Organization: Demosophia

Project: Capital School District

List of Vision Statements with

Clarifications
What are descriptors of what an ideal Capital School District ?ought to be? to ensure an
excellent education for every student?
#
1

Statement
A true college prep.
Okay, so the key points that I wrote underneath were, it says giving students the
opportunity to discover their passions or life aspirations. This gives the students
an example of what college is really like, declaring a major, taking focused
classes based on that major, and then completing requirements. >> So are you
referring to like CP classes in general? Or are you trying to create like a new
section of classes to support the college prep line? Like alignment? >> I think
what you know as college prep right now, CP in high school, is not what I'm
referring to. What I'm basically referring to is saying that I want high school to
literally prepare you for the college experience. So you would have to go into -and we're kind of getting that way now in the high school, but I want to make sure
it's universal across the entire way, where the students will come in as freshmen
and then after one year of classes, they begin to kind of focus their class choices
and their energies towards choosing a major or choosing a pathway, like what we
are building right now, so that way they get the experience of that going through
and seeing whether or not those choices and those classes that they are taking
are helping them and guiding them towards being that for the rest of their lives.
Because we all know we've been through times where we've had friends who
changed their majors in college and maybe even some of you experienced that
yourselves, if we could sort of try to have this be an experience where that can be
done in a high school level, perhaps when they get to a coleagueate level they
may be more efficient with how they operate and be more successful. >> By
college are you referring to the traditional four year college experience or would
you expand that college definition to mean two year colleges and trade schools as
well? >> I think when I wrote it, I was thinking the traditional college experience,
but I think it would apply to anything. In our district we do have our CTE program
which gives them that student, like Sandy was talking about, so I guess it could
apply to that as well. >> Do you think that we need to do a better job with students
actually understanding that they are required to have a pathway and actually
making sure that there's information out there that these are what our pathways
are at the district level? >> Absolutely. >> So do you see this as a question
around scheduling of current classes or do you see this around the classes that
aren't there that would support this? I'm not sure if my question is clear, but --. >>

Is it about how kids are selecting into the current classes we have and aligning
those? Or is it about there's gaps in the classes we offer that don't allow that
alignment? >> I think the answer to that is both. I think what we could do is we
could do, as a district, a better job of aligning what we do have and then
identifying if there are any gaps and holes, and then offering those types of things
if we have the staff to support them and we have the abilities to offer that, those
classes, yes.
2

Building higher standards.

Well, my thought is that, I think we need to focus on implementation of math,
reading, math, reading, science early, and make it mandatory, even a double
class, if you will. From the start to finish, consistent because in my line of work as
an auditor for 27 years and an investment banker, math is essential. Essential.
And I never heard, never heard of anyone taking math and putting it on a low
hand of the totem pole. Math is crucial to everything that you do. Top priority. High
priority. It should be built in early. Consistent and actually emphasized even two
classes, repetition is effective. And we have the block classes and I understand
that piece, I understand why, but back in the day, we learned off of repetition.
Math, science, biology, all those crucial things and CTE, all built into one because
when you become an adult, you are mandatory in the work field to know all of
that. And no one is going to take pity on you. You either know it, or you don't. And
that's why we need a higher build, build, higher, higher standards early and
maintain them and be consistent. >> Oh, that's right, sorry. Can you clarify where
higher is? >> Higher is, and I use that loosely because I think we need to get back
to the priorities of the students of learning basics. It seems like we have to go
back. Maybe, you know, we kind of dumbed it done, not maybe, we have dumbed
some things down because of whatever situations that we're in as far as money
and budgets and what have you, but I believe that we need to direct funds and
energy and resources into math and science and reading and CTE to develop the
student so when they become, and that's part of developing a student so that
when they go out into the world, they'll be able to function and have all the
resources they need. I believe sometimes the students lack a confidence in high
school is because it wasn't mandatory early. Nobody, you know, math scares
students because they didn't have enough of it. And the emphasis wasn't on it. So
I think, go back and do it right. >> Yes. Can you clarify "early?" What is early to
you? >> Early, in my home, was Third Grade. Third Grade, me and my wife
taught math. And we're no teachers, but we taught math. We taught what -- what
was not taught in school, we taught it. Consistently because we seen the need
and we understood that they needed that skill early.

Schools are safe from external and internal threats.

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

doors, buzzer, that kind of thing. And then the other one I feel is maybe even
more important is the internal threats. I keep thinking of that poor girl up north who
went into that bathroom and was killed unfortunately. And, you know, if you have
that kind of situation where you feel like there's going to be a fight or something
like that, that kid is not going to learn that day because they are worrying about
the fight that's going to happen. So if there was some kind of resource that kid
could go to to know that they could go to that source with their situation and it
would be dealt with, I feel like that would be helpful. >> Would your external
threats be also, like, their family? >> Yeah.
4

Capital ESL program a model program in Delaware.

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

Teachers need flexible freedoms in their daily instruction to best meet

student needs.
So as an inclusion teacher at the elementary level, my idea of best practice would
be teaching to the standards, not necessarily to a curriculum. Not having such a
rigid schedule, more opportunities for integration across the subjects. Less
micromanaging of our 8:00 to 3:00. Freedoms for -- freedoms and development
for more things like project-based learning. Things that are going to keep students
engaged and also meet their learning style. I see very few students who love
coming in and opening up a textbook. And the training and evaluations that
surround all of those freedoms. >> My question is only when you talk about more
freedoms from dealing with the 8:00 to 3:00 time span, are you speaking of
maybe having where there's more -- teachers can come in at different times of the
day? >> No, it's more of, you know, instead of from 9:00 to 10:00 I'm going to
teach math and then I have to stop because from 10:00 to 10:45 I have to teach
reading. More of an integration across the subject levels. >> By teachers, are you
talking about the mainstream inclusion teachers or are you talking about the
Special Ed teachers? >> In my opinion, I think this would be best practices for all
classrooms. I happen to teach an inclusion room, but I think just for children, you
know, where they're at right now I think this would be best practice for all of them.

