e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e me adequate notice of this regular rescheduled meeting of the Frenchtown board of education has been provided in accordance with the open public meeting act by notification to the Hun County Democrat on January 11th 2024 a copy of this notice has also been posted at the public school at the municipal building and filed with the girl Clerk and I to the flag of the United States of America and to the repu for which it stands one nation God indivisible liy and justice for Mr Blackburn here Mr dery here Miss Howard Miss Klein miss nahara here Mrs Nan here miss pel here um and tonight um we have our field representative Gwen Thorton from the New Jersey School Board Association who is going to speak to us um virtually about the board's role in academic achievement J that oh you're M you're on mute good evening can you see the PowerPoint hien hi how is everyone thank you for allowing me to attend remotely it's a pleasure to be back can you hear me clearly we're ready when you are can you hear us I can hear you can you see my slides yes okay so thank you for inviting me in I don't know how much of you what you heard um to allow me to present remotely um so I was going to talk about the board's role in improving student achievement um because I know that that is a concern um that many districts have and so um this evening I was going to talk about systems thinking this is really the agenda around vision and standards assessment and data analysis accountability um and we'll go through them um one at a time and certainly um you can shout out and ask a question at any point um if if you have a question I'd be happy to answer it so as you think about student achievement and the necessary pieces it really begins with a systemic approach to thinking about student achievement have you aligned all of your resources within the district um to enable your students to continually improve their learning and improve for teachers their their students their learning and teachers their their work with the student students in learning those materials so it's really about looking at your District holistically um because it's not just the individual parts that have to coordinate work together but really it's all of your efforts as a board and as a District administration um to make that happen and first and foremost um important in that aspect is really as a board and as a community um having a shared Vision around what success for your students looks like um we are required as you know um and welcome all students and the goal is to take them from where they are when they come into your District to where they need to be so that they reach their full potential um and having that shared Vision with your community about what success looks like is a very important I know the district has a strategic plan in place um you've invited your community in um and had them speak to you about what they believe is an important for their students to know and learn and be able to do um secondarily and just as important because again it's the sum of all of these pieces together working in coordination making sure that your curriculum is aligned the to the New Jersey student learning standards because if you're going to look at um some of the assessments um the assessments are based on those learning standards s um again you know these all of these content areas are addressed um primarily students are assessed in mathematics and English language arts and in science however there are standards for career Readiness life skills and key skills um comprehensive HP science and design thinking science which we've already mentioned but social studies the Visual and Performing Arts and World languages um also ass under instruction programs in New Jersey quality single accountability Continuum under governance um then this was added most recently in qac is access to library and technology related curriculum and that really I think was an addition that was added um postco um so that boards would make sure that they're providing the kinds of technological opportunities for students that can further learning I mean one of the outcomes unintended I'm sure was that we learned about the potential of technology for learning also its limitations but that being said it's important that students have access um to those opportunities and districts again are assessed in that under um qac which you are it's the state and federal government's combined um monitoring system that all districts undergo every three years um and so that's one of those indicators as well um thinking about 21st century skills in addition to um what we think of is the standard curriculum um making sure that our students are critical thinkers that they have the communication skills necessary to be successful um that they are able to collaborate with their students um that teachers have that opportunity to collaborate um that we in instill in our children a love of creativity and understand that a lot of problem solving involves creativity those life and career skills flexibility initiative self-direction um that they learn leadership skills and that they learn C cross-cultural skills to communicate and to interact and be collaborative with all folks um across the school district but also in the wider Community Global awareness um making sure that they're were aware of the world around them um that they learn financial literacy Civic literacy uh health literacy how to take care of themselves U make good decisions environmental literacy protecting the environment and thinking about the world in a larger scope and then learning innov Innovation skills clearly where the world's Ever Changing um we are preparing students for a world that we probably can't even imagine at this point um and so making sure that we've given them those skills um to be resilient and to be Innovative to solve problem problems in their lives so thinking about as you're trying to assess what students are learning and what what are the kinds of data sources you need to look at well clearly your school performance report is critically important they just were released not too long ago um but also looking at your proprietary assessments that you give in District in the classroom those formative assessments that help teachers identify what students have learned what they may not have learned enough of and going back and being able to pick those skills up as they move forward those formative assessments can be as helpful ultimately for student learning as the summative assessments and the New Jersey student learning standards um are a is a summative assessment not a formative one looking at your enrollment projections because clearly um you know depending as you look at those standardized assessments that are summative in nature um changes in enrollment especially in a smaller District the addition of one or two students can skew what those uh ultimate assessments look like for high school districts which when you look at delal looking at your students graduation rates um at that 12th grade terminal point um and then Higher Education data as well um looking at where your students are going on to whether it's College and Career or to universities um feedback from your staff from your community and from students around um what they think looking at your qac report to see how all of the five district performance areas coordinate um looking at Theo waiver requirements which used to be No Child Left Behind but is now the every student succeeds act um and those are really reported out um through qac because it's the coordination of all of the assessment data is included there and then Thinking Beyond just those standardized assessments but looking at the culture and climate um of the school district we know that the single largest determin determinant of Student Success is the quality of instruction secondary to that is the climate and culture of the school and of the school district so looking at your students safety data um reports which measures violence vandalism and HIV um is another measure of how engaged students are and what the culture is like within the school building looking at absentee rates of Staff among staff and students is another way to measure um School culture and climate looking at student access to technology and internet um again you know going back to the covid not to invoke a terrible time um but it became quite clear that in some districts there was inadequate access to the internet to allow students to learn virtually um and it became really important to have that access for all students looking at the length of your school day um do you need additional instructional time clearly that's a negotiated item with your Teachers Association however you know are you hitting the average length of the school day versus the State average do you need more time do your students need more time or intensive tutoring um looking at all of those pieces to encourage higher levels of student achievement are something that you can look at as well looking at your student teacher ratios um again we know in the early Elementary grades that smaller classes are always a benefit to students um and having good student teacher ratios is a really important piece to look at because then students are known um and have can be heard more easily in smaller classrooms enrollment by home language if you have an influx of English language Learners um you may need to provide for those and look at the assessments around that and those can skew the data in your District as well especially with small class sizes um and then thinking about it just in terms of that decision-making model um because it's this ongoing cycle um at the end of of this school year your Baseline will become the outcomes from this year um and then as you move forward making sure that you have aligned all of your resources in your funding in your budget your facilities your Staffing and then making sure that you're following the curriculum um as well as the revisions to curriculum that may need to be updated to reflect current student needs what kind of supports are available for students um and teachers monitoring as you go through the school year um keeping up with where students are and then again hoping against hope but of course when you align all of those efforts you should see an increase ultimately over time in the standardized assessment graduation rates and post High School Success so it is more it is an annual cycle um keep in mind you know that education is developmental not all children develop at the same rates and sometimes it takes longer for some students um to learn various subjects than other subjects and so a lot of this is really about making you sure you're helping every child and seeing growth of a child in their learning over a period of time rather than just looking at a snapshot because keep in mind that many assessments especially standard ardized ones are given once a year you know on a particular day um particularly this is true for older students around the SATs or the acts and that's why they take them multiple times um so that they can demonstrate improvement over time holding the system accountable um making sure that your teachers are using the data that's Collective collected