Mr. Brett Lawson:

• I wanted to fill the board on some of the things that are going on behind the scenes and thank the team that has been doing such hard work to move us through this transition that we're currently going through. Last week, we had walkthroughs at both Humes and MLK. Dr. Harvey marshaled the troops, got through those processes, and briefed Dr. Peterson on the walkthrough that's coming up this week on the 21st. These walkthroughs are new to us. These are the ASD annual visits; this is the first time they've done them like this. So typically, the ASD has come in and have meetings in our building, and they would walk through and see some instruction during that time, and that was the extent of what they would do. We do a lot of what they call desktop monitoring; they send us a list of information to gather and send it down for them to review on paper. And so we've done a couple of those. We have one more of those rounds to go this year. And then that will be the end of our process around them giving us any feedback on our processes and how things are going. 
• So, as you know, Humes and MLK  are cycling down this year. Westside; however, he is moving into MSCS. And so the ASD was very clear about wanting to provide them with a report so that they could understand where the school is, how it's functioning, how you, know, inner workings of the school are going, and they wanted to pass that along to MSCS. Now, MSCS is also doing lots of walk-throughs. So we've got two separate organizations, but they are demanding a lot of the back office staff's time, and the folks in the schools are taking their attention off construction in some cases to manage walk-throughs. So we've got MSCS's charter office, which will be coming into Westside for the first time this Friday at 10:15 am. And they'll be doing just a 45-minute walk around the school to see how things are going, and you know, they haven't given as much of an agenda that what it is they want to see. But they will come in, be in this space for a bit, and see how the school is running at Westside. All that is going on at the same time. MSCs for Humes and MLK, have a process that they call score. And the score teams have been through both schools twice already. They went through them again. Today, they'll go through them again on Thursday. These visits are so each department and MSCS can see what particular part of that school will return that their department needs to see. So, for instance, facilities we'd be looking at facilities. We have just a plethora of human resources and technology departments that are looking at. And so we're walking those folks through and doing those visits. 
   
• I wanted to thank the team, the network team, and the school staff managing all of that work and shepherding those folks as they come through and do these walkthroughs. It's greatly appreciated. 
• 
  We have started doing enrollment for Westside Middle School. Following Monday, the 19th, will be Presidents Day, and we will be hosting an in-person registration day at Westside to get parents to come down and go through the enrollment process. It takes a short time to get through the process. And our families and our neighborhood are not used to doing this this early. Typically, we get all our enrollment done in the first two weeks before school starts, and then in the first week of school, we see everybody. This shift from being a neighborhood school in the ASD to a charter school under MSCS will be a significant shift for everyone because the expectation is that your students are enrolled and all the paperwork is done well before the end of the school year. And that has not been how we've operated in the past. So we are working with families, making daily calls, sending letters, and posting on our FaceBook. It's important for the board to understand the complexity of the transition happening right now and all the work the school staff are putting in to make it possible. 

Mr. Greg Thompson:

Financial Update 2-13-2024

Financial Notes

• Cash Balance: 

• At 12-31-2023: $2,629,014.65 (53 days of cash) 

• At 2-13-2024: $2,307,993.88 (46.5 days of cash)

School                            MLK      Westside     Humes     Total

Budgeted Enrollment     540       330             195           1,065

Enrollment on which      492       293             195            981

FCS is currently being funded

The average per pupil funding for FCS is approximately $11,711 per student (net of ASD fee of 3%)

Dr. Lawanda Clark:

