Read Transcript:

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Mark Barga: Hello everybody.

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Welcome to the Better Learning Podcast.

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This is Mark Barga, and I’m here with Dr. Greg Toranto from Canon-McMillan School District.

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Greg, thank you for joining us.

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Dr. Greg Taranto: Great to have you, Mark.

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Mark Barga: Greg, let’s get started with you sharing a little bit of your biography with our audience here.

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How did you get to be an educational leader and, and sort of what’s that journey been like for you?

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Dr. Greg Taranto: Well, I have a unique background because I didn’t start out in education.

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I was actually in healthcare as a cardiac rehab therapist.

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I always wanted to be a teacher.

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I didn’t go down that route initially.

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So working as a cardiac rehab therapist for a few years.

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I’m married to a teacher and my wife, uh, encouraged me to go back to school.

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That’s what you really wanted to do.

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So I went back to school, got my second master’s in education.

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And was fortunate enough to student teach in the Canon-McMillan School District.

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I had little knowledge about the Canon-McMillan, uh, wasn’t from the area.

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Um, I was here one time for a, uh, track meet when I was in ninth grade.

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And I remember them having a cinder track and I wiped out on a cinder track.

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So that’s all I knew about Canon-McMillan.

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But again, fortunate enough was placed here.

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And after a week of being in, uh, Canon-McMillan, uh, loved the school district, loved the community, and was fortunate enough then to be hired as a science teacher, um, that summer to start teaching in this school district.

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So I taught middle school science, eventually taught fifth grade math and science.

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And then went back to the middle school as an assistant principal, uh, later then principal.

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Um, so I did that almost 20 years.

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Uh, then moved on to, assistant to superintendent for grades K through six.

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Uh, and now I’m starting my second year as a superintendent.

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Mark Barga: That’s exciting.

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And for folks aren’t familiar with Canon-McMillan, we are in the greater Pittsburgh metropolitan area, though Canon-McMillan sits fairly outside of the city.

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So you have an interesting location in that you’re somewhat suburban, somewhat rural, and also in proximity to a greater urban environment as well.

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Dr. Greg Taranto: We’re not too far from Pittsburgh at all.

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We’re a 25, 30 minute drive from Pittsburgh.

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But we’re outside enough to be in that suburban setting.

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Absolutely.

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Mark Barga: Yes, sir. So you are in the process of building a new elementary building for the district, which is extremely exciting.

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Wylandville Elementary.

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I would love to sort of get into the weeds on this project.

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Right?

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This isn’t just a replacement building, right?

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This is much more than that.

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It’s tied to full day kindergarten.

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And long-term district growth.

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So talk about like what educational shifts made this project some somewhat essential for the district rather than sort of an optional move.

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Dr. Greg Taranto: Yeah, absolutely essential.

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And it goes beyond.

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Just space, if you will.

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So we, we obviously we’re, we’re growing, uh, we’re one of the fastest growing school districts in this side of the state, hands down.

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Um, we’ve built another number of projects and this is the next one in line.

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In order to house that many students, we needed a, a bigger facility, but also it’s gonna give us opportunity to do two things.

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One is to have full day kindergarten, which I can get to.

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But two is also to provide better balance, uh, classrooms, sizes, not only at our new site, but also across the district.

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So once uh, our new Wylandville Elementary Center is completed, we will do a redistricting process that will move or shift, uh, population from Hills Hendersonville to Muse Elementary, from Muse to South Central Elementary.

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From South Central to the new Wylandville, we will close old Wylandville and we’ll close, uh, Borland Manor.

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Those populations will naturally shift over to the new Wylandville project.

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So once we do that, it’ll allow us to better balance, ’cause right now we don’t have balanced classroom size because of logistics in the, in the district, but this will allow us to balance our classrooms in K to four.

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And it also allows then to open up space across those elementary buildings to provide for the first time ever full day kindergarten.

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So right now we’re half day kindergarten, so our students are rough learning roughly about two hours, 45 minutes.

