##VIDEO ID:4La_ptgnSj0## microphone test for work session October 28th 2024 e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e good afternoon the time is now 4: the WIA Public Schools Board of Education work session for Monday October 28th 2024 will please come to order let's go around the table for introductions beginning with my right Heidi ker Destra Paris B Valentine s Johansson Chase Anderson and I am mil soonei thank you everyone and welcome on this another unseasonably beautiful summer like day this afternoon we have two items on the agenda the first one is the finance and operations report we'll hear an update on the attendance area adjustments from Dr Ray Queener of Team Works and Executive Director of Finance and operations Scott Lage gentlemen all yours well good evening Mr chair members of the board it's an honor to be back with you um tonight is the primary purpose is to give you a update on our process share a little more information and give you a chance to ask um questions um I set this up so that I would get all the easy questions and then my counterart gets the hard ones tonight so um have to turn this on oh there we go there we go so uh wanted to just do a quick review of the process C that we embarked upon I know you've not had much to work on since I was with you last so but I thought we'd be good to just go back through the process talk about the two teams that are working through the attendance area process um talk a little bit about the concepts that we've been working on and kind of how that plays with the public engagement and the input team and wanted to spend a little bit of time talking about some of the complexities that the design team is wrestling and wrestling with and how um how we're trying to move parts of the puzzle around to make things work as best we can for the most that we can and then uh talk a little bit about the input so and then we'll do some Q&A and um go from there so we started this whole process using three um key Frameworks for Teamworks the decision-making framework which sets up the teams the choic makers how all the parties roles and respond responsibilities are coming together for the process uh we did The Guiding change framework which we um mapped out with the school board on setting the process in motion and allowing us to begin the work and then the whole system view which where we're just making sure that we always pay attention to the three Arenas the things in the work Arena the culture and the systems and structures we don't get stuck in just one area um we are using the teamwork School analytics soft Ware underneath all of the analysis for student enrollment protections um The Guiding change document our design team is about 30 members and um those folks are internal staff administrators and District um office Personnel we also have an input team of parents and other staff members of about 80 people that were invited to participate in that process and um and then we have engagement with um some online um forums that we can talk more about in a moment District's done I think a really nice job communicating both down and into to the organization and what's happening and when as well as up and out the website is um really nicely done and I know it's a great resource for um folks to get information guiding change document um hopefully looks familiar that we developed um earlier this spring um we constantly review this when we're doing our work um why we're doing the the tenants area um process what are the desired outcomes how how do we measure if we're making progress and then of course the not how of what's Happening um in the work I might add just one thing on the guiding change document that drino was talking about just on the what on the far right side there obviously being a growing District the reason we're doing the boundary studies it just points out establish boundaries for the next 3 to five years knowing that we're a growing district and we'll likely continue to grow based on demographic studies the decision-making framework and the process um we did modify um the design team meetings we have um added a few meetings since you last saw this um it took a couple of extra steps to work through all the data and so we are anticipating between seven and nine design team meetings um we still right now only have two input team meetings scheduled um and another round of public engagement via the website and then depending on when we have options to bring forward to the board um what your preferences for work session and then ultimately a board meeting for decision um the next few slides uh just kind of um talk about the same proc process just not as pretty as the graphic but it you know each each step of the process the design team does work we take that data back to our team we call it level modeling where they run the analysis um both five and 10 year projections we bring that back and we've we've done um a few different iterations of that so when we started this one of our goals is to have a comprehensive process for data analytics um we wanted to make sure was open and transparent to the degree possible so the input team was a meeting in the public um they had a chance to review the packet the packet was also posted on the website the community had a chance to um see the same information and then give feedback on all of the options all the concepts that were presented and we've tried to do our best to communicate key steps and and how we're keeping people engaged so the goal is try to be open as much as possible and hear from folks because you know we have talented people at the table but getting as many perspectives um as possible is really important uh we have had seven design team meetings to date we have our eighth coming up next week uh again there are 30 um staff members one of the things that I know um I wanted to just address because the the enrollment changed multiple times not mult that continued to change throughout the summer months and even into the fall we we took the current reality that we did last spring and felt that we would be best served if we updated that in August we did update it in August to have the best information it changed a little bit of of some of the concepts that were working and then after we got post October 1 October 1's the official count we felt it also merited another opportunity to update the data so we're working from the latest and greatest data data in the concepts that we're doing um and so we wanted to make sure that we had that because we know when you're making these important decisions and you're impacting families that you have the best numbers possible so we did update that um two weeks ago I think was the last current reality we did that's got good perfect so so far we have went through several Concepts um we started off with 1 a and 1B and that initially was our team taking the guiding change document the capacity information and that initial current reality and just other than that one of our team members is a resident um not knowing the district and so what would we do um if there were no history no parameters and that's where we started and the design team then um worked off of those and they came up with 2 A-1 2 2B and 2 C and um I've been asked multiple times about the naming conventions so every time we have an iteration we're we're if we're doing uh 2A and we have a couple of variations off of 2A they're really close we'll do a - one-2 and if it's a whole new series uh we start with a whole new number so we've gone through multiple iterations at the elementary level um the Middle School level and as of last week we looked at Concepts 4 a 4B and 4 C the design team is prepared to look at um 5A 5B 5C and then we have another model uh concept for uh middle level 5D so that's I I wanted to share this so you had a perspective of how many iterations we've gone through um each time we're looking at these things it is like a balloon where you move one line one way something else moves over there and you've got to adjust things we've been looking at demographics we've been looking at neighborhoods we've been looking at historical um changes in boundaries in attendance areas trying our best not to have to move neighborhoods multiple times especially if theyve moved recently so you're weing all those complexities at one time I think I just add um and I know it's been brought to the board in the past but um we can't pick where the growth happens as well so we're trying to forecast that with Teamworks as help and kind of our data on the back end but obviously we know the growth is happening in the north part of the district and so as we've seen with the shifts we've made we're trying to also balance capacity around the school building so we aren't left with the building that's over 100% capacity and then one that's floating in the 60 to 70% range so we did have one input me input team meeting on um October 8th and again we had about 80 people there they had all the maps on the walls that they could take a look at and then we did ask them the the questions of feedback in it was what are the strengths of each of the models each of the concepts what are the concerns what are the questions and then any suggestions for refinements so the input team actually could offer ideas but we didn't have them do a comparative analysis we didn't say pick which concept you like better we're really looking for um some strengths and concerns we also presented Concepts incomplete and I think that was a piece that was um maybe new in a in a school district um going through this process because we were testing Concepts and ideas not necessarily putting an option out for consideration like these were on products so I know in one middle level conversation we were talked about it's the same model but one had grandfathering and one did not we're testing to see what what the the input team and the public felt about those pieces so that all that data uh from the input team was collected and provided back to the design team we then had um an opportunity to get a lot of Engagement um from the public you can see the number of responses for each one of the concepts that were presented and even though we I think we tried our best to communicate these are Concepts not options um sometimes people interpret them like this is an idea we were ready to implement and that was never our intent so I want to make sure we clarify that um we then took all of the raw data and we themed it using um chat gbt and spent a few hours with artificial intelligence to capture those themes um creating a prompt that you are a school district attendance area committee getting public feedback what are your um top themes that that were there you probably had a chance to review those themes they were posted back on the website I think it's really important to not only gather feedback but tell the public back what we heard and then when the next consideration comes forward of new Concepts the public and the input team will see that their input affected the concepts because they've all changed nothing nothing Remains the Same um I think there's you know some questions about how do we how do we take a look at as big a picture as possible when we have a lot of individual family concerns and we listen to the individual concerns of families and look for themes so if we hear uh a certain neighborhood is being divided up that's a con concern that then that the neighborhood we want to maintain neighborhood Integrity or um we heard pretty clearly the desire for as many Elementary feeder schools to middle schools now they might Express that I want my kid to go here but really the theme is what they're saying is we want an elementary feeder system so we have to listen for the big themes and and value the important of the individual but we're what's the the main themes we're we're um talking about one thing I do want to mention too um when I talked with the input team because we look at a lot of data a lot of charts a lot of tables a lot of numbers and I wanted to remind them that as we're doing this behind every number is a kid and a family impacted and so we don't want to lose sight of that that we this work is it's important it's needed but it's not easy and so um don't get lost in the data because there is impact out in the community I think I would just add for those that were at the input team meeting um just me kind of being in the background I think the whole group which as Dr Queener alluded to was staff um families community members parents uh I think they all understood the complexity of the nature of the work and that it's just not a simple draw lines and shift boundaries so there's a lot that goes into it an absolute ton of data and then just the human element that Ray talked about so I put a couple of snapshots on the screen the full reports on the website um this is the feedback what it looked like the input team uh received this um the strengths the concerns and then the ideas for improvement for each one of the concepts that were posted the input team also um so they combined all the information from the public input and the input team there isn't a priority given to one group or the other the input team is designed to make sure we have great representation in case there is no public feedback but they don't outweigh public feedback so both are given equal value in the process and they were also very similar I mean there some of the same comments and the concerns all right so complexities um we are still trying very hard to balance capacities the goal is to get to about 90% of functional capacity so how the building is being used and and of course as as Scott mentioned as development happens you might start at 90% but then you get 98% in a few years and so it's trying to map where is that sweet spot if you will of getting close to 90% we know that um um certain growth will happen in some areas and c and growth won't happen in others so we try to plan for that accordingly we also know that one shift in the economy could change the development and that has an impact as well so capacities is kind of a key starting point I think one thing to add on there is uh every building was visited this summer um or La late last spring um and went over walked through the buildings walked through the classrooms and that's how they came up with the functional capacity because if you look and you'd go why are you only going to fill your buildings to 90% it leaves flexibility factors in changing demographics if there's um classrooms that need to go offline um for special services or other areas those are all factored in again if we had a crystal ball we'd be able to predict all of it but as we're looking and doing this work we're also looking at um that functional capacity as it relates to like the southern part of the district versus the northern part of the district we'd