I which then influenced these policies, right? Some of that type of connections. Um so that
DBQ project is probably well I know it's going to extend down to sixth grade this next year. And then for science, um the middle school science curriculum is up at the end of this year. So that's the one that we need to look at. The science team knows that. Um again, we do not
have a 612 um science curriculum. A lot of it has to do with the way their standards with N the NGSS standards are rolling out. They've got a trainer coming in. I'm jumping ahead on some slides here, but on Wednesday as well, working a lot on the way the science
standards work is one standard sort of runs all the way through all of our science classes. And so they're looking at taking those standards and thinking about what does it mean to be a sixth grader, seventh grader, ninth and tth grader with throughout this strand of um skill or knowledge. So they're doing we
call it like some vertical cohesion mapping and stuff on Wednesday. So but middle school science I expect to see. And then there's a couple APs like AP Chem is up for expert is expiring this year and AP there was one more that they told us it was the last year. Um I
want to say it's bio but that makes me feel like it's all science and I can't I can't can't remember off the top of my head but those are smaller because those would be a smaller subset. So um on the science one when you said there's no there are no standards grades six through 12 you mean state level
standards? No, no, no. There are standards um the National Next Generation Science Standards. They're just a very they're they're different than the way math and ELA um standards are written. Um it it just those standards are more sequential
and in kind of skillbased especially we talk about math standards, but as far as science goes, um it's the same thing as elementary. You know, they don't have one standard that we're going to learn this in kindergarten and then we're going to learn this in first grade. It's the same standards as Jesse was saying, K5, but then how complex and deep you
get into each standard. So, they might talk about planets in kindergarten, but it's not to the depths where they talk about planets in fifth grade. What's the same idea the standards go through? Okay. And then, um, for the AP,
um, how long do those textbooks usually get approved for? Or I know they're online now primarily. Yeah, usually they're six years. It's anywhere from like we get a better price break the further you go out but then also you're married to something for longer right so there's like a you know a ying and a yang with that I would say
the nice thing about AP is that so college board gives us a list of approved texts right for your course to be considered an AP course for transcripts and and for such you had to have had a teacher who went to training you have to have a teacher who submits a syllabus to college board and it's
approved you have to like there's certain standards and one of them is you have to use a text for a resource that's from um their approved list. And so a lot of times what you'll see is our teachers will like a text, our kids will perform well and then they'll just kind of continue to renew it. And so then
we'll try to stretch them out six or eight years. It gives us a better price break to be honest, you know. So great. Okay. So just to wrap this up, um the so the one that you said would this middle school science would be up for evaluation at the end of this year. So,
um, you're not looking to evaluate or pilot it anything this year. It would be like 2026 to 2027, maybe. Um, I have to that's like on our on my radar. Yeah. Like we're going to get the team
together and figure out like what's the plan. I could see us piloting some small units this spring or second semester, right? Grab some resources and get our hands into them and um potentially do that. Um, but we know at the end of this spring, the current resource we have, we
will not have access to it any longer. So, all right. We'll look forward to hearing those updates. And, um, when you get the chem the AP ones, um, even if they're up for renewal, I think it'd be beneficial for the curriculum committee to hear
what the teachers evaluation is when you prepare that memo. I know with environmental sciences last summer, maybe it was this spring, it went through finance. I apologize. Yep. Yep. I'll make sure it comes here and to board finance. No problem. Great. It It's helpful for us to have
answer, you know, kids and parents questions, too. So, and obviously we've got an AP metric in our new strategic plan. So, thank you. Okay. Um, yeah. One last thing on science. Science tends to
change in some ways. There are basics. There are basics in science that you build on that are the foundational, but a lot of interpretation begins to change in certain areas. It
can be hard to stay a breast of some things if your main source is always referring back to a text that is a curriculum that goes for eight years, you know. So
that is one benefit of the digital versions is as things change it changes versus a hard copy that's outdated the day it's printed you know so the digital ones do the digital as soon as it it gets printed it it starts that's probably true but but at least it
could be made quicker is is that is one benefit and again I think there are people think benefits and not benefits but that is one I think pro to the digital side is that those kind of things rewrites errors that are in that print tax, that element can be easily, you know,
switched from that standpoint. And does that also reduce the amount of books that they have to carry? Yes, there's a there's a lot of benefits and actually our kids have loudly told us they prefer the digital over um carrying
five textbooks. Um they're heavy ones. They're heavy. But also just the manual checking them in and out to kids, ensuring that you know and then if you have a teenager who's all over the place, if they just have their Chromebook, they have access to everything they need right there, you
know, so helps. It's pretty It's pretty funny at at the uh back to school orientation this last week. My kids went to the high school station to pick up textbooks, but there was nothing for them to pick up. was like, "How did you even have a stamp on that card that you went to that station?"
