August 5, 2019 at 5:00 PM - Board Retreat 2019

Discussion:  The meeting was called to order at 5:09 p.m.

Discussion:  Candy Becher read the mission statement.

Discussion:  No one spoke to the board. 

Discussion:  Amy Romshek 

Strategic Plan 1 - Student achievement and making sure our students are prepared and ready after CPS. Academic Goal is difficult because there are so many different measures. 

1. 100 percent of all students attend preschool and show growth -  Romshek said the district has only been tracking this for three years. She said 96 percent of students in CPS preschool hit proficiency or above in all six categories. Romshek said the preschool students are doing well.

2. 100 percent of students are on track to graduate; Our percentages need to improve in math and reading.  New assessment scores have fell.

3. 100 percent of student on track with college and career readiness - Most of our students are involved in at least one of the data points. CPS needs to better explain the programs of studies with their interest.

4. 100 percent of teachers competent with Super 7 instructional elements. Now tracking this area to show how teachers are improving.

5. 100 percent of teachers show evidence of technology integration. We want students to be creating things with their device and not just taking notes. We want to get away from level I and be more on level 2 and 3.

The hope is that the radar chart moves outward. It can all be on one sheet of paper and it is a little easier to track. This next year we will continue to work through these and early childhood.  Tracking SAMR model getting to higher level.  Once we receive the state scores, Dr. Romshek will share with the board.

Next year the district will continue to work through these goals, and there are big plans for early childhood. Romshek said CHS is requesting STEM academy status for the courses being offered. Another instructional element will be added. Romshek said a key part was identifying perfect and the percentages of where students are so administration can look at where the gap is. Romshek said ideally students should be interested in more than one in the college and career readiness area. Romshek said once she receives the state scores, she will share them with the board.


Jason Harris

Strategic Plan 2 -

1. 100 percent of students in crisis to receive services in an effective time frame - how response is a little different for each student and what we will do. That will give us a better idea to how well we respond to a student in crisis.

2. 100 percent of students to meet the attendance standard of 9 absences or less a year. We average in the Low to mid 70's in percentagees.  Last year went down a little bit it was 71 percent. The tardies are what adds up to make those absences. At elementary so many tradies equal an absence. The attendance monitor makes morning calls to families when taken; home visits, help families find a support system and incentives through community partners.

3. 100 percent of students have 0 to 1 office referral per year - 76 percent one referral or less. What was decided the last couple of years what is a referral. The state will become more consistent over time. Strategies will be well managed classroom and BIST.  For this year, crisis protocol is being used to gather baseline data; attendance will continue and we will continue to use well managed classroom.

Three hundred and eleven early childhood surveys written in English have been completed and three in Spanish have been completed. High income residents are responding. Will distribute to preschool home visits with parents, ECDHD and in-home daycare providers. We will contact Centro Hispano as well. Only pushed out through facebook and will be email to all families. There are students walking in our halls who say that I could see that kid doing something.  Attendance and school there is a high correlation for success. Office referrals what is your standard of behavior.  Anyone can take the survey.

Strategic Plan 3 - Student enrollment, academic and career programs will drive district facility needs. General fund, part bond and part special building fund has been used to meet these needs. There were a number of things accomplished a new HVAC chiller towers at EM, security cameras, south portion of Kramer knocked down, There was a whole variety of things that came through. What is remaining. remodeling east and north section of Kramer for administration and training, contribution to ice house, added in February Kramer Ed Center Pre-K facility. Need to wait for study and development for entire scope and program. two or three years down the road, there are a variety of things.

Lost Creek ran into problems on the south side of LC with contractors.  We did the most important first six classroom from there will finish carpeting and ceiling titles. Cameras all complete in every building same using the same system, same controls. Everything in the future will follow in the same step. There will always be fixes because of electronics but everything is working now. Emerson HVAC chill tower issue with TRANE has been solved . High school islands have been concreted and are thrilled with getting rid rocks. Put in some area drains on south side of Kramer so won't have much for change when adding onto building.  First of September do final seeding of the dirt because we don't know when we will be moving to the next step. Centennial fire alarm issue be resolved, touch panel must be brought up to latest fire codes. Going to same system at West Park, CMS and CHS,  Fireguard cost is $36,000 but will be less for now.  Assistant fire Marshall must get testing done. If not done when students come back we must hire a fire walker. 
 