likely want to leave more Capacity open on our Northern Tier of the district in those elementaries because that's where the forecasted growth would happen and then maybe we'd have a little bit more flexibility um with our Southern schools that are more grown out if you will um bullet number two we do look at demographics in every model we look at it school by school and the idea is that we try to move toward dis District average um we we can't land every building at District average or you're going to be transporting students across the district but we we want to make sure that we're working toward an an average for the district not creating any greater disparity terms of um race demographic special education free and reduce um English El English y learner yep um we get so used of our Ed ucation acronyms we got to pause for a moment um so we do take a look at that we have been spending a lot of time looking at neighborhood schools so to the best degree possible um it it's it's a not a little bit of a joke but it'd be nice to redesign the district and move buildings wherever you want to but we don't have that luxury right now um people made the best decisions of where the building locations are and then at the time and then we're trying to figure out how to best um and and so you'll see boundaries or attendance areas where a school might be close to a attendance area boundary not in the center like we would ideally want to place it but um we work with what we have I think I would also add excuse me if you've seen a district map of our current boundaries and just the boundary of the district um it is very awkwardly shaped which also creates another um interesting thing when you're trying to draw boundary lines so if it was just a square box um or even a circle we would probably have a little bit easier easier way and then to Dr Queen's point when you look at the growth of the district over time if you look at just the alignment of our three current Middle Schools they're all in the southern part of the district so um as Dr Queener said we we can't move the buildings we've looked at it that's a joke um but that just adds to the complexity of the nature of the work that's going on I I think the uh uh next bullet maintaining neighborhoods um schools as possible um and then keeping developments in neighborhoods in an early Elementary School and Middle School pathway as best as possible I think for all the elementary schools they are all the concepts currently on the table are contiguous boundaries there's no pocket boundaries there's no weird so there is a shape it may not be perfectly round or Square as Scott mentioned but there is no discontiguous boundaries um we're working to try to do the same at the middle right now there's still one place where there's a gap between um a Northern Middle School boundary and a Southern Middle School boundary um but we're not done yet so the goal is to try to make contiguous boundaries we do have transportation at the table so we're making sure that we're constantly paying attention to Major roadways current Transportation routes um because one of the tenants we don't want to increase cost where we don't need to um neighborhood proximity to SCH schools we pay attention to and then as I mentioned Transportation impact so I know that there's been some questions about um and the design teams had conversation around what's our long-term plan why are we not talking about new buildings and why are we doing this now and every time I bring them back to answering the question is there an urgent need to address this now they all say yes is there a need for the district to talk about the future and short order yes and so um there are places that need to be addressed for fall 20 526 and that's why we we started this process um and then the district continues the long-term conversation I think one thing I would add on that to kind of build on what Dr Queener said is the district obviously uh we've been through it in many of our meetings where we've gone over budget projections uh when we presented the budget when we went over other budget related and um enrollment things we saw the district continuing to clip at an increase of two to 300 kids a year um we saw that drop drastically during the pandemic and that change kind of changed the plans of where we were so um now we're seeing pretty accelerated growth um as you recall Hazel reinhardt's presented to the board um in late fall of 2022 and when you look at our current projections um at that point with the state um showing a declining birth rate all over the state um the recommendation was to go low kindergarten High migration that's what we went with with in the current year budget that we're in David and I went way above that and we went 12684 we went above the high high and right now we're two years ahead on Hazel's projections just to give some foresight on why this has become such an urgent issue where we've just skyrocketed back with enrollment whether that will continue or forecasting it will but again a lot of things outside of our control could have a drastic impact on that and then people would say well what were you thinking so next steps we have a design team meeting on the fourth um we'll take the the changes to the concepts that we get out of that meeting right we are um also having input team meeting on November 13th there should be an asteris there that's assuming that we're ready um one of the things that I think we want to we want to try to be ready but we don't want to meet deadlines and not be ready with um good Concepts if we're only doing two input meetings and two rounds of public engagement we the second round we want to be fairly close we don't want to be way way ways a long ways apart um so that may change we will be back here on the 25th of November for for sure an update if we are ready options pres presentation and um the board then can decide if you want another work session or um board action right now was slated for December but again we want to make sure we are taking the time to do this right and as thorough as possible so we could if needed add another third or could add another add a third round of input add a third round of Engagement if needed or we could modify that in a way um but that's now we're in the tentative phases of scheduling and with that um we'd be happy to answer questions from board members thank you Dr Queener and Scott for that presentation board colleagues any questions comments this is the time thank you I um I have a couple of questions do you want me to do one one and then give other people a chance or do you or can I ask to ask both I can ask them both okay um my first question is going to go back to looking at Hazel's um information as well as kind of what we were talking about and we were looking at migration and birth rates right and we talked about that the Northern end of the districts where there's lots of houses growing but we also know that the southern end of our district is also been building some multi family housing as well as having um houses that that were potentially empty nesters our smaller houses being and so our our child yield for house in the south is is uh different or at least it was historically um how much is that playing into a factor right now as we draw these as we think about these plans uh I can't speak to um another person's work so I can tell you about our work um one of the things that I think we bring to the table is a a depth of variables that we're putting into place and not just the same variables but also looking at them by development looking at them by census block so we're looking at smaller units so when we look at things like market share we look at yield rates we're talking looking at it by a development or an Elementary attendance area as an example I was a business manager in Stillwater for a number of years and so the number for single family homes is 74 whether you're in the north part of the district or the South part of the district we use 74 well here we're doing projections based on the census Block in the Elementary attendance area so that that could add some um variability to the projection modeling we do the same thing for the birth so we're not just looking at districtwide birth rates we're looking at this by census block by elementary school so when we do projections we're projecting by grade by school and in the old days 12 years ago when has a business business manager it was a trendline projection so I think the tightness of the projection modeling has provided really accurate data okay that's helpful yeah I mean we've had lots of conversations about typical yield for for multif family housing versus the wisett yield for at least what it was when we talked about this and with more Fidelity six years ago so I have I have a second I have two more I have I have a comment and one more question because okay so one of the things that I just my come out we question um we talked about the different operating principles or the some of the factors that we're looking at and some of the things that happened with the with the models that were put out or the concepts that were put out is we might have had small percentage numbers of students from an elementary school going to a going to a place and um if we think about the level of stress that it's on families right if I know my kid's going with a 100 then they probably have a chance that they have a buddy if they're going with 10 that might be a big a bigger Factor are we looking at are you continuing to look at the the quantities that are getting sent in the various places so the test we did in the first set of Concepts was how does the input team and the community feel about feeder schools not about the balance and so we made a conscious decision at the design team that we could have worked to try to balance those but that wasn't what we were testing we were testing how how comfortable is the community with more um Elementary splits than fewer Elementary splits so that's what we were modeling and we may have could have done a better job communicating that we would we would never put something out that would say 98% of one school and 2% to another school that that was not the intent okay all right just wanted to get that out loud thank you I appreciate that so my last question um and you alluded to it and Scott started us off when he said these are the plans for 3 to 5 years right we know our District's been talking about another Middle School we know that you know barring a variety of things we're probably going to keep growing um and I can guess that our community right like sometimes families can rally and do one move right but if you have another move coming down the pike soon even if it's for a beautiful new school that that can feel kind of tough and so what's the tolerance about at least at the middle school level um doing the least possible disruption and maybe living with some some squeeze and some tightness for a little while knowing that there's going to need to be a more comprehensive another com alignment down down the way not to and I know Middle School's short so you know what happens in the next two years is a or three years is a child's entire experience in middle school so I know our timeline's different than Elementary but what is that balance between least possible disruption now in anticipation and a more comprehensive responsive to the needs right now I think I have three answers so pick which one you let know I'm kidding um three parts of my answer one um I think the team is continuing to to talk about that yeah um two I think we heard pretty loud and clear that um there's a strong desire for letting kids that are there now finish without moving them around so letting next year seventh grade and the following year eighth grade to finish their career um and then I think the third thing that was relevant as we talk about that as I constantly ask the question is there a need to do something now and the answer continues to be yes that there needs to be something there's some areas that need to be addressed and um if a if a potential new school is three to five years that could be a long time if there's an urgent need today yeah um but I think the the idea is is that if we can design a concept that allows students to finish their career may not be the family but it may be the current students to finish their career and we can um have a period of time where they could actually continue through so we're if I start kindergarten I could stay all the way through in five years six years you know we're pretty close that's the desire um but the crystal ball doesn't give us a great perfect picture so we're trying to do the the best that we can with all the different variables but no one in the team wants to disrupt families more than they have to um I think having contiguous boundaries is important trying to balance capacity is important and not creating greater disparities between buildings in terms of any of the social economics is the goal thank you that was probably more than three answers I'm it was perfect thank you so I have kind of extension to Sarah's question so Elementary I get it it's 5 years it's a little difficult with Middle School based on the different models that you have looked at is that still a possibility that you can continue students who are currently in whatever Middle School they are get them through the middle school and then all the new students that are coming in they get dispersed to a different Middle School is that still an option for Middle School at the middle school um we've not we modeled that when we first went public to to test that you know the difference between allowing them to finish and and actually resetting all the boundaries um but we had to kind of back away from that for a temporary U time being until we could update the concepts so we could got a good get a good concept that we could move forward and now we're to the point where we'd be modeling what that could look like and make sure that you could handle it or the schools could handle it so the the committee is going to study that in the next couple of weeks okay um but I can tell you that they heard pretty loud and clear that the desire is to allow students to continue if possible middle level is according to Transportation more doable than the yes agreed yeah and that's where I was trying to see if there is any low hanging fruit because just based on the data Elementary is going to be tough plus there's not going to be enough influx to say hey only new students will go different places that the transportation is going to be complicated so I totally get the elementary part and that's where I was hoping at least for middle school if we were to let continue students through their middle school and then apply the new boundaries to new students maybe that's more palatable but again