Well, they just confirmed all digital. So Deiana alluded to this. So early August, August 11th, we welcomed all of our administrators back. The majority of our principles, uh, with the exception of our four leads, uh, high school and middle school leads are, um, not year
round. So, we welcomed them all back. We had a nice full ad team retreat that morning. Um, we were in the innovation center over at Central High School. Um, it was one of those really, really hot, sticky days. So, we were very happy to be in a nice big space with good air circulation. Um, we followed that up,
Dan and Britney and I, was leading the joint principles for a few hours, just going going through some things with our team, setting the year. We're really we've been focusing on feedback, what our feedback looks like to our teachers, to our staff, support staff all the way through, to ourselves. um what is what's
the science of what good feedback looks like? What does the research say? And then sort of calibrating with what what with what kind of feedback their cadence is at and looking at what they give. And so we're going to dig more into that this year too with the principles. Um and then Dan and I followed up those days with um meeting with our teacher
leaders for each of our curriculum teams, secondary and elementary um to just sort of get our feet on the ground about like who are our new staff in our departments? What does our August PD look like? this week PD um and um what are the maybe some needs and some
pressing issues. So yeah, it's nice to get the district curriculum teams elementary and secondary they meet every the cores meet for elementary separately throughout the year but twice a year. Um I know they've done it in the past but we've kind of restarted it for elementary getting them all together in the same room. Some of
it's just calendaring, right, as far as the logistics goes, but also to get everybody kind of on the same page and those, you know, some crosscurricular connections that they can make through other departments. Terrific. And then we've already started welcoming some of our kids back to our
campuses, more so at our secondary sites here, although I know we got some open houses going on tomorrow at our elementaryaries. Um, but our fall sports, we're almost a month into fall sports, if you can believe that or not. Um, our marching band camps are off and running. It's always really cool to go
listen to the drum lines. I love that. But, uh, and then we last week we had our student registration days at all five of our secondary buildings. So, those campuses were full with kids and parents and lots of good stuff going on there. Yeah. And our elementaryaries, as Jesse said, are open houses start. Majority of
them are tomorrow after the uh, teacher work day and then there's a few that are scattered over the next few days. And then the kindergarten signing day. So this is traditionally I think we used to call kindergarten roundup. We used to do this in the spring. Um but with all the growth that we see in kids, they decided
to do it now during this time of year to more accurately assess um where the kids are learning wise and especially with the JK at every single building. That that's always an option that those kids can take advantage of if they need it. So that's like for LA would that be for
last minute kids coming? Well, no, it's everybody. I mean to that point, you know, we it's kind of mapped off the idea of like the sports signing day and that and we have a backdrop for every school like you see the TCAPS one and we have a desk and kids sign that they're signing up to that school and it's a really really cool thing for
parents and things to do. But with the GK what happens is is that we still have some parents that really don't understand what that is or know what that is. And so sometimes it gives us an opportunity to have a conversation with parents and they recognize, oh, maybe my student could use, you know, or maybe
they didn't have preschool, you know, they didn't have that. So it gives an opportunity for us to have that conversation versus walking in day one and then a teacher assessing and beginning to have that conversation. So um I think like we have one elementary that I know I think uh we had about six
or seven families that ended up transitioning from kindergarten to junior kindergarten after learning about it. So um so that's what this day helps us do and it's not after school has already started and it's all kindergarten families. So we push our preschool kids up as far as power school rollover from grade to
grade. Uh but even then those those families also come to the signing days and they go through stations as just far as just quick assessments on on some reading. They do the like a play station and how they get along with others and because in kindergarten right we get them from all different backgrounds. Some of them might have been in
preschool with us for two to three years. Some of them this might be the first time that they're in in a school. Yeah. So having kindergarteners sometimes like by themselves to families to feel, you know, not overwhelmed, it's a really really good thing.
Yeah. Not with every other kid and family member, big fifth graders that are walking all over. That's huge. Um so in terms of the spring, what you used to have call roundup, are you still doing something like that to try to drive enrollment? Oh, we do a
feel good. No, we have family night. So, we we do like a to a family night for incoming kindergarteners as part of some people do as part of carnival. Um or other they try to hook it up to some other event they're having at the school.
Sometimes it's our parent nights with with our title school as far as also if hey if you have kids that are coming into kindergarten next year this is a good opportunity to get in the building. It just starts to, you know, our AAS and our principles at the building level create these lists that are just ongoing for several months to give us the best
possible count um that we can have as far as staffing goes and other needs they need. Um, special ed Tiffany Palmville works very closely with them also because the more we get to know about a kindergarten, the less chance you have, you know, the student dropped off on a first day that we've never had
eyes on. Like Dr. Wagner said maybe they've never been in any type of structured school um and they just struggle with with that structure and that adjustment, right? All right. Well, Sarah, you've probably seen it a few times. Yeah.
