We'll call it the meeting to order. Speech here, good evening everyone. Thank you so much for coming out and taking part in our community forum tonight. Thank you for the people that are here in person, our administrators and our four members and to the people that are online also, our members and administrators and community members. Before we get started, however, I think it's really important to take a few moments to address what so many of us are feeling right now. Our hearts are literally aching, at least mine is. 21 people, 19 of them innocent children killed for reasons we do not and cannot understand in a small town in Texas. 10 people killing buffalo, just going about their daily business. Thousands of civilians killing a train, millions of family displays and closer to home we are here about threats to our own small schools. It is a lot to take in and for many of us it's too much. We've never lived in times like this, I guess some of us have maybe, but we aren't sure what to do. So let's start tonight by saying I understand we are with you. I know many people are frightened but that the world we knew just a few years ago seems to have vanished. First, it was epidemic, then the war in Ukraine and now we read about non-violence on a daily basis. We may live in a little Vermont, but we are not isolated from the world and the sorrows of our neighbors in Texas, New York and Maripole are our sorrows too. So let's pause for a minute. Let's set our anxieties down just for a moment and let's think about where we are, who we are, maybe more importantly, let's think about who we want to be and how we can begin to turn things around. The world is maybe in a difficult place right now but there are things that we can do right here in teeny Vermont to help make it a better place. First and foremost, we as a board and as administrators have a duty of care to protect our children. That means making sure our schools are places where students feel safe and welcome. Part of the violence we're seeing unfold across the country is being penetrated, perpetrated. I thought about not putting this word in because I have such a lot of time pronouncing it but I was trying to be fancy by individuals who are isolated and lonely, who do not have or have lost a system of support, individuals who are angry and biased, individuals who have lost hope. And one of the most important things that we can offer our students and one another is an environment that strives to understand to alleviate the impacts of bias, prejudice, and discrimination. People who feel supported, accepted, and their student don't generally act out in ways that we have seen unfold across our country in recent months. In a letter to families, I know that not everybody gets Steven's letters but in a letter to families, Steven wrote, and I'm just gonna poke him because I couldn't write it better. We must strive to root our hatred, violence, racism, homophobia, bullying, and harassment. We will not succeed by canceling others. We will succeed in creating a strong and supportive school when we recognize that we all have a role in helping each other succeed. We must speak up when we hear others being put down or called names. We must speak up when we know one of our friends or colleagues is suffering and needs help. We must make sure that we all have support and that we know others care about us and want to us and wants us to thrive. These are steps we can take to protect our students and each other from outside violence and be assured we will be discussing steps in the coming weeks or months. But in the meantime, our best hope for great in schools and communities where we feel safe, where we have opportunities to grow and become the best person that we can be begins a greater and inclusive learning environment, a place where everyone feels welcome regardless of their color, gender, orientation, size, culture, maybe to just say regardless of any difference.  There is still too much to be grateful for, so much to look forward and to so much to celebrate, especially here in our beautiful small community. This week our governors signed two acts one providing universal school meers to our students and one adjusting the school funding formula that will improve equity and provide better education quality and funding oversight. Closer to home just today we raised a progress right flag over the high symbol that all students are welcome, supported and accepted here. It is that small gesture, but it means so much to the segment of our population. Students and faculty alike that has long suffered under the burden of misunderstanding and discrimination. So thank you for letting me share these thoughts with you tonight. My heart is still aching and my eyes filled with tears when I think of the pain of loss that so many people have experienced. But ideally we can turn things around in this country and this trends around. We can reach out to those who feel lost, abandoned, let be fine, or marginalized. And we can invite them into our communities. We can build bridges of understanding and maybe just maybe others will see what we're doing and follow our lead. Right now to where I'm supposed to be. The purpose of tonight's forum is to present the draft of our continuous improvement plan and how it intersects and complements our ESER funds and our Washington Central and United Union moving forward plan. Thank you again for your support and the interest in providing our students and your children with the tools they need to lead and meaningful and productive lives. And with that I'm gonna pass it to Jen. Great, so thanks, Laura. Thank you so much. We are gonna present the continuous improvement plan. So Mark, if you can share the screen, please.  And just to kick it off, just so everybody knows a number of my colleagues in this room are gonna help with this presentation. So you'll hear from more than me. And floor just set the context beautifully for our work tonight. Do you wanna do the mission statement? Next slide. Yes. Oh, and we haven't shared it on the screen. Well, Mark is doing that.  And hopefully if there's anything in the wording that you don't understand, please don't be shy of just raising your hand right away and we'll open it up for questions. Especially if there's anything that you can't understand or if there's any lingo that you can't understand. Okay, so you can see in our screen now our mission and like Jen was sharing with us in our quality committee meeting, is we really like to ground all of our work in our mission and every time I'm gonna read it for you guys, but you see it there in your screen. Every time I see this mission, it just reminds me of all the work that we did together as separate boards and communities coming together to come to have this mission for our students. Thank you. Next slide, Mark. So we wanna present the continuous improvement plan in the context of all of the other plans that we're writing for the agency of education. Some of you who attended the quality committee meeting in April will recognize these slides. I lifted them from that presentation but I thought that it was important for the public in general to know this and for our teachers as well. And just so you know, this presentation was shared with our faculty and staff as part of the May 25th half day in service day. I sped through that presentation because they had so much other important work to do and the video was if we recorded it was about 15 minutes. I think tonight we're gonna slow it down. It'll take a little bit longer. It'll be a little bit more thorough. But again, I just want you to understand that this is part of, it's one of a number of plans that we need to write to satisfy state requirements and we wanna build coherence in this system. Does not make sense to us to have different goals for different plans. They need to all come together. So we have to do plans such as you can see here the ARP ESSER plan. We talked about that at a community forum a couple of months ago. We have our recovery plan, what we call our moving forward plan. We have the continuous improvement plan. Jodi has its own special continuous improvement plan because they are identified as benefiting from comprehensive supports. And then we have the schoolwide program plan which is a plan that I put together so that we have flexibility in the use of our federal funds so that we can serve more students. Next slide. So most recently you've seen the ARP ESSER work. This is just some snips from the template and the website. Again, we've received an influx of federal monies to support our students through this pandemic. And so the third influx of funds is the ESSER3. It's now known as the ARP ESSER funds. And we've been committed to engaging publicly about the use of those funds. So that's one plan. Next slide. Again, at the end of March we were submitting our public plan for spending the money. So again, this is just a snip and we are required to revise that or at least review the plan every six months. So we keep that as an ongoing activity in our repertoire so that we can engage our teachers and staff and the community. Next slide. And just a reminder that I had, I did a video overview of that plan last spring and that's just again, a little snip from that, the website so that folks know that they can always publicly access that information. Next slide. The state has simplified the continuous improvement plan in template, which is really welcome news. They know that we have these ARP ESSER plans and moving forward slash recovery plans. So this is just an example of what the template looks like. We'll get into it more a little later. Bottom line is that we now are doing continuous improvement planning at the district level, not at the individual school level. And we're required to have two goals, one related to safe and healthy schools and the second related to academic achievement. Those categories fit really beautifully with the moving forward slash recovery plan. And so you're gonna see that we've moved things in from those plans to fulfill this requirement. Next slide. Again, just a reminder, Doty gets to do its own little thing additionally and they're engaged in some plan-dosed study act cycles so that they can continue to receive support in terms of some technical assistance and funding for a school improvement. Next slide. And then just to bring everybody sort of up to speed, this was up to the place where I presented for the Ed Quality Committee back in April. We have since conducted the comprehensive needs assessment. We, with Michelle's help, created the data, updated it with our new sources of data. We're gonna share some of that with you, not all of it, it would take us hours to share all of it with you. And let's see, we're gonna, the annual snapshot is released. So we're gonna share with you some data related to the SBAC and VITSA. We're gonna share with you the draft goals. We're in the process of engaging stakeholders and we wanna address equity issues. Jonas, I see your hand is raised. So I wanted to jump in and just ask this question. When you said that Doty receives technical support, what does that mean? That means- It's really an inconsequential question. I just wanna ask the first question and get it rolling. It means it. We have a liaison at the Agency of Education who's, I'm gonna forget her exact title, but she works like with the Edge Quality Division and she and Gillian and I primarily touch base on a regular basis. We engage in some monitoring and she helps us figure out how best to leverage those funds. Does that answer the question? Yeah, okay, okay, great. Next slide. All right, so Erin is gonna share a little bit more about this, the next few slides. Good evening, I'm Erin Boyden, Principal at Berlin. I have a number of slides tonight and as Jen mentioned, we're