United States of America the [Music] stands the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of the act the portly board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published on January 13 2023 and posted on the district website at www.f.com published in the board's designated online Media newspapers the record and the Star Ledger filed with the clerk of the Bure of Fort Lee and mailed to all persons if any who have requested said notice please be advised that this meeting is being taped may be broadcasted on local TV and online at a future date the open public meeting Act allows for remote participation at board meetings and defines the word meeting as any Gathering whether Corporal or by means of communication equipment which is attended by or open to all of the members of a public body held with the intent on the part of the members of the body present to discuss or act as a unit upon the specific public business of that body may we please have roll call excuse me here drop here suppos to [Music] be we do have three people to be oted to a panelist don't know who they are the board the board will be convening to Executive session to discuss legal personnel and other confidential matters the board will reconvene into public session at approximately 7:30 p.m. tonight may I have a motion to go into executive session second motion Curry second Rabino all in favor I any opposed any OB itions un States the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice and to attend meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interests is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of the act the fort Le board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published on January 13 2023 and posted on the district website at www.foe.com published in the board's designated online Media newspapers the record and the Star Ledger filed with the clerk of the Bureau of Fort Lee and mailed to all persons if any who have requested said notice please be advised that this meeting is being taped and may be broadcasted on local TV and online at a future date the open public meeting act allows for remote participation at board meetings and defines the word meeting as any Gathering whether Corporal or by means of communication equipment which is attended by or open to all of the members of a public body held with the intent on the part of the members of the body present to discuss or act as a unit upon the specific public business of that body um let me apologize to everyone we had a residency hearing earlier tonight um that took much longer than we anticipated and that what accounts for the delay in starting the public meeting um may we please have roll call here this is curry here Dr here Mr KN here here here here here here the board convened executive session at 6:30 p.m. today to discuss legal personnel and other confidential matters Dr kravit Will You Begin by sharing your superintendence report is Cole that before we start we have two walking in resolutions tonight relating to the residency hearing um they will be resolutions 3B and 4B and they read as follows therefore be it resolved that the fortly Board of Education hereby dis enrolls the following non-resident student from the fortly public schools and its student ID 764 885 9746 um open pen f l e S1 grade one and 4B reads therefore be it resolved that the fortly Board of Education hereby dis enrolls the following non-resident student from the fortly public schools and that student ID number is 303 859 8309 open pen f l S1 grade three Clos pen thank you um tonight i' like to welcome everyone and thank you all for the ad rators to be here as well we' like to start by mentioning that the Intermediate School staff and administration are proud to be prioritizing independent reading to support student development by launching reading is out of this world program this is a multifaceted initiative that begins with incorporating 20 minutes of independent reading in all Ela classrooms at least twice a week students will have the option of borrowing books from teachers classrooms libraries are bringing in their own with each book read students will also be encouraged to complete and submit a book cover which will feature a design that includes title author synopsis Reading and Review each book cover submitted will be displayed in our galaxy reviews hallway on the first floor to all to see as a further incentive students who complete three book covers will receive a special book vending machine coin this book vending machine coin was purchased by our district is now thankfully due build due to the generous donation by our current and last year's PTO students receiving the special coin will be able to visit the book ending machine and make a selection that offers them an opportunity to explore different genres based on interest outside of the curriculum we hope that our efforts this school year will be an important step toward helping our students develop a lasting love of reading a big thank you to the families who came out for our first cpag meeting of the year we had a nice Town turnout of about 36 parents it was and we're very proud to move on to December the next meeting and thank you Miss Davis for helping organize that also and I'm sure our student representativ will talk about over the weekend the forly marching band has one sorry to take some of the Thunder out 2023 National bands group 5A Championship congratulations to Mr Welty and his entire staff and of course all of the Fantastic musicians in the mar um next part of our agenda is our state assessments oh but actually let's go with the students yesu it's on I think it's on yeah um Martin Basset was awarded the forly award for his outstanding commitment to community service this award is given by May Sage the aof hosted a successful Car Wash fundraiser on Saturday October 28th since the last meeting our margin van has been very busy and has had tremendous success competing on Saturday October 24th the portley high school marching Richmond one fourth straight us band with 5 competition at waren Hills High School the presentent 3.4 jump up from the previous high score at Newland Highlands on October 14th on Saturday October 28th High School Maring brid won the group 5A New Jersey state championship in the US BS competition held itself sou High School the Bridgman bed stood an exceptional field finalist with a score of 92.2 in addition to the win the band won the awards for best music best color guard best visual and best overall effect finally this past Saturday November 4th High School March and brigmond will Nam the US bands here 5A national champions congratulations to accomplishments seven students from our choir were selected by audition as members performing the Bergen County Choir the students auditioned along with hundreds of others from bur County high schools where they had to demonstrate their level of skills singing solos and demanding exercises for judges for music educators in Bergen County the seven students are leis highest score in Bergen County for alter one Gan top 10 place two S nunz Andrew Lee and Ken Park congratulations to the following tennis players that received First Team all County and First Team Al leag Isabella Cardinal in the 11th grade second Team all County and First Team Al leag Chloe song in the nth grade first team all leag Kayla W in the 12th grade mine Park in the 12th grade Sophia Lee in 12th grade Isabella Cardinal in 11th grade and S Sophie ryers in the in the 11th grade and Sharon W in the 10th grade honorable mention Jan Chen and me in honor of Veterans Day the portley high school student council along with the Board of Education Administration and staff invites you to participate in honoring Our Heroes the front of our historic high school will be decorated by custodian and student volunteers with American flags each flag will represent and honor past and present members of our Armed Forces additionally Flags will represents those who serve our community such as members of the Police Department fire department and emergency medical technicians please consider honoring these great men and women by purchasing a flag for their service each flag costs $1 and will represent all honores for their service all proceeds will go towards the portly BFW programs we have erses with us this evening and they can also be found on the website and in the district email that was sent out this morning lastly forley high school will be hosting an open house on Tuesday November 14th at 6 p.m for prospect prospective students further information will be sent out tonight and now uh I would like to introduce Miss Baker and Miss John who who at the academic assessments this is a huge task um the team she has assembled they've done a fantastic job and I want to thank them for putting this all together and again thank them to the administration for being here as well to support while they prepare I also would like to remember remind everyone that November 11th is Veterans Day please remember to thank all the veterans and there is a celebration if you can go to our website and see it for the BMW good evening everyone um tonight we're going to be presenting uh the assessment results for the for public school district from the spring of 2023 thank you to Mr rerio out in Zoom land who's going to assist with the transition of slides um tonight uh we are going to start with Miss drumul who's going to to present our data pertaining to AB IP IB sat and S ACT results thank you good evening uh next slide is rerio please uh so we start with the portly High School graduation rate and graduation by pathway so the cohort for the class of 2023 had a 98% graduation rate uh which means that 98% of the class met all of the state and local requirements to graduate in June or August of 2023 um the assessment graduation by the pathway as noted on the slide the class took the NJ GPA however on July 5th 2022 Governor Murphy determined that this test would be a field test and therefore the class of 2023 did not have to meet a graduation assessment requirement so that was not part of their requirements however they did have to meet all of the other local and State graduation requ requirements including the credit curriculum and attendance requirements the graduation assessment requirements for the class of 2024 and 2025 remain in place as such the class of 2024 did take the njpa last March and some students as recently as this past October the next slide is the AP scores we have a threeyear comparison for the AP scores um you will see that in the First Column we have the average score