csd vision colab statements clarifications 4-29-16

8/17/2019 CSD Vision Colab Statements Clarifications 4-29-16

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Organization: Demosophia Project: Capital School District

List of Vision Statements with

ClarificationsWhat are descriptors of what an ideal Capital School District ?ought to be? to ensure anexcellent education for every student?

# Statement

1 A true college prep.

Okay, so the key points that I wrote underneath were, it says giving students theopportunity to discover their passions or life aspirations. This gives the students

an example of what college is really like, declaring a major, taking focusedclasses based on that major, and then completing requirements. >> So are youreferring to like CP classes in general? Or are you trying to create like a newsection of classes to support the college prep line? Like alignment? >> I thinkwhat you know as college prep right now, CP in high school, is not what I'mreferring to. What I'm basically referring to is saying that I want high school toliterally prepare you for the college experience. So you would have to go into --and we're kind of getting that way now in the high school, but I want to make sureit's universal across the entire way, where the students will come in as freshmenand then after one year of classes, they begin to kind of focus their class choicesand their energies towards choosing a major or choosing a pathway, like what we

are building right now, so that way they get the experience of that going throughand seeing whether or not those choices and those classes that they are takingare helping them and guiding them towards being that for the rest of their lives.Because we all know we've been through times where we've had friends whochanged their majors in college and maybe even some of you experienced thatyourselves, if we could sort of try to have this be an experience where that can bedone in a high school level, perhaps when they get to a coleagueate level theymay be more efficient with how they operate and be more successful. >> Bycollege are you referring to the traditional four year college experience or wouldyou expand that college definition to mean two year colleges and trade schools aswell? >> I think when I wrote it, I was thinking the traditional college experience,but I think it would apply to anything. In our district we do have our CTE programwhich gives them that student, like Sandy was talking about, so I guess it couldapply to that as well. >> Do you think that we need to do a better job with studentsactually understanding that they are required to have a pathway and actuallymaking sure that there's information out there that these are what our pathwaysare at the district level? >> Absolutely. >> So do you see this as a questionaround scheduling of current classes or do you see this around the classes thataren't there that would support this? I'm not sure if my question is clear, but --. >>


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Is it about how kids are selecting into the current classes we have and aligningthose? Or is it about there's gaps in the classes we offer that don't allow thatalignment? >> I think the answer to that is both. I think what we could do is wecould do, as a district, a better job of aligning what we do have and thenidentifying if there are any gaps and holes, and then offering those types of things

if we have the staff to support them and we have the abilities to offer that, thoseclasses, yes.

2 Build ing higher standards.

Well, my thought is that, I think we need to focus on implementation of math,reading, math, reading, science early, and make it mandatory, even a doubleclass, if you will. From the start to finish, consistent because in my line of work asan auditor for 27 years and an investment banker, math is essential. Essential.

And I never heard, never heard of anyone taking math and putting it on a lowhand of the totem pole. Math is crucial to everything that you do. Top priority. Highpriority. It should be built in early. Consistent and actually emphasized even twoclasses, repetition is effective. And we have the block classes and I understandthat piece, I understand why, but back in the day, we learned off of repetition.Math, science, biology, all those crucial things and CTE, all built into one becausewhen you become an adult, you are mandatory in the work field to know all ofthat. And no one is going to take pity on you. You either know it, or you don't. Andthat's why we need a higher build, build, higher, higher standards early andmaintain them and be consistent. >> Oh, that's right, sorry. Can you clarify wherehigher is? >> Higher is, and I use that loosely because I think we need to get backto the priorities of the students of learning basics. It seems like we have to goback. Maybe, you know, we kind of dumbed it done, not maybe, we have dumbedsome things down because of whatever situations that we're in as far as moneyand budgets and what have you, but I believe that we need to direct funds andenergy and resources into math and science and reading and CTE to develop thestudent so when they become, and that's part of developing a student so thatwhen they go out into the world, they'll be able to function and have all theresources they need. I believe sometimes the students lack a confidence in highschool is because it wasn't mandatory early. Nobody, you know, math scaresstudents because they didn't have enough of it. And the emphasis wasn't on it. SoI think, go back and do it right. >> Yes. Can you clarify "early?" What is early toyou? >> Early, in my home, was Third Grade. Third Grade, me and my wifetaught math. And we're no teachers, but we taught math. We taught what -- whatwas not taught in school, we taught it. Consistently because we seen the needand we understood that they needed that skill early.

3 Schools are safe from external and internal threats.

So I feel like for a kid to learn, they have to feel safe in the building, that if theydon't feel safe, they will not be able to concentrate on what's being taught. So Isee that as two different factors. One is the external threats in which we kind ofneed to deal with that through facilities, making sure we have vestibules, locked


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doors, buzzer, that kind of thing. And then the other one I feel is maybe evenmore important is the internal threats. I keep thinking of that poor girl up north whowent into that bathroom and was killed unfortunately. And, you know, if you havethat kind of situation where you feel like there's going to be a fight or somethinglike that, that kid is not going to learn that day because they are worrying about

the fight that's going to happen. So if there was some kind of resource that kidcould go to to know that they could go to that source with their situation and itwould be dealt with, I feel like that would be helpful. >> Would your externalthreats be also, like, their family? >> Yeah.

4 Capital ESL program a model program in Delaware.

When I thought of my idea, I was thinking of my background as an ESL teacher,as a teacher who teaches students who are English learners. And my backgroundtells me that my students, my English learners, need to be proficient in Englishfirst before they can achieve academically. So that's my emphasis, that's what Ido. That's what I meant with my idea.

5 Teachers need flexible freedoms in their daily instruc tion to best meetstudent needs.

So as an inclusion teacher at the elementary level, my idea of best practice wouldbe teaching to the standards, not necessarily to a curriculum. Not having such arigid schedule, more opportunities for integration across the subjects. Lessmicromanaging of our 8:00 to 3:00. Freedoms for -- freedoms and developmentfor more things like project-based learning. Things that are going to keep studentsengaged and also meet their learning style. I see very few students who lovecoming in and opening up a textbook. And the training and evaluations that

surround all of those freedoms. >> My question is only when you talk about morefreedoms from dealing with the 8:00 to 3:00 time span, are you speaking ofmaybe having where there's more -- teachers can come in at different times of theday? >> No, it's more of, you know, instead of from 9:00 to 10:00 I'm going toteach math and then I have to stop because from 10:00 to 10:45 I have to teachreading. More of an integration across the subject levels. >> By teachers, are youtalking about the mainstream inclusion teachers or are you talking about theSpecial Ed teachers? >> In my opinion, I think this would be best practices for allclassrooms. I happen to teach an inclusion room, but I think just for children, youknow, where they're at right now I think this would be best practice for all of them.

6 All educators highl y qualified in the content area in which they teach.

All educators highly qualified in the content area in which they teach. It would bemaintain this at the elementary level because at the elementary level across thedistrict we are highly qualified. It is really in my mind focusing on the middleschool and the high school to ensure that all educators are highly qualified at thatlevel. To ensure that all students have access to highly qualified educators. Haveaccess to teachers that have the training to be teaching the content area that


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they're teaching. And that access be equal to all students within the building. >>So would educators like include substitutes? >> I think that's a very goodquestion. When I developed the headline, I was not -- I was thinking about theCapital School District employees. I think that substitutes potentially could beanother headline. I think there are issues around substitutes that are different than

issues around full-time employees. >> Are you talking about at the onset of theiremployment or after? If they are employed and they are given a certain amount oftime to be highly qualified. >> I think our initial task was kind of to shoot for themoon, kind of perfect world, and in my perfect world they would be highly qualifiedfrom the onset of employment. >> One-to-one teachers and Special Ed teachersat the secondary level, would they, as they travel with students, would they behighly qualified in all of the areas where they travel with their students or is that,like -- I think you understand my question. >> In those situations I would say thatmy thought process is the individual who is providing the content instruction ishighly qualified, so it's probably -- in my mind, there's some individualalization,depending on the one-on-one with the individual Instructor or the Special Ed

Instructor. >> The definition of highly qualified, are you talking the DOE definitionor are you talking what would be best for Capital School District? >> I think that Iam talking both. At this point when I say highly qualified there's a Federaldefinition of what highly qualified is, but I also think I'm talking about what is bestfor Capital School District. And there may be times when we believe what's bestfor the district may be a standard that is higher than what is set by the Federalstandard of highly qualified. What I think is very important though is that allstudents have access to the best teachers. And that means hiring the bestteachers in the very beginning of the process and then ensuring that all studentshave access to those teachers, you know, throughout their education. That, I thinkthat there is -- tell me if I'm expounding too far, but I think there is a perception

that that are times when our quote best students from access to our best teachersand that teachers who are coming in who may be less qualified or have lessexperience are getting some of the more challenging students. And what I think isimportant is that we hire the best from the very beginning and that all of ourstudents have access to the best educators so that we're attracting, we'reretaining those best educators and that all of our students have access to them.