gonna look at some data. And the first slide here, actually the next number of slides, there's a link at the top when you look at this digitally for a more comprehensive needs assessment there's a lot more graphs and reports when it comes to looking at data. But we'll look at the SBAC and the Vermont Science Test as well. We recognize that there are some discrepancies or some differences that we have pointed out in the data that we look at when we look at the slides. The Smarter Balanced Assessment is the big state assessment that everybody does, our standardized big test at the end of the year, we're still, well, I think we're all wrapping it up at this point doing makeups. But it is a number of days of some pretty intense assessment starting in third grade going up. Is it going to 11th or 12th? 9th. 9th? Okay, the 11th is for science, but. So next slide. So this first one is SBAC literacy data by grade compared to the state, how the state performed. So you can see in red how district performed by grade level and the blue is compared to the state. So most grades, we are above state average with an eighth grade right now. And you'll note too that literacy is stronger than our math results. So these results are from last year's tests taken in the spring and considering we were one of the few schools coming in person during the pandemic. Next slide. This is where it gets a little more interesting and concerning, this is SBAC literacy performance disaggregated by poverty and by students on IEPs of special education. So the child on the left looks at the red is students that receive free and reduced lunch, which is what we use to determine our quote unquote poverty rate. Compared to the blue percentage on the right, the students that are not free and reduced lunch. And the child on the right, IEP students versus or compared to non-IEP students. And these are students that net proficiency. So scoring on the SBAC, it's one, two, three, four, scoring a three or a four, which is at or above proficiency. So we can definitely see the difference in the need for supporting students on IEPs and that are free and reduced. Next slide, please. So this is looking at math, as you can see, lower than literacy, but still as a district above state average. So this is grades three to nine and we're at it is district and blue is state. Next slide. Erin, can I use them up for just a sec? We have two board members with their hands raised on the video screen. Is it okay with you guys if we do the presentation and come back to your questions? Is that okay? Thanks. Okay, go ahead, Erin. Thanks. So similarly, compared to the literacy slide that we just saw, this is the math. Again, right side for the right chart, free and reduced lunch versus non-free and reduced lunch. Again, students that net proficiency and for special education students, the graph on the right, you can see the difference there in students that net proficiency, special ed versus non-special ed. So we definitely recognize that we have some work to do for those students that are free, reduced and special ed. And then this is the Vermont Science Assessment. This is fifth grade, eighth grade and eleventh grade. And this simply shows our results as a district in red versus the state results on the right. And again, those that meet or are both proficient. I think that's my last slide. So I'm gonna turn it over to Jess. Jess is up next, all right, thank you. Hi everyone, I'm Jess Wills. I've seen you on the screen for the last two years. I've been attending school board meetings. So it's nice to finally be here in person and see you all face to face. I'm the new assistant principal at U32, I guess not new really anymore, although it still feels it. This has been my first year. I'm gonna talk about the current graduation rate. As you can see, the trend line is headed downwards, which is not the direction that we want it to go. We acknowledge this. We see that it's a problem for sure and we wanna address it. Some things that you should know about how the state calculates the graduation rate, students that drop out for youth build or adult basic ed are counted in this graduation rate. So that counts against us, even though they're moving on into other programs. Additionally, if a student completes graduation the day after the next school year starts or further days after that, they count as having technically dropped out. So that's some information, but we know that the trend line is definitely headed in the wrong direction and we are prepared to address it. Next slide. Hi, I'm Kat Fair. I'm the principal of Cal State Elementary. And I wanted to chat a little bit about, I can't see it. I wanted to chat a little bit about the slides on behavior data. On this slide and on the next one as well, what you'll see is we have behavior incidents broken down by the number of events that occur per student. I don't know if that's easy to understand or not. This means 129 students at the elementary level had an office discipline referral form. That means that there was a referral to the office for a challenging behavior. 129 elementary students were in the one to five categories of referrals and the numbers go down for six to 10 events, 11 to 15 events and up to over 20. And if you get to the next slide, you will see that that is similar at year 32. A lot happened at the one to five. I think it's important for you to keep in mind that when we're looking at the number of referrals in either age group, most of the time what we do for most students works. So that first category of one to five events, like a trip to the country's office or a chat with someone, often gets a kid to turn things around. And so that's a good thing. It's a good sign that our universal approach is working. I think if we had a chance to look at this historically, that we would see that these numbers, even in that first category are higher than what we would normally see. Next slide, Mark. This is another way to look at, I'm sorry, do I sound distorted a little? Okay, this is another way to look at the data. Well, we, okay, I love microphones so much. This is a different way to look at the data. This chart breaks down, what's the nature of each incident? So anytime a student goes over 20 referrals, what we're looking at is what the majority of the time is the cost behind it. And this one for elementary, it looks at, looks like defiance, behavior, and physical aggression are the top three. And disrespect is a close second. And if you switch to the next slide, Mark, on the 32, you would see who it changes a little bit. Behavior and class cut, which there's not really a similar thing to look at at the elementary level. And bus incidents. Disrespect is also pretty high there. I think a couple of things stand out for me on the type of issue that gets referred. If you, Mark, would you go back on side? If you were to look at the three top categories, disrespect, disrupting class, and defiance, what in the world is the difference between those three things? I think there are some language that we need to be working on, how we each define one of these things so that we can really hone in on what are the things to address. And if you go back to the next slide on the 32, I think what stands out for me the most in terms also the defiance and the disrespect, but class cuts, I think that speaks to engagement. So when we go forward to the next slide and start to talk a little bit more about our continuous improvement plan goal around safe and healthy schools, we're gonna want to talk about those two things. Jess, I know I just went over elementary and high school behaviors. Anything that you would add that you feel like I'm missing? Sure, I can talk a little bit about the class cuts. We recognize that it's an issue. We've talked a lot about the data that was separated by students, like which students are the re-offenders for class cuts and why it was what's going on for them. I've had many restorative conversations with them and dove into what's going on. It connects to what Kat said about the engagement issue. We are starting a RISE program, which is restorative in-school experience, where we plan to provide a space that will help with those engagement concerns, partnering with teachers and the restorative in-school experience coordinator, writing EST plans and establishing short-term goals for students and accomplishing those goals and moving forward. It's also a strong partnership with families to bring families back into the building and help us partner in changing the experience for their students. Thank you, Jess. You're making me think of one more point that I think is really important. If you think about those first two slides that I showed you about the number of students you have one to five incidents reported, I acknowledge that those numbers were pretty high, higher than what we would have seen in years past. And here in what Jess is describing at U32 in terms of engagement and the class cuts. I think that there are implications for our work going forward where we need to think about what is our tier one approach to supporting all students. We often have students who are identified for needs and you'll see them represented in those incidents that are 16 or 20 or more incidents by student. But before they get there, it would be great if universally we're really thinking about how we support all students. Next slide, Mark, should be the goal, okay. This is our current draft for Safe and Healthy Schools. You'll notice that it is aligned with our moving for recovery plan. I think a couple of these points I made earlier, we need to develop more consistency in reporting behavior data so that we can provide more consistent support. We want our students in their classrooms for a general instruction. And I think that Jess was getting at that when she was talking about at the high school level the engagement and class cuts. But even in the elementary school, we don't have to worry about kids cutting class, but we do have to worry about whether or not they're engaged in their learning. I think, trying to think, one of the things I just wanna point out under the prioritized strategies, we did talk about, as we did in the moving forward plan, that we are hoping to see that SEL lessons, remember with the increase in counselors and SEL being taught within the classroom. The intention was that we would increase the amount of time when kids are engaging in that proactive work and that it may lead to greater outcomes for students, meaning that they are accessing their social emotional learning and not having as many challenges. It does not mean that I'm saying we do not have a need for counselors. I think we do have a need for counselors. And I just wanted to make sure that part was really transparent. All right, so this next slide is our draft academic achievement goal, which is aligned with our moving forward and recovery plan. And this is one that I really find super exciting because it also really ties into our equity work and looking really deeply and honestly and taking hard looks at our systems and what is it that is happening that is creating barriers for some of our students to achieve. So the goal is to reduce the difference in math performance between historically marginalized groups and other groups. So that slide with the free and reduced lunch and non-FRL looking to reduce that gap. And so it's really about looking at high quality instruction tying in with those behaviors, looking at the behaviors and saying, huh, are these behaviors and this lack of engagement? Is it a student issue or is it a teacher issue? Do we have engaging curricula for our students and are we meeting them where they're at and really taking those hard looks that we need to take at our instruction and how we're meeting our learners where