E. Rangel:

We are joined by our Volleyball team, along with Coach D and Mr. Keys.  

To the team - You are here to talk about your accomplishments and to hear about how the board works. 

You will hear from Mr. Keys, our Athletic Director and MS Science Teacher

J. Keys: 

We have both of our elementary and middle school volleyball teams here. Our ES team is city champions. Our MS team is the runner-up. They have all grown and become better players. 

ER: It is great to have you as role models and examples here in our school. Your commitment and dedication shine through.  

K Kainrath: What's your favorite part of being on the team? 

Team: Getting better, coming together to fix mistakes. 

B Burcope: What were some of your biggest challenges? 

Team: Losing the championship was hard, but we overcame it. I love being on this team. 

ER: What have you learned after being runner-ups? 

Team: That you need to keep trying to get better, no matter what. We have to keep moving. That you need time to recover - that's what leaders do.  

ER: Congratulations! We are so proud of you. You are leaders - continue to be leaders. 

L Kuruzar: We have had our first count day. We are at 483 enrollment - 117% of our goal. This puts us in an incredible place financially. 

We are on a waitlist in several grades - 3 grade levels at capacity. We also know that things change for families. We waitlist at 28 students per grade. Once a seat opens, we contact a family to enroll them. 

The enrollment journey for a family starts with learning about the school, most of which comes from word of mouth and yard signs. 

We want to make sure they have all the information they need to decide that this is the right school for them. 

The actual enrollment can be a little clunky - They have to enroll through Enroll Indy and set up a number of accounts. 

And then once they are enrolled, we want to make sure they have a great experience, things they can say yes to. We track their satisfaction and begin the re-enrollment process. We want to make sure that we are partnering with families to give them a great experience. 

L Aguayo - Is there a zone for enrollment? 

LK: Anybody can enroll in our school! But our zone relates to transportation. If they live outside our zone, they have to provide their own transportation. 

LA: What causes families to unenroll? 

LK: Often, it is moving or families trying to keep their students in the same school. IPS's rebuilding Stronger actually brought in more families due to the expanded enrollment zone. 

ER: Part of our strategic plan is about communicating and narrowing down who we are. If we are focusing on learning, that can cause friction with some families. Communicating that truth can cause some misalignment. We don't want to be in the business of keeping families just for fiscal health. It can be hard to call a family and let them know that their students are below grade level, but they are also hearing an appreciation for that truth. 
 

M Whitley - You also get a lot of buy-in after sharing that truth. It can make it easier to give that hard news if you have multiple data points and can show growth, even if below level. 

ER: We are constantly trying to find ways for students to say "yes" and to enjoy coming to school, even if every moment is joyful. 

MW: It's great that you are finding so many ways to students buy-in. 

K Gavin: We use PowerSchool Behavior as an app to track behavior and to seek help. It also makes it really easy to record positive reinforcements. Scholars earn "Bears Bucks," which they can spend on the Bears Bodega. 

It gives data, lets us see where there are "hot spots" and where we can reinforce behavior. 

For Bears Bucks, they can buy rewards. We are also giving experiences. We are trying to incentivize their choices. 

We have had a big push for framing our mindset around the great choices our students are making. We want to look for, record, and reward the great choices. The more we focus on the positive, the fewer negative behaviors we see. 

For our suspension data - Most of our suspensions have been students just walking out of class without permission. It is a non-negotiable that they have a pass before they leave the classroom. The other code of conduct violations we have seen are about students putting their hands on another student and for showing disrespect to adults. Before any suspension, we had meetings with the parents. 

Some of our grades with high suspensions have been 6th and 7th. These grades also have the highest percentage of new students. It can be an adjustment to the new school and the new leadership team. 

K Kainrath: Has this been trending down? 

KG: Yes, generally. Until this week. Without uniforms and with testing this week, we find that incidents increase. 

BB: What is the escalation process? 

ER: Yes, it does look like leveling up. It starts with students sharing in their own words what happened and what they are feeling. We then teach replacement behaviors. We are defining discipline as teaching what they should do instead of focusing on negative behaviors.  

KG: There are also a lot of outside events that get brought into school - things that happen at home and on social media. When we find out about it ahead of time, we can be proactive. 

ER: There are still too many students being sent out of school. This is not pleasant data. We want to decrease this number. This is what led to our focus on being proactive and teaching behavior replacements. Aligning to IPS's behavior matrix also helped in this work. 

M Meer: What is the process for entering the points? 

KG: It depends! Sometimes it is celebrated publicly. Sometimes it just goes right to their account. 

M. Rooney - Last month, we met to discuss the BOY academic data. We have decided to truncate that data and present our actions regarding it. 

In ELA - our assesment is DIBLES. 

In Math - our assessment is Checkpoint Math

ELA trend: Our MS data is higher than average. It does not include every student, though. If they passed ILEARN, they do not take DIBLES. 

K Kainrath: When they take this assessment at the end of the year, is it the same? 

ER: Yes! So, we expect those numbers to grow. 

MR: For math, our 4th graders, 40% are starting on grade level. Our 6-8 data is not on the same assessment because the company did not have the test ready. 

What are we doing about this? Big structural change to include every student K-5 in intervention support. 2-3 days of both math and ELA intervention. 

For 6-8, every student is in either math or ELA intervention based on their higher need. 

The purpose is to address gaps. Daily instruction focuses on current grade-level standards, and intervention focuses on previous holes in understanding. 

Coaching is able to focus on really, deeply understanding the content. Every teacher gets 45 minutes of coaching from their coach. This also happens during real-time, in-the-classroom, coaching. Nine staff members are able to coach. They step in to model the technique, content, skill, etc. 

ELA focus is on fluency. They can recognize words, and now they need to tie those words together. 

Math focus is conceptual. They can do the small skills, and now they have to apply them. 

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Committee governance and compliance requirements

Committees must post meetings 48 hours in advance both on BoardOnTrack and physically at school

Minutes required within 48 hours after committee meetings

Committees with 2+ board members must meet Indiana Open Door Law requirements including in-person quorum

Committee goals will be reviewed at every board meeting starting in December

Academic committee led by Matt Whitley, Finance by Matt Meer, Governance by Nelson

Staff members can count toward in-person quorum requirements for committee meetings