And I'm here to present an academic update on the mastery view predictive assessment. I will compare Administration One and Administration Two and share some data we collected. Here are a few things you should keep in mind when you're looking at the data. There will be some ratings for DoK one, DoK two, and DoK three, and I want you to see those definitions. So when you see the report, you will understand, or when I represent, you'll know what we're talking about. We want to ensure our students perform at the DoK two DoK three above level. That's the goal. If you look at the Tennessee achievement levels and descriptions, you will also see those numbers. We want them to meet expectations at three and four. We want them to exceed the expectations referenced in the achievement level. Under the MVPA report, the proficient projection percentage is referenced, but that tells you what our students will do or are projected to do. If we were to take the test on this very day, I want you to keep those things in mind as we review the report. I'll check for understanding to ensure you all understand what we're talking about. We want our students to live in this world of the DoK three and four strategic and extended thinking. We want our teachers to plan instructions that guide our students to mastery by focusing on strategic and extended thinking regarding applications and concepts. All right, we will look at MLK's geometry first. And keep in mind those numbers are referenced. You'll see them to the right of your screen. Here is a projected proficiency, projected percent proficiency for geometry. In the first administration, we had 2.2% of the projected, so we have a slight gain, but if you notice on the test, there were 30 assessment items in the first administration and 35 in the second. If you look at the standards, you will also see that some are the same, and then there are additional standards. So when we do the first administration, we do a few samples and a few standards for each additional administration afterward. So, it's essential that teachers keep track of their pacing to ensure that by the time we do the assessments, our students are ready to perform. So, in Algebra One, you see a projected proficiency rate of 1.1%; for a second administration, we have 0%. So we have declined. We look at the depth of knowledge. We had you see what it says here, which tells you the number of questions we had in those categories. As you can see, our kids are performing below expectations regarding the DoK levels, and the standard for the first and second administrations is the same. We do have an increase of 3.8. If you look at the depth of knowledge and the standards, you can see what there is in alignment; the alignment says we are below expectations, and so in this report, what we did was we connected the dots. So our students are moving towards mastering, and if you see there's an f, that means it's from the fall IPG walkthrough, and W means the winter walkthrough. Look at Algebra One, Geometry, and Algebra Two, which are still our teachers' rated a two. They needed to meet expectations of moving our students towards mastering. You will see the MVPA projected proficiency percentage from fall to winter. Our highest is in Algebra three, and Algebra Two is 3.8%. Then, we looked at the lesson plan. So, with algebra, we're using K12 Elevate, so those are outsourced teachers, but it's virtual learning one day a week, so they are turning in the lesson plan. However, the lesson plans need to meet the demands of Tennessee standards. So we've had a conversation with the Representative. We've submitted all of this data and the Tennessee blueprint standards, and a pacing guide was submitted to him today so that he can get the teachers aligned to where we need them to me moving forward. So, the school leadership team and MCLs put together their baseline assessment results, their execution plan, their strategies, and feedback. If you look at this, they talked about how they were and what they were preparing to do to move the students to increase teacher capacity to move the students. So we have to tutor you in small groups. You have PLC meetings. You have the MCLs that are going to work with the teachers one on one in a collaborative setting, to get them to analyze their data and understand how their practices impact a student's performance. They focused on core actions about student learning, students' practices, and teacher actions. So, we looked at both years to come up with that score. You'll see the same for ELA, except there's a decline from the English one; the number of items did increase for ELA, and they get the same standards every time there's an administration. So it's comprehensive each time that they take it. And so we have a lot of work to do in this area so that our students can show that they are moving towards mastery. And again, here is their connection between mastering proficiency and lesson planning. And if you look at the MVPA proficiency percentage for 10th grade, you see a jump from 7.4% to 16.3%. The 12th-grade team doesn't take the MVPA.
There's a 3.7 to 1% decline in ninth grade, so there's a decline. They submit lesson plans that meet the needs. Still, there needs to be a connection between how to execute these lesson plans properly and how to utilize the information from students' performances to make effective changes in your data. And that is something that the school leaders are concerned about, and MCL wants to work closer with the teachers to make sure they can master that. And here is MLK's plan for improvement. They want to increase their TNReady scores from level two to level three; they have a goal to improve their next MVPA from a score of two to a three. They also put in some support from the MCLs, and the school leadership team started to push in and work with those students and teachers. This is for ELA, so they will continue to work with them. They're doing state inclusion training. They're talking about tutoring during school and even considering doing a Saturday tutoring Academy. They identify strategies that will help teach the students movement to annotate the text at least four days per week by having a systematic way of doing it. And so we saw one today this week. I think it was from Humes. And it was annotated so well that we felt that it was the teacher's note, and that's how we want the students to be able to annotate their text. They can answer the questions and justify the answer to support and protect. For history, 6.8 to 13.8% proficiency will project it; in history, the 11th-grade students were the only ones to take the MVPA. You see, there's a growth from 6.8% to 13.8%. You know the lesson plans and meeting expectations. We recognize that when teachers turn the lesson plans in, they're correctly executing them, utilizing the curriculum and sometimes outside resources. They're able to get the growth that we need. We're hopeful that growth will continue as we move on to the third administration. Here are their improvement plans. Mrs. Rile will be assisted by Ms. Sawyer, our MCL coach, who is working on targeting student activity feedback. Peer to Peer discord. We saw a trend that teachers need to allow more discourse so they're able to gauge what students do know. Students are ready. They want to talk about it. Teachers have to relinquish their power in the classroom to allow students to speak so they can adequately plan for the student's myology 6.3 projected proficiency rate to 23 points nine, which is fantastic. And if you look at her standards and the depth of knowledge, you'll see an improvement there as well. And here it is: you'll see 6.3 to 23% of her lesson plans for the biology teacher. Ms. Evans says she gets lesson plans continuously from the biology and chemistry teachers, and it's evidence that their ability to teach and move students is evident. Now, why do you see N/A for the winter? That means lesson plans still needed to be turned in. We didn't do an observation for physical science that was a substitute for them. And for the chemistry teachers because they don't take the MVPA. So Ms. Berry's doing very well in biology, moving those children from a 6.3 to a 23% proficiency projected proficiency rate. These are the goals and strategies that Ms. Evans and Ms. Berry will continue to utilize to grow our students. There will be some alignment to the standards. We recognize that our students and teachers need help to teach and select activities that lead them to domains of standards. Our children cannot meet them; their instructions need to be aligned. And so we recognize that we are working for instructional cohesion, meaning if they get it in RTI session or if they're being pulled out, or they're in tutoring, we want to ensure that all activities across the board are aligned. 