I wanted to figure out where it fits or has that been looked at okay yeah and I think the the design team uh their role is to look at the data but not decided so ultimately that's going to come back to the the Strategic leadership team and the board for decision but they they wanted to be able in the concepts to have looked at the data but they because it's not every administrator in the district it's half of your Elementary it's um half of the secondary we are not a decision they are not a decision-making body they're a design concept body yeah so I don't want to I don't want to preclude that they're deciding are we doing it or not doing it that's not theirs to decide yeah I think I would just add that um just like with anything we do we always try to make sure we have the best information possible we're working closely with the three Middle School principles um to understand um and get a better idea of what they could really handle as we're growing and kind of alluding back to what I mentioned earlier we've kind of seen that growth come back with a fury and so it did really push this a little bit sooner and quicker than we want wanted so we are working really closely with those uh Middle School principles and they're working really well together on how to like kind of where the parameters would be for a Max because if some of the models that we showed showed East and West at 1300 kids Well it can't happen um so those are just some of the parameters that I'm talking about where we try to um balance those needs along with building capacity levels okay so oh I have two more um I'll go I'll put them together and this is again moreover for everyone to consume the data right now there is lot of good information I mean I think you guys have given really good detail analysis for each of the models again what the responses from Public public are and they've been organized very well so my question is twofold given you're using system to do all the analytics Etc is there any opportunity and again I'm not trying to create yet another report Port but as we go through these iterations is there a quick summary of pros and cons so we started with 1 a Now we move to 2 A1 right so between 1 a and 2 A1 these were pros and cons you know why we came to that iteration and then when you move from 1 a or 2 A1 to 3 A1 why did we do that and again not like super crazy details but just quick summary of hey we were trying to address the you know the grandfather students were taken care of right so the 2ca was not looking at it but 3A is something that can people can look at it and say okay now I get it why we mooved from 2A to 3C or whatever the model is is that an option it's just very difficult for common public to read through hundreds of pages hundreds of numbers and make sense out of it right so again just trying to see if there is any messaging and Scott knows my style I always look for like simplified message is there a way for us to create that sumbody or is it too much to put yeah that's a good question I I think each time we looked at A New Concept the first place we always started is capacity yeah so if a school's at 115% we've got to figure something out and then if we make a small move there what what does that do to the other Elementary and then literally the last couple of Concepts you would start to see almost the clock counterclockwise rotation like if we move this chunk here we going to move this chunk up here and we go all the way around the district and they'll become a point where you you just don't do that anymore the second part is then if we do this so when a the design team member takes a look at if we move this neighborhood what's the demographic profile at neighborhood yeah what the school that it's going in what does that look like so that's part two that we look at we did take a look at proximity to school that was a conversation where um if a family missed the bus how do they get to school what does that look like do they have to cross 55 you know and figure that out so we did take a look at that and so we had tested a couple of things and um you know we heard from some that the proximity isn't as important as the schol that they're attached to yeah um but I think those three things probably are the biggest variables and it's it's trying to figure out that piece and then the last one I'll say one more is that um we heard clearly that feeder the feeder Elementry feeder system as few of splits as possible and that's caused a few things like well if we move this how does the how do how does um why is that a middle look how does why is that a West look and so we've had to make a few tweaks that way okay yeah and I'm glad you said that because that was my second aspect so we already have the outcome parameters right that we have established again the class sizes the proximity the demographics so if not pros and cons maybe we just publish those key metrics for each of those models so when I look at those models side by side I know where things have improved or where there is you know kind of that conflicting priorities right because we're not going to improve parameter again just my guest imate we're not going to improve parameter on every single metrics there'll be two parameters they'll rate high on third model but then one will go down right I mean you have to strike the balance I get it but again if that data is available and if we can just call it out side by side I think that'll go long way so parents and community members they can see hey these are the different models that have gone through and these are kind of you know the outcomes right when we look at the metrics how the new model is better than prior to models and where that has negatively impacted so I think that will help some of us to even answer queries that we get it because it's a lot of data yeah I I think that I think the challenge is that the list between Concepts isn't necessarily short and so for example I'll just give you one one thing the they might look at the capacity of a school and say well could we live with 94% utilization if we move this one neighborhood here to have not separated neighborhood and so they're really that Nuance in and to be able to say well if we it's one neighborhood looking at capacity um I mean the variables are the same but typically every time I'm doing a concept there's four five six different moves that are happening it might get fairly confusing okay but I think the the bottom line is is that we start at capacity we look at demographics we look at neighborhoods we look at feeders yeah and again I know we have lot of parameters or outcome but maybe the top three or four it just helps you know folks visualize how the models have evolved and where sort of the advantages are and again I know it's a lot of data but given we are using systems to analyze the data and help us again I'm just wondering if we can create that summary and I think that'll be easier for everyone I just have to interrupt sorry but uh Dr quer has to has to leave at 4:45 so and agenda has 45 minutes of time allotted so let's just give other other members a chance to ask any questions comments quick Paris asked most of my questions I was wondering about tradeoffs and if there was a simplified version but it sounds like maybe not or maybe you know if we are talking about capacity versus feeders schools um as it relates to the middle school does that is it even possible that we can have feeder schools or will we end up no matter what with like one or two elementaries that we have to split I mean is that kind of what you're seeing right now we we haven't seen a concept that we can do 100% pure Elementary feeders and that's just pure capacity and that's there's nothing to be done for that really correct but we are we're currently looking at no more than two presently and it would but in we're not done yet butre um and with that it would the attempt would be made to make it split kind of evenly so you didn't have a small because you guys spoke to that earlier and okay yeah my rule of thumb for the team is that we we don't go smaller than 7030 if possible ideally we want to hit 50/50 um worst case is really small proportions and splitting three ways you know so we're trying to 7030 at the minimum split because there's enough spase then for kids to go to the middle school if possible from the same neighborhood or area thank you um I have another question but maybe Chase is the better person to answer it so um I was just going to ask about the plans for building in the future but maybe we should let other people ask first yeah then thank you for coming and thank you for giving us as much of your time as you have already um my question is a followup to my initial question when we were first looking at the guiding principles document um during the process have you felt that the input team has been truly represented representative of the the diversity of our um of our district and has do you feel like it was inclusive of individuals who are typically underrepresented I I don't know the initial ask so I I can't speak to that so um I'll leave that to Scott and and Dr Anderson um I think that what I can tell you is that I think the all the voices were heard there was the the um even if it wasn't demographically distributed as their District profile looks the voice was brought to the table and so there was enough people in the room that are aware of those but I'm I'm not sure that it was uh visually representative of your demographic profile um I don't know free reduce I can't tell E I can't tell so this is primarily based on race um and then we don't ask any questions in the public so I don't know who's answering um but I do know on the design team which is um very specific specifically bringing and attempting to bring all voices and representation to the table so we have people from um all different departments all different schools and so I know we've had robust conversations um representing everyone in the district one thing I can add quickly on that is that we did engage solve heray our director of equity and inclusion to offer um some family members that she had worked with and that thought would be uh good candidates to be on the team and inquired with them I know Amy Parnell had worked with that process as well so I think from that perspective um I think we did a good job of I don't know what we might have missed but I think we did a good job of seeking to diversify the input team thank you well I will add to that um you know if the district is decides that there's um an opportunity to do Outreach different than what we've done we've done that in other districts I may not be the person to do it so somebody may have a connection with a community or um part of a community that you know they meet here and we're used to them and they could go get feedback we're open to doing that if we feel like we need to have that voice represented all right I'm going to just make a quick last comment and then ask a very simple question and then the other questions that I have I'll hold for the November work session so I was reading I was looking at the slides over the weekend and I could not help myself from making a note so may I read read what I wrote so you could have taken current data plugged it in an anal analytical tool to crank out boundary changes but you did not do that you've shown a remarkable desire to add the qualitative variable to the analysis namely the community input and I that is why I do appreciate that the most the transparency and the trust and the inclusion of the community so thank you for that I really do appreciate that quick question I have for now is the number of respondents to the to the survey there in the 200s or 300s is that is that big enough representation you think um if I were to wager a guess I would say that's the folks that were impacted with those Concepts and when the next set of Concepts come out those that are impacted you'll hear from them and you may not hear from others that weit in on the front end what I can tell you that for those that um are engaged and pay attention from the first round to the second round they will see that the concept changed based on the feedback that was posted on the website the input team will see the changes that have happened and that was our in intent is that this isn't we're not going in the lock room and doing these things and telling people how it's going to happen we are an open engaging process and that's part of what happens in this next round okay thank you very much both of you Dr Queener Scott um one of these days maybe the schools on wheels will will be a reality right thank you so much I may just offer Mr Sheriff Amo Dr Queener needs to head off to another appointment he shuffled uh uh his schedule around today so he could be here with us for 45 minutes so we want to give him an opportunity to be on time there hopefully yet but thanks for being here today I want to share too that I'm uh prepared to share a few other insights if the board wishes to hear additional Insight from me and then I think Scott and I can probably respond to you know any other questions and if we don't know the answers we'll say we're not sure and we'll get back to you on that but uh might be helpful but we appreciate the board respecting Dr Queen's time so that he can uh move on to his next appointment so just a few thoughts that I wanted to share so um I'm on the front end of my 17th year in the school district so I've seen a lot lot of uh change that's occurred over the years I thought it might just be helpful to share a few insights and as much as anything it'll be helpful review for the board perhaps but also an opportunity to share some insights uh with the larger community and and this the team and staff members that are here with us um one of the themes that you saw was just how many times have neighborhoods been impacted over the years with various moves and you know one of the challenges that we're finding is some of the neighborhoods and that are are closer to these extreme growth areas are probably more likely to have some impact because it does change and and we always do have the goal of Trying to minimize changes for those that have recently changed um if we lock in and we'll continue to do that and take that into consideration if you lock in too tightly with that it can immobilize the big picture of what's best for the larger School District so I just wanted to differentiate uh I won't say concept A but thought a from thought B uh maintaining continuity and doing the right big picture Shuffle so as to make all the buildings in the larger Community um work in the best possible way we're also finding that we we have changing needs of students so a classroom is not necessarily a classroom as we might have defined at 5 10 15 20 50 years ago um because of these changing needs we need to differentiate