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We’re gonna move to a full day kindergarten schedule, uh, once that’s, and that’s across the entire district once new Wylandville’s open.

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Mark Barga: And the, the research on early childhood education through pre-K and to kindergarten is so overwhelming, right?

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Yes.

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I mean, it’s so, it indicates such positive outcomes and can change the trajectory of students in so many positive ways.

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Why was full day kindergarten?

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Why, why does Canon-McMillan see that as such a transformational change?

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Dr. Greg Taranto: As you mentioned, it’s important.

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The sooner we can get those students in our classrooms, the better.

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Because I’ll give you one example here is our literacy development program.

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We, we revamped our literacy development and we have a unbelievable literacy program right now, seeing awesome numbers.

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But we know if we can get those to those students sooner, spend more times with those students, sooner, we can put our interventions in place sooner for those students who struggle reading or don’t have the same supports as other students have at home.

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So the sooner we have those students in our classroom, the more we can do with them.

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When we go to full day kindergarten, we wanna make sure we do it right and it can’t look like first grade.

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Yeah.

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We, we know kindergartens are different.

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Uh, we do not want it to look like first grade.

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So next year we’re putting a task force in place, uh, that will be led by our assistant to superintendent through K through six, Dr. Aberdanza, and it’ll be a team of kindergarten teachers.

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And we know we want kindergarten to look different.

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We know we want not only recess and, and lunch.

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But we want structured play.

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It will allow us to do some other core academics that we can’t do now, like social studies and science obviously, but it’s gonna look different.

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Activity and play is gonna be in a big part of that, what they experience in the classroom, what the classroom looks like, has to look different than first grade and on.

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Mark Barga: So this is a significant building that’s being built here.

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It’s large square footage, close to 150,000 square feet.

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It’s a significant footprint, right?

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Yes.

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How do you design a building, right?

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So now take me back into the design process, if you will, Greg.

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Mm-hmm.

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How do you design a building that feels both, that, that has to have the capacity?

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It does, but still feels personal, and supports, the instructional and developmental goals for these young learners?

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Dr. Greg Taranto: That’s important.

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So we’re moving from small elementary buildings.

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Old Wylandville right now, Wylandville, we call it Old is a small elementary building, you know, uh, Borland Manor is a small elementary building, so we still want that feel.

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That’s important to have that feel.

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Our teachers want, our staff want it.

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Our parents want that, and we want that.

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So how do you do that?

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It’s gonna be a large, much larger building.

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You’re gonna have a capacity of up to a thousand students.

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We won’t have that in initial years, but we have some growth built in there.

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But you’re gonna have 800 plus students in that room that that building just the same as we did at Muse.

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We take a school within a school concept.

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So you have neighborhoods, if you will, concept there where, uh, we wanna make sure our first grade, first graders are all together.

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And when you go to the first grade hall room, uh, uh, classroom, you’re together as first graders.

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Uh, we wanna make sure we have a team atmosphere.

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And teaming iss important because the teachers work together.

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They work together as a team, the staff works together, so you’re all part of the team.

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Everyone knows each other.

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They know their kids.

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They support one another.

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So having a, that school within a school concept, we’ve done it, it works.

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We’re gonna do it at our, it’s, you’re not gonna be one child of a thousand, you’re gonna be one of, you know, 20 something in a classroom.

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You’re gonna have still that intimate feel of being part of a smaller set if you are a smaller school within a school.

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Mark Barga: I think this is really important because as you’ve mentioned now a few times, the district is growing, right?

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Which is a positive indicator, uh, for many different aspects.

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Now, importantly, when a new building is built and a district is growing, there can be a tension, right, between expansion, uh, for the sake of expansion.

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But what you don’t want, and I hear you saying you don’t want to dilute the student experience and the quality of the education that’s delivered here, and importantly the culture of the district and the school.

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So can you talk a little bit about how you think about expanding and scaling, which means adding staff, adding buildings, you know, all the things that
you’ll need to do, um, but also preserving that thing that’s special and distinctive about the district from a student experience, from a family experience.