for that year so it's the me score to the class of 2023 for the students who took the test in the subject area so you'll note that for biology the mean score was a 3.17 the number of students who took the assessment is the next column so 42 and the third column there is the number of students enrolled in the AP course if it is offered at fortly high school where you see the asteris noted uh that is due to the fact that the fortly high school average score is above the state average within that specific content area some highlights here is that you will notice that we had an increased score in biology an increased score in Calculus BC increase in English literature and composition an increase in US government and politics an increase in computer science a and you'll notice on the next slide we had an increase as well as in AP macroeconomics and microeconomics we will also offer once again uh this spring the a Chinese exam and the AP Japanese exam and we uh newly this year we will also offer the AP French exam and that's due to students who are studying these content areas outside of the school um however feel that they are native speakers and proficient in the language next slide please this slide is a three-year comparison for the IB scores IB scores the highest score you can receive on the test is a seven so we have a three-year comparison uh for is proficient in the subject area for Le students scored uh above Proficiency in most of the content areas again for the year of the graduating class of 2023 uh we had increases in math HL as well as in Spanish two students in the graduating class uh earn their IB diplomas and we have seen an increased number of diploma candidates for the 2023 school year and Beyond and we contribute part of this to the fact that we have established a pre program and the course offerings which is helping to prepare our students for the rigor of the IB Program which continues to flourish at the high school next slide please the next slide is uh comparison of SAT scores over the past three years um the ew is evidence-based reading and writing so you'll note that for 23 the class of 22 and for 21 for the class of 23 these scores are based on any student in ptle high school who took the test from August of 2022 through August of 2023 so not necessarily just uh graduating seniors but any student enrolled in the high school and college board now breaks down the mean scores uh by semester basically so you'll note that in the fall you have an average or mean score and then in the spring there's a mean score as well and once again we've seen an increase in uh the math scores this year again for the third year in a row we will offer the SAT to our Juniors during the school and that will take place on April 10th next slide please this slide is a comparison for ACT scores the ACT is out of 36 um each section can be out of 36 and then you have a composite score out of 36 this score breaks down the ELA portion of the test the math portion as well as the science portion and again we have an increase in both the math and the science sections uh and again this is for students who took the test during the 2022 2023 school year not necessarily just the seniors who took the test and now we'll transition to reporting on our spring 2023 access results next slide please access stands for assessing comprehension and communication in English state to state this assessment measures student mastery of English language development known as the Vita standards and it is an assessment that's taken to students that are eligible to receive elll Services as we will call now multilingual um Services next slide please the access assessment is taken annually by our multilingual Learners in kindergarten through grade 12 access assesses four domain listening speaking comprehension um reading and writing sorry and there are six levels of proficiency and levels four five and six are considered passing on the access test next slide please here are results from the spring 2023 access assessment in K through 4 40% of of our multilingual Learners score to level four five or six in grades five and six we see that 55% of our multilingual Learners scored levels four five and six and in grades seven and eight 54% of our multilingual Learners reach proficiency and in the high school we have 23% of our students that scored a level four through next slide please it's also important to note that um parents parents May refuse um elll Services however just because they refuse the services students are still required to take the [Music] assessment this is a similar this is a chart for grades K through six a threee comparison and if you compare results from the 22 to the 23 school year we see an improvement in Proficiency in grades K through three here is a similar chart for grades 7 through 12 the three-year comparison next slide please this slide shows our access results by subgroup and the data is disaggregated by race the subgroup other you'll see at the bottom to the far right it's marked with an asterisk because this subgroup consists of less than 20 students and as for the Department of Education guidelines we cannot report on subgroups that are less than 20 students to pert to preserve student privacy next slide and here we have a comparison of for Le spring 202 22 to Spring 2023 subgroup data and you can see based on this slide we see growth in a number of our student populations particularly with students that are in our um Asian Hispanic and multiple races populations next slide please uh this chart shows our access results by students in different subgroup populations by program um it's important to know that students may fall into one or more uh more than one category on this chart and therefore students may be counted more than once next slide please we will now focus on the results of our Dynamic learning maap assessment or as we call it dlm for the spring of 2023 next Slide the dyn the dynamic learning assessment is an alternate State assessment for students with significant intellectual and development mental disabilities it allows multiple ways for students to demonstrate skills and knowledge the dlm assessment is administered in language arts for grades 3 through 8 and 11 in mathematics for grades 3- 8 and 11 and Science in grades 5 8 and 11 next slide please there are four performance levels for the dlm assessment emerging approaching the target at Target and advanced next slide please so as for the results for the from the 22 to the 23 school year 24 students were eligible and participated districtwide so we had 100% participation in this assessment this includes forly students as well as students that we receive from other districts individual score reports just like the NJ njsla assessment are mailed home to parents and Guardians and District level scores are reported to maintain confidentiality next slide slide please these are our results for the 2022 2023 school year where there is a certain number um for less than 10 we just put less than 10 to preserve student um privacy so for ELA you can see the number of students that participated for math the same and as you can see less than 10 students participated in the Science dlm assessment next slide please the interventions and strategies that we are implementing to address our performance on the dlm assessment um are as follows teachers each year review student reports and they use the data to drive instruction uh the strategies that we use are very much individualized and unique to each students I um individualized education plan or as we call it IEP and the teaching of academic social and functional skills are integrated and woven throughout all instructional settings and subject areas during the school day next slide please and the final portion of our presentation will cover our results from the spring 2023 administration of the New Jersey student learning assessment next slide please it's important to know like any other assessment that the njsla is just one assessment that students take they take it once a school year in the spring and when we look at these results we always keep in mind that this is one very small piece out of many pieces of a unique complex puzzle that shows a sliver of what a student is able to do so we always take into account multiple assessments when we talk about students and um their abilities next slide please for those that are not familiar with the njsla it is H it stands for New Jersey student learning assessment it is a Statewide computer-based assessment it assesses students progress towards the attainment of of the New Jersey student learning standards in the following areas English language arts in grades 3-9 mathematics in grades 3 through n and for courses that consist of Algebra 1 geometry and Algebra 2 and science for grades 5 8 and 11 and this year for um in Algebra 1 geometry and Algebra 2 it's important to notice that that consists of students in grades 7 8 and 9 only not students in grades 10 through 12 next slide please so for the njsla assessment in English language arts and math there are five performance levels level one did not yet meet expectations level two uh partially met expectations level three approaching expectations level four met expectations and level five exceeded expectations levels four and five are deemed passing scores on the njsla for science there are four performance levels level one below proficient level two near proficient level three proficient and level four Advanced proficient levels three and four on the science njsla are considered passing next slide please this chge shows our participation rates for each njsla assessment it shows the number of eligible test takers against the number of valid scores that we received we continue to have excellent participation rates in all grade levels and courses next slide please this year we decided to add some pictures of our students in the assessment so this image you see a picture of one of our Fort Lee Elementary classes during writing instruction and we're going to now focus on our njsla results for English language arts this chart shows the percentage of students that scored in each performance level by grade the majority of our students are meeting and exceeding grade level expectations in every grade level tested and overall 72% of Fort Le students that took the English language arts njsla are meeting and exceeding grade level expectations next slide please this slide shows a comparison of the percentage of students that scored within each proficiency level between the spring of 2022 and the spring of 2023 next slide please this