extensively so that they can make changes to um and personalize individualize or differentiate instruction based on the needs of individual students so that you are meeting them where they are and moving them forward because not it's not just um a longitudinal piece it's over time determining the indicators of success what are you looking for and again a lot of that can be um customized to individual students monitoring progress on a regular basis which is why you give those formative tests through the course of the Year to your students using multiple measures of Assessments um some students don't take standardized assessments well providing them alternate Assessments in order to measure learning whether it's unit tests or quizzes um whether it's oral presentations and reports um students learn differently and allowing for the differences of students um in their strengths um is helpful as well um and it provides you the board and parents with a better understanding of where their children are um making sure that you are regularly evaluating not you the board but your Administration is regularly evaluating the staff and providing effective professional development and support um teachers need assistance they need professional devel velopment they need support particularly when you introduce or have new initiatives or a new curriculum providing for their learning is as important as providing for the students um making sure you're completing your Chief school administrative evaluation to hold the staff accountable through your superintendent and holding yourselves accountable through doing an annual board self- evaluation what can we do to be more effective as a board ofed tion in supporting the Educational Learning of our students so thinking about all of those things you know you have to think about what is your role in curriculum per se you need to obviously approve what is I apologize and then you need to monitor the process to ensure what is being taught is being learned and ensuring that the resources needed for learning are available and used effectively um again you know you need to make sure um that you are provide a budget that supports the curriculum um again curriculum revision work costs money to develop Implement and assess um making sure you've provided release time for for teachers to be able to do that or in the summer um making sure that the materials the literature and the technology um should be discussed and budgeted for each year and understanding the PD and new content method is critical to success of the implementation of a new curriculum or even to revisions to curriculum schedule curriculum presentations for your board of education on a regular basis um so that you are able to better understand um what is being taught in the classrooms and how students are being measured and what that looks like um again allowing for staff and student presentations and recognitions is another way at your board meetings to do that um it helps you to become familiar with the programs that are being taught in your district and again one of the things I always enjoy when I have an opportunity to come into a district is seeing displays of student artwork um throughout a building um that speaks to the a lot about the culture that the work of the students is being celebrated okay um again you need to expect the curriculum is going to be evaluated periodically make sure that your district is following a 5-year curriculum plan that is aligned to the New Jersey student learning standards so this year um English language arts and Mathematics were part of the curriculum revisions that were required so there will be changes to the curriculum for teachers and there is a different either group of subject areas that are done if they do English language arts and Mathematics those are two major areas um they typically do science and social studies together um and then World Language and fine and Performing Arts at the same time but there is a regular cycle that runs over the course of the year of five years where each curriculum is looked at by the state and revisions are made they are done by panels of Educators and educational leaders and pushed out to the school districts so regularly assessing um the data both summative and formative is important to do especially when there has been revision to a particular particular curriculum item um area um right now you may have read a lot about um putting science back into reading and moving um through P using phonics and basic reading skills um to help students learn to read more effectively that's a change um it's almost going backward what's old is new again um that used to be the way children learned to read but there was whole language there have been a number of different um pieces to that and so I'm sure you've heard of the math Wars around different kinds of math curriculums so you know making those decisions is really part and parcel of the educational leaders of your District but making sure that you're providing the most up-to-date materials and PD for your staff um again the formal adoption of curriculum of PD is required and it is Monitor as part of qac um this really establishes the importance of curriculum it allows for continuity and Direction um and it also becomes the starting point for future discussions so making sure you have adopted curriculum guides and documents that also help parents to understand not only teachers but also parents and have those curriculum um documents available for parents to review is critically important um that was another outgrowth really of covid is that a lot of districts did not have their curriculums available online um but many districts have gone to that as a result of covid because of parent requests um making sure you have policies around curriculum adoption design and development um and then guidelines for the evaluation and selection of instructional Materials Incorporated in your policies um that is an important piece to think about as well um if you use stous Esme for a policy those are New Jersey school board's policy numbers um not Strauss esas but you will find those policies in Strauss esate as well as in our materials and that's something just you may want to think about reviewing so critical guidelines for board members collaborate with your Chief School administrator establishing District goals that really focus around improving student achievement being aware of the federal and state laws um and all of those pieces that are IR ired of every school district making your student achievement I know it's s a little redundant I've said it already but a focus of each board meeting um you know I have seen boards endlessly discuss adding a coach deleting a coach um changing a food service vendor and never get in a meeting to talking about student achievement um student achievement and students should be the focus of each board meeting making sure you commit adequate resources for your in your budget for curriculum development and PD for the delivery of instruction um you should be able to point to what is in your budget this year that is focused on improving student achievement and every board should be able to do that it doesn't necessarily mean new textbooks or new technology it may mean hiring um another teacher because you've added students in a particular grade level so it's Staffing it's materials it's technology it's all of those pieces together um that are Incorporated within your budget that allow you to support the instructional program focusing on continuous Improvement you know how long has it been since the last time new materials were selected in a particular subject area is your budget supporting improving student achievement what is in your budget for those new materials um again making sure that you are monitoring and reviewing those things as well as looking at your budget in a student achievement light not just in a we're not getting as much money as we need we wish we had more but how are we using what we have to be able to focus around um improving student achievement is a worthwhile discussion to have okay you know are you appropriating sufficient dollars to professional development are you able to fund your five years facility plan your technology plan in the ulum revision plan and do we need to look long range at our facilities over the next year or in the next several years to accommodate changing student learning needs um that's something you know you may need to think about um AI is a become an incredible force in American society um making sure that you're aware of and helping teachers understand the possibilities but also the limitations of AI um is going to become increasingly important okay making sure the materials you've selected are aligned to the standards um and College and Career Readiness standards uh I know you probably don't do a lot of CTE because you have um K to8 kids um but are kids ready and have they certainly Steam and stem are kinds of pieces that help them so that they are prepared for alternate Pathways moving forward you know making sure that your materials supp support the needs of diverse Learners um for those kids who are gifted and talented for those kids who may need more supports how do you have materials that enable teachers to reach all students no matter where they F follow fall on that Continuum of student learning in any given year um thinking about the things that you do at the board table um you know who benefits from this decision will the decision open or close doors of opportunity for students because at the end of the day we are charged with providing opportunities for all students um so that we can um help them to be successful um thinking about the data that's collected and utilized to inform ongoing professional learning for educators making sure that your teachers know how to look at the data from these assessments and use it to help him form and improve their instruction um and again you know know thinking about do teachers need to supplement the curriculum to meet student needs and if so do we have the ability to provide those supplemental materials that might help reach students um who are different parts of that learning Continuum um even though they're all in third grade or they're all in fifth grade um there's a wide variety of of learning skills and Styles um and making sure that we have materials for all of those kids is particularly important okay um again you're going to want to know how the curriculum is impacting student learning over time and you can do it by integrating and taking a systemic approach to this rather than just looking at one assessment or one piece of the student performance report um and focusing on it but rather looking at it in its totality um all of these changes any change to to curriculum any revisions any new programming can take several years to be reflected in the data um because there's a learning curve involved in all of that for the students for the staff um and so it really the board's role in impacting student achievement is to ask those questions to monitor provide oversight Provide budgetary support um and to continue to encourage kids to want to be um engaged in the learning process and have a love of learning and find success in their lives um through the educational process