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Talk a little bit about how you can grow without losing that special thing.

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Dr. Greg Taranto: Well, I think it, it goes back to making sure.

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Our curriculum, our resources are all standardized across the school district.

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So if I go back three years, three years ago, when I first started out in, at the K to six level assistant superintendent, the one thing I
noticed was when I went to one of our so smaller buildings versus one of our largest building muse, is our, the resources weren’t consistent.

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Uh, the curriculum, the manner in which curriculum was being implemented was not consistent.

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So I think that’s where you start out with, make sure across the board that if you’re a student at Wylandville or if you’re a student at Hill-Henderson elementary, that everyone’s learning the same thing.

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Everyone has access to the same resources.

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The teachers are working together not only across their building, but across the school district.

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So everything’s the same.

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I think that’s where it starts.

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That’s kind of your foundation.

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From there, it’s ensuring that the principals at those buildings, the teachers are working together with other buildings.

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Parents have access to information across the building.

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Uh, what’s going on, you know, that’s why right now we have a big social media presence as far as getting the word out what’s going on.

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But our website’s been revamped.

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It, it making sure everyone’s on the same.

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Uh, level playing field, if you will, no matter what school you’re going to.

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Those things are important.

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Mark Barga: Let’s talk a little bit about the financial stewardship aspect of this project, right?

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Because as, as a superintendent of a school district overseeing capital projects, you’re in a role, not just as educational leader, but as essentially, you know, uh, someone who’s helping
navigate the complex process of bonds and taxes and investment, and that requires a level of transparency, of course, high ethical standards, but also great communication with the district.

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How have you been able to build consensus and support in the school district for such a important project?

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Dr. Greg Taranto: The community knows we’re growing.

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I mean, they’re moving in here in droves, so they understand that our facilities before could not handle what’s moving into our buildings now.

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So they know there’s a need to grow.

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But we also have a lot of community members that have been here forever.

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And they were here when it was a smaller school district.

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Now they’re here when it’s larger.

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It starts with, excellent fiscal management.

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And that was well before I even started.

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So it’s being fiscally responsible in ensuring that, we are putting funds towards these construction projects.

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So it’s having a extensive plan in place.

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We have a five year plan, but it’s looking out, so, okay, if we, if our next project after Wylandville is gonna be expansion on our Hills-Hendersonville Elementary, we know where, when we’re gonna start that process.

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So we know, have to know now, or are we gonna start dedicating funds to that project?

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We can’t wait till.

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That year to say okay, let’s start planning Hills Hendersonville and start, let’s open up a bond.

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That’s not how it works.

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So you, make sure you have funds saved towards that project before you even start talking about bonds.

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You don’t want to borrow that entire project because that will, that that debt will not only hurt you now, but it’s gonna hurt you 30 years from now.

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So it’s a balance between not mortgaging your future, but also not mortgaging your present.

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And right now we have that balance.

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I would say that we are slanted towards mortgaging or putting a lot towards the future, but sacrificing our current students.

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Now we’re at a point where we’re investing in the future, but also we’re investing in today’s students.

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We wanna make sure all our facilities are nice where’re, maintaining our maintenance across those buildings.

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You know, we just went through a high school refresh project.

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Painting, new lighting.

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So we wanna take care of today’s students, but also look to the future.

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So good, solid fiscal management.

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Also communicating and sharing with the public what we’re doing, what our plans are, and what we’re doing, what it looks like.

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It’s through our Canon-McMillan impact report we sent out this year to our entire community, our stakeholders, business in the area.

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What are we doing now to benefit not only our students, but also the community?

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Where are students going on when they graduate?

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What are our finances?

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Okay, this is how much we save towards Wylandville.

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This is how much we have to borrow.

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This is how much of a, a financial debt, um, hit, we’ll take.

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And this is how much we have to, take in local revenue wise to fulfill that debt.

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So being transparent, being open, is important too.

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And once people see what you’re doing, when they see a building, it’s better.

