Transcript, October 14, 2026

Good evening. Today is Wednesday, October 14th, and we're here for our regular Board of Education meeting. What is the pleasure of the board?

Pleasure of the board, I make a motion we enter public session for the reasons set forth in the agenda.

Is there a second?

Speaker

Second.

Any questions or discussion on the motion? Let's vote by usual sign of aye.

Speaker

Aye. Aye.

Any opposed? Motion carries. 1.01, our roll call. Ms. Trapani, would you mind doing a roll call to establish a quorum, please?

Speaker

Present.

Present.

Speaker

Here.

Speaker

Good evening.

Present. We have all board members present. 1.02, executive session. What is the pleasure of the board?

All right. Good evening, we are reconvening open session. Please stand and join me in the pledge.

Speaker

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

1.04, we have a presentation on district data.

Is your mic on?

District staff

Is that better? Ooh!

District staff

Everybody awake? Good evening. Um we have some data to share this evening. We're going to start with some of our elementary data. This is not all of the data, but this is sort of an overview of some of the key data pieces um that we are looking at. So,

District staff

I feel like it's super loud now.

District staff

So first, we're going to start with our Smarter Balanced ELA proficiency on the overall assessment. This is combined grade-level data, so when you look at it for the elementary schools, you are looking at grades 3, 4, and 5 proficiency data. Um you'll note on here that um there's a pink bar that shows you the district average proficiency, and then the green bar is the state average proficiency. So while overall, and we'll look at this um in some of the additional data slides, you'll see that, for the most part, our overall elementary data is staying relatively stable, with some increases in certain grade bands at certain sites. Um, Overall, while several of our elementary schools, about three of them, four of them are above the district average of proficiency for literacy, um we are still between 2 and 15 percentage points away from the state average in literacy overall when we look at combined date data.

District staff

This chart is a little tricky in the way that it's presented, so I just want to share with you, um this is looking at average growth toward students' growth goals. So when students take the assessment each year, they are given a scale score. Based on that scale score for that year, they're given a growth target for where the scale score should be the following year. This chart looks at how students, the average percent towards growth goals that students are making. So, for example, if we take a look at um, if we were to take a look at North Dover, you can see that their bar is 61.10%. So that means, on average, students are reaching their goal 61- reaching 61.10% of their growth goal. That's on average. Clearly that means that some students are meeting and exceeding the goal, and other students are below. But on average, students are meeting 61.10% towards their growth goals. And so you can see when you look at um the state, which, again, is the green bar, and the district is the pink bar, you can see that we have several schools that are um above the state um average for um progress towards average of individual growth targets. And those schools would be Central Elementary, Fairview Elementary, North Dover, with Towne Point right right close behind.

District staff

That's exciting because sometimes with proficiency, you know, we're at the place where, even though we are seeing some increases in our um screening data, we're not necessarily- we haven't really seen the impact that we would like to see in our proficiency data. We know that takes a little bit more time, but it is exciting to see that our our students are showing growth um towards those targets, which we know will get them closer to the proficiency.

District staff

When we take a look at math, this is math proficiency data, so again, you can see that um the pink bar is our district average, um the green bar is our state average. Obviously, um while some of our proficiency data um is higher in math, um it- we still have some- we have several schools that are um still working, you know, the overall- we're seeing more gains, I would say, in our math, although the scores relate remain still below 50%. We did see a nice hike in Hartley's overall proficiency this past year. Um they are actually above the state average of proficiency. Um in in this instance again for our elementary schools, which um you can see that we are between 2 and 15 percentage points, for the most part, away from the state average, with South being lower than that.

District staff

Again, this is looking at the growth target, the same way that we did with literacy. And again, this is showing promising data in that most of our schools on average, the students are growing um over the state um target as far as progress towards their individual growth goals on average. You can see that North Dover is well above the state average at 72.18, Central at 65.06, and the others pretty close behind. Booker T. is right there, um and Towne Point is pretty close as well as Hartley.

District staff

So this data we looked at previously, but I wanted to just highlight it. You know, obviously Smarter Balanced is started starts in third grade and goes up, but really we know that it starts in kindergarten, right? That's really where we start um working towards those goals. And so this is actually our data. This just shows some trend data. Um this also shows data from our pilot that we did last year, so um we'll talk more about this at the literacy presentation that we're going to have around elementary, but we did pilot a framework to help us, and you can see that um over time- so if you take a look over there, one of the things that we have noticed is that our data is showing us that our students, the the amount of growth that our students are making year-over-year has increased, um even though our overall proficiency doesn't look like it's increased, and some of that is because the starting point is a little bit lower. So if you take a look,

District staff

in 23-24, we grew in proficiency for our kindergarten students about 5% from the beginning to the end of the year. They started at 39, went to 44. In the 24-25 school year, they grew 9%, so again, a steady increase in the overall proficiency of students measuring at the end of the year towards grade-level reading proficiency. And then last year, the 25-26 school year, we actually grew even more, up to 13% proficient. Um so we are excited to see that our proficiency scores in kindergarten are increasing year-over-year. Um we are also, though, recognizing that because the starting percentage is lower, it has gone from 39% in 23-24 down to 30% in 25-26, that even though we are seeing an increase in the proficiency gains, um it's not the overall proficient score isn't reflecting that. We did see, when we looked at our ECRI pilot classrooms last year, compared to our non-ECRI pilot classrooms, we did see significant growth in those classrooms. So if you take a look, our ECRI non-pilot classrooms on average, their um end-of-year proficiency was 33%, and our nine ECRI pilot classrooms, their end-of-year proficiency was 59%. So that was a 26% difference, which led us to make the decision to move forward this year and scale that out in kindergarten and first grade district-wide. It also looked at some of the individual indicators, which is phoneme segmentation fluency. That is a critical indicator for kindergarten beginning reading skills going into first grade, and you can see that the non-ECRI pilot classrooms were at 47% with proficiency in that target skill, and the pilot classrooms were at 79%, which was a 32% difference.

District staff

So we are partnering with Reading Assist, as well as using our own in-house reading specialists to provide specifically targeted interventions during the school day and after the school day, partnering through the use of our 21st Century program to really target our special education students. We are also doing a lot of work, which is not really here, but we'll talk about it in the literacy presentation, with really making sure that our Tier 1 instruction is meeting the needs of our special education students. And we know that that has the greatest power to impact their overall performance. And then we are offering additional on-site coaching with our SchoolKit partner as well as our district support specialists for those three schools, specifically targeted at special education.

District staff

Sorry. I got, like,

District staff

Okay. Good evening, members of the board, Capital School District staff, members of the audience. We're going to talk a little bit about secondary data.

District staff

So, same chart that was prepared for elementary also included the middle school, so in this chart, we're only looking at middle school. Here, we're looking at ELA assessment proficiency in Smarter. You know, our goal with our middle schools is to get to that district average. It has crept up a little bit, but that is the ELA assessment proficiency in the middle of that chart, 22.32 and 23.73. So, our goal is to get to and surpass the district average and hopefully chase that state average as well.

