good evening everyone thank you so much for coming I know it's a little um Misty outside at least it was when I came in I'm sh shorter the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction in the district so again thank you for coming I have no idea what my hair looks like so if you're all looking at me like oh sweet or it could be out to here at this point I don't know I was lugging stuff in in the mist and I haven't had a chance you nice if it's not just you know like feel free to like PCH out a little bit um so thank you so much for coming I want to introduce everyone and then get us started this is our transition to kindergarten night or our kindergarten information night so I want to start off with our I want to come up with a nickname but I'm going try to hold myself that here our floral crew over here I can't it um we have Mrs Royer kindergarten teacher and we have this Butler who is also a kindergarten teacher they will be presenting to you tonight and then um um we also have Miss gray who is our register in the district um some of you probably most of you have spoken to her at some point along this journey and then over here to my left we have Dr palano at Van skyber we have Mrs Massie at stoy and Jennings and then we have Miss Lunsford at Strawbridge and Edison and then over to my right we have Dr pako our superintendent in the district so really quick before we start just by a show of hands how many of you already have a child in the district okay great so can you raise them really really high for me and then everybody look around so we are going to try to answer as many questions you guys can come in and grab a snack find a seat feel free to sit wherever you like um we will answer as many questions for you as we can and give you any information along the way but our community and our support group are all around you so it's really um we like to look at it it take vage and get you know our support from within and also from you know the formal Communication channel so without further Ado I'm GNA let Dr car speak for a few minutes and then we will start with our welcome everyone uh nice to see faces question the other way how many do not have children in the district right now okay so have great welcome to head Township my name is Bobo this is my fourth year here as superintendent uh we take a lot of pride in our school district we have uh all the adults that work every day with our kids are extremely motivated um very skilled we canot ask for a better staff uh we are in the process of upgrading most of our facilities uh you may have heard U some information about a $30 million Bond referendum that recently passed P so we're very excited to upgrade our infrastructure I think when you have a really good Workforce dedicated teachers skilled administrators experienced folks that really care that love kids um work as much can the last thing that we can do most responsible do is upgrade uh the environment in which students learn so that's something that we're certainly committed uh to doing we are currently in a bit of a difficult spot financially many of you may be aware that we're due to lose a significant amount of State funding um from Tron you know Public School budgets are made up of a combination a taxes raised to the local tax levy and state aid that is provided from Trent unfortunately this year we are taking a step backwards in the amount of state aid we were originally slav L got $800,000 a state aid that number is going to fall a little bit north of about $43 38,000 so U the good news is that we have we're managing to keep our commitment to a full day instructional ingr program when we when we originally received that news we were a little bit nervous of whether we were going to be able to continue with a full day instructional program um but we are fully committed to build on the foundation of what we created this year and uh we are excited to do that there is no bad question tonight um so whatever questions that you have I would make this as interactive as as you can two teachers in a short time but feel free ask any questions you may have the most common question is where will my child go to school if you're not already familiar with our dotted line solid line School assignment math um please contact Miss gray she'll send it to you is it on our website yes it's on our website you can put in your address and you can see based on where the pin drops which school you will definitely your child will definitely go to or if you're in an area where there could be a choice between two schools I think there's one section there's one development where I think there's a choice of three schools the reason we do that is because we're committed to valid in class scienes we don't want to get in the situation like we're in a few years ago where one class had 11 kids in it and another class had 28 right it's just not fair we would to provide Equitable Services and Equity starts with trying to M class size in a similar fashion across the dist so there's no more important thing than Early Child of Education it was a district goal this year it was a district goal the year before we've expanded pre program benefit from benefit children will benefit from our expanded instructional program next year so welcome toship if you have any questions I'll be here for the duration of the night but feel free to ask turn over to good evening hi welcome to Henri kindergarten my name is j berer I've been lucky enough to work in early childhood education for the past 22 years uh and 18 of those years have been here in had countship uh the last two years Amy and I have been working together U teaching inclusion uh I be I actually live in town we moved here so I could send my kids here because I love the district so much I taught this is my 14th year teaching 10th year in District I taught preschool when we were half day half day I taught half day kindergarten half day preschool so I know where your kids you're coming from and I'm excited to have them now in kindergarten uh sh said we're teach inclusion that means it's a classroom that has students with I or uh special education and we're lucky enough to co- te um welcome to kard we thought this picture was so cute because we know such a happy uh we're going to give you a sneak peek into a day kindergarten we're going to hope these videos work we thought no better way to tell you guys what kindergarten is without heing it from [Music] up it's a where [Music] we it's cool it's a it's a place to buy hey this a place where you have to learn and cool [Music] things what's your Jim you like [Music] Jim is a all right so from their mouth [Music] oh hold on we don't see technology all right what will they learn kindergarteners are going to learn a lot of things it's a huge year of growth it's academics of course we're going to do literacy we'll do the math we'll do science we're doing social studies but it's so much more they grow socially they grow emotionally we do a lot of turn taking