None

E Rangel: 

STEM Night - Lots of smiles

100th Day of School - Dressed as "100 years old" and Emma Donnan

Bringing celebrations back! Inviting families back in to celebrate grades, attendance, Crew

KG students are celebrating the new furniture! 

Spelling Bee finalist! 

There is a misconception that we cherry-pick who can come to our school. That is not the case. Our teacher Ms. Staley, creates an incredible space for students with exceptionalities. 

J Habayeb: We continue to meet or exceed every standard set by OEI

J Habayeb:  

Retirement benefits restructuring

• Finance committee recommended moving from immediate 100% vesting to 4-year vesting schedule for new hires
• National study showed median retirement match of 4% and seventy-fifth percentile of 6.5% for public charter schools
• Current safe harbor structure provided 3% match with 100% vesting after two payrolls
• Retention data showed 58% of hires over past 6 years left within a year: 6% ops team, 10% food service, 24% school-based staff, 60% teachers

New structure for hires after July 1st:

• 4-year vesting schedule (20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, 100%)
• 4% employer match

Existing staff changes:

• Match increased to 4%
• Current 100% vesting status remains unchanged
• Projected 5% match at start of year five for long-term retention rewards
• Design principles focused on honoring current staff commitments, aligning benefits with retention, and concentrating investment on staff who stay

Lily funding and budget updates

• Lily funding totals $14.4M in money market account earning strong interest returns
• Construction planning underway with architecture team conducting mock-ups
• Onboarding call with Lily completed, spending down process moving forward
• AIA architecture contract under legal review

• Finance committee will review fiscal year 2027 budget at March meeting with public hearing
• Full board budget review scheduled for next board meeting
• 100% of levy funds go back to IPS for transportation costs

ELA mid-year checkpoint results

• Checkpoint two focused on nonfiction texts (checkpoint one was fiction)
• Grade-level proficiency increases from checkpoint one to two: third grade showed strong growth, fourth grade increased, sixth grade improved slightly
• Seventh and eighth grade showed slight dips in nonfiction proficiency
• Intervention periods now emphasizing nonfiction texts for seventh and eighth grades
• Multilingual learners increased from 2% to 5% proficiency between checkpoints
• Special education students showed slight dip in proficiency
• All special populations showed growth from checkpoint one to checkpoint two

Math mid-year checkpoint results

• Fourth grade proficiency dropped from 63% to 36% between checkpoints due to significantly more difficult content (multi-digit multiplication vs. addition/subtraction)
• Fourth grade performance still aligns with state average of approximately 38%
• Most grade levels showed slight proficiency increases
• Special education students showed strong increase in both approaching and at/above proficiency
• Rudy and Director De La Cruz planning to increase math support for multilingual learners, whose support currently focuses primarily on reading
• White student proficiency at 39% creates gaps with black and Hispanic student performance that need to close to within 10% differential

DIBELS reading fluency progress

• K-3 assessment administered to all students, grades 4-8 only for students receiving intervention
• Second and third grade approaching 80% benchmark target by end of year
• Kindergarten and first grade remain areas of concern
• Coaching focused on increasing student "at bats" (opportunities to respond)
• First grade teacher Miss Alex achieved 73 at bats in 7 minutes during wordplay, up from 15-20 previously
• Fourth grade intervention students showing progress
• Fifth grade identified as biggest gap, now receiving Ignite Reading one-on-one online tutoring through Lily grant partnership
• Grades 6-8 intervention students all increased words per minute and averaged 48 points composite growth gain

Math progress monitoring results

• First year implementing strong beginning/middle/end of year math assessments (K-5 only, 6-8 results release March 1st)
• K-2 growth extremely strong: kindergarten from 9% to 39%, first grade 22% to 56%, second grade 30% to 67% proficiency
• Fourth grade showed 6% increase from beginning to middle of year despite checkpoint dip
• Fifth grade also showed growth
• Goal is 60% of students on grade level in math by end of year, most grades on track
• Assessment based on common core standards (Indiana standards are similar with negligible differences)
• This progress monitoring tool will be mandated statewide, Adelante Schools piloting ahead of mandate

Academic interventions and focus areas

ELA focus areas:

• Teachers and coaches deepening understanding of new Arts and Letters curriculum (first year of implementation)
• Practice clinics for vocabulary development
• Assessment guides supporting data analysis in weekly data meetings
• Third through eighth grade weekly assessments emphasizing nonfiction or fiction based on checkpoint results
• iRead three exam preparation underway with focused lessons and practice
• Intervention includes UFLI (word recognition and fluency), fluency and comprehension support
• Ignite Reading for kindergarten, first, third, and fifth grades based on middle of year data

Math focus areas:

• Teachers and coaches deepening curriculum understanding
• Implementing House Bill 1634 mandating math intervention and tier two supports
• Teacher survey conducted during PD day for candid feedback on first year of math intervention pilot
• Planning improvements for rest of year and next year based on teacher feedback
• Academic monitoring differentiated by teacher performance level
• Weekly 40-minute data meetings between coaches and teachers now focused on analyzing student work and addressing gaps

M. Meer: No additions, beyond the Finance report

N. Frech: It's been a busy month. We will dive right into the chair updates and action items

Due 6/30/26: 

Board Eval of School Leadership 

Board Self-Evaluation

School Leader Self-Evaluation