some spaces that can have an impact on building capacities um we tried to do our best to take that into account as we establish those capacities and specifically what we're using for the elementaries I connected oneon-one with each of the elementary principles toward the end of the week last week and confirmed the numbers that we're using for the uh uh functional capacity and the 90% utilization rate I think you heard Dr Queener mention that you know a trade-off might be for this building we have to go to 94% another building might be at 79 or 84% just because there aren't ways to get that perfect 90% match those are targets our goals or uh uh I don't know suggested uh numbers that allow for a little bit of flexibility at within the the building size and configuration of classrooms and square footage of each classroom can vary widely between our buildings and that's a a variable that we have to take into effect so they aren't all the exact same size and what teachers might consider to be the optimal size we've given consideration to that um I think he referenced changing one aspect of a concept can have an impact on another one so uh the tradeoffs or the pros and cons I think it's difficult to get into pros and cons of each individual concept and eventually a recommended option or scenario because what one person might see as a pro the next one would see as a a con so it's it's kind of a you know a a little bit of a push and pull with that and and it's going to change with each variable and I think Ry alluded to that as well uh we're growing building capacities will become increasingly tight and it is likely so this is one of my many early messages that I've already thrown out to the community when I meet with PTA ear liaison groups or whenever I have the opportunity I indicate to them that uh we will do this again um and I've said that I don't know two to three to five years ago and probably the two to three to five years ago prior to that um in theory and I've shared this in some meetings as well if we had never had to move students into a new building in theory right now we'd have 12, 800k through 12th graders at West Middle School because we've added a lot of buildings to our Fleet over the years I think that might be our oldest building right now in regard to when the initial footprint was created but this is uh something that is to be expected and part of a reality of being in a growing thriving community in school district where people are moving in and building new homes so along with that we're going to do our best to maximize the utilization of our current facilities but we will need to build more schools I think that might have been one of the questions I always like to share that we do own property in Medina that is large enough for both an elementary and a middle school so someday wouldn't shock me or shouldn't anyone else in the community that will have Elementary number 10 out in Madina somewhere uh that's where the remaining primary most of our growth both will be and Middle School number four and U uh it goes kind of Beyond just classroom spaces but we have to take a look at what curriculum and program do we want to deliver how big are the classroom spaces in the existing buildings we'd probably find at East and West they're a little bit different than they might be at Central and they might look differently in a new fourth middle school and how will we want to do our best to replicate at East West and Central classroom spaces that are the new design and concept that would be built into a middle school um a new Middle School that we'd want to do our best to replicate you can never get there 100% but we'll have to take into consideration some remodeling of some of those existing spaces so I think just a message to community and early uh heads up if you haven't heard me say this before at some point we will be assembling a package for referendum that likely will include um additional schools um additional classrooms built onto existing schools probably an expansion at the high school um we're going to need to uh you know get serious about putting together what that package might look like since 2008 which was uh the the year that I started here in wetta so again I'm in my 17th year here I think we had 9,600 students if I remember correctly somewhere around that 9500 Mark and now we're at 10,800 so we've grown at about a total of 3200 K12 students if you do the math on that over 16 years that's about 200 kids a year um the range has been anywhere from minus 200 and that was the 2020 2021 school year the infamous covid year where we actually went down in enrollment that's the only year we've ever I think gone down maybe the next year we went down a little bit but it was pretty level at that point and it's ranged all the way up you know plus 400 or 350 to 400 so on average about 200 kids per year um impact on class sizes I know there were some interesting questions about will the boundary changes address and fix the class size issue well there are different types of class siiz issues one is uh facility driven in other words we'd add a section if we had a classroom we have a situation like that now in one of our elementary schools um another one is Staffing ratiod driven and taking a look at how do we uh modify or change our staffing ratios one thing you need to keep in mind is as that Staffing ratio goes down the need for classrooms goes up and that has an impact on facility capacity so um but you can also use Staffing to be part of the solution you don't always just have to add another classroom but you take a look at your Staffing models and formulas there's always some crunch years before you open up new buildings it's inevitable and we will feel that it'll be in the form of some class siiz issues some facility uh crowding issues um and we also have a an increase ing need as i' indicated before for specialized classrooms and meeting the diverse broad range of uh student uh needs that we have so again there can be some V various reasons why class sizes might be impacted I mentioned that we will be doing this again in the future and I know there was some questions about the feeder school program we'd love to maintain a pure feeder school program I really like that and I wish we could keep it so uh and and we'll do our best to to do that uh we've been on a a what I call a 252 model for a number of years so two elementaries going to West five going to Central once meow Ridge and Northwoods came online and then two going to West Middle School we've now shifted to a 333 model which with time is going to have a tendency or the reality of overloading east and west and kind of underloading Central so we knew we were addressing one urgent need our problem and maybe creating another when we tried not to create a bigger one than we were seeking to solve but we did create a challenge but probably no more of one to deal within having 2,000 kids at Central Middle School which isn't desirable either so we kind of had to choose which of these two models uh do we like the best probably in the reality of it a 2.54 2.5 model is probably what our middle schools best accommodate and even that might be a little bit tight um at the two Middle School schools over a three-year period but we talked about those feeder schools and how many elementaries you know when we need to split um Ry I think indicated that right now we're doing our best to try to limit that to two if we have to do any um we're not seeing and I liked how he worded it I probably can't replicate it perfectly but at this point we're not seeing a model that would allow us to maintain a pure feeder school program for the full three years of kids moving into the middle school so anyway those were a few things that um I wanted to share just probably to reinforce some of what Ray and Scott already said but uh some thoughts that came to mind for me so with that if you have additional questions for Scott and myself uh we'd be happy to do our best to respond to those thank you Dr Anderson I'm assuming that this answered most of the questions that were asked of Chase the question um Dr Anderson um are there I I know a lot of community members are getting anxious about the timeline for building the new schools um maybe we're not feeling it yet but they again you know they're looking they're seeing the growth um is there I know you can't tell us exactly is there a timeline and are there any state laws that affect um the process well there are probably 110 million state laws that would impact our uh you know that whole process we've been through it before Scott and team and Consultants that we work with are well versed on all of those but um we needed to get the enrollment study done we needed to get the attendance areas adjusted for the intermediate short term and we will use that data to help Drive our facilities uh decision making so we've been really focused on facilities it's not like we've not been focusing on that we've uh been convening a group about what the high school needs might look like we've been we just went through a comprehensive Middle School review that Danon team led in our teaching and learning department and implemented some of those changes and they're taking good notes this year for further modifications at the middle school and uh uh doing some of those same types of things at the the elementary so we've been taking a look at what our facility needs might be to deliver and accommodate that that program so to kind of get to the point none of this has been decided yet but my best crystal ball today just in full transparency probably the soonest we could go to the community with that comprehensive package would be in the spring of 2026 because we have to take all of this information process it all determine what the needs are communicate all that to the community and then uh encourage folks to get out and vote and if they're supportive they'll uh help us move forward with that type of a plan so sometime in this spring and this is information provided to me by Krauss Anderson and World Architects and Engineers knowing how long it takes to design buildings and get all the permits and approvals and state functions and all that and I think and Scott you can correct me if I'm not recollecting this accurately but I think the earliest that we feasibly could have a new Elementary opened would be the fall of 2028 so for the 28 29 school year I think we would be for an elementary school and for a middle school because they're larger they take longer to build um it probably would be one year beyond that so the 2930 school year that seems like an eternity out there but we know how quickly that time goes and and U um you know those timelines will be here before we know it so I would ask my colleagues if I misspoke on any of those timelines and those aren't locked by any means yet but I think that was our best guess is that accurate Scott yes that's what I recall as well Dr Anderson and Scott that's assuming approval from the referendum y yep yeah if we don't have approval then we have to make a whole new plan which I don't know what that would be but you're right that's pending approval by the community I think I would just add it wasn't too many years ago that as Dr Anderson said we lost 200 kids and then went up five kids the next year um and I think you know the district did everything that we could for accountability and responsibility and transparen that was you know um doing a demographic study and then in short order doing another one currently so um as we've all witnessed as a school board and as a community um and as staff we are kind of blowing out of the water even professionals that do this for a living so um that's why I think to Dr Anderson's point we're really looking at all aspects I think this is an important part of it um and then to move forward as Dr Queener said there's a lot of variables too because if the market went in a different direction or things changed that could have an impact too and then we could look like we were ahead of it so um lots of challenges and variables and there are some State approvals that have to happen that was kind of one of the opening questions go through uh what's called a uh help me uh the process review and comment thank you review and comment where the state has to sign off on uh any large plan that you're going to bring to the community and part of that is to demonstrate we have maximized the utilization of our existing facilities we need a new school or we need some new schools we've done that before each when we Built Metal Ridge Northwoods built onto the high school even an addition of four classrooms at an elementary uh requires a pretty comprehensive process and we work closely with a number of Consultants who help us with funding and financing and impact on the community and so we've done all this before but uh it's a heavy lift and it takes some time in order to process it and you do want to do it right and we will have some crowded conditions in the next three to four years over the years we've done uh short-term Solutions such as having kindergarten sections from Plymouth Creek and Birch viw located at Central Middle School or having some sections of kindergarten or maybe first I don't know if we've done first grade or not tends to mostly be kindergarten I think that we have relocated maybe to an adjacent building or the next closest building that might have a spare classroom or two that we can more comfortably accommodate kids so probably another early Advance uh suggested warning so to speak to the community we may have to resort to some of those types of things we have not made any of those decisions yet we've done them before they work is it everyone's first choice no including the superintendent but sometimes we have to do some things that are going to help accommodate it so I think I would just add we try to do all of our uh schools by Nature due to so many variables usually have to be reactive we don't have control over birth rates we don't have control over who moves in and out of our district we don't have control over the developments there's a lot of aals but not to digress but uh Silver Lining of it is as we know we've struggled through Cost Containment over the last several years due to the impacts of the pandemic uh the increased enrollment even above projection has helped us um come out of that hopefully this current fiscal year you know pending things play out um in a much more timely manner than they otherwise would have so um I know obviously challenges come with enrollment growth but it's also a positive um lining for us coming out of Cost Containment and the challenges the district went through and my beig best guess would probably were not going to be increasing three to 400 kids per year I think this year was a bit of an anomaly some things that can happen sometimes