District staff

Here's our growth. These are the students that are meeting their growth goals or have achieved, in this case, 56.07% toward their individual growth goal for the Middle School of Innovation and the Middle School of Excellence. So we're seeing a little bit of variation in those numbers. So we're trying to dig into what exactly that variation is outside of student characteristics. Our programming is essentially the same across both sites or for the whole building.

District staff

Here is our math assessment proficiency. Again, we're looking at the middle of that chart for Middle School of Innovation and Excellence. The district average is 18.6, and we are a little bit off of that by five, roughly five points at the Excellence and roughly four, a little less than four, at Innovation. Our goal is to obviously get above that district average. That's a goal that we're setting.

District staff

Here is our growth. In this case, it's a little bit inverse. In the ELA, Excellence was meeting their growth targets, and here, Innovation is meeting their growth targets a little bit higher and more closer to that district average. So, you know, what is the differences between both sites and that inverse, so we're really trying to unpack that and understand. But we are on track with a lot of our instructional initiatives in terms of Tier 1 in literacy and our math support. So hopefully, we can impact those numbers quickly and with consistency.

District staff

This is our SAT proficiency. In this case, it's ELA, SAT ELA and SAT Math at the high school level, 11th graders taking the SAT, and there is the state averages compared to the high school averages. There's been a lot of discussion about the SAT as the assessment up and down the state, and that that might change in the future, and we do test all of our students in that. So we're implementing some different things at the high school this year in their advisory period to really go after SAT prep and make sure that the items and tasks that we're asking in our classrooms mirror the complexity and item types that are on the SAT. That is one of the goals we've established this year with the high school team.

District staff

So here, these are the same slides that were shared earlier at the board retreat just to kind of go through what these are. These are Smarter results for grades, but you can also kind of trend students across. So we've got year one is 23-24, year two is 24-25, and year three is 25-26. So you can kind of track a cohort. I like including the grade five data to know how they enter that transition year in grade six, so that's an average of all of our grade five students across the district and kind of how they change over time.

District staff

And so what we're trying to also understand is the difference between the previous slide, which is Smarter performance, and then we have Star performance in those same grades in ELA. And so we are experiencing growth, but it's inconsistent when you look at that Smarter. It's not necessarily translating to that Smarter data. So this is another puzzle that we're trying to understand to make sure that we are prepared for that Smarter and we're showing those improvements, but clearly our kids are growing and meeting their Star results scores over time, and we are showing growth in all grade levels, particularly in the high school as well.

District staff

Here's our math, which shows a little bit higher growth across the middle school. And as those students come from fifth grade into sixth, seventh, and eighth grade, and we're still trying to again, the SAT is that primary metric by which we're collecting these 11th grade results right now, so we're trying to impact those numbers.

District staff

Same thing for Star when we go back one more slide to Smarter and you see the growth there, so that's showing positive progress. And then here is our Star results across those secondary grades showing growth over two years, double-digit increases, which is promising. But again, that needs to translate to those accountability indicators where it matters.

District staff

And this is a very quick CSI update for our middle school. We obviously know that DSSF calculations and percentages across the state, they've had some challenges with the quality of the data. I think that's primarily associated with the college and career readiness metrics because they are complex and multivariate, they include multiple factors. So I feel confident sharing the current DSSF score as it's reported a couple days ago. So if we recall a couple of years ago, our schools were identified and they had a 0.32 for the Middle School of Excellence, which is in the middle of the screen, and a 0.3074. When that was ranked with all of the Title I schools across the state, they were in the lowest 5%. And they set a threshold. So by the fall of 2027, when all of the data is calculated, we need to get to a 0.3516. That is our target. It's been our target for three years.

District staff

This is what the data is showing right now. So our target is at the top for both buildings to exit CSI status. So the first year we were 0.3073, 0.3200, and then last year, that was the promising part when I was up here last year talking about this was that we were above, and the hope is that we maintain. So we're still above that target, and I do feel confident in this number because it doesn't represent that statewide college and career readiness metric that is very challenging. This is basically Smarter proficiency, Smarter growth, chronic absenteeism, and and some other percentages as well. We'll know the full measure of this story when we get to next year. If we can maintain above that 0.3516 target, we will exit CSI status for our middle school and we we have done our job. The goal is that we maintain our status above the lowest 5% of Title I schools in the state. I'm optimistic and hopeful that we are on track to meet this, but I would love to see that Star growth represent into our Smarter proficiency and our Smarter growth. So it's easy to say that we have more work to do, and we are not finished.

District staff

That concludes the secondary portion of the data. I think we'd be happy to answer any questions that you have.

Thank you. Questions, Ms. Geist?

Good evening. Thank you so much for bringing this data forward. One of the things that I think is really important for us to take a look at is as we're looking at this data, as you were going through some of the slides and and talking about the progress, when we're looking at proficiency data, it would be helpful for us and for the public to be able to see trend data. We know that on the school report card you're able to pull that up and able to see that trend data, but for us to be able to talk about and say that we're seeing improvement on proficiency, just like you've got trend data for our interim assessments, it would be beneficial for us to be able to share that trend data for our proficiency, as well as our growth, because that's really what tells the public the changes that we're making year over year. Unfortunately, there's not a easy place for the public to go on the web and find that. So that really puts it in our laps to be able to share that story with our public. So, you know, I also would like for us when we look at the growth, knowing that the growth calculation utilizes not just all students, but they have sub-groups where they have the lowest quartile, and that's really important because those are our lowest performing students and to see how they're growing, as well as our upper quartile. And so breaking that out so that we're able to actually see and respond to that data and looking at that from a trend perspective is going to be really helpful.

data, how do parents use it, how do our teachers use it. Um thinking about it both from a growth perspective as well, and then thinking about all of the other elements of the accountability system. So I thank you for bringing this data. It's a conversation that I like to have all the time, uh cuz I am a data nerd, but I proudly wear that hat. And uh I look forward to more of the accountability data coming forward.

Thank you. Miss Pendleton?