so it it's not as complicated as it may sound but it does take time and it does take Focus so um questions that you might have when it's Adam Blackburn um BR thank you very much for this is really uh enlightening um I had a couple questions or maybe just some clarification on the idea of um the board approving what is taught um obviously regarding the curriculum um I think on slide 17 there was some uh I guess resources or suggestions on or guidelines for what we are supposed to be doing in terms of curriculum talk a little bit more about what it means for the board to approve the curriculum so you are approving the curriculum in terms of what is being taught in other words it should encour it should include the scope um pacing guides it should include the assessments that are going to be used it should include any kind of required textbooks or support materials although the law doesn't speak to um technological programming it is assumed that that is part of it anything that is required by all students as part of a school's curriculum has to be approved by the board um supplemental materials that are not used or required by all students do not have to be approved um what you are approving is the program of study essentially as to what kids will be learning and expected to know and be able to do at in a particular subject area at a particular grade level and that's what you are approving you are not telling the teachers how to teach that material right um but you are saying these are the subject areas these are the topics these are the expectations for students these are the outcomes that should result for students as as an outcome to having that particular um curriculum taught to them does that help you a little bit that sounds like we're telling teachers what to teach is that our role well essentially it's not your role it's prescribed by the state they've outlined the New Jersey student learning standards and your curriculum should be aligned to those standards and those standards are Broad and they outline particular skills topics and outcomes but the materials that you use and the techniques you use to teach the pedagog is an individual um district and uh administrative decision so one District in a particular grade level might use a particular novel for example or a particular science textbook another District might prefer the usage of another science textbook but they are aligned to the standards they cover those topics and skills and and knowledge that an individual student needs to have in a particular grade level in a particular subject area but it's not you saying to the teacher you must use this textbook you must use this particular um teaching method or methodology to to have that happen so some teachers will approach a particular topic differently as long as it's align to the standards and the material atal that is given to students and by material I mean the instruction that is given to students helps them to learn what they are expect to know and be able to do that's the outcome but the how is the responsibility of your Administration okay so really it's our job then is really to make sure that the curriculum is aligned with the state standard that's what we are enforcing yes okay thanks man okay but but I will tell you there is local control within that right because the district is going to decide how that happens what kind of instructional methodologies what kind of materials are used and that's why um districts revise their curriculum um as the standards morph and change over time okay anyone else I've got one hello Gwen thank you so much for this presentation my name is V paralo I'm a fairly new member of the board so forgive me if uh this question appears a little bit silly but no no silly questions okay at the beginning you outlined sort of what data points to look for and and you said that quality of instruction tends to be kind of the number one ingredient to achievement and I'm curious when we think about like making professional development a focus a focus in our budget and when we think about this notion of quality of instruction how does one get what data points should we be looking at to evaluate that quality well you're not going to evaluate that quality your Administration does the evaluation of the teaching staff and the evaluations there's actually part of a teacher's evaluation in tested subject areas such as English language arts and Mathematics um are tied to student achievement student standardized assessments that is part of the teacher evaluation and so of course having a robust evaluation system for your staff your teachers is important because it helps your Administration identify where there may be areas for additional professional development and that can look differently for different staff members got it you're not evaluating the staff your Administration evaluates the staff you hold the superintendent accountable his evaluation for the performance of all other District employees that makes sense and then the superintendent is in charge of kind of informing the board on the evaluation of the individual or not individual the staff overall and making recommendations for kind of what adaptations we should do to ensure adequate support for that staff and adequate professional development correct and typically most districts have a professional development committee that has staff members on it to help make sure that the professional development really does meet their needs and is aligned to what they've identified ifed would be helpful for them to where they could use some additional profession learning for themselves because you want to make sure that the professional development is job embedded that it's not a one shot and done kind of program um not that you know and a lot of professional development really is done through collaboration between veteran teachers as well as um newer teachers so that they can share where they've had success or other methodologies or other kinds of um initiatives that they may want to add to their classroom that may be in another classroom it also helps um in districts for professional development um to be aligned so that third grade knows what happens in second grade and what the expectations of fourth grade are right so that they're building on what's students learned in second grade in third grade and making sure they're prepared and ready for the expectations that are embodied in the curriculum and in the standards for fourth grade so having that articulation between grade levels right which we would call um vertical integration right going up the grade levels as opposed to horizontal grade levels um which is what you typically see at middle schools and high schools where you have teams of staff so all sixth grade mathematics teachers May collaborate and do PD together right um is is another way of ensuring that that professional development is going to be useful for the teachers in their classrooms anyone else okay why not Gwen hi Erin nakahara um do you have a recommendation on an effective way for the board to to assess a curriculum is it typically done as a whole board is it usually like a a spin-off group that would focus on that how what ways have you seen well it depends on whether you operate by committees or you operate by Committee of the whole as a board the whole okay so for that you know my suggestion is to do at least quarterly updates on on your District goals um every District should have at least one goal that is focused around improving student achievement if not more than one right um and hearing what has been done what kind of changes have been implemented what kind of program is going on um looking and having your Administration report to the board um all all of that kind of information so that you can ask those questions um and know what that looks like so it's not a surprise to anyone at the end of the school year you know did we make progress and having a discussion as a board around what are the outcomes we are looking for right um again because you have smaller class sizes sometimes it's easy for data to get skewed um because you don't even have large enough classes to have subgroups um one of the benefits to No Child Left Behind and also Incorporated to every child succeeds Act is the disaggregation of data by subgroups but um and most of hunterton county is pretty homogeneous in its demographic popul in its demographics and so as a result you don't even you don't even have those subgroups to compare and contrast with one another um to make sure that you were doing it however because you have similar demographic in smaller class sizes it's easier to differentiate instruction for students particularly at the elementary level um than at the high school level for example and so um there should be um measures of Assessments and having perhaps your Administration talk about you know how teachers are assessing students on for their report cards and what those look like and what those are based on so that you have a broader understanding um to be able to feel comfortable um that all of those pieces are working together that systemic view of the educational process not just one part of it right and making sure if you have a district goal that is around um perhaps increasing Staffing or um looking at the school calendar differently to make sure you have less interrupted instructional time in your calendar or that you have um or negotiations that you're negotiation negotiating for increased instructional time or an ex extension of the school day in terms of that instructional time so looking at all of that and having those quarterly updates but really having Stu student achievement teaching and learning as the center of your focus for your board work so that the decisions that you make at the board table are around exactly that so you make sure that you're providing those opportunities for enrichment for gifted and talented um for supports um you know I have many districts where there's housing instability or food food instability so some of those districts have gone to breakfast before the Bell um to make sure that when students are coming to school they're not coming to school hungry it's hard to learn um if you're starving um and so looking at all of those different components around your particular district and the conditions that Prevail in Frenchtown um and that you're meeting the needs of your population is critically important and that looks differently in different districts so you know you might not think that breakfast before the Bell has anything to do with curriculum and instruction but it does right it impacts kids ability to focus um if they're not hungry right if they're feeling comfortable if they've gotten a full night's worth of sleep um if they have stable housing um it makes a difference so looking at your particular population and and knowing your community and that's really the role of the board because you live there you know your community you know what's needed in your community and what supports are needed um and making sure that the district is providing those helps students learn Beyond just assessments know if that answers your question but thank you all right well thank you very much for your time and attention unless someone has another question I will get