we do developmental play where we actually get to help facilitate their play uh similar to what you would think in a preschool classroom but we continue to do it because we have the full day program we're able to also do that turn um a lot of expressing our feelings the school counselors come in they help us out we do a lot of following directions by the end of the year multi-step directions um how to be a good friend as a Citizens uh we find it important that they feel like they're part of our community part of our family um most important to us is that they leave kindergarten seeing themselves as a learner they're excited about school they love school they can't wait to go back the next day and I feel like we don't believe it um so let's talk about our day when we start our day they come in we call it arrival activ each classroom will call it something different we start our day with a soft opening we call it it's kind of like a no pressure time they get to come in they get to greet their friends greet their teachers they unpack their backpack they have responsibilities put their folder away they put their lunch box away they have to check in on their lunch count CU they get to buy lunch at the lunch room if they want to um we don't teach that all in the first day they'll learn how to do it they it's very student driven at this point they feel like they're in control in a lot of it and so we kind of find that's an easy way to start a no pressure day uh it's also an opportunity to socialize with their peers we can't expect them to come in and sit down and get to work um our morning meeting this is RO St always last this is my baby but I feel like this is our time that we really get to feel like a family and get to talk the kids get to show off what they know um in the pictures you can kind of see we're doing calendar that's a place for us to talk about math skills that aren't necessarily taught in our curriculum but things that we need to out we do do the week we do months of a year we count or we do patterns um weather we talk yeah marketing special events how many days till the next thing um the kids we have our kids we do a busy be and they're in charge of doing the calendar so they actually get to put in the days of the week they get to put in the numbers we also have a visual schedule each day so the kids know what to expect we do a morning schedule and an afternoon schedule you see that on the bottom right um and at the top this is something that has evolved this year every morning from September till I don't know January February uh chenine and I both wrote a warning message we would take turns the kids would come up they would Mark what they know day one they're marking letters they know by October they're marking full words they know by by I'll say January they're marking sentences that they know they're identifying the punctuation right now we're marking diagraphs we're marking short vow sounds with a bre as you can see Dash and Harper wrote their very own warning message now and the kids are now editing their friends work it's just amazing how much this is cost and this is something that we're noticing more and more with old dayet this is not something we had time to do before so we're really proud of this this year literacy is my B so read alouds guided reading independent reading uh us modeling reading reading with students and then that independent reading students reading on their own um you can just see from the pictures the joy that it really is a community building experience um we're learning through foundations is our phonic program it's explicit it's direct um and that's something that we adopted in the district this year we have seen a huge boom from from the children with that uh we also incorporate ftis and penel which is a multi- literature approach and that lends itself to the model of having a whole group lesson breaking up into small groups and Independent Learning uh but is one of probably my favorite things to teach writing so having children realize that they can carry meaning in their words seeing themselves as a writer is really important so it starts really small like you'll see the little girl rolling out her name um but that's getting those fine motor muscles going getting ready for writing so expressing ourselves using different muscle modalities shaving cream all of the things that we can do just to prepare them to create letters and make letters uh and then down to the knitty gritty of concepts of print where you start on the page where you going left to right and top to bottom all of those things that you have to know in order to be a writer um Amy asked the kids in the bottom video she'll press a minut it um we ask them what do you like about kindergarten and they take ownership in their words they know they can reread their words and that they carry meaning uh you'll notice that they talk about Kinder buds just so you know Kinder buds um is our collaboration with our third grade Advanced skyber so we see them once a week so it's a pure collaboration uh the other thing you know is they don't like yes before I play the video I did want to comment on the little boy at the top right there you can't tell what he wrote in that picture but he actually took the time to take each one of our schedule cards and he wrote exactly what is on the schedule and he wrote the actual words but I want to note that this was during his play time he chose this is what he chose to do and if you knew this boy it would blow your mind we were so proud of him it was just a really cool moment all right now I'll show you I like like I like snack time I like snack time I like kind bus because we do I like blunch because I love to be lch I like the play and the library I see ready wow I [Music] like I like Kindle I like my friends Dyan M Parker I [Music] like I like playing what can you show me oh you marked your diagraph good job buddy read it we have AIT [Music] us I like I like Rec because we get to can't to have because it is great one to end off so here's what's important to know if your child is coming in writing their name great if your child is coming in and they don't know letters that's okay too so where your child comes to kindergarten this is not a reflection of that this is videoed yesterday yes so it it has been a progess of going from writing the beginning sound you here writing the end sound filling in vowels we've done a lot of work to get there so wherever your child is in that journey and that development we'll meet them where where they are at are you tired already um leading into work centers so this year having a cold day we have been really lucky in the fact that we now have more time to explore on different levels uh Children's Learning so work center time in for literacy we also do it for math is where students break into small groups and independently can practice through play um through activities your child will come home and say we played a lot that's what we want them to think