District staff

Well, well so just thank you. Um, and we have taken notes about some of the additional data. Just to um talk a little bit about how we're using the IABs in IABs in conjunction with our universal screener. So we recognize that they're kind of two different purposes, right? Universal screener really is um an indicator of whether students are are on track to be to reach grade-level targets. And while STAR does give us a diagnostic report, um we know that it's not necessarily to the same depth as um Smarter. What I will say is on both of our um

District staff

and you you can speak to this more at the secondary, but

District staff

on both of our assessment calendars, so each of our um like at the elementary level and secondary level, we provide an assessment calendar at the beginning of the school year. And so we have identified targeted IABs, not just the um comprehensive IAB, but also the focused IABs, which are really targeted at specific skills. And we have mapped them out on our assessment matrix. And so we use those in conjunction with curriculum-based assessments so that we can really get a picture of where students are with specific skills. Um and so, you know, trying to be mindful of not over-testing because we really want to spend the bulk of our time on teaching. Um so when we are putting them in the assessment calendar, typically we are balancing that with um the curriculum-based assessment, and that may become the curriculum-based assessment for that particular marking period or period of time. So um we are sort of doing that, and we are reflecting that on that data. I would say, at least at the elementary level, an area of opportunity

District staff

would be really making sure that we are using that data to the fullest and that all of our teachers understand how to use it. Um and then also, we really have not, even though we have been doing that for at least the last two years, when I think about how are we collecting trend data from those tests, probably not in the way that we could. So those are definitely areas of opportunity for us to really reflect on, but we are at least in the process of making sure that we are providing guidance and recommendations about which ones they should be administering, when they should be administering it, and creating a space and a place for teachers to talk about that data and then align that with our HQIM so that we can make sure that they are using our core programming to then address that. Um and we've also really reflected that to make sure that we are looking at what we've taught, like where our pacing is, so that if it's something that a student should have mastered by that point, we are really taking that into account as well. Um, you want to add to that?

District staff

Yes.

District staff

We we have well-developed interim assessment blocks in math at the middle school. Um we do not have those at the high school, cuz they're not um related to Smarter Balanced. Um and that's something that I need to look into for ELA, but I know those are not as well-developed as the mathematics ones right now.

Um, I just have, well, um Mrs. Geiss mentioned the IABs, and that would have been a question for me too for me as well.

Um, the other thing that I'm interested in seeing, I'm interested in seeing the disaggregated data.

Um, and then one of the things we used to do, because we know we have um, we can track, well, for lack of a better term, track, we can see where how kids did in sixth grade, seventh grade, eighth grade, and then um

District staff

Right, cohort data.

and have conversations with kids about, okay, sixth grade, this is where you were. You need this, because it may have been okay in sixth, but that same score won't help you in seventh and same thing with eighth.

District staff

Right.

So I'm just curious if that's part of a conversation that maybe teachers have with with students, or if they take a look at that deeply. Um, because I think sometimes kids realize, I was not that far away. You know, just a little bit more, whatever may help. So that's about all I have, but I would like to see the uh other data, please.

District staff

I I know the I know the two gaps that I'm tracking consistently in terms of subgroup is ML and special education. Like how big are those gaps and are we closing those gaps? Those are the two that uh we've put in our secondary longitudinal data to keep track of over time. The ML gap is closing. The special education gap is something that we're continuing to work on.

District staff

Good.

District staff

Same the same trend. But when our elementary schools um they have at the end of each benchmark cycle they do a State of the School, where they um their entire school looks at data all across, and cohort data is part of that, because we know that it's really important to match that. When they are doing goal setting with students as part of Leader in Me, when they're doing their WIGs, they are setting goals. What I would say is they have probably been focusing more on STAR or Acadience goals when they're setting that, and so something for us to think about is whether or not we could shift that to um the growth goal for Smarter. That's a great um Thank you. Something to think about.

That's all I have. Thank you.

District staff

Thank you.

Thank you. Ms. Duggins?

Although I'm not a data nerd like my counterpart here, I'm an equity nerd. And when I look at the data, the one thing that sticks out to me is we have schools that don't even look like they belong in the same district. How we gonna have one school here, one school here? So is the opportunity funding going to the schools that's supposed to go to, um what's attributing to these big gaps, um lack of certified teachers, the demographics of the students, um funding, and what are we doing that we don't have Capital looking like the have and the have-nots?

District staff

So I would say, at the elementary level, there

Yes, I was speaking of the elementary, yes.

District staff

Yes, yeah, yes to to all of the things. So in some of our schools where we have seen the greatest struggle, I would say it's a combination of things, but we know that teacher retention has played a huge part on it, right? So um so some of our schools that are that have struggled, it's because they have had several consecutive years where they've had teacher vacancies or where they've had teachers leave in the middle of the year, and really once that happens, it's almost impossible to refill it with a a teacher. So retention of teachers at some of our sites has definitely impacted it. I think also, um when we look at the percentage of special education students or ML students at certain sites, um it may be greater, and some of those, we know that we are we have not been doing a great job of closing the gap for those students, so that is reflected. It is not a funding difference, um I would not say, at the elementary level. Um we make sure that there is equity in the resource and, you know, access to resources, and those are also um applied based on the needs of the building as well, so based on what we're seeing in data, based on what we're seeing across things. So while there's like a standard minimum level of resource that everybody has, schools that have greater need also get greater resources. Um so, you know, I think one of the things, and we'll talk a little bit about this with our literacy plan,

District staff

one of the reasons why we've implemented some of the things that we have is to try to create greater consistency across our schools, um so that that we are seeing more consistency in what is happening in each of the classrooms at a grade level. Um I would say that our schools that are doing well typically have longevity in their staffing, so that means they have minimal staff turnover, and they've had the staff there for many years, or staff that are more veteran. Some of our other schools that are struggling are have newer staff or, you know, greater staff turnover, and that does impact um just overall outcomes. But um those are definitely some factors of of pieces that are impacting it. But, again, part of what we're going to talk about is ways that we are trying to level the field so that everybody is getting high-quality experiences, even if they're it's a a new teacher. You know, that is definitely something that um we're going to talk a little bit about later.

Uh one way I think we can fix some of that is the feeder pattern. Um it's so obvious, and we talked about it last month. Until we get that fixed, uh we're going to have problems like this over and over again. And then also, um beyond your pay grade, but maybe in your pay grade, um what incentives can we give for teachers to get some of the highly qualified teachers into the other buildings that need those type of teachers? Because this is um quite embarrassing when you look at this, and as a district, we cannot allow this to happen. We cannot allow, cuz all the parents are going to do is choice, the parents with the better performing students are going to choice them to the higher, and it's going to get worse and worse and worse. So I think we need to start with the feeder pattern. I think that's the easiest fix, and then go from there.

in there or that our tutors are um well-versed in the science of reading, and then the second element, which is I think a future-facing, is how are we moving um beyond just literacy to including this to be a literacy and numeracy plan?

District staff

So, yes. Great. So, a couple of um pieces. So, the literacy and numeracy plan, we are We do have a numeracy plan. I know that we've been sharing a lot around the literacy pieces, cuz that really is the focus, but we do have similar structures around numeracy, maybe not as developed yet, but similar structures, similar supports for our um our numeracy pieces, and we can certainly share some of those. Um they do some of the community connection pieces, so when they have academic nights, they do have a a math night. Um, but definitely, so, so we have at least a foundation with numeracy um, and some of the pieces there. Um, what was the other piece that we were talking about?

District staff

High-impact tutoring.