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

they're teaching. And that access be equal to all students within the building. >>
So would educators like include substitutes? >> I think that's a very good
question. When I developed the headline, I was not -- I was thinking about the
Capital School District employees. I think that substitutes potentially could be
another headline. I think there are issues around substitutes that are different than
issues around full-time employees. >> Are you talking about at the onset of their
employment or after? If they are employed and they are given a certain amount of
time to be highly qualified. >> I think our initial task was kind of to shoot for the
moon, kind of perfect world, and in my perfect world they would be highly qualified
from the onset of employment. >> One-to-one teachers and Special Ed teachers
at the secondary level, would they, as they travel with students, would they be
highly qualified in all of the areas where they travel with their students or is that,
like -- I think you understand my question. >> In those situations I would say that
my thought process is the individual who is providing the content instruction is
highly qualified, so it's probably -- in my mind, there's some individualalization,
depending on the one-on-one with the individual Instructor or the Special Ed
Instructor. >> The definition of highly qualified, are you talking the DOE definition
or are you talking what would be best for Capital School District? >> I think that I
am talking both. At this point when I say highly qualified there's a Federal
definition of what highly qualified is, but I also think I'm talking about what is best
for Capital School District. And there may be times when we believe what's best
for the district may be a standard that is higher than what is set by the Federal
standard of highly qualified. What I think is very important though is that all
students have access to the best teachers. And that means hiring the best
teachers in the very beginning of the process and then ensuring that all students
have access to those teachers, you know, throughout their education. That, I think
that there is -- tell me if I'm expounding too far, but I think there is a perception
that that are times when our quote best students from access to our best teachers
and that teachers who are coming in who may be less qualified or have less
experience are getting some of the more challenging students. And what I think is
important is that we hire the best from the very beginning and that all of our
students have access to the best educators so that we're attracting, we're
retaining those best educators and that all of our students have access to them.
7

Capital becomes a more streamlined and linear district.

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

middle school and the 8th graders going up to the high school. We are a very
small school district. Without some kind of uniform system, I heard people say, all
kind of kids, regular kids, Special Ed kids, all types of kid, no matter what school
they came from, they can expect to see this in an inclusion setting, or a Gate
setting and the students in the middle school. I don't like when people talk about
Polytech. What I would like to see, being an associate principal there, I would like
to see more classes added so that the student can have everything they need, so
they walk kindergarten through 12th grade they know they are going to be a
Capital student. And the other thing is having community support, to support that
linear district because we have people that communicate and have conversations
about the schools only based upon what they have heard and they are never
walked a foot in any of these schools doors. And I think having, as someone said,
going out and being able to reach the community, communicate with the people in
the community to find out what the needs are, which is similar to what we are
doing now, so everyone knows what Capital stands for and where we are going.
8

Capital provides an accessible, adaptive, and personalized education for

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

Capital elevates all students.

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

10

Evidence-based instruction in multiple areas of student development.

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

deliver it to students in multiple areas so it could include reading, math, writing,

but also social/emotional learning, preventing specific things like youth suicide,
anxiety, depression, bullying, we have a lot of different things we could address,
but using more programs that have that research behind them could help us in the
direction of helping a lot of kids.
11

Computers for every teacher and every student.

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

12

Everyone has a chance.

My point in, everyone has a chance, everyone can seek out anything that is
offered through the district. Everyone has supports available for them to achieve
their aspirations. Everyone has time to search, develop, and obtain the success
level that they wish. How many times when we look back and think about students
or ourselves, had I had more time, would I have been more successful? Or would
I have been able to -- somebody told me, well, you can't do that because. And I
think what happens is that we cut off the kids hope when we start say that for
them. And instead of cutting off the hope, maybe we should be reaching out to
them and saying, okay, here are some of the things we would have to try to
obtain, how would we go about doing that? I'm not sure we all have the answers
yet, but keeping that positive out there for them is what I was talking about here.
Everyone has a chance. >>When would we be -- I'm assuming that you're -forgive me if I'm saying this wrong, but you are talking about making sure you
inform the students that they have a chance. Am I correct in thinking that? >> You
think about the things that the wounded warrior project does things now. They are
trying to be creative in how they do that. Maybe we don't have something in place,
but maybe we can find and from the capacity that we have, that we can build that
so students can attain what they are looking for. >> And what were your -- can
you define your timeline of when you would try to inform these students through
their career? >> That's a nasty four letter word, time. We have to figure that out
together. No, I can't really define that. It's something that has to be worked
together through all of us. >>Just based on some of your comments, your
definition of everyone, are you talking students? Are you talking students and
adults? Are you --. >> In the context of students, but I think the adults should be in
here also because we're going to model the way for them.

13

Curriculum being mutually similar to standardized tests.

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

just feel like that's, like, a big problem because SATs and ACTs are a big qualifier
for your future. So if you don't get an equitable score on your ACT or SAT, it does
determine what school you will ultimately go to, whether it's an Ivy league school
or ACPU, it's a different level of education that you will receive and I feel like that's
a problem.
14

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

15

Students, parents, and staff value a CSD education.

I meant that school should be treated by students and parents as something that
is important. And what they decide to do with things they do they define as
important, to me, I'm not defining, but that they treat it as something important.
And our staff view as what they are doing with the student as their mission. It
really has to be a mission. I always joke, particularly about the middle school, you
have to be anointed and appointed to teach middle school. But I think staff needs
to view that what we do with our kids is a mission and parents and students have
to view education as important and treat it as it's important.

16

CSD schools becoming community centers.

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

17

The importance of spirit and pride.

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

reinforcement that could change. And I think it would cut down on a lot of
behavioral issues. And allow for the community to attend those as well, because
the community is a huge part in any school district.
18

Our diversity of stakeholders are and feel valued.

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

19

Every graduate leaves high school with at least one work-based learning
experience outside of the school.
My whole reason for this is that it's very important that every student at least once
have an experience outside of the building where they are actually learning what
it's like in a workforce-type environment. So what I would like to see is that every
students before they graduate participate in at least one work-based learning
experience. And that could be a tour of a facility, it could be actually job
shadowing, interning, or co-oping, that's what I would like to see and that's what I
meant by the actual headline. >> Does that experience encompass students that
already have jobs? >> Actually, the job could be one of their experiences. It
doesn't necessarily have to be -- the job could be that experience. Absolutely.

20

Cutting-edge and comprehensive technology in all CSD schools.