7 Capital becomes a more streamlined and linear distr ict.

What I meant by that was we have 7 elementary schools that feed into WilliamHenry middle school and we have 7 different learning styles, 7 different leadershipstyles. If there can be some type of uniformity amongst the elementary folks, thatway when the kids come to William Henry, it looks kind of similar to them. Theyare not learning something new. They have been in the building for five years, theelementary building for five years, they come to our building for two, and whatthey are seeing is different. And the same thing with William Henry, to make surewe are linear and communicating with the elementary schools to find out whattype of discipline practices, what type much instructional practices are happeningso the kids are familiar. And the same thing with our 6th graders going up to the


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middle school and the 8th graders going up to the high school. We are a verysmall school district. Without some kind of uniform system, I heard people say, allkind of kids, regular kids, Special Ed kids, all types of kid, no matter what schoolthey came from, they can expect to see this in an inclusion setting, or a Gatesetting and the students in the middle school. I don't like when people talk about

Polytech. What I would like to see, being an associate principal there, I would liketo see more classes added so that the student can have everything they need, sothey walk kindergarten through 12th grade they know they are going to be aCapital student. And the other thing is having community support, to support thatlinear district because we have people that communicate and have conversationsabout the schools only based upon what they have heard and they are neverwalked a foot in any of these schools doors. And I think having, as someone said,going out and being able to reach the community, communicate with the people inthe community to find out what the needs are, which is similar to what we aredoing now, so everyone knows what Capital stands for and where we are going.

8 Capital provides an accessible, adaptive, and personalized education forevery student.

And I'll work on making mine a little more succinct. For me, I think there are greatpersonalized learning resources that are out there. And so this really centersmuch more so, if I'm trying to make it into a chunk, about having technologyresources that are accessible to students so that they're able to take thoseresources no matter what school they're in, no matter what program they're in,that they have those resources that gives them access to adaptive andpersonalized learning. And if I'm dreaming big, certainly that technology is goingto go home with them and it's going to work for them inside of their home as well.

9 Capital elevates all students .What I meant by this is I believe that the district focuses an awful lot of attentionon students who are below the standards and some of the kids who are in themiddle or above the middle are left to their own devices or to the devices of theirfamilies to set expectations for them. Where if they were to, you know, identify,and we have identified, we say, these kids are gifted, but we've, over time, we'vediluted the gifted programs to be inclusive of virtually any kid who wants toparticipate or whose parents meet with someone and participate. And thoseclasses -- the students are no longer able to stay focused on becoming highachievers. And the reality of is it, you know, your high achievers will go to collegeor go off into the workforce and come back to you, to the community as yourbusiness leaders and your educators and your doctors and your lawyers, but wedon't -- but we're not allowing them to really soar.

10 Evidence-based instruction in mult iple areas of student development.

So with mine, I was kind of thinking about if our school district could incorporatemore research-based programming that could be taught to staff and then they can


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deliver it to students in multiple areas so it could include reading, math, writing,but also social/emotional learning, preventing specific things like youth suicide,anxiety, depression, bullying, we have a lot of different things we could address,but using more programs that have that research behind them could help us in thedirection of helping a lot of kids.

11 Computers for every teacher and every student.

I think my point is clear >>I just want to ask for clarification since Ben brought itup, do you mean computers for every teacher and every student that they cantake home? >> Yes.

12 Everyone has a chance.

My point in, everyone has a chance, everyone can seek out anything that isoffered through the district. Everyone has supports available for them to achievetheir aspirations. Everyone has time to search, develop, and obtain the success

level that they wish. How many times when we look back and think about studentsor ourselves, had I had more time, would I have been more successful? Or wouldI have been able to -- somebody told me, well, you can't do that because. And Ithink what happens is that we cut off the kids hope when we start say that forthem. And instead of cutting off the hope, maybe we should be reaching out tothem and saying, okay, here are some of the things we would have to try toobtain, how would we go about doing that? I'm not sure we all have the answersyet, but keeping that positive out there for them is what I was talking about here.Everyone has a chance. >>When would we be -- I'm assuming that you're --forgive me if I'm saying this wrong, but you are talking about making sure youinform the students that they have a chance. Am I correct in thinking that? >> You

think about the things that the wounded warrior project does things now. They aretrying to be creative in how they do that. Maybe we don't have something in place,but maybe we can find and from the capacity that we have, that we can build thatso students can attain what they are looking for. >> And what were your -- canyou define your timeline of when you would try to inform these students throughtheir career? >> That's a nasty four letter word, time. We have to figure that outtogether. No, I can't really define that. It's something that has to be workedtogether through all of us. >>Just based on some of your comments, yourdefinition of everyone, are you talking students? Are you talking students andadults? Are you --. >> In the context of students, but I think the adults should be inhere also because we're going to model the way for them.

13 Curriculum being mutually simi lar to standardized tests.

What I meant by my headline is being a student you come to find like adisconnect amongst the content presented in the classroom and then once youget into, like, a testing room, with, like, a post-test, a pre-test, SAT, ACT, you findthere's a difference amongst the level that you are taught and that some of, like,content on the test isn't presented to you in the class as, like, being taught. So I


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ust feel like that's, like, a big problem because SATs and ACTs are a big qualifierfor your future. So if you don't get an equitable score on your ACT or SAT, it doesdetermine what school you will ultimately go to, whether it's an Ivy league schoolor ACPU, it's a different level of education that you will receive and I feel like that'sa problem.

14 Student centered.

>> Okay, student-centered. And by that what I meant is the student are the heartof what we do, so any decisions that we make, we want to look at the lens of howcan we best benefit our students? And so sometimes that's hard because wehave to take the "I" out of that. And so sometimes we have to look at the biggerpicture. And sometimes that's more than a schedule or a certain activity or acertain intervention or even in working with parents or other stakeholders thatwe're always looking through that lens of what's best for our students.

15 Students , parents, and staff value a CSD education.

I meant that school should be treated by students and parents as something thatis important. And what they decide to do with things they do they define asimportant, to me, I'm not defining, but that they treat it as something important.

And our staff view as what they are doing with the student as their mission. Itreally has to be a mission. I always joke, particularly about the middle school, youhave to be anointed and appointed to teach middle school. But I think staff needsto view that what we do with our kids is a mission and parents and students haveto view education as important and treat it as it's important.

16 CSD schools becoming community centers.

By this I really was thinking about some of the transitions that our students gothrough, they may be in morning care, might be in afternoon care. We sometimesask parents to come out after they have worked a long day and sometimes theattendance at after school events doesn't really reflect the amount of interestparents have. So looking at ways to develop family partnerships and reallyunderstand what the community needs are. More than just basic needs, I think wedo a pretty good job with that, but some of the mental health issues, resources,education, job finding, all those kind of life things that families sometimes needsupport with.

