MEMBERS PRESENT

Janice Watts, Sarah Stuart, Lesa Beuscher, Matt Donald, Steve Madsen, Michael Green-Board Secretary, and Nicole Galloway-Recording Secretary

OTHERS PRESENT

Asha Riley, Deb Kernen, Dan Uhlenkott, John Shoup, Jason Cowley, Steven Carney, Jennifer Crosby, Jake Hall, Angela Campbell, Ingrid Colvard and Andrea Edwards.

CALL TO ORDER

President Janice Watts called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m.

CONSENT AGENDA

Director Madsen moved to approve the consent agenda.

Director Watts – yes

Director Stuart – yes

Director Beuscher – yes

Director Donald – yes

Director Madsen – yes

WORKSHOP

This month’s workshop was a study of the turnaround principles number 4, 5 & 6. The board members invited the principals and one teacher from each school to present their self-assessments, next steps, and goals for each of the principles.

Principle #4 – Strengthen the school’s instructional program based on student needs and ensure that the instructional program is research-based, rigorous, and aligned with State academic content standards.

Assistant Superintendent, Asha Riley, started by explaining principle #4 to the board. Each principal and teacher were provided five minutes to provide the school’s overview to the board members.

Steven Carney explained how the Intermediate School team identifies essential standards, uses a leadership team and uses screening and progress monitoring. They use i-Ready, test assessments and teacher created assessments. Director Stuart asked how many standards there are. Jennifer Crosby said 40-50, however, there are multiple components per standard.

Middle School principal, Jake Hall, informed the board how the 5^th-grade team partnered with the Intermediate School on the common standards. Grade 6^th-8^th are separate.  I-Ready and classroom based assessments are a couple of tools they use.

John Shoup and Jason Cowley spoke about how the high school is by departments and, unlike the other schools, the high school doesn’t use i-Ready.

They use grades and progress reports.

Primary School principal, Ingrid Colvard, talked about how the leadership team and master schedule are extremely important.

Director Madsen noted that it would be great to have an example of an i-Ready report to get a better understanding.

Principle #5 – Use of data for school improvement and instruction. Assessing student learning frequently with standards-based assessments.

John Shoup explained how the high school did basis testing and grading, however, he did note that grades can be a false barometer because grades are not universally applied. He noted that he would like to see a district policy created on grading practices.

Jake Hall talked about extension and how every day, every student has an extension. This time allows all students to get the help needed. Angela Campbell talked about the data wall in the middle school. This wall has a card for each student that is color coordinated. The colors are determined by the lowest i-Ready score. Red means the student has the highest support needs, yellow means they are struggling a little and green means they are where they need to be. Jake and Angela have been able to use the wall to monitor the progress of each student and determine which students need that extra help to get them where they need to be.

Mr. Carney and Jennifer Crosby talked about the multi-tiered system and how it works. Teams meet weekly to discuss academics and behavior data.

Principal Colvard discussed the importance of the extension at the primary school and how the idea is to accelerate all students.

Principle #6 – Establish a school environment that improves school safety and discipline and address other non-academic factors that impact student achievement, such as students’ social, emotional, and health needs.

Asha Riley explained that this principle and then turned it over to the principals to present to the board members.

Mrs. Colvard explained out the primary school is all about positive environments and culture and how every staff member is an educator no matter what their role. She talked about PBIS and positive rewarding.

Mr. Carney shared that the intermediate school is all about “You are Safe. You are Loved.”  He talked about PBIS framework on how to work with behaviors.

Mr. Hall and Mrs. Campbell noted that this is a heavy focus area for the middle school. This is slowly moving forward but they have plans to continue to grow in this area.

Mr. Shoup stated that this is not an area of concern for the high school. He explained that by the time the students come to high school they know what is expected of them and for the most part, they do it. He noted that the largest room for growth is touching on the emotional piece of students.

Director Donald asked the principals if there is anything they needed to improve the overall safety of the schools. Jake Hall noted it would be nice to have cameras installed at the middle school.  

ADJOURNMENT

President Watts adjourned at 8:28 p.m.

ATTEST:

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Secretary to the Board

WOODLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT #404
BOARD OF DIRECTORS

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President

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Director

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Director

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Director

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Director