has caused notice of this meeting setting for the time date location and location to be submitted for publication to the home newsun and Star Ledger and posted to the board's website at least 48 hours in advance of this meeting members of the public who wish to address the board will be given the opportunity to do so before board jours the evening here Dr play around with Dr Pixley here miss Cruz here Dr scholman here miss Daniel here missman here miss here we will now Mo us to Executive session resolved pursuing to the sunshine Act njsa 10 4-12 and3 Board of Education will now meet in close session to discuss personel matter these exemptions are permitted to discuss in session and information regarding the board's Clos session discussion will be disclosed to the public as soon as the need for confidentiality no longer exists and to receive I session [Music] second yeah uh here here here here here here here stand for our pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stand one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice to all before we proceed with the rest of our agenda I'd like to take a minute to address the events during this February 26th meeting disrespectful abusive bullying and intimidating Behavior has no place anywhere in our community and certainly not in anything associated with our schools this board Dr Susa and the district do not condone this behavior from anyone the board is committed to the values in this District's mission statement respect for diversity commitment to collaboration continuous Improvement and achievement of Excellence we regret that members of our community were disrespected and I apologize for not being more effective in facilitating a respectful and safe space for everyone I will do better we are a community and our words and actions both in person and online have impact on the well-being of our community these actions and words also impact the perception of our community our District staff are dedicated and talented public servants our board members are passionate volunteers our parents families and students are the heart of our district we all have our students best interest at heart it's important to remember that fact when we share different perspectives experiences and ideas we can be compassionate and demand results we can ask difficult questions and respect another person's perspective we can be empathetic and hold each other accountable we are all here for the same purpose and we need to come together to ensure that what we do here is about creating the best possible School experience for all students we can only do that effectively if we preserve the Integrity of our meetings our work and our relationships we must all commit ourselves not to just being kind and respectful for one another but also encouraging others to be the same way whether online or in person we need to do better I moved to Highland Park because it was unique I know a lot of us probably have that in common we love our town and our schools but the thing that sets Highland Park apart is probably our Collective I desire to affect change and grow our town and District we have a lot of passionate individuals who are committed to this Mission but change and growth are only possible if we maintain trusting relationships with each other and if we ground our work in facts this board is committing committed to continuing our collaborative work with District leadership staff students and families to achieve those goals Dr Susa there's anything you'd like to say having it all would be helpful yes thank you I wish to Echo Miss Cal dun's sentiments on our Collective commitment to fostering a safe and respectful environment for all members of our community it's imperative that we uphold values and integrity compassion and understanding in our interactions with one another I want to emphasize that I unequivocally condemn any form of harassment or inappropriate behavior within our school community such actions not only undermine our shared goals but also detract from the positive learning environment we strive to create for our students as we continue the important work of nurturing the academic social and emotional development of our students it's essential that we come together as a unified Force while we might not always see eye to eye on every decision it is my responsibility as the superintendent to prioritize the well-being and success of our students I firmly believe that by fostering open dialogue Mutual respect and a commitment to our shared Mission we can overcome challenges and Achieve great things for our students your support and collaboration are invaluable as we continue to strive for excellence and education thank you for your dedication to our school community and our students okay moving on in the agenda we have communications there were 28 total one on the calendar two on prek screen time one on the Irving sign uh two on the February 26th meeting one about barriers at Irving pickup one about Dr susa's commitment to mental health and the rest were about ble start time um I move the for the approval of minutes we will be approving the hybrid Workshop voting meeting and executive session from February oh sorry okay sorry I forgot we're in a workshop um so next on the agenda next time will the approval of minutes um and now our student Representatives hi everybody so over at Irving um Irving participated in the read Across America last week um and the students had a blast celebrating the love of reading um they would like to thank the families who joined them for flashlight Friday and all the community members for coming in to read to the students they also want to thank the PTO um for supplying them with new planters for out front of the school the students and staff are excited to get to get started planting next uh Irving Spring Fling dance will be on March 21st um and they encourage families to sign their children up and finally the kindergarten math night will be held this week on Wednesday at 6m over at barle ble also participated in R Across America week and enjoyed it thoroughly to say a massive thank you to all the staff and community members for coming out to reach to of classes B is looking forward to the Highland Park High School's drama club uh Foot Loose teaser for B students on March 14th it's become a tradition for each new production the club puts on and the students love it also important to note is that bto's talent show will be held later that same day on March 14th at 7M uh there will also be a math parent workshop