Discussion:  Nicole - We have been working with Clark Creative Group since March/April. Kept the "C" logo as close as we can and if Bears come back on us we are far enough away. Little round and thicker on the bottom. The "C" is pretty much done for any uniforms coming out. Moved to a ship that is sleeker and can embroider much easier. Still working on the compass and anchor. There will be only one compass and make sure using standing compass and develop on standard anchor. District owns STEM graphics. There are some more things to go that haven't been develop yet. Next steps determine additional fonts allowed. Anchor logo is universal and the dos and don'ts of using brand will be developed. We will place on website  logos that can be downloaded from for use and develop letterhead, envelopes, email signature templates, power point templates etc.  Board will approve branding guide when finished. Could make change to new logo and branding and must replace. Take logo approved by school board and how can change and add to it. There is a fine line that it must be consistent when using logo. Theresa still wants them to have some individuality. Can use discoverer without C or Discoverer. Candy we need flexibility. Theresa people will stop doing shirts if they all look the same. Board will determine how strict or how loose it will be. There will be examples and stuff. 
 

Discussion:  Centennial - Principal Andy Luebbe said they want to honor the growth the kids made. Each grade level created a hypothesis for first and second semester on things they wanted to work on. Kindergarten and third grade made gains in reading from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. Luebbe said the idea is for these teachers to share what they did. In DIBELS, kindergarten, first, and fourth had gains while second grade decreased. He said the staff need to look at what could be done to help second grade. Luebbe said staff is also looking to change DIBELS and move from a more composite to individual scores and adding an instructional piece. Some of the things that were talked about changing was to use a learning continuum when lesson planning; and teachers setting goals with students before each assessment. Luebbe said the classroom data is what needs to be dug into and find the root cause. From this, the hypothesis can be developed.

Emerson - Principal Angie Luebbe said the K-2 goal is 100 percent of students will meet the grade level data.  She said the staff have been looking at what is causing the gap. Some of the things that could factor into the gap include: iPad devices were new to students; students did not have an understanding of the MAP assessment; MAP assessments were new to kindergarten and first grade teachers; some students were not using best test taking skills such as clicking through their test and not knowing how use the tools to answer the questions. Luebbe said teachers need to develop procedures for MAP testing. K-2 teachers and specialists sought training to learn how to use the MAP results. This way they can learn more about the assessment reports and goal setting. Teachers looked at stand data and work with their students to set goals and strand data guided teachers for differentiated instruction so targeted skills can be practiced. Students also did practice tests to improve test taking skills such as process of elimination and listened to the whole questions before trying to answer. Another goal was 100 percent of teachers use the SAMR model. Mrs. Luebbe said the idea is to move to creating and evaluating. She said this is the first time the teachers collected data. Teachers started tracking targeted skills. Moving forward they plan to dig deeper and find root causes. She said they want to become MAP data experts so a plan can be developed to set a goal for our students. Mike Jeffryes said he would like to see hypothesis and what the data reveals. Candy Becher said sometimes in education it takes more than one year to find out the root causes. Dr. Loeffelholz said the staff needs to focus on things to make sure the kids get better.


Lost Creek worked on behavior. The goal was to be perfect with 0-1 referrals. Principal JP Holys said last year there was 51 referrals by Oct. 31. Some of the causes include: inconsistent expectations, lack of student skills, toxic stress, lack of respect for authority and student role awareness. Solutions include: all staff following similar procedures with all students. Hypothesis involved using well managed classrooms, expectation stations and the BIST process to raise student success and close the gap. Some other ideas include how to test, BIST radar and bar charts are reviewed with staff, internalizing and externalizing survey screeners. Formative teachers have also reviewed and utilized behavior tracking sheets summative BIST radar and charts were updated weekly and updated at end of year as well. Holys said some things worked and some things did not. Strategies included: using a BIST Consultant; BIST vision team meetings; reinforcing well managed classroom model; and conducting expectation stations. If these things are done, office referrals should drop; students will display skills that reflect the value of education by being consistently safe, responsible, and respectful; and staff will follow consistent procedures. Holys said ongoing training and professional development will be done with staff. He said the next steps will be to continue regular meetings with the BIST team. Holys said a lot of staff attended BIST training to get on the same page and use the same vocabulary. The Eagle time schedule is to reinforce skills in a cross-grade level setting. Holys said staff will track progress and reimplementing the behavior program. There are still some gaps and more work need to be done on an academic goal

North Park - Principal Bob Hausmann said his staff last year in grades kindergarten through second had similar goals with both wanting to show growth in phonics, accuracy and fluency at end of each quarter. He said they used WIN time to ensure that each child mastered the skills. Kindergarten accomplished the goal set. Each team went through this process. Hausmann said next year there will be a pre and posttest to show individual growth. First grade also showed growth. Teachers found there were things they liked and worked well, and they also plan to do a pre and posttest as well. Second grade met their goal and focused on skills. The third and fourth grades goal was to show growth in the area of algebraic concepts. Hausmann said they were trying to find ways to go above what is typically taught in those areas. The computer program IXL can pinpoint skills for students to work on. He said the staff is trying to find creative ways to get to other students as well. Hausmann said IXL was a very good tool because it can pinpoint specific skills. Kids that are advanced can keep going and kids struggling can go at their level. Hausmann said last year there were 36 kids that tested out of the English Learner program, which was the most ever. He said they came in not speaking English at all.