Okay. Thank you for that update. Um and then this is this week. So, this is really exciting for for our team and CNI. Um, so we've got all of our teachers coming back to the buildings tomorrow. They have a 2-hour uh building
meeting tomorrow, but a lot of those have been again calibrated during our joint principles. What are some of that's more of a logistical what are some of the things we go over every year to ensure we're all on the same page? Um, and then our teachers have some work time tomorrow to get classrooms set up uh for elementaryaries to prepare for
that openhouse. And then Wednesday, the entire teaching staff is at Central High School for the entire day and they are broken into either elementary or secondary and then secondary are broken into their content areas for content specific professional development. So
for an example um our math department is brought in somebody from the building thinking classrooms which is a text that we have been using. It's uh written by a professor from Canada. He's amazing. Um, and it's on increasing engagement, increasing time to task, increasing
transfer of math skills. Um, so they've got a really phenomenal woman coming in and she's going to work with all of our 612 math teachers on what does high quality math specific instruction look like? What are some challenges that they have together? Um, science is going to
be working with the national next generation science standards and that progression um of one standard throughout. ELA is working. They've got a presenter coming in to do some vocabulary um work and some focus with them. And then social studies has the
DBQ folks coming in to really think about how do we do some evidence writing? What does it look like in sixth grade all the way through? Um our art folks, we have them connected with um the Denos Museum. They're going to walk over there, do a tour of what exhibits are going on at Denos, how can our kids connect to that? And then the afternoon
they have a local artist coming in to talk about his craft. And then the teachers will think about how could we infuse some of that. Um our PE department has Mson coming in in the morning working with some nutritionists and some kinesiologists and like what would that look like? Then they've got Patrick McManus in the afternoon doing
some safety stuff. You know, when you've got a PE class and you're outside and you've got 40 kids, there's just different things that arise. So, he's going to talk to him a lot about just some safety tips there. uh music. Chad Millius is leading the music group and they he's got a presenter coming in for them who's a phenomenal um practitioner
and they're going to do some modeling on that. I think who am I missing for secondary? Oh, world language. What? World language. World language um is working with Danielle Brunstrom and our tech department really on how do we record and provide feedback and do listening with all of the speaking and listening
of world language and technology. sometimes that tends to be a hard intersection for them to figure out and figure out um in a way that is easy and efficient for their time. So Danielle's going to work with them on some of that stuff. And then Jamie Grants I think is going to do a little presentation too on
some um world language strategies that she's learned. So really cool. Dan and Britney and I have worked really hard. Now you guys will talk about elementary on providing on Wednesday subject specific professional learning that we really think are um and all of it has come from ideas from the teacher leaders. this is what we're interested
in. This is what we're And then Britney and I kind of worked on okay who would be people to bring in to infuse that day. So um co-f facilitated by our teacher leaders and an expert in that area for secondary. Yeah. And in elementary Britney chime in just that that top picture you see there
is Britney organized coaches admin and our pilot teachers um together for a day. That's actually at Monastery. It's another great space and you know we talk about bond projects and kind of the secondary bonuses of these bond projects are these spaces that we have for
professional development that's happens to be our condition too. Um but Britney's ju just the implementation she's done has just been fantastic about how thoughtful it is and step by step. So I'll have her talk about baby this day in particular because I thought this was just phenomenal. Just the idea of
professional development doesn't have to be six hours of sit and get right. The professional development, professional learning should have embedded some time to digest the information during the learning itself and then I work on planning with the team which she did a great job of embedding in in these days.
Yes. So we spent the brief part of the morning kind of reorienting ourselves to the implementation plan and the role that pilot teachers have and really emphasizing this is a collective kind of charge forward. we all play a role in the success, right? And so we kind of reviewed that. Um that was uh review
from the spring of last year. Then they had time within their grade level teams because they are going to be facilitating a 15 to 20 minute district launch before teachers engage in the initial training provided by Amplify reps um and really leveraging, you know, the why and the purpose and what this
implementation means for us um as a TCAP school district. and then they had time with their building leader, instructional coach, and pilot teachers to say, "Okay, how are we going to bring some of this learning back and connect it back to our building and our priorities within our buildings on that 828 um building PD day." So, just a
really nice opportunity to kind of reset the stage and and make the shift together um before this week, but also, you know, what it means for them within their staff in their building um and really giving them the autonomy to make those connections with um their pilot teachers and instructional coach in their building. And the idea going back
to meaningful and re relevant where we specifically have different groups like our social workers have professional learning outside of CKLA. Jesse mentioned all those specialist teachers have the opportunity. Last year they were part of that reading league training as a requirement for the grant. Uh this year those teachers have their
own specific professional learning they're going to do. And the professional learning provided by Amplify that Britney organized is grade specific. So we have six different rooms with we have all of our kindergarten teachers in one room. all of our JK in the room, all of our first grade. And that'll roll over like Britney said on
Thursday, the building can the building has their own PD that they've kind of set space aside to see after doing that professional learning, what's the next step? And then RSTD day, we have them coming back again on November 5th or the fourth half day by grade level again
after they had a chance to actually work in the curriculum. Then they figure out what's next steps with questions they have. Are we al I hear about the um advanced placement stuff. What are we doing? Is there anything
that addresses the kids that um have moved on but not particularly done well in the prior grade. The kids that are on shaky academic ground. the kids that are borderline on which edge of the
proficiency line are going to fall. Are we doing because there's a fair number of kids. Oh yeah. Yeah. And I that goes back to our tier 2 structure and we talk about either tier 2 as far as pull out groups or or we talk about tier one. Britney and I have talked a lot about tier one remediation
as far as pushing into classroom. So those teachers that provide those tier 2 supports are part of this training also for CKLA um and part of the launch. That is definitely on our plate of kind of rebuilding what tier 2 looks like. Um because we've been doing tier 2 now for
as far as a model of especially for reading. I'm talking about elementary. We're getting there as far as math goes and building that. But for reading, we've been doing the same thing for several years, right? Where the idea of they take a fall on WA test, they have a percentile they score. We create re