um a lot of our learning is done through play and so it should be um but you'll see in our pictures we have um our AIDS our power professionals are a very important part of our family in our classroom and they help support our um our learning also work centers is a nice time to meet groups at if I have a child that needs a little bit more help with something that's a great time if I have a child that's really strong and can be met with a challenge so it's really nice to be able to modify curriculum to specific groups um math so this year we adopted the I ready program uh we continue to have handson uh con hands on learning um through you know we count write numerals put groups together and taking them apart simple word problems or things that we work on um I will say they love math they they see themselves as math Minds um learning again through multiple modalities um am's going to play the video you'll hear but you'll see write that number we're practicing our number writing in shaving cre number [Music] number [Music] seebers so we're making sure are they writing their numbers form in correctly from the top are their numbers running the right direction things like that 13 versus 31 all of the ones and T places again has been a journey and a process okay so snack outside play centers so this is the fun stuff that they think is like we also like I said we use this time as a chance for us to kind of jump into their FL we get to meet them where they are help solve social situations we work on tading that's a big one when isn't important when not to um snack helps with a lot of our self-help skills they need to open up the bag they need to close the bag they need to wash their hands they need to clean up their snack um they get a quick probably about what 10 minutes 7 minutes really to eat um but it's still the time for them to socialize we have it as a no pressure thing they get to sit they get to talk when they're done they can go read a book with a friend um we do get outside as much as we can as much as long as the weather permits um even with a little drizzle some days cuz it's so necessary with long day uh we will take walks outside we'll black toop chalk outside there's a lot of different options for us um play centers is what I was talking about earlier the developmental play time we in our classroom at least we like to do um themes in our develop in our dramatic play area so we started the year with a kitchen which I know most of the kindergarten classrooms have um we turn ours into a diner we've turned it into a flower shop we've turned it into a doctor's office a bed's office office store uh a school this year which was a new one for us they really wanted to place school so they set it up like a school um but we let them kind of Take the Lead they tell us what we need in it they help us make labels for it and it's just a really fun time they sometimes they even get to vote what they would like it to be met so it gives them the ownership we were lucky enough to get a lot of materials this year we got a lot of building blocks we have a little a lot of games they can play puzzles to do we kind of swap out and let them pick what they want there's really a it's really a choice time to have control of it um uh so exploring the world as a scientist um observing questioning and exploring the great part for us is that five and six year-olds love science they are curious they want to be out in the world and they they really want to be a part with hands you know handson things so um our standards in New Jersey come life physical and Earth Sciences our school is lucky enough to have people come into the school sometimes to do um an assembly so that's a mad scientist that came in we had one this year that did it also um a lot of the schools do that one uh we did some planting this year we had see the soil bins they got the plant seeds we had a pumpkin come in we carved it open pulled the seeds out it's a lot of fun so we try to be as hands f as possible with it social studies so as as far as our curriculum goes cultures in perspective it sounds sounds very big but I'll give you the breakdown so learning about themselves um one thing we do is star of the week so we find out each child and adult in the classroom gets to be the star of the week and really what they find out is similarities differences and and accepting those so it really is a great thing and we write stories for every Stars it's a really exciting thing for them uh obviously government rules learning about why they're important in our society in our school are very important uh learning about where we live um P Township is one of our favorite places to explore and we'll show you some more about that um Civics learning about community helpers and you can see the Haden Township Fire Department they always come to visit and they teach our all the students in the district about fire safety so and also y the dentist came as well from Dr a James's office um and in them about dental health during February so just keeping all of those things um we always say we are proud Americans we say our pledge as a school every morning and we sing patriotic songs um and knowing our national symbols M rer can I interrupt for one second Miss Mrs Massie can you just share your dental story really fast where the the students were using you as the patient oh in my preschool yes just to like give a little perspective about you know like the preschoolers going into kindergarten but they will use anyone and miss miss Massie was brand new I go to preschool um every day it's my my play time to to you know play in the sand I do blocks I do My Little Pony and I was instructed to sit down because I was going to the dentist so I said oh so I'm on the little chair and they're in this open up no no wider and they are this close to my face looking in they're like oh all right so do you have some cavities in here oh I don't do why so then the ne so another friend was like I would like to see inside there so then there was a line of preschoolers that just wanted to say in my mouth to tell me that um I needed some work fun so they're not not afraid to let you know what's really going on kindergarten worth going after the store and buying one of those Play-Doh heads that open up that would be great that would be great that's next floss for you yeah I thought that was very fitting I'm Like Preschool or kindergarten they will um yes will make everyone kill right at home because like I said Mrs Massie was um a new principal in our district in January and they made her feel right at home um so it's very very much hands on just before we keep going does anyone have any questions at this point up to this point of anything that you heard or something that's popped into your mind and you want to ask it while it's at the front of mind we're also almost done okay I just wanted to check and make sure and if you want to get up and get a cookie or water feel free make sure everyone signed in yes thank you uh so