chart provides a visual of the information that's on um that shows a difference between the spring of 2022 and the spring of 2023 regarding the percentage of students that met and exceeded expectations on the ELA and jsla we are happy to see that there was a a 13% growth between 3rd and fourth grade as well as a 7 to 10% growth in seventh and 8th grade from the 22 to the 23 school year next slide please this chart shows a comparison in performance between the district's 2022 and 2023 performance to the state's performance specifically with regards to the percentage of students that achieved a level one or level two on the ELA njsla the percentage of Fort Le students that achieve these two performance levels is much less than the state as a whole next slide please this chart is very similar to the chart on the previous slide only that it shows the percentage of students that achieved a level three and four in Fort Lee compared to the state so if you focus on the column to the far right uh dedicated to level four you will see that the percentage of fortly students that score level four which is passing is greater than the state's performance next slide please and you will see the same information on this slide pertaining to the percentage of students that scor to level five or exceeded expectations for these students outperform the state at this level as well next slide please this slide shows our student performance in the El in ela by subgroup the Department of Education requires us to Pro to present our assessment data disaggregated by different subgroups specifically by race and by program the majority of our students within each sub group on this chart are meeting or exceeding expectations in English language arts next slide please this slide shows a comparison and performance within each group between the 22 and 23 school year and as you can see we are slightly trending in the right direction with respect to our Black and Hispanic student populations next slide please here we have our NJ SLA Ela results disaggregated by different subg groups I program it's important to know again that students in this chart may be counted twice as a student may fall into multiple subgroups we are happy to see that the majority of our students um in our economically disadvantaged population and students with 504 that took this assessment are meaning and exceeding grade level expectations next slide please this chart shows a comparison in ela and jsla performance between the 22 and 23 school year Within These different subgroups and we see a slight increase in proficiency with our multilingual Learners next slide please so with regards to intervention strategies identified an implemented with English language arts here are just some of what we are in the process of of doing we've identified areas of need in ela by reviewing the New Jersey student learning standard based reports that we have access to using our star 360 Benchmark assessment that was done in the very beginning of this school year we've implemented structured structured phonics instruction using the Wilson foundations program in grades K to1 to provide multisensory instruction and Phonics spelling and handwriting because we want to ensure that we are covering the foundational skills in libery very early we are providing training on differentiated instruction and reading for gates for grades K through five we are actually working with the rver center for literacy development and Elevate education to bring literacy coaches to enhance our small group instruction and reading we are progress monitoring and reading using the Renaissance platform and a um a special program call Freckle on the Renaissance platform that provides more individualized practice for our Learners we continue to use our academic support programs basic skills smart readers programs our rise readers which is at school number three our Essentials courses at the middle school our strategies courses at the high school and our multilingual programs to service students that meet the eligibility criteria for those courses um as I reported um with the njtpa presentation we restructured the high school strategies course to grade level sections separated um so that we can focus on Ninth Grade separated from 10th grade that's different for this school year we are continuing to implement sheltered instruction the SC out model for our multilingual Learners and that is actually just a good model for any type of learner we've had a summerbridge Academy for the last three Summers and we will be implementing a grades two through six scouring program with the siling silving learning sense for this year next slide please and these are just some photos of our students implementing some of the strategies that I just mentioned on the previous slide you see we have students working together on their writing you will see students at the upper leftand corner um engaged in multisensory fonex instruction using the Wilson program to the um the photo at the top right that is actually a photo from a social studies course but what students are doing doing in that social studies course are analyzing um data using maps and that is a skill that we need to improve upon in Reading informational text so we're using social studies and science courses to integrate literacy instruction next slide please and now we will move on to our njla results for mathematics and that is an Elementary classroom during math instruction so some information to know regarding our spring 2023 njsla math um assessment for grade 8 data some students in grade 8 participated in the algebra 1 or geometry assessment in place of the grade 8 math assessment therefore the math ma eight outcomes are not representative of grade8 as a whole for Algebra 1 geometry and Algebra 2 data that only includes data for grade seven for Algebra 1 and grades eight and nine students enrolled in these courses next slide please here is our performance in math by grade level with the exception of grade 8 math most of our students are meeting and exceeding um standards next slide please just like we saw in English language arts this is a comparison of our njsla math performance Levels by grade and course between the 2022 and the 2023 njla administrations next slide please here is a comparison of our results in math between the 2022 and 2023 school years you will see that we have a um slight changes um in in data we do see a decline in performance perance in grade 7 in Algebra 2 math however we are pleased to see a 12% Improvement in performance in grade 5 a 4% Improvement in grade six and a 9% Improvement in math 8 from the previous year and a 12% Improvement in performance in Algebra 1 uh last year we did um place a heavy focus on math instruction due to the njsl data we attribute these these improvements to some um factors such as a focus heavy focus on instruction the implementation of data teams um and specifically in grade 8 math and Algebra 1 the change in the core sequence we implemented in the Middle School grade levels so we are seeing an impact and performance um due to those strategies that we implemented next slide please this chart Compares our 2022 and 2023 njsla math data to the states with respect to the number of students that scored either a level one or a level two next slide please this chart Compares our 2022 and 2023 njsla math data to the states with respect to the number the percentage of students that scored either a level three or four and if we look at the percentage of students that met expectations in both forley and the state we see that with the exception of math 8 portly students outperform the state and all the grade levels and math courses that are assessed next slide please on this slide we see the same with the percentage of students that exceed expectations in math again with the exception of math 8 our students continue to outperform the s next slide please this slide shows our math njsla performance data disaggregated by subgroup just like we saw in English language arts next slide please this chart shows a comparison of our subgroup data between the 2022 and the 2023 school year here and we are pleased to see that we are show showing slight Improvement in achievement in all subgroups represented on this chart next slide please this slide shows our math and jsla performance data disaggregated by different subgroup populations with regards to program next slide and here's a comparison of different subgroup data between the 2022 and 2023 school year while we see a slight decline in performance in our economically disadvantaged population we are pleased to see a slight Improvement in the remaining subgroups next slide please with regards to math we have implemented the following intervention strategies um we had a review of the njsla scores and start 360 data at the very beginning of this school year to identify standards that are in need of review we are using a math Spiral Review template for grades five and six we will continue to use our Universal screener which is the Renaissance Learning star assessment to monitor student progress and provide appropriate interventions we will continue to work with our data teams we have offered teachers so far this school year professional development on increasing Student Success on math assessments with Elevate Educators we have increased access to high quality resources I spoke about Freckle earlier in the presentation we are providing training in that this school year and again Freckle is is an online program that provides students with individualized practice um in math we've developed inquiry based lessons with teachers and we've increased support with word problems by adding visual components we will continue to offer our intervention programs are basic skills instruction Essentials at the middle school and strategies at the high school and the same thing that we did with the strategies course at the high school for English English language arts we did the same thing for math so there is a designated Math course for grade 10 um as well as 11 and 12 we offered our summer program for the last three years and we will offer a grades 2 to six silen tutoring program um this school year as well next slide please and here are some photos from our elementary and middle school math instruction and you can see to the far left you see a teacher at the board using visuals um that I mentioned you will see students using rulers handson materials to make a math visual and you will see some direct instruction occurring at the middle school um math level which is that third photo As you move to the right