reading groups. We pull them out. We try to give them some more remediation. Um, and honestly, I don't know if we've seen the the immediate growth we'd like to see, right? The idea of that year after year, these these kids are still not quite meeting grade level proficiency. Um,
where they're on shaky ground. Yeah. And that's and especially after summer. Yeah. Bernie and I have talked a lot about that about what that next step looks like once we have you know a research researchbased I'll say robust tier one program for the first time in a long time um how much that'll help as
far as that remediation that's actually needed and I'll just add that we're really trying to make this intentional shift to really focus our time and energy on prevention because we know that that's going to have the most lasting impact right um it early exactly and so how do we build on the
systems and structures we have in intervention already to make that um a little bit better aligned to provide intervention, but really focusing time and energy on how do we prevent as much as possible so we can really actually start to see more of what we would expect to see in terms of like a
multi-tered systems of support with 10 to 15% of our student population getting those additional intensive supports. Um right now we have well beyond I think 15% of um our um elementary um student body in in some buildings more than
others that could require that additional tier 2 support. Um and then throughout the course of this year, just to add to Dan in terms of the talking about the tier 2 system and structures, um I will be bringing together our interventionists at a district level six times throughout the course of this
year. So, how can we consistently and coherently build an intervention system um that allows us to better intervene with our students and monitor the impact of that um in a way that's a little bit more systematized. And so, the first time they're going to meet together um is on September 9th to start that work
because those kids are also in the general classroom. So, they're trying to catch up at the same time they're moving ahead and you're trying not to lose them right in the process. you know, so those are the kids that I think we really need to put some focus
on and those lists carry over from year to year. So those teachers know, the interventionists know. So those kids are very closely followed and I will say in the secondary ones all of them are about an hour is this launch and recenter and what the best practice
looks like and then the afternoon is okay how do we engage the reluctant kids the apathetic students the students who maybe don't have as much academic skills how do we still get them engaged in the learning and what does that look like so all at least the four core at secondary
have all expressed we want to spend a good amount of time thinking about that chunk of students and how we can um move them along too. So because yeah, you could easily be talking 50% or more of your kids. Did you have any questions?
No, following up on that. Sounds great. Um I just had a a couple questions. The that last board about the high school teachers, are they looking at the goals for Yeah, those dates are wrong, too. And I apologize about that. I was like looking at that screen thinking, I thought I fixed this. Um,
is there probably a template for that? Sorry, Joy. I don't know. Um, yeah, it's actually really cool. Uh, we worked really hard this summer with Sophie. So, all of the or secondaries will get a pretty cool grid of all their kids last year, fall and spring scores, right? Looking at who grew, who didn't grow,
was the growth in my classroom, more kids who were already at grade level or kids who were slightly below, some reflection on why or why not. And then we'll reroster it. and um a week after student schedules kind of settled down and they look at okay here are my current rosters and how they performed
last year to help them set some goals. How do I individually goal um set with a kid? How do I goal set with a group of kids? How do I use this information and grab some practice questions and the right content range for those kids um and do some of that. So um really excited. This is the first year we've
actually been able to provide all that data to our secondary sites at all four sites. So, so I know our our strategic plan hasn't been fi, you know, the final version hasn't been adopted, but I was just wondering with the new performance measures that have been drafted and
revised for our consideration as a full board tonight, are some of those trickling down to the building? Like I I looked at the middle school on Thursday actually are doing their day together instead of at their sites and Studman's presentation I was looking at this weekend she is using the same graphs and
she's got that eighth grade target because that's what the middle school right and then her discussion is how do I as a sixth grade teacher feed into this how do I as a seventh grade teacher how do I as a science teacher feed into this right and so there you know that idea of bringing the ownership to everybody she knows they're they're
tenative until the board agrees but I felt like we were at least solid enough down the road that this is the time to put those in front of staff and start thinking about what's my part in this. Right. So, um about the art program at Denos
Museum, that just triggered a question for me. To what extent do we have a a good partnership with Dennos Museum or other artistic organizations like there's the Elk Rapids Sculpture Garden, there's the one out at Interlockan Arts, right? They do some stuff out there.
Yeah. Yeah. Really. Um, Danos is probably our strongest connection. Um, and this was the art teacher saying, "Hey, let's get over there now before the school year starts. Let's figure out what all their exhibits for the whole year look like so we can know where things might tie in." And then they do have some scholarship programs for
transportation and for tickets and things like that that then we can we can tap into. Obviously, Central High School is the easiest because the kids can literally walk out the back doors and walk over and they go over quite often. Um, but I know that some of our other schools would like to get over there on
a on a more regular basis. And then what they did for the afternoon was they gave me a list of local artists that whose work they just felt like would later translate well into classrooms. And so then I just started cold calling asking who might want to come in and we got a gentleman who's coming in and he's going
to spend some time showing he's a professional artist. The art teachers what he does, what his um genre is. I don't know if that's the right term. Media. And um and then they're going to think about he might come back to do like a guest speaker in some of the classes.
He's willing to do that like um or how could we morph some of his work into projects that we already do. So yeah, and they've already got people lined up for RSDD day too as well, the art department, you know. So All right. Excellent. Um, yeah. And then
just big picture, you know, I know we've got the calendar set with professional development days this year, but just in support of our new strategic plan, um, keep us posted on what your thoughts and needs are, you know, going forward for additional
um, PD for growing our our staff. We want to help them succeed for sure. Okay. Thank you. So, we just wanted to put this back in front of you guys uh to make sure we're all on the same page about uh
assessments. So, what the first slide here is the required assessments. I actually just copied this one off of I think we talked about this in April um last year at board curriculum. So, this is nothing has actually changed with required assessments. Um although I'm I'm still like hoping that like maybe
the keys will go away. But which one? Word keys. Oh, keys. Oh, yeah. We'll see. It like swings on and off, you know, at the legislative level. I've watched that's for CTC students, right? And all of our 11th graders have Okay.