Having mentioned comprehensive technology in all of our Capital School District
schools, so I was referring to an overall implementation of technology to keep
pace with the current advancements because technology is changing every day.
And I would like our teachers and students to have knowledge and practice with
those advancements. And then, also, that this is integrated into the instructional
delivery and that it also provides opportunities for students that have different
modalities of learning.

21

Meet the needs of the whole child.

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

22

Family partnership.
All right, for family partnership, I think what I was thinking with this was creating
almost like a team with the student, the parent, and the teacher where they work
together to set long-term and short-term goals for their education. Something at
the Middle School I noticed was lack of parent involvement. I don't know that the
kids really see the future of where they want to be in the next few years. Offering
opportunities for parents and the students to be in working with the teacher, might
also change the mindset of student seeing the parent and the child are also
working with the teacher, so we're kind of like a team, not one person against
another.

23

Capital needs systems with embedded flexibility.

So what I meant by this, and everyone knows I'm a big systems person, but there
needs to be some -- there needs to be very specific structured systems in place
so that we don't lose kids, but we can't lose kids for the sake of a system. So
when I talk about embedded flexibility, I'm talking about a system that has a
shared common language, but with that focus on the individual student so that we
are -- I've heard several examples go around that summed this up better than I
did, but the idea of having flexible schedules, having, you know, teacher decisionmaking drive instructional decisions so that there's a common system, there's a
common language, there's a common understanding of what matters, but that it's
all focused around that kid. And the system has to flex around what the needs of
the student is instead of trying to fit our students into our systems. >> So is
Capital School District the system? Is the system a process? What do you mean
by the system? It's really broad in every aspect. >> I think there's an overall
system, K-12, but there are individual systems within that infrastructure. So I'm
talking about whether it is a school schedule, which is one system, or it is a group
of interventions or PLCs, which, might, again, be a subsystem of that. But we
have to have that commonality, which I think Mr. Givens mentioned where we're
sharing the same language. When I say system that everybody understands what
I mean. When I say intervention, everyone understands that same vocabulary.

24

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

What I meant by this is I think, especially with the finances, since they are always
so tight and the program at KCCS is in need, when I'm out on field trips with my
grandsons. People say, do they go to Charlton? No, they go to KCCS, which is a
great program and I think we need to promote that and get the community
involved so we can a booster club and big financial programs because we are
growing by leaps and bounds. We only have 255 students, doesn't sound like
much, but 100 of those are classified autistic and by next year that number will go
up even further.

25

Students develop a deep sense of community involvement and attachment.

And that's kind of an umbrella idea and some of the things that came to mind
immediately were mentoring. Students knowing that people in the community care
about them and are invested in them. Developing something called "a school to
job pipeline" with students having hope when they go to school that there are jobs
that they will be connected to as they get out of school. That we foster internships,
externships, that we develop more community programs, that we have our
schools thought of as community investments like parks, services, needs analysis
of our families, that we foster volunteerism and community service both in our
schools and outside of our schools and that we do that with a high level of
transparency and intent.
26

A consistent framework for teacher input.

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

27

Recognize the importance of connections with families.

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

28

Fair and equitable learning for all students.

What I meant by this is that we have differentiated lessons taught by qualified and
motivated teachers and supported by the same qualified and motivated support
team for all students regardless of where they are AP honor students, where they
are special needs students with 504 plans or whether they are students with
special needs. I think sometimes when a child gets labeled, whether it's from one
end of the spectrum to the other, I think that there is a certain amount of stuff that
goes on, for lack of a better word. These are our AP kids so we're going to do
more with them, they are more technology driven, so we're going to create a
discussion Board for them. These are our students who have behavioral problems
and I'm going to put the work in front of them and let's see if they do it or if it's just
going to be another rough day. We should offer the same energy and input to our
high energy students all the way down to the children who come in because they
have moved 6 times in five days and are still living in a hotel.

29

Effective social emotional learning in the classrooms.

The reality is that social/emotional needs are not being met at home anymore.
And this goes across the board for all types of students. The technology and
social media, kids can't communicate with each other face-to-face, which creates
lots of issues. So I feel like -- and maybe I need to change my title, I guess I could
say, in the classrooms and with the community. I don't know. I'm not sure. I have
to think about that. So what I mean by effective would be evidence-based
curriculums, appropriate training for teachers because some teachers are not
comfortable with these things, so helping the teachers be more comfortable to
deal with these types of issues. What I mean by social, you know, some kids don't
have food. Some kids don't have showers. Some kids are sleeping in hotels. Not
all of them have cell phones. And what I mean by emotional, I'm talking about
mental health, poor coping skills because currently their coping skill is to pick up
their telephone and play a game or play a video game. So helping teach the
students other options. >> So then would this go beyond like a guidance
counselor delivering a lesson? This would be something all classroom teachers
would be trained in to deliver to their students? >> I do think it's important for all
teachers to do this. A kid coming to see me once a week isn't as effective as dayto-day intervention.

30

Year round school.

This is something that I've been thinking about ever since, I don't know, 30 or 40
years, it's just always been pervasive in my thoughts. And to me it's just
something that could provide a pathway to a solution for lots of problems. Just a
few being regression checks for students. Students who are average or under
performing students, the research is heavy on this, they do show regression.
When we're doing data checks for our students in intervention, we see the pattern
very heavily across the spectrum. We see that regression that happens during
that 8 to 9 weeks that they are out during the summer. It also could provide a