and even though both these grade levels were with us last year we graduated about 850 seniors and we welcomed in about a thousand nth graders so the high school enrollment bumped as a result of that we also feel that there were some kids who made a postco return for a new level of ninth grade at the high school and re-entered into the district some of that might have been the case at sixth grade too so there are some variables that have uh impacted that this year there may have been some pent up demand for new home purchasing and you know through the covid years people might have delayed those decisions and so we think this year is a little bit of an anomaly much like we know the minus 200 was an anomaly um we're probably going to moderate in that 150 to 200 to 250 range 150 to 250 I don't know to Scott's point we can't control it and we just we don't know from year to year we take them all if uh a student lives in our district we find a a place for them so anyway that might have been more than you wanted to hear but those are thoughts then answer your question CH okay thank you you anyone else when uh question I have in a perfect world probably um Elementary new elementary school and middle school being built is a is a good news but um I don't know we're not living in perfect world which of a building is more urgent looking at the numbers I feel like it's a middle school building but maybe I'm wrong I think In This Moment In Time with what I know about our community and what we've experienced growth-wise I think they're kind of in a a dead heat so to speak I think they have comparable similar urgencies and in order for us to deliver um the best possible middle school program I think I would prioritize it with a right along with the elementaries I think with the elementaries it'll become more of a pure capacity with the middle schools it might become more of how do we best deliver the AC mic program for the middle level and can we do that in tight um classroom schools designed in the 50s and 60s I think we'll have to do some remodeling and some renovations to help align um what we're doing at our current three middle schools with what a new Middle School could deliver so but we could have an Elementary online to kind of to your point a year sooner because they're smaller and they're less complex to build than we could at the middle school I think it would be one additional year for the Middle School to open so they're both going to be pretty high priorities I think so you would like to put PO for them I think it would be the most likely again none of this has been decided only the board will take final action on what we're presenting to the community but I think it'll be one package One Time One vote and it'll meet uh the needs that we've identified in every building and and to identify what our new facility needs would be too okay and if I can ask One S um I noticed when I was reading a feedback there were so in so many um recommendations some parents looks like uh at least on um recommending to have some immersion program type of a uh School uh where it's coming from because I I saw that kind of comment literally under every model yeah that is I mean that's something that probably has come up every time that we've adjusted boundaries or talked about facilities and it has not been our philosophical approach to design magnet schools within the footprint of our school district we've developed overtime elementary schools and middle schools that have the same Academic Program across all the levels there are a number of districts that do have imersion programs and I'm generally supportive of immersion programs I think they're fine but it does create a new Dynamic within your school district when you now have for example for us um there would be two two schools if we opened up you know an elementary school that would be a um a magnet school or an immersion school you have now two schools that require full districtwide Transportation so it can it creates some logistical challenges not that any of them can't be overcome but uh you would welcome stud students from across the entire District into one Elementary School and be required to provide transportation for those students so having worked in districts that have those I know that that's a challenge um there are waiting list challenges there are frustrations about who gets in and who doesn't and so I mean all of those things you know districts deal with those things we have chosen to ensure the best possible high quality education across all of our academic areas at each one of our locations for those grade levels so um I I don't know how to best respond to that other than we have not had serious discussions in the district the whole time I've been here about developing an immersion school type concept but I know it's of interest to some families thank you for clarification because I was wondering if it's going to create you know why this uh kid is getting in there why my family at certain point that also I was going to say then how going to contemplate that part it does I mean those things will happen and do happen but again it's just one more logistical thing that you create a process for determining who enrolls and who's not able to and who's on the waiting list thank you you're welcome thank you Dr Anderson uh there are no more questions I will let's move on to the agenda item number two thank you again Scott all right we now move to the teaching and learning report executive director di Miller will present the world's best Workforce report on MCA performance College and Career Readiness and high school graduation and she will be joined by Dr Stacy lner excuse our shaking heads at each other so we get organized here good even evening Mr chair members of the board superintendent Anderson um I am here with Dr Stacy lner tonight from teaching and learning in the research and evaluation plan team and we are here tonight for our second portion of the world's best Workforce report if you recall we made the decision this year to try and chunk this up if you will to um have a little more opportunity for it to be digestible as well as to provide feedback on the report as well and so this is our second time here tonight but hopefully this slide looks familiar to you because it is the same one we used in our first presentation the last time we were here and we use this as kind of an anchoring slide and that is as when we look at data it's a lot of numbers and it's a lot of things but we need to remember um the business that we're in and that is in the business of people and specifically our students um for their success in their learning so as we talk about numbers and outcomes and try to um quantify something that is really not quantifiable and that is our student experience and learning here and so as we start tonight just to remember um to Anchor Us in that that work our goals and purpose for being here tonight um very similar to the last time we were here in fact exactly the same um to revisit and continue to learn more about that District through line um when it comes to your um the the work that you do as a board when you set those strategic directions and um create the equity commitment and then it is the the work of um Department leads and building principles and our teachers to actualize that mission and vision that you set forth for us we're also here tonight then to continue to understand a little bit more about that world's best Workforce report as well as the integration legislation and how those two things combine for our Collective work uh director heray will not be here tonight because again we're not focused specifically on the aips but you will see a lot of overlap when she comes um for that third presentation I will'll be taking a look at those state required assessments um proficiency performance of all of our students with attention to the racial and economic achievement gaps and again that is part of the world's best Workforce requirement we'll be using ACT assessment which is the College and Career Readiness of all of our students and taking an initial look at the racial and economic Readiness gaps in that um and as well as discussing some additional ways that we may um be looking at that data in the future um and Diving more deeply um with the high school in that work and then also taking a look at the graduation rates of our y Zetta high school students if you recall from the last time we were here um this is a draft of a visualization of our through line um and we have our time set up to work with um Communications and Amy to make this look a little better and maybe more circular but you're still stuck with this one tonight while we continue to do that work um but really reminding us that we take our direction from the direction you as a board set for us and you do that through those strategic directions and Equity commitments and then it is our job to extrapolate how we bring that to life and how we actualize the vision that you have set for us and the work that you've asked us to do as District leaders the two strategic directions that we'll most closely be focusing on again tonight are one and two that daily student experience and um the instruction achievement of our students but as we know all of those strategic directions are so interwoven and dependent upon one another example um when we're hiring we want to make sure we're hiring the the very best and we're diversifying our Workforce because that impacts as we know student an achievement so it's hard to pull one um of these or two of these apart from the others but primarily um our focus and attention will be on directly on that strategic Direction one and two and then um tonight the part of it that we'll be addressing as we've talked about is the world's best Workforce and that will be interwoven with that District operational plan or what we're referring to is the dot and um we're currently working on under the leadership of Dr Anderson to bring that dot to realization and be able to present that um as well and in the dot will be closely tied to um world's best Workforce as well as the Minnesota mtss plan and the literacy plan because all of those have our district goals on it so we're working really hard to align all that so the work of the building plans which will be next the work of the district plans all line up back towards the realization of the Strategic road map and so with that um looking at our dates and so forth I'm going to turn it over to Dr lner thank you uh director Miller um so tonight I'm going to be sharing the results of our um world's West Workforce data related to our proficiency gaps um career and college readiness and then also high school gradu and then as we mentioned before in December we'll come back to talk about achievement and in integration so first the proficiency gaps um part of the world's best Workforce goal is that all racial and economic achievement gaps between students are closed so we'll be sharing the MCA and mtas um data and we will be presenting more than just the racial and economic achievement gaps we because we do track um data on additional special populations so just to give you a little bit of information about the MCA and the mtas tests um the MCAS are a measurement to align um a measurement of the alignment of district and school's curriculum and instruction with the State academic standards so one thing I do want to note is that this that the MCA test is not intended to provide data on individual students it's intended to provide data about systems about school districts and schools and how what we're doing and how we're meeting the needs of students in learning the academic standards for the state so reading um MC are given in grades 3 through 8 and also in grade 10 the math MCA is given in 3 through eight and then in grade 11 in high school the Minnesota test of academic skills that's the test that measures um The Learning of the students with the most significant cognitive disabilities to ensure that their instruction is aligned with the academic standards and that's about 1% of um the students in the district and they're it's administered in the same grades um as the MCA so moving on to the data um you'll see that this graph here shows our mathematics results for grades 3 through eight the reason that um we are showing 3 through eight in the graphs is in at the high school level it's been a challenge for participation so the data that are shown in the results graphs are only for grades 3 through eight however I do have slides coming up that do explain the participation rate at the high school level so this shows us the um percent proficient for all students in y Zetta um in the 24 school year um 23 24 school year was 75% and at the state it was 47% another thing that I want to point out about this graph is you'll see a gap in the data line um for the 201920 school year and the 2021 school year so as you remember um part of the co pandemic um in the spring of 2020 we did not give the MCA in the state and then in the spring of 2021 we are still in the hybrid learning year so we had many students who were in distance learning so they did not take the MCA test so our participation in the MCA was is much lower um than we would um than expected and also than of previous years as well so one thing to knowe um looking at the past three years so that's after the pandemic learning years um that the Yetta percent proficient did decline by three points and the state declined by one point over those three years looking at the data by race ethnicity um our the student group with the highest percent proficient was our Asian student group and they were at 90% proficient and the lowest um percent Prof efficient um was in the American Indian Alaska native group at 24% one thing just to note um the American IND Indian Alaska native group is very small so that's why um it's typical to see a large fluctuation in the data from year to year so you'll notice that in the graph that there's quite a bit of a change for that particular group and that's something that is is not uncommon um when the um groups are small so moving on to special populations um I listed the overall percent proficient just as a comparison so for mathematics the overall percent proficient is 75% um for the special population students receiving special service or special education services were at 47 students eligible for free Ro meals at 43 and students receiving English learner services at 41 so there's quite a big gap between all students and students in our special populations the next slide shows participation um in grade 11 on the math MCA so overall we had 69% of students participate that's quite a bit lower than our grade 3 through eight um uh grades on the MCA our participation for the elementary middle school is typically around 98% so this is quite a big difference between um