of the screen next slide please and now for our njsla science data here you see elementary students engaging in an integrated lesson with math and science next slide please here are for Le students results on the science njsla by grade and performance level currently the njsla science is only administered in grades 5 8 and 11 over 50% of our fifth graders are demonstrating Proficiency in science and as we can see with regards to this slide we recognize that we have some work ahead of us in this area next slide please this slide shows a comparison in performance levels on the njsla science between the spring of 2022 and the spring of 202 23 next slide please and this slide shows a comparison of the percentage of students that met and exceeded expectations on the njsla science while we remained the same in grades 5 and 11 we are happy to see that there was growth in grading from one year to the next next slide please this charge shows Fort Le performance on the njsla science compared to the state average with respect to the percentage of students that score for a level 1 or two next slide please this chart shows the same data but for the percentage of students that scored a level three or four on the njsla science and when looking at the percentage of students that scored a level three or four which is passing we have outperformed the sleep next slide please here is our NJ SLE science data by subgroup next slide please next slide please and here we have the same subgroups however this slide shows a comparison of the percentage of students that met and exceeded expectations on the njsla science and we show a decline in achievement with our black subgroup population however we are pleased to see growth in achievement in our Asian Hispanic multiple races and white subg group populations with regards to the NJ SLA science here is our performance on the njsla science is aggregated by subgroup by program next slide please and this side this slide excuse me shows a comparison in the percentage of students that met and exceeded expectations on the njsla science within each program subgroup we are really pleased to see that there is a 3 to 7% increase in the percentage of students that are meeting or exceeding expectations in these sub groups from one year to the next on Science assessment next slide please and while we recognize that science we have work to do in science here are the following intervention strategies that we are implementing for this school year we are offering professional development to science teachers on classroom strategies to increase student engagement we are revie the njsla results by Administration and teachers to identify science domains that need additional um support we are reviewing and revising assessment questions and practices to mirror njsla like science test questions in the rigor and language that's use teachers have developed strategies to address student learning and specific standards specifically developing enhancing conclusions on labs in grades 7 through 12 and analyzing and interpreting multiple data points and determining relevance for grades 6 through 12 we are also capitalizing on our steam programs to integrate more exposure to science and math content so we have implemented new steam activities in grades K through six and we are going to be using scap training to assist teachers with academic vocabulary in science and other content areas next slide please and here we have some images of science instruction taking place at our Intermediate Middle and High School science courses so while we talked about intervention strategies that are we are um implementing in each content area there are intervention strategies that we are intervent that we are implementing across all subject areas and you've heard us talk about it multiple times publicly um we are in the process of implementing mtss which stands for multi- system of support mtss is a framework that schools use to provide personalized learning for all students um it is also supportive of the district's Equity initiative the main differences in what we are do and what we have done to what we are planning to do are identifying students in need of services sooner through the use of our Universal screening tool which is the star 360 reading and math assessments and we are looking to change our scheduling model so that supports have provided with the least amount of disruption to a student school day and this is going to be key for grades K through six next slide please so Fort Le's mtss model consists of four domains behavioral academic enrichment and social emotional support for this school year however we are focusing on academic mtss this does not mean that students that are in need of supports in the other areas will not get them we are just not changing the methods by which we are ID identifying um and offering supports in these areas next slide please so this triangle shows the tiered system of support support is offered in three tiers and the intensity and frequency of the support increases as you move up the triangle will move up with each tier tier one support occurs in the regular classroom setting and this will address the needs of anywhere from 80 to 90% of our students tier two support is provided in small group instruction this can take place in or out of the classroom setting and it's usually anywhere from 5 to 15% of our students that need this type of support and tier three is the most intensive support it is more individualized and occurs four to five times a week and 1 to 5% of our students may need this type of support we currently have tier two and tier three interventions available to students we're just looking at how we provide those supports and what they look like currently next slide so for the 2324 school year here are mtss goals we will focus on academic supports we are providing professional development with tier one differentiation that is differentiation that occurs in the regular classroom setting we are going to be implementing a pilot of the wi period wind stands for what I need now and that is a period during which students will receive support um for throughout the whole school building we are piloting this in school one grade 1 and school one grade 1 in the middle school and we are looking to implement the win period for the 2425 school year and we're also looking to identify a universal screener for mental health and behavioral supports next slide so that was a lot of data but we just want to point out um all of the achievements so for English language arts based on the evidence statement data students need more support and comprehension of informational text and written expression 72% of our students assessed either met or exceeded our expectations State expectations it was a 13% increase in achievement between third and fourth grade between the last two administrations of the njsla 70% of students in grade 7 and 76% of students in grade 8 either met or exceeded expectations showing a 7 to 10% growth from the 2122 school year there was an increase in achievement in some sub gr populations students in grade four scored at least 27% higher than the state average and students in grades 3 through 9 scored at least 21% higher than the state average for math here are our findings and our notable achievements 61% of students assessed met or exceeded expectations in math there was a 12% increase in achievement in grade five math between the 2022 and the 2023 and jsla administration the number of students who scored a level four or a five on the algebra 1 assessment increased by 16% there was growth and achievement in almost all subgroups of student populations from the 2022 to the 2023 njsla math Administration students in grades 3 through six scored at least 24% higher than the state average and students in Algebra 1 and Algebra 2 SC at least 25% higher than the state average next slide please and here are our findings and notable achievements for science based on the data students are in need of more support in science practice of sense making which includes developing and using models analyzing and interpreting data constructing explanations and defining Solutions there was a 6% increase in the number of students who met and exceeded expectations on the gr 8 science njsla there was an increase in the number of students who met and exceed expectations in most subgroup populations and students in all grades scored at least 10% higher than the state average and the final slide I thought I would celebrate um all of the work and celebrate our kids that are more than just one assessment these are images from every single one of our school buildings and that's how we end did a great job thank you very much everyone okay that is my superintendent report done by the assistant super thank you so much um do we have any committee reports um do members have questions or comments on tonight's agenda or any other topic I would just like to um thank our donors we had some very large donations made by glaze Donuts Jersey mikees and hay yogurt um 3ep uh they were accepting the resignation of DEA main tonight and that will be certainly a loss for our district um and also we have naen cery who is retiring after 28 years um with the district so we we thank her um for all of her contributions um may I have a motion to open the floor to the public motion motion statu second Curry all in favor any opposed any extensions um we will hear first from any members of the public that are physically located here at the cafetorium tonight then we will take questions and comments from those participating remotely for remote public participants please select the raised hand button District our district technology coordinator Mr rerio will recognize each Community member in the order of the raised Hands by lowering the hand please unmute your microphone then state your name and home address for the record and begin your comments please limit your comments to 3 minutes do we have any members of the public here in the cafetorium tonight who wish to make a public comment good evening hi good evening my name is Tanya byus Kang and I live at 275 Tom Hunter Road hello hello hello um I want to say what a great job I mean that was amazing to see what our district is doing and I think we have to be really proud um academically of what we just saw on the screen and the test scores I know people have been harping on test scores and all these different um models and graphs and everything and I think that everybody's doing a heck of a job I can see that everyone's working really really hard and um I can see that um academic