Dr. Lawanda Clark:

• And here it is: you'll see 6.3 to 23% of her lesson plans for the biology teacher. Ms. Evans says she gets lesson plans continuously from the biology and chemistry teachers, and it's evidence that their ability to teach and move students is evident. Now, why do you see N/A for the winter? That means lesson plans still needed to be turned in. We didn't do an observation for physical science that was a substitute for them. And for the chemistry teachers because they don't take the MVPA. So Ms. Berry's doing very well in biology, moving those children from a 6.3 to a 23% proficiency projected proficiency rate. These are the goals and strategies that Ms. Evans and Ms. Berry will continue to utilize to grow our students. There will be some alignment to the standards. We recognize that our students and teachers need help to teach and select activities that lead them to domains of standards. Our children cannot meet them; their instructions need to be aligned. And so we recognize that we are working for instructional cohesion, meaning if they get it in RTI session or if they're being pulled out, or they're in tutoring, we want to ensure that all activities across the board are aligned. 

• We move on to the middle schools.
  So, this report will give you Humes and Westside simultaneously. So if you're looking at Humes 1.8, they're still studying at 1.8 with Mr. Turner's for grade math. If you look at Westside, they went from a 1.2 to a 12.7, and that's sixth-grade math. If you look down at Dlk's knowledge and the group results for the standards, you will see an improvement or an increase in the scores. So there is movement for seventh grade from 3.7 to 6.0; for Westside, it was 1.3 to zero projected proficiency. If you look at the scores, you can see how they can align, where the numbers alone and the student's performance will also last as long. In eighth-grade math, you see the trend if you go into the past; students are moving towards grasping the concept of the lesson, which is the lesson they observed during the IPG walkthrough.
  You will see that these teachers were writing three and four. We didn't do eighth grade; she is on maternity leave. If you look at their projected proficiency rate, you can see an improvement in the seventh grade from 3.7 to 6.1. I also want to point out that Mr. Thomas teaches seventh-grade math, so we observed his lesson. See the lesson plans for the sixth grade, which still need to be submitted. You see, Mr. Turner's a 1.8 in the fall and a 1.8 in the winter. There was a connection between teachers not submitting lesson plans and principals not holding them accountable. It's evident that teachers will not own, and students will not learn. Humes has submitted their goal for math, which is to increase their proficiency by 10% for the next TNReady. They have plans like MLK to work with your teachers individually and collaboratively. They want to do some tutoring during the day. They've created their blitz plan or taps where they have to. They'll also have the elective teachers come in to do some tutoring. They are going to execute plans and lessons through i-Ready to help these students move forward? We are starting this earlier than last year because the data tells us we need to act immediately to improve instructional practices and student performance. Westside, you look at their scores and see that in their sixth grade, three and two students move toward mastery for that lesson. The MVPA projected proficiency percentage for math sixth grade moved to 12.7. That is amazing. We look at their lesson plan for the sixth grade. That teacher is turning in a lesson plan. Now, you can see what happens when they turn in highly effective lesson plans that are being executed. And it does impact students' performance. If you look at the eighth-grade teacher, significantly below expectations were lesson plans, and look at how it affected our students' growth. Here is Westside MVPA's target and how they plan to execute strategies that can move the students and achieve the goals. 