District staff

Oh, high-impact tutoring. So, right now, um primarily for our tutoring pieces, we are using either our um in-house folks. So, we're using our certified reading specialists. We make sure they are highly trained. They have had Orton-Gillingham training, they have had um lots of LETRS, science of reading ongoing training. We meet with them quarterly to provide additional um professional learning at a at our level. Um for our instructional paras, so we do utilize Title I funds to provide instructional paras at the elementary schools. They do provide um tutoring sessions, and we provide training for them. So, they utilize our programs, and we provide clear expectations and training for what that looks like. Right now, the only outside partner that we do have coming in to provide high-intensity tutoring would be Reading Assist. Um we did vet them. I mean, obviously, they were already vetted, but even when they started, you know, they were relatively relatively new to us 2 years ago, so we sat down with them, we made them go through their entire sort of program training piece, and we actually did 2 years ago, we pulled all of our Title I tutors in, and trained all of them on the Reading Assist um, on their, you know, training piece, which is Orton-Gillingham aligned. So, that currently is the primary outside tutor. I don't know that

District staff

That's the only other ones, and I would also say that the Reading Assist, one thing I will say about them and their curriculum writers and then, they're in a lot of the professional learning that we attend. So, I see we see them frequently, and and there's so there's a nice partnership, and when we offer professional learning, whether it's within the district and some of our nonprofit partners, they attend. Um, so that helps to keep that communication and to ensure that they're continuing their learning as well.

District staff

Moving forward, it would be nice to lean into some of our mentors, or some volunteers, or even district partners to help provide opportunities for tutoring. Um, that is definitely a a goal. Yeah.

District staff

And some of our We've talked about some of our retired teachers, that we know, like, we have some retired teachers that are reading specialists that still really, we have one that does work part-time in Dover, but have a couple others that I think are still each There that we might be able to onboard. Yeah. Yeah.

District staff

Lots of great things to think about.

Great. Thank you so much. We appreciate all that.

Miss

Hi. Yes. I really don't have a question, but you know that the barbershop, we call it Barbershop Read with my sorority for educators, National Sorority Phi Delta Kappa Incorporated. We uh implemented that about 4 years ago, putting books in barbershops downtown Dover. So, um

District staff

So, we might need to lean into the

Cuz we're getting we Cuz I saw that.

District staff

capes um, so that we're going, so we're excited. Yeah.

But uh thank you for your presentation. That's all I have.

Miss Duggins.

During the first comment I made um and talked about the achievement gap, I in no way do I want to downplay the achievement. Cuz if there's no achievement, there would be no gap. So, I want to acknowledge and praise those administrators, students, teachers, and staff members who worked hard to get us to be able to talk about an achievement gap. Because they've done a lot of work, and they're performing very well, we can see the growth, so we want to make sure that those people are acknowledged, because I do notice it. And, but I just want to spread the wealth, but they they've done a great job, and they can help pull up some of the lower performing schools, that's what I'm aiming for. So, give kudos to those people. They're doing what they supposed to do, we appreciate it. And I'm also, I'm very impressed with the commitment that we have, our teachers in the LETRS program and the training, how we're training our own, so that we can build this district to what we know this district can be, and um, just congratulations for everybody embracing the literacy plan that you have in place. I'm looking forward to good things happening, and just want to thank you all and all the people that's working hard to get those achievements. Thank you.

Mr. Christiansen.

I'm just going to dovetail off my colleague here with the barber. So, years and years ago, when Buck's Barbershop was across from Dover High, they had books there. So, we'd either talk with the old guys or sit there and read the book. Ironically, it's a used bookstore now, so go figure that. But you were talking about getting more into the community. So, Downtown Dover Partnership is a good reach out for there, and the Central Delaware Chamber of Commerce, which we are members of, and they have all the businesses that are members within the community. If you can't get a hold of them, let me know. I'll put you in contact with them, but those are two resources right there outside of the barbershops um, that you guys could definitely

District staff

Okay. Thank you.

Um, I don't really have any questions either. I I love the plan with the family engagement and just trying to get out and meet our families where they are. Um, I think that's important. Too often, we want them to come here, but being able to get I did both. Being able to get out and and meet them where they are is is great. So, thank you for all your hard work. Yes.

Um, the resource center at Solid Rock, that's a family resource center? Do you have books in or do you know if parents utilize that?

District staff

So, I believe I do know that um a lot of times um Rod and Shemica, they will they will reach out, and um we we provide, you know, funding for additional resources, but I don't know specifically what resources they do have, but that I can certainly follow up with them, and loop them in to make sure that there are resources there and available um, absolutely. It's a great Thank you. Yes.

Have have our students been signed up for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library? Cuz our area qualifies, so that's I know the state had a partnership, so

District staff

Is it up to five? I know my I did it with my kids. I just remember I think it's

Definitely a resource that we should let our teachers and our parents know about, because we qualify for that.

District staff

I can look that I know I've done it.

Free books for kids.

District staff

Nice books, too. It's really nice books. Like hardback books,

Think the quote is is you can you can never get enough books in the hands of children. Yep. Absolutely.

Breaking news from Mr. Feasle, who's watching.

Vending machine. Every child that comes gets a uh free book. Rod, please mention I mentioned.

District staff

Thank you. Thank you.

District staff

0 to 5. Oh wait, we didn't do the other part, right? Capital School District secondary literacy.