and college concern is right there I can see support of our Educators I can see physical and mental health and safety I can see smart planning for growth I can see freedom to learn in inclusive classrooms parent engagement choice I can see smart fiscal management strong communication and community outreach and I can see that you care about our special needs students so that is um all taken care of so now let's move on to some other things um I want to say I am so happy at what happened at the high school um I guess it was a couple days ago I get a little jumbled but they did a they invited the 11th grade parents to come and learn about college and like how to get your kid to college and what's important and it was fantastic it was about three hours long and it was full of information so people who I just I just loved it it felt so wonderful the counselors they were so approachable and they poured their heart and their souls into helping all of the parents that showed up learn how to get their child into college whether it be a 2-year College a four-year College a alternative um trade school maybe a job but it had everything covered and they had this little check sheet that they gave out if you didn't get to see see it I will tell you to look at the emails because they're amazing the information that was given out you should be very proud of them they worked really really hard um so I'm very grateful to that department um also I saw on the agenda tonight that uh Miriam lock is going to be at school number one and this uh woman is very dear to my heart because she inspired my son um and his love of music so I'm happy to see her on the agenda and another question I had was on I think it was on four I'm going to try to speak quickly that's why I'm like rambling um about the Tom Hunter the road the road thing tell me about the road thing because that's the road I live on so that's the only question you have which is great thank you very much compliments Miss GL is here tonight bu and along with this uh also we're very happy to see a physics teacher on the agenda yes so we physics teacher as well as our Spanish teacher is coming you know they had to give notice to their other District so we're just waiting any day we spoken to the superintendent and ask for them to please let them leave early um the update on Town Hunter Road is we are waiting for the Department of educate Department of Environmental Protection to give the doe it is done we have received all of our approvals the building is clean decorated the teachers are ready to go everything is ready to go we are just waiting for that that letter we have made several calls to Trenton we have used all of our resources to ask for favors to help us get that from the D to the doe um and we are even have our Architects calling regularly down there to make sure that as soon as they they give us that letter we'll take an email we're good to go okay so what I thought I saw is it said Road repairs did it say Road repairs I I could be wrong I've been wrong before hold on Road Renovations um purchase order for uh Northeastern Interiors it's 3 BNG for Tom Hunter Road Renovations I didn't know what kind of Road renovation I was just trying to see what to expect no Tom Hunter Road meaning the property itself Tom Hunter Road renovation proper Tom not the actual Road itself okay yes so actually there's a savings if you saw some of the change orders we actually reduce some of the yes I saw that that's why I said you guys you guys are like covering all of the things um that some people think that you're not covering so I kind of just wanted to put a nail in it thank you you evening hi good evening uh Andrew Gman 326 Bridge claz North um last sorry this week actually I attended via Zoom the special education parents advisory committee counsel whatever you want to call it yes you yes thank you and you're there yeah okay um my daughter is currently a senior at the ptle high school where was this committee for four years so they they've had a few meetings this year we expect to have more and more of those um as a parent I'm sorry to C you up okay this is the first time I actually saw a flyer that my wife got actually I understand Co happened but she a senior and this is the first time now in nov m a meeting now in September at the high school they had I want to call harut night or meeting might want face call it okay I mean that could have been something that said hey you know we're going to have this committee sign up because we met with the parents and teachers we met you know Dr G was there you know bring the parents you know nothing wait till November to have the first meeting it's like I feel like as a parent you know as a child that's has an IEP just being like brushed off almost we don't want you to feel brushed off we're trying every day we try to get better and better at what we did um the goal was to get the C pack up and running in the past my understanding they've only had about one or two meetings a year as as you attended we spoke about it differently that we expect parent driven we encourage them to use the resources of the district we can assist and that's why we actually I sent a directed out to make sure everyone was invited to their case manager as well as the multiple emails and they to encourage parents we have I gu said 36 parents on the call as well yes that was the goal we want to increase that population more and more to attend those meetings and help drive all the programming for special education C and also I think there needs to be better communication with the parents also um I don't know if there's like a board member lay lay on or anything like that I don't know that those answers um but also there could be like a what the right word a special PTA group or something like that I don't if that exists in you know in fortly or not you know I know I work in New York City for Department of Education and like for example on the board of education they actually have a board member that has to have a child with an IEP Jersey's different I get it but there needs to be this seems like a little bit of a disconnect well the CPAC Group by State Statute is supposed to be run by parents but forced by the district correct and each district runs it a little differently once we found out about what was missing in it we immediately start to change it and that's why this year and then moving forward we will be hopefully seeing six to eight meetings a year um as we said in that meeting it's an opportunity for parents to meet and speak that becomes the advocacy group for SP spal education parents as well um and I think it's a great V because again it's the district running it and we have all the resources available for everything did it meet last year at all it met twice last year okay so I did not know about as a parent with like again I said my D is a senior right now okay my next question is about I know you spoke that briefly the 18 21 year old program at com Hunter now we were told and I get it you know you know permits everything I get that um we told that would be up and ring by this September now I understand you spoke that because the permits everything else we think it's going to happen in 3 months 6 months 9 months two weeks we're expecting any day we keep making phone calls down there as I said it is it is the teachers have been in there they've set up their classrooms um it is fully furnished the state has come in the municipality has come in we are waiting for one letter from the Department of educa Department of Environmental Protection that is the only letter that is preventing us from moving those kids in now once you get that letter or document I guess okay will there be a notification to parents absolutely within a week or less no no okay let phrase differently for for parents of of kids that are seniors like to come take a look at look at it this you know this is a new program which is this right because sple doesn't have it currently no they do have it currently oh they do they do have it currently it's it was house in the high school they ran out of space and we moved it to the Intermediate School temporarily because that's the school that have the most I know we also spoke about uh field trips and things for for the population as well to a place in South Jersey that will be increasing life life for us Life Works lifetime town so we met with the teachers regarding great it's great my daughter went last year I think she may be going again I'm multiple times this year actually we spoke with the teachers so we will we will be increasing the number of field Tri like down right but what I'm trying to say is this building on Tom HED Road something new so the program is something we've had in a high school for multiple years it was growing and then we needed more space and that building became available to us so we use that that facility to right but what I'm trying to say is as a way of maybe communicating maybe is to have like I don't want to say ribbon cutting you know all a community there this way people see hey what what this program is because I honest you I went to Resource there a couple weeks ago not County and I was told that I'm supposed to see three different programs 1821 year old programs I don't know how true that is or not true but I'm doing you know my research upon that nobody's reached out to me to say hey do you want your your child going to the 182 program or do you want to see XYZ so I would recommend reach out to your case manager if they don't respond you can reach out to the director of special services Miss Davis and if they can't help you then you can always come up but shouldn't they reach out to us later they should have depending on the timing again and and when your child is exiting the program or not I don't know the answer shei she senior right now right but I don't know if she qualif if she would qualify for the 18 yes she does I I don't want to get you to the public domain just be yeah I you know so so the the case manager would normally Reach Out out to any parent who would qualify for the 18 to 21 year old program if you want to me on me or again your case manager you can copy me I will have to make sure that someone reaches out to you within the next cou hour okay but I really think you know to get the parents confidence because they can hear a lot about Tom Hunter and I'm not blaming you by no means with the board by no means okay it's politics let just say you know it's Perman okay but to give parents that confidence I really think to have like a the ribbon cutting or me a GRE there or something like that