Amrit provided updates about Student Advisory.  There was no Student Government update.

Presented by LynAnn Kovelesky

Student/Teacher pulse surveys results regarding the 3 New initiatives this year: Evolve, Access and Securly. 

Access- Overall, students and teacher survey data indicates that they are neutral/ positive that the access classes allow them to establish connections with other students and teachers, has been beneficial for academic support, and has been easy to implement. 

Securly: Securly Classroom, Securly Aware & Securly Filter- Students are reporting confusion about aware vs filter. Frustration about access to sites, increased stress, and resultantly are using some hotspots. Some teachers report the same struggle about students accessing websites, but an equal number of teachers do not have issues.

Evolv- Students report feeling indifferent/positive with Evolv and feel safer, teachers are indifferent, though they have questions about the system learning objects and alarming on the same type of items. we thought it would learn and not flag so often.

Mike Pritchard comments about Securly- with the previous system we had about 4 years of experience to build up the sites we need to access, so problems with accessing websites are expected and will get better. 

We had set our permissions improperly for the Securly classroom, and once we corrected that we didn't have that issue any longer. 

In securely aware, the only place we are pulling data are in the google workspace and if they are searching for something in web searches (onsite only)

BOD questions: 

Can we communicate with other schools using Evolv to compare notes and see if they are experiencing the same issues? - Matt Cartier will follow up with Evolv and attend the next committee meeting. 

When will we be sharing our positive experiences with Securly with parents? - LynAnn Kovalesky will work with the Student Advisory before Christmas break. After more time has passed with the systems, we will be able to give a well-rounded report then. 

Presented by Michelle Gasser

Parent, Staff and Student survey results regarding the preference of late start, early dismissal or neither- Over half wanted early release days. Early release impact parents the most and they were 59% in favor (of 330 parents). Some elementary schools in the District are considering late start beginning in the 2025-26 school year. 

The next survey was the preference between early release on conference days or an extra day of school year - 68.3% voted that they prefer early release. Teachers are impacted most, and they overwhelmingly voted for the early release day.

When asked if the academic calendar would impact your decision to return to STEM next year, 80.5% said "No"

The purpose of late start/ early dismissal is to give our teachers more time for PD, which we know is an existing problem for our staff. On early release days, we will be having 50 minute periods. 

The Board reviewed the calendar provided and discussed. The Calendar must be submitted to the District by the end of this month. 

BOD Comment: because we added Access 2 days per week this year, it feels like we are reducing classroom time. Maybe we could reduce the Access time to once per week to give some more classroom time? 

Michelle Gasser: We can absolutely make adjustments like that moving forward without impacting the overall calendar. We must indicate half days in what is submitted to the District, but we don't need to show which are Access and which are not. 

The BOD will revisit the discussion of calendar/schedule details in the February or March. Admin will revisit the schedule discussion with the early release/access/ ect., that will provide time to get a survey out to teachers to see if they feel they need 2 access days. Admin will have more data to work with at the end of the semester. 

Presented by Matt Cartier:  

Monthly update written template is located in Board Book

5-year Renewal: The site visit was today; we are now preparing for the board meeting in December.

Entity renewal: He will be meeting with an accountant to nail down details. 

Support and Evaluation/ Strategic Planning Process: Everyone will have a worksheet to support more control over our budgets. 

Enrollment: Dropped 1537 to 1407 in September. Matt is exploring the reasons behind why this happened. We know we did not budget conservatively enough so we should look at trends then have a more realistic idea of what enrollment will be. Rudy Lukez and Matt Cartier will be reviewing how the other district schools are doing with enrollment.

Facilities Update/ Hiring: We are working toward hiring an HR and Facilities Director in November. 

This month, M.C. will be looking at 4 replicating STEM schools to see what is working for them. Those results will be reported to the BOD. 

The first step of the UIP process is to organize the data in order to review current performance, describe significant trends and prioritize performance challenges. Over time, we can see what we are doing right and what can we continue to replicate and what do we need to change to continue to see that growth.

The BOD reviewed the data collected through school wide test results for 2022-23. These tests included iReady: Reading and Math, CMAS: ELA & Math, PSAT: 8, 9, and 10, SAT, and AP.

Looking at the trends, we were successful in increasing knowledge. Last year we implemented Benchmark, and that rollout went well. We have also improved out teacher support team which helped greatly. In general, we meet the benchmark in all areas, and are typically above the rest of the district. 

Special notes and exceptions: 

Math- 4th, 5th, and 7th. Growth opportunities for these classes. 