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Like when they’re not seeing a building, we’re not seeing things.

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It’s hard, but when it’s very abstract at point, yeah, it’s, yeah.

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But when they see a brand new middle school and they see what we did for it in the community and allowing the community to use it, use, use the facilities, the fields, they see the value in that investment for them in the future.

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You know, when we work with schools at K 12, it’s not just about furniture design, it’s about impact.

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Our radically student-centered approach puts students at the center of every decision.

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From that first conversation to the final walkthrough, we’re focused on creating spaces that actually work for the kids.

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Teachers and the community.

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So if you’re looking to do more than just check a box on your next project, let’s talk Visit k12.com.

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That’s K-A-Y-T-W-E lve.com and see how we’re helping schools transform learning one student at a time.

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Because at K12 it’s not just about projects and furniture, it’s about purpose.

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Mark Barga: I wanna pivot to talk about the teachers.

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Uh, I’m a long-term educator myself, passionate about the craft of teaching.

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Talk to me about the faculty in this district that are gonna be the ones holding up this instructional practice, this school culture, you know, both preserving the legacy of what’s happened here, but also, you know, sort of charting the future.

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Talk to me about the teachers and some of the work that’s going on at the school level, at the district level to get faculty prepared for another change.

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Change can be hard, as we know, right?

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Mm-hmm.

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How do we get teachers excited and how do we tap into the best of teachers’ passion for, for delivering instruction and connecting with students and making that impact?

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Talk to me about just your big picture, for how the faculty change strategy is developing.

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Dr. Greg Taranto: Very, very much teacher centered.

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And that’s been part of our core principles and values, we adopted as an admin team.

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Having been a teacher in a district, having been a principal for almost 20 years, knowing what it feels like to be at that building level and what kind of supports the building level needs is essential.

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So I have, I have that background experience.

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We have awesome teachers here.

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I mean, phenomenal teachers.

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And I’m not just, uh, saying that they, we have amazing teachers.

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There’s amazing teachers everywhere.

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But here we have a special group of teachers and it, obviously the center of everything we focus on is our students.

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So it’s the student, but.

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Who’s in the game with the students?

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Teachers teacher.

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Yeah.

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The teachers.

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The staff.

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Staff.

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The, those people are constantly in the game with the, so as an admin team or a tech department or a maintenance department, the rest of us are on the outside.

00:16:04.387 –> 00:16:06.517
How can we support the people in the game?

00:16:06.907 –> 00:16:08.437
How can we support the teachers?

00:16:08.827 –> 00:16:11.377
So they have, they have the, because they’re with students each and every day.

00:16:11.377 –> 00:16:14.403
I cannot reach, 800 students, a thousand students.

00:16:14.493 –> 00:16:14.973
I cannot reach.

00:16:15.978 –> 00:16:17.208
5,500 students.

00:16:17.208 –> 00:16:31.134
Personally as an administrator, a principal can’t reach 800,000 students as a principal of their building, but they reach those students by supporting the teachers, the 80 or 90 teachers in the building that support the kids.

00:16:31.348 –> 00:16:33.058
You have to focus on the adults.

00:16:33.553 –> 00:16:34.923
What are, what are their needs?

00:16:35.663 –> 00:16:37.603
How can they best do their job?

00:16:37.768 –> 00:16:42.298
So when it comes to a new construction project, they have to be part of that.

00:16:42.973 –> 00:16:44.803
They have to be part of that process from the ground up.

00:16:44.803 –> 00:16:46.183
So I’ll go back to the middle school.

00:16:46.547 –> 00:16:51.347
So the middle school from the design process up, they were part of that process.

00:16:51.557 –> 00:16:52.637
What are your ideas?

00:16:52.997 –> 00:16:53.987
What are things look like?

00:16:53.987 –> 00:17:06.648
What, you know, color designs from this we’re, we’re, uh, sitting in this beautiful middle school library and our librarian was very much a part of the design or why this looks like the way it looks like.