at 5:30 p.m. on March 20th and finally Bingo for books will be held at 5:30 on March 27th at B for the middle school student student Congress is running a volleyball tournament on March 26th right after school in the gym students can sign up on their own with a partner or as a team of no more than 10 people by March 20th there's no cost to sign up and the winning team members receive gift certificates for money towards the school store as a prize plus they get to face off against the Stacked teacher team up next the middle school is hosting a movie night on March 20th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. showing the Adam project they will they will be providing popcorn soda treats they'll have games and more the sign up form can be found on the Highland Park Middle School's happenings Google uh classroom and lastly from the middle of school the spring conferences are beginning tomorrow March 12 and the Genesis portal was open a few days ago on Friday for all the parents and Guardians to sign up uh the main office asks parents who want to talk to their child's teachers to please refer back to the letter Miss Brady sent last week for directions and over at the high school the Red Cross club uh will be holding their spring blood drive on March 22nd uh in the high school gym from 8:00 a.m. to 2 PM and they're requesting volunteers uh the drama clubs performance of Fus will be this weekend uh Friday Saturday and Sunday March 15th 16th and 17th in the High School auditorium uh the Friday and Saturday performances are at 7M and the Sunday show will be at 2 the students have been working hard on the show for the past eight weeks and and are extremely excited to share it with an audience tickets can be bought at HP dr.net or at the door on the show Day N NHS held their Jeopardy event on February 27th in support of the Highland Park volunteer fire department and Seth Shapiro a junior was a champion congratulations to him um on March 3rd the robotics team completed in the First Tech Challenge FTC a regional tournament and all the uh and the team was chosen to compete with the winning Alliance for that day they then moved on to the semifinals and the finals where they actually won uh the Highland Park owls will be going to states which is a massive first for their team and they also won second place for the motivate award at the regional competition because they share their knowledge of Robotics with the community any opportunity that they get uh the state's competition will be held on March 17th at Harbor High School and the team which is coached by Miss Kesha steppen the robotics Club advisor uh has been spending every day after school for the past two weeks including Saturdays 9:00 a.m. to 6 p.m. working to prepare the students for this amazing accomplishment massive props to miss Stefan and the entire robotics team the H Park Deca chapter was able to attend the State Career Development conference in Atlantic City from March 3rd through the 6th this year 4,600 high school students came from all over the state to compete against one another in different business related events how pars chapter sent 50 students to the state conference has earned the spot and has earned the spot to be able to send 12 students to the International Conference in Anaheim California in April six students qualified on their manual projects which included topics such as supporting the makea Wish Foundation and teaching students in the glob program financial literacy topics whereas the other six students will participate in leadership workshops congratulations HP DEA Juniors should Mark their calendars on Wednesday March 27th uh the high school counselors will be traveling to Woodbridge High School for a college fair there will be over 50 College admissions representatives from the schools across the country uh in attendance and for students to be able to meet them and get valuable information from in order to go to the college fair a permission slip must be signed and returned to miss O Sullivan in the guidance office permission slips are available as well in the guidance office and lastly I'd like to give an honorable mention to miss collon who is our Center Hall attendant who has set up a nice display of influential women such as camela Harris Ruth Bader Ginsburg and K koni Brown Jackson and more to honor them during women's History Month additionally she has decorated the desk the desk all fun and green for St Patrick's Day thank you to miss colon for brightening up the students days and I encourage everyone to go check it out thank you thank you Andrew um any questions for Andrew comment thank you so so much for taking on so many updates for us I feel like we need a copy of these notes just because there are so just share so much information so we that I'm time to J if you don't mind sharing us I would appreciate it I can send it to you Dr s oh oh they are they're in the drive oh I didn't see them in the drive okay thank you Miss for putting the drive thank you so so excited to here I always love this time the school year for because spring activities start to come up and these competitions and events and just wonderful weekend thank you so much all right um we'll move on to superintendent report very no report this evening on to curriculum uh board committee reports and recommendations so I'll start ccul instruction hasn't met yet we meet Thursday um on the agenda for approval later this month are field trips there are field trips um that the High School Musical students will do at fle they perform a teaser of the musical um there's also some high school students going to see a Spanish play in New York City Hershey Park for a music in the Parks Festival um and New Brunswick for a model un competition ble field trips include Camp Bernie for fifth graders Liberty Science Center for second graders Liberty Hall at Keen University for fourth graders to learn about nj's role in the American Revolution um second on the agenda for approval would be um the position JG 2850 for a district registar not sure if we have the budget for this yet but this would be one position to oversee all of registration and then uh number three is a resolution to approve the board calendar changing um the May 13th 2024 meeting um will go from a workshop meeting to a voting meeting as per the attached schedule and that concludes curriculum instruction equity and Excellence yes equity and Excellence met uh this past Thursday March 7th uh and we had two guests our high school vice principal Jason Richardson