foreign enrichment opportunities for some students. Professional development for

teachers without sacrificing instructional time. Parent choices, it could be set up
year-round so parents have choices during these -- the way I envision is four
cycles, so to speak, with the traditional 9 weeks, followed by a three week period
of enrichment and intervention, as well as maybe, you know, one week off or
down during that time. And other things could be done, professional development
could be done during that time. We would have to be very creative. But I would
see four cycles through the year. That gives you 48 weeks. The other four weeks
would cover all the Federal holidays and the week at Christmas and the week at
Easter and things like that. We just have to be creative. But I think we owe it to
our students, you know, we teach them for 9 months, 9 and a half months, they
make all this progress and many of them regress, you know, up to 30-40% of the
progress that they've made. And then it might be the end of the first marking
period before they have recouped that regression and then start moving forward
again. And that's not the case with all students, but it is the case with a significant
number. >> I have friends teach in different states and have done this, are you
still saying, basically, we can't change the 180 actual instruction days, right? That
would be 180 --. >> We could if we wanted to, I think we should change that, too. I
think we should utilize the 52 week calendar to the maximum benefit we can, but I
understand the fiscal, you know, challenges that come with, you know, changing
ten month employees into 12 month employees all across the state, so, you know,
it would probably have to be creatively worked into somehow. >> So are you
saying that you would prefer, like, year-round school instead of a mild review
when they come from the period they are out school? >> What kind of review? >>
You said there are 30-40% of kids regressing, are you saying year-round school
so they won't forget the material they have learned versus like a mild review? >>
The mild review might be appropriate for some students, but might not be enough
for others. What I'm thinking of creating a situation where the school year is
divided into smaller pieces rather than a whole year. You know, nine weeks at a
time. And you have three weeks after that nine weeks for intervention and
enrichment and then you start into the next nine weeks. That way you can really,
read your data, you can understand what kids need instead of waiting to the end
of the year to make the decision to determine what they need for the whole year.
We're only waiting nine weeks at a time.
31

Develop the strengths of all students.

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

for lack of better word. >> I think embedding would be best to ultimately leverage
to get at some of the other skills they need to learn.
32

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

33

It's about all students.

So when I started this career a long time ago, I came to it because I love children.
So when we're making decisions, that should be our guiding practice, whether it's
the instruction, the materials, the activities, everything that we do. And always
what's best is not what is easiest when we sit around the table trying to figure out
what we're going to do with them. I'm just thinking about the students that were in
my office this morning. I had students that were hungry, tired, homeless, gifted,
handicapped, I almost want to say we might want to say, it's about all students. >>
Yes. Because we have so many different students and a lot of times teachers
want to teach this lesson because I teach it every year, for 15 years I've taught
this lesson this way and this is the way I like to teach it. But our students are
changed. So we need to think about the students and not so much -- I mean, they
are coming from different homes. All of us have shared different things, whether
it's social media affecting or their home life, so I think we really need to look about
all the different students that we have.

34

Inclusive - focus on access, equity, and supports.

Okay, this is a very student-centered statement and I think it is one about hope.
The word "inclusive" is just that, we need to include all students. And then I think,
I'm thinking of the rest of this almost like a way of measuring what we have done
in the past and a way of measuring what we're going to do in the future, making
sure that policies and procedures invite every kid to the table and don't have kids
that feel left out or unimportant. They have to feel like we care and we are going
to hold high expectations for them and we are going to support them every step of
the way. I'm looking at this almost like a lens for how we should examine past
practices and practices going forward.

35

CSD - a creative visual and performing arts force with which to be

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

36

Realignment of students and grades.

What I mean by this is to reduce transitions for our students, providing them with
improved allocation and use of resources. It's more than a facilities plan, it's
looking at the specific structures that we have to put in place to help them get
acquainted with the school and get acquainted with the curriculum and the
teachers and all these things. Because when they continue to transition two years
after William Henry and two years at central middle, there are a lot of issues they
have to go through. It's about new buildings, new teachers, new procedures, all
these kind of things, we need to kind of look at to help ease them into their
education. And they struggle to do that. And it's looking at, like, pre-K and how we
could support them as well, and it's looking at like K-5 schools and 6-8 middle
schools and all that process. And that also allows us to look at, not just like
counseling, academic and behavioral supports that are provided in those
buildings with more structure, more focused energy, more focused staffing
because we do a great job, but we're stretched. And looking at that, maybe we
could work together, smarter and better. >> So would the realignment of grades
would just be like trying to improve the grades of students? Or would it be
changing the level? You know how some are 20% and some are 80%. Like in our
school district an A is a 92. >> No my idea relates to looking at facilities and
structures that would help students in K-8 transition from school to school. So we
have currently, we have K-4 program in elementary schools. And we have a 5-6
elementary/Middle School program, and we have 7-8 program and looking at
what would best suit their needs. I think looking at a pre-K kind of program. A K-5
program. And a 6-8 program. >> So do you mean, like, the social transition, along
with the transition with grades and academics? Is it academically and socially? Or

mostly academic? >> Both of those. >> When you mean realignment, would you
also be looking at number of kids and the resources they command around those
numbers? >> Yeah, that would be one of the key things. If you look at the
numbers and how that would come into play, you would have, I think, a better
opportunity to have more resources at some of those levels if you realigned those.
>> So would your main focus be students that are, like, having trouble with the
transition or just all students in general? >> I think all student we would need to
look at the programming for every student. >> Does your idea include anything
around sports programs and things like that? >> Yes, that's one of the underlying
things, but it's not the main piece. There's lots of other things that go in that. >>
To go along with Mr. Shepherd's comments about numbers, would the
realignment of students in grades affect the school zoning as far as the seven
elementary schools? >> Probably, that would basically be part of the plan to look
at what schools we have, the structures around those schools, the allocation of
students, and your teachers that go along with them. And then you would have to
reallocate based on facilities, it may take, and I don't want to say this out loud, but
referendum future, but that's just a planning process now.
37

Confidence in teaching special education students to be successful.

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

38

Capital offers universal pre-kindergarten for all children.

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

thinking about an early childhood center? >> I would love an early childhood
center, yes.
39

All process should be open, transparent, and understandable.

Simply, you know, we're a public school district, we are owned by the people. We
owe them the ability to see what we're doing. I was talking to Dr. Shelton, things
like this are great, but when you do things, remember who your audience is, it's
not only you, but it's the community as well. I've been to some School Board
meetings when all you hear the discussion is jargon and acronyms. You know,
remember we want to engage the community, have them buy into what you are
doing. And what you are doing is great, but they have to know it and understand
it. So when you produce things, try to keep in mind they're the audience, too.

40

Parental and community involvement BEFORE the incident.

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

41

Getting it right the FIRST time.

All right, at Capital School District and more specifically Dover High School, we
have many support systems in place to help those who need it. However, we
have students and families that have learned to abuse our systems or have
become complacent and don't try as hard. And what I mean by that specifically is
if you think about all the things that we offer at the high school level, we have
summer school, we have the doubling up the following year for them in case they
missed a core credit, we've had and forgive me for saying this because if I'm
incorrect, I'm sorry, we have had twilight in the past, we have daylight now, credit
recovery, you know, all these different names of things and I think what it's done
is it's kind of given our students the idea of, there's always another time for me do
if I don't do it right this time. Or I've heard students come out and say, well, I only
need to get whatever grade to be able to, you know, be eligible for this program or
that program. I think some of that kind of plays in the wrong direction. And I
realize the intention of those things are good things, but I feel like sometimes the
intentions of those good things turn into bad things and we have students who
use and abuse those systems just because they're there.