the high school participation and the rest of the district and I just pointed out there the um percent participation for some of the groups who had the lowest percent participation so our hisp Hispanic Latino white students and also umud students eligible for free reduced lunch meals were all below 70% so quite quite a low participation um from U those particular student groups then moving on to reading um our percent proficient for grades 3 through eight was 72% in 22 23 24 um and the state was at 49% over the last three years uh the percent proficient in Yetta declined by Five Points while the state declined by one point for uh data by race ethnicity the um group with the highest percent proficient was the Asian student group and the lowest percent proficient um was the American Indian Alaskan native group at 24% moving on to special populations um again all students um in wisata were uh 72% proficient and then special ed through reduc meals was at 44% and then students receiving English learnning services at 25% the participation for high school reading um is much higher than um the um math participation but still lower than the rest of our grade levels for mathematics so we had 83% participation rate and um variable uh participation for the different student groups but none of them below 70% like we saw with the math so moving on the next set of data that I'm going to share is the act um College in career Readiness um benchmarks so a few things to talk about with the data from the ACT um it's a national Al standardized tests that can be used for college ad Administration or I'm sorry admission sorry about that um it includes four different tests English math reading and Science in Yetta we offer the ACT to all 11th grade students during the school day at no cost for students so we do that every um spring so last March was the last time we um administered the ACT um some students also take the ACT on their own on Saturdays during the national testing Administration so they they do that at their choice and they if there is a cost to that um but they do choose to take the ACT in addition to the date that we provide it in school so the results um in the next few slides are for students in grade 11 using their best score from all administrations one thing I do want to note is that the data does not include students in 12th grade so students do have the opportunity to take the ACT again um but we don't have that data included in the slides we're looking only at students Readiness as of their junior year the college and Creer read benchmarks for ACT are set um to predict success in college level classes so if a student meets the college wri this Benchmark on the subject test they have a 50% chance of getting a b or higher in the associated College course or a 75% chance um to 80% chance of getting a c or higher so the first set of data we're looking at mathematics um so that we're in align with um what we've presented for elementary and middle school we're looking at math mathematics so this shows us the percent of students above the College and Career Readiness Benchmark to predict success in college algebra so overall WIS outa students in 24 um had 64% of our students meeting that Benchmark and over the last three years a decline and overall decline about two points just have to move forward in my slides here sorry about that so looking at the data um by race ethnicity um for the 24 school year or spring of 24 is when we actually give the test the highest um percentage of um meeting that Benchmark was in the um Asian student group and the lowest was the black or African-American student group and it's quite a big gap um 86% in the Asian student group and 15% in the black are African-American student group moving on to special populations again overall um 64% of students who of Juniors um who took the ACT met that college writing us Benchmark um overall and for special students receiving special services it was at 21% and students eligible for free reduced lunch meals um was at 24% in the spring of 2024 moving on to reading overall um 61% of our Juniors um who took the ACT met the college wri Benchmark in reading and that predicts um student performance in in college um social science courses um over the past uh three years the percent of Yetta students who took the AC meeting that Benchmark declined by eight points by race ethnicity um the in the spring of 24 the highest um the the group with the highest percent meeting The Benchmark was the Asian student group at 80% and the group with the lowest percent of students meeting The Benchmark was black or African-American at 30% and then moving on to special populations um just a reminder overall um 61% of students who took the act in their junior year um met the college readiness Benchmark in reading and um for students receiving special ed services it was 51% and students eligible for free reduc meals was 35% so the last set of data that I'm going to share with you is about is um High School graduation so the data that we are using this year to present the results um relates to the state cohort um seven-year graduation rate so what they do is they look at all of the students who started in grade um and they track them through seven years and then count how many of them um completed the high school program um for wise out a public schools so by doing the seven-year rate we're including the students who are in special education and eligible to continue in their transition program students in special ed who meet the criteria are eligible to continue until they're 21 years or I think 22 years now um so this includes students who completed High School graduation requirements through the transition program looking at our data overall um the class of 20 so just just a reminder because we're using the seven-year rate we're going back to the class of 20 and our data from the state is most current up to um the 2023 um graduating year so we're looking at students in the class of 2020 99% of them completed wi Wisa High School graduation requirements within seven years and there has been no sub substantial um change in that percentage over the last five years looking at the data by race ethnicity um our highest percent of students graduating within seven years was in the Asian student group at 100% of students and then the lowest was um the students in the black or africanamerican group um at 96% looking at special populations um students receiving English learner Services 100% graduated within seven years um for students eligible for free reduce L free reduce price meals was 96% and students rece receiving special ed services was 92% so that's the data and I'm going to transfer it over to Dana Miller aome so that's a lot still sounds crazy to think we broke that down and that's still a lot of data so we want to leave you plenty of time for um thanks Amy plenty of time for questions but again reminding you of what our purpose here was tonight and that was to give an overview of you know one form of data that um gives us some information on how we're performing in our student student performance as well go ahead so our talking points kind of those key messages if if I was going to take some things away from this is wetta continues to be a destination District a top performer when we look at State Assessments in the act that being said we do continue to have gaps across our system existing between um our race ethnicity and our special populations and our um in those student groups as measured by our state assessments and acts um and that is what we're seeing in the state and our gaps pretty much reflect what we see um across the state and nationally as well so we have ongoing work that is continuing across our district that is aimed at addressing those gaps for each and every learner and then just that reminder that there are many layers of data that tell the student story and tell our district story and so while this is definitely one layer of that data that we want to look at um there's multitudes of other data that that tell the full story just like we have um data is a glimpse of an individual performance data is a glimpse of a district performance too so we want to pay attention to this data and know that there's much more to the story than that and then our seven-year graduation rates remain very high among all of our students and student population groups um we almost guarantee that if you come to Y Zetta for your high for your education you will graduate AZ a graduate and that's something to be very proud of um and then just that reminder that um to dig deeper into the what is happening with that that will be part of the work that we're sharing with you when we come forward with the dot plan that's aligned to that strategic road map set by you and so with that we will open it up to your questions I also have both of our directors in the content areas here tonight so Obby BR and Austin toson are with us just in case um you stump us and we have their backup as well so thank you thank you stump you no no but thank you Dana and thank you Dr lner board colleagues any comments or questions yes Paris I have four questions but I think I'll wait you you should go through rest of the audience and we'll wait for oh do you want me to go so um I'll sort of start from the end of the presentation so act and I and I understand sometimes it's you know State mandated right but having spent last 2 three years with a lot of high schoolers is that still a right measure especially when colleges are not looking at ACT score so what I've been noticing since covid when colleges Dro you know looking at ACT score only the top colleges they look at it are where you know the top talent goes right so again when you look at the general population the top students they'll always appear for ACT they'll give 100% because they want to appear in top top of the list going to top of the universities but then most of the audience either not applying or if they find out they're not doing good with act and for a number of reasons right sometimes kids are really smart but they don't do well with standardized tests right and then they don't submit the test Cod so really it feels like act is not really the thing anymore that used to be before especially after colleges stopped looking at it so have you noticing that Trend and the reason I'm asking this question is ultimately we have to look at this data and see what can be done to improve right but if the basic sort of mentality is like hey if I'm going to apply to this college and they're not interested in act why bother right so what what have been like your observation yeah so we do have participation data and we do still have pretty high participation in the ACT um colleges are changing a little bit in the future they may be reinstating the um Act requirement um so that is a good point that that has changed a little bit um from year to year so in terms of how students are taking the test um but we still do have pretty high participation in our act tests um and we are also considering other types of data to measure College and Career Readiness um right now we we are pro we are um reporting the AC because that's the data we have and that's a trend we can look at um but it is a very good point that the the um motivation for students um changes with the ACT based on what act is doing um so definitely that's something we're considering for the future is additional College and Career read um metrics okay yeah and I think also Paris um at that while some of for colleges and Dr lner's right we're seeing more colleges add it back in or is at least as one of the tools maybe it's not a cut score to get in but it is a piece of the student story that they look at and so most students are still wanting to do really all that it's also oftentimes a benchmark for scholarship entry so while College may not require it getting money and that s and I also think we just want to always be careful when we look at our data one of the things we always say is we don't want to Alibi it right our data is our data and you're absolutely right there can be a multitude of factors I didn't feel good that day I overslept what whatever um that always impacts that data and that's why it's always really important to never look at one piece and say well that tells our story but to look at it over time to look at other pieces P of data um but not Alibi this data and say well dismiss it because but you don't see that factor I'm not I think it' be a great question to ask you know that we can ask um the high school as well but I haven't seen it in my experience and then the same goes to MCA and this is something personally I have noticed so when kids were going through MCA and map test through Elementary the focus was on MCS score because then you get to go to some of these Advanced courses like through your Elementary Middle School as soon as you hit High School everybody knows that hates your GPA and maybe act right or sat whatever counts MCA is not a thing that college look for right so MCA is that still a right way to look at for high schoolers for college readiness or what's your observation that's a really good question we do have a challenge with high school participation in the MCA and I think part of it is what you had just said that um colleges are looking at GPA they're looking at act if they're accepting um ACT scores so it is a challenge um to get participation we are required by um the state accountability system that we have to give the test we have to expect that all students were will participate so it's a challenge for us to report the results when we have a very low high school participation and it's not unique to wise that up it's Statewide there's a challenge with high school participation in the MCA definitely so that's part of the reason why um I presented just the grades 3 through eight data but we are required in State Statute to include MCA in our world's best Workforce reports okay so it's important for us to explain and tell the story of what is MCA looking like in our district so that's why I included the high school participation okay yeah and again I'll let others ask the question but that's where I was leading towards like hey if we're going to look at actionable sort of you know action plan how do we how do we even look at at it when we know the data is going to be skewed right like even though MCA high schooler participation or outcome is not great that doesn't mean they are ready for college because they might be doing just fine with their gpn act or act a couple things to add in is there are certain groups of population for which they will take the MCA score um in some of our colleges in the state to allow in so maybe it's a student struggled or had some life situations whatever they're they're is a special population where this can be an entry point um I think the