say Hey this is our program you know this a great program you you don't you don't need to send your kids out a district you know you need to build that confence School St and I'll be honest with you right now you know they say got one one one banana field and not feel that confident you know about this part I really don't know really I keep hearing what's going to happen but sing is believing understand and once I see can say don't way she's not going she's not going to go to this town we'll keep her right here in Fort Le you know why would I want you know bus or whatever they have everything I want for her but you know I think like almost like a marketing scheme almost that we have to sell it than thank you appreciate it thank you so much thank you anyone else you put the mic closer so and I recognize the uh emblem on on on your shirt there go ahead Mia [Music] and can you tap that and make sure it's on [Music] okay I'm having a hard hearing Lou I was told that it was going to be mentioned in the um me today and so a few friends and I decided to start team lasts and there hasn't been much progress and we want to like take initiative it um and we feel like it would be a good addition to so just so that everyone knows you're talking about a ski club at the high school correct ski team okay so so we're prepared to so I know that there there are four of you who met with a teacher at the middle school and who listed that teacher as the adviser that teacher was not interested to become the adviser to thei team there's three different things there's ski team ski club and there were ski trips that were mentioned so three different things mentioned to an individual who said the teacher suggested other teachers at the high school on June 20th so at the end of the school year last year that teacher contacted Miss Lind the principal sitting here tonight and mentioned that he's interested in working with the Kei um TR trips it for a ski team that's a separate entity usually you have to go one year for any time when you're in the New Jersey njsa when you want to create a team they have to have a voluntary team with a coach and there a whole process so it takes really a two-year process to create a team provided their's interest as well a ski club was mentioned and a ski club the individuals who were contacted by I guess your group there four students who contacted those teachers the teachers were not interested so in our policy it explains how to create a club including getting a individual to be your your Club advisor the club advisor that was contacted said they don't want to do it and they've sent you multiple L regarding that so if we are interested in helping you with ski trips and all have do is fill out some forms and then the person the adult who would go with you chap is more than interested in doing that they've expressed in that and Miss GL is here tonight can talk about that if you go to her office and make an appointment for this trip sorry so the team they have to go through it's a different process to create a team you have to go through the athletic director and it's usually a two-year process you can't just team with any sport not just skiing anytime any new District or any school team a whole process I we wer about the document that was submitted to us had had the middle school teacher's name on it and we reached out to that middle school teacher who said I no that's not what I was interested in so I know there are two teachers at the high school who showed interest but they showed interest in you know specifically in a ski trip not a club next year and possibly a ski team I know you're one of the names of the students who sent that EMA or the teacher reference on June 20th so trips were absolutely interested in we want you skiing safely of course um so you know contact Miss Glenn or or she can help you point you in that direction the person who's interested in running a ski trip that's something different is there a way to post to to see if there's interest at the high school host a club you know looking for a club advisor for the ski club so there's process in our policy on how to create a club and and that's where I think they were they were at but they didn't have an advisor so you have to have an advisor right but but they don't know necessarily who to go to to ask eing is kind of a unique type thing so is there a way to to like post solicit interest so normally the process as outline says they give two names right the students were given two names one of them was contacted I don't know if the other one was and you can go go to teach one said who's not interested in in the club um but if you ask the other one maybe me Dr I mean generally speaking the board of education has the authority and discretion to recognize clubs um shman the club advisor is governed by the collective baring agreement in terms of what stien is attached to it and then the administration would post for that position to be filled so it's not so much of seeking out volunteers and or the student seeking out volunteers versus if the board wants to recognize that club and it may be a process to get it recognized but the board recognizes the club first then the administration go [Music] outst I think the issue was the individual who would like to do several trips did not want to be the advisor to the club do have a position no we don't no we don't so you need you need a volunteer for well I'm I'm in favor of a ski club wish we had got it started four years ago I don't I [Music] don't sign me up not we put it in that any they have five to eight members no that's the policy right and that says in that policy that we voted on it also talks about finding anmin teacher or someone should become the sh yeah they can go through you know they're welcome to but as ased to there are other clubs that also ask and why are there so many that don't have no not that don't so the newest newest thing for for college applications is create a club and added to your college application that you created that club so as we get more and more students it happens every every District I know get find an advisor I think is the bottom line believe okay I would I would check and and ask her but the the documents that were submitted to me did not have an advisor who who said yes I can't hear [Music] you you yeah I I spoke to the superintendent about it that's why and that document has a name of someone that doesn't want to do it that's why you just got to be careful that so so so the name have you spoken with that individual recently we spoken with um all the advisers because as of June they declined to do the club now if you've had more recent discussions with the individual right I have the email where the individual wrote to you wrote to you some your colleagues saying I am going to have to pass up helping with the SK my time is very limited right now and it's just the upcoming for the upcoming week so I would just make sure that that's the document that you submitted on Friday and that's the response from the individual who was on that list was this okay that's okay and that's part of the learning process so that's why I always recommend for students the most important thing go to your principal go to the teachers and they can help you and and that's the best thing to do keep trying I think there's I think there are teachers out there there are board members who love to ski who would probably jump at the chair to help just reach out to miss lint and she'll help you find someone and if it's not this year then for sure the next year thank you Stephanie noep first I want to really thank all of you oh can you not hear me cuz that would be a miracle I mean come on let's be for real Big M um so I just want to thank all of you for the hard work I know going into this election has been troubling to say the least and for me watching it from the outside it's been extremely troubling because I always believed that the Board of Education of portly was a nonpartisan position and I know that we have agreed disagreed you know cared about each other in different ways talk to each other privately but I have really felt a very divisive spirit in our town um attacks on one team or another I know I sent a letter today regarding what happened with the league of women's voters and a letter that had gone out from the PTA PTO basically it was a very strange thing which made it look like one um column one didn't do something and column two did something and it was a very partisan letter and um the league of women's voters is also supposed to be a nonpartisan 501c3 so I just wanted clarification from the board people have told me things and I've kind of tried to research some things but I just don't know the right thing do the PT function out side of the board and are the ptas allowed to function separately from one another and if a letter goes out with the name of the PTA PTO as a group wouldn't all the PTA PTO have to know about that and be informed about that or just what is the protocol kind of for the school I don't know if anything like this has ever happened before or um from the educational standpoint or is it not a board of ed thing so I'm just un clear okay so so PTA PTO are not run by the board of education at all PT PTO as defined by the policies are allowed use of facilities and there's a guideline of how they're allowed use of facil just like any entity that uses our facilities they have to follow those guidelines that include what they can do for religious what they can do for political activities for anything and that's the extend that we use provided they are in those categories and provided they follow those guidelines that's the extent that my understanding of the policy regarding PTO or PT what they do as far as their own entities is but they're also supposed to be nonpartisan correct so PTA ptas nationally have their own set of guidelines that they are supposed to follow that allow them to be under under the offices of the national PTA but I am not familiar with all of the national PTA guidelines okay but they are out there and anyone is available to research themos are a little different Dr CR if I may pursuant of policy District policy 9210 uh second paragraph third sentence uh States parent organizations are independent from the board of ucation okay so if a letter goes out from the parent organization and we request the in I I requested information via an email that I sent out to everyone I CC the Board of Ed on it also because I wasn't sure it what it looks like is that one PTA PTO apart from notifying the other PTA pto's sent out a letter to to