17 The impor tance of spiri t and pride.

When I think of spirit, I think of the level of respect that you have for your schooland your school district and I think with more spirit comes more effort put into theireducation by students. And I think a good way to reel in their spirit would bethrough assemblies and maybe pep rallies, just to boost the school spirit and toget students more involved and to change any negative vibes into a positive vibebecause I think sometimes during the course of the day, there's a lot of negativevibes and just with a pep rally or with some kind of positive, I guess,


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reinforcement that could change. And I think it would cut down on a lot ofbehavioral issues. And allow for the community to attend those as well, becausethe community is a huge part in any school district.

18 Our diversity of stakeholders are and feel valued.

Our diversity, I think, is part of our strength. And the diversity that we have in ourschools, as well as in our community, which would be all of our stakeholders, but Ithink that it's really important for everybody, everybody to feel valued and toactually be valued and that to be shown through our actions. So I'm talking staffvaluing staff, admin valuing staff, staff valuing the students and students valuingstaff, I could go on and on, valuing our parents, valuing our citizens, I just thinkthat's our strength, but that we need to show -- we used to talk when we taughtfifth grade about a full value contract, that our students were to value each otherand I think we need to get back to that, not just with our students, but with theadults, with everybody, community included.

19 Every graduate leaves high school with at least one work-based learningexperience outside of the school .

My whole reason for this is that it's very important that every student at least oncehave an experience outside of the building where they are actually learning whatit's like in a workforce-type environment. So what I would like to see is that everystudents before they graduate participate in at least one work-based learningexperience. And that could be a tour of a facility, it could be actually jobshadowing, interning, or co-oping, that's what I would like to see and that's what Imeant by the actual headline. >> Does that experience encompass students thatalready have jobs? >> Actually, the job could be one of their experiences. It

doesn't necessarily have to be -- the job could be that experience. Absolutely.20 Cutting-edge and comprehensive technology in all CSD schools.

Having mentioned comprehensive technology in all of our Capital School Districtschools, so I was referring to an overall implementation of technology to keeppace with the current advancements because technology is changing every day.

And I would like our teachers and students to have knowledge and practice withthose advancements. And then, also, that this is integrated into the instructionaldelivery and that it also provides opportunities for students that have differentmodalities of learning.

21 Meet the needs of the whole chi ld.Obviously, one of our primary goals is education, we think of that as reading,writing, arithmetic, science, social studies, the arts, all of the things that aretraditionally thought of as school, but when I say the whole child, I'm talking thingslike entrepreneurship, things like mental health, social and emotional health. Weneed to be looking at the whole child and all of the pieces and parts that make upthat child's life and making sure we are educating each and ever part of that.


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22 Family partnership.

All right, for family partnership, I think what I was thinking with this was creatingalmost like a team with the student, the parent, and the teacher where they worktogether to set long-term and short-term goals for their education. Something atthe Middle School I noticed was lack of parent involvement. I don't know that thekids really see the future of where they want to be in the next few years. Offeringopportunities for parents and the students to be in working with the teacher, mightalso change the mindset of student seeing the parent and the child are alsoworking with the teacher, so we're kind of like a team, not one person againstanother.

23 Capital needs systems with embedded flexibil ity.

So what I meant by this, and everyone knows I'm a big systems person, but thereneeds to be some -- there needs to be very specific structured systems in placeso that we don't lose kids, but we can't lose kids for the sake of a system. So

when I talk about embedded flexibility, I'm talking about a system that has ashared common language, but with that focus on the individual student so that weare -- I've heard several examples go around that summed this up better than Idid, but the idea of having flexible schedules, having, you know, teacher decision-making drive instructional decisions so that there's a common system, there's acommon language, there's a common understanding of what matters, but that it'sall focused around that kid. And the system has to flex around what the needs ofthe student is instead of trying to fit our students into our systems. >> So isCapital School District the system? Is the system a process? What do you meanby the system? It's really broad in every aspect. >> I think there's an overallsystem, K-12, but there are individual systems within that infrastructure. So I'm

talking about whether it is a school schedule, which is one system, or it is a groupof interventions or PLCs, which, might, again, be a subsystem of that. But wehave to have that commonality, which I think Mr. Givens mentioned where we'resharing the same language. When I say system that everybody understands whatI mean. When I say intervention, everyone understands that same vocabulary.

24 Marketing Capital's DAP program to the community for community buy-in.

What I meant by this is I think, especially with the finances, since they are alwaysso tight and the program at KCCS is in need, when I'm out on field trips with mygrandsons. People say, do they go to Charlton? No, they go to KCCS, which is agreat program and I think we need to promote that and get the community

involved so we can a booster club and big financial programs because we aregrowing by leaps and bounds. We only have 255 students, doesn't sound likemuch, but 100 of those are classified autistic and by next year that number will goup even further.

25 Students develop a deep sense of community involvement and attachment.


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And that's kind of an umbrella idea and some of the things that came to mindimmediately were mentoring. Students knowing that people in the community careabout them and are invested in them. Developing something called "a school toob pipeline" with students having hope when they go to school that there are jobsthat they will be connected to as they get out of school. That we foster internships,

externships, that we develop more community programs, that we have ourschools thought of as community investments like parks, services, needs analysisof our families, that we foster volunteerism and community service both in ourschools and outside of our schools and that we do that with a high level oftransparency and intent.

26 A consi stent framework for teacher input .

I think we have a lot -- most school districts have a lot of very, sort of, formal,prescribed committee, school success team, IEC, liaison where a small group ofstakeholders get together and a small group of teachers get together and havesome input. What I would love to see in my perfect world is something, and ofcourse, it's the end of the year, so I'm thinking end of the year and I'm alwaysstriving to get better and I think every single one of us attached to a school districtshould be striving to get better. One of us are there yet, we can improve, everyyear, every movement, every day, we should come and strive to be better. I'mthinking more informal, but maybe a building level survey that goes out, maybe it'snonmouse where everyone, teachers staff, everyone, has a chance to say, hey, Ithink this went great this year. I think this didn't. I really liked that we did in thisyear. I really didn't like this. Here are some ideas I have for next year. And I thinkas a result of that sometimes in lots of elementary schools, and, again, we're notust talking Capital School District here, morale is up and down, I think, I hope thatif more people felt that their voices were heard, even in that small way, moralewould start to improve a little bit. On those kind of formal or prescribedcommittees, lots of times it's the same people that are doing those. Sometimes it'svery good reason why those same people and sometimes it's a personality thing.Those people just tend to be out there and be more outspoken. But even thepeople you don't hear from that much, or the quiet person, or this really greatteacher who does awesome things in her room, but she is just not going to be outthere or he is just not going to be out there promoting his ideas, that's a way thatyou could maybe pull out some more from everybody. And that automaticallyleads to a little bit more buy-in from everybody as well, I think.

27 Recognize the impor tance of connections with families.

I think all of us know, we talked about the diversity of our students so obviouslythen we have diversity in parents. And I think we just really need to recognize theimportance of connections with our families. I think sometimes we don't recognizethat and we talk about students and where they're coming from and, you know,perhaps they don't have as much support at home as they need to be. So thenthere's where the connection with family comes in and I think that's a reallyimportant factor, that we need to build our connections with our families.