and Miss Harry Young Who is the District counselor oh I'm sorry okay equity Excellence met uh this past Thursday March 7th and we had two guest speakers uh well guests I should say Jason Richardson our high school vice principal and Miss Tera young our district uh lead counselor uh first item on our agenda uh uh was not really item for discussion but just information sharing for our new committee members and that was the um listing of kind of the roles and responsibilities of the E and Excellence committee um we and those are a when this uh committee was initially formed in 2017 um there was a lot of discussion around addressing discipline inequity of course we're still having that's an ongoing um Topic in discussion for equity and excellence and at that time um decision was made to really look into bringing restorative justice to schools um the commit the committee was also formed thinking about ensuring equity and access to school programs and services establishing protocols protocols for building Equity into opportunities uh including outside of academic programs um providing Equity oversight to Other Board committees such as policy curriculum and finance and Personnel curriculum finance and Personnel um oversight and ensuring implementation of the Strategic plan and also serving an advisory role to the superintendent and students uh when I know when I joined the board the equity and Excellence committee meeting was meeting I think every two to three months um and we have now really clearly increased our um meeting frequency and I think the range of topics that we've been able to cover kind of under this umbrella of kind of founding roles and responsibilities uh so we welcome our new committee members and we had our first uh meeting with a full new committee uh very vigorous discussion as always so let me get into those notes our first item of our discussion was the comprehensive Equity plan and again this is um something that we felt important for our new committee members to know about uh and eing that's has their role in viewing the school district's comprehensive Equity plan which is a three-year plan required by the state for all school districts to submit um to the County Office of Education and the purpose of the CP is to identify and if necessary correct policies programs activities um practices and conditions that may be inequitable um in the district and we also as a district have to complete a self assessment to identify areas in need of improvement and develop a three-year plan to address them so the district's affirmative action team is responsible for composing the comprehensive equ plan um drusa shared last year's Report with the committee the this year's report is in in in the process of being developed um there in addition to the actual comprehensive plan There Is A needs assessment that looks at um the processes that need to be updated and areas of need as title the C shows um The District's compliance or lack thereof depending on uh you know year to year where we are in that and identifying and addressing all forms of prejudice um and discrimination in the district and we share that um document with uh the entire committee the board has access to that as well and you will see how U many policies and practices and programs are included under that um e riew historically our C has had to address disr disproportionality um by ra B and gender in suspensions as well as under representation of um students uh from historically underrepresented groups in accelerated and advanced academic classes so those are areas that you know we have had to address um and will continue to address the at the district once this year's report is updated Dr Francisco will share it with the committee for review as always um prior to border so we look forward to then we went we went on to talk about the uh Central Jersey Consortium activity um there we again this is another sort of ongoing topic of discussion we are a member of the Central Jersey Equity Consortium equity and Excellence Consortium um that is under the school board's Association uh we have had a conversation a couple months ago about whether or not the district should continue being a member of this Consortium or did the administration feel like they were benefiting from membership Dr s Susa did uh say that she um you know had some concerns about just the lack of um feeling that many of the programs and activities that they were attended most of which were remote were not very helpful to the staff um so her recommendation is that uh we do not continue with membership in Consortium however this year we that student conference stud from District um so we really thought it would be nice to have students focus on practic B will just send students conference and then um we'll get to repeat so beyond this this year I think we all were fine with Doctor of recommendation that not getting what we need from this particular resource um um Dr Su specifically pointed out some coaching models that for the banish students um and this is specifically in math based on the njsla scores so teachers and counselors uh you know really are taking that data into consideration and understanding that it is clearly going to be difficult for students who are starting already at a disadvantage when they're in the earlier grades to pick up a higher level math at high school so what some of the data points that Miss Young was able to share with us this time around um is that and this is linking to that ble data at least she kind of sees that as a link there were at the high school 20 black students taking any type of AP or honors course and only three of those students were enrolled in advanced math there were 39 Hispanic or Latino students taking any type of AP or honors course and only one in advanced math and there were 30 53 sorry 53 economically disadvantaged students 26 of which were enrolled in advanced math so this um this particular data again was just something that Miss Young shared with she because of the connection that they saw between what's happening at the with the test data the the earlier schools and perhaps again how that makes it more difficult for students to be successful at the high school anecdotal data from counselor's conversations with some of uh students from these underrepresented groups um who are not or chose not to enroll in honors of AP courses indicated other factors as well such as um you know family Dynamics the need to work after school or take care of a sibling after school um these were individual