CTC does give it as well. But um that was one that you had said before you were advocating the state to drop, right? But and they are debated. They're they always do about every two or three years, but it is back in conversation again. I think the big thing for for you guys
to just take note of is that we do ELA and math grades 3 through 11 in the spring, right? And um 3 through 7 do that ELA and math assessment through the MSTEP. Once you start 9th grade, that 9th through 11th grade does the ELA and
math through that college board suite of PSAT, SAT, depending on what grade level you're at. Um the benchmarks are different in 8th grade and 9th grade. If you're looking at thinking, oh, they take the same test, they do, but you have to score higher in nth grade to reach that college readiness than you would in eighth grade. And it sort of
scales that up. And then in those grades 5, 8, and 11, that's when the students take an additional subject specific science or social studies MSTEP on top of the ELA and math. My access grade, they do both. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Um well, in all those
grades, you do both. Uh my access is for our students who have significant cognitive disabilities. They are um usually on or they're not on a diploma track. They're on a uh assert of completion. Our WEDA is for all of our English language learners. Um and then we do have a requirement uh to do
literacy assessments. That is correct through our that used to be read by third grade. Now it's K12 um literacy law. And that takes into account all of the conversation at the state level that is being had around dyslexia.
So testing schedule for this next year for secondary. Um no change for high school. High school has been our 9th through 11th graders take it twice. Once in October, once in April. That October is not required. We choose to do that.
It's a one-day test for the majority of our kids. We choose to do that because we get the scores back and kids then are in their college board account. They can see how they did. It connects to con so they can do targeted practice. Parents know really helps our kids who want to go postsecary think about what's realistic and where am I at and where
would I need to score in April to to best set myself up. Um we do a lot of planning around that both contentwise and with kids and goals and things like that. Um so there's no change there at the high school. Um, and then the middle school is the first where we have some
change. So, NWA, we're not going to do in eighth grade this year. We're going to just do that PSAT twice. So, that October and April, just like the high schools do. Keep in mind in eighth grade, you still do the MSTEP for science and social studies, just like in 11th grade. That's why that's tacked on
the end. And then our sixth and seventh grade will do NWA reading and math twice. So October, give us the fall benchmark, where our kids at, do some goal setting, some content setting, due to again in February, help us see what the progress looks like, and then they've requested that their spring test
just be the MSTEP as opposed to MSTEP and NWA again. So, okay. So, we are still testing three times for NWA in sixth and seventh grade, right? What hadn't there been a consideration of removing the middle
one? Nope. Twice. So twice. So NWA would be the October and the February and May would be the MSTEP. So they would test three times. Yep. Okay. Got it. Um the middle schools really felt like this way they'll have some good baseline data
which they'll do stuff with. They'll kind of check in on progress at February. They'll make some adjustments they need to and then they'll do that final assessment in May. Um and they felt like that will give them a good amount of data leading into the year. And I I agreed with my fellow.
So the but the MSTEP and the NWA test I I don't differently I mean right different content. So I'm just curious because that beginning of the year with that October NWA test you have that end ofear target if you're only testing in February. This is the debate we had and
and what you get is the the tests are so close together you get fatigue and and when we sat and talked about you know from that standpoint MSTEP's the one mark that again is across the state it's it's that norm so
we have to take it. So, at that point, are you going to have kids do four tests? Like, we've always had this debate, you know, back and forth, you know, the timing just is not great the way it falls. And so, we wanted to take a chance and just see like, can we do
better on the MSTEP because you we would always take NWA just before MSTEP and And I can just tell you, you talk to kids, they're like, yeah, I I just the second one I Yeah, I was done. Didn't even try. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, this is what if if we talked to
teachers, we talked to principles, you know, I can tell you when Dan was at at East Middle School, like he pushed me hard, like we need to do this, we need to do this. But I had that same struggle, Josie, like from a progress monitoring standpoint, having those three gives you a steady, but yet then
when we get to this, it's like, you know, so this is what everybody thought was the best way to try and go about it. The other thing is like it's also a tremendous amount of time that we're taking out of instruction to do both of those. The kids are tired.
The kids are tired. The teachers are tired. If we can do it like this, what we what we're seeing like what we're hoping we'll do with the data on the backside is imagine a report that has a kid and has there it will be like a math and an ELA because that's what they both test, right? And so you'll have a fall NWA, a
midyear NWA, and an end of the year MSTEP. And if we're going to get enough data where we can make some predictors on kids who okay, if I if I'm scoring this in the fall, this is most likely where I'm going to land. And so what can we do to improve that outcome for that
kid? Um is kind of our our thinking on this and us being able to read that data and use that all throughout the year with teachers. This will help actually narrow the field a little bit for them um on that. Yeah. And I and I do remember the discussion we had earlier this year
about it. So I'm not I I get it. This has been a a really years in the making. We've debated this. Yeah. Discussion. I just I guess instead of February, what you know, like did you think about March or April? Just we only get certain windows. NWBA lets
us take the test. Yeah. And so that's when that window is. Yeah. I think the middle school principal said they wanted to stay off of January because some of our courses in middle school do have exams. They were thinking what's nice about February is it allows them time to make some adjustments before the MSTEP windows
open which are April and May is when those open for our kids. So they were thinking that would give them some time to do that. Yeah, we do have a a district. So when we set the windows of NWA in the NWA server there is as far as projected
growth in percentile is depending how many days of instruction they have between tests. So, we have to with them with them moving a little bit in October and February, we're still September and January. Uh, we wanted to keep it somewhat as close as possible to create that window so that that growth
projection could be accurate. Okay. Well, we'll see how it goes. Right. You know, this is interesting. Over the weekend, I was reading an article. Texas is actually um statewide looking at um grades three through eight I believe of
going with um either NWA or IEP as their state assessment progress monitored three times a year um and they they think they'll get the waiver from the federal government to do it and so it's interesting like there are now states that are starting to go
rather than a one end date summitive test of having a progress monitored state test that a metric is used by the federal government for all that meets, you know, the elementary and secondary education act. So, it's going to be interesting to see if our state considers that tied.