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foreign enrichment opportunities for some students. Professional development forteachers without sacrificing instructional time. Parent choices, it could be set upyear-round so parents have choices during these -- the way I envision is fourcycles, so to speak, with the traditional 9 weeks, followed by a three week periodof enrichment and intervention, as well as maybe, you know, one week off or

down during that time. And other things could be done, professional developmentcould be done during that time. We would have to be very creative. But I wouldsee four cycles through the year. That gives you 48 weeks. The other four weekswould cover all the Federal holidays and the week at Christmas and the week atEaster and things like that. We just have to be creative. But I think we owe it toour students, you know, we teach them for 9 months, 9 and a half months, theymake all this progress and many of them regress, you know, up to 30-40% of theprogress that they've made. And then it might be the end of the first markingperiod before they have recouped that regression and then start moving forwardagain. And that's not the case with all students, but it is the case with a significantnumber. >> I have friends teach in different states and have done this, are you

still saying, basically, we can't change the 180 actual instruction days, right? Thatwould be 180 --. >> We could if we wanted to, I think we should change that, too. Ithink we should utilize the 52 week calendar to the maximum benefit we can, but Iunderstand the fiscal, you know, challenges that come with, you know, changingten month employees into 12 month employees all across the state, so, you know,it would probably have to be creatively worked into somehow. >> So are yousaying that you would prefer, like, year-round school instead of a mild reviewwhen they come from the period they are out school? >> What kind of review? >>You said there are 30-40% of kids regressing, are you saying year-round schoolso they won't forget the material they have learned versus like a mild review? >>The mild review might be appropriate for some students, but might not be enough

for others. What I'm thinking of creating a situation where the school year isdivided into smaller pieces rather than a whole year. You know, nine weeks at atime. And you have three weeks after that nine weeks for intervention andenrichment and then you start into the next nine weeks. That way you can really,read your data, you can understand what kids need instead of waiting to the endof the year to make the decision to determine what they need for the whole year.We're only waiting nine weeks at a time.

31 Develop the strengths of all students.

Develop the strengths of all students. What I was thinking here, all students comein with strengths and talents and I think it's important that we address them andgrow them in order to keep students engaged and I think ultimately we couldleverage these strengths to develop other areas. I'm kind of referring to kids whohave strengths outside the traditional math and reading, not that they aren'timportant, but we have kids coming in that are strong in other areas and I think it'simportant that we grow. >> Is your thought developing within current frameworksor developing other frameworks on top of current? Does that make sense? Are weembedded that in what we are doing now or are we creating, I'll call it intervention


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for lack of better word. >> I think embedding would be best to ultimately leverageto get at some of the other skills they need to learn.

32 One family.

I think we are one district, one family. There are 12 schools in the district, so we're12 members of the family. I think we just need to make sure as a district wecommunicate with one another. High- school communicates with middle, as wellas elementary because we, if we come together as one, we can solve some of theissues instead of once the child has moved to the next building, trying to figure outwhat works best for the child. If someone had worked on that in elementary andthey could pass that on, then we wouldn't have to recreate the will, we could justgo ahead and take them to the next level. >> Are you specifically talking in termsof interventions for kids or are you talking about something else? When you talkabout communicating and taking things to the next level? >> Everything, someonehad mentioned students that are already at a higher level, let's take them evenhigher. So every student.

33 It's about all students.

So when I started this career a long time ago, I came to it because I love children.So when we're making decisions, that should be our guiding practice, whether it'sthe instruction, the materials, the activities, everything that we do. And alwayswhat's best is not what is easiest when we sit around the table trying to figure outwhat we're going to do with them. I'm just thinking about the students that were inmy office this morning. I had students that were hungry, tired, homeless, gifted,handicapped, I almost want to say we might want to say, it's about all students. >>Yes. Because we have so many different students and a lot of times teachers

want to teach this lesson because I teach it every year, for 15 years I've taughtthis lesson this way and this is the way I like to teach it. But our students arechanged. So we need to think about the students and not so much -- I mean, theyare coming from different homes. All of us have shared different things, whetherit's social media affecting or their home life, so I think we really need to look aboutall the different students that we have.

34 Inclusive - focus on access, equity, and supports.

Okay, this is a very student-centered statement and I think it is one about hope.The word "inclusive" is just that, we need to include all students. And then I think,I'm thinking of the rest of this almost like a way of measuring what we have done

in the past and a way of measuring what we're going to do in the future, makingsure that policies and procedures invite every kid to the table and don't have kidsthat feel left out or unimportant. They have to feel like we care and we are goingto hold high expectations for them and we are going to support them every step ofthe way. I'm looking at this almost like a lens for how we should examine pastpractices and practices going forward.


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35 CSD - a creative visual and performing arts force with which to bereckoned.

Okay, so a creative visual and performing arts force, I think about when -- I thinkof a charter school that focuses the arts and how people want to come there andthey try to get in there. And I just, you know, I'm one of these people that feels likethe arts just can transform students. I've seen students in our program at WilliamHenry who literally are academically towards the bottom, but they haveblossomed and flourished so much in the program we have done. And they get onthe stage and they just change. And they all of a sudden get, wow, I can succeedat something, maybe I'm not the gifted kid in math, and maybe I'm notacademically at the top, but I look good up here. And it's just, we have just seensuch a transformation and it's so affirming to them. And I think it was kind of -- Idon't know, Shep, is that kind of? I didn't know if that's what he was saying, but Iust feel like if we said, you know, okay, this is what we're going to do. I know I justsaw a budge of awards the at high school, that was so wonderful. I thought, whatif we were feeding that, too. That there was such an emphasis on the arts, too,that the kids were taking that with them and everybody knows the kids whoparticipate in the arts are usually the kids who also it improves everything, mathand science and stuff.

36 Realignment of students and grades.

What I mean by this is to reduce transitions for our students, providing them withimproved allocation and use of resources. It's more than a facilities plan, it'slooking at the specific structures that we have to put in place to help them getacquainted with the school and get acquainted with the curriculum and theteachers and all these things. Because when they continue to transition two years

after William Henry and two years at central middle, there are a lot of issues theyhave to go through. It's about new buildings, new teachers, new procedures, allthese kind of things, we need to kind of look at to help ease them into theireducation. And they struggle to do that. And it's looking at, like, pre-K and how wecould support them as well, and it's looking at like K-5 schools and 6-8 middleschools and all that process. And that also allows us to look at, not just likecounseling, academic and behavioral supports that are provided in thosebuildings with more structure, more focused energy, more focused staffingbecause we do a great job, but we're stretched. And looking at that, maybe wecould work together, smarter and better. >> So would the realignment of gradeswould just be like trying to improve the grades of students? Or would it be

changing the level? You know how some are 20% and some are 80%. Like in ourschool district an A is a 92. >> No my idea relates to looking at facilities andstructures that would help students in K-8 transition from school to school. So wehave currently, we have K-4 program in elementary schools. And we have a 5-6elementary/Middle School program, and we have 7-8 program and looking atwhat would best suit their needs. I think looking at a pre-K kind of program. A K-5program. And a 6-8 program. >> So do you mean, like, the social transition, alongwith the transition with grades and academics? Is it academically and socially? Or


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mostly academic? >> Both of those. >> When you mean realignment, would youalso be looking at number of kids and the resources they command around thosenumbers? >> Yeah, that would be one of the key things. If you look at thenumbers and how that would come into play, you would have, I think, a betteropportunity to have more resources at some of those levels if you realigned those.

>> So would your main focus be students that are, like, having trouble with thetransition or just all students in general? >> I think all student we would need tolook at the programming for every student. >> Does your idea include anythingaround sports programs and things like that? >> Yes, that's one of the underlyingthings, but it's not the main piece. There's lots of other things that go in that. >>To go along with Mr. Shepherd's comments about numbers, would therealignment of students in grades affect the school zoning as far as the sevenelementary schools? >> Probably, that would basically be part of the plan to lookat what schools we have, the structures around those schools, the allocation ofstudents, and your teachers that go along with them. And then you would have toreallocate based on facilities, it may take, and I don't want to say this out loud, but

referendum future, but that's just a planning process now.

37 Confidence in teaching special education students to be successful .

What I have written down is teaching teachers to address the needs of alllearners. I think sometimes when "just regular Ed teachers" see SpecialEducation on a student they get nervous about how they're going to address theneeds of that student or meet the IEP of the student. Even at my level in ThirdGrade, I feel like the student should be involved in the IEP process because it isabout them. Them feeling confident in the instruction they are receiving. Havingall the staff onBoard with the IEP process. You sit in a big meeting with a bunch ofteam members, but as soon as you walk out you have that meeting sometimes,you know, they sign the paper saying they will agree to meet the needs of thestudent, but then it's like, well, you're the Special Education teacher, so youhandle that. It needs to be kind of like a mind set change, I feel, with someteacher are. That's why, you know, students can struggle because there's onlyone teacher addressing all of these needs with not only the Special Education, butthen the regular Ed students as well. I also think, too, that would change a leastrestrictive environment for students. If you had everybody on Board, you couldhave more inclusion in pushing students in the classroom. It doesn't matter wherethey are getting that service, as long as they getting that service.