District staff

Okay. So, part two uh we want to talk about our secondary literacy plan. We have been working on this since January of last year, and I don't want to go any four for- um forward without recognizing um Dr. Solomon, Mr. Robinson, Dr. Sudler, our district coaches that are watching online tonight, um Jess Lawver, Erlinda Colon, Dr. Zerjhanna Turner, Mrs. Susan Gregory at the high school, and Dr. Meredith Wendall at the middle school, as well. This is a and our teacher leaders, we have completely transformed how we've done some things uh and and we've with zero extra dollars. We have aligned a lot of our funding sources, and this is the work of a of a great group of people. So, the first slide here is really to impress upon we do have a national crisis in literacy, and so and, you know, we do get the questions why. Why are we learning about literacy? Why are we doing a book study or have a find- foundational text? Why do Why do we have a new walk-through form? Why are we doing rounds? And that is to impress upon that our scores necessitate a different approach to how we are embracing our instructional routines, setting goals, and monitoring instruction. So, we have a clear theory of action, because it's clear since we've come out of COVID, uh according to NAEP on a national level, um our scores have not um returned to normal. And not only that, there's a significant belief component around literacy and about reading, and anyone that has a teenager out there probably knows this struggle with cell phones as well, and the competing demands for our intention nowadays. So, when we get the um the questions on why, you know, I'm not a reading teacher, we hear that from some of our secondary teachers as well. It's really about how are we building our professional capacity to know about literacy strategies to help. So, when the students come from our elementary school ready and fluent, they are ready to comprehend. So, if we talk about the cultural process around literacy at the secondary level, listening and speaking on the left-hand side of that are pretty natural phenomenon. Every person on the planet can uh outside of disabilities can listen and speak and and uh assume a language command and communicate. Reading and writing are learned cultural skills that need to be practiced, that need to be uh There is a science around learning them, and there is a specific methodology that grows over time as we go from young adults to teenagers to adults, being able to transfer and independently apply complex knowledge, especially in our complex disciplines we have at the high school. So, that's what we're really trying to work on is this how do we support reading and writing across all of our disciplines with a consistent set of expectations and a belief system that literacy is a thing that's going to propel us forward. I'm 100% committed that when a group of like-minded adults, or children even, get together, and we believe in something, we can make great strides. So, I appreciate the support of Dr. Calhoun, and Mr. Giddens, and the board as we tackle our secondary literacy challenges. There's also the component on the right, which is our motivations around reading, particularly for our um our middle schoolers and our high schoolers. You know, are we setting reading goals? Are we reading in our classrooms? Is reading or complex text the primary way in which we engage our curriculum? And if kids can't access that complex text, how are we scaffolding or doing pre-reading strategies to help them access that text either through background knowledge development or vocabulary? There's also the intrinsic motivation, what I believe to be reading and how it can help me in life. There's the extrinsic motivation of how we set goals, and we reward our our our teachers and our students around reading goals. And then there's the self-efficacy: I believe I'm a good reader. And so, we're trying to help our, you know, our middle schoolers and our high schoolers develop that belief that reading is something that will help them, because right now, I wouldn't say that that is a belief system that is in the majority of a lot of our students. There's also the social motivation and the peer pressure in our classrooms if I'm not a good reader, and I'm reading. Right? So, we have to have classrooms of cult- of trust where where students are able to take risks, and we've developed strategies, and they can absolutely be done. PALs is a good strategy, but if a student's going to be asked to read out loud, and they don't have the self-efficacy around reading, it's a barrier. So, not only do we need to develop this belief system across our entire district, but it has to be 100% that we're committed to literacy as an endeavor for our kids that can't read. We also um we do have a plan, we have not developed it yet, but a survey of adolescent literacy. And so, that's something I want to push out to our secondary students. Their beliefs around those things right there and their motivations around reading and how we can help them, because high-interest text can help students read, right? Magazine articles, graphic novels, all of those things need to be part of our curriculum. And staff beliefs around literacy. I do want to survey our staff. Do they believe that literacy is an important component of what we do? When we talk about the stages of literacy development, this is directly from our foundational text that we've um selected as a district for our for our 6th to 12th. We've distributed this book to uh 40 teacher leaders and administrators across the district, and we are pushing out resources that really help us understand. There there is there are resources around secondary literacy, but they are certainly not as well developed as the elementary literacy um curriculum and strategies around that. So, we've we've taken the steps to audit courses, find the books, and adopt some foundational texts to help support all of our uh learners across the district, and really um develop our leaders and our teacher leaders right now with the belief and the understanding of what literacy development looks like. So, even at the middle school