• There was a decline in the fifth-grade ELA at Humes and Westside. There was an increase in seventh-grade ELA at both schools. Humes 4.0 to 16.3 Westside 5.6 to 9.5. Eighth-grade 9.5 to 18.9 at Humes 2.6 to 4.3 at Westside, we have movement. We know we have a lot of work to do, but we have movement and momentum. If you look at the lessons that were reserved for that day, sixth grade has a score of three, meeting expectations; seventh grade and eighth grade, we see a score of four. If you look at the data, you can see how it impacts their instructions, how students perform, and how they are projected to perform. Look at the lesson plans; they're turning them in. Pay attention to the scores When you see someone not turning in the lesson plan. Here is their plan to execute the strategies. Again, a lot of it is repetitive. They're using the same resources across the middle school.
• A sixth-grade teacher has one all the way down, or she is not moving. Her students have a decline in their projected proficiency rate. She does not turn in lesson plans that meet the expectations, where you look at the seventh-grade and eighth-grade teachers; although Mr. Wells is at a two, he is showing growth. The same thing happened to Mr. Moore. He is showing some growth. He turns in great lesson plans but does not execute what he turns in. So when you're reading his lesson plans, he's meeting the expectation he has everything and all the boxes are checked. Still, once it comes into action, he deviates from the plan, which also hinders the student's ability to perform, so we're going to work with him on that. Here's their plan to meet their target goals.
• We look at science: 5.4 to 3.8 for Humes and West Side 22.2 to 54.9, which is from Miss Hammond, a first-year teacher. She is utilizing our curriculum and outside resources based on her teacher's observations on student performance. So she's digging into the work she wants to help. She takes the feedback and moves those kids. Seventh grade science 6.1 to 6.7 for Humes. Westside seventh grade science 1.4 to 3.5. Eighth grade from 8.5 to 30.6 at Humes. Westside has a decrease of 7.1 to 2.4. Again, look at their lesson plans below. There's a decrease except for the eighth grade, which moved from 8.5 to 13.6 at Humes. Here is your improvement plan. The science MCLs have pointed out that the teachers need to start their lessons or include a phenomenon in their science lessons. When they don't do that, it will impact the scores on their IPG walkthrough and students' ability to master the IPG walkthrough. 
• 
  Westside Science has a four. They don't have a seventh-grade teacher who was not observed on this day and one for their eighth-grade teachers on their lessons for that day. 
  Social Studies for the middle school increased from 2.2 to 23.0, with Humes at 12.5 to 13.2 and Westside at 12.1 to 29.3. For Humes in social studies, seventh grade went from 9.8 to 32.0. Mrs. Morgan gives her Social Studies Department in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade a lot of credit for utilizing their curriculum and being very intentional about any outside resources they bring in, focusing on primary and secondary resources, and opening their lessons with a resource. 
• In eighth grade, you'll see 44.3 to 63.2 growth for Humes, and for Westside, you'll see 2.32 or 3.2. Again, look at the scores. You can see how the connection is made with the teachers' planning and teaching. When they plan effectively, you get high-quality instruction. Again, here is a list of their strategies or plans to execute strategies to meet their goal. Social Studies at Westside, we have Mr. McDaniel, a second-year teacher at level four who moved his students from 12.1 to 29.3. He is a member of the many teaching cohorts, so he is very receptive to feedback. His lesson plans are coming in below expectations, but he did inform me the other day that he had a session with Man Up where they work on lesson plans. So once you tell him where he needs to improve, he digs in to make those improvements, and we can see that evident in his day.
  Mr. Lee came in at level one on his lesson. But he moved his kids from 2.8 to 14.1. He gave me a personal phone call to thank me for the team's feedback and told me that he would improve and step up his game. So, I'm looking forward to seeing excellent scores from Mr. Lee. Miss Lipford came from a college background. So she does a lot of lecturing. However, she has worked closely with Mrs. Clark to change her teaching strategy. So she's had to unlearn and learn some things, but you can see growth from 2.3 to 3.2. 