38 Capital offers universal pre-kindergarten for all children.

I know Capital is making a lot of great gains and really focusing more on earlychildhood, but I would want to go beyond focusing on bringing in our earlylearners with identified special needs to offering a program to all early learners. Ispent a lot of time in my job evaluating little guys for Special Education. When inreality, a majority of the time it's a lack of exposure to good early interventionservices. So I think it could prevent a lot of the issues we brought up today if wereally start bringing those little guys under our wing earlier. >> To clarify, are you


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thinking about an early childhood center? >> I would love an early childhoodcenter, yes.

39 All process should be open, transparent, and understandable.

Simply, you know, we're a public school district, we are owned by the people. Weowe them the ability to see what we're doing. I was talking to Dr. Shelton, thingslike this are great, but when you do things, remember who your audience is, it'snot only you, but it's the community as well. I've been to some School Boardmeetings when all you hear the discussion is jargon and acronyms. You know,remember we want to engage the community, have them buy into what you aredoing. And what you are doing is great, but they have to know it and understandit. So when you produce things, try to keep in mind they're the audience, too.

40 Parental and community involvement BEFORE the incident.

What I was kind of thinking about this is we reach out to parents, we reach out to

the community, but we never hear anything unless something goes wrong. Theevent or the incident. Social media, bathroom humor is what I call it, everyonewants to complain, but nobody wants to step up to help. We are always lookingfor mentors, people in the community to help us out whether they have a child inthe district or not. Nobody wants to. Nobody has a clue of what is going on in ourdistrict until something doesn't go their way. And when it doesn't go their way,they have plenty of opportunities to step up and help it go their way. So how doesthat work? I don't know. With Mr. Gar Finkel's comment with the transparency, wetalk to them like they are our audience and we should, but for that to happen, theyhave to show up for us to be able to talk to them. Like I said, they don't want toget involved unless there's something that doesn't go their way.

41 Getting it right the FIRST time.

All right, at Capital School District and more specifically Dover High School, wehave many support systems in place to help those who need it. However, wehave students and families that have learned to abuse our systems or havebecome complacent and don't try as hard. And what I mean by that specifically isif you think about all the things that we offer at the high school level, we havesummer school, we have the doubling up the following year for them in case theymissed a core credit, we've had and forgive me for saying this because if I'mincorrect, I'm sorry, we have had twilight in the past, we have daylight now, creditrecovery, you know, all these different names of things and I think what it's done

is it's kind of given our students the idea of, there's always another time for me doif I don't do it right this time. Or I've heard students come out and say, well, I onlyneed to get whatever grade to be able to, you know, be eligible for this program orthat program. I think some of that kind of plays in the wrong direction. And Irealize the intention of those things are good things, but I feel like sometimes theintentions of those good things turn into bad things and we have students whouse and abuse those systems just because they're there.


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42 Money should not stop you from educating.

Money, the word money, tends to trip people up. In education, family, the wholepackage, money just is a word that you get an emotional reaction to. I am sayingthat money should not dictate to us whether we go forward or not. I think that weshould be creative enough if we don't have the money for the programs to cometogether and generate or get the money for the programs. In other words, if I canuse this, we have a lot of knowledge in this room. If you had a super grant day. Ifwe pulled 50 grants to each program that everybody is representing in here andwe sat here and worked it one by one on that screen and all of us put togetherand filled out the grant, 50 times, programs would be funded. There are grants outthere that are untouched and we continue to say, we don't have the money. Butnobody is trying to get the money. So you have the power, you have theintelligence, all we need is a structured effort and a plan to get the money for theprograms.

43 CSD hires and retains premier teachers.

I guess really that should say CSD hires and retains premier teachers. Becausefor me, the teachers are where the rubber meets the road. We can do a lot ofgreat things, but unless you have a great teacher in the classroom, it doesn'tmean very much. Math I was a very math-oriented opportunity, but English, it wasthe teacher that prepared me for the college. I hate seeing a great teacher leaveCapital School District, so whatever programs we can create to ensure and keepthose people, I think is good.

44 Capital ESL families rock.

When I came up with that headline I was thinking of the untapped potential that

our ESL families have. And again ESL is English as a second language.Oftentimes when I work with families at my different schools, I think some of theparents of my children are unsure of the expectations for their children. Othertimes they are shy to come to the school and talk to the teachers, Administratorsand what have you. And other times also they express that they are unsure ofhow to support their children at home and at school. And that also, I believe, leadsto children growing up with added responsibilities. From the perspective of manytimes my students grow up being the person who goes to all sort of outsideevents such as going to a doctor's appointment or even school appointment withthe teacher and all sorts of different activities with the expectation that they aregoing to be the ones interpreting for the parents and explaining all sorts of

situations. So that creates, I think, an added responsibility and stress on part ofmy students. So I believe that if we were able to find a way to reach out to ourESL families and to educate our parents and to have some kind of system bywhich we could offer true support, we could really make a difference in the life ofmany of the students that I work with.

45 Meaningful evaluations and feedback for teachers.


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So this idea actually touches on a couple of things and I kind of heard it fromSean and it seems like around the room it was a re-occurring idea of highlyqualified teachers, great teachers. So I think meaningful evaluations and feedbackhelp develop teachers so that all students have the opportunity for great learningexperiences. We can't grow without meaningful evaluation or meaningful

feedback. It also goes back to my first headline talking about more integratedlessons and project-based learning and things like that, which in order to beeffective need to be monitored or it can turn into the wild, wild west quite quickly. Iam probably a minority, but I'm in favor of more walk-throughs or observations,whether it's by administrations, coaches or peers, followed by feedback. CurrentlyPB360 is a long extensive checklist of an evaluation tool that if I were being quitehonest is very meaningless to me. To develop, I think teachers should know whatthey do well. I think they should know what they can improve on. I think hearingfeedback from different team members give different perspectives and, therefore,more opportunities to grow as an educator. And to steal my friend Michelle'swords, we wouldn't give feedback to our students like that if we wanted them to

grow, so why do we do that to our students?

46 Long term strategic suppor t for technology.

What I meant by this is simply that. I mean, we need to build support, bothfinancial and a vision for what we want to be able to do beyond the first rotation.So technology gets introduced. And I think we do an exceptional job with that. Ithink we get technology infused within buildings, but what happens after that firstiteration? Right? So how do you build on it so that it continues to grow beyondthat initial outlay?

47 Teach good cit izenship.

I believe that teaching citizenship/ethics early and often in a child's life is veryimportant. In the end it enforces good behavior, it creates a better, saferenvironment in the schools and classrooms.

48 Keeping and developing staff.

As far as keeping and developing staff, I was thinking of how we can addressburn-out with staff and to look at tips or qualities that have certain staff stayversus those that leave year after year. And once we do have staff that we thinkare going to stay, how do we develop skills in them to continue to build theirconfidence and make them want to stay in the district?

49 In the pursuit of knowledge, failure is acceptable.

What I was talking about in here in the pursuit of knowledge, failure is acceptable,I wonder if at times we have a mind set that for the student experimentation anddiscovery is what we want them to undertake in that -- in attaining thatinformation. We need the students to be able to operate in a safe manner, in asafe environment when they are looking in search for what that information is and


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being able to reach out for advice from adults. We want them to be able to learnhow to work and persevere through situations. It's okay if you make that mistake.Gain the advice from the adults. Work through what the problems are, and thencome back to it. And then that feedback from the adults is so critical, but it has to,of course, be done in a respectful manner. We have to be able to help the student

build their self-esteem and how they work and continue on. And then I think fromthis, the students will be able to learn how to question and push boundariesrespectfully and professionally. We are trying to teach them some of the workethics as they go on and get prepared for life, but we want them to be able to helpfigure out, how do I go about doing it? Not just lashing out or, you know, some ofthe manners that they do.