let you get to the business of governing um I hope to see you next Thursday at the hunterton county meeting if you can be there it's a wond wonderful celebration of the year um and I wish all of you you know a a wonderful safe and healthy summer um and if I we can be of assistance don't hesitate to reach out thank you Glen you're welcome thank you take care be well all right bye bye okay um our next item on the agenda went backwards a little bit but that's okay is the public hearing on the budget despite having no members they could be watching they could be watching that's true do we have anybody watching T do you know another screen I can't find it that's okay switch go back and forth sure okay well good evening everyone so we're going to switch gears a little bit um no I think um you know just obviously very informative was I've got a couple chances to be a part of presentation for her this year um so um just wanted again thank Sessa for her collaboration in you know developing budget and moving us forward for another year so we're excited for that so thank you move forward that highlight some of our some of our things for good okay now we're on the same page all right so budget goals um so some of the things that you know we're looking at we lived it right we already lived it a couple months ago working through okay this is what these are things we can have this what doing this plan these are things we can have this plan and so forth so um it takes everybody working together to do that so minimize the impact of funny Cliff created by us funds coming to an end which we know about all those funds are coming to the end um by September but we're really trying to exhaust them before that um certainly continue to provide a rigorous academic academic support program for our students um especially our middle schoolers um we have this unique opportunity to um really have some small CL small intense classes um to focus on our math at different levels focus on science um you know two important pieces of our curriculum and then also speaking to the ELA pieces and social studies pieces where we have more of a group discussion and collaborative efforts um facilitated within our program um also maintaining the current program as we went back and forth and you know um provided continuation of after school programs previously funded by eser so we did a number of changes in the last couple years utilizing that we made adjustments from just Social Clubs to sport clubs the theater clubs art and music clubs um academic support clubs um and now we were able to revisiting our plan we were able to make sure all those things were included um and then certainly continue to collaborate relationship with uh King Township and curricular programs so again being a part of a small community as we are Del Val District Community um that's a relationship that we have right now for Middle School sports that's been going really well um you know we have the number of students right now playing softball so um again not not for every student but for students um that are looking to be challenged a little bit more than a club or after school um interal type of level um some of our highlights certainly again we will always you know take advantage of the fact that we are a smaller school and we have some smaller fast sizes um with certainly an embedded social emotional support program which we've talked about zones of zones for regulation for a while now um we're in year two of that we'll continue that through next year that's something our teachers are continuing being trained on um our students are becoming very familiar with that common language um so something we Wellness room integration that's something using funds we created that mental grade for students throughout um their school day um it can be a place for just rest and recovery and it can also be a place that they look forward to to go a couple times a month as we've said um and we've definitely um I think the the neat thing about it was it was a new thing um it's still something that se not only from our kindergarten students but all the way up to our Middle School SCH students so I think it's been a really a bigger bigger win and I think I I could have anticipated in our team in regards to how much has been across the board um impactful to students and wanting to be here and that's a thing they don't want to miss like some of our other specials sometimes it's social studies sometimes it's math you know when it comes to academics uh basic Sal teacher to Target academic support right wherever those needs are um that's some that we brought back this is now be year three of this as we go into next year um World Language studies um despite you know we're happy that all the years this solution has given to the district but we'll be moving on um and we have that posted and potentially hopefully someone will take that position um positive behavior support character education something that we've implemented we've implemented basically a plan moving forward right as we talk about school climate um School comment is a very important thing we want students to want to be able to come to school we want staff to be able to want to come to school each day um so by doing these things to support not only um positive behavior as we often say but character education and embedding these type of opportunities that we've talked about sportsmanship Awards character Ed Awards um throughout the year they really make a difference in a student's day um AC academic achievement support programs which we talked about um summer accelerated again we have I think at this point we keep pushing it we have 16 or 17 students that are part of um the two we sessions that we're offering over the summer homework club Tutor Time things that are helping our students after school work through whether it's AC academic piece or okay academic piece or just maybe it's just homework in general you know but a staff member there is there to help um High interest Club activities again we've done so much work with that not only listening to students and finding out what things they're interested but also tapping into our staff to find out what what additional thing you know they may be the math teacher they may be the third grade teacher they may be this but what other you know support something in their wheelhouse can they bring and do a really good job and and I think we've done a great job of that um musical theater and art performance opportunities to promote student achievement again all these things there so many um so much data that that Links music to um being a productive student and achievement you know student with achievement um and we do a lot of things when it comes to rehearsing lines and acting out in front of social you know a social audience and and I you know those things are just you know they take a talent they take preparation they take rehearsal they take studying that right and those type of things um enhanced seor creative activties and clubs um kts Middle School sports which we talked about um technology initiatives including one1 iPad which we know about we upgraded those a two years ago um and we're in a plan to keep rebooting with um you know with our shared service with Del Valley um 3D printers are in the building we have three now being utilized in different facets um whether it's good talented whether it's enrichment wherever it is um intimate and Target Middle School Math and Science we talked about um and expand en richment collaborative Community opportunities our community opportunities this year again this was with the support some of our s funds um we've really been able to do numerous things from Yo yoga logo was a big thing right reset sessions this year um rout 29 Studio another opportunity for our students to go down engage be a part of the community individually be creative right as a group be creative opportunities to present their work um showcase their work same deal with artard right now we're both both sides of that we're part of the aqua alumina project and being exposed to some of these truly artistic leaders um leaders that we probably wouldn't have the opportunity um you know it would take a trip to New York or a trip somewhere else um to see some of these um you know highly renowned artists and so forth and we're getting an opportunity to do those um things on a daily basis almost um and part of that and you know our students really gain that that real life experience as we talk about um to to um really showcase engage showcase every every student doesn't have a perfect experience right but it's it's a learning a part of the way and it's really you know neat to see them in that um as um so those are some of our pids right two more right all right this efficiency a little bit too just piggybacking on our community collaborations um after school clubs right we've talked about how we can do some walking clubs and bring not only our staff that are vested and um super comfortable with a particular interest um we also can collaborate with our community field trips using cop you know using a cafe using artard using yoga Loca as places to grow um to be a part of a learning experience for our students maybe some um budgeting with math and things along those lines just those experience of social experience of greeting and saying hello and saying goodbye and being a part of you know doing a crosswalk right and making sure we're being safe right all those things that um certainly we and French Town um want our students to be burs in and comfortable with and you know hopefully when to do a good job with um and then our ongoing you know just security and safety or cooperation with local police fire and DPW I think you know DPW comes up and is part of a field you know a field trip with students in a preschool you know they're doing buildings as part of their curriculum and we bring up a bco when we do things like that um fire every year fire departments here for fire prevention teaching our students those type of opportunities do you have a safety plan in your house what do you do dur the fire um very important things our local police is part of our security plans and drills and um bus evacuations there they're here for a lot of our things additionally our community events um that they've been a part of um okay switch so um the other areas that um we continue to look at is more of um those areas where it involves more uh purchasing collaboratives so sharing administrative services and um teachers I think teacher instructional staff is on here we have child study team we have instructional staff uh we have administrative Services those are all being done through shared services um whether we're the host district and we're sharing with another District some of that time or whether um there's another districts that's the host and we're partnering with them um and then we participate in a lot of multiple purchasing cooperatives um the escj is one that we um use often State contracts and things like that we don't have necessarily the need to use a lot of them because the bigger need is for larger purchases but you'll see there are some items on the agenda tonight where those um cooperatives the 100 County ESC is another one um we use their contracts to help us um lower our costs