District staff

as you were talking about phonemic awareness and word recognition and multisyllabic words and knowledge around reading, we have to turn the corner around text complexity as how we enter our curriculum so that kids can comprehend what they're reading, um and they have strategies to um annotate text, to chunk text, and and our teachers understand how to incorporate that into our lessons. So, what does this look like across our different disciplines? There's really three types of um vocabulary or or terminology out there. You know, there's level one terms, which is basically something we use in everyday life, um very very simple words. And then there's level two words, which are our content area words that we use across school: assessment, curriculum, pencil, pen, um state assessment, those types of things. And then there is this specific disciplinary literacy that exists in all of our contents, particularly at the secondary level, which is we use text to engage these curriculum. And so a good example of that, you know, in uh our CTE area that we were in was um a troubleshooting perspective and and and a transfer task that we saw today. So they had specialized vocabulary in our um in our design classroom on how kids were using and developing those specialized terminology and ways of of thinking. And that was in an architectural-type of setting as well. And so that cuts across all of those areas. So we're not asking every teacher to be a reading teacher. We're asking all of our teachers to engage and support students in learning how to think, read, speak, write in the discipline and really support vocabulary. That is our number one thing we want to support along with complex text, vocabulary and complex text. It used to be debated too that, you know, students should discover vocabulary on their own. That is a complete myth. We need to explicitly teach vocabulary and vocabulary skills to our students and develop that in our teachers, because even when I was in school, and many of our educators that are probably in the room and online, uh reading and learning about reading as a formal class in their educator preparation programs did not exist. So we are we have to build this knowledge within our staff. We have a clear theory of action at the secondary level, and that is really the simple one is that we we use a complex text in every lesson. Now, what is a text? It does not necessarily mean that that's a paragraph. That could be an infographic, it could be a math diagram. There are many variations. And we actually had SchoolKit rounds today at our high school, and the evidence that we collected was that in the majority of our classrooms we have high-quality curriculum and we had complex text. It's the implementation or the task around that that we need to work on. So, the second part of our theory of action is these literacy routines. It's developing our beliefs, it's developing our professional learning. Outside of our seven professional learning days, we have to have an impact in our professional learning communities and how we're supporting teachers with choice and voice around literacy. For instance, it's nonnegotiable that we should have a complex text moving forward. The text that they select and the strategies that they use to to teach that text and incorporate in their lesson, that is that is teacher choice, absolutely 100% using their professional discretion. And then the last part of that is uh what gets um you know, what we expect uh we have to inspect, too, right? So we have a whole slide uh that I'll talk about related to how we're kind of monitoring and charting the course and providing feedback both positive and constructive on how we can improve these things as well. This is our foundational document or our foundational process moving forward for quarter one. If I go uh forward to this slide, you can see how we've kind of broken our year up into quarters. And so what this looks like is we are bringing together all of our coaches, all of our teacher leaders, and we are providing instruction to our teacher leaders with a Schoology course and all of the materials to engage their department on text, reader, and task. We're getting ready to launch quarter two, where we focus on annotation, chunking, and discussion, and then we move forward. I don't know if we're going to get to quarter three and quarter four, because we have a very ambitious plan that we need to make sure we re- reaffirm the foundation before we uh move forward. But if I go back to the text, the reader, and the task, this diagram is our quarter one objective. So every lesson has a text, and we have to understand the complexity of that text, the vocabulary level of that text, and how we're going to scaffold it for our learners. The reader: what is the reader's level of reading? So do our teachers know that for every student in their classroom when they engage with these texts? And I would also say do they know the students' background knowledge? Because when we're trying to learn about curriculum and other events in in in life, sometimes we have to support background knowledge or background knowledge development and and make it engaging for the reader. And then lastly is the task. What are we doing before we introduce the text? What are the strategies we use while we're engaging with the text? And what is the activities that we're doing after the text, or what other texts we are using? So just getting this concept out here about, you know, moving away from our traditional uh slide deck and fill-in-the-blank worksheet to engaging with complex text, that is a huge shift across our district. It's going to take time, um but the support is there and and we have the commitment of the the leaders in the district to do that. If we were to talk about expanding on that, if if by the end of the year our educators knew everything up there on this slide, I would call that a win. And that is that is the science of reading, right? That we build knowledge over time using specific science-based, research-based practices. And we have to ask those questions. What does the reader bring? What does the text demand? And and that's kind of what we're working on right now. Even if we have a complex text, do we understand the qualitative and quantitative features? Do we understand how to bridge that gap between our readers, and that we don't level texts, right? We don't bring text down to the reader. The uh the quote out of this book is, "Leveled texts lead to leveled lives." So our goal is to ensure that students, and we believe that students can master those um tasks, and that we scaffold the supports around them to make sure that they can get to that. And then what are the students were doing? They're purposely reading, they're writing to learn, we're making concept maps, and we're using transfer tasks. So what does it look like in our PLCs for our teachers? And and this is where um you know, we have some some work to do to make sure that everybody is on the same page in terms of implementing that is over the course of a month, we're asking our teachers, and really the focus that's in red there is that the teachers embrace these strategies, and that they use a plan to collect student evidence. So this past quarter, it was: introduce a complex text to your students and bring back the evidence of how you scaffolded that text so that the students could access it. And that's the discussion that we're we're trying to have have. We know that seven professional learning days are not going to be enough to to tackle this plan, so we're trying to in- use embedded, ongoing, and consistent professional learning over the course of three years. This is we're one quarter into what I would consider a at minimum a three-year plan around literacy. Um and then we also need to make sure that we incorporate teacher choice and voice and feedback into these plans to make sure that we're we're calibrating along the way. And then next year, I know that um one of the goals is to talk about as we um write our DTGSS goals, there's some changes to the state system, that we include literacy in our teacher-directed growth plans, so that they are selecting their goals related to how they would like to embrace literacy and and use that in their classroom with the knowledge that we've learned. Here's a little bit of what we're doing to monitor. Um we have our instructional practice guides, which through Student Achievement Partners, these are based on the Common Core Standards, and we have a walk-through tool, um and we have rubrics for each content area that we are supporting. And then for our PLCs, we are really investing a lot into our teacher leaders um and their time to make sure that they feel comfortable delivering this right, it's kind of a train-the-trainer model. Our coaches push in and support the PLC leads, and we try and make sure that they understand and develop these these principles around the science of reading and complex text. We also have um, you know, if quarter one was based on complex text and we're doing DTGSS evaluations, then the question that we would ask our ad- admin to ask the teachers is, what was the complex text that you were using? How has that factored into your um Okay. And then uh today, we had instructional rounds at the high school with with SchoolKit, um which is one of our partners along with the University of Delaware, which we'll talk about in a second. And um that was a wonderful day. Thanks to the high school team and our coaches for setting that up, where we went in uh multiple classes, and we calibrated and talked about what does it look like in our in our in our uh around teacher, text, and task. And then, last but not least, positive feedback loops: when we find wins, we want to celebrate them, and we want to recognize. Um so we're trying to work to make sure that we celebrate and calibrate along the way, and we recognize our successes when we get them. And there will be successes. I'm very confident that this uh plan and all of the effort that we're putting into this will pay off for our kids and our and our teachers in the long run. Here's a little bit of a sneak peek at our three years. The first one, and I would call this year, establishing our common practices and routines around literacy. That's really what we're doing. We're setting our goals, we're revising how we deliver information to our teachers and and what that looks like, our monitoring routines. And then next year, we want to work on deepening this literacy. How does um writing, evidence-based writing, really start to come out in our in our goals? And then we really want to talk about in all of our kids, how do we build independence, the metacognitive aspect? I learn these strategies that help me be successful in school, but now I learn how to learn. And those are the that's the real holy grail for secondary instruction is having kids walk out with the strategies to learn how to support their own learning when they encounter those um those complex things in in life as well. So what will success look like? Well, first off, it will look like more reading in our classrooms. And that's really the the litmus test. Are we reading more? If kids are reading and and working hard across uh the curriculum, um then that that will pay off. Um better access to literacy strategies, including building knowledge, vocabulary is a key, uh fluency and comprehension, stronger responses from our students in written responses, that's what we're going after, can they discuss, explain, write, and use evidence in from what they read? And that we have one system. Right now, I would say we're really focused on Tier 1 instruction, and we're building our Tier 2 supports. You know, um we have Phonics for Reading for Tier 3, Tier 3, and we're really we've revised our schedules at the high school and the middle school around our advisory time and our MTSS. We're really working on that Tier 2, um and how we support kids in reading and math. And this is a little bit of a success success story, I would say, in in line with what the elementary um folks are doing with ECRI training and LETRS. Um we wanted to train our teachers, and we we hoped that it would it would take hold, and it did. So we partnered with the University of Delaware to do a disciplinary literacy for secondary teachers using this foundational text. We offered them a $350 completion stipend. We originally set out to get 20 participants. It would be six sessions run this fall: four online, two face-to-face. Well, we we got easily 32 participants registered. We maxed out the course. We asked to be able to offer that to more. So we have 32 participants registered. The course starts tomorrow night, and we have four waitlisted for the spring of '27, and we hope to offer this again. So by the end of this year, I'm hopeful that we will be able to have 60 people trained using this same foundational text with the University of Delaware as our partner to begin to to really just make sure that, and we'll run this course as many times as we can to support our our educators, and I think the stipend helps as well. And, you know, what do we need from teachers? This is the ask, right? This is where we need to have a broad base of support, that we put purposeful text at the center of learning. We use the reader, text, task framework to access and talk about rigor of those assignments. We build knowledge and vocabulary intentionally and explicitly in every class, every day. Word walls, using it for writing, we ask students to uh that's probably our biggest opportunity right now is discourse, making sure that our groups in our classrooms and the discussions that they're having align. And then how we use our PLCs, feedback, and student evidence to improve. Our commitments is to make sure that we have those clear and stable instructional expectations across Tier 1, align our professional learning, um ensure we support collaborative time, and provide those monitoring opportunities to provide feedback along the way. And I think that we really need to continue to develop our MTSS uh supports as well. That concludes the secondary presentation.

Thank you. Questions, Ms. Geist?

Thank you very much for the detail in this presentation. Uh the disciplinary literacy initiative is very interesting. I'm wondering if uh the enrollment that we have, how many of those educators are non-ELA educators?

District staff

Um, I could check, but a a few. It's a It is a very good mix of educators across

um same thing with with parents and families and encourage that um literature and literacy at home. And then are we engaging with our higher ed institutions to see the impact that this is having as our students progress into the next phase? And so thinking about that.

District staff

Yeah, and and we are, and I know we're we're talking about um the Text Reader Task framework. I think we've made those in English, Haitian Creole, and Spanish, and we were going to start kind of putting those out there. We're waiting to kind of calibrate and find the right time. But we have not engaged with uh I- IHEs right now. Um but I think all of those things over the next three years, as we build the support with SchoolKit, University of Delaware, all of those, all of those options are on the table, and all resources are are welcome.

As you were giving your presentation, it reminded me of a presentation and discussion we had from last year when we were talking about social studies curriculum. And one of the comments was is that the reading level of some of the passages was higher than some of that of our students and thinking about how you were restructuring that. So I'm- it made me think about, you know, how this initiative dovetails into that and the work that you may have engaged with the social studies teachers around that to address that very issue and integrate this, and see it'll be interesting to see how that development plays out and how that new coursework and the curriculum that you've been developing aligns and and addresses some of those gaps and challenges.