field trips I will say one of the nicest Parts about P CH is that we have a lot of control in the field trips that we take so from year to year it varies depending on the interest of our students so that part is really nice for us as the educator so this year um shout out to Brunos Mr Bruno let us uh learn how to make pizza with him we walked from Van skyver uh we made a how to make pizza book and then we went back to the classroom and the kids made their own howto books how to tie your shoe how to swim how to do a back bend so um all of our trips are interwoven into our curriculum uh that beautiful picture at the top was our science trip we went to Camp Creek run where they got to uh learn in different areas farm and woods and just learning how to be a scientist and exploring uh and most recently we went to story bookland uh we did a unit on fairy tales Fractured Fairy Tales and we'll be concluding that unit going to the library in another week or two with our Kinder buds so everyone has a library card for summer so we utilize what we have in the community as well as outside of the community but all experiences that really help children grow on a whole and it's fun to be back with field trips because there was a lot of years so we're excited this year was a full course field trip year um the kids in kindergarten do get to have specials which is nice so they get to go to um fed or Jim as you heard in our video uh they have health also they get to go to learn Spanish they have an art class and they have music class uh each school does have a library um usually run by the PTI and it's usually well done uh so they get a chance to get out CH be with a different teacher and explore the different things or in the okay we have two final but this is a quote that CH name I play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning and Mr Rogers we you SE a lot of our class today because that's who we have access to um but they have a second kindergarten and Van skyver and so I went down to the second kindergarten class and I wanted to learn what hear what they learned also so you'll get to hear from our class first and then you're going to hear from the other joren class uh about what they learned in [Music] jarden what' you learn Lear how to what would she go to say oh good B how to put things together me again you learn this [Music] year so our class was a little over the other classes is excited I learned how this sound I learned about sub how to subract I learn my never my fav thing to do at school is going to Art [Music] Classen to I learned about how to make a mman and kinderart I know how to I learn I learn how to take away a MTH I I learned about do at recess yeah you learn how to read what' you learn I have [Music] to so they took ownership of what they learned I think they think they learned a lot we're really proud and if it doesn't come across we really love our jobs so much and we just are so lucky to work with each day and I really feel like this whole day kindergarten has shown us I was so hesitant about it because I love my half day my half day but I am just amazed at the things that these kindergarteners can do so we're so excited to share that with you we're looking forward to uh seeing your kindergarteners in the fall oh yeah see we'll turn it over to Dr all right just a few closing thoughts then we'll open it up for questions um despite what you seeing about all the creative things that our students are doing they one point that I EMP is you don't need to do anything to get your our job to be ready for your job it's not your child's job to so rest in that okay um next thing I want to talk about having two children in my home that are now 17 and 16 it's a different world now okay I don't have nearly enough video um when they were five as as probably should have because they used to say the funniest things right they're so innocent they're so funny things that they do I would encourage you to record as much as you can and breite as much as you can down for the things all the funny things that happen all the enthusiasm that they had things like this is Massie shared about set princial down that ex stuff doesn't happen when they get past about second they start to understand a little bit more gets a little more developed so I would encourage you to take us much video as you can now this second part of this we are doing a lot of um Research into artificial intelligence because we're preparing for you know this this AI that is here now um so earlier in the year we met with some different types of actually residents that have have had much experience working with AI first piece of advice I would have is don't post it's just it's dangerous I don't want to uh elaborate any more than that I don't want to scare you if you have photos of your kids online I think it's probably okay but just as a general rule of thumb going forward in a world of AI um if you're posting photos of your kids online people could take those photos do things better that's something I just would like to kind of for something to think about we try to strike the the right balance with educating kids in a technological world without having them be reli on technology right um you know there's a lot of positives to educational Technologies a lot of a lot of concerns as well so they should not do not have side screens in kindergarten you know the less time going to screen uh the better as they go vertically throughout uh our school you know they're going to be more L on a screen not for just play time or busy time but to support uh a clearly defined [Music] educational also on school safety um we have an open house prior to the first day of school where parents are encouraged to come into the school uh with your child and show your child the classroom okay where they going to be but on the first day of school parents are not no longer permitted into the school okay and the reason for this is because we don't know all the parents um on the first day of school and the other students who are now in first grade second grade third grade when your children get there you know we're respon they are they know the adults that work in the school that are supposed to be there and when adults come into the school who are visit there's a signning process take the driver's license we get the name we expect them to have business there we know what their business is and these visors happen you know very rarely so we're putting all of the kids at risk if the doors are just wide open on the first day of of school because it's very difficult to Monitor and it's not good practice so you know the number one job in our school district is not academic learning okay I say that as the super our school district the number one job of the school district is to keep all students physically and psychologically safe so detaching on that first day outside of the school may be difficult Mak you to prepare for that ahead of time but we're going to be ready to support your child when