00:17:07.278 –> 00:17:11.568
You know, if you could design a classroom where you design a space, what would it look like?

00:17:11.688 –> 00:17:13.518
And you’ll see that all around our middle school here.

00:17:13.518 –> 00:17:23.862
If you go to our family consumer science, our art room, it was the experts or the teachers that do this day in, day out that had integral input on that process.

00:17:24.162 –> 00:17:27.192
So it’s making sure they have, they had input on that.

00:17:27.414 –> 00:17:33.564
When we did, looked at furniture designs of classroom furniture, they were part of that, we made sure we got their input.

00:17:33.594 –> 00:17:33.714
What.

00:17:34.074 –> 00:17:34.884
What did you like here?

00:17:34.884 –> 00:17:36.594
What we brought samples in looked at.

00:17:36.774 –> 00:17:37.914
They want to design there.

00:17:38.154 –> 00:17:42.240
So if you’re leaving your teachers out, you’re losing a big part of this.

00:17:42.506 –> 00:17:43.256
Mark Barga: Really well said.

00:17:43.256 –> 00:17:48.356
And in a lot of ways, teachers provide data from students.

00:17:48.566 –> 00:17:48.866
Right?

00:17:48.866 –> 00:17:50.786
That’s one of the things they report up on, right?

00:17:51.536 –> 00:17:58.224
Tell me about how the faculty here are also a voice for the kids and how the kids have given voice to this process.

00:17:58.224 –> 00:18:03.304
I mean, what have you heard about, students are young, but as we know, they still possess great insights.

00:18:03.514 –> 00:18:14.014
So how have the kids that are gonna be moving into this new building been a part of the design and, and how has their, the realities of what they experience and what they, what you want them to experience, been a part of it?

00:18:14.688 –> 00:18:20.358
Dr. Greg Taranto: I think if you, if you have a space that’s designed around the student, the educator.

00:18:20.733 –> 00:18:24.753
It’s gonna bring that natural feel to, they’re gonna feel welcomed.

00:18:25.443 –> 00:18:28.323
You walk into this building again, it’s only a couple years old.

00:18:28.683 –> 00:18:39.419
It’s bright, if you talk to the teachers here, you’ll see that I, I think they would, pretty much, the consensus would be that students feel special when they come here.

00:18:39.779 –> 00:18:41.909
When they come up from move up day, they feel special.

00:18:42.089 –> 00:18:43.409
Like, wow, look at this environment.

00:18:43.589 –> 00:18:44.399
Yeah, this is for you.

00:18:45.329 –> 00:18:52.919
And we want you, we want you to give your maximum when you’re here, we want you to, uh, give you the best so you can become the best version of yourself.

00:18:52.979 –> 00:18:54.089
They feel special being.

00:18:54.236 –> 00:18:59.120
We’re blessed to be in a situation where we can do these types of things for our students in this community.

00:18:59.120 –> 00:19:02.210
We have the resources to do it, and we should do it as a result.

00:19:02.210 –> 00:19:04.700
They deserve the absolute best experience possible.

00:19:05.137 –> 00:19:06.727
Mark Barga: Well, let me, let me follow up on that.

00:19:07.155 –> 00:19:09.585
When these doors open in, is it 27?

00:19:10.005 –> 00:19:10.995
The school will open?

00:19:11.580 –> 00:19:16.560
Dr. Greg Taranto: Yeah, so our goal is finish Wylandville in 2027.

00:19:16.980 –> 00:19:21.610
We’ll, we’ll move old Wylandville into new, but we won’t redistrict yet.

00:19:21.670 –> 00:19:23.220
That’ll allow us then to demolish old Wylandville.

00:19:23.650 –> 00:19:25.570
Start, finish that part of the project.

00:19:26.260 –> 00:19:31.560
That summer we redistrict, and then the rest of the population will go into the new Wylandville.

00:19:32.316 –> 00:19:35.736
Mark Barga: When these families walk into this school for the first time with their kids

00:19:35.886 –> 00:19:41.136
What do you hope they experience upon entry into the new Wylandville Elementary school?