District staff

Absolutely, yeah.

Ms. Pendleton?

Um, I do not have any questions, but well maybe I do, anyway. Um you mentioned, I know you- this work has been done with the University of Delaware, um the role that they're playing. But um since you get student teachers from Delaware State University and from Wilmington U, do you have a a thought about, and I know they're not certified, but when they come in the expectation will be whatever that um mentoring teacher is doing, that student teacher should be doing. So do you have a thought of possibly looping in the other universities, and at at least with their TEP programs, to do some kind of workshop with the student teachers, that prior to them coming in or anything like that?

District staff

Yes, absolutely, and I would also add that our current, like we are maximizing our curriculum after school times and our long-term subs that we have right now, and we're engaging them quarterly as well. Um the reason University of Delaware was selected is because they had the existing course, so we just turnkeyed it here. But I think in line with the Teacher Academy discussion and the apprenticeships coming out of that, um we know that um I can't remember the name of the lady, but we were in talks with DSU to see if they had a course as well. So the goal is that we engage all especially DSU and WilmU as our closest partners to make sure that we have that support. Yes, ma'am.

Ms. Duggins?

No questions, but just a comment. Uh I'm looking forward to seeing this plan, this fru- fruition. Um it's a great plan, and if it's followed, I'm looking forward to seeing some significant gains. So thank you for put- this program together.

District staff

Thank you for your feedback.

Mr. Christiansen?

No questions, thank you.

All right, thank you.

District staff

Thank- thank you for your time.

1.05 Superintendent Update.

Dr. Calhoun

Good evening Dr. Jackson, Mr. Christiansen, Ms. Pendleton, Ms. Duggins, Mrs. Geist, Senator Nation. Uh since my September 23rd update we've had a relatively short window, uh so tonight's report it's going to be brief uh focused on the work that has been moved forward since my last update. Uh this earlier this week uh we began our principal pulse meetings. Uh these are intentionally brief and focused on listening to our principals, uh not adding another meeting to their schedules, but we're asking them what's going well, what is getting in the way, and what they need from us at the district level, and then we are parsing out those uh challenges to the appropriate departments. So we started on Monday for the month of October, continued yesterday. Uh Mr. Dr. Fuller and Mr. Schreiber talked about the instructional rounds that happened today uh at the elementary and secondary levels, and we will continue our pulse visits on tomorrow.

Dr. Calhoun

Uh at our last meeting I shared uh we talked about our four priorities, uh increasing our reading and mathematics uh proficiency levels by 5%, reducing chronic absenteeism by 2%, and improving our school culture. Uh as we move beyond the opening of school, uh the work is we're shifting now from establishing the routines to monitoring the implementation and the outcomes, and you heard a little bit about uh what's happening relative to monitoring the outcomes uh and what has been put in place with our literacy plans, and our PDSA cycles, and our pulse visits. So our focus remains on um whether the work is occurring in the schools is producing the measurable improvement for kids that we are looking for.

Dr. Calhoun

So staffing continues to be an area of focus, particularly in in positions that have historically been difficult to fill. Our our teams continue to coordinate across HR, Special- Special Education, Finance, and school leadership to identify what the needs are at the each school, recruit candidates, and explore alternative solutions where they are available, and our focus remains on minimizing the disruptions for our kids and for ensuring our schools that have the people and the resources they need to support our kids every single day.

Dr. Calhoun

Uh looking ahead, November 3rd uh uh is Election Day. We're off that day. The 6th, uh which is quickly approaching, is actually the last day of the marking period. So that's I believe uh three weeks from this Friday. Uh November 11th is Veterans Day, and then November 19th is actually report card distribution, and the following week is Thanksgiving, but there is a board meeting uh between now and then, so. Uh that is my report for the month of October.

Thank you.

1.06 our Board Member Updates. Ms. Geist?

Thank you very much. I was uh I was thinking about the the comments and the the role that we play here at the board. There's been a lot that has been going on in our community of recent,

and uh, you know, it's just been kind of heavy on me. And we had a great opportunity to bring our whole community together at homecoming, and it was great seeing so many people out there at the parade, seeing people at the game, and really just embracing our community.

And there's been a lot in the news lately, and there are um the time period in which we're at right now, I Dr. Calhoun just talked about Election Day coming up, and we see all kinds of things on the news and on social media. And it really, I think that it's important that we remember, as as we all sit up here, that

we are modeling for our children, young, old. And so as we think about that, I think it's important that we re- we remember that we are one community, regardless of how we worship, how we speak, how we vote, or the believe and the the beliefs and the perspectives that we hold. Our differences should never diminish our respect for one another. To ridicule someone, question their authenticity, simply because they chose to change their name, or worship differently or believe differently than you, that is a very troubling cultural bias that we see across our community, and it has no place in our community. We can disagree on politics and policies without questioning someone's identity, their heritage, or their belonging. We should expect more from one another, and we should set a better role model for our children. Our community is strong, and our community must stand together and not tolerate those kinds of actions, and I know that our community believes in our children and will set the model for our children that they need to see so that our community can be stronger. So that's where I'm at.

Okay, um Ms. Pendleton?

Uh, good evening again. As you see that we are, the board members, we are here, and others as well, uh, leadership here, with our pink on. Dr. Calhoun, okay, I'm calling you out. Um,

we we truly um believe in supporting anyone who has struggled with any kind of illness. So, as we know that this month is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and so since this is our meeting for October, we wanted to say that we are standing with anyone in our district who may have survived, and then um if you've lost a family member to breast cancer or anything of that nature. I have a sister who is a twice survivor, so this is really near and dear to my heart. You started this, but I'm not going to cry. But anyway, um

but what I was able to do between the last time and this time, not not a lot, but of course it was mentioned, homecoming and went to the game, did another visit at the middle school, Mr. Robinson and Dr. Satchell, they're doing a fabulous job there, um and the teachers, and anyone in that building responsible for touching the lives of our young people. You know, we we heard a lot about the schools before, so when we see these good things happening, it is just as important to highlight those great things that are going on. And I have to say across the district, I have not gotten into other, all the buildings so far this year, but we I will, but what I have seen across the entire district, folks are working. They're earning their keep, not that they did before, but I want to just highlight it this year that um

so I'm very excited in the direction that the district is going. It's going in a very positive direction. I also um, of course, last night we went to the State Teacher of the Year uh dinner, and then um on last Friday the 9th, I had an opportunity again, I know you've heard me mention my other sorority, the National Sorority of Phi Delta Kappa, Incorporated. It is a sorority of educators, and last Friday they were approved to present a workshop, so I went in to support them. I didn't go in to present, but I went in to support them. Uh that was a day I had to wear red and gold, and um and so the presentation was on adverse childhood experiences, and it was really a good, it was a good day, and people were, they seem to have been positive with what

It's hard to have people trying to learn when the tiles are falling out the roof and you got holes in the wall and God knows what else is going on there. So I'm asking, I'm speaking up here so everybody knows that I brought it to people's attention. I don't see a whole lot being done. I think it needs to be done. So I'm taking this time to stand on my little soapbox and say it again. Squeaky wheel gets the oil, I'm squeaking. Also had an opportunity to attend the William Henry campus executive meeting to study processing the demolition and everything that's going to be happening to that campus, but it is great to be involved in that process. And I think that's all for me. Oh, also wearing pink, kind of hard for me to do that, but today I'm going out and wearing pink for breast cancer awareness month. It actually was red, it got a little faded. It was red, faded, sun. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Christiansen?