um and in the area of school supplies we use the state contract with school specialty and those um significantly drive down our costs um for our regular classroom supplies and um we participate um and even though we don't are in a who are a walking District we participate in the delal transportation Consortium for field trips um and for uh special education routes or other special routes that we might need throughout the year um for students that may may need Transportation um to a building or to another building and that saves us significantly we just did a comparison um for the high school um just for a regular route so we compared um what it costs for a regular route for for our for the through the Consortium compared to districts that are putting their out bid and the average uh cost per day is about $250 a day that we're spending less um on a route which averages to about $12,500 a year a route so being part of that consortion definitely you know benefits us and then the trans and then the um the technology Consortium is for our Tech our telephone services we partner together as um six districts in the region to priv provide telephone services and internet so the internet fraud band that we get here comes through the Consortium the technology Consortium and it is um brought brought down to here and we monitor that and everything and it's all part of um our services the high school services to French toown and then reduced energy costs so Asus stands for the alliance for competitive Energy Services they put our um gas and our electric ilities out to bid and we get reduced costs through combining those expenses as well okay so here we're looking more um specifically at the numbers and the area of the revenues um the state aid differs you'll see the state aid will differ on this screen then you'll see on um it'll break it down more on other screens um and that's because this screen includes the school choice Aid which is not part of the regular formula 8 so I just want to point that out because you'll see it breaking broken down on another slide um the fund balance includes um a withdrawal from the capital reserve account to support the regular operating District grant for the replacement of the chiller project and there is a withdrawal from the maintenance Reserve support a Wi-Fi network upgrade and a clock replacement um in the building as well and um the fund balance is also I don't have a comparison up here but just so you understand some of the numbers because when we get to the expenditure you'll see there really isn't a lot of difference in spending but there's a big a larger increase in our tax levy and kind of want to explain why that's happening so the fund balance um last year was $105,000 more um in the budget than it is this year and that is generally related to the stabilization Aid that we receive last year which was a one-time um kind of give back to the districts that were're using state aid and that's kind of being made up now in order to maintain our programs um through offset through the tax levy so our total budget for the year for 2425 will be $3,149 49 , 298 and that represents the general fund and everything that goes into operating the district as U as a whole and then the special revenues are Grant funds and um we do get um Esa which is Gwen's book about that is the education and SEC secondary Ed Elementary and secondary Education Act this only represents title 2 because that's all we've been getting the last couple of years I am hopeful that when we get our allocation notices which should be coming out very soon that we're also going to see Title One reinstated back into those numbers but I couldn't anticipated in the budget um because it wasn't a reality for us at this time and then Ida is the individuals individuals with disabilities and education and that goes to help support um tuition um for any students that may need a program um outside of Frenchtown and then um the Esser funds that was a big part of you know what our budget goals were there was a lot of things being supported by the Esser funds that had really enhanced our programs um a lot of those are also um being continued into the budget there's a couple of things some one-time expenditures that we've done so we wouldn't have recurring costs and um there's there's only one I think but you talked about how we integrated that the behavior um support um specialist and how we're trying to integrate that into the program so that those initiatives are still present in the building without the person being okay so here we're showing a comparison from year to year and what areas there're and what the numbers represent the change in um spending in those different categories um you'll see an instruction um there's a slight change there about $6,000 you see the biggest changes in Support Services um and in capital outlay which will the capital outlay is the easy one that one represents of course the the um Chiller project our contribution towards that project of 40% um which is also being offset not by taxes but from a withdrawal from the capital reserve so that's a and wash um the other areas um support services that is the one where uh this is the the expenses that were previously supported by Esser and related services and some personal AIDs that we need for special ed students and the continuation of our clubs um the administration just so we clear of what's included in each of these categories so instruction would be anything involved in the actual you know delivery of instruction our classroom activities are are included in that extent Support Services would be the areas like um that supplement the classroom but are not direct instruction so our media center the health office guidance um any other special ed related Services the child study team um those types of things co-curricular activities uh tuition is what it is tuition who out of District placements um Administration included in there is the running of the um the chief School administrator's office the business office combined for us is really the principal and the and the and the superintendent's office kind of combined but it represents um those those um activities and um legal fees are there um and the increase for um the the biggest increase here is represented by the Strategic plan that we're looking to do so that's move there facilities is the operation of our you know our plant um that increases represented mostly by increases in our uh property casually and general liability insurances and transportation um is what it says and then benefits um are not just health benefits but other negotiated benefits um contributions to the uh State Pension that were required to make and the board share of um social security for support here's a a general look at the state aid um for this year you'll see our formula Aid so we're going to talk about also how the last seven years has impact the district kind of as a history as a whole so this is our our oneyear look at how the formula Aid um and the impact of S2 has impacted us um we were expecting about that much loss in state a I think it was more like $8,000 so we got a little bit less reduction than we were expecting um the school choice Aid did um go up and that's the most volatile part of state aid so that one we can never really um project it's just a matter of how they're going to fund it how many students we have from year to year in that area um but it is our most volatile this year it it definitely was beneficial for us and then the total so that made our total um changes in the positive direction of just over $6,000 so here we're going to take a look at the history of the state a so we kind of just get that history um this is a result of that legislation that we call as S 2 which is the legislation that redistributed the aid um across the state for districts um since they weren't running the funding formula so we were considered an overfunded district and then these are the actual reductions you should all be negatives these are all negative numbers these are all reductions in each of those school years um representing a total of $461,000 uh in a loss of state aid over seven years which is just under 62% of our state aid so um we are at this point consider phased out of S2 any changes next year will be a direct result of any changes in our student population and I wanted to highlight um these two areas CU are you know new and I think they deserve some um specific attention uh the pilot revenues are payments and little taxes um you're all aware that we have an agreement with the with the buau um to share in those um tax payments in the amount of 50% uh we were given information that we would be receiving $91,200 in the calendar year 2023 um these dollars will continue to be received at the minimum for a 15-year period um and then I guess look at it then but um right now we're not completely phased in this number I believe will continue to to grow a little bit over the next couple of years as more of those properties and that development are sold um and are um required to then pay taxes or payments in rle check and then the preschool expansion Aid um is the program that provides the universal preschool uh for all of our students this is free preschool for all Frenchtown students ages three and four um it supports two classrooms one housed here at Frenchtown Elementary School and one with a private provider at the Milford YMC a and then I provided a chart to just describe how those funding levels are um what the funding levels are in each year and what each of those numbers represents and how do we get to the total so the Local District Aid is actually what is the the funds that we're receiving uh we're receiving all of this but how it's broken up so the the 178,000 is what we're receiving to support our local program here at Brown Elementary and then the reason this number is larger than the 178 is because the district has to make a contribution for the preschool disabled students that are in our program so preschool expansion does not support um classified special education of preschool students only regular ed students so for those students that represent this special ed population there's the contribution required from the local board so our cont contribution in 2324 was 44587 but in 2425 it's 62,000 $900 and then the private provider this is the amount um if they have a full classroom of 15 students would uh receive those funds um from that would pass through from the state and then we would pay to the private provider um for housing our students in their program um the increase in the district contribution is that based on the number of students yes could you explain the private provider Aid again I'm sorry the private provider Aid is for the Milford YMCA classroom okay so the the These funds essentially flow through it's on a per pupil basis and it flows through the district and to the private provider based on the number of student students that are in their classroom so we wouldn't we would pay a per pup amount that contract has not been presented to the board yet um we're in the process of working on that and developing that contract so you will you will see that but if we don't have enough children to put mil that number correct don't it and there is carryover so we're getting