they're at, especially now given the fact that we are 24 months of disrupted education for our students. Next slide, please. So one thing, another thing that we're doing which is I think really exciting also is thinking about budgeting now. As you know, even before this year or next year's budget passed, we're already thinking into the future and really thinking about how are we gonna frame our thinking, understanding that through the RPSR funds we have a number of grant funded positions and we're gonna have to take a hard look at these and really think about how are we going to present a budget to the public next year that addresses our needs. And so we, the school board has set a parameter for us and it is around the initiative to achieve significant improvement in math and or literacy proficiency for students on an IEP plan and or who qualify for free and reduced lunch. So that's an ambitious goal but it's I think gonna really help us as we think about the hard choices that we have and the hard conversations we're gonna be needing to have as we're thinking about budgeting moving forward really focusing us in on what we need to do. And Jen. Great, thank you. Next slide, Mark. So again, I just wanna make sure everybody's clear about some next steps. We're in the process of soliciting feedback. So again, I shared this with everybody in the inside the school community last week and we're sharing it now. I also put it in the community letter last week and put a link to the feedback form. So the feedback form is gonna be open until this Friday, the third and then we'll take that feedback and revise goals as necessary. And then I am really hopeful that you all then approve the continuous improvement plan on June 15th. And then let me say one other thing about that. It would be great to do that. Then the other thing I hope that you're noticing is that is the similarity between all the plans so that we really are trying to establish some coherence. I think that's gonna help all of us. And we also know that at some point down the line when the timing seems right we have a strategic planning process to engage in. And I think that's gonna poise us well for the years to come when we're able to do that. Next slide. So this is just a little bit more information about the feedback form. These are the questions on the feedback form. That's just a little snip of it. And as of the last time I checked which was about three hours ago we had 44 responses, which is great. Mostly questions and clarification. So what I'll plan to do is sift through all of those and all of those responses and then make sure that big themes are part of the report that I'll provide to you on the 15th. And Marcus put the link to the feedback form again in the chat. I'll mention it one more time in tomorrow's community letter and we'll see what we get. So that is the presentation. I know some of you might have had some questions or some feedback. So Mark if you wanna stop sharing the screen now, thank you. And then Flor, I think we can take questions and comments. Okay, do we have any questions? I know that Jonas and Chris have been patiently waiting. I don't see Chris at the moment, but I see Diane's hand up. So Diane. I'm excited if you wanna go with Chris or John. Okay, Chris, I see you on now. Do you wanna go first? I'm happy to do that. Thank you very much. And thank you very much for the information and the presentation was really very helpful. So it seems that there's a significant difference maybe just between pre-reduced lunch and non-pre-reduced lunch students across the board. Same thing for IEP students and non-IEP students. Based on the data that we've collected so far, is there a sense as to what the root cause of that discrepancy is so that if we're gonna move forward with a plan, we're identifying and addressing the root cause or do we not know that? I think that we're still, and I invite my colleagues to speak up in the process of trying to figure out the root cause. I think if we really knew the root cause, we wouldn't see these perpetual differences in performance that we've seen for years. We would have addressed it. So that we're still working on it. I don't know if you all want to... I would add to that. So just as a follow, is there a sense as to how we're gonna try and find out what the root cause is, Jen? And I know it's a curculean task because of all the different factors that are involved. Yeah, so there are strategies and tools and ideas that we can engage in we did some root cause analysis as part of the continuous improvement planning process two years ago when we engaged in it a little bit more I'd say sort of thoroughly with the technical assistance of the agency of education and we can go back and do some asking. There's a protocol, for example, that's like the five why it's really trying to dig more deeply into why do we have the results that we have and then what does that mean? What are the actions that we might take to then address the root cause? Those are the sorts of things that we would need to be engaging in. Okay, thank you very much. And then my colleagues now ask questions. Thank you very much. One of the things that I would have wanted to add to that is you'll notice that we keep talking about historically marginalized populations and the things, the places where we have measures are for students who are living under the poverty level or as defined by a free and reduced lunch and students who qualify for special education. Those are not, that is not a snapshot of every child who has been historically marginalized. So I think we have work to do there. Anybody else from the staff wants to chime in before we move on? Okay, and let's see. Jonas, do you wanna go and then I'll have Diane go? Yep, I wonder, can we compare this data to statewide data for anything other than the aspects? For example, the delta between, you know, FRL and non-FRL, it'd be great to be able to compare that against some kind of baseline, also over time. So right now we might be able to do a little bit more, Jonas, with that larger data set during the testing window where we don't have a lot of access to the statewide data, they sort of take that away while we're in an active testing window, but we can get back in there when the testing window's over and see if we can access more and make sense of it or compare. Anything else, Jonas? Okay, Diane? So just to clarify, Jonas, were you asking basically what are the state numbers in terms of the frame-reduced luncheon special ed, which was one of my favorite things. The other question I had was in terms of the graduation rate, the two situations you described of those who are in, you know, the alternative type of a program, do we know how many of that number might be in that situation or in the situation of graduating right out in the following year? And also, have we started a conversation with those who have started to drop out as to what the situation is? I have a list on my desk of the students who have dropped out in the past year. Our plan is to do some investigating as to why a survey, for a lack of better way of gathering some initial information from them, just to get some feedback about how we can change their experience and shift that number. Additionally, the numbers that you're asking about, I don't specifically have those for previous years. I know we have two students headed to youth build currently. I don't know how many have dropped out in the past years and are currently in youth build in addition to the two that have occurred this year. And as far as the adult basic ed, I don't have a number for you on that. I certainly could find that information out and report it out for you. Thank you, Jess. And then, do you have anything else? Good. Okay. Natasha? Yes. Just push it up. I have three questions. Do you want me to do one? Do you want me to do all three or just one? Sure. Okay. So my first question is with the incidents by students, the one to five incidents, do you have data as to how many, like after one, because what you were talking about, a lot of the strategies you're putting in place is one of the reasons why those numbers are dropping drastically. So do we have any data until like after one or two incidents? Like what is the drop off right after that? We do. Can I just be loud enough not to use that? No, just use it. Just use it. Yeah, you're loud, but you love microphones. So you start. All right. You can sing the response. Yeah, we do have that information at every single school and it looks a little bit different at every school. And each school has a team that looks at behavior data to try to figure out not just which student, but we can look at, we identify where resources need to be deployed by looking at what time of day does it occur? Okay. Setting, is it most likely to occur? Who or what is the supervision during that time? What is disruption more often gonna come up in the classroom versus defiance out on the playground, right? So we really do do a deep dive, but that is on a case by case basis in each school. Okay. Does that answer? Yes, okay. And then my second question still has to behavior out of curiosity, what is the difference between behavior, defiance, disrupting, disrespecting? I don't believe it. You nailed it. That's a good question. And it gets back to one of the points that I made earlier, which is that we are not really clear. So I said we're super clear on what that looks like in each one of our individual school teams, but when we start bringing it together in a forum like this, looking at a pre-K to six across five elementary buildings, we're noticing that it's dependent on the person who input the information and our data queen, Michelle. So I also would say our data is only as good as what goes into it, right? When you're putting it in. So as a district, we have a lot of work, not just on our school teams, but across the district to talk about how do we define defiance, disrespect, and disruption and make that a little easier so that I bet those numbers would be higher if we could really break down on each individual school. If you look at the notes that we keep on each incident, it's falling into one of those other categories. I should say that one of the other ones that popped up that I didn't really hit on is physical aggression, is on the rise in the way that it hasn't been in the past. Okay, thank you. And then my last, I guess, question slash comment, under the goal for safe and healthy schools, it says we will decrease the demand for school counseling and nursing services to pre-pandemic levels. And I guess what immediately came to mind to me is I think that the pandemic actually allowed our students to know that it's okay to seek help. So keeping that in mind, do we want to drop that to pre-pandemic levels? Because are these greater levels really an indication of our students knowing it's okay and it's safe and they should go seek that help as opposed to those increased levels being in response to the trauma and things that they're doing because of the pandemic. Great notice, Natasha. I think Jen could attest to the fact that Jen and Lisa will plant the Director of Student Services here at U32 and I went round and round on, what's the right wording for that? Because we do want kids to identify how important it is to seek support and help. And this needs to be a measurable goal. And so we're looking at ways to measure this goal. In this iteration, what we're saying is we'd like to see the need go away, not the use, but the need to go away. And hopefully, if we bolster those proactive approaches by having SEL taught in the classroom in a consistent way with a common approach, using the new framework that the state has provided, I think that we will make a lot of ground. I also, what isn't in here that I'd like to see is the number of incidents over five referrals would go down, but that's speaking sort of in the negative. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. Next one. And just for the community, SEL, social and emotional learning, right? Oh, sorry. That's okay. That's right. So the next one is McKayla. I have a couple of questions also, but tagging on to that that you were just talking about, what's the timeframe for it to go to pre-pandemic levels because working in healthcare as a family doctor, I don't think things are gonna normalize for a long time. I think that's the mental health. So, you two are just highlighting all the things that we need to work on with our language. The language matters. Yeah, the pre-pandemic levels was another aspect that we wrestled with because not all of our schools had full-time nurses and not all of our schools had full-time counselors. And so there was so much unmet need. I don't know how we are going to compare apples to apples over time. I am convinced we can say this is what we're gonna do proactively and this is the response that we're getting. And then I really liked what you brought up about the fact that looking just at the free and reduced lunch in the IP does not, of course, measure every category of marginalized populations. But specifically with universal school lunches being a thing, is free and reduced lunch gonna be a measurement still? Is this a meaningful measurement? Thank you. Just. Want me to take that? Yes, so we receive our Title I funds as of using poverty as a measure and we use free and reduced lunch because we feel like it's the most accurate measure. And so we will be encouraging all of our families to still complete those applications so that we have really good numbers so that we can allocate our federal resources in particular in a way that is equitable. I guess I'm a little concerned that despite the encouragement that people are all that annoying for, if it is not meaningful in terms of Indians. Yeah, very good. We had great luck with that. And I think a lot of it isn't how you communicate the reason and the need behind it. So my style is to be pretty straight up with it and just let my families know that this really isn't about lunch, it's about a lot of other things. And so we had good completion rates. Sorry, I'm almost done. I imagine some of this data has been broken down by school as well. I just let them present it tonight for a few minutes. So I'm wondering if there are schools in our district where that discrepancy is lower between those populations that we could look at as a model and if not within our district, maybe other districts back to Jonas's point of looking to see what as well. I don't see any hints up to jump to that answer. That's the idea. The only thing. The only thing I will say about looking at the data by school is there's an end factor. We can't report numbers under 11. And especially when you look at school by grade levels, that end is very noticeable. So when you're, this is a, it's a classic Doty issue. Not just a, not just Doty, but it's part of why we're a school in need of continuous improvement. But when you're thinking about how percentages work, there are all kinds of, so first off, the smaller total end you have. And being the number of the end is the total number. And then for some of the data that we get from the state, they say, well, if you don't have more than 11 students or excuse it a little bit. And equals the number of students. Yes. It makes them too identifiable, the individual. Yeah. McKenna, do you have one more? I have one more question. Because if you look at some of the data, it's like, yay, we're doing better than the state, but the numbers don't actually look good to me. So I'm curious if there's either a statewide goal or a and or a district goal for these numbers. So I'm not aware of a statewide goal, although I haven't attended the state meetings recently. And for us, we had talked about increasing student performance significantly. We still have some work to do. And this is one of those conversations that is always hard because we want it to be 100% of our students. And we also want a set goals that we can meet in the short term. So that's sort of attention that we always experience. But also thinking about other measures besides the SBAC and the BIDSA. For example, we administer the I Ready Math Diagnostic and there's a growth report in that assessment. It talks about what we would strive for for typical growth and then it talks about stretch growth. And so for our students who are not meeting standards at a particular point in time, we're looking at their stretch growth goals more so that ultimately they'll make more progress. Those are sources of data that are a little bit more helpful than SBAC or BIDSA for that kind of work. I guess statewide Act 173 attempts to help with some of this. There's been some lursy efforts that PCP funding, even though it's just for building quality and some of the infrastructure. It's also attempts to help. And the S287 about the way it's studied too with an attempt to help for that statewide. You had your hand up a minute ago. Just one, just come on, yeah. Let it go, yeah. There, now. Oh, you have to paint your finger there. Press it once. Just hold it. You have to hold it. There you go, you have to hold it. I have four questions. Okay. We heard how the behavior data showed an increase, but I don't recall hearing whether the academic data showed a significant difference from pre-academic in the presentation. And so we'd love to know the answer to that. Has performance declined academically compared to the pre-COVID? So we did not provide comparative data over the years. And I cannot remember off the top of my head how it compares. And I would say that some of the data's old, right? So if we didn't have spring 2020 data, there was no statewide assessment program. And so really in this particular body of analysis, we were less inclined to look at our historical trends than what was currently in front of us. That was the decision that we made in presenting data. There, okay. Second question is behavior stopping or behavioral supports reduced compared to pre-pandemic? So I'll start. Actually, that's like a beautiful segue to some of what I'm gonna talk to you about when we talk about vacancies and some of what we've experienced in some of our schools. Okay, and my last two questions are both related to SBAC and IEPs. I'm wondering if someone can describe some of the SBAC accommodations that are provided for students on IEPs? And if we could get some examples of how those accommodations are mirrored and prioritized during the school year special ed programming. You say mirror, what? What's that structure provided and how do you utilize those accommodations? Oh, gotcha. In preparation for that. Gotcha, so some people can jump in. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. I had it. I wouldn't say prepared or mirrored. If a student is on an IEP or an EST or a 504 plan, they have accommodations in those plans. Those accommodations and those plans should be the accommodations they receive during testing. So it's not that we prepare students for testing, but really it's what do they need in the day to day. So do they need a separate setting, a quiet environment, more breaks, someone to read it for them, someone to describe for them, things like that. Does that make sense? One thing I would add is that some students during the school year, part of their IEP is to have instruction at their level, their academic level. That isn't something that the SBOT can do because it can only test at their grade level. And when we look at our IEP data, one of the things that we're starting to do and Michelle's gonna look at for us is under the current model, it's a discrepancy model to qualify for special education. So by definition, in order to qualify for a special education plan, you have to be 1.5 standard deviations below the norm. So what we're really looking at also in terms of our students on IEPs is are our students who have learning differences making growth at the same rate as our students who don't have those learning differences because it's an unfair comparison just straight up like that. So really breaking down and looking at growth. And that's where the I-REDI growth and stretch growth data is really great to look at. Thank you. Maggie, is that it? Okay. Eric? Yes, thank you. So one of the things you spoke about was engagement with students to help with behavioral problems and other things that might come about. And I was wondering if there was any look into, we can control engagement in the classroom and in the school, but engagement outside of school at the home via homework, stuff like that, ways that some families might have ways to engage after school hours where other families might need help doing that. And if there's been any look at that like as a father of an elementary school student, not having any homework has kind of been a surprise to us, but we supplement with other things that we're able to, but for those that aren't able to, having that engagement outside of school, has that been something that has been looked into as a way to kind of improve some scores and such? I'm not sure if I'm fully able to answer your question, Eric, but I heard you ask a couple of questions. I heard you say something about homework and I heard you say something about what can we do at home. It is my foundational belief that all students will do well if they can and that's them as individuals. And then when we start talking about issues like homework, what my experience has been with students has been that we are often measuring a family's ability to support their child at home, which for me becomes an equity issue. We don't have the ability to support children outside of the environment in school, so it just begs us to really focus in on what are the consistent routines and expectations we can have for all of our students to achieve. I don't know if that fully answered your question, but that's my start. Great. I'd also think engagement is it's really about are we teaching the concepts that we need to teach in a way that our students can access? So I think of a classic example from my own teaching career where I taught to kill a mockingbird for years because it's a classic and I read it and it's just sort of what you did in middle school English. And then what we had to look at as an English faculty is we had to look at it and say, okay, why are we teaching this? And are we really, is this a book that kids can relate to it and engage with? And so we shifted around, we gave choice instead of just having all of the kids read one book. We looked at what are the themes and the concepts that we were trying to teach and we got a whole set of different books. We actually used World War II books tied it into social studies. And then all of a sudden, the first year we did it, kids were like, oh, I love this, this is great. And so that's what part of engagement is about is really looking at what are we teaching, how are we teaching it? And even if we have something that might be a favorite unit that we've done, that we really like, does it really meet the needs of our students or match where they're at? Do you have another question, Eric? Thank you for that answer, appreciate it. Okay, thank you. Any fan? So just a couple of other ones. So one, I was realizing too, if when you talk with those who have dropped out, I think a question that would be helpful to me on the Education Quality Committee would also be when did you first think about not finishing school? Because I'm hearing from different families that in elementary, some kids are really struggling and feeling pushed out. So that I think would be helpful to know. In terms of the behavior, it would be