West Park - Principal Paula Lawrence said the staff are building ideas of areas to focus on. The goal for kindergarten is to be average or above on number sense. She said there was a group of kids who didn’t meet the winter goal and adjustments had to be made to meet the spring goal. Kindergarten is also continuing working on calendar time and adjusted assessment. First grade is approaching students who are not making adequate growth in reading. There were 67 percent of the students who were average or above in vocabulary and 69 percent in fall scored average or above in concepts of print. The teachers are using appropriate pace and repetition of skills as needed for each group, as well as monitoring weekly communication. With these adjustments, vocabulary grew to 74 percent at average or above but concepts of print did not see the growth, and it decreased to 62 percent. Lawrence said the teachers felt they could better meet the needs of each group. She said they want to do a three-group rotation during part of the reading block and do additional reading time. There were 55 percent at average or above and on the subtest information text main idea with supporting text and 58 percent of the students scored average or above on the subtest reading characteristics of informational text. In the spring, information text main idea with supporting text grew to 71 percent, and reading characteristics of information text also grew to 71 percent. In second grade, they are continuing to use math data to show the greatest need. In third grade, 62 percent of students met the RIT goal in the area of math on the NWEA fall assessment. They are working on a combination of skills and students did not show much growth but went from 62 to 61 percent. The third-grade teachers felt they were too broad and needed to narrow down the focus and address specific skills to focus on. At fourth grade, NWEA and NSCAS scores showed students were struggling most in algebra concepts. The teachers decided to give all students 20 minutes of math review daily. The students were also given practice math fact fluency which could be done at home. The teachers were also increasing math vocabulary. In the spring, students went from 69 percent to 71 percent being at average or above in algebraic concepts. Lawrence said they continue to use math data.

CMS’ vision is Discoverer Way a culture of learning for all. Principal Amy Haynes said everything is tied to data. She said they wanted a school goal everyone could tie into. Haynes said the goals are to get closer to perfect, 100 percent, in reading and math; be at level 3 on proficiency scales in all areas; and missing nine or fewer days. Haynes said there are some bright spots and areas for growth. Math was not an area of growth in fifth grade and seventh grades. Haynes said there are some things that need to be worked on. She said they have 85 percent who have 0 to no referrals, and they would like to increase students in activities. Haynes said it has been challenging to determine gaps and root causes. She said when examining the referral data, half of the referrals come from three categories and are very low-level things. She said they have been using BIST and culture to try to improve on those categories.  Haynes said for the reading smart goal, each grade looked at a different area. There were also smart goals in math, science and social studies. Haynes said science has new standards and diagrams. Exploratory classes also had smart goals, but they want 100 percent in level 3. Haynes said the entire school focused on reading and math because staff realized that the goals were not where they should be for the fourth quarter. There were mini smart goals and minimum expectations that focused on specific areas. She said the boot camp gave a lot of information for this year. Haynes said they had strategic math training for staff this year. Haynes said they have defined what they will start with next year; focus on data (the right data); select one strategy and test it for a period of time; continue to publicly display data and find more ways to celebrate successes.


CHS - CHS Principal Dave Hiebner said the ACT is a life changing test because it can mean money to help pay for school. Hiebner said the ACT is more than just a high school test, so they are blending in data from the district. Perkins CTE program concentrators are 63.8 percent proficient in reading and in math 73.0 proficient. He said they are trying to find out what causes the gaps. These could be caused by many things such as students performing less than proficient in math computation skills; math reasoning skills; reading comprehension skills; lack of content foundational skills in English, grammar and math; lack of alignment with the types of problems assigned MAPs and ACT; failure to include MAPs and Act assessments items as examples throughout the year to measure students’ progress on goals. Hiebner said each department created hypothesis and their own test. He said the next steps in the improvement process will be each department continuing to work on the data hypothesis implementation. CHS will also create a schedule timeline for PLC departments for data analysis strategy implementation, root cause analysis and result reflection. Hiebner said staff need to dig deeper on the plan.

Dr. Loeffelholz recognized principals for digging into the data. He said the district staff needs to be intentional on what they need to work on. Dr. Loeffelholz said the entire district plays a role in the ACT score. He said there has been a gap in some places. The Perkins concentrator piece is important because these are the skills employers need.