it oh so in this school year we we didn't open our first classroom but we're getting we're getting the full amount like it's it and then it it says carryover okay and you can use it in future years we're still learning about that okay but yes it's there I'll update a little when I get but that's so the military private provider is much more expensive than no it's because of this assumes the full numbers yeah it's because so the these two numbers combined uhhuh should almost equal so is there a district contribution to this represents 15 students and this represents 15 students for classroom and the contribution from the district is the I'm so sorry oh that that's for only special right and this is in in the budget that we're approving tonight it'll be in one of the line items that we will then transfer to thank you that separate budget yeah and right now the district contribution for 2425 does not allocate any special ed funds towards Milford since Milford is not functional so the 629 is just for French down Elementary so the these two numbers right here yeah will only support our classroom because our local classroom is going to only be the classroom that has specialed students in it if you're classified you you will be here so there won be special ed students in this class I see I do not realize because then we then we'd have to provide the services and it would be inefficient to provide those services in two locations so those services for those students are going to be provided in one location and that's here because it's most efficient and our staff are here to provide those Services here and they get the benefit of you know all the other things that you have but the regular this only represents regular aded students that's thank you for the clarification thank here's a breakdown of the um the tax levy uh the general fund tax levy is increasing $10,400 which represents 4.85% on the debt Services tax levy is going down slightly L $2,700 represents 2.38% um and I'm sorry that's a238 so the total um is four and a half and this doesn't include um taking the enrollment adjustment the amount of $46,500 and banked cap in the amount of 17940 and then I tried to represent here the best way because I know the assess the new assessments have kind of um kind of reset this schedule a little bit so I looked up what the average home value is here and this is the number that I was able to find don't know if it's you know exactly but if this is the average home value now and you apply the new tax rate and this was the old value and you appli the the previous tax rate um there you know this the tax on each average home for everybody it's going to be different so I'm just I'm just going to basically say you need to take your the new rate and apply it to whatever your new assess value is and then compare that to what your previous um tax bill was to get your actual actual change yeah always a terrier always so we certainly have to end on you know every other day and always a barrier um which I you know certainly have been I think the team has been very great about rallying around and our students and um just showcasing the things that we do in our school and um at any point you can pop on there and see what we've been doing in the last week or so um and it's a nice uh I think representation of everything we do throughout the year um as we've talked about just you know Accola students and Accola staff um to the good work that they're doing um and here's some great you collaboration just from this year you know our lead program that we work with our seventh and eighth graders in the building um and working with local police to create a you know clothing opportunity for students in the OR for people in the community that to support our program so are there any other questions from the board that maybe wasn't um addressed or talk about in presentation I just want to say express my appreciation again I mean I know that I was really struggling with understanding the tax ly and all that kind of stuff and really took time to explain it and then took time to go back in and see if you could put it on a chart make it make sense and just appreciate it that's thank you thanks J all right so we'll move on in our agenda [Music] um to item 4.1 and we'll need a a motion to approve the resolution for special education Le second um any comments or questions about special education all those in favor opposed or obain um and while we are on the subject we'll also uh need a motion for the resolution and recognition of autism acceptance month which is on our agenda move any comments or questions hey all those in favor I poster next we have the board secretary report um Teresa is there anything specific I just W to um highlight there that our state Rod Grant has been approved and signed and received it is in hand which means that um we have secured the funding for the 60% of our Chiller project um and you'll also see then order to move that project forward um there is a a resolution in the consent agenda to award the contract for the architect in order to start doing that um design phase of the projects right we need a motion to approve the minutes from the March 19th regular and executive session so move seconded was I here yeah seconded comments or questions on the minutes all those in favor AOS orain okay and if you would um ask your ex session and then we have Jim's report executive session that this one's yeah just want to pass down all right good evening everyone again uh so the um hi report below um we had one inent as mon that was identified as um HIV um gu remediation and discipline were part of that scenario um also had shortterm suspension report um this month couple students involved um we've had security and fire drills is typical 327 314 um we also will get to in a minute but we also did our second bus of activation drill mon as well in collaboration with our team here in Del bu for service you do have more no not for this minute okay um so we'll need a motion to affirm the HIV report second comments or questions all those in favor I oppos or abstain and then we need a motion to authorize the thereapy dogs I would love to move this i' met them this morning so good boys and girls I'll Su that there lots of good moments today in the building I have to say can we at once is just were they all golden two goldens and a tiny one right I there was a little one there was a little one chihuaha so yes so I I'll just for a minute say I I in reporting to me which was great not it's always here you know it's great for me to witness some of these some of these wonderful moments a couple staff members Mrs Ziggy specifically was speaking of particular student when you know Marley came in and that's now that's come like we talked about custom right that's that's but then when the other dogs came in behind it was like you know this is a moment and she was rehar that with a number of our staff members and students today so um plus you know the dogs had a chance to be read to by our students which is pretty NE and they I think they did a pretty good job for paying attention so okay uh all those in favor I I opposed or abstain and then we need a motion to acknowledge receipt of evidence of completion of emergency exit transportation drill um April 11 move second comments or questions on that all those in favor I the post are abstain all right so I'm just want to do some quick updates um so um you know believe it or not we're you knows in the fourth marking period um but right when we got back um our we had our third and the third marking period grades and so forth were distributed and I just want to acknowledge that we have 15 students this this quarter um achieve honor roll or hire so just you know kudos to them um they'll be there need when we this report but it's just a really you know nice to nice way to come back off the break and be a part of that so Kudos again students teacher families um all playing a role in that um just wanted to speak to a little bit to the paa the preschool um so as Tesa was saying just you explaining a little bit deeper we're excited in fact that we are set for next year we have 12 students set for our program and you know we need to leave some space for potential special education students um so we actually 12 in one at the moment um so we're we're secure our in our building which is exciting um I will I have I met with our provider last Friday um and we're actually meeting again now with the state provider on on our state representative on Thursday this week to look at um we have an approved space and we're looking at another space within the same building because it might be just less cost from a um environmental facility um idea um so those are things I'll be updating in the next few weeks um but it's I think this is an exciting time K Smith is our will for WCI representative she was excited and she's been a part of of this process with um another District in Clinton or in hun County you should um and um you know so I think it's great because she's getting burst in it and she's living it and now you know with TR and I um working through this experience and getting um uh resources and getting information I think we can you know apply what's going to work out best for French toown so so just wanted everybody to be in the loop on that J I have a quick question don't mind one interruptions um if people have not yet received confirmation a Community member had asked me um does that mean they might be that plus one that's not yet possible we have we have a substantial wait waiting list but not anyone to my knowledge in town okay so maybe maybe I'll give you yeah maybe we'll connect right after okay that' be great um so yeah so a little bit more to come on that but definitely in that process and we're excited to you know once we basic once we establish a French toown resident in preschool age that we'll be willing to start taking that spot and I think we really have something to move forward with um and I think some more opportunities um could come with that and speak a little bit more to that next meeting um if in fact we get there um okay um comprehensive Equity plan that's one of our district goals it just want to kind give you give everyone an update we've been continually reaching out to our County and we we've been reaching out to um colleagues within the county and just at this point we have not received any guidance I actually just spoke to um our executive superintendent monores the other day um he said it's coming and we will be given a lot of time but it seems like that timeline has shifted a little bit so I just wanted to update the board in that pass of that's where we're at um so as soon as I know information hopefully I'll have more of an update next meeting um we'll continue to work through there um just you know and that put off a year already you know last year we did the statement of insurance to you know um so I'm not sure I'm not sure what's next I think it's definitely been a conversation amongst leaders in in the county but I I appreciate the quick response and definitive response we got from our County too um we've been talking about dra our community survey and I think last meeting we talked about had the importance of having similar questions from the previous survey because