Yeah, we do get most of our NWA paid back through the state. There's a requirement that we do progress monitoring and reading and math at least twice a year. The first one has to be within so many days of the school year starting. We have to provide parents with communications as to how their
child did on the scores. Then the second one just has to be before the end of the school year. Um, and all of our NWA testing that you see here meets all of those. And so we do apply for um some fee payback from the state. And we did get a nice we got all of it paid for last year. I'd anticipate.
And here's hoping that the state budget has it again. Well, I'm hoping that Yeah. Well, just to wrap this up, I I I want to acknowledge that um I think it's a you know, potentially a net positive that we we give the kids uh less test
anxiety, less test fatigue, and teachers more time to teach. Um I just want to make sure you all get the and the teachers get the useful information they need throughout the school year, the kids are on track. And one thing I'll just add, you know, add about MSTEP is
from what I've heard from kids, um, and part of this is fatigue, but part of it is they think it doesn't matter. Like they're excited when they get their NWA scores because they see their own progress. They know PSA, they know SATs matter if they're collegebound, but
they're like they get this message somehow that the MSTEP doesn't matter. I don't know where that comes from, but they'll say like the kids just fill in blanks. Yeah. And blaze through that test because they don't think it matters for the district. And it does because we were reported out on it. We're going to
be judged by that. And that's a part of it is the setup the state has. I mean, our kids from last spring haven't even gotten their scores back. So, I mean, even like your child who's high achieving, we're going to hand him his score in about a month and he's going to look at it and be like, "What is this?" Right? Like they took
the test, right? the parents, at least with NWA, that they get immediate results and feedback and kids know even with College Board, they've got a nice kids can track their progress over time and see how they've done and they get that in a relative time. It's
the delay of the time is it's it's a killer for us. Maybe having a separation of time will help, but like just in terms of teachers messaging like this is this still matters, you know, this this gets published, our district, you know, is
um evaluated with these results, it still matters and yeah and next year's teacher gets your your MSTEP scores. Keep working on that one, you know, with the state. Okay, thank you guys. So for elementary, we did discuss um
specifically this is winter NWA is is the biggest change as far as no reading goes. So we I started with uh building principles um and then I went to ELA and math leadership teams and we surveyed K5 teachers just to get an idea of if you
were to eliminate we we're not going to eliminate fall uh fall NWA is too important as far as baseline uh for tier 2 and just where the kids are coming and there's a lot of good data that comes out of our fall NWA winter was one with Britney working with
with schools and the addition of Ames web and having a similar data or data that we can we can monitor students so to figure out in the winter in that second semester how those tier 2 groups start to look and do we actually need a a winter reading to do that. We didn't think we did. So teachers came back at
about 75% um with okay not doing the the winter reading. Math was a little lower than that but they all wanted to still continue to do the spring. Um that was probably our highest percentage for both. We talked about not doing the math
also in the winter, but we just started that process of using Delta math. That's our tier 2 for math and elementary schools and doing our data meetings. Uh so we wanted to keep that momentum and uh do one year see how reading goes and then figure out if the year after 26 27
if we also take math off the table for the winter. And like Sarah said that it it's testing fatigue, but it's also the fact that you're you're burning at least three to five days of instruction. And with our tier tier tier three special ed
students, um it could be up to two weeks of tier one instruction they're missing by having to take these tests because not only do you have the kids that, you know, it usually takes two days to complete the test. Are all the kids done? Who's absent? And so it flows into multiple days of disrupting the entire
building schedule to do makeups like we dedicate a whole week to makeups also. Um and how we're going to get several days of tier one instruction back now for basically a look in the rearview mirror. Y and driving your car with a rear view
mirror is not always the best way to go. I would I agree with Dan. For some of our special ed students, testing is such a it's just it crushes them because these are the students who need instruction more than a lot of other students to close gaps. And yet instead of them taking one day for the
assessment, they have double time or time and a half. And so now instead of it being a one-day test, it's a two or three day test. Well, when everybody's testing on the first day, that's fine. But on those other two days when they're pulled out to test, everybody else is moving on with instruction and these
kids are missing that, right? And it it it's it's the kids that you don't want to miss it even more. And so we do a lot of work about like what does that instruction look like? Could we do some supplemental stuff? Right? So those kids aren't getting further behind. But it is is very tough for our kids who who have some type of accommodations to um to
test in a time frame that doesn't take a ton of instruction time. Which is why when now that east metal that PSAT you know you have it's it's a one day you have all those tests on one day for for two to three hours and and then you you
move past it unlike M7 and NWA is two hours. Mhm. So when we looked at this earlier in the year, it was late April. At that time, you were thinking about moving the fifth grade NWA math and reading to the winter because the fifth graders
take those four MSTEP classes in the spring. We did we didn't get a lot of fifth grade teachers and and admin wasn't real supportive of it. they feel that that spring is super important as far as um kind of ending up the year and giving an accurate look at what the what the
middle school needs. So I think we're work in progress. I think I just wanted to start somewhere as far as because I've heard for the last, you know, we're talking 10 20 years about testing fatigue and and we just keep adding tests is to start