the league of women's voters which then created a letter which became a very partisan type of letter and that sort of thing to me is just underhanded and kind of more division so I I wanted to be clear with that and I truly don't know all the guidelines or the legal guidelines for things like that so basically it's deal with the PTO or so again I'll just reiterate the organizations uh the policy goes on to state that be from one second they should focus on the development between Educators and the public of such United efforts as will secure for every student in the schools the best kind of educational programs possible um and it goes on on to State this is policy again 9210 uh the board shall make it a practice not to interfere in the internal workings of parent organizations so it sounds like your question should be directed to those organizations well if you have directed a question to the organizations and they fail to answer that then does it become a legal issue for the district I can't answer a hypothetical all I'm saying your questions sound like as a parent as a citizen questions about the operations of the PTA or PTO and based upon this policy the board does not govern those organizations you should perhaps first address your questions to I I did address the question to them and it's un answered okay so there were response from two uh groups that said they were unaware that this letter had gone out there was no response from two other groups so I guess we'll just wait okay thank you anyone else present here that would like to speak tonight do we have any raised hands yes Cindy you've been promoted to panelist please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have three minutes Cindy Cindy you're still muted Cindy can you hear me yes okay Cindy G 555 North Avenue I just want to know what's going on with the diet drinks at the school this is now the third time I'm asking about it you have four rows at the high school of diet drinks you only have a row of K Mountain do and Kar black cherry Dew and then you only have regular orange mango fruit punch and green apple which is a very minute s selection so I'm not really understanding why diet drinks are still in the school when I clearly asked over the summer and then I just asked recently so it diet drinks at a school is ridiculous there has to be something else that you can offer for these students other than a diet drink so thank you for your your question I'm just trying to find out the the email that we did research that and get that answer from pomton um well Kart is an energy drink so so a drink of 12 ounces can have no more than 10 calories that is the USDA requirements for drinks in schools so if there's a drink that has 12 ounces and less than 10 calories so you might be zero Gatorade or any of those drinks that fall into that category or what they conserve so in essence a diet soda while it may have aspan it has less than 10 calories for 12 ounces so when the USDA regulates what drinks can be used in a school cafeteria it can only be 10 calories or less for the 12 ounces of the liquid okay so I guess I'll have to look and see all the calories and all that because I can't believe that you can't just offer just water we have to have energy drinks in the school they do have water they do have water according to what my son gave me he gave me four a whole case four different rows of all diet drinks the day he decided to have lunch there the only thing that was offered was diet which is ridiculous which has aspan in it under USDA they can't have anything that has over those 10 calories for 12 O that's and because we question that actually with pom tonian food service and that's the answer and if you actually email me I am trying to find as quickly as I can the chart that they that I would given for okay I'll email you later tonight great thank you thank you Miss kesa you've been promoted to panelists please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have three minutes Miss Kesha hello yes hello do you hear me yes hi thank you go okay thanks for giving me the opportunity um to speak my name is t the last name chasia I live at 484 Main Street forly New Jersey um I work in healthcare I'm also a mother I'm very worried about the sugary drinks um actually I'm against sugar at all because it's a synthetic um substance it does cause diabetes um obesity uh arthritis and sclerosis and a lot of other things um now USDA is saying this and that calories it's like um I'm not going to go through the hoops and the loops what USDA is saying because a child can drink more than um a bottle I'm sure if they're at school they'll go and they will have like three four five bottles there so um the superintendent promised us last on the summer I remember we had this conversation and the superintendent said um he will just talk to someone to remove them so do the best that you can to remove these kind of sugary drinks and replace them with water and um like CLE like simply um juice like I had I I know there are boxes of uh small boxes with apple juice like 100% apple juice 100% peach juice 100% mango juice you can do it um I mean yes we will take that to the president and USDA and all of that but it will take forever so um it's better if we solve the problem at a lower level um this this is for it also working in healthcare um skiing is very dangerous um I like I am before you decide for skiing please ask the doctors and the emergency room nurses how in three two out of three people are I know I know you was going to hate me for that but I don't want to see anybody falling breaking their hips or their bones or getting twisting and then you come to us and then there you know what do we need wheelchair Walkers Kings yes uh to be realistic to be realistic we say yes to it but the before you sign for it uh we have to read your h letter with all the accidents that happened in skiing so it's a beautiful sport but just please think of the consequences instead of it we would like to have our children um learn like have like teams that they learn like basic skills like simple cooking simple cleaning simple personal hygiene classes how to wipe themselves when they go on the toilet seats and stuff like that and appreciate that and the other stuff is uh yeah the lady that gave us all the statistics thank you very much she's done a great job but if you can shrink it a little bit like let's say one sentence for each thing like let's say El class and forly they score um above average and here are the pictures for the kids and that's it like a sentence please shrink that great job just need to be sh okay thank you so much I have one more question cuz I'm D to say that question one more question um Mr kravit please what is going on with that plan that we had for the area uh the forest the small Forest behind the middle and the high school where is that standing that did it die we had like a plan for it the funds were supposed to come and then I I didn't hear anything anymore nothing at this point we will let you know once we have something but thank you for all your comments all right thank you have a good night then thanks bye bye thank you Mike alsoo you've been promoted to panelists please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have three minutes oh oh what's up everyone hey Mickey hello hey hey first off hats off to the Fort Le High School Marching Band right yeah right national champs right uh second I uh personally just want to say um it's sad to see deba leave our district he's been here for a long time and he's touched a lot of young children athletes in the soccer programs and I think also on the track and field so it's s it's for me personally it's sad for see him go he's been such a model in our in our district for a long time and you know I wish him nothing but the best um on the third uh situation with the with the uh looking at the test scores um this evening is there anything else that the district could use or invest in to help because I see that we're on a positive trend right we're in a good trending situation right now so being being me personally being in development is there any other tools in the toolbox that we can invest in as a district to help these other students all these students achieve um more more um more success overall is there any other that we're not H that we don't have that we can go and invest in to bring to our children especially the younger children so thank you Mr Alo for the questions I'm going to give you my perspective and then I'll let Mr Al B as well um I think the most important thing is time and and consistency of programming the best thing we can do is just as as we continue to use data to drive our decisions and make accurate and precise adjustments to our curriculum and our teaching and and professional development it's a whole process and it takes multi years a lot of District it is it is a fiveyear process yeah y yep I'm I'm with you 100% because I've built I've developed programs in the past and you always start from the bottom up right to to whatever we can always Implement for the starting at the younger ages so is is there anything else that we can invest in our younger students that would be great and also I like to say uh from a Communications I constantly get Communications from I believe uh Diana Davis and Miss drungle constantly so I I Rec I commend them because as a parent I always appreciate communication between the district and and and the parents so I commend them both for constantly sending me emails uh regarding this so I I always like to give you know sometimes I could be a little rough but sometimes I like to tip my hat off to people that do their work very well so this evening I want to tip my hat off because I always constantly being in the communication is that the Bell because I it feels like it's a minute everybody else has got 10 minutes by me one last thing with the ski with the ski club right I'm all for it I I don't ski but they would have to opt in right to to become part of the ski club or a ski team you have to opt in you would have to opt in right yeah no we're we're not just going to go put skis on random high schoolers that's what an interesting concept opt in right everybody peace out everybody go out there and vote tomorrow thank you for all that you all do I'm I'm very happy to see that that we're trending up in these scores that would probably mean that our qac points will probably go higher peace thank you Amy KT you've been promoted to panelists please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have three minutes oh Amy you're muted there you