Pendleton's been commenting on the lovely shade of red that you have on all meeting. Homecoming parade, wow, that was pretty cool. I ran out of candy and footballs by the railroad tracks, and I felt bad because I didn't have enough for everybody else. But wonderful job by all the participants. I'd like to know if the administrators think that they got more participation, less participation, or the same participation since we had that half day, right? Everybody that was supposed to leave was supposed to come and help with the parade. You know, that was one of the caveats of it. So if anybody ever has seen Smyrna's parades, they get those floats and kits. That's a wonderful dream I would have for the Capital School District one year, but we'll see if, you know, you guys can pull it off. So great job for that. The football team did better when it started raining, and half of us left when it started raining. So maybe we were the problem, I don't know. But they're young, and they're going to get there. So improvement, improvement, improvement. Pink, as Ms. Pendleton said, I've been wearing pink to every board meeting in October since 2013. And that started with Dennis Halleck, who had the fundraiser for breast cancer awareness because of, at the time, Superintendent Dr. Michael Thomas's wife, who had passed from breast cancer. So every October, this is probably the only pink I ever wear, so take a look at it. You like it, great. If not, it'll be gone soon. But I'd also like to welcome to the district our new HR Director, Ms. Julie Gonzales, who I think is in the hallway doing an HR thing. So welcome to the Capital School District. Keep up the good work. A lot of positive things going on, a lot of positive things in the community about the district. So we appreciate everything you do. There she is, the new HR Director. Welcome to the Capital School District, Ms. Julie Gonzales. So that's all I have.

Thank you. Um I'm going to keep my comments brief. We are almost at 9:30. So I just want to thank everyone for their hard work so far. I know still we're still early in the school year, although it doesn't feel that way. Feels like time is just flying, right? But yeah, I mean, I participated in some of the things that have already been mentioned. Homecoming, the parade. I've heard nothing but great remarks about that and how this was the best one in so in in in a while. So we're excited about that. I had the opportunity of visiting the middle school campus, I think it was yesterday. And so I'll continue to get out to more schools, and I echo some concerns with the ILC as well. I had the opportunity to also visit there a couple of times and we have some serious concerns there and and hopefully we're working towards addressing those concerns. So that will conclude my comments for this evening. Thank you all again. We'll move on to 1.07, our public comment. Ms. Scheppler, do we have anyone signed up for public comment?

Thank you. Okay, we have two public comments. They are virtual online. I'll go in the order in which I received them, which is Ms. Tammy Mack.

It says Tammy Mack. You can ask them to unmute, and maybe say if that's Tammy Mack, I'm not sure.

Ms. Mack, are you there? If so, please state your name for the record, and you have 3 minutes. It looks like you're muted if you're trying to speak.

Okay, let's go to our second public comment, and maybe we'll circle back to Ms. Mack. I don't know if she's having difficulties unmuting or not. Um, Tamika Matthews?

Public comment

Hi. Good evening.

Please state your name for the record. You have 3 minutes.

Public comment

My name is [name removed]. I am the parent of Jonah Matthews. And I we were at the um the last meeting in September. I just wanted to give you an update. He still does not have a certified para. We are still totally unsatisfied with his treatment, what's going on with him. Um he eloped twice from ILC. With his um he has a consistent para twice a week, I believe, who is not certified. He is not trained in any form. I don't know where you all got him from. I know him from another place, but I don't understand how he is a para. He's good with Jonah because Jonah knows him. However, he is not able to he's not certified as he should be. So I'm still waiting for Jonah's rights to be fulfilled, and he is entitled to a education that he's not and services that he is not getting. So I'm I'm waiting for that to happen, and I need someone to make it happen soon because I can't As you all were stating about this being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I am a survivor, and this month this is a stressful time, and I don't need the amount of stress that I'm going through right now while I'm battling another illness. So I just want somebody to actually do what they say. I met with a few with one of you from the board, and he still doesn't have a para. That was supposed to be over 2 weeks ago accomplished. He had a para, and that para was removed, who I was perfectly happy with, and Jonah was happy with, and who was certified. And now he's gone. We had him for one whole day, and he was the perfect fit for Jonah. And now you all, I haven't been notified of any interviews or anything going on. I just want my son, like I said before, I want my son to get the education that he deserves and he's due. And yes, ILC is a mess, and the location is terrible, and you all need to move them kids out of there because it's not safe. That's all I have to say.

Thank you. Ms. Mack, we are going to try again. If you could try to unmute yourself.

Public comment

Why can't nobody hear me?

We can hear you now, Ms. Mack. Please state your name for the record, you have 3 minutes.

Public comment

Tammy Mack. Since the last board meeting, we have zero progress, nothing for Jonah. We had more than 20 paraprofessionals, no one that has been certified for this little boy. Since August, we have no communication with anyone from special education. Since the last board meeting, we received one we received an email from Dr. Calhoun a couple days ago. We have no help. Jonah got sick from drinking the water, having diarrhea. He got slapped in the face by a kid. He was eloped today, ran out in that park. A trailer could have hit him. We need help. There's nothing. Mrs. Kersh should have put Jonah We This place is not for Jonah, and she told DDOE that he would be on the calendar for ICT residential. DDOE have not heard from Nicole Kersh. Nothing. We have you cannot run a school district with no leadership, no leadership for special education. I've spoken to you, President Jackson. I've spoken to to to Donna. I've spoken to Duggins. I've spoken We did everything. We don't know what we don't understand how a school could run with no leadership. Today I found out that Tori is going to be in charge of spec ed, and he would give us a call. Nothing. There's no way you could have a child in your school that has severe special needs, no communication, no services, nothing whatsoever. This is unacceptable. And a last thing, let me I I I have two more things to say. Dr. Ful Fuller, I have two complaints about Dr. Fuller for discriminating two female teachers. I need that to be investigated. And I need the mold and the water, because Jonah is coming home every day smelling like he said everything smell like matches when he turn that water on, and he drank that water, and he kept getting sick. And when we spoke, I put in a investigation. You know that they found black mold, that's what DDOE said. They found black mold, and my kids are still getting sick. I'm worried for our teachers. Our teachers and our other students, and not only Jonah. Dr. Calhoun, the board, you need to take care of that black mold, you need to figure out what is in the water, and we need help for Jonah. I am not going away. And Mr. Fuller needs to stop bullying the female teachers. We're not going to have that.