helpful to me if I had a sense of what is that number in comparison. I realize I should know how many are in elementary, but I don't really know the number and I don't really know the total number in U32. And then the other part of it, and this is a slippery slope because I don't want to be comparing school to school, but I can have a better understanding of how disruptive it might be if I know what's the percentage in some of our schools in terms of that. So I'm not asking for that information now, I'm just thinking as we're looking at data. And then the other part of it is, I think many of us feel SBAC isn't the only and isn't actually as accurate or important that it is. And that's not a cop-out to say that we're not doing very well, so I don't believe in SBAC. It's more so we know that there are lots of unfair parts of it and that it doesn't accurately. All of our kids can't demonstrate what they know through this measure. And so I do think it's very important for us to work together to have a system that reflects and provides changes to our instruction as needed for our learning process. I think they do today, Diana, I was looking at data. We currently have 1,489 active students in our schools and it's pretty close to a 50-50 split. Yeah, and Diana, I'll respond to the SBAC. I'm glad that you brought that up. We talk a lot and then add quality as well about the importance of triangulating data, looking at lots of sources of data so that we can more fully understand our students' performance, so that we can both respond to individual students but respond as a system overall. Tonight's, the choice to show just the SBAC and VITSA or to highlight that was intentional only because it hasn't been publicly available until now and if you dug more deeply into that comprehensive needs assessment, there's some other sources of data available and we'll continue to do that in monitoring reports. For tonight though, that was out of responsibility for making that decision to highlight the state-wide data. Thank you, Jen. Okay, first one. I have a couple questions to kind of tie into the dropout rates and I guess we don't have numbers on students who leave and go to other schools for reasons other than their parents moving but do we do exit interviews with them to find out why they might be leaving? Because I think that could help us understand things. And then we've talked about engagement not just with class cuts but with students who are physically in the classroom but might not be engaged. Do we have a way to meaningfully measure that so that we can track it and see how we're doing? That comes into the behavior and how do we, what's the language that we're using and are we using a common language because some disengaged students sit very quietly and look engaged and aren't and there's really no way to measure that but I think that's where you sort of start to see the fidgeting behavior or the calling out or so that's where, it's a really good question and it really comes down to what's the common language that we're using and you have to make sure that everybody's concept. This is an apple, what makes it an apple? That really solid working definition of each of the terms that we have so that we are actually comparing the same thing even within buildings. That's Patrick and the talk group. So I couldn't see it and it helps me out a little bit. I was going to ensure just a little bit. Couple other things just to supplement what Gillian said. There are some things that we can look for, right? Some common things like asking questions, answering questions, engaging in a discussion with the peer, those sorts of things and that takes an opportunity for all of us to calibrate our practice and talk about instructional leadership a lot. We haven't done that very much this year or last year, all things considered. I think the other thing is I have seen, and this was pre-pandemic, there have been some tools, I've seen mostly actually the upper elementary school where a teacher might have like an engagement scale and just in sort of on a spectrum, this is compliance, I'm doing it because my teacher's telling me to do it versus I'm doing this because I'm really interested and I wanna learn this and I have seen a few teachers use that engagement scale with their kids to just sort of take stock of where they are at a moment in time and why they might be experiencing, feeling the way that they're feeling, assessing themselves, where they would. And then my final question was on the academic achievement goal and to talk about a overall increase in the marginalized students, but you also talk about a reduction in the difference between the non-marginalized and the marginalized students. Depending on what practices you put in. It's green. No, we lost our battery, I think. Got it? Oh. I'll just speak really loud. Depending on the practices that you put into place to help increase your performance or proficiency for these students, you could see like this universal surge, which would be great. That's not a bad thing, but have you guys talked about how you're going to try to identify or what? Like if there's no change in the difference, are you gonna still? How do you talk about that measurement? To the extent that we've talked about routinely progress monitoring our data so that we can see is what we're doing effective, especially with groups of students who need to make that stretch growth or more achievement. And if we're not seeing evidence that it's having an impact, then what's the next thing that we can try? Those sorts of things. But we do want to see both. We want to see everybody improve and we want to reduce those differences in performance among some groups. Any other questions for our members? I have a couple too. Do you have one more? No, I'm good. All right, here you go. Oh. Okay, anybody on your mind? So I have, I picked up on the same that everybody's been talking about. Then we will reduce to the number of individuals who counsel and visits create dynamic levels. And I'm wondering if there's a way to just strike that sentence. I feel like you know better now. And I think that we always say that language matters and we create this narrative about our priorities and we're always meeting student needs. So it seems to me that that is kind of arbitrary measure to try to go back because we're always focusing on the student needs at the time. So I would say that to me that one was not meaningful. In that, you know, like I know what you were trying to say but I know we need a great measuring but that wouldn't be my preference. And then, but I would like to see something about a professional, I mean the safe and healthy school goals, right? Because we do know it. So social and emotional lessons led by school counselors. So that has sort of been a way you're also saying that you provide professional development for the teachers so that the teachers can get 80% of the student needs. So I feel like that's what I wanna see. So how many teachers are participating, right? That the high school level, I know that you guys are all participating every week in professional development, right? So I don't know how that is. I feel like that would be a better measure. I don't know, that's a question. And then in this thing, in the quality in the academic achievement, you do have exam and delete systems and implicit values related to the historical manners. I think that applies to the safe and healthy schools to them, it's not redundant. So maybe add at number five to that. So anything else, gentlemen? Yeah, I just wanna say when we drafted that goal, we took that, reducing the visits to the pre-pandemic level, lifted that straight from that, our VESA plan. And I think the one thing I would say overall for us to continue to consider, we've talked about this earlier in quality about global citizenship is, and again tonight year round budgeting, right? And just that reminder that we're gonna have some of what we're funding right now, we're funding with federal funds that are slated to go away. And just as we continue to have our budget conversations, we're gonna need to prioritize the things that are the most important things because it is unlikely that we're gonna be able to afford everything that we're funding with federal funds. So I just wanted to put that out there that these are the conversations we're gonna continue to have. And when we're analyzing data, thinking about that too, so that we know what are the things that our kids need the most, that we then fund and carry forward. Thank you, Jen. So seeing that we don't have any more questions. No, I'm just kidding. I'm sorry. Well, first I wanna thank Jen and staff for putting such a great presentation together and also for being here with us. So let's move into reports, Superintendent. So this was, normally we wouldn't have a superintendent report necessarily during this particular meeting, the first meeting of the month. And last time you asked me to come to you with a recommendation regarding year-round staff. You made determinations about the last day of school for students and the last day of school for year-round staff. So you have my recommendation right now in the packet. I'm recommending that we honor Juneteenth, the federal observance of Juneteenth on Monday, June 20th. And I'm recommending that at least for this year it'll be a floating holiday. It's late in the year and we do have a few folks who have work commitments that they cannot change on Monday the 20th. And then for the sake of being equitable and honoring the challenges that all of our staff have faced, including our year-round of the staff, I would suggest that you grant two paid vacation days as well to your own staff. Thank you, Jen. So I'm going to have a motion. Yes. So I'll move that we accept the recommendation for year-round staff for more community. I'll second. I'll second. I'll move by Carrie, second by Lindy. Any other discussion or questions? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed sort of staying? Seeing none, the motion carries. I just want to thank you, Jen, for putting it together. This was really important for the board. And just again, we thank the year-round staff and we thank that our teachers at our previous meetings, but a lot of you are here for year-round and we know that we are, your kids are keeping our schools going by subbing, by doing a lot of extra things, and especially the study staff. We were not at U30 to the last time, I just saw a couple of them willing around there. So thank you for all you do. And have that, yeah, moving to the wrong, sorry, too many packages here. So then let's move to personnel. And I like giving the aye to Lindy, approve new teachers' resignations. All right, the new teacher nominations. The first one is spelled differently on two pages, so I'm not sure how to pronounce it. Rory. It is Rory, okay. Rory Hutchinson, U32 Spark Center teacher, Philip Montenegro, U32 World Languages, James Hasseltine, Eastmont Fillier grade six, Matthew DeVie, U32 Music. Second, thank you, Harry. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, be signified by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the motion carries. Yay. So excited to be hiring and snowing apart. It's been two guys, so, Jen, update. I don't know, we have a recommendation. I'm not sure we have one there. Yeah, yes, sir. I make a motion to accept the resignation of Sarah Sprague, Dodie, our teacher. Second. Thank you. Lindy and Ursula, any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the motion carries. Thank you, everybody. Okay. Now update. Now update, okay. So, we are still, we're thrilled that we've hired these people and we still have some hiring to do. We are experiencing still a big shortage in special ed candidates for some positions. So, folks primarily at U32 are really thinking about how are we going to meet our students' needs next year if we're not fully staffed in special education. So, there's a lot of thinking and brainstorming about that and there's still active recruitment going on to try to find folks. We have still a speech language pathologist vacancy open. We're still looking for a classroom teacher at Dodie. We are moving forward with some other hiring for some PE and health position as well. I hope to bring more to you next time. We have had two vacancies, one for almost the entire year and the second one since about the beginning or middle of March. One's at Romney, one's at Calis and they are school-wide behavior support positions. It's had a huge impact on our ability to support our kids universally and it's meant that our principals have done a lot of behavior support and less instructional leadership. Those vacancies remain open. And so, one of the things, let me back up, last time I planted some seeds for you all about some of our needs and what the market is and how we might need to do things differently and creatively for example and maybe something that might not have been budgeted the first time around. Right now, we're looking at how can we meet those behavior needs and respond to our kids' behaviors right now. As you heard, there are increases of behavior from previous years. And so, we are exploring the possibility of coming to you with a recommendation to kind of revamp to look at making those positions that are currently funded, supported as parent educator positions, possibly coming with more of a teacher position, behavioral coach kind of position and then looking, we are also having trouble recruiting an elementary social worker and so we're looking at maybe using some of that money for next year and revamping these two positions. So, Caroline and Kat and Kara Holden are doing a lot of work and a lot of thinking about that and we'll see what we're ready to bring to in the future. We also have a lot of parent educator vacancies for next year right now. So, we're working on getting those posted and filled but I think this morning when I reviewed them with Karla, I think we had 11 parent educator openings right now that we're trying to fill. So, am I forgetting anything? Just put an urgency with what you're saying. Urgency and Caroline. I think you should use the mic. I just have to add that at Rumney, it isn't only the administrator being affected, it's classroom teachers as we have been without a behavior support since October and in our handbook, teachers handle level one behaviors, administrators handle level two and three. At Rumney this year, teachers are holding a lot of the behaviors in their classroom. At the last board meeting, Diane mentioned hearing the system creak under the pressure and that's exactly what has been happening. So, I just didn't want to go without mentioning that yeah, that a lot of it's following on classroom teachers, our school counselor and our school nurse. That is the end of our meeting. I have a couple of things just to put out here. I'm gonna follow up with a little email. It's all scheduling stuff but I remind to some of you that had already said yes to the retreat, haven't said yes in the invitation. So, if you don't mind, I know the ones that couldn't come but if you don't mind just responding to that, that'll be great. I'll be sending some information out about location and time but what I really wanted to remind you today is that the board participates in graduation. So, if you wanna participate in graduation, you can just be at graduation as a public but you can also participate. So, be sending some information out, be in the loop for it to respond so that our U32 staff can plan for that. And our elementary schools also have gradations of the 16 so, you know, board members are encouraged to participate too so please coordinate with, the principals will be sending some information out. So, 16 and 17. It's in the 15th is our meeting and it's eighth grade celebration. Yeah, and the 15th is our meeting and it's eighth grade celebration. The 15th is remote meeting. I think that's it. That's all I have to, yeah. But we'll be following up with an email but just like, be sure to answer. Thank you. If you haven't been, U32 graduation is hands down on a highlight of my board year. Yeah, it's really fun, you know, we take turns, everybody gets to participate and that's why we're all here for the kids, right? Same with the elementary schools, it's just best time. Yeah, so, a motion to adjourn. I make a motion to adjourn. One second. Thank you for touching the meeting. All those in favor, please say, what, did I forget something? No, okay. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. I'm not even gonna ask for a pose because. Goodbye. Okay. Good night. Good night. Good night. Hey.


Well, hey there and welcome. It's another day, another nonprofit show, but today is special. This is a milestone episode, our 1,000th episode. So we are celebrating the show today, talking about where did the time fly to? And of course we have Julia Patrick, Julia C. Patrick, CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy. Thank you to you Julia. This has been my daily staple and many people's daily staple as we tune into the nonprofit show. And when we started in March of 2020, it was very much live and also recorded, but we had a lot of people joining us for that live discussion. And now, four years later, we're seeing a lot of people watching the recording and really coming into the conversations at any time, day or night. I'm Jarrett Ransom, nonprofit nerd and CEO of the Raven Group, honored to be alongside on this journey with Julia. Again, day in and day out since March of 2020, what was intended to be a two-week endeavor. Here we are celebrating again, this just monumentous milestone. So Julia, thank you for the invitation and for going along this really fun journey together. It's been really interesting. And I think you are one of the great minds of the nonprofit sector. And so every day was something new and different. And I think it's important to recognize that neither of us had a roadmap. It wasn't like we said, oh, we're gonna do this like they do. And we're gonna do something similar or we're gonna mimic them. There was no roadmap. I mean, the technology was different and new. So really quite, when I think back, Jarrett, I'm really proud of us that we kept going and kept trying to figure out better ways to do it. And then I kind of felt compelled to keep going because we started getting feedback and people would be, I was on a plane flying to London and somebody came up to me and said something.  Right? Yeah. It's been a lot of fun. And I also wanna acknowledge all of you watching and listening around the globe because you have been a huge piece, integral piece of this journey and the success as well. So we do also wanna give a shout out of gratitude to our current sponsors. Many of them have been with us on this journey from the very beginning. So thank you to Bloomerang American Nonprofit Academy, non-profit thought leader, fundraising academy at National University, 180 management group, your part-time controller, staffing boutique, JMT consulting, non-profit nerd as well as non-profit tech talk. Again, thank you to these companies that pour into these conversations because they're really pouring into all of you and all of your missions. I like to say their mission is your mission because they want to help you do more good in and around your community. And hey, if you missed any of the previous episodes, 999 of them, go ahead and scan the QR code, download that app and you can also pull us up on your streaming broadcast and your podcast channel. So wherever you like to listen, consume your entertainment, we are also there. So have a listen, have a watch, whatever feels good for you. We're still hearing Julia more and more. People will go on to watch, someone they know, a friend of theirs that was on as a guest and then low and behold, they stay on several hours later listening to the next episode and the next and the next and the next. It's true, it's kind of funny because I think what happens is you're like, oh yeah, that was interesting or the cadence and then just like before you know it, you're watching more and more and then the archive is so extensive and I really wanna give a shout out to our executive producer, Kevin Pace because he does Yeoman's work going in every single episode and then figuring out where it's best gonna be searched and teeing it up so that it's two in the morning and you have a board crisis or you have an accounting question, you can search the archives and find very specific episodes. So it is quite an endeavor to track and manage this many moving parts especially after a thousand episodes. You know, Jared, I thought today that the two of us could spend some time kind of reflecting if you will kind of like the lessons learned and some of them they might be the same, some of them we might disagree, whatever but are you ready to kind of go on that journey with me? Let's do it. I've been waiting four years for this. Oh my God, well then you are much more of a future thinker than I am, my friend. So I was like, God, help me if I can get through two weeks. 1,000th episode lesson learned, biggest lesson learned. What does that look like for you, Jared? For me, it's consistency and I feel like we've heard this in other industries and other parts of our life but the biggest lesson I've learned is the power of consistency. Here we are in our 1,000th episode that in and of itself is consistent. We've heard from so many nonprofit leaders again around the globe and I feel that any time they were successful it was when they were diligent with their consistency and I see that with my clients that I work with as well, you know like creating a plan, sticking to it regardless of what might get thrown your way what wrenches come in but really sticking to that plan being consistent because with consistency there is a little bit for me I really appreciate the this is what I can expect. This is the consistent behavior this is the consistent action and it might warrant a different not consistent result than what you've done before with inconsistency. So it's really been fun to watch how some leaders have been very strict in their consistent efforts and what that has brought them. You know, that is fascinating. I don't know if I would I totally agree with you. I don't know if that would have come up only because but I like that. I like that answer a lot and I think maybe more than an answer I like that observation a lot because I think that's I think it's a powerful reminder that a lot of times we suffer fatigue internally but we forget that there are 1.8 million nonprofits out there and you know there's a lot of noise and the way you minimize some of that is by being consistent and it gets boring quickly internally internally does but to the exterior ecosystem it's smart you know for me my biggest lesson learned and like I'm like oh my God it's a lesson I have to learn over and over again but you know and it kind of breaks my heart to say this but passion does not rule the day and I say this because I think over the trajectory of my life I've become an incredible philanthropic snob where I've been like really that nonprofit they're not doing the work of the angels this nonprofit is doing the work of the angels and so I minimize somebody's work because I think it's not really a valiant effort right it's a bias as to what I think should be going on in society and so when I see nonprofits who I don't believe are doing the work of the angels rake in the money get all this attention become the superstars and I'm like really there's a woman and children shelter for domestic