42

Money should not stop you from educating.

Money, the word money, tends to trip people up. In education, family, the whole
package, money just is a word that you get an emotional reaction to. I am saying
that money should not dictate to us whether we go forward or not. I think that we
should be creative enough if we don't have the money for the programs to come
together and generate or get the money for the programs. In other words, if I can
use this, we have a lot of knowledge in this room. If you had a super grant day. If
we pulled 50 grants to each program that everybody is representing in here and
we sat here and worked it one by one on that screen and all of us put together
and filled out the grant, 50 times, programs would be funded. There are grants out
there that are untouched and we continue to say, we don't have the money. But
nobody is trying to get the money. So you have the power, you have the
intelligence, all we need is a structured effort and a plan to get the money for the
programs.

43

CSD hires and retains premier teachers.

I guess really that should say CSD hires and retains premier teachers. Because
for me, the teachers are where the rubber meets the road. We can do a lot of
great things, but unless you have a great teacher in the classroom, it doesn't
mean very much. Math I was a very math-oriented opportunity, but English, it was
the teacher that prepared me for the college. I hate seeing a great teacher leave
Capital School District, so whatever programs we can create to ensure and keep
those people, I think is good.

44

Capital ESL families rock.

When I came up with that headline I was thinking of the untapped potential that
our ESL families have. And again ESL is English as a second language.
Oftentimes when I work with families at my different schools, I think some of the
parents of my children are unsure of the expectations for their children. Other
times they are shy to come to the school and talk to the teachers, Administrators
and what have you. And other times also they express that they are unsure of
how to support their children at home and at school. And that also, I believe, leads
to children growing up with added responsibilities. From the perspective of many
times my students grow up being the person who goes to all sort of outside
events such as going to a doctor's appointment or even school appointment with
the teacher and all sorts of different activities with the expectation that they are
going to be the ones interpreting for the parents and explaining all sorts of
situations. So that creates, I think, an added responsibility and stress on part of
my students. So I believe that if we were able to find a way to reach out to our
ESL families and to educate our parents and to have some kind of system by
which we could offer true support, we could really make a difference in the life of
many of the students that I work with.

45

Meaningful evaluations and feedback for teachers.

So this idea actually touches on a couple of things and I kind of heard it from
Sean and it seems like around the room it was a re-occurring idea of highly
qualified teachers, great teachers. So I think meaningful evaluations and feedback
help develop teachers so that all students have the opportunity for great learning
experiences. We can't grow without meaningful evaluation or meaningful
feedback. It also goes back to my first headline talking about more integrated
lessons and project-based learning and things like that, which in order to be
effective need to be monitored or it can turn into the wild, wild west quite quickly. I
am probably a minority, but I'm in favor of more walk-throughs or observations,
whether it's by administrations, coaches or peers, followed by feedback. Currently
PB360 is a long extensive checklist of an evaluation tool that if I were being quite
honest is very meaningless to me. To develop, I think teachers should know what
they do well. I think they should know what they can improve on. I think hearing
feedback from different team members give different perspectives and, therefore,
more opportunities to grow as an educator. And to steal my friend Michelle's
words, we wouldn't give feedback to our students like that if we wanted them to
grow, so why do we do that to our students?
46

Long term strategic support for technology.

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

47

Teach good citizenship.

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

48

Keeping and developing staff.

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

49

In the pursuit of knowledge, failure is acceptable.

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

being able to reach out for advice from adults. We want them to be able to learn
how to work and persevere through situations. It's okay if you make that mistake.
Gain the advice from the adults. Work through what the problems are, and then
come back to it. And then that feedback from the adults is so critical, but it has to,
of course, be done in a respectful manner. We have to be able to help the student
build their self-esteem and how they work and continue on. And then I think from
this, the students will be able to learn how to question and push boundaries
respectfully and professionally. We are trying to teach them some of the work
ethics as they go on and get prepared for life, but we want them to be able to help
figure out, how do I go about doing it? Not just lashing out or, you know, some of
the manners that they do.
50

Equal participation/representation in and out of the classroom.

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

51

Commitment
I put commitment because I thought of the importance of a shared vision and a
shared path that's clearly articulated. Because I think that sometimes we don't
involve key stakeholders and we make decisions without all the facts or
information. And so I think it kind of lends itself to the whole piece about
transparency. So we really, to ensure that excellent education, I think, again, we
have to be on the same page. And so that's why I put commitment. To be
committed to those goals.

52

Effective staff persons build trusting, healthy supportive relationships with

students, colleagues, and administrators.
My thought behind that is that, going back to what Mr. Houston said, we can
achieve so much if we have staff people that are willing to trust each other and we
can build supportive relationships with each other. I think we would find we have
people that are willing to work without pay, to stay afterward, I think we would find
people who are willing to go above and beyond and step out as teacher leaders if
we had those relationships, healthy, trusting relationships. We don't have to have
a lot in common, but if I know we care about kids and I can trust you, I think we
could go so much further than where we are, where we even imagined we could
be. >> Is that built into the day or? >> I'm talking across the Board. So that if we
have staff persons, and it doesn't make any difference in your custodian,
cafeteria, teacher, building Administrator, but if we all had better relationships with
each other and if we knew -- I could trust that you're in it for the kids and if I'm in it
for what's best with the kids, my other issues with you, we can put those aside

and we can work in what's the best interest for the kids. And I think if we find, we
won't always have to pay staff to stay after. We will stay after working on writing
those grants. We'll give you our ideas. I think it's about relationships. And if we're
able to do the same things with our students. Students will work like mad for a
coach because they have that relationship. People take that time. So across the
Board, if adults are able to generate those supportive, trusting relationships with
our kids, too, I think overall we will be more successful.
53

The collaboration of athletics and academics.