somewhere by taking one test away. Uh seeing what we're missing, right? Maybe we're missing too much and we need to put it back in next year, but maybe continuing after after people feel comfortable not doing it and realizing that we still have the data to inform instruction. Can we are there other
opportunities to remove other assessments? And we should, you know, the thing I want to point out here too is with the new CKLA, we should have common assessments across that are being done a part of that section. So that are consistent across grade levels. So we can have teachers and I think this is
work that Britney and Dale do of taking a look at within the curriculum those assessments both formative and summitative that are there to be able to say okay are kids meeting the mark with that curriculum that I think we had varying levels of that with journeys to be honest with you and I think we'll
have some consistent assessment built into that during that middle period to be able to see if kids are having growth. Well, your social studies and your math is going to also focus heavily with reading. And so hopefully,
you know, there's ways to piggyback everything together. Kids should be greater than the sum of all these individual parts, you know. So hopefully I don't know. I I think
testing has its place, but I hate to see so many eggs go in in the testing basket. I really do. You either can use the material or you can't. Okay. Thank you. Um, this is just a a little FYI for the
board and for you guys just to know that we are really going to do a push starting on September 8th, which is intentionally that sort of that first Monday of the school year, but the second week of school to really get out information to our families about our free and reduced forms and um we're calling it a district campaign. We did
have the free and reduced forms at all of our orientation and registrations. They'll be at all the open houses, too. We also want to be cognizant that a lot of times as we're kicking off the school year, parents focus sometimes aren't on some of these other details. They're really just focused on getting their kids schedule or meeting who the classroom teacher is. And so we're
really going to try for that week of September 8th and September 15th. Um we're going to have a heavy communication in our school newsletters which go out once a week. We're going to do a press release during that. Um I've got an interview with the record ego coming up today to do a story on that. Um just whatever we can to encourage our
families to fill out and complete that. make it as easy as possible. Um, we're going to send the link out as a standalone communication. So, they've got that. Um, it's it's more than just meals, right? Right now, we know that we have free meals through September for our students. We don't know until the state budget comes in on October 1st,
maybe at midnight. Um, as to whether that'll continue or not, but this is also how we get some of our state and federal funding that we support our instructional staffing materials, behavior support for students. It's also more than just meals for the families, too. students who qualify for free and
reduce get reduced athletic fees. They'll get reduced yearbooks. They'll get reduced um tickets to dances. I mean, all of those things. So, really working on trying to remove the stigma and saying like, "Hey, let's all do this as a community. Even if you think you don't qualify, that's fine. We still
want you to fill that out. We do get some of our funding just from having people fill the form out, which is very strange to me, but I'm not going to try to understand state or federal funding." So, yeah. Yeah. And are there Oh, go ahead. Sorry. Are there still people I know in
the past they've had them at open houses helping to fill those forms out? Will those is that still happening? The technology team to make sure we have five at least five kiosks at every at every open house so they can do the online posters were made with QR codes for open
houses to to try to get in front of this. Uh also, as far as the online form is both filled it out, it's less than five minutes. Yeah. You just The biggest thing is once you get to the screen that looks like this is knowing you have to click that apply for benefits and then it just
walks you through it. It's super easy. I did it right on my phone and it took me Yeah. You don't need an account as far as as my meals go. You can just go right to that. Yeah. Great. And this information, anything that you put in as far as your household income, all of that is secure. No administrator
as far as the building administrators don't get that. We don't get that here. that stays right secure within our food service um department within actually two individuals who hold that information. So it's not there's some apprehension in the past by parents of I don't want I don't want building principles or my kids classroom teacher to know that we don't they don't they
don't know that at all. Nobody gets that information at at school sites um or even us in central office or even Dr. Van Wagner, right? really stays just with the people who who need to need that for those. I'm so glad you brought that up because I have heard that issue or that
allegation um that you know kids who qualify for free reduced meals uh are somehow stigmatized and I I've asked and asked about that um because if you know it's true if it's
true it'd be a concern, right? But yeah, I mean you've just addressed that. So thank you. The thing that amazes me is the government which receives taxes, income
taxes, has databases that uh are enormous. needs another form to be completed to pull this information so that they can decide how to adjust some of the
benefits coming back from the money. The whole thing is just beyond my care. Beth, I have a treasure trove of GA reports you could read about lack of coordination between federal agencies. But that and yet and yet
but the the problem is is here we are asking for more information creating another closet and another barrier. And and it just drives me nuts. Yeah. The other thing is I think there's a lot of tie with information we already have
which includes the different educational plans that we have on kids and also we've we don't ask the question about single parent and that kind of got shot down although I was looking at data for
the state and they were saying an estimate this was two years ago over a third of the kids in the state are In single parent households, single parent households aren't all about money. They're about time
and attention and latch key. Absolutely. It's a lot bigger than money. And that is where some of the pivotal points are in how well kids do in school. Yeah. And we're not looking there.