stories of course that can skew the data um but miss young again just wanted to acknowledge that this is for every student very different situation and there are other factors that are at play as well um Miss Young acknowledge that the counselors and teachers who are doing this work um are certainly not looking to push students if they are not ready to take our courses this is a conversation that I think all the committee members agree we don't want to see happening um the committee is um they are looking at enhancing differentiate instruction addressing the needs of diverse learning um uh diverse Learners as well as looking for for more opportunities for project-based learning an example of this is uh that they found Su uh that was very popular among the students is Camp invention um and that is a Project based mixed ability Group which has been as I said wildly popular among students so they're really looking to kind of think about ways to expand that sort of model uh with students um let's see we also agree that it's important for students to feel supported and prepared if they're taking AP or honors for the first time so they can achieve individual success whil also acknowledging that we understand that there's a perception that because um the barrier of a teacher recommendation was removed uh that the um I'm sorry okay that the actual rigor of the courses um are degraded in some way and we had a conversation about the research not really showing that however in some cases we do know that individual teachers May adjust instruction that is not practice or protocol that should be followed so I think that is another area that the committee will have to look at as well as they're especially as they're thinking about differentiation um another point that I think was important to highlight is that we talked about the factor of um the detracking in the sixth grade that involved pushing into fourth and fifth grade of ble that work started prior to covid and was interrupted um due to covid so there was this lack of consistency in holding those practices in place so D tracking in terms of making sure that all students receive the same quality and level of um challenge at that earlier level so the degree to watch track detracking work was not really um embedded or or we don't know exactly the extent to which that was fully embedded at ble and I think that's again going to be something else to look at as the committee does their work at looking at the lower level Schools elementary schools I should say um we also discussed the role of the advanced learning learning program and uh the role that that can play in ensuring that students all students at are earlier grades are uh receiving enrichment um we are going to have to come back to that conversation because of course it was a full one hour meeting um we will be having more conversation about that but I just want to put that out there that we will we will be talking more about that and how um I think there's there's a lot that still needs to be understood about the um Alp program and that it is actually a schoolwide program there is a component of it that that does require pull out um or does involve pullout instruction that is um based on test scores but uh I think again just an understanding of the enrichment model as a whole and how the program works and why it's in place is going to be important follow-up conversation as well of De as well as demographics looking at from an equity perspective what that looks like okay so let me see I'm sorry this I know I'm taking up so much time here um let me just get to the oh the policies this will be quick we have um three policies that only need to be updated for nothing substantive just some primary language changes to ensure that the code does not need to be updated every time a new protect protected class of students is created so for example those policies are and I know this is going to sound 5841 secret societies policy um no it is yes we don't have Secret societies and obviously we do not advocate for that but there is a policy on that um there is we're also looking at our Equity access for of student organizations and just some again some language changes to ensure that all protected categories of students are covered under that policy and then there is the uh notification of second notification of juvenile offender case disposition so very judicial like um and we'll be looking at that policy as well before our first review I think that's it let me just double check here okay I don't want anyone calling me out if I missed something that's it thank you any questions thank you Monique any questions for monque can I make a comment or two is that okay okay uh Miss col this was very very thorough notes so the last thing anyone wants me to do is to add to them but I'll I'll keep it really really quick um just because there was it was such a productive meeting and we did talk about so many things that just um a few few things first of all uh we did talked about the external evaluator who would be um assessing The Rise program and we also discussed that because the importance of this project that the equity Excellence committee would have insight into uh you know the objectives and the meth and the methodology of the evaluator um make sure that that that evaluator Tak into account everything that we think is important to evaluate um in that program so we're gonna have the chance to review that and hopefully offer some feedback and that'll be really helpful um uh let's see here um one question I would be interested if teachers if the advanced placement committee I don't have the title quite right could um could address is whether they whether teachers whether this committee could address whether it would be helpful to have teacher recommendations or prerequisites reintroduced if that could be a subject for that committee to discuss I don't know if uh that was on the agenda for them but that might be useful um one one one thing which I think is a correction which is that the the Alp program in the uh um at bardle I believe that test scores are a component in deciding um which students participate in that program but I think a range of factors are taken into account by the staff member who sort of decides who part of well let me just and again Dres please correct me if I'm wrong but the advanced learning program is is a schoolwide program and of itself so we have the larger program that's the advanced learning program that's a schoolwide enrichment student for every enrichment program