00:19:41.751 –> 00:19:43.701
Dr. Greg Taranto: Well, we want ’em to have that wow factor.

00:19:43.701 –> 00:19:46.401
We wanna see their eyes look wow.

00:19:46.401 –> 00:19:52.551
Like, I think when you walked in here, as soon as you walk into this building, it’s like, wow, this is a nice space.

00:19:52.791 –> 00:19:53.781
This is a nice school.

00:19:54.441 –> 00:19:55.671
You had that feeling.

00:19:55.911 –> 00:19:57.771
People have that feeling as they walk in this building.

00:19:58.113 –> 00:20:13.783
Obviously that’s not what it’s, what it’s all about, but I could, I could tell you, having worked in a very old building and bringing this staff into a new building, I wanted very, very much for our facilities to match what was going on in the classroom.

00:20:14.083 –> 00:20:19.973
I know we had top-notch instruction going on and, but the facilities didn’t match it.

00:20:20.638 –> 00:20:27.598
So when people walk in here, yeah, you have top-notch instruction going on and those facilities tell you right away, you do what as soon as you walk in that building.

00:20:27.958 –> 00:20:30.688
Mark Barga: Space is so important, right?

00:20:30.748 –> 00:20:44.798
A learning environment architecturally with respect to transfer of light acoustics, as you said, the furniture, everything that goes into space creates more possibility for incredible teaching and thus amazing learning experiences, right?

00:20:44.798 –> 00:20:47.345
So, now let’s jump out five years from now, right?

00:20:47.345 –> 00:20:49.805
So the school’s been open, it’s humming.

00:20:50.735 –> 00:20:58.190
You walk back in there, Greg, how are you gonna know that this was a successful school design project?

00:20:59.000 –> 00:21:00.830
What are the indicators you look for?

00:21:01.333 –> 00:21:06.380
Dr. Greg Taranto: Well, we wanna make sure, the spaces are being utilized for what they’re designed to be.

00:21:06.860 –> 00:21:10.835
If we have, we have, for example, we have team spaces, um, we have team spaces here.

00:21:11.405 –> 00:21:13.305
We have team spaces designed for new Wylandville.

00:21:13.775 –> 00:21:17.195
We don’t have team spaces in our Muse Elementary project.

00:21:17.825 –> 00:21:22.985
But when we brought the team space concept here, and a team space is just a, it’s a larger area.

00:21:23.285 –> 00:21:25.085
You could fit more than one classroom in.

00:21:25.085 –> 00:21:30.305
The idea is, okay, let’s bring multiple classrooms into an area for cross collaboration.

00:21:30.695 –> 00:21:33.275
Let’s make sure those spaces look different than a classroom.

00:21:33.275 –> 00:21:35.345
Let’s make sure those spaces have different furniture.

00:21:35.345 –> 00:21:45.785
So, hey, if these two teachers wanna do something uniquely different, let’s make sure we have some flexible, some more comfortable furniture, whatever your design is, whatever your cooperative learning experience is.

00:21:46.115 –> 00:21:50.015
So are those spaces being utilized for what they’re designed for?

00:21:50.259 –> 00:21:55.149
Are we upkeeping what they should, uh, do the kids look happy, engaged, they wanna be there.

00:21:55.149 –> 00:21:57.279
The teachers look happy, engaged, they want to be there.

00:21:57.279 –> 00:21:58.659
They feel like they’re a part of it.

00:21:58.809 –> 00:22:00.789
So I think you look for all those types of things.

00:22:01.284 –> 00:22:09.654
Mark Barga: Before we close, there’s one feature to this new building that I think is important that maybe speaks to that first day experience, but also that five year out experience.

00:22:09.905 –> 00:22:13.745
And that’s the outdoor learning spaces that you guys have designed for the district.

00:22:13.745 –> 00:22:21.001
Talk to me, what does outdoor learning look like and what do you hope these spaces really help the teachers and the students experience and achieve?

