Amy presented current attendance data. The school average in August was 80% but we are getting closer to normal. Not having to quarantine students for COVID exposures anymore allows more students to stay in school.  Right now, in March, were at 92% and our goal is 95%. 

Our students are still currently masked, we are following what SPS does. 

Rebecca asks if other things are returning to normal as well like eating in the cafeteria?

Amy says with masks, we've pretty much been doing that the whole time. The biggest change is that we are not contact tracing anymore. 

Amy presents current achievement data. Since our last meeting, students have taken an ELA Anet assessment. This assessment is taken four times a year. Every grade is performing better than the Fall. Very exciting progress and we can assume our interventions are helping students. Every grade, except 6th, is a little below pre-pandemic scores. 

Rebecca reminds everyone that in ELA this kind of improvement is more emphasized because interim 2 is more difficult that interim 1. 

Amy concludes that they've been making suggestions for things they want to change next year to help with teacher retention and to prepare students for high school. Our model has been two teachers in a classroom and students stay with those two teachers all day. It has been difficult getting teachers to fit this model because there are less teachers in the pool to pull from and most teachers specialize in one area e.g. Algebra and we ask teachers to know and teach two content areas. 

Several changes have been proposed:

1. Model change. 5th grade stays the same. 6th-8th grade change to a partially rotating model. 12 staff members in each grade just spread out differently - more support staff. This shift will solve for some of the issues we've been having but keeps the core essence of the model that defines us. 

2. Increasing salaries (approved by the Board).

3. Shorten the school year (starting so early in August for teachers has been a difficult selling point - we still would have PD but it will be more aligned with SPS). 

4. Shorten the school day - transportation has approved it and it will align with the high school school day. (8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.)

*Staff have been very supportive and excited about these proposed changes. Rachel thinks these changes are going to have a big impact on teacher effectiveness. 

Dale is nervous that these changes are making Veritas more of a "typical" middle school when Veritas was designed to be different (more time) with a unique model.

Amy says we are still unique because of the level of support we have for our students. In the new model we are taking away teacher planning time and prioritizing what our students need and how we can support them. We didn't shave any time off of core classes. 

Amy has thought about how we could run a summer intensive and invite new and struggling staff to come lead this intensive and this could be more effective than three weeks of PD in August. 

Dale asks that the leadership team provide the Board with a structure or plan to measure the effectiveness of these changes over the first two or three years. 

Rachel says some of these changes, e.g. schedule and calendar change that require an amendment, will be brought to the full Board. 

Rebecca emphasizes Dale's point about the need for metrics to evaluate the success of these changes. 

Discussion will be tabled for next month's meeting.