you drop them all on the first day okay does anybody have any questions for our teachers myself our admin RoR in the back our reg or anything at all is there any information you can provide on like before and after care and how that works sure um would we still are going we plan on still having before care at all schools okay this is something that you know we're going try to stay committed to it has not always been the case because you know if we have only two students signed up at at the school you we may not be able to run a program every single school so a lot of the work is um on enrollment enough enrollment uh The CARE program is at every single School uh you run SCH 6 yes you can get information on line of the reasonable um it was mentioned that F fivver has two kindergarten classes is that the same through for all schools that there's two or I think maybe there's one in some so here's here's one of the problems that we have as New Jersey educator right we have no idea how many kindergarten classes are going to be Advanced sky or any other school because there's no census right now for the number of 5-year-olds in had to um there's a phenomenon uh in New Jersey education that despite how much time that we spent advertising kindergarten kindergarten registration kindergarten orientation something happens the last we go upon us and the thing that happens the last week of August is a large influx of kindergarten students magically appear okay and that number varies from here to here okay we anticipate moving forward two sections of kindergarten at strawb two at Van sky and one at Jennings story and and when will maybe get placement on that like when will that communication go out as late as late as we will wait as long as possible to provide the most accurate information without creating an urgent frantic situation you okay typically when is that mid thank you and if you have a question you want email me or give me a call say how's it looking information yes ma'am um what is your typical classroom size in teacher to student ratio and thing I probably should have mentioned earlier we not only made the investment into a full day instructional kindergart program we have this a consistent 6-hour educational assistant in the classro with the teacher so teacher to student ratio is 25 okay but adult to student ratio is Clos to about 12 for 80% of and if it's a um inclusion class then there would be an additional teacher um in the class um so general education teacher special education teacher but the nice part about that is when we walk in or anyone would walk in who's supposed to be in the building you don't know who's the general education teacher or who the special education teacher is they are there for all of the students so um so for those classes you do have two teachers in there okay but it's usually just one assistant in the room or one assistant one assistant one teacher and generally speaking the kindergarten class the actual physical size of the classes is they pretty thank you ma'am uh drop off Pro question is what what is the drop off process well we're supposed to be a primarily a walking District all right that's not necessarily the case if you go stand outside our our schools uh in the morning so we have buses that arrive at Jennings and buses that arrive at atance Skyler so at those two schools you'll have a combination of parent walk up uh parent drop off parent drop off there's a Desy area to drop off and then a bus drop off so we try to coordinate um different sections from the bus where the parents drop up they're all neighborhood schools we just kind of do the best we can they're kind of embedded in a neighborhood you don't have you drive around South youc School should have long entance it's like the Middle School here right this is probably the only long that we have out s schools um so principles do the best they can to organize designated drop off have get great support from the police especially the beginning of the school year um and that's been a smooth process the last few years so I don't I don't anticipate we don't historically we haven't had many issues the first weeks of school we sent out Maps right not a pain uh there are some pain points there are some pain points he was the parent um there are some pain points at the beginning of the school year let me give you one as an example we tear our bus rods which means that the same bus driver that's going to drive home a high school student is going to drop those high school students off and then they're going to return to most likely daned sky pick up students and drive them home okay when the high school students are late getting to the bus the first day that bus may be late to party that bus driver may not know exactly where stops change from year to year so at dismissal there may be a delay uh coming home on on schooles uh so don't expect your child to go that bus exactly at the and the park could be uh 10 or 15 minute week especially toward the beginning of the school year yes sir um our child's going to be busted and our older son went to Van skyver but I'm not sure if our youngest one is going to go to B skyver for kindergarten or if he's going to go to J where's your oldest how old is your older son uh midd 13 yeah he's 13 so he's in middle school yeah okay and you okay so you would be what we call a dotted line so depending on the moment we would probably assign to Jennings the extension probably would assign to Jennings or or to Van skyver um but if we we assigned to Van skyber would be a school bus J probably so so you won't know until August so you'll be in that grou where you'll know once give that enrollment letter but you're you definitely will be Bust or and it will and did you say there was a choice for that no you can give a preference but it really depends on enrollment does that impact pickup location or should we just plan on no so if because you're Transportation doesn't matter which school they're going to get dropped off that it'll still be the same bus stor um the special classes art music language how often are those are they like a weekly thing like they get them week we have one to day oh cool um and then I a second question of like uh just cuz my kids been in a and TK for half day only um how in this year have you seen just like the stamina of the kids throughout the throughout the day and how are they how do you deal with that how do they deal with that one slept for the first week in the afternoon on the bag in the back um but go ahead you can we definitely meet each student where they're at because some kids they don't you know they're ready to go full Full Throttle um so it definitely depends on your class and each student but I think that's always a concern I will say first grade will feel they'll reap the benefits from the full day because it's usually the first grade teachers that are but we also are very aware of reading the room and um you know accommodating especially in the beginning of the year till we