Ms. Candice Reddick:

• 
  Mrs. Arlinda Cathey is out today. I will speak on her behalf. We want to discuss the reconviction of the committee meetings. We will start gearing up for our committee meeting this month. Our development meeting will take place on the 21st of February. I will send emails to set up a monthly date and time for our committee meeting. Everyone is welcome to join in on any of the meetings. If you are not a part of any committee and would like to join one, please let me or the committee chair know. Ms. Warren will spearhead this month's development meeting regarding planning the FCS 10-year Gala. Time is seeking and is not really on our side. You all should receive an email from the board regarding your participation in upcoming meetings so that Ms. Warren can share the details of where they are, and we can provide our input about any additional needs to make this event successful. Again, that meeting will be within the coming week, given the times of the event. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

Ms. LaTisha Warren:

• 
  Since our last meeting, we have completed all recordings with the principals and students. We have created our honoree letter and invitations to send out. We need to push out the save the dates as soon as possible. We still need to get together the pricing of the table. And we're putting together the package that we discussed last month. Ms. Reddick, I need to get on your calendar to figure out what those packets will look like and what will be in the packets. Ms. Bearden and I walked through the venue to see what the setup would look like. We looked at the linen colors and table setup. We need the list of names from Dr. White to get information to our honorees. I will contact Ms. Williams to see the budget from the 5-year gala and get an idea of how much we will need. As of now, that's where we are.

Mr. Grant Wells:

• 
  I'm Mr. Wells. I'm a teacher at Westside Middle School. I wanted to speak on what Dr. Clarck spoke about regarding our environmental issues, which are related to our stakeholders, including our staff and the children. Recently, there has been some change that's taking place at Westside, and it leaves me and many of our faculties wondering about the degree of oversight that's taking place in facilities. Our Assistant Principal, Ms. Birgs, was recently released; she was extremely valuable to the staff, the students, and the school. This has many of us questioning how important our stakeholders are. It's two months before testing. Ms. Birgs held the Assistant Principal title and did many other things for the school, such as moral support for the staff and building the culture. And each month,  she would get cupcakes for the students' birthdays and things like that. I'm concerned about that. This also leads to another issue: many of our students legally required to receive IEP services are not given the full scale of their services. I wanted to speak up about that issue and bring it to the light to see what can be done. I understand the termination of A. .P  Birgs and what's taking place. But still, we were concerned about the degree of oversight of the school and people being held accountable for these things.