50 Equal participation/representation in and out of the classroom.

I said some students are overshadowed by those in which thoroughly understandwhat is being taught and aren't getting or feeling like they are part of the classstructure. This also goes in depth with sports programs and some or more popularthan others and we can't control that. But what we can control is that the effort foreach individual support is parallel in showcasing your favorites and notshowcasing your favorites, again, and in and out of the classroom.

51 Commitment

I put commitment because I thought of the importance of a shared vision and ashared path that's clearly articulated. Because I think that sometimes we don'tinvolve key stakeholders and we make decisions without all the facts orinformation. And so I think it kind of lends itself to the whole piece abouttransparency. So we really, to ensure that excellent education, I think, again, we

have to be on the same page. And so that's why I put commitment. To becommitted to those goals.

52 Effective staff persons build trusting, healthy supportive relationships withstudents, col leagues, and adminis trators.

My thought behind that is that, going back to what Mr. Houston said, we canachieve so much if we have staff people that are willing to trust each other and wecan build supportive relationships with each other. I think we would find we havepeople that are willing to work without pay, to stay afterward, I think we would findpeople who are willing to go above and beyond and step out as teacher leaders ifwe had those relationships, healthy, trusting relationships. We don't have to have

a lot in common, but if I know we care about kids and I can trust you, I think wecould go so much further than where we are, where we even imagined we couldbe. >> Is that built into the day or? >> I'm talking across the Board. So that if wehave staff persons, and it doesn't make any difference in your custodian,cafeteria, teacher, building Administrator, but if we all had better relationships witheach other and if we knew -- I could trust that you're in it for the kids and if I'm in itfor what's best with the kids, my other issues with you, we can put those aside


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and we can work in what's the best interest for the kids. And I think if we find, wewon't always have to pay staff to stay after. We will stay after working on writingthose grants. We'll give you our ideas. I think it's about relationships. And if we'reable to do the same things with our students. Students will work like mad for acoach because they have that relationship. People take that time. So across the

Board, if adults are able to generate those supportive, trusting relationships withour kids, too, I think overall we will be more successful.

53 The collaboration of athletics and academics.

I feel as though some sports are overlooked and they -- oh, unnoticed, I'm sorry,they go unnoticed. And I think with the collaboration of athletics and academicsyou can create new forms of learning. And I know after being an athlete you takesports and you turn it into a form of learning. And it just gives you, I guess it'seasier to learn, in away, for athletes, so I guess this would apply for CentralMiddle School and Dover High, to find ways to engage the athletes in school.Because I know that during the athlete's season, they become more engaged inschool, but then you have the problem when it's not their season that theybecome less engaged. And, you know, they look forward to their sport so they'regoing to work for playing their sport. They don't want to fail, so they're going to bemore engaged. But then you become lazy, in away, when it's not your seasonbecause you don't have an incentive, I guess. So I just think that there should beways to engage those athletes.

54 Safe

By safe, I meant physically safe, that our kids feel safe to come to school, thatsomebody is not going to beat them up or whatever, gossip about them, that kind

of thing. I think we need to be environmentally safe. We shouldn't have mold inour buildings and bad air. I think that we need to be emotionally safe. Adults andkids. And I think that when we have those that that enables risk-taking, thatenables risk-taking with our teachers to try new things. And in risk taking, we weretalking like 8 out of 10 times we fail, but it's those two times we learn somethingnew and new ways to reach kids. And I think when kids feel safe, they will takemore risks, too. And somebody else said, okay, so we fail. Well, all right. We havelearned when we fail. I think that, also, if we feel safe we, all of us together, thatincreases attendance as well and that improves school climate as well.

55 All s taff feel supported, empowered, and equipped to handle challengingbehavior.

So I guess I would say, this is a kind of two-part thing for me and I do want tochange that from teachers to staff because I think the biggest part of this is thatsupport. Especially in these kids that come in and they have these challengingbehaviors, I think oftentimes teachers feel isolated and this kid is in your room,they are your responsibility, all the stress falls on you. But in reality, that kid is theschool's responsibility. So I would love to see that kid walk out of the room and


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another teacher implement, you know, strategies in the hallway with them andthings like that. I think that would go a long way in having our teachers feel moreopen to trying these things with students. The empowered piece for me is some ofmy best conversations with teachers are over problem-solving with ourchallenging kids. And the number of ideas that I have stolen from teachers with

behavioral strategies is amazing. The creativity and openness to trying new thingsis great. But I think even in my short time in education, I've noticed that's kind offalling. And I don't know if it's because they are scared that if they try something,you know, let the kid walk around the room instead of sitting at their desk, or ifthey are on a different schedule than the other kid that during the walk-throughthey will get in trouble because they are not following the schedule and thosetypes of things. I would like to go back to that empowerment. Just try somethingbecause they all have the tools and drive to have all their kids succeed.

56 CSD recognizes staff for their years of service.

My headline is basically saying that maybe there's a way that we can recognizestaff for their years of service because sometimes you have staff that have beenhere for 15, 20 years and it would be so wonderful if we kind of model whathappens out sometimes in the corporate world where for their years of service,maybe the first year, the third year, the fifth year, they actually are recognized bythe district by giving them possibly a lapel pin, a certificate just saying, thanks foryour years of service. I think sometimes just that -- what we may see as small, tothem means a whole lot because they put in that time and a lot of times that timenever gets recognized beyond the basic paycheck. And that lapel pin or certificatemay take it to a different level.

57 Overall success planning for the distr ict.

Overall success planning for the district. I'm just thinking about some of the othercomments that talked about teacher retention. And I think retaining teachers overtime, investing in our teachers, but also investing in overall staff throughout thedistrict, whether it's at the secretarial level, the custodian level, the teacher level,it's investing in their current position to give them opportunities to move forward.

And also cross training in different areas so that if you need to cover for someoneor provide, you know, some expertise in an area that maybe two people arelooking at something and it's just not solely evolving around one person and thatit's put out to more stakeholders to have a commitment to the work that's outthere. And just really investing in all of the staff that are here to create a moreproductive and positive and professional future.

58 Clear articulation to college and career readiness at graduation.

So the ones I was thinking about was around all the different pieces. So webrought up the grade configurations, making sure they are articulated. We broughtup buildings, how are they organized? But as we articulate through, we need tobe thinking about all the different possible end points for the individual kids. What


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are the different end points? And how would we backtrack them to make sure,starting at preschool and kindergarten, we have set up a path for every one ofthose different possible pathways? And that we have the articulation all the waythrough and we don't wait until freshman year, oh, you are not able to do thatbecause you didn't get what you needed at Middle School. Or at central, no, you

can't take that class because you didn't take the prerequisite at William Henry. Weneed to make sure we have backtracked, not just one. And individual interests, Ithink the interests of the kids also need to be taken into account. >> Are youthinking about how students might jump across threads? >> Yeah, I would agreethat they need to have -- that we need to make sure that we haven'tpredetermined any of those, right? That they have to have opportunities to moveand we need to think about how those natural break points which we can't -- Iguess we could, but we could consider, right, a preschool to 12 school and thosebreak points would be less, but that just isn't going to happen, right? So we haveto really be conscious of the break points to make sure that it's smooth as theymove through that continuum.

59 All students can be leaders.

With this statement what I was thinking about was, I don't see enough pride, likeschool pride, at least at my level. It would be nice if the kids were taught how tobe leaders. Have pride in their school, pride in their work, everyday decisions. Ithink it could help lead them to make better choices early on.

60 Empower every student with individualized learning plans.

I meant every student is special, every students comes in with strengths, withneeds, with, you know, with their individual quirks and with some sense in their

mind of what they want to do. Now that changes as they grow, but how neatwould it be if we simply met the needs of every student by making sure each ofthe students had that individualized learning plan and understood where theywere on that path to whatever it is they dream they are doing at that moment.