built up that stamina I really think we try to put like our rigorous stuff in the morning as much as we can it's kind of spread out now because we built that stamina but in the beginning yes and then kind to have a little bit of a lighter afterno we have a little girl that asked for a snap still in the after have a couple cheeses we try to get them where they are okay first a good book on that called when it's good for adults too my Daniel pink has education the patients uh but also it's a very good read researcher and um like PRS the book is like when you do stuff when that will be most productive so he has a big emphasis on you know math should be as much as possible match should being in the M right um you know you need to go to the doctor you know an x-ray don't do it at 2m doctor going to miss something try to get the first appointment in the morning so uh you know we try to pay attention to hoping challenge students when they're best so the subjects move throughout the day like math reading they you could do them different yep we try to stick with a schedule as much as we can because we have kids that drive off of that schedule of course but we do have the flexibility to move as we need to for our schedule and sometimes the specials are in the morning sometimes there in the afternoon so some days they have to flip off but we do what works and we switch it as we need to I think it's at least one special R is an hour right one one day we have a so they at least have one special and one day they do yes ma'am two questions are kindergart mostly in one classroom throughout the day or do they visit like Library go to other that's special so we go to gym we go to music we go to the art class we go to the library missing one we go to Spanish go to the cafeteria Trav yes it um and have you all found that kindergarteners prefer a buy lunch or bring lunch from home or personal preference yeah if you have a picky eater I would say keep them comfortable at the beginning and then maybe they'll Branch out a little bit later when they're comfortable but it really is a we needed a rule in our class for the first like 3 or four weeks that everybody had a bring so we knew how to get to the lunch room how to open a lunch how to sit down and have lunch um and then once they kind of got comfortable we allowed them to get to we ask parents to give us permission to say yes my child is allowed because we had kids being like yeah I have money so I think it's just going to be your own child I will encourage you to go to the web we not not brand new anymore but a new this year Food Service provid name of the Food Service Prov is w w and it's a stronger emphases on Fresh local food so it's moreable options think we've improveed the quality of food this year we're we're pretty satisfied with the school lunch program it is not taken off um thing I think is we're also satisfied with is they want to hear from parents and children of what did you like what did you not like so if the year gets started your child's buying lunch and those things that they really like are just like I C Sophie she loves to hear from parents and they working really hard and try to accommodate us I off days ahead it's a big today y um quick question about s for kindergarteners is that going to stay in place for next year I know that last year I have a kindergarten right now Trish and they didn't start the year having snack so I just hoping that we're going to carry that yeah so that was Mrs lunsford's decision she took that away strawberries I'm just kidding oh jeez there might have been some variability I was going to say I know atan skyro do have snack and they do in the other classroom too it might be a teacher preference I'm not sure we have it now and it's it was pretty much like after the first month it went in place but I me like that first month was a little dicey so you know just hoping that that stays in place I mean that can be something we talk about with the principles kind of just like set it as across the board but that's yeah we can not you guys doing intermittent fasting in kindergarten as the teachers say yes we only need got 10 minutes no um first thank you for doing the presentation and staying out there on I'm sure a very long day um it was wonderful um I was curious about the uh communication with parents either like individual about your child but also like as a classroom this is what we're doing so I call Amy our PR person because she always has a video up uh we utilize seesaw every teacher has their kind of platform um you will get communication how they do it will be up to the teacher the classroom teacher uh we do have conferences like the rest of the district around November um but I think the teachers are always open if you have a need I would say you know never be afraid to reach out to a teacher they'll always be happy to meet if you need to do that and so there emails uh we just had this conversation actually miss lford and I were having this conversation just in general so from the classroom emails newsletters Etc but the principles also have a variety of smore newsletters that go out remind I know a lot of teachers use Dojo so you will have more than enough information and I highly recommend like putting the dates on your Google calendar and if you like a hard planner copy like I do um putting it there too there are a lot of events and activities look at the Marquee out in front of the schools like there's a lot of places to get the information so you'll always be up to date and if you need something just you can act at the beginning of the day end of the day and we're really um responsive to get back to again and I know you were worried more about teachers but each school does also have a PTA Facebook page and I would highly recommend getting on that because those PTA mounts are also that keeping upes on that topic one of the things that probably be looking at moving forward is our report card so not a conversation for tonight but the way we report student progress to parents probably will involve over the next few years probably should have involved and had C you like to innovate and at the same time hold on everything that all the Traditions at the same time I think we're giving parents more feedback than ever communication is easier than ever so I don't know where our report cards you know they might change a little bit you know from from if you have other in the district that gone through our schools know we be waiting long narratives couple times a year to parents it's just parents have more access to our future for feedback than ever so just something here's a question sir is there aut [Music] policy policy districtwide but if there's a peanut allergy handle that or NSE um we will have schooles aside to every building um and uh that's the anticipation and um you're pretty on top of that in terms of understanding where theology is and making sure that there's no risk of in the summer um if you submitted physical to me and it said