Ms. Candice Reddick:

• 
  Thank you, Mr. Wells, for sharing your comments. As you say, the students are essential, and oversight is precious regarding student success. So, I have taken note of your grievances and your concerns. I will be sharing them with Dr. White and Mr. Lawson, as well as any other leadership, to see what we can do more to ensure that the students continue getting the services they need. I understand you say that IEP services also need to be rolled out at their total capacity. So, we want to ensure that students are getting what they need. So, I want to address this, and I will have a conversation with Mr. Lawson and Dr. White when he returns, and we will be sure that everything is handled accordingly. Thank you again, Mr. Wells, for your comments. Do we have anyone else who wants to share?
•  Let me just add to that, Mr. Wells. I appreciate you being courageous because people often fear speaking up because they fear what will happen. So, I do appreciate you speaking up and being courageous on this call before the board is sharing there. Speaking on behalf of the board, we are grateful for your commitment to the students of Fraser Community Schools specifically.

Ms. G. Peterson:

• 
  I am Ms. Peterson, a sub for Westside. I wanted to know the procedure leading up to the state test. Do we already have someone who's gone to administer it, or does it play a significant role in the kids' attempts to pass and advance? How will you proceed if you do not have the proper person to accommodate that?

Mr. Brett Lawson:

• 
  Testing is going to go forward. That's not a question; testing will be taken care of. We will manage all that work. That is not going to stop. We have the MVPA test we reported tonight, similar to the -Tcap test. There's a system you have to get into to manage that process, but there are a lot of folks who are familiar with that program and know how to do that. So that's not going to stop.

Ms. G. Peterson:

• 
  How do we address students with IEPs who are not getting the proper counseling? Because I have students who have IEPs, and they have yet to be adequately addressed or counseled since they started.
   

Mr. Brett Lawson:

• 
  I won't get into everything on this particular call about how services will be managed, but Mrs. Gipson, our Director of Special Populations, does have to plan all that work.
   

Ms. Candice Reddick:

• 
  Thank you so much for your concern, Ms. Peterson. I will work to ensure that those services are being rolled out appropriately. I will be in contact with Dr. White and Mr. Lawson regarding data, so we hope to see some change in the future.
   

Mrs. Shameka Gipson:

• 
  I want to make sure that I'm clear about the question. The question is whether or not our students with IEPs are receiving the appropriate services as per their IEP. 
  I'm not sure who Ms. Peterson is, so I'm almost positive that she probably was not part of the onboarding training or a lot of our ongoing training with the network, where we tried to dispel a few myths. One of the main things is that the only time that services are received for special education is when there is a special education teacher in the room with that English or math teacher. 
• So that is a myth. The services and outlines of the IEP talk about accommodations and modifications. They also talked about the goals that the children are trying to achieve and how they are progressing. So those are what is listed in those IEPs. Since we have lost staffing, our staffing model has changed by the wayside because we lost a couple of hours of paid teachers. What we did was allow our teacher assistants, the parent educators for special education, to still go into the English and math classes because we no longer had the teachers who could do that. So, those people go into the classes to support teachers with small group instruction for students with disabilities and other struggling students. And what teachers do is we co-plan with those teachers for English and math to ensure that those elements of the IEP are still being met, as well as we have a pullout schedule where they are still pulling those students out, working with them on goals and objectives, and also progress monitoring. So, while it looks different than it has traditionally looked, the services are still being provided to our students. That's one thing I tried to ensure we're doing. That's the approved plan we also sent to the state and the ASD, given our current staffing.

Ms. Candice Reddick:

• Thank you, Mrs. Gipson and Ms. Peterson, for your comments and concerns regarding the students. 

Ms. Shaniece Birgs:

• 
  Thank you, Mr. Wells and Ms. Peterson, for speaking on my mom's behalf. I appreciate it. Of course, she's not on the call, but I attended for several reasons. But thank you all for doing it because my mom was Westside. Without her, you clearly can't care about those children because if you did, she would still be there. So, I thank both of you for speaking up on her behalf.