for every student however the fourth and fifth grade levels is where we have the special topics pullout component of the program and that's where the testing comes in so that's the distinction I made in my comment about the or very brief comment on that particular program and that's I think that gets lost I think in the conversation we have about Alp and that that it is supposed to be and again we're not we don't know exactly how this is carried out I think that's going to be an important thing for us to continue to talk about and to get some reporting on how is this schoolwide enrichment really um working um what does it look like what you know and how is this how are students um benefiting from this particular aspect of the program so yeah I just to clarify I believe it's not standardized test scores there's three layers of testing but I don't think it's standardized test scores that's right right okay and one last thing I know noted that um that uh that the students interested in advanced placement or perhaps interested in advaned placement had these discussions with their counselors and I guess I was a little surprised to hear that the counselors are evaluating not just student interest and sort of general you know capacity but also concrete skills it almost sounds to me like the counselors are playing the roles of what teachers would do when they looked at the students you know accomplishments and their testing and their grades and things and I wonder if we're asking counselors to do something now which not allowing teachers to do which is to offer a recommendation as to which students are prepared for advanced placement that struck me as a little bit um intriguing I can speak a little to this because we just went to high school orientation um and we were kind of given an idea of what the process is like for course selection they actually gave us um a screener that we could do with our child kind of talking about um the different habits or really work habits and interests um it was kind of like a check off you know like I do this whole way sometimes never um and then some questions on the back and the parent um is supposed to sign it and have the child bring back in that paper um when they meet with their counselor for course selection um we that also was um encouraged to have conversations with teachers so I know I sent my son back with questions for his math teacher and Spanish teacher and both of them were very eager to give him feedback on how you know where they felt would be an appropriate placement so the conversations are happening I think it's just a matter of it's not um something that is a checked box on an application thanks and we will be having further and deeper conversations about that work that's being done again this was this is ongoing and we typically do have updates but this particular meeting we were hoping to get a little bit more data which of course was short notice so we didn't get that but we will certainly dig deeper and I do just want to stress I hear kind of your question about well should we should should the committee be thinking about reinstating that particular requirement I think first we need to be thinking about what is the data telling us um in terms of whether or not and the extent to which this work is reaching the goal the intended goal is to reduce disproportionality provide increase access um and that does not mean that we um are not cognizant of the fact that that means that in some instances some students will have be challenged with making that stret but it's like how do we make this program more supportive giving it the resources it needs so that students can be successful who do you know decide to take that challenge but I think we all recognize that we don't want students to be in a situation where they are um finding the Gap so wide that they are unsuccessful feeling discouraged um and even less interested in W to challenge themselves e either in that particular course or subsequent courses so I think there there's a lot more data to sort of unpack and look at um I want to hear personally about the success stories of student students who actually did do well when they took that challenge what did that how did that happen and what what factors were played into that and it is going to be individual for every student but there's a lot more information we need to look at and the other thing um I would just say to that is um the end of the year as well when we actually you know they go through for AP specifically we'll be able to see you know that and how it compares to previous years so you know that's obviously I think something that we would look into I'm glad you raised that because we and I'm sorry we're not going to belabor this but we do have an ongoing spreadsheet with the um yearly data on we just didn't have that updated have question in regards to ble versus the AP courses for Al um at ble it's not standardized test but this three days straight of rigorous testing and they also do need to have um recommendations from teachers and parents as well um is is the data that you're going to be collector or that c leadership te or whoever is collecting going to also include whether or not that affects ble students and whether or not those ble students who go on are actually going to be affected in the future or have that ability to take AP in kids who didn't get into Al are they able to take be those are questions that think we should definitely ask I will say that I the Alp that component of the Alp program if I am correct is to meet the state requirements that we have some sort of gifted and talented program when Al when the Alp progr was devised it was intentionally devised in a way because this is Highland Park that we didn't want to create more um uh disp disparities in terms of access to um CH advanced work for our students um along racial and economic lines we didn't want to exacerbate that by bringing a program that would start that at such a young level but and so the intent was to develop a program where enrichment would be for every child every child would get an enriching enriching course work during those early grades um and particularly specifically a ble uh but again the the testing the pullout component to my knowledge was to meet the state's requirement so that's very different from offering honors and AP courses that don't have that same sort of State regulation um in place but I do think it would be interesting to look at the data in terms of how kids who do have access to that particular part