how else would we really be able to compare and then um so in your folder is the is a draft of all three versions the parent family or the student one staff one and the the community one um and we took a lot of similar questions from the original survey so we can um do some comparative certainly you know some five or four years ago so some jargon and words um may have been eliminated or changed or you know maybe be more appropriate to 2024 and so forth um and we also added um there's a there each of them have like a little open-ended question at the end short comment type of thing and so I feel like that as I share that with you tonight I I feel like that's an opportunity that maybe where we could add right and really gain some insight on something else that maybe that we don't necessarily have to compare it to the previous survey but just something that may be beneficial um you know we on the board we play here play a lot of different roles of us our parents some are just community members some of their um you know might be very supportive to students in different ways in our community so um I would encourage you to take a look at some of more the open end because I think we're going to kind of stay in that lane of questions to questions to try to get those answers um but if there's one of those open-ended questions on any of them or if you feel like we need to add an open-ended question at the end for one of them um be share that I think that would be um a good way to you know potentially gain another just perspective and because I think ultimately what we're going to learn from as we compare these two as we're talking about it I think then we're going to then take that and then head start with another one right within hopefully another year um to do something that more targeting in our in our aspect um so you know if you have a suggestion you feel like it should be a part of something please just email that um to me or contact me and we we can talk about it our school climate as many people know our school safety and our climate team and our Behavior threat assessment team are all one group of people um they've been shared with it and they've made some comments and things as well but it's definitely something I would encourage you to share like we can talk between now and the next meeting um with goal of like let's get an approval let's get it out towards the end of May um and then we'll have some feedback and potentially have that feedback and in time for our June meeting when we're looking at setting some goals for next year okay I'll mention one thing mostly because there is a chance that I'm not hearing me um oh I know um so I did mention to Jim that in the parent survey and the student survey and student survey in particular there 's a significant focus on behavior and culture which is great but it's around 80 to 90% of the questions so I encourage us to think about like how can we probe about kind of learning opportunities challenge to grow my teachers adapt to my learning styles those kind of questions even though they weren't there before just to start to kind of have a bit more of a metric on like how are students perceiving the academic environment in their classrooms similar on the parents side like even asking students and then maybe this is just silly but like I would get too much homework or I don't get enough homework like you know like the pacing is adequate or the pacing was too fast or too slow for me getting a bit of a sense of like how the students and the parents are perceiving the academic environment might be nice but I do recognize that it doesn't help us track the what we asked before so those were just I shot Jim some like initial like here and thoughts but just so you know in case I'm not here next next month to discuss those are my pointers do you think we could do that in open-ended or you think we should add more I think it would like maybe for the parents open not for the kids I would ask the kids in particular yeah and I I feel like because they'll be able to say like oh like you know like things move too quickly in class and I can't catch up or like they they might be a bit more open whereas it may not come to mind for them in the open-ended questions like it'll come to mind if you ask them directly but I don't know that's just at least my experience with like you could still put degrees on that like agree strongly agree disagree ranking yeah yeah what are these distributed they're in our folder on the there's a folder all three of them are in one file and you know I I you know please they already did like reach out and you know I would like to make some adjustments and then I think that's fine if we do you know adjust a little gain some needed or specific Insight um and there were a couple questions on both surveys just being as I said earlier transparent um that I eliminated because I felt like they were the same thing right in a lot and so we still have we still have that comparison um but also just trying to make it you know beneficial to us because I think we're going to grow yet again from next one once we get established here okay IIT to see what do they [Music] think [Music] a oh okay um you want to wait and then I'll talk later very briefly but you can do that okay so that's F just checking um so another thing we have coming up um I think is just important for us as we talk about achievement is our NJ um SLA testing and I think you know that conversation's been ongoing all year right from things that we've doing instructional strategies to social emotional to the things that you know help our students and yes as you heard Wen say like we say it's a moment it's snapshot but what things can we do better and I think our team took a very good look at this a few weeks ago um and we basically came up with a little bit of a five-point plan that we plan to share out to the families by the end of the week T us and I just have to put a little final detail on something um but we as a team we've been focusing on the idea of breakfast right ensuring that the the students that are participating in those test in those tests 3 through 8 um we definitely have the ability to have some breakfast that morning and make sure that that's a piece of it also um some premovement we've been T we've always had in traditional French down we would do our test and then we would get that movement so we're going to actually try a little bit plan free movement prior to um the plan Ori prior to engaging in our testing hopefully that will help um we also used to within the classroom provide other things you could have a book once you're done you can read your book thing right now we're just telling the students you got your test right there won't be another distraction there something they're going to work for and within that we're going to have the teachers going around and catching um students in a positive way right so if they're giving their best effort we we as teachers and adults know we don't know if they're scoring well but we know that they're doing um a good job by looking back and rereading questions and doing the best we're going to accolate those people and call them out in a positive way um with the hope of that um you know just have students provide their best effort um and then the last piece of that is just making sure that we're ensuring that we're doing some practice tests ahead of it um we've always done practice tests but I think we've been a little bit more specific targeted with we're going to make sure in a time and manner to get that experience a few weeks before each week um try engaging in that so we're going to focus not on the science but on the n9th or excuse me the 13th to the 17 Ela and math week that's going to be our Focus um so just so people are in the loop um on that plan and we'll be communicating that out hopefully by the end of the week the so quick run through some things we did just um technically we got back not only we have the middle school but we had the solar equips um District provided glasses for all students and had moments within school um to participate learn more about that just you know what a great opportunity you know was nice to see many of our students and families on the playground after school um although I have to you Rec constructing them over the loudspeaker to make sure that we're using them safely um but I think it was a good moment um we continue to be collaborating with our local community all the things I spoke about in the budget presentation so I won't go into huge detail but Aqua Lumina is the thing coming up and a lot of our students have built projects to be a part of that and it's going to be really neat and there's a trade you know parade an event coming up on the 18th of May so just we'll be you know communicating out uh we just had a raise grade Car Wash which ended up being a huge success and again we couldn't do that without the support of our local police um and just the teachers in the team and our community coming out and you know giving our giving our did a good job students a chance to be a part of that so thank you to everyone who came out and supported us um the PTO book faar is going on this week which fantastic take your take your child to workday last Thursday was you know another Mrs Ziggy led us with a number of great events it's great to see stop bringing their children sometimes to school and then you know vice versa a lot of our students were talking with PR oh I went with um Mom Dad or my uncle or wherever they went to um I think it's just great to get that real life experience um going quick hitters PK PRK third grade spring concert again was a blast leester so we kind of did a lot of things um also we did autism walk a number of uh students came out families came out staff came out on Saturday um to support the police do their and third annual autism walk which many of our um families were a part of so that was very good we did um hot to autism um today in or yesterday in the building else summer camp flower Flyers out some accelerated programs are out um for academic support I just wanted to say Kudos um we had another parent support um opportunity uh Jean Chulo came in and presented on cyber security and social media which is basically the same thing that our middle schoolers have received this year um so I just want to say Kudos Mrs Blackbird and Miss pendas for coming out and attending we really appreciate that we did send that information out um to the his power PowerPoint um and I think what we're going to do is try and get her back on Gan CH back I think it's a in pick a different time um so we might be pulling some Middle School parents of what might be an ideal time last time we did a 215 it was it worked out really well we probably had 12 or 13 parents we just didn't work out this time so um ahead of that I think we're going to try and do that so how many did we have you two and that one okay yeah but jean did a great job you know Jean will do for one or you know 500 she's pretty good about it for us um but I think it's a topic that I think all parents I think the parents there benefited i s in on it as a parent in in the community as well um I think it was super helpful and I think the slides are great but I think being there and being present makes a difference you