other nice shift and if you have an opportunity to geek out on the MCA website under under mde they really have been working hard to change the perception of what MCAS are which I think for those of us in education we've been saying for I don't know ever and that's that this is systems data so what's good about the MCA is it it lets us know where we might be seeing how is our our curriculum materials doing in meeting the standards how our instruction doing and meeting the standards it really tells us across our fifth grade right how are we doing or across in math how are we doing compared to other schools in math that tells us system it's not good data never was on my student is making growth or not making growth because it's a proficiency Benchmark right so some of us may have had the the privilege of having kids who met the proficiency B you know at Birth and so it doesn't tell us whether that that we've grown those students in that grade so in that name if we could get our high school students to find that value we are missing that piece of systemically when we look at our instruction and our curriculum in that and we compare that to others in that how are we comparing systemwide um but it's A Hard Sell because um as you know if you've had a 14 through 18 year old you know why is this matter to me gener you know exactly that's a hard cell it is okay two more questions please hold off on that yes anyone else then yeah sure well thank you so much for being here it's nice to you be able to dive into the data and see these numbers um and really have a lot of inflection points with it um I wanted to ask it's you kind of reference throughout with the MCA and then with the act like being proficient a certain percentage of our cohorts being proficient so with the ACT what score is considered proficient or is it more complicated than that that's a good question so for the MCA um the the grade level proficiency is set by um a group of Educators and Professionals in terms of what is the expected level of proficiency within the set of Standards so the scores um are based on the grade level um so and I'm I'm not sure if that was your question exactly what is a proficient score on the MCA um so it's usually the the grade level is it's a three-digit number the grade level is the first digit and then um the next two digits tells you that the the rank or the performance that the students um had on that particular test so if you're for example if you're a third grader a 350 is proficient if you're a fourth grader a 450 is proficient so it's on a so the actual scale of numbers is is 100 so it's the first digit is the grade level and then you have um a scale of 100 for the actual score itself so it's a little bit complicated so in general it's grade level and then 50 is efficient okay and then the act for specific um for specific uh subject areas I believe I I don't have this memorized I believe for um math it's 22 and also for reading it's also 22 for English I think is 18 and for science I think it's higher but I I'm sure we can pull up a chart very quickly um but it there is there are set cut scores um set by act based on their research of how students do in a first year college course related to that subject well thank you that really does help a lot of know it's um you we when we would take the MCA you know in the computer lab and so forth we would get our score back in a lot of us would wonder you know what is what all does this mean so it's helpful to have the information I really appreciate it thank you yeah no problem so so just just to follow up so the um the social studies yes the reading is 22 and college l albra um mathematics is also 22 so when the students get their scores back if they get a 22 on the ACT in Reading um it's meeting The Benchmark if they get a 22 on act and math it's also meeting the math benchmark so Dr lachno help me understand U the answer to Dan's question M so 350 250 and 450 so if I understand correctly as you grow go higher in grades MH it becomes more difficult to be proficient is that correct not necessarily it's um it's aligned to this the academic standards in that grade level so the um proficiency is set based on those academic standards so if you are performing at a proficient level in third grade you should be the your the curriculum should prepare you to be proficient um and then the the set of academic standards for fourth grade is much is more difficult but the proficiency level should be a it technically it should be equated across grade level so if I'm if I'm scoring say say I score in the meets range in third grade and I go through my fourth grade um year and I am engaged in the curriculum I'm learning all the standards I should be proficient the next year as well and so on so so it's it's more diff the content is more difficult but it's not more difficult to be proficient I should have known this because my kids were in elementary school at one time and it's been a long time ago so maybe forg thank you though it's complicated yeah I have some clarification to ask first of all about MCA test pr50 does it mean that effectively if you pass uh surpass 50% then you are considered to be proficient then uh it's not 50% of like the answered correct it's a scaled score so it's based on the number of items you got the level of difficulty of the item so what they'll do is they will they'll equate your score along um 1 to 100 basic or one to 99 um so that if you score 50 then you're proficient but then they also have another cut score up above um that's the exceeds range and that's actually different by grade level it's about um 63 62 to 64 um depending on the grade level um but the only thing that's the only two um cut scores that are really set in the seam for all grade levels is um proficiency is 50 and above until you get to exceeds and then you're in the exceeds partial is between 40 and 50 but to be clear that's not 50% no it's not 50% correct it's it's 340 440 540 640 so every grade level the cut point is at 40 okay if I can ask one more time and also about MCA uh test results so you uh told that obviously high schoolers do not participate as um I mean as in bigger quantity as others but I'm curious if he would include 10th graders um how would your results will look like um would we be able to look at it later I think that's difficult to say because if we're looking at the participation rates we don't have the participation rate is different by student group and there may be some student groups who um predictively score higher or lower and so if we have a lower participation in one group and a higher participation in a different group it doesn't represent all of the student groups um in in an equitable way in order to say this is what our data um says for all of our students because we we're not all part they're not all participating in the test and they participate at different rates so it's really difficult to say unless you get above 90% it's difficult to use this data to say this is how all of our students performed in um in that particular grade level okay and next question will be is um how would you explain that to be honest we obviously out of covid era but if you look at numbers unfortunately uh numbers are going down and um I couldn't help then I remember that when I was uh reading some materials it almost looks like after Minnesota decided to reimagine Minnesota all of a sudden our uh scores of students I cannot help um but look at the scores and see how they are going down and um how would you explain right now I mean things change uh we out of covid and uh some groups still did not um did not come back to a preco era what is affecting them other than maybe what we're doing at schools affecting students uh um how say how they feel about themselves and um to what degree this reimagine Minnesota is helping in this case I don't feel like it is helping to be honest so one thing just to just to share um when we're looking at our data for the MCA we are also looking at students progression AC years so when they're when they're performing on the third grade MCA were really measuring their experience from kindergarten through third grade and um also so you're looking at a cumulative number of years and when you're thinking about the students who went through um the covid shutdown the hybrid years um that has an impact it's a residual impact for years to come that doesn't mean that we don't accelerate their learning that we don't do everything we can to accelerate their learning and it's still in our data and it will be there um for for the next several years um and so that's just something to consider and like I said it's not that we wouldn't accelerate their learning it's just one of those an one factor to consider when we're looking at the data that the co there may be a covid impact continuing for several years um and we still need to respond to it you know respond to student performance uh just to clarify I was not meaning about that teachers are not doing their job I mean I was meaning that uh the um the direction uh the schools uh moved in and to be honest uh if it affect I mean I agree Co obviously affected we can see it but when you look look at Asian somehow magically they're doing pretty good they're in the same schools uh Co did not affect them what happened why uh obviously Asians uh I know typically we say they're very much so into learning and studying but how come others who were showing um higher results right now showing lower results yes so I think it's just really care we want to be really careful when we look at data just like we saying no want to overgeneralize on anything because as we said there's always a multitudes of impact there and so for example when we look at our results in Co compared of the state we did not drop as low as the rest of the state did you know as as a total so it you have to to to look at that piece and and I would agree that if we look at the the Imagine reimagine Minnesota work that started about 2019 which would have hit right during covid and so I don't know that we've had enough time and that was really generated at um each and every so it was really getting in alignment with our mission statement here in the district is saying all students should be performing and and you're exactly right we have not hit those gaps are still persistent um and so we have more work to do in that area um but the reasonings for that it it's just it's not a it's not a linear cause and effect relationship is what makes education so difficult is it's just it's it's not that simple um and so we just want to be really cautious to not overgeneralize on our data and to continue to dig into a multitude of hypotheses as to what what triggers might and it's it's some combination of of everything so well thank you for the present it was um very thorough um my it's always frustrating right to see that there are gaps that exist and I don't think we can escape that I don't think we shouldn't say it it's frustrating and we see it year after year and it's persistent and it's not something that's different than the rest of the state um but what do you do once you have this information what do we do with it where do we go with it and how do we decide what the next best steps are to make sure that as a system we're trying to make adjustments and make a difference for those student populations that do see a big gap from the highest to the lowest um performance yeah great questions um and I don't think it's just like when we just see this data now what it you know what is that we do it's like what's been our continuation of work that over time we hope to see a change in this data so when we think about things that we've we've come and present about you you saw from Sunset Hill the last time we were here talking about their student experience right because when stud students feel connected and belong we know research tells us really clear that that impacts learning so we're working on those pieces um we know that we need to reach students where they're at and making sure that our our curriculum and our teaching approaches um meet them right each and every student where they're at and so our cultur responsive training that we're doing our culture responsive practices are critical um making sure we're selecting curriculum that is Windows and mirrors to the students in our classes because again the research is really clear on on that piece our work with the builts and those strategic um site growth plans um every building has growth plans that are aimed at looking at our students who um are not making aggressive growth who need to so some of those new screeners and some of that data that we're getting from fastbridge I've really seen a lot of energy in our buildings around that work because we can really Target in on what students don't have this specific skill instead of waiting you know we we refer to this as autopsy data these these students are out of those classrooms now and on to the next set so it always has a bigger impact when it feels like I those are my students or um that so that built and then the plc's um are really recommitting to the PLC process um has been huge and we hope and and we're seeing that impact um we were just looking today at a data system where we're able to track student benchmarks across each student so that we can have that R teaching moment when we're using those wi times um or my times um here and so all of those little pieces hiring the best of teachers right investing highly in professional learning around around our teachers hiring a diverse work force retaining those people those are all um pieces when we look at attendance data building high quality schools that people come to and I think the good news in this is because WIS Zetta is such a high performing School District um if there is a school district that can unlock this code it's wetta and I think that's what makes it really exciting to um be an educator here and to be doing this work because every day teachers are looking at each and every student in saying how do we raise their capacity and how do we do more than a Year's growth in a year's time for these students um both Obby and Austin with their teams and our coordinators unpacking standards to make sure we're hitting the ones um that matter most picking those High leverage um um pieces and and I could just go on and on working with our um equity and inclusion Department um and really getting at that needs work so students um are able to identify their needs and what they need in the classroom to fully engage in that learning um the one thing about education is there's we're data Rich we're just not always data responsive as well and there's tons of research with Hade out there on what are the lovers that make the difference so that teacher efficacy student belonging and we're really leaning into that work and then trying to