SAT (116 students)- We were 13th in the state for the highest SATs 

AP- we scored in the 69% for this year, this correlates to the number of exams we gave. 

UIP= Unified Improvement Planning process. We are not required to write one each year, but best practice is to look at them every year to review to see how you are doing with your goals.

The current UIP identified the priority performance challenges in our students through the testing. We found the root causes and are looking to drive instruction for targeted groups while promoting equity and inclusion. Our major improvement strategies are to continue PD instruction to reach goals to align with strategic plan. We continue looking at root causes of challenges and identifying the actionable items, in addition to examining what other schools are doing to build major improvement strategies. 

Our UIP next steps are use the Teacher Support team to provide support and instructional strategies to meet these goals, and Professional Development will align to the outlined needs of the staff. Next year we will rewrite the UIP.

Academic Advisory met and they are looking at Openup Resources (math Pilot), and IReady math for the ES.

For the Secondary, they are meeting with every department regarding the course proposals and will report back next month. 

P-TECH expansion: our focus is on game design, but we are also looking to expand with a partnership with ACC into the Electric Vehicle sector. It would be the first of its kind in the nation, with industry level certificates.

CTE certification: Cyber, network, engineering and design

Teacher Support Team: Unit planning, MasteryConnect, and Instructional Coaching. A professional coach focused on math and science was added to the team.

Professional Development: in November - the teachers will be working on Love and Logic. 

For November Board meeting, will be presenting curriculum course changes for BOD approval.

BOD Comments: 

For new CTE pathways, Carla requested that Matt and Michelle G coordinate to see what BOD approval may be needed.  We just want BOD approval documented if there is a formal submittal to DCSD BOD or CDE. It was discussed that we just want to ensure the the BOD is on board with any kinds of process, pathway, and diploma class approvals. Next month Michelle will be presenting curriculum course changes.

As we are working on the EV thing, there is an Auto body shop that is converting to EV and that should be a great partnership for STEM.

The BOD must review and vote on the Volunteer and Enrollment Policies.

Volunteer Policy discussion- It was determined that the 2nd bullet should be removed to prevent confusion.

***Ryan left the meeting at 7:15 PM*** quorum is still met

Enrollment Policy Discussion- STEM Is no longer using waitlist, instead using the DCSD open enrolment tool with specific steps. STEM will have an interest list available for the limited time of year when the DCSD open enrollment tool is not available, as part of the transition to the DCSD enrollment tool. The STEM website has also been corrected to align with the Enrollemtnpolicy as written. 

The BOD reviewed the Concurrent Enrollment Waiver, regarding high school credits. 

BOD Discussion: STEM awards credits differently than how the district awards credits. We provide more credits than the district. The concern is that our students may have enough credits to graduate from 2 years of English and Math CE classes, but colleges will be looking at the number of years of study and expecting 4 years of classes for each subject. Another issue is when a STEM student transfers out to another school, it affects their GPA. Finally, when our students graduate early, we get reduced funding. The waiver documents the current way that STEM awards high school credits for CE courses since it's different than DCSD.  The waiver is only for current 9th through 12th graders.

In the future, Admin is proposing to continue with the same high school credit hours for lab based courses such as engineering, PTech, etc.  For math and English, the high school credits may be reduced to match DCSD.  Admin will provide a proposal to the BOD in the spring so it will be in place for the next school year. 

The two policies for annual review are Opt-in/Opt-out and Viewpoint Neutrality.  No comments or feedback were provided ahead of the meeting or during the meeting.  If there are any comments/feedback, please share concerns with Michelle Horne or Carla Gustafson. If there are any proposed changes to policies from their annual review, the BOD will review and vote on any changes in a future meeting.

Presented by Erin Quigley

The Evaluation Committee has been meeting regularly and taking the Board On Track evaluations.  Special focus is being directed toward the goals for the current year and the next 3 years.

Matt Cartier Presented

Main Goal for this year:

Cultivate a culture that encourages active participation and excellence. 

support goals:

- Model the active participation and commitment to excellence

- Regularly addressing the HR needs of our school

- Being responsive

- Focus on developing the shared services team 

The Finance Committee has been meeting. The Balance Sheet is being reviewed. If there are any concerns or feedback, please share them with Matt Cartier or Ryan Theret.

The BOD looks forward to the following item in the upcoming meetings:

Jessica Monda will give a presentation on the future of Center for Strength

PTO will present the Biannual update

Star Ake will present the Quarterly Finance Report

State of STEM Report

Teacher and Staff Support update

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