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

54

Safe
By safe, I meant physically safe, that our kids feel safe to come to school, that
somebody is not going to beat them up or whatever, gossip about them, that kind
of thing. I think we need to be environmentally safe. We shouldn't have mold in
our buildings and bad air. I think that we need to be emotionally safe. Adults and
kids. And I think that when we have those that that enables risk-taking, that
enables risk-taking with our teachers to try new things. And in risk taking, we were
talking like 8 out of 10 times we fail, but it's those two times we learn something
new and new ways to reach kids. And I think when kids feel safe, they will take
more risks, too. And somebody else said, okay, so we fail. Well, all right. We have
learned when we fail. I think that, also, if we feel safe we, all of us together, that
increases attendance as well and that improves school climate as well.

55

All staff feel supported, empowered, and equipped to handle challenging

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

another teacher implement, you know, strategies in the hallway with them and
things like that. I think that would go a long way in having our teachers feel more
open to trying these things with students. The empowered piece for me is some of
my best conversations with teachers are over problem-solving with our
challenging kids. And the number of ideas that I have stolen from teachers with
behavioral strategies is amazing. The creativity and openness to trying new things
is great. But I think even in my short time in education, I've noticed that's kind of
falling. And I don't know if it's because they are scared that if they try something,
you know, let the kid walk around the room instead of sitting at their desk, or if
they are on a different schedule than the other kid that during the walk-through
they will get in trouble because they are not following the schedule and those
types of things. I would like to go back to that empowerment. Just try something
because they all have the tools and drive to have all their kids succeed.
56

CSD recognizes staff for their years of service.

My headline is basically saying that maybe there's a way that we can recognize
staff for their years of service because sometimes you have staff that have been
here for 15, 20 years and it would be so wonderful if we kind of model what
happens out sometimes in the corporate world where for their years of service,
maybe the first year, the third year, the fifth year, they actually are recognized by
the district by giving them possibly a lapel pin, a certificate just saying, thanks for
your years of service. I think sometimes just that -- what we may see as small, to
them means a whole lot because they put in that time and a lot of times that time
never gets recognized beyond the basic paycheck. And that lapel pin or certificate
may take it to a different level.

57

Overall success planning for the district.

Overall success planning for the district. I'm just thinking about some of the other
comments that talked about teacher retention. And I think retaining teachers over
time, investing in our teachers, but also investing in overall staff throughout the
district, whether it's at the secretarial level, the custodian level, the teacher level,
it's investing in their current position to give them opportunities to move forward.
And also cross training in different areas so that if you need to cover for someone
or provide, you know, some expertise in an area that maybe two people are
looking at something and it's just not solely evolving around one person and that
it's put out to more stakeholders to have a commitment to the work that's out
there. And just really investing in all of the staff that are here to create a more
productive and positive and professional future.

58

Clear articulation to college and career readiness at graduation.

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

are the different end points? And how would we backtrack them to make sure,
starting at preschool and kindergarten, we have set up a path for every one of
those different possible pathways? And that we have the articulation all the way
through and we don't wait until freshman year, oh, you are not able to do that
because you didn't get what you needed at Middle School. Or at central, no, you
can't take that class because you didn't take the prerequisite at William Henry. We
need to make sure we have backtracked, not just one. And individual interests, I
think the interests of the kids also need to be taken into account. >> Are you
thinking about how students might jump across threads? >> Yeah, I would agree
that they need to have -- that we need to make sure that we haven't
predetermined any of those, right? That they have to have opportunities to move
and we need to think about how those natural break points which we can't -- I
guess we could, but we could consider, right, a preschool to 12 school and those
break points would be less, but that just isn't going to happen, right? So we have
to really be conscious of the break points to make sure that it's smooth as they
move through that continuum.
59

All students can be leaders.

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

60

Empower every student with individualized learning plans.

I meant every student is special, every students comes in with strengths, with
needs, with, you know, with their individual quirks and with some sense in their
mind of what they want to do. Now that changes as they grow, but how neat
would it be if we simply met the needs of every student by making sure each of
the students had that individualized learning plan and understood where they
were on that path to whatever it is they dream they are doing at that moment.

61

CSD hires district ABA therapists.

My idea was -- excuse me -- having at least two ABA licensed therapists on staff
so that when behavior problems begin, which is when the data usually starts
being taken by the teachers and the psychologists that we also have that person
available, rather than prolonging gathering the data and the situation gets worse.
>>What's an ABA therapist? >> Applied behavior analysis licensed therapist to
help with, basically, they just passed the legislation to help with children with
autism, but it's for all behaviors.

62

Competency-based approaches to grading and grade level.

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

and progression. How we progress students from what we call grade to grade
may be about progressing through standards and allowing students to move
through those standards at the time and place that their individual needs reflect. It
might be accelerated. It might take more time. It might be on what we consider a
traditional school year, but allowing students to move as they are ready to move.
63

Respect and professionalism.

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

64

Please let me teach.

What I was thinking about here really is balance. So I think lots of times in
elementary classrooms and obviously I'm speaking from the elementary
perspective, there is -- there are too many interruptions. And I think that, and I'm
talking fun interruptions or intervention interruptions. They are just interruptions.
And I think that we need to be better at making those interruptions very thoughtful
and very carefully balancing the fun interruptions, the intervention-type
interruptions, and all in between. I am very selfish with my time. I freely admit that.
I love teaching. I love kids. I love learning. And I want to be able to teach them to
love learning. And there are days that it feels like every few minutes someone is
taking out of my room for various things, or that we are leaving our room multiple
days in a row for various things. And I just think we could do a better job of that
and maybe prioritizing the fun things and even prioritizing interventions. I'm not
sure that we're doing the best service for our students when right at the beginning
of the year I have a student that's pulled for ESL, for speech, for math, for
reading, maybe we need to prioritizing those interventions and meet one most
important need at a time so they can spend some more time in the classroom.

65

[DELETED] Safe and caring environment for all students.

66

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

into, a lot of the new programs we have at the Middle School level, building right
into the program we have at Dover High.
67

Safe and connected.

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

68

School calendar more aligned to instructional needs.

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

69

Wrap around system.

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

70

CSD creating leaders daily.

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

71

High threshold expectations established, communicated, and believe in.