go okay Amy you're can you hear me now yes we can hear you okay uh good evening Mar many many thanks to uh all of you Neighbors who are volunteering your time uh at the at the Board of Education um I wanted to especially thank um everyone who worked on the high school track to make it available to the community over the summer I used it many many times um and uh and and being outdoor is uh is something that is really near to my family and my heart um I understand that the track has recently been closed or not make accessible is there a new schedule with the with the winter uh with the winter or the time change or um and so that's the first question and the second question is if we find that the gates are not available what is the escalation process obviously you know we don't want to have to contact the head of building and ground each time um how can community members get um um you know get get gates to be unlocked there has there has not been a change that we are aware of we look into tomorrow Gates there's always a custodi on staff and they will help with that okay thank you so I'll contact you m Mr Kravitz correct there are custodians at every building and even if you know they keep it open they're there until late at night and they are the ones responsible for opening and closing I do know that we do have we have had some difficulty with some people who are walking their dogs on the tracks and on the field and defecating on that which is really you know a detriment so if you are you see someone I would suggest you tell them because that is causing us a lot of concerns especially as our students try to use that during the day so there are we do have videos of the people and pictures and we work with the police department so if anyone is using that please take note okay and and will the lights be kept on from um from dark until 10 p.m. when the park when the track is closed double check and get back to tomorrow that okay fantastic thank you again for U making the track available to the community and and think Amy fro we'll give her an opportunity Cindy you've been to panelists please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have three minutes Cindy yes hi this is David Cindy's husband I just wanted to follow up on Cindy's Point um I asked my son and so to what the response was that it's under the daily suggested um limits but what's to stop a kid from getting and there isn't they can get two three four five drinks so then they're going to be over the limit I'm just concerned because aspiran is proven to be a can a carcinogen cancer causing agent so you're promoting this this cancer-causing agent and I had a parent die from cancer and I I just so one yeah is under but if they go back they get a second a third a fourth is unlimited time so I'm just really concerned that the schools are allowing the students to ingest this this cancer thank you there's much more diet than there is regular so thank you for your comment as I mentioned I guess your wife you're welcome to email it's just I know but the initial response was under the limit and it's but if they go back and they get a third a fourth then they're over the limit and they're put in this awful substance in their body with p schools program your parents what you can do you can go online and you can limit how much the child is even allowed to buy so if you didn't want the kid to buy more than two cookies or morees I just find it really appalling that the schools off offering like they don't have an equal choice if you're going to offer it have an equal choice not have like an 80 a a a 2 to 10 ratio like 80% diet to to 10 to 20% regular like there there's no regular Snapp and part of the naal scham we have to ad to those guidelines so that's actually just seems to me that promoting this this canc but Fort Lee could take a stand and say I'm not allowing this cancer causing agent into my kids which you're allowing it's like promoting cigarettes okay well um Dr krabit has agreed to send whatever we've received from our food service provider um he's going to send that to either you or Cindy so that you can see um what we're complying with maybe we need a new food service provider but thank you okay thank you Dave may have a motion to close to the public motion Rabino second statue all in favor any opposition any extensions okay let's go on to resolutions I have a motion to approve items 1B through 4B motion morale second Rino roll call please excuse me yes Mrs Curry yes drop yes Mr KN yesel um on and and yes ex yes we have a motion to approve items 1 b& G through 4 b& G motion Morel second Rino roll call please yes Mrs Curry yes Dr yes Mr KN yes yes R yes Mr yes yes call back yes I have a motion to approve items onec through 3C are motion second motion RoR second morale r call please M CH yes Mrs Curry yes Dr yes Mr yes Mor yes R yes Mr yes yes that yes I have a motion to approve items 1 F through 13f motion motion Curry second morale roll call please yes Mrs Cur yes yes yes Mor yes yes yes yes yes we have a motion to approve items 1 p through 16 P motion motion moral second RoR roll call please M yes I accept with regret on 3p yes yes yes I have a motion to approve item 1 P second motion Curry second morale roll call please yes this Curry yes drop yes Mr KN yes yes yes um is there any old business so actually um president colbath sorry um I had actually had my hand raised before but I guess it got taken down no worries that's okay um just excuse my voice I have a few questions actually and just wanted to commend um Diane B and uh you know Miss trungle on the presentation thank you again for all that information um one question I have is the data I know um Dr kevis that we've actually implemented a lot of um systems to have more data um and I know that it's gotten to the point where it's very granular now so is there any way to know how long students have been in the district and granted I think postco you know people are staying where they are for a longer period of time so is there a way to ascertain whether or not um that's been an impact on also um the increase in our scores I think that's a that's one piece of information um and we're supposed to have a building and grounds meeting I think on Wednesday I'm not sure if that's been confirmed or not um but if it's possible to take a look at the Tom Hunter building before we um open it if it's possible and um if we can get that scheduled for the Boe um members to go and visit I think before ribbon C or what not to that would be that would make a lot of sense so the to Hunter Road property absolutely we you guys schedu and figure it out do that want people in the beginning who saw that property and saw the potential so thank you for that um as far as the data I think schools individually can track that and and we have now a lot of our uh data that speak about has that now built into our system when we start to do the deeper analysis um yes so we're looking at uh implementing A system that will help us better track students um with the data and one of those things is going to be um is going to include so so that even the district level we can track students that have been in our districts longer we actually do a lot of that work with our multilingual Learners because we're able to identify Genesis in that way uh but we're looking to to expand that yeah that's actually one point because I didn't know if for like the multi- language Learners um it's great percentage wise but how much is that changing actual enrollment numbers right like so do we go from one year having 10 multilanguage Learners to 50 or like I didn't know how that shifts in terms of our student body too that population increased by with the elementary level alone that population increased by I think about 55 students yeah it's a lot so yeah for sure and mostly are in program for one have only been in program for one year at the time that they took that okay cool thank you and then actually sorry there was one last question um just about the Strings program in the district I think it's wonderful I'm huge supporter of music and arts um but I do think uh with regards to the strings um the elementary level I didn't know what the um admission process is per se um I understand that there's a letter that goes out perhaps um from the music teachers at the end of the year but I didn't know what the sequence is when it's a new year and also since we have students that move to forly are they also afforded the um opportunity to join and then also what dictates the ratios of students that actually participate in the program and are we making sure it's equitable to students whether or not they have the funds available to participate so there is a process where at the end of every school year the teachers music uh strings and band will send out a a notice saying why you showing interest we will sign them up that notice is sent out again in the beginning of the school year the students are grouped by level they're also grouped by size uh meaning the class size because some buildings let's say School four they don't have the classroom so they might be teaching it so if you have students who are all bass players or Viola players or or violin players based on the number of students they would have to separate them out because they're teaching in in the hallway a very small area so all of those factors go into play as far as Equity I don't believe we deny anybody the opportunity I just believe it as a scheduling concern when we have limited teachers and limited space in every building to to develop those programs but we will be looking into that thank you anyone else with new business I I'd like to say something really quickly um so I'd like to congratulate um our marching band obviously for being incredible um in addition to that i' I'd like to congratulate the youth Council of Fort Lee um as I mentioned um last meeting they did a food drive um they exceeded everyone's expectations um they actually filled the entire Francis Community Development Center uh and they the shelves were completely bare when we got there and there wasn't room for anything else when we left um additionally my my vehicle is completely filled with Goods right now that need to go there as well so just want to say kudos to them and it just goes to show that sometimes the biggest problems are solved by the smallest people it's all I got yeah it was amazing just looking at the pictures Casey of the collections and everything well done um anyone else um I have a motion to adjourn motion second motion Rino second RoR all in favor any opposed any extensions thank you all bye