violence just over there and they get nothing but the problem is that that nonprofit who's really moving ahead better management, better marketing better communications, better structure they are better managed and so passion does not rule the day and it's like I said Jared it's kind of heartbreaking well that's interesting to hear and I've seen it right it's like oh the so and so big organization gets all of the grantors funding it gets all the accolades it gets all of the whatever and you know down the street or across town there's an equal just as critical mission doing the same thing that no one knows about right like the best kept secret which in reality not a single nonprofit wants to be a best kept secret no and it is such an interesting thing because at the core of all of this is emotion right how do we how do we live a life of value service our faith our values all of this stuff and then we weave in the nonprofit sector and so somebody who might be women and children focused goes up against somebody who's equally focused on animal welfare right or something and then there just these inequities I believe inequities and it's really tough it's really, really tough and I think that's just kind of one of those things that we for me that's a big lesson because I always think oh the right thing is gonna win every day and it doesn't be right but the right thing is different to different people right exactly looking at that is different okay let's talk about a challenging topic because over the last 999 episodes right we've had some interesting conversations some interesting guests so what has been your most challenging topic to discuss Julia? I think the biggest thing has been mindset and self care because I'm of a generation where you don't bring it to work and there's this level and I think it's mostly generational that's like and also because of being a female I always struggled growing up being identified as a female because it automatically dropped me below the men right you know I was in the first wave of women that went to a private men's college I mean you automatically saw all these different benefits and roles changed when you were identified as a female and so the mindset of understanding how we navigate with authenticity if you're having a bad day I was raised that you the minute you walk through that door man that day is great right you leave all that behind and there's this new generation that's like no if I'm having a bad day this is my authentic self and I need to communicate that I had this conversation with Rita Sorenen a goddess of goddesses CEO of the Dave Thomas Foundation for adoption and she and I are equal it is similar in age and she was said the exact same thing she said but she's done a better job at navigating it because she's like when you know female employees would come in and talk about their lives she was like are you kidding me we don't talk about that right you know and she's like she said I've had to reevaluate how I perceive what is authentic leadership so for me that's been I'm sure Jarrett until I go into my little box on the mantle that will still be something that I struggle with right so I don't know yeah well and I know I've pushed you out of your comfort zone too because that was a huge one for me showing up authentically putting my mental health and wellness first talking about it openly so I love hearing from you that you're working through and on so much of that for me the most challenging discussion or the topic to discuss over the last four years you know we talk about pandemics plural and for me I'm gonna call out the social unrest because that is still going on in our society and we still have leaders in our social profit sector that are not supporting people of color a different justice right like we're still not quite behind the whole equity and there are so many individuals that bring their lived experiences into the sector yet we are still often run and manage by this white superior complex that has been the hardest for me I learned that anti-racism was a thing during the last four years for me I just thought oh I'm not racist and that was the end of my journey but learning to be anti-racist and learning to lean into a deeper understanding for me that's why I say like one we all have so much work to do I have so much work to do and I choose to lean into that space it's not always comfortable but it is a space that I am working to get better educated and informed on so my friends around the globe you're doing a fantastic job and I'm also taking it upon myself of course to lean into that because I do feel that I have privilege but I have the commitment and the obligation to my community and to my friends to stand up and to use my voice in these opportunities so I love that I think that's amazing and I think it is, you know we talk about the DEI component of impact and how it makes such improvements right? It actually is something that it makes us stronger when we look at that concept and construct and yet we have to back up and start bringing people along to the realization that this is something that will ultimately help us right? And it's still something that is so so difficult so yeah that's lovely it's difficult and people are like nope let's not talk about it let's just cover our eyes it'll go away and it's not and so I'm still here on a mission to bring that up. Okay we'll move forward because I'm looking at the clock Julia and just like every episode it's going by very quickly. I know. Geez Louise I thought the same thing okay where is opportunity found? What do you say Jared Ransom nonprofit nerd? This is a fun one for me because I could answer this in many ways but I'm gonna get back to basics. I do believe opportunity is found when we get back to basics we map out our procedures, our processes and integrate new systems, technology and processes right? So let's strip everything down let's be opportunistic in the basic of everything and then let's build out again where we are today for the systems that we have accessible because look at AI and just technology in general Julia over the last four years the advancement in technology so I do think there's tons of opportunity we can get back to basics and then start to build out a new system and process for effective management. Yeah I love that I think you're absolutely right and I think with, you know how, if we ever needed an illustration of how vital the nonprofits are in our society locally and globally it's been the pandemics right? Because the nonprofits been on the front line so you are right. I think that's really brilliant and I think, you know you've said it best you know the positive aspect of disruption and when you disrupt and you go towards new things it doesn't always have to be shiny and new you know but I love that comment you're stripping it back looking at something and then figuring out what's working and what's not. For me I think the biggest opportunity that we have and it's something that is again generational I think is this the ability to get educated in the nonprofit sector in post-secondary education because you know in my day there was no nonprofit management. I mean one of my beloved professor Peter F. Drucker the father of American management wrote a very small monograph about nonprofit CEO leadership that was actually taken from a recording that he did for you know like in a think tank and it was just like wow that was revolutionary. You know it shouldn't be revolutionary. We need to be educating people about management in the nonprofit sector and not just taking people that might have been good therapists or good social workers or good you know something in that programmatic direction and plopping them into management and hoping that they you know that they're successful because that's what we've done. And you're right the nonprofit management school the program I mean Funnery's Academy at National University right? Like producing amazing nonprofit leaders. So I also was of that timeframe or maybe I was just completely unaware I did marketing communication because I was really unaware of nonprofits at that time but my internship in that marketing communications program led me to nonprofits. And we are grateful. We are totally grateful. So now as we finish up and we only have a short period of time what do you think moving forward is gonna look like because you know we always tease our guests okay get out the crystal ball tell us what you know but now what are you seeing or what are you thinking about? So for me forecasting the future of the sector I'm really leaning into innovation right? And it is so time it is over time that we as a community do things differently and not fall back on our laurels of well that's the way we've always done it. And I know I say that and people say yeah we don't do it that way but you do. It's in your mind. It's in the mind we still fall back on doing the same old same old you know I was just a keynote speaker for Ida Bailey and they have a webinar but they have an awards it's called the resource fullness awards with full spelled out F-U-L-L. And it really is all about what can we do to tap into innovation to be resourceful to look at this from a full F-U-L-L lens not a scarcity lens. There is so much opportunity I talked about you know if you do some competitive benchmarking even generic benchmarking of other industries right? Like consumer behavior when we see this on the internet how can you mirror that to donor behavior? Where are we having these experiences as soon as you purchase something online as a consumer you are immediately thanked you are asked in three days how the product is working for you like there is so much we can learn to tap into innovation. So for me forecasting the future of the sector is really leaning into innovation and if I could add a second one it's disruption and it is that positive disruption but I think we will have disruption by leaning into innovation like truly embracing innovation for the possibilities. Yeah I love that and I think that is a logical way for us to be thinking about everything right? I mean the way we manage our households our health our education you know our mindset absolutely I think that's something that we need to be embracing and not be fearful of. You know for me forecasting the future of our sector it really almost goes back to what we were just talking about and that is this mass exodus and aging of our current leadership. So the good news is that we have a whole new demographic of leadership coming in better educated more current more able to deal with technology. So I think this next wave of leadership I'm super excited about because they will be able to steward us with to your point innovation and embrace disruption right? Whereas you know that older mindset of current leadership that's going away has been like yeah no this is what we always do and they won't open their brains or their hearts to trying new things right? And so I feel like this is really the opportunity of this next wave is to see the passing of the torch and it's also on the board level it's not just in the C-suite it's gonna be mirrored by our boards. And if you think about 1.8 million non-profits and the average board has 10 board members that's a huge swath of talent change at the same time right? And so that is a huge change. It's huge change. Do you see I don't know if it's chronicle philanthropy but one of her philanthropy publications shared about how there is this mass exodus of the C-suite positions right? And really how that opens up new leadership and the C-suite positions the mass exodus it's not only retirement it's also moving to consultancy. So a lot of seniors have decided it is time for me to do my own thing the economy has the opportunity for this. I mean here I am celebrating 15 