Okay, in this statement I think the key terms are "threshold" and "believe in." What
I mean by that is that we need to widen our collective belief about what students
can do. Nearly all students can perform at really high levels. And so when we
establish a threshold expectation, I'm going to go math on us, I think what I'm kind
of talking about is that ladder towards career and college readiness, that end
mark. So if we're going to have students successfully at Capital School District in
mathematics, we know they have to be able to be successful in algebra 2 by the
end of the 11th grade. That's the threshold expectation. So we need to build
backwards to figure out how we're going to get every kid to have that opportunity
to be successful in algebra II by the end of 11th grade. That doesn't mean we're
going to hold any students back. If they can succeed at that at an earlier time,
then we have to figure out a way to make that happen, too. But we really have to
make sure there are enough supports for them to have that success by the end of
11th grade. The "believe in" part is really important because I think we have a
societal feeling that you are either a math person or you are not and I actually
don't think that's at all true. I think everybody can be a math person. And every
time a teacher or a parent or anyone says in front of kids, oh, well, I'm just not a
math person. Or -- somehow we kind of create a little bit of an exit route or excuse
for kids, so I would hope we would kind of refrain from letting kids know that, you
know, maybe you struggled with math, but that doesn't mean our kids have to
struggle with it. They can all be successful.
72

A culture of learning with dropout prevention, graduation planning and

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

73

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

74

Let kids be kids.

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

75

State of the art facilities.

Just goes slightly beyond some of the others that have been talked about. If we
want to give the students the best opportunities to learn and we want the students
to be prepared for the world they are currently living and the world they will be
living in, we want to be sure we are not teaching them for the world that is not
going to be around anymore. We have seen at Dover High School, once you have
ownership it changes the culture and feeling in the building. It's a lot easier to take
pride when you have that, so -- and, plus, the connection with the community, you
build something that has those abilities for a community to come in and make that
connection that can be the center of the community, not just the school, but the
center of the community.

76

Building a student from the inside out.

I think we need to, I'll use the word Minister, but I think we need to teach live skills
from the beginning in school with the curriculum in order for them to adapt to
learning and sitting in a class and learning how to act, and have manners and all
of that. I think that starts early with the curriculum and add that in with life skills to
build the student up from the inside out.

77

Benefit for all.

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

78

Substitutes are people too.

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

a lot of students, some staff. We just had a reduction in hours. We haven't had a
raise in over 11 years. And we do, most of us do everything that the teacher does,
on top of having to deal with a lot of the disrespect that the daily teacher doesn't
get because they are the daily teacher.
79

High expectations for the athletics department.

Your athletics department is really the front porch of your school, it's the part that
the rest of the state sees, and will judge us by success or failure. And oftentimes
they project that on to every program within the school. Successful athletics also
build school pride and school spirit. >> When you say high expectations, are you
talking about academic expectations? Or athletic ability? >> I think both. I think
there's a standard that all students in the state must meet in order to participate,
but I think that there should be expectations with regards to being successful. Not
just participatory.

80

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

81

Growth mind-set towards students with emotional disabilities.

Currently known as emotional disturbance, but I think next year that nomenclature
is going to change to emotional disabilities. The statistics are striking, 58% of
students that carry that label of emotional disturbance, or ED, 58% will be
incarcerated within two years of leaving the public education system. These kids
really have a lot of strikes against them and they are their own worst enemy. And I
think sometimes we don't give them the understanding they need because we
think they are choosing to be bad and uncooperative. When that's not the case at
all, they have a lot of remorse when they think back on the situation, they wish it
doesn't happen, whatever it was that happened. But we need to work with them
and get those functional behavior assessment and the behavior plan and really
internalize what they say and use them with these kids, day in and day out.

82

Our own computer program or system.

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

our feedback. Like somebody said, is it would be nice to have a different type of
feedback, but we're using a system that doesn't allow that. They just have
different checks. Our referral system, we are using somebody else's. Child
information, so all of it can go into the same system, the grades, the report cards,
so it's all in one area instead of having different places to find different things.
83

See more stratification to school-level leadership.

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

84

Implement of ideals/norms of basic necessities of adulthood.

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

85

After school transportation for middle and high school.

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

86

Interconnectedness and balance beginning at the cabinet level between the

needs related to content areas and social-emotional learning.
And I say this because sometimes I think when we roll things out, particularly in
the area of social/emotional learning, it's perceived by staff to be, I have said this
numerous times, one more thing on my plate, where in my world that is the plate,
unless we get the social/emotional piece together, common core, standards, none
of that will make a difference. I think at the cabinet level we need to do a better
job in terms of what our expectations are for staff so we are not overwhelming
them. And when we do roll things out, it is rolled out in a which that staff seeing

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

piece.
87

The joy of life-long learning.

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

88

Air Force Junior ROTC military academy.

We have more competition in the County and looking at where our kids are, I think
we can do great things with our kids in our district. And looking at that, I think we
have the structure. We would need some support to put an Air Force junior ROTC
academy at Dover High School. Lots of parents around our community, I think,
would support that. Kids, maybe. But I think we should at least look into it a little
deeper to see if that would be a feasible program at Dover High School.

89

Too much testing.

I think that too much testing causes an added level of stress and it will eventually
lead to larger problems within the student. And as a student, I feel as though we
are being tested on some of the same things over and over again. And I know that
even sometimes I'm confused as to where those, like, what the test results are
being used for and why we're being tested so much. But between SATs and
ACTs, post-test, inventory tests and, at my high school, the quarterly tests, they
all fall within the same time period. So it causes a lot of stress and even I've been
stressed and especially this being my senior year, I've never been this stressed
actually. >> [Laughter]. >> With all the tests that I've taken and getting into college
and stuff, so I just feel that too much testing is a huge problem.

90

The impact of school start time and student achievement.

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

91

Streamlining and targeting initiatives.

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

same path, maybe at different levels, but just really streamlining what we need to
do and keep that focus instead of bringing in all these different initiatives and
throwing them on there and thinking that we can make it work with everything else
that has been piled on. So determining what we need, how we need to do it, but
also keeping the focus on the common theme so that we're not overloading
ourself continuously.
92

Equal funding and support for all CSD athletics.