peanut allergy on there the nurse will contact you before school no actually part of our lunch program has pelly as an option we typically handled that pretty well to be able to accommodate kids who want eat peanut butter sandwich those who may that's I have a question about the program since you mentioned it is that at every school or is it just the school that you're at I started doing Kinder butts for many years ago um and I did it all five schools so at some point or another they've had them um but some schools do and some schools don't um I would like we have an amazing team of teachers and I think that we could definitely get it up in all the schools and launched just for that consistency um because it really does provide camaraderie in the school and like you know our kids see their third grade buddies and they're hugging them and um Allison was when I was at strawber we were Kinder but partners and it really is a great thing to create community in this school so hopefully next year we can get everyone sir given the state budget cuts what areas do you anticipate get those to okay so right now where we are if I could do this all up and P this up this the board meeting tomorrow night I can kind of reash finish from last the last meeting um we added position two years ago that were part of the Esser funding so basically the federal government gave us a lot of funding 3 or four years ago coming out out of Co and it came with a warning they said here here's money it's to help students accelerate learning and recover from Co it will not be permanent in your budget don't commit to positions don't over spend it on person so but it's people that help your kids recover from Co it's people that help kids out accelerate so we split we took about half of it put it in our facilities and we took the other half of it the high St okay the staff that we hired as part of those eser monies does not look like most of them does not look like that they will be able to continue now 4 years later um so the that I am right now anticipating is going from full-time gifted caled teacher to some other way to deliver GI services for students who have been identified as we added a supplementary reading teacher at the elementary level that I don't believe that will be able to continue with that position that may need to that may be able to go back to like a teaching assistant um we had a full-time we have this year we had three full-time guidance counselors to the elementary level the third one most likely will be now be split between Elementary and Middle School one Elementary and one middle school so we have can hedge there and share resources um and I think our kids had library media Services delivered by media specialists at the elementary level the last few years and that position I don't think is going to be in the budget for next year but we certainly at this that we're going to bring that one back we'll put a $3 million Library few years certainly specialist District so that one those are the four I think no I don't think so okay so the the gifted classes will exist they'll just be paired down or a different form gifted Services Yeah by by state law we provide gifted services with ENT have students who be identified who are gied have Services just don't want the servic that start in kindergarten we start to identify in kindergarten but there's no pull yeah so that's a push and um so how that looks next year we're going to be creative and Innovative with how the services are um offered but the services will be offered and um there's so it's a pushing kindergarten there's um Mass testing in second grade to cast the West net and those Services go through Elementary School and Middle School on an individualized um Bas is based on what the students interests are and um the parents and their input and that's how the services are offered right now but it's elementary and middle school and then once they get high school they get to Tech take their AP courses and things like that so it's thank you on our on our district website you any kids in the district go to the website there's a button at the top that says sign up for district news you just put your name in your email in that you receiving District updates immediately and I think I'm send out an update this Friday kind of where the budget one more shoe has to drop from Tron we receive extraordinary Aid uh in July it's a figure that we still don't have it's reimbursement for special education costs so escalated Rec [Music] years listen just like you know when we go to the supermarket account everything the register what that's that's the total like everything just seems like it's higher all the services that that we're providing out throughout of District the cost of fuel for our buses the cost of repairs and cost of materials everything is is is just escalating at such a rap um it's not just a state a that has affected us deficits right now that we're trying to yes sir on the elementary level when there is a weather related closure is it a closure or is there a virtual learning days virtual learning days um are not permitted by law so when it snows and we cannot safely get the students to school the [Music] STA congratulations um could you share a little bit about like in terms of emergency communications like how is that handled you have an emergency communication system like what would be the process yeah so we build emergency communications system um and it's updated I believe it's updated [Music] the system will allow for text email phone call for different numbers different numbers and um Twitter when we send it out we get a report of which numbers are no no longer good and that that generally pretty lengthy when gets in service it just automatically goes the next so I think it's important to make sure information updated okay but it's like a system that's in place in terms of if there is something um and sorry just the second question I have is just around inclusion classrooms I know that was mentioned at the beginning I'm just kind of curious of is that if your student does have 9p is it dependent like how does that process work so yeah so we have about 20% of our population uh of students are under individualization and that's special education allten times that's the result of could be a condition and that is going to require a placement what we like to describe as the least restrict of environment okay and if it's more significant situation the child may need to be able to call selfon class okay in that class are have similarities it may be a different type of experiment where the child would be in an inclusion class okay if the child is in an inclusion class could be something as um insignificant as a speech right uh or some mild U form of something that qualify as part of if that's the case there needs to be a second teacher in the room that is legally responsible for that child's educational program so it's an inclusion classroom whether it's kindergarten or first grade you