So anyway, whatever. Dr. Dr. Van Wagner, could you just do a quick summary of what happened last year when we did have well the last two years, right? We've had free meals and what that did to f, you know, families not filling out this form.
You know, essentially what's happened is is there's just been a misunderstanding of because this program was in place that people didn't need to fill the forms out anymore. And the reality is is that the numbers um that are uh realized from the forms being filled out directly
affects our state and federal funding grants, our 31A funding, um some of our title funding is based off of those numbers. And so while providing all of those meals because people didn't think it was there anymore, actually lowered
about a million dollars of of funding that we'll get this next year because of of people that could have qual would qualify under the program that didn't fill that out and the amount of people just filling the form out period as a part of the equation that's used that it
hurt us to be able to actually give resources to our our kids that you know are most at risk. So, um, that's why we're really making a push on this regardless of how the state budget comes out. Um, but it's really vitally important if the universal meals are not
in the state budget. The only way that to qualify for a free breakfast and lunch will be through uh qualifying under these forms to be filled out. So, that's why it's really important. And as a district, we have to hit a certain threshold of of families filling out the form, right?
Correct. Yeah. Do you remember what that is? Um it just depends on the building. It's all depending on the So some buildings are considered C buildings and so they don't have as many um but essentially you know we we are our our goal is to
try and at least get 50%. Um from that standpoint to to feel that we've saturated uh from that standpoint and and you talked to state legislators last year remember about holding districts harmless. Yeah. and we've been held harmless, but this year we are not held harmless from
it uh from the state. And I had the same conversations with them about can't you get this data from the IRS, from other resources, and they said at this point they can't. This is the only way. So, you know, we we we've been held harmless as that program's gone. They recognize it. Statewide there's
everything from 7 to 25% of less forms have been filled out across school districts across state. So, this is not just a TCAP thing. Uh we are seeing interestingly enough this year we are seeing social media things from other districts that I've shared with the team that districts all over the state are
making this push because they're in the exact same situation as us. So um I think our team's doing a great job of getting this message out. We're going to continue. We have posters that have been done. All of our building administrative assistants and building principles understand it well. So, um, we're going
to really, really make that push and try and get 100% of every one of our buildings is our goal to try and and make sure that we have every resource we can. Great. Thank you. So, you'll see that on the social media and so anyone who's willing to share that and just spread the word that like this is really good for all of our
kids regardless of income levels, we need the form. Yep. It helps us. Yep. Duly noted for those of us on social media, we'll share. Right. Right. Um, and then I think our last photo here is just some of our student registration days. Uh, high school, middle school
here. Look at those excited kids getting their Chromebooks. It's great. And we're off. That's it. Okay. Um well just to wrap things up um regarding future learning series I just
you know want to reinforce to you three in particular how much I appreciate the learning series. I I think they were launched maybe two years ago on the curriculum committee and I think it's just really useful to help us trustees know what's going on in the district be able to answer questions from
from students from parents um even staff. So, in the future, um, I just want to remind trustees that if you have any requests, special requests for topics, let me know. I will work with Dr. Van Wagner and and Jesse and Dan to
um, see what can work with your schedule. I want to respect your time because I know you it takes it takes some planning time on your part and preparation time for these and and I I really respect and appreciate that. And also the sequencing, right? because you
have certain topics you want to cover at certain times of the year. Um, yeah. And if you want to know, like we're already thinking for the September one. We're hoping our MSTEP data is public then. It's not yet, still embargoed, which we've been told repeatedly lately. Um, we're hoping we'll be able to get that out to the community and to you
guys on that September one. We're also that September one thinking about bringing our English language learner teachers, um, our secondary lead and our elementary. we've re recon toolled that model of service to kids and that's a really important part of our community that I think you guys hear a lot about um and they have specific needs. So, we
wanted to tell talk to you guys a little bit about how we're supporting those. And then in October at the end of the month is our next one after that. And we've been thinking about um doing an update on here's kind of what fall academically looks like. At that point, we'll have our NWA window done. We will have like rolled through the first six
to eight weeks of school. We will learn some stuff about who our who our students are and where they're at. So, but we're always happy to take suggestions or give you guys a preview of topics, too. Yeah. All right. Um, and one more thing I just want to give a
shout out. Um, this is probably just one example, but it's the one example I witnessed as a parent. West Senior High's back to school freshman parents um session last week was really good. Uh, well attended at the West Senior High auditorium. I don't know what
percentage of freshman parents attended, but it was it seemed like it was a a good number. Um, and I just really appreciated how they emphasize grades and attendance and the cell phone policy for incoming, you know, high school
parents. And and I just really believe strongly that we've got to engage our parents. That's like a piece that is integral to student success. So, I thought they just did a really good job and um I'm sure that Central High School did something very similar, but that
just is what I happen to witness. So, with that, um I will just uh announce that the next board curriculum committee meeting will be Tuesday, September 30th at our regular time of 8:30 a.m. here at the administration at Glen Lewis
building. And with that, we are adjourned. Thank you everybody. Thank you.