 

Discussion:  The Building and Sites Committee met a couple of times to discuss the Kramer Education Center. Executive Director of Operations and Technology Leonard Kwapnioski said this cannot happen until the district determines what the program will definitely be. He said the district is currently gathering information on preschool, daycare and needs of businesses, and it doesn't make sense to do any planning on number of rooms needed until the information is collected. Kwapnioski said when the data is received, the district will be able to move forward. He said the board must determine what is the goal and what is potential timeline for the next 10 months.

Candy Becher said one of board’s major goals is to have preschool, and what it entails to find out if all students are ready for school. Those who are not ready for school are at a huge disadvantage. Becher said the district needs to level the playing field. Dr. Loeffelholz said the survey will show the administration what the public needs for childcare. Theresa Seipel said she wants to present the results to community, so they can get on board with what is needed. She said survey results are needed to show people that the board is listening to the community.

Executive Director of Student Services Jason Harris said the surveys will be at open houses. He said they are trying to find a way to get to the people. Head Start and United Way are helping to get the survey to people. Harris said Head Start is willing to help because they lost a classroom, and this impacted CPS families because there is less room. The childcare providers are helping because they are full and have no room. When school is not in session, there is no place to drop off children. Harris said there is not drop in for childcare right now. Those are all things we have to look at. Dr. Loeffelholz said once the data is collected, the district will publish it in the Telegram and social media and other places. He said the next step will then be to hold round tables discussions similar to what was done for the bond issue. Dr. Loeffelholz said the district needs to identify which people would be good at the round table discussion. He said there will be two or three held. Once the people are there, they will be split into smaller groups to make recommendations. Dr. Loeffelholz said the plan is to ask people’s permission to move forward with the project. Candy Becher asked what will the district do if the data comes back and says people don’t want or need it. Mike Jeffryes said he doesn't think 100 percent of the kids need to go through CPS, but they do need to go through preschool. He wanted to know why parents were not sending their children to preschool. Harris said all kindergarten parents were asked these questions when they registered their children for school. Many said they didn’t send them because of cost, and CPS was full. He said many parents also waited because they couldn't afford private preschool, and by the time they were notified there was no room anywhere else. Theresa Seipel said the community needs to be shown why this important. The board felt it would be good to know what preschool the child attended because people call a babysitter a preschool when it is not. Mike Jeffryes wanted to compare the kids who went through preschool and those who did not performed academically.  Theresa Seipel said it would be nice to have more than one year of data.     She said this will give evidence of the problem if there is more than one year. A suggestion was made to have the first-grade teacher have a script to read to collect more information about the preschools attended, and this would give another year of data. It was decided to collect another year of data comparing students who attended preschool and those who did not. Harris said this year there are 50 on the waiting list with 15 of those who completed the application before the deadline.

Discussion:  There are 400 new houses projected to be added in Columbus the next five years. Dr. Loeffelholz said CPS gets 67 percent of all kindergartners who are kindergartners age. He said the legislature has given school districts the opportunity to set up a non-profit corporation. This will allow the district to borrow money over a 7-year period and pay it off. With more than 400 kids, another elementary may need to be built or current buildings added on to. Dr. Loeffelholz said the district could do additions to buildings as a nonprofit corporation. In past, these types of projects were paid out of cash reserves. The current general fund levy $1.01 and 4 cents in building and sites fund. The first steps are getting the survey results back and getting kindergarten data at the beginning of year. The administration will need help from the kindergarten and first grade teachers. Dr. Loeffelholz said the board will need to look at data and determine what to do next. He said as soon as the district gets the results, things need to move forward.

Dr. Loeffelholz said what if the district needs to build another elementary? What does it look like and do we need to start that now? In the past 10 years, the district has grown by over 300 students, which is a grade level. Dr. Loeffelholz said the high school could be added on to if needed. He said the parochial schools have also lost 40 students, and their numbers continue to go down. He said CPS also has more families moving into the district. Dr. Loeffelholz said the district needs to start planning for future growth. Lost Creek could go to a four-section school and North Park could go to four sections. Dr. Loeffelholz said the district could also look for land to the north. He said the board needs to have that conversation to find out where to go. Kwapnioski said everything is centered around the parkway. He said if students are required to start crossing major arteries, they will want a walking bridge. Dr. Loeffelholz said the district can't wait to start this planning process, and it needs to be started now. He said some things need to be put in place.

Discussion:  The board will talk about this at the next meeting. Dr. Loeffelholz said he needs to know which NASB Regional meeting the board wants to attend so they can get registered. The meetings are on August 21 in Fremont, September 4 in York and Sept. 25 in Norfolk. Dr. Loeffelholz asked if the board members were planning to come to the convocation on Friday. Doug Willoughby will attend and Candy Becher will be there for the meeting but not the lunch. Dr. Loeffelholz will check with Mike Goos. Candy Becher and Theresa Seipel will be going to the meeting on Sept. 25.

Discussion:  The board adjourned at 9:20 p.m.