of alp then go on in terms of taking more advanced level classes and uh I would say Nikki we did have it doesn't quite capture it but we had a really robust conversation about the need to pull forward enrichment and when you're broadening a pipeline you've got to do it earlier on and we did discuss that that that the the testing could be a barrier um and so you know that that certainly came up as as a but but there's no doubt that you need to offer enrichment earlier if you're expecting to prepare people to be ready for that was a a really great conversation we had Tara was really actively involved in that as well and I think we were all very aligned on that okay uh finance and Facilities might will be much shorter but thank you interesting uh Finance facilities has not met we meet on tomorrow um so next time we next time this board meets there'll be a longer uh meeting uh minutes from me um for the agenda that we are I suspect will also get longer before our next meeting we uh have the resolution to approve travel and related expense reimbursements we have two contractors on here for Professional Services one is to uh service our AED uh to maintain our AED um components that we have in the district and another one the uh Social Work PRN of New Jersey um for group therapy Crisis Intervention and assessments there will be a resolution to approve contracts to provide professional development in this current school year um from inspired instruction for our April professional development day and that professional development is uh in New Jersey student learning standards in math integrating the standards into daily instruction and creating Assessments in math that are that uh that align with those standards we have a resolution to approve bedside instruction for one additional student um that record Health uh Behavior Healthcare uh resolution to approve it's one of these non-public pass through things that we do um that we're required to do non-public school security purchase for in Highland Park Children's House monu for two ring video doorbells um resolution to approve the agreement uh between the burough of Highland Park and the Highland Park Board of Education to share Revenue collected from 31 River Road the urban renewal that's the pilot project that we've talked uh about in the past here at Ward meetings and that agreement um we will be voting on uh voting on to accept um at our next meeting and the last piece on uh Finance facilities is we will be uh voting on a 24 20242 preschool program plan budget that has to be submitted to the state um and that will uh focus on our increase from 60 students to 90 students next year in our preschool program that's going to be part of that budget and that's probably the shortest agenda fin facilities has had yet so any questions on that yeah can we bring that one up yeah they ask um if we could clarify um number five the resolution to on public school security purchase Denise yeah can you explain again the past the past three every time this comes up we need an explanation yeah so um the state divies up non-public school Monies to each School District so that's what we re yeah super close can you hear me now right so the state divies up the non-public school funds to all the school districts and we receive their allocations and then they request spending through US nonse non-public security is done through the Educational Services Commission they administer those funds for us so each non-public school within Highland Park receives an allocation and they're able to spend those funds uh they request purchases uh this request is for two ring doorbells we're obligated to approve it on a board agenda but that's just a pass through funds it's not our money it comes from the state their allocation and then they request U purchases off of off of their allocations it is it is confusing though every time we do this somebody asked a question I'm not sure that I can answer it so anything else for finance okay all right personnel and Communications the uh personnel and Communications committee met last last week on March 4th with Dr Susa myself Marilyn and and Nikki we went over the Personnel um agenda items and then we also had an update on the principal search um just a little uh kind of a review of what we've gone through the first round was that speed dating round um that was A New Concept for us that went really really well the committee met with nine candidates that uh the committee was parents students and also staff um the candidates especially love the student room um and I is it okay to share that one follow-up question they had I thought that was really um the student follow-up question that they asked every candidate was how would you explain a mirror to a blind person I thought that was a really great great question to to see how people responded to um then from there they narrowed that down to six candidates and that went to the second round which was a panel review that was admin administrators and selected staff and that was more of a question and answer style um the questions were targeted to specific scenarios that were were just defined before the interview and then the third round which was just last week was the performance task and presentation round that committee was made up of admin selected staff and one member of the Personnel committee um they met with three candidates just last week and they were tasked with creating a spring faculty meeting with an agenda um we shared our school performance Report with them and they led the meeting and engaged the committee in a conversation about the data with an end goal for the following year um using data to inform goals they only presented a 20-minute portion of that meeting um but gave the committee the entire agenda and then they had uh specific scripted questions about special ed and differentiation um so we'll get an update on that at the next board meeting and then the agenda items so we will be voting on a resolution to to accept the resignation of Miss sodolski who's the supervisor of funded programs and District initiatives um resolution to accept the resignation of June Miller who is a special education teacher at the middle school resolution to approve the transfer of Joy Cheney to the middle school for the second half of the day um effective last week um resolution to correct a new hire Louisa ashv who's a part-time counselor at ble uh resolution to approve a request from an employee to receive payment for each 8 Days minus the cost of a substitute due to