match our practices with that work and then over time and it's it's not fast again these aren't widgets right so over time we hope that we continue I shouldn't say we hope because that's not a strategy we believe that we will um move the needle on that and I see you know every administrator I think um like for example with the high school they're doing some really good work around that y Zetta portrait of a graduate around making kids feel committed they have some good data around their AP scores so in that dot we're also looking at what are different ways that we can be measuring students or measuring our progress so for example who are the number of students who takeen and and take an AP course right are we getting to each and every student feeling like that's an opportunity for them and being successful so figuring out other ways to also measure Student Success will be critical in this work sorry I'll get off my soap box that's good thank you I wanted to hear your perspective on it I have one more question Dr Sony if that's okay um MCAS and the mtas are systemic measures right they look at the system and systems impact the individual so if you could tell parents why it's important for students to take the test what would you say I would say it helps us it gives us information on how we're doing as a school district it's a measure that directly measures our state standards we have no other test that directly measures it we have tests that predict um student performance on State Standards but MCA is the only one who actually measures our our state standards it also helps us compare our data to other students in the state so it tells us how are we doing um if we decline did the state decline if we went up did the state go up it helps us um compare what we're doing to other districts in the state as well so it gives us an indicator of how we are doing as a system and our system gets better when we all participate so having students participate is very important for us to be do to to do our work and improve so what I would hear with my own kids right when they didn't want to take it is well what does it matter to me right well in order for us to instruct you at our best and have the best curriculum and the best strategy so that you get the best ACT score or whatever that measures we have to have those best systems in place we can't tell if we have the best systems in place the best tool for that as it is or one of the best tools is the MCA test so it does have an impact on how you how you perform um given that it impacts us on how we do our job here so it's really the systems evaluation um and it's the best tool that we have it's definitely not without its problems but it's the best what I'm hearing is it's their opportunity to give feedback by taking this test absolutely thank you just have a more of a comment than a question because I think my questions have been answered but I'll give you an opportunity to add anything else so um I'll Echo kind of what Heidi said this is really hard to look at um and and you say if there's a district in the state that can that can address this it's wetta and I think we join you in believing that um but then we follow up with and there's an urgency to get there right um and and because if we look at our trend lines they were there so it's not a problem that any one group owns it's it's something that's part of our history and we don't want it to be part of our future um you you spoke a little bit so I don't know that we have time or you want to continue to um share any more about the various ways right because we we know our students are doing really great work every single one of our students are doing great work we see that in our student presentations we see that in other things what are the ways are there any more ways you haven't referenced tonight about the ways that teachers are getting to know their students and where their learning targets are and then looking at our students across the board and asking all of them regardless of where they are on that chart to and asking and helping all of them to show progress start you want to go um so the first part of your question was how do they what information are they looking at so we we do so there's the universal screener that all students students take in grades um k through eight so that's the one piece of data but then they they follow up with additional information that they gather through formative assessments through curriculum assessments um we also have additional diagnostic assessments that we can give so teachers are tracking their student data on a daily basis um and we do have systems in place where they can access that data um as Dana mentioned we're always looking to improve our systems and making sure um teachers have the data they need to make the the daily decisions or weekly decisions and work as a team as their PLC um to accelerate all students learning so my role in my team is to make sure that they have the data that's valid and accurate um so they can make those decisions so and I I'm getting some some good advice from from back here so I should probably just let them speak to it but um you know the work that we're doing with our with our teachers around um for example the essential standards so making sure we're really honing in on the on on those critical level skills on that just absolutely guaranteed and valuable half to knows um also the work on the street level data right so we're really working on how do we get to know our students as best as we possibly can so that we're personalizing to them and we're able to be responsive in the moment I think that's one of the biggest things that has changed even even more so since Co whatever is that we are getting data in the hands and we're getting to know our students better so that I can be responsive now um and make those adjustments and and we're really seeing um some changes to our coaching system between the literacy coaches and even the work our peer coaches are doing so that we can be responsive Cal and that coaching model that we're being responsive and somebody to walk side by side because teaching is such a difficult um we've talked about it here before it's so incredibly difficult and so having others to walk beside to be able to see things sometimes that you can't see or to be able to point out strengths or a way that maybe you could do something differently um is critically important so off the top of my head I don't know Austin Obby did a more no I think that's point I was making I think just those teachers knowing their students better than ever right so all of that lears to our teachers understanding and knowing the learning needs of the students in front of them and the help of getting the dat to them they know or data to them in the moment they need to make those instructional decisions thank you I have one question that I might just follow up on based on the responses I heard too so when we consider MCA tests is there one method by which all students take that assessment I mean it's all the same right yes so one one format yes all students take the MCA well most students take the MCA online students who have um iups that have an accommodation with they take the test on paper the majority of students take the test online and it is really designed to measure that grade level standards um all of they because it's online not everybody takes the same questions um there are multiple forms of the MCA within the one online test but OB most students take it online on the on the iPad so it was slightly bit of a leading question I suppose but when we think about the broad range of student learning styles and the means by which they can provide feedback in a quality way it's an interesting concept when we're encouraged to deliver instruction according to the uniqueness of the individual student that sort of not totally but sort of a one-size fits all assessment model is what's administered where we know that some kids really struggle with um that form format of testing and respond much better with different approaches to demonstrating what the learning has been so I think there are some limitations in the larger package of the system that you know can have an impact on those as well and I do think the co effect is still lingering and it's going to be with us for a while I appreciated the points that you made with that thanks and is MC also the questions also change based on the previous answer or that is map that's that's the fast Bridge a reading a math change y I think one other thing Sarah um to get to your point is also we know the mental health needs and the EM social emotional needs of our students and so also leaning into our shape data and our mental health screeners and being responsive to those um we've worked really hard to put some Elementary counselors in so that we can be more proactive in our supports um you know we've continued to um look at our Specialized Service model and provide more supports in in that area and so really also honing in on that that total child and you know the hopes and dreams conferences and and you know all of those things our Early Learning Program how can we attract more students to be with us um from the get-go and how do we get information on all of those things um working with Jenny Ebert to our early you know our birth Outreach and above all of those things make an impact on how we can all work together it's it's not any one building's um solution or problem and and it's it's a system and strong Community that's why when we think about the Minnesota mtss system that's why there's those five lovers and one of them is family and Community engagement one of them is deep into the data so recognizing all those different factors that go into to supporting our whole child and their learning regardless of demographics did you have more question okay so if nobody else has a question I have a question and a comment may be associated with the question um there are five demographics right that are kind of underperforming right black students Hispanic students and the other three categories which were actually separated in different charts what percent of the student population do those five comprise uh so I I could look I give you picture um I think um for our his Hispanic Latino students were at about 5 to 8% um black are African-American about 8% as well um for special ed I would guess about 12 to 133% um I couldn't even guess on the free R lunch because that's changed so much um and El has also increased quite a bit so I'm not quite sure whether about 25 to 30% of the students are in that category of I'm sorry 25 to 30% % of our total students are are the ones that are in those categories that are not proficient in math or or reading is that correct um not necessarily because every every group is um because there's there's overlap between the groups um so a student may be receiving special education services and also in the Hispanic Latino student group so it's um it's not we can't just just add the percentages together we would have to look at them individually so if you're looking at it by race ethnicity you can look at um the percentage say for our um Asian student groups and our and our white student group they tend to be um performing higher than the other race ethnicities and I think for our white student group we may be at about 69% and for the Asian student groups just above 20 okay um so if you add all those together then maybe about 15 to 18% of students are in a different group um for special ed and E and um free reduced lunch you really have to look at those individual um typ you know identify what percentage of students are in those GRS okay all right thank you so this it's it's more of a concern so I I've been thinking about this since I started on the board we have students here that are not proficient in reading or in math at the elementary level we don't know about high school right but the state and our school district both you know it's not just wi as issue I think it's the state and and our school district that has 90 plus% of the high school students that graduate what is the disconnect I I don't get that you know if you are not proficient in reading and math and you are graduating from high school what are you doing for them as they enter college so are they ready really so so the MCA is designed to measure student Readiness um for college and every um every District sets their own graduation criteria um and so it I would say you know obviously it's not matching up from the MCA to the graduation rate so that's a really good question one thing I want to just clarify on I might have heard this wrong but I think you might have said the MCA measures for college readiness so yes and yeah so so act measures college readiness it's a it's a college entrance exam and when you're looking at the design of the MCA which is a different conversation about how they're designed and what the intention is the MCA is really written with the intention of students moving and forward to going to college but it's not a college okay now I've got a backtrack because in the minsu system the Minnesota state colleges and University as you can use an MCA score for admission and also um not to have to take um development mental courses so it I may have just explained a little bit too much and Confused everybody so I apologize um so and for your question the um graduation requirements and MCA proficiency don't um line up exactly yeah keeping in mind that we we graduate based on credits so if I accumulate those credits I graduate right um and we can you can can earn credits at a level lower than maybe grade level proficiency does that make am I following yeah I mean I'm I'm not saying this is wia's problem to solve I think it's a state standard right I mean there are state standards for high school graduation aren't there right there's a lot and there's a lot that goes into how you earn your grades and how you earn your credits other than a one test score piece right like that's the cumulation of a lot of things and takes into a lot of other factors so um there's a lot of research around GPA being a better predictor or not right of college success so they're just they're different measurements okay right thank you um no other questions thank you both I think I think instead of us stumping you Dana Dr Z stumped us with the last response right never easy K thank you thank you for the presentation all right this completes our work session for this evening the next school board meeting is on Tuesday November 22nd not on Monday Amy correct me if I'm wrong that's Monday is a Veterans Day November 12th right I'm sorry no November 12th which is a Tuesday not on November 11th Monday because that's Veterans Day okay the time now is 610 the Peta Public Schools Board of Education work session for Monday October 28th 2024 is adjourned