years this month in March as a consultant in the non-profit space. So I loved reading that article because it was so fascinating to me and I think you're right Julia your answer and my answer dovetails well together when it comes to innovation and new leadership. Because you know I think that's where you have this power structure and this shift because the mindset of a younger more educated and technologically oriented leader is huge, right? I mean I remember in the late 70s Scottsdale High got an IBM Selectric and it was not, it might have been on the front page but it was in the front section of our local the Scottsdale Progress our local newspaper and they sent a reporter Jarrett to take a picture of an IBM Selectric, right? Because and it was like wow and I remember my father saying you are a privileged child because my business doesn't even have that, right? That it was like the advent of grand technology, right? I mean so hello, we have so much to go through and to embrace so that we can ultimately be better we can be stronger stewards and really of our nonprofits and really embrace the impact that I know that we can be doing, right? We can be achieving, so fascinating. I need to and I want our leaders to stop thinking we're nonprofits, so we have to do everything with less money, we deserve less of so many things, right? Like resources or whatever even when it comes to donations we often think, well, I don't wanna wear this so I'll take it to a nonprofit, right? And so we often get the, just I don't know the things that roll downhill, yeah but it's time for us in the nonprofit sector to stand up and to speak up and do things differently. Another shout out to the movie Uncharitable if you have not seen it please make that something you do this week or by the end of this weekend because that movie will change the way you look at nonprofits. I love that. I think you're absolutely right, absolutely right and I think it's also incumbent upon us to keep searching, right? I mean, as you and I have embraced a thousand episodes we have definitely been searching and learning and observing new things and so what an amazing and fun journey it's been. Again, I'm Julia Patrick, CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy been joined today by the nonprofit nerd herself pretty in pink, push up those glasses for me sister just so that the nonprofit nerd herself CEO of the Raven Group, amazing sponsors. And again, I say this every once in a while but probably not enough and it's really important to recognize that our sponsors, as Jarrett mentioned at the top of the show most of them have been with us from the get go but they do not influence what we talk about. They never edit what the direction the editorial direction is and it's really a powerful thing because we have an open format to discuss pretty much anything that we want to or that we are hearing about or we feel that there's a good story to tell or some connectivity. And so these folks have been the most amazing, amazing partners anyone could ever ask for. Bloomerang, American Nonprofit Academy nonprofit thought leader, staffing boutique Katie Warnick called me out of the blue from New York City and said, how do I get on this show? And I was like, what? Your part time controller, Eric Frank the CEO of this amazing organization took his finger and rolled it around the screen and said, how do I get my logo on there? And it changed our world because we realized that we could sell sponsorships. 180 management group, one of our new partners who is really, really interesting and has all sorts of new ideas they're consulting and coaching consultancy amazing Fundraising Academy at National University Oh my gosh. Again, we had these amazing relationships that just fell from the sky. I should say fell from zoom, Jared because that's the world that we were working in. And I want to definitely shout out Tony Bell, who came to us again right in the very beginning and he is stewarded by Pearl Hoagland and Faith Martin and all of the amazing trainers that we have moving forward with us. JMT Consulting, a new group there involved in FinTech again led by Jacqueline Tezo who's just fascinating and she'll be on shortly. Again, the nonprofit nerd herself as well as nonprofit tech talk. So we have phenomenal gratitude for the people that have allowed us this conversation and who have gotten us here. It has not always been easy. There are a lot of new and exciting changes on the horizon and so stick with us. Who knows where we'll be for the 2000th episode. That's right. What a fun journey. Thank you, Julia. Thank you. Thank you. Well, as we end every episode what do we like to say, Jared? We like to remind all of you and ourselves to stay well, so you can do well. Thanks for joining us for this milestone episode. We'll see you back tomorrow.


Hi, Arnold. Welcome to Atlanta, clearly.  I think I'm someone who has a high IQ when it comes on rushing the passer. I understand what the Olimans is going to do and having counter of my main move. I think I'm pretty versatile on how I attack any passerset. Was there a guy growing up that you kind of modeled your game after or was there anyone that you kind of watched even in college that you took stuff from? I saw one of the different guys. That was my mom, Miller, T.J. White, Nick Bosa. Just trying to implement different aspects of your game. So I'm a student of the game, so anything that I can see and add into my, I'm always open to do so. Appreciate it. Thank you. Do you have a little better, AJC? Yeah, Arnold, what makes you a fit for a three-four defensive scheme? I said my versatile, someone that can do a little bit of everything.  What I've been at with my whole life. So for me, it was just a matter of keep doing what I've been doing and just learning the game a little bit more. So having the competition above, I think that's what made me the player I am today. All right, Josh Kendall, the athletic. Hey, Arnold, congratulations. To follow up kind of on what D-Led was asking you, at what point did you start to realize or to think that you could make a career out of football? When did you sort of take that step and reach a level where you thought this might turn out to be something? I think that was at some point when I was back at Temple, and I actually told myself that if I were to apply myself, I should put some more work into developing my craft. I could potentially make it to the NFL. Was that part of your decision to transfer to Penn State? Maybe to get on a bigger stage to get noticed? Yeah, at some point, if you want to call yourself the best, you want to go against the best in college football, so making that transition for me was a big part of it. I wanted to test my skill set against other people, and I also wanted to be the best player I possibly could. Thank you, Arnold, congrats. Charles Odom, DFL, I'm sorry, Associated Press. Hey, thanks for doing this. Can you say what interests the Falcons had expressed to you during the draft process? I talked to the Falcons at the top of town. We went with some, and it was mainly about where I can add to the defense and how they can use my versatility on the field. All right, we'll go to Kelly Price, Fox 5. Hey, Arnold, congratulations, and welcome to Atlanta. Appreciate that. Yeah, no problem. I wanted to ask what it was just like that moment where you got that call that you were being drafted by the Falcons. Special. Special. You know, that's something that you think about. You're trying to go over it in your head, trying to figure out how you're going to throw in that particular moment, but the truth is you don't really know until you get that call.  I was just curious. Store there. Why you put doctor in front of your. I'm a doctor. I will go to Jeff Schultz with the athletic. I have to ask the follow up to that. Did you. Did you give yourself that nickname or did somebody give it to you? And if so, how long ago? I said, I give myself a nickname. A lot of people ask me why I call myself a doctor. I don't know why, but I believe on the doctor. I'm just going to stick with it for a while. And the other thing is you're coming to a team that. Certainly in recent history has had, has had problems getting to, getting to the quarterback. What is it about your game and attitude that makes you believe that you can change that here and be impactful. I mean, I don't know. I mean, I don't know if I can, but I believe in the team and attitude that makes you believe that you can change that here and be impactful in the NFL. I say, I say my approach, my building. I believe I have what it takes to, to get to the league and be a dominant player. So I'm ready to get in, put the work in and, and I'm looking forward to it. Can I ask you to who did you speak to from the Falcons? Who did you meet with? I met with a lot of coaches. I'm not sure right now it has been a minute. So I can't pick one who specifically had a conversation with. Yeah. Thank you. We got a time for just a couple of more. Michael, Ross, do you have any follow-ups? Yeah. Since we're hitting on all the social media stuff, age seven chronic. What's that? You know, a seven is kind of my nickname and it comes from the chronic. So it means like a book of a seven. So my book pretty much. Okay. And what's the first like, you know, the drop fosters or buy stuff or they have plans with like what they're going to do when they sign that. Like do you have any plans of anything? Have you had conversations about that? I haven't thought about it, honestly. Appreciate it. Hey, aren't, are you doing man? Congratulations. Yeah, I appreciate that. So I was down in Senior Bowl man. And I noticed the like, maybe doing like the one on one. And like T-Periods. You and your teammate. Jesse. Well, you know, kind of conversion, going back and forth man. Can you talk about your experience down in the senior bowl and kind of like what uh how how is it was it having one of your teammates down there kind of I guess to bounce stuff off of and kind of figure things out about you down there. Yeah so Jesse he's my brother you know having someone that should close with that senior bowl uh we were able to like uh have different conversations maybe some of the things that I saw from different Olamin or that he saw from the uh different Olamin as well just bouncing back idea from each other it always helped you uh as you are pushing those one-on-one in the senior bowl. And also man do you feel any pressure like I said the team at 18 sacks as a team last year and you know um like I said they struggle to you know to be able to rush the pass on a persistent basis like do you feel any pressure coming in being the second round pick and saying hey this is the guy who's going to get home. I mean pressure is privileged I mean I'm taking it as a challenge and I'm ready to go. All right we got time for one more uh D Orlando Leb better. Uh yeah Arnold um um did they talk to you or discuss you know Shaka Tony and uh the lineage there Michael Parsons and the guys that have been putting out and you know they kind of teach you try to teach you some of the things those guys did at Penn State and what what part of the DMV are you in? Um I'm in Silver Spring Valley. Okay Georgia Avenue baby. Yeah I did you know about it huh. Yeah yeah H-U but the Penn State lineage got that position you know talking to your folks. Yeah you know uh we talked about Penn State and some of the things that they do especially on the defensive line uh you pretty much want to carry that when you go to Penn State and leave Penn State they kind of carry uh that line of great defensive play in the NFL so I definitely plan on following those footsteps uh the ones that Michael Parsons and it was definitely always took so I'm trying to get in the league and be a productive player as well. Thank you.