extenda circumstances while on family medical leave resolution to correct Jamie scher's um cont contract to assist with Irving Primary School uh preschool registration resolution to accept the resignation of kemboy little um from the head coach of boys track at the high school resolution to approve the following scheduled B positions at the high school Tim Stark for the boys track coach and Benjamin jacobe for head baseball at the middle school this is all at the middle school sorry track was high school baseball was Middle School Okay resolution to approve the following Corrections for staff for the before and after school program um title enrichment specialist at ble Emily Santana enrichment specialist at ble Marissa shabel a student aid at ble lar larer Brooks student aid at ble quantry Sadler assistant site manager at ble Tiara Mo and assistant site manager at Irving Priscilla irisari um resolution to approve following staff for presenting professional development and preparing that for the PD Academy um that is mix Perez for canva for educators and resolution to approve extra Duty positions for athletics um Angelo bodon I did have a question about this one as I'm going through it is this for all of the positions is for Angelo is that how that reads okay uh he for scorekeeper security ticket taker for the head football ticket taker assistant football ticket taker basketball and announcer and finally resolution to approve the following teachers to write health and driver ed curriculum um and it's all of our PE teachers David Luxenberg Tracy Maiden um Rich mcglen Aaron Washington coight and Jennifer houseart and that's it for personnel any questions for me I have a question uh what the resolution nine what does it mean to approve Corrections of is that like the change the wage or the hours or the title or what does that mean exactly in this case in this case it looks like it was an hourly rate correction could be hours or schedule um how about the first two so it just boosted from some number that we can't see the enrichment Specialists what is what was what was corrected there I don't know the before Oh but but it is a an increase in the wage is some kind or other probably right we don't know what the correction is I don't do we see the before on that we're just accepting the wrong rate the wrong okay so the numbers three I see what he's asking is numbers three and four show the original rate crossed off okay and the other ones don't show the original rate so what were we correcting in those cases nothing was corrected on those it was a whole so no oh I got nothing thank you I my battery hello hello you have a new battery all right I'll just use one of these Sorry God okay we're having battery issues um no so it was the uh for the so it's the entire resolution is on there but the the the uh correction are the things that are crossed out so when when we have a correction in a resolution the whole resolution has to go on and any corrections in entire resolution you'll see the corrections as a cross out so the other things aren't adjustments but the entire resolution has to go on there does that make sense yes Mak sense that's the way the question's worded approve the following resolution with corrections with corrections correct so it's the resolution and the corrections I see okay great thank you thank you any other questions not a question but a comment um I'd like to say on behalf of the students in the uh speed dating student round that we all had a great time we like hearing the answers to that question um but we also thought it went really well and very eye openening so right thank you um all right policy uh policy committee also meets this week so we have I have no report um the re the uh res the policies that are listed here for first reading we have not yet gone over um but we will on uh when we meet on Wednesday and so this these will um these will be reviewed before you vote on them for first reading but it's most of these are regulations and the only changes that I when I skimmed them I saw just like Monique had said changes to the how we use pronouns um and changes so that you didn't have to list every um specific group of people it was more referring to the code um for uh um all of our variety of uh groups that are impacted by the uh regulation of the policy policy so not a lot of change but we'll review them and and Report more next time and then the second read is what we discussed um last month on the first read which was the religion and the schools so that's it okay all right we move on to public comment the Highland Park Board of Education welcomes public participation and has reserved this time for your comments board policies number 0164 and 0167 establish and regulate the right of the public to participate in public meetings we'll begin with anyone in the room okay we will move on to our webinar attendees how many people do we have do we have more than one attendee or one public comment 40 participants great one hand rated okay M uh Rob Scott hello can you all hear me yeah we got you the the mic did go down earlier in the meeting thank you for getting that back up uh my name is uh Rob Scott uh I'm a Highland Park resident uh and parent of one current Highland Park High School student I live at 25 uh South 2 Avenue uh in Highland Park um I actually have um multiple comments that I'd like to make um in this first comment uh period though I will just address one Topic at a time um I can raise my hand and get back into stack for the other items um as my understanding is um we are allowed to comment on multiple items so uh in particular I wanted to follow up on my comments from the last meeting uh asking for the board to direct the superintendent uh to work on a plan to fix the ble start times so students don't have to be at school at 7:45 a.m. uh lose sleep um which is clearly um the data is in increasing tardies uh so my question is uh has the superintendent um uh been working on a plan uh do we have a report from the superintendent on this uh and uh an update on the status of that and just to say um I hope that we don't have delay we all see Donald Trump uh delaying his uh uh Revo with Justice through all kinds of tactics sometimes delay is as good as stopping uh so I want to underline the urgency of action on this um so that the situation can be addressed really before next year uh so that's um my public comment with respect to start times thank you very much okay um is there anybody else on Zoom for public comment okay um hold on I have to find