61 CSD hires distr ict ABA therapists.

My idea was -- excuse me -- having at least two ABA licensed therapists on staffso that when behavior problems begin, which is when the data usually startsbeing taken by the teachers and the psychologists that we also have that personavailable, rather than prolonging gathering the data and the situation gets worse.>>What's an ABA therapist? >> Applied behavior analysis licensed therapist to

help with, basically, they just passed the legislation to help with children withautism, but it's for all behaviors.

62 Competency-based approaches to grading and grade level.

This is about valuing academic age as much as we voluntarily chronological age,that we pre-assess students. This kind of is related to what Luanda said aboutindividualized learning plans, that we think about things like individual grouping


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and progression. How we progress students from what we call grade to grademay be about progressing through standards and allowing students to movethrough those standards at the time and place that their individual needs reflect. Itmight be accelerated. It might take more time. It might be on what we consider atraditional school year, but allowing students to move as they are ready to move.

63 Respect and professionalism.

What I was thinking about here is that as educators we need to remember that weare the adults. Many of the situations that we are talking about when we aretalking about students and if the expectation is that we expect the students tocommunicate with the adults and with each other with a sense of respect andappropriate behavior, then we need to model that for the students, both in ourinteractions with students, but also in our interactions with each other aseducators within our buildings.

64 Please let me teach.

What I was thinking about here really is balance. So I think lots of times inelementary classrooms and obviously I'm speaking from the elementaryperspective, there is -- there are too many interruptions. And I think that, and I'mtalking fun interruptions or intervention interruptions. They are just interruptions.

And I think that we need to be better at making those interruptions very thoughtfuland very carefully balancing the fun interruptions, the intervention-typeinterruptions, and all in between. I am very selfish with my time. I freely admit that.I love teaching. I love kids. I love learning. And I want to be able to teach them tolove learning. And there are days that it feels like every few minutes someone istaking out of my room for various things, or that we are leaving our room multiple

days in a row for various things. And I just think we could do a better job of thatand maybe prioritizing the fun things and even prioritizing interventions. I'm notsure that we're doing the best service for our students when right at the beginningof the year I have a student that's pulled for ESL, for speech, for math, forreading, maybe we need to prioritizing those interventions and meet one mostimportant need at a time so they can spend some more time in the classroom.

65 [DELETED] Safe and caring environment for all students .

66 New building.

What I was eluding to with this is years ago before we were approved to get thenew high school, some of us sat on a committee to look at grade realignment andwhat we were going to do. Now that we have our extra piece of property, myfeeling was bringing in 3-year-olds, putting them with pre-K and kindergarten atthe hold Dover High School. Putting 5th grade back so it would be 1-5. Andhaving two 6, 7, and 8th grade at William Henry and have them specialized inmaybe the arts in one building and something in the other building. And leading


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into, a lot of the new programs we have at the Middle School level, building rightinto the program we have at Dover High.

67 Safe and connected.

Safe and connected, mine was related to Judy as well as Lisa because I think theconnected part, you know, really, when you talk about arts and sports and clubsand activities, that's how students get connected. All parents and students shouldfeel safe at school. Students should feel comfortable taking risks and know withconfidence that their ideas, learning styles will be respected and valued by peers.Every student should be involved in the school in some way outside theparameters of the classroom, such as art, sports, clubs, mentoring youngerSenators, in some way, some way to feel connected.

68 School calendar more aligned to instructional needs.

I just think more and more stuff is put on educator's plates every day and little is

taken off. And what I don't see is more time being given to educators to deal withall the things that are being put on. I'm talking about more professionaldevelopment, planning, looking at where the dates fall now, the beginning of theyear and end of the year, it's something I think need to be on-going throughout theyear and I think the school calendar provides an ideal to address that. I think weare trying to carve time out of the day and it stretches your capacity and leavesless time with the teachers. I think we need to look at the calendar which has notchanged in a long, long time and it's based on things external and not internal.

69 Wrap around system.

To help with a safe learning environment, I think we need to look at wrap-around

system. We do have a lot of students in our schools where they have a lot ofneeds that are preventing them from being educated, whether it's family issue,social/emotional needs that Tina talked about, or behavior. I think we just need tolook at some things that we need to bring in each school, especially like the highschool. Like a Social Worker. There are a lot of needs out there that we'restruggling to help these students with.

70 CSD creating leaders daily.

It's kind of self-explanatory, but what I mean in this is that I personally am a leaderin my building, but I'm not the leader of the building. Every day my teachers arestepping up, my students are stepping up and when students are givenresponsibility and power it makes a big difference. So I think we need to becreating leaders daily. Whether it's the bus driver or my custodian, everybody hassomething they are good at. And I think when we show them, you have the abilityto lead, it makes a big difference in our building.

71 High threshold expectations established, communicated, and believe in.


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Okay, in this statement I think the key terms are "threshold" and "believe in." WhatI mean by that is that we need to widen our collective belief about what studentscan do. Nearly all students can perform at really high levels. And so when weestablish a threshold expectation, I'm going to go math on us, I think what I'm kindof talking about is that ladder towards career and college readiness, that end

mark. So if we're going to have students successfully at Capital School District inmathematics, we know they have to be able to be successful in algebra 2 by theend of the 11th grade. That's the threshold expectation. So we need to buildbackwards to figure out how we're going to get every kid to have that opportunityto be successful in algebra II by the end of 11th grade. That doesn't mean we'regoing to hold any students back. If they can succeed at that at an earlier time,then we have to figure out a way to make that happen, too. But we really have tomake sure there are enough supports for them to have that success by the end of11th grade. The "believe in" part is really important because I think we have asocietal feeling that you are either a math person or you are not and I actuallydon't think that's at all true. I think everybody can be a math person. And every

time a teacher or a parent or anyone says in front of kids, oh, well, I'm just not amath person. Or -- somehow we kind of create a little bit of an exit route or excusefor kids, so I would hope we would kind of refrain from letting kids know that, youknow, maybe you struggled with math, but that doesn't mean our kids have tostruggle with it. They can all be successful.

72 A cul ture of learning with dropout prevention, graduation planning andbeyond.

We use a lot of data throughout the district at a lot of grade levels and we have alot of information we share out with schools and that schools share-out with us atthe district level. And parents, I think looking at a lot of strategies the schools use,we need to look at specifically our dropouts more closely, starting sooner becausethere's a lot of dropout indicators that I don't think we are highlighting or touchingand we need to do that as early as possible so we can make a bigger impact bythe time they get to high school. Because by 5th and 6th grade, a lot of these kidspretty much are going to be dropping out and they would never make it to 9thgrade.

73 Teacher walk-throughs.

I'm a big sports person, so I look at teaching as a team. I feel teacher facilitatorwalk-throughs maybe during PLC time where teachers can walk into theircolleagues classrooms, sit down and observe and they can sit down and see whatis going on because a lot of teachers in the building are doing great things buttheir colleagues aren't seeing them because they are just as busy. I love when thedistrict people come into my classroom, but I do have a healthy fear of you. Youdo scare me a little bit. I had a teacher come in this morning and do anobservation on me and the feedback I got was just beyond words. Like I'm stillthinking about it and it was great feedback I will take with me into my instructionwhen I come back on Monday.


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74 Let kids be kids.

Let kids be kids. Less testing. I think I'm going to go with Mr. McGuad of lettingthem learn how to socialize with each other. If everything is test, test, test andthere's no interaction. When half of you guys here, except you guys down there,we took naps, we played in the sandbox, we had recess. We had time to interactwith people. It gave them social skills which I think children are lacking today.Bringing them up to say, this is what we're going to do today, here, here, here.School is not fun. How do you go from the pre-K setting or even daycare settingsinto formalized schooling? It's not fun. We want our children to enjoy learning, youhave to have fun at it, whether it means more time with them, whatever, getting toknow them, you have to have fun in the education process. So let kids be kids.