would have the classroom teacher you would have the special education teacher probably would still have the aid kinderart so there be three of those all three of adults are responsible for all the students okay it's a team and there should not be a situation where the general education teacher is teaching the students that don't have the IEP and the special education teacher is teaching students that have the IEP they're both responsible for and Aid is not only assisting the students Aid is assisting both teachers and servic discreption thank you and sorry I just ask the following question just in terms of like I think you mentioned guidance counselors like is there a school psychologist like are there other folks that are trained term ref functioning child study team districtwide we don't have a child study team at each school but David Conor is a director of special services and she manages a child study team or the team is a district social worker speech therapists School psychologists uh lgtc actually the school counselors are part of that team any questions related to to that program em being a c be respons yes sir yes [Music] I yeah yeah yeah there are limits there's appropriate numbers that can be part uh of every classroom so yeah and it's to balance so our classes are balanced so that we have a very inclusive class so you're going to have a balanc number of general education students and a balanced number of students who may require some special education um my own children are very old I don't know how I'm not old but they are very old but my um my own children have been in general education classes but they've been very fortunate to have been placed in inclusion classes along the way and those have been some of the best experiences because you know we always want to go in and have that diversity of thought and different experiences and embrace all uniqueness um but those have been amazing because not only do you get the additional teacher and like I said you walk in you don't know who's supposed to teach who because everyone's teaching all of this students but it's just been amazing experiences for so those actually you used to be my preference whereas you know some people think oh I don't want my child in inclusion class because you know what is that experience going to look it's going to be a it's you know going to look like the real world and it's a really amazing process to watch so um but it's balanced as far as numbers go is the including class only at no [Music] we don't have a plan right yeah there's no plan next year this year currently this year is the end this but we have [Music] no we'll all know in August it's a one-year plan every every year is a one-year plan we try to make decisions that um you know enoll shifts change from year to year kids change teachers change change buildings things change cling changes um so our goal is buy a ticket right you know you essentially you're buying a ticket by choosing to live at high P ticket it's getting more expensive considering your property taxes we get it our goal is to provide them with the best educational experiences that we can take it very seriously and we do it one year at a time so our goal you know right now is for your CH child have the best year we can possibly try them next year next year we'll start yes sir silly question but homework do we have homework in the kindergarten grade or uh sure uh I think that really comes from the classroom teacher they make ultimately the decisions um I can see for us we move from a half day to a full day so what we value is that you go home have dinner with your family I think the most we sent home is reading especially like when we get into guided reading um and that really is just an opportunity to more so for your child to connect with you um but I think the best thing you can do for any child is to read to them so um the answer for us I can speak for is is no but majority of us do not they've already had a long day and the thing you said about dinner was a lot actually a lot of research as parents and and I wish you know now looking through the Mir my kids are teenagers but they said the three things that you can say to your kids every day um to support them the most is you know I love you I forgive you cuz they're going to make mistakes every day and it's time for dinner right you know the the research coming out with increased amounts of screen time parallels the same research that shows the lack of family time less families that are gathering around table now4 ever right all over extend it running in a different really different directions as your children get older it will get more difficult so quality on din table or whatever type ofal experience you can create the better in our in our vision on the wall behind this gray it it says uh you know our goal is that all students will have a sense of belonging and a sense of significance but the school is just an extension of your home you know that sense of belonging and sense of significance you know she starting your home [Music] First first day after Labor Day SE days the school calendar on theb all three years of the school calendar this year year and the next two years are on um areil I think they're posted or should be live this year for the first time before school started the kindergartens across the district had an open house and I would say that is a really important day for your kids and for you for them to make a connection to us on that first day so they can release you and to know their environment and to know like this is a safe person Mom Dad my grown up grandparent has met them so make an effort to go to that because that's really important and I will send out the information about that and um the times and what time spot is available it's a fun day it's usually the day before or the two days of course you'll know who your teacher I want your class Liston and it gives you the opportunity to drop off any Supply so they're not trying to light in with you know they're recyclable bag and all these things like they can just walk in that day and they're going to be fine somebody will meet them and they will be support into their class and parents if it's your first time you will you know maybe have a moment of like oh my gosh um it's a sad but joyous day and just enjoy it goes by really fast I will say one thing that I've learned this is only my second year in the district um the neighborhood schools and the spirit and the pride that comes with those neighborhood schools is very deep in Haden cin so when I see the high schoolers running out to field day and they're like competing like sto's better than Jen it is like they celebrate their elementary schools something like I've never seen like you think it would be like middle school high school their Elementary School Year stay with them so enjoy it goes by fast and just cherish all the time that you have thank you so much for coming all right we'll stay any questions afterwards we'll hang around