I'm going to piggy back off of Mr. McQuad's statement that the sports are the first
and foremost thing that everybody sees. When you ride by the beautiful high
school, what do you see first? Football field. Stadium lights. Some people say that
the football coach is more known than the Superintendent. Even though this one
is pretty cool, I'm out to change that opinion. We need feeder programs that need
support. Whether it be facilities, uniforms, equipment, whatever, and this is going
to be the turning point where we take the kids and say, we're going to give you
this and offer you this to put you into the high school and you're going to exceed
and excel and everything else, you're not going to go to Polytech. But right now
it's like, why am I here? We are getting the secondhands and the fields are, not
really bad, but they need a lot of work. So putting investment into your feeder
program and when you get to the high school, Title IX plays a bit into it, but there's
some improvement for that as well. Everybody likes to see Friday night lights, but
we need to put it into the other programs as well.

93

Academics, arts, athletics - we can coexist.

It's been a bit of an issue and we always face this every year and it's just making
sure that everybody that works in the district, whether they are a teacher,
Administrator, coach, parent, you know, ultimately it comes down to the kids. We
need to make sure that these students -- and that's great by the way -- we need to
make sure that these students understand that it's their decision. It's not our
decision to make that decision for them. We have had some examples of that in
the past couple years, not only at the high school, but the Middle School level at
well, where some coaches will be putting, you know, great importance on, you
know, things like saying you have to be here, you need to be here, are you really
part of this organization? And I could say that about anything. That, again, could
be any one of these three things. But we need to make sure we understand as
educators and Administrators and supporters and teachers and so on, we need to
be sympathetic to the students who are trying to do multiple things and be
understanding of the fact that they need to be the ones to make the choice and
we need to not make that choice for them by, you know, good key word, bullying
them into making a decision based on what we want them to do.

94

State of the art technology will help us to go green.

So I think Donna talked about it and a couple other people talked about every
staff member and every student having a laptop or an iPad or something. With

that, my thought process was doing away with all of these textbooks and putting
them on the technology that we have, in addition to getting rid of our copy
machines that we use in all of those reams of paper that we pay for. And truly
going green. We already offer in the district a Comcast deal for parenting to be
able to get Internet at their house at a very reduced rate. If we put everything in
their hands, we would be saving in some many additional areas by putting our
textbooks alone on there, let alone getting rid of our copy machines.
95

Quality substitutes for teachers and principals.

Although some of our substitutes are quality, there are very few and far between.
In fact, we don't have enough substitutes period for this year. So we need to do
something to make sure our substitutes are quality. And we need substitutes for
our principals, too, especially at the Elementary School when they are gone out of
the building. We need somebody to replace them. It's not fair to put the burden on
the counselor or some other teacher, Codre person, that's not their job. I don't
think a counselor, especially, should be in charge of taking over and doing any
kind of discipline for a child. I mean, they are the counselor. How can you counsel
a child and be their, you know, the person that they, you know, trust and
everything and then the next day your, you know, punishing them. I don't think
that's fair.

96

Student-centric - kids own the work.

And that's not just about growth mind set, but -- and not just about -- it's not about
what they know, but what they are doing, but it's also about making sure they are
engaged and it's about what they are learning, not what's being taught.

97

Branding our district.

So we've heard some things about having Senator pride, bleeding blue/white and
I think it's important we brand our district and have a type of catchy theme that
when you think of Capital School District, you think of something that really makes
us proud. It flows with our community and our schools, but also encompasses
everything from athletics to the arts to academics. And just really puts it out there
that we are Capital School District, we bleed blue/white and we are just branding
and that pride just is seen throughout. And I think it's really important even with
our social media and through our communications that we are talking the same
language and really moving our district forward by branding it.

98

Full and appropriate staffing.

So we have sort of touched on that a little bit by talking about retaining teachers
and valuing our teachers and staff and hiring highly qualified and content areas,
but we have not really just talked basic numbers. And to ensure an excellent
education, which is in that very first question, you've got to have the bodies to do
it. So I'm talking about enough Special Education teachers so we can have full TM
classrooms. I'm talking about enough pairs to support teachers. I'm talking about

full-time related arts teachers so they are not bouncing around to multiple schools.
I'm talking about a principal and assistant in every Elementary School. If other
districts in the state can do it, and we want to be the premier district in the state,
we can do it, too. We just have to find a way to do it. You know, and the same
thing that I say about art teachers relates to psychologists, anybody bouncing
around from building to building, it makes the job harder of ensuring an excellent
education for our students, which is why every single one of us goes to work
every day.
99

Spend our money where our values are.

As an excellent educational district, we need to spend our money where our
values are.

100

An integrated system of school and community based prevention,

intervention and after care services for students.
Clear

101 Educational options for the future.

So what I mean is this, I mean, really, if you think about coding, you think about
technology as it's coming forward and the options that are out there and really
having that buy-in for individual students that they can see what the future can
bring with technology. And we want to build our Educational Systems not just off
of, you know, baseline requirements. Think about our code and other activities, I
think we have should have some kind of options. I don't know that I have that
finalized in my mind, but I think it would be great to have technology thought in
our schools and our options.
102 Procedures for emergencies.
I think the district has done a fabulous job with responding to some of the
emergencies we've had lately, but I'm just curious to know what are the actual
plans as far as making sure student needs are taking care of when it comes to
basic things such as water, a bag lunch if they do have to leave the building
before lunch is served, if those things have been taken into consideration.
103 Ninth grade transition.
What I'm looking at and thinking about is just, continuing to look at our freshman
academy or supports for that transitional period from middle to high school. Lots
of things going on, a lot of supports going on at the high school, but I think we
need to still continue to look at how we can improve that transition.
104 CSD student transportation services.
Transportation for all students, we are having trouble with transportation with
reliability, safeguarding, it might be time to looking into our own services.

105 Early childhood academy.

I mean making sure that we plan for our youngest kids, age 3 to 5. Someone said
universal preschool earlier and, yes, we want that, we know it's coming, but it's
probably coming from higher places, but we need an early childhood academy
where three and four-year-olds, and maybe even younger in some cases, are
getting the early intervention services that they need.
106 Beyond graduation.
And I have a whole bunch of things down here, you know, the Capital way, proud
to be a Senator, Capital leads the way. And those are all nondescript. I just think
as we celebrate the district and the success we have, it extends, you know, not
only by that connection with the community as it stands right now, but also our
graduates. And having that interconnection with them and celebrating the success
they have had well beyond graduation and having that lifelong journey with
students well beyond the 12th-grade graduation.
107 [DELETED]

Facilitator: Andy Hegedus