75 State of the art facil ities.

Just goes slightly beyond some of the others that have been talked about. If wewant to give the students the best opportunities to learn and we want the students

to be prepared for the world they are currently living and the world they will beliving in, we want to be sure we are not teaching them for the world that is notgoing to be around anymore. We have seen at Dover High School, once you haveownership it changes the culture and feeling in the building. It's a lot easier to takepride when you have that, so -- and, plus, the connection with the community, youbuild something that has those abilities for a community to come in and make thatconnection that can be the center of the community, not just the school, but thecenter of the community.

76 Build ing a student from the inside out.

I think we need to, I'll use the word Minister, but I think we need to teach live skills

from the beginning in school with the curriculum in order for them to adapt tolearning and sitting in a class and learning how to act, and have manners and allof that. I think that starts early with the curriculum and add that in with life skills tobuild the student up from the inside out.

77 Benefit for all.

I believe that what is good for my ESLs, my English learners and their families isgood for everybody. I think sometimes that's miscommunicated, sometimes I feelthat the program and the needs of my students are viewed in a way somethingseparate from the rest of the needs and the things that are good for the otherstudents. And I think that that is really not reality. What is good for my studentsoften sometimes is also good for many of the students and their families as well.

78 Substitu tes are people too.

Some of us either are retired teachers, some of us do if because we don't want tostay home, are retired from other jobs, but we were hired. We were hired likeeverybody else that works for Capital. We play a vital role in the district in eachbuilding, but we're not offered professional development. We're not respected by


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a lot of students, some staff. We just had a reduction in hours. We haven't had araise in over 11 years. And we do, most of us do everything that the teacher does,on top of having to deal with a lot of the disrespect that the daily teacher doesn'tget because they are the daily teacher.

79 High expectations for the athletics department.Your athletics department is really the front porch of your school, it's the part thatthe rest of the state sees, and will judge us by success or failure. And oftentimesthey project that on to every program within the school. Successful athletics alsobuild school pride and school spirit. >> When you say high expectations, are youtalking about academic expectations? Or athletic ability? >> I think both. I thinkthere's a standard that all students in the state must meet in order to participate,but I think that there should be expectations with regards to being successful. Notust participatory.

80 Senator pride.

I know it's kind of similar, but it's going to be different. This is coming as my parentof a 10th grader hat. Nothing makes me more irritated than ton out in public orsee on social media a Capital School District talking negatively about CapitalSchool District or a specific school. I actually am a Caesar Rodney graduate and Iwould say I bleed blue and white. I don't have any ways to solve it. I don't evenknow what to say about that. And I don't except everybody to intervene or saysomething, but I do. I don't expect people to be unrealistic about what goes on,but to have proud and to talk about the positive stuff, not just the negative stuff.>> Are you saying sometimes we're our own worst enemy? >> Sometimes, yes.>> You don't just mean our projection to the greater public, but I assume you also

mean our respect towards one another within the district? >> Of course.81 Growth mind-set towards students with emotional disabili ties.

Currently known as emotional disturbance, but I think next year that nomenclatureis going to change to emotional disabilities. The statistics are striking, 58% ofstudents that carry that label of emotional disturbance, or ED, 58% will beincarcerated within two years of leaving the public education system. These kidsreally have a lot of strikes against them and they are their own worst enemy. And Ithink sometimes we don't give them the understanding they need because wethink they are choosing to be bad and uncooperative. When that's not the case atall, they have a lot of remorse when they think back on the situation, they wish it

doesn't happen, whatever it was that happened. But we need to work with themand get those functional behavior assessment and the behavior plan and reallyinternalize what they say and use them with these kids, day in and day out.

82 Our own computer program or system.

What I mean by that is, like, the teacher evaluation walk-throughs, we are usingsomebody else's system and it doesn't give us all of the things that we need for


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our feedback. Like somebody said, is it would be nice to have a different type offeedback, but we're using a system that doesn't allow that. They just havedifferent checks. Our referral system, we are using somebody else's. Childinformation, so all of it can go into the same system, the grades, the report cards,so it's all in one area instead of having different places to find different things.

83 See more stratification to school-level leadership.

Just, I guess speaking a little bit as a single Administrator building , but there area lot of things that bottle-necks there and I think kind of spreading that out, youknow, people talk about people having leadership roles, but I'm talking aboutmore specific responsibilities and compensation for that in a buildings. Theserations aren't acceptable and I would like to see us move that way in the schoolsystem as well.

84 Implement of ideals/norms of basic necessities of adulthood.

Basically what I mean by this is learning how to pay bills or taxes ordealing withfinancial matters, so like adding a class to support that. I know for instance I don'tknow how to do some of that stuff and I think this would target more of the MiddleSchool, so like Central Middle School and the high school because I feel like thisis important for us to know how do it so when with are out on our own we are solost or don't know how do some of these things. So maybe like a financial class,not so much business because I know business classes because I have takenthem. They do have, like, financial, like, trail offs in them. So more like a lifeexpository class to cover all of these things.

85 After school transportation for middle and high school.

I think that a lot of people around the table have said that kids need to beconnected to schools. We know that the data says that kids who are in athletics orother activities perform better, especially during the season if it's an athleticseason that we're talking about. And sometimes we know that we have studentswho would participate in those things, but can't participate in those things becausetransportation poses a barrier. And, you know, some of them don't feel safe goingback and forth to school unless they're in a car or bus or whatever because ofsome of the things that are near some of our schools.

86 Interconnectedness and balance beginning at the cabinet level between theneeds related to content areas and social-emotional learning.

And I say this because sometimes I think when we roll things out, particularly inthe area of social/emotional learning, it's perceived by staff to be, I have said thisnumerous times, one more thing on my plate, where in my world that is the plate,unless we get the social/emotional piece together, common core, standards, noneof that will make a difference. I think at the cabinet level we need to do a betterob in terms of what our expectations are for staff so we are not overwhelmingthem. And when we do roll things out, it is rolled out in a which that staff seeing


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how it is important, how is it going to help me if I do this for the social/emotionalpiece.

87 The joy of life-long learning.

Thinking about things, teaching our students and staff, managing the world,keeping stress at bay, when we look at some of the big company models, likeGoogle and Amazon, some of the things that are done to help manage stress,there's so much out there and I think in our profession I know when I was incollege it was air traffic controllers were the highest rate of stress. I cannotimagine we aren't up there. You know? I just think we need to be joyful. We needto know what brings us joy. And we need to help our children know that because itisn't just go getting through K-12, it's about life.

88 Air Force Junior ROTC milit ary academy.

We have more competition in the County and looking at where our kids are, I think

we can do great things with our kids in our district. And looking at that, I think wehave the structure. We would need some support to put an Air Force junior ROTCacademy at Dover High School. Lots of parents around our community, I think,would support that. Kids, maybe. But I think we should at least look into it a littledeeper to see if that would be a feasible program at Dover High School.

89 Too much testing.

I think that too much testing causes an added level of stress and it will eventuallylead to larger problems within the student. And as a student, I feel as though weare being tested on some of the same things over and over again. And I know thateven sometimes I'm confused as to where those, like, what the test results are

being used for and why we're being tested so much. But between SATs and ACTs, post-test, inventory tests and, at my high school, the quarterly tests, theyall fall within the same time period. So it causes a lot of stress and even I've beenstressed and especially this being my senior year, I've never been this stressedactually. >> [Laughter]. >> With all the tests that I've taken and getting into collegeand stuff, so I just feel that too much testing is a huge problem.

90 The impact of school start time and student achievement.

So I'm just curious to understand whether or not there is any type of research outthere that supports when school starts for students and how it impacts theirachievement, their learning. That's pretty much it.

91 Streamlin ing and targeting init iatives.

I feel that we have so many initiatives and requirements, deadlines, processes,procedures that are out there and we're just kind of, I'm just visualizing just arrowsust going in so many directions and I think we just need to determine a focus. Idon't want to see the cookie cutter that everybody has to do the same thing, butfocus on common themes and common directions. And t

csd vision colab statements clarifications 4-29-16

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