00:22:21.730 –> 00:22:24.160
Dr. Greg Taranto: Just being outdoors alone is important.

00:22:24.160 –> 00:22:36.451
I’m not sure people understand the importance, the health benefits of being outside, especially in today’s overabundance of technology, kids being on screens excessively not only at home, but in schools.

00:22:36.841 –> 00:22:40.051
So at our elementary level, we’ve scaled back on screen time.

00:22:40.051 –> 00:22:43.891
So at our K to four especially, we’ve scaled back on screen, screen time.

00:22:43.891 –> 00:22:54.916
But if you look at the research and what literature out there is showing more and more is, it’s so important for kids to be outside, just being outside in the sunlight changes, mood changes, attention span.

00:22:55.426 –> 00:23:04.216
Um, running around activity o obviously the, the benefits of activity, uh, for the cardiovascular system support, but also for brain development.

00:23:04.636 –> 00:23:14.968
Uh, we know that when kids run around outside, they have nice spaces to run outside they reengage their, their neurons are being stimulated and stimulator neurons are learning neurons.

00:23:15.313 –> 00:23:17.893
So having those brain cells stimulated, we want that.

00:23:18.073 –> 00:23:19.843
So we need kids to be outside.

00:23:20.023 –> 00:23:22.753
We want ’em to have that, that sunshine, that activity.

00:23:22.963 –> 00:23:35.254
So we have multiple different spaces outside, designed for our new Wylandville to allow kids to do that, allow teachers to go out not only for like a learning, sitting down for classroom space, but also to run around, get active.

00:23:35.524 –> 00:23:38.074
That, that’s so important, especially with today’s kids.

00:23:38.314 –> 00:23:39.274
They need to be outside.

00:23:39.904 –> 00:23:45.304
They need to be running around, have, having that, that structured and unstructured playtime is important.

00:23:45.604 –> 00:23:47.854
And we’ll have that at our new Wylandville center.

00:23:48.364 –> 00:24:02.494
Mark Barga: It’s one of the hardest balances to strike is the, as you said, the overabundance of technology and especially screens, hyper engaging screen, um, activities for kids, um, where we want students to learn how to harness those tools.

00:24:02.494 –> 00:24:03.754
But importantly, as you said.

00:24:04.294 –> 00:24:06.774
It’s been such a pendulum swing, an overcorrection.

00:24:07.624 –> 00:24:09.964
And so it’s one of the hardest balances to strike.

00:24:09.964 –> 00:24:23.554
And I’m, I’m heartened to hear that you guys have given that type of thought, uh, to the types of appropriate development that kids need, which is social contact, screen free time, deep learning, connected learning, and outdoor learning as well.

00:24:23.753 –> 00:24:32.541
Dr. Greg Taranto: Yeah, I mean, again, at the elementary level, if it’s, if we could do something with a hard book a, uh, a workbook, a pencil.

00:24:33.291 –> 00:24:33.891
They’re doing it.

00:24:34.216 –> 00:24:38.135
Yeah, less screen time the better, getting them active and moving.

00:24:38.645 –> 00:24:45.080
That’s why all your related arts classes are so important because they’re, you’re definitely not gonna have that screen time when you’re in those related arts classes.

00:24:45.080 –> 00:24:46.805
And even traditional classrooms.

00:24:46.805 –> 00:24:53.465
We want less screen time and those outdoor spaces, we integral part of that, that philosophy of Canon-McMillan.

00:24:53.765 –> 00:24:54.005
Mark Barga: Yeah.

00:24:54.725 –> 00:24:56.345
Greg, it’s been an absolute pleasure.

00:24:56.345 –> 00:24:58.625
I wanna thank you for coming on the Better Learning Podcast.

00:24:58.820 –> 00:24:59.570
Dr. Greg Taranto: Thank you for having me,

00:24:59.855 –> 00:25:00.605
Mark Barga: I wish you all the best.

00:25:00.645 –> 00:25:01.075
Take care.