also have parents share like this or some techniques or hey this happens and I think it's it's a good opportunity so we'll try and you know develop that again um and the last thing I just just went we had our PD day on the 19th so we did a lot of our testing prep this is where we kind of finalized our fivepoint plan for this year um also school safety and Skip committees met skip committee is our school Improvement committee and that's a committee that sits on and we discuss professional development the things that we want to achieve as school year each year so there's a group of Staff members that are a part of that so I know Gwen had preferred that earlier and wanted you guys to that something continue on as well so all I have than thank you such a busy time year ail June like air um okay I just have a few quick things um I wanted to just let um and then I have a something for executive session which is next um I wanted to let the board know that uh Adam beta and Jim and I have started meeting um to discuss academic achievement um and we we've met twice we the first time we just kind of identified what our goals will be for that committee um and what we came up with was U three three main goals number one is finding useful data that the board can use um to evaluate the academic health of our school um number two is to identify problems that are creating weaknesses in that data and number three is to identify ways that we can help um we as a board can help um we met a second time and kind of started talking through that data a little bit and we're meeting next week and we will uh continue that conversation um the uh I also wanted to everybody know that I will not be able to attend graduation this year um so Adam is going to cover for me and help hand out diplomas um it is on [Music] June thank you um yeah this is the first one I'm this I think since Alex graduated who's know whatever 28 or something now um so that's a bummer but uh that's my week of family vacation which is very difficult schedule for adult children so um and then the one other thing I wanted to mention was the New Jersey school boards convention um Rachel and Julie had both reached out to me about um the convention which is in November um and um if you are interested in going um you can reach out to me or to Teressa [Music] um I I would say that it is worthwhile I haven't gone in a lot of years but my schedule May allow for me to go this year I'm hopeful that I can do it this year [Music] um it's a thre day um convention it's from the 20 1 to the 24th yeah and it is during the week it's during the work week um which is I know not terribly convenient say last year was really good last year was good yeah some are better than others but yeah I feel like it was fully back you know how it kind of was oh yeah it was this did you go to the one in Somerset I did yeah me too um they during that wasn't during Co that was that was the that was that was before that was the cuts and funding okay cuts and cuts and fun anyway yeah so there have been some there have been some two years of virtual and then the next year was like right you know back in person but it was kind of slow last year it was it yeah it was full so there you know they run all sorts of programs throughout each of the days um and I feel like you can always find something that's relevant to your district and it's um it's worth going is every day or nothing or you can pick and choose I can if you'd like and you're and there's interest in the board I have a Google survey that I can send you right and you can kind of fill out you know if you're interested now's the best time for me to start the registration process um because you know if we want our our pick of where we're staying and everything it's it's better to get it early and um there's a discount depending on how many people go it's cheaper to do it ear there's a discount if you register early around wait yeah um and I would say I can send a survey and you can tell me which days you might be interested and it's it is costly um so I would recommend going for at minimum that that middle really full day and and one of the other days um I mean you know I don't want to dissuade anybody from not going from going but um you know in order to get your money's worth you have to you know be there for a good part of it um so so anyway um yes if anyone else is interested in going please reach out to Teressa to me um and I'll let Julie know as well because I know she talked about it um that's all I have um we are we have no policy and our executive session is before our consent agenda tonight so we'll need a motion to move into executive session to discuss collective bargaining and terms and conditions of employment so move second all those in favor opposed or abstained okay who was a second thank you tresa you can tell me when we're ready e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e okay then we need a motion to approve the items in the consent agenda items 12.1 to 12.36 including the agenda which the agendum which has a personnel and curriculum item that a new record so mve I'll second okay comments or questions on the consent agenda um and the there are some um errors in the num on the budget yes um so those will be a question on on 12.17 um could you explain what the $6,500 for K employees and out of state residence is different tuition so the idea here is that um sting a a different rate for parent paid right um encourages could encourage other students to come and make it more affordable where it doesn't cost us you know $22,000 to add one student to a classroom but brings more students to our building and could create you know a better environment the the other rate is for sort of instit tionally placed students it could be a state responsible student or a student that's coming to a regular Ed program um for you know some reason could be a homeless student that you know might not need special services but we would charge another District if there was a homeless student in our district so th those are the the rates that you know we wouldn't ask an individual app parent to pay the same rate as we would you know charge the state or another so would an individual parent to pay $6,500 and we would ask the state to pay $22,000 yes thank you so is that out of state residence right is that District resence no because we're Choice school so we can't charge tuition for New Jersey students so this is kids from Pennsylvania good B unless they're coming from Cali I mean right in the past it's right and employees are if you I'm a teacher here and I want my kids to go to the school where I'm teaching yeah yes but again that could only be employees who live in Pennsylvania you couldn't you they couldn't have their child come here if they lived in another District in the state because we can't take tuition students okay from other new Jersey districts so the K other all others is is opt in from New Jersey right no no it's not school choice it's not school choice it's students who are placed students who are placed like the student that we're talking like the student yeah just I'm just trying to yeah or I think homeless is probably a good example of that um you know it's that's student again these are individual cases so student specific I'm just trying to understand the how this works and it's it's that that's the really so the rules around homeless students is if if they're placed if they're homeless in your district and they're from another District we charge tuition to their resident districts to attend here if they're not being transported back to their to their District the parent would have the choice as to which district they would continue to continue to you know be educated so if a child isn't in an out of home placement not necessarily it could be there's there's varying there's varying situations H so if a child in was in an out of home placement here in French town was the out of place that they would be at $222,000 that would be this category right right okay understand yeah I mean they're unusual circum they're not common circumstances but we're required to put a you know set amount to set to have a set amount okay for those situations thank you any other comments or questions on the 36 is the jump GNA be our new architect going forward then this is our yes 2020 I just want point out that um or 1220 I'm sorry it's on page 12 um the award for the contract for the wi-fi system upgrade so our switches and the wireless infrastructure is about 10 years old um and you know we're just upgrading the N the fiber Network and switches and that is going to be um e rate funded so um you know we're going to get about 11 it's split about $11,600 per you know that we pay and then we'll get the funding from E once the projects complete so we'll need a roll call um do so just for 12.21 do did you want to talk about what that is Jim like do you w to the L system yes yeah I think we don't have yes so um so one of one of our just again as we're always trying to enhance like Safety and Security within the building um is there's an opportunity to we have um we have a safety measure within the building um already that meets Megan's Hall um but this basically is a system that basically I know it's really Rain take your time but it allows to initiate immediate lockdown immediately and it's voice activated and so you know again we're never hoping for these circumstances but you push a button and it immediately it's not me or typically someone else on you know typically me but someone else a team member on the phone having to make the okay we're in a lockdown we're in this we're in that from there's a button that right in you can initiate it through phone and anybody in the building can initiate it from their classroom so if they if anybody sees something they have the authority to do it through the phone there's a Code you put it in and it it it makes an announcement throughout the building and everybody right it's not you're not waiting for person to you know do something and what we found is in in live situations you can't rely on human response because your your adrenaline is might make you do things that you didn't know you were going to do in those situations right so relying on a human but if you can automate something and all you had to do was like push a button or something and and it would lock down the building and response time to do those things is has been proven is what saves lives so um this system is something that you know we're going to implement and be able to have in our in our building um it can be built upon where there's strobes and those strobes would notify people on the outside or whatever that you know this building is in a you know a state of lockdown um but it yeah I they cut us the deal because we're the um they didn't but it's it is the same I don't I don't think that that that they did that um but we did apply for the safety Grant that's on here is going to go towards that system so we're applying our safety grant money towards the thank you okay Mr Blackburn yes Mr dery yes Miss Howard yes Miss nakahara yeah Miss pello yes Mrs Len yes since there's no public comment tonight um we just made a motion to adjourn so moved comments or questions on that okay all those in favor I okay okay thank you everybody