my place president report oh yeah okay president's report excuse me sorry in in my prior public comment I'd indicated that I would I had other comments I presumed other people wanted to speak but uh if no one else is willing to speak I'll I would like to have the opportunity to yes that's fine there I think you had a minute and a half left on those three minutes so my understanding on reading the policy is that there are 30 minutes allotted for public comment and that it is only if it appears that it's going to go over 30 minutes um that the chair of the board restricts the amount of time that was my reading of the policy earlier is that incorrect yes we usually stick to three minutes for the first session and then we have unlimited public comment in the second session no the the I think the policy says 30 minutes are allotted for the public comment in this session 30 total and that the Restriction of the time is if it's going to go longer okay why don't you proceed with your comment then Mr Scott sure thank you very much I really appreciate that um so my second comment uh is very brief um but I'm concerned about uh policy number 9131 um entitled Civility and I wanted to ask the board uh in particular the policy committee to review that policy um my concern is that the civility policy is being used uh to chilling effect to retaliate against parents um who have uh strong opinions uh about uh well we all have strong opinions about the education of our children uh and so I would like to see um that policy studied and reviewed um so that there is a way to ensure that there will be no over Brad interpretation of it and it won't be used uh against anyone um who comes to express um their uh uh opinions um for example I could imagine a book burning controversy uh where uh this could be used against someone uh and since apparently there was no one else who had their hand up um my third item is I wanted to ask that perhaps the minutes for the last meeting be amended um the descriptions of different public comments are extremely abbreviated and lack context I know that uh takes some effort but this is sort of the legal and public record uh one possibility would be to Simply add the timestamps of those public comments uh to the minutes themselves so that people could see what was said so for instance um there is a point in the final public comment um where Miss Stern cardali is reported to have apologized uh to board chair uh kazal D um and I think that lacks some context that needs to be added my own public comment uh uh the way it's characterized in the m is super super brief um and I don't think has enough context uh nor does it seem to indicate that my mic mysteriously uh went dead in the middle of the comment uh so I think um these are things to consider and again if you just added the uh the the the timestamps uh that would be useful in conjunction with this it's very hard to read the minutes to parse the agenda because it is posted as a PDF that is an image um if you would be willing to post a PDF that is text based and searchable you would be doing the public a huge favor um in being able to be fully enfranchised in what's going with the board uh so that was my third item um next I'm a little bit frustrated with the webinar comment uh uh format um I understand this is a responsibility to um the terrible incident that happened at the last meeting um but it is the uh residents and public of Highland Park that are being punished by this um we can't even see uh who else is in the meeting which of our neighbors are and I think that uh makes those of us who have to participate over Zoom uh on most occasions um less of a participant in the meeting so I would ask um that there would be re a reconsideration of that and consideration of an alternate way uh to keep order uh and civility in the meeting um if we keep going down this road um I fear it will just be used um to make it so people can't can't comment uh next I just wanted to comment on I understand that instead of the start time being addressed and being addressed uh in a way that gets at the cause uh there appear to be policies in ble um that are encouraging uh well they're giving students perfect attendance Awards and I just have to say the perfect attendance award is one of the most toxic cultural things in all of Education uh I'm a professor at Ruckers um and I need my students to not attend class if they are sick or otherwise having severe challenges it does them no good to attend and perfect attendance call culture is really kind of an enemy of college preparation when it comes to that so I would encourage um that that be reconsidered uh next I just can't help but chime in on the um AP courses um there was some really excellent comment from one of the high school students um that I was sitting next to that really grew out of a very um axelum exchange between Dr schoolman and Dr batty um you could tell they disagreed a little bit and I think that's incredibly healthy and I would like to encourage the board in public meetings to show the places where they possibly disagree because that can be very Illuminating and uh for those students who were sitting next to me uh they became really engaged with that and one of the things that was said was that the teacher uh the counselor recommendations were very important not from the gatekeeping perspective of don't do this but from the encouraging the student to do it and I think that's something that needs to be considered I also feel compelled to just mention two issues that I don't think have been fully addressed with this discussion of uh creating greater inclusivity in AP courses um one of those is that one of the main ways you in can increase the inclusivity of AP courses is to offer a greater bread of them so I'm concerned for instance that AP music theory might not make might not be offered um and there is a danger if you continually just push um AP Chemistry and AP cal um that tends to exclude many students uh the other issue is uh that for classes to be successful class size really really really matters it matters a lot and I would hope that we could get some data reported in the public meetings on what the sizes are for AP courses the number of students in them right and also a really articulation of what the ideal number of students is uh I'm going to say right off the bat from my experience teaching small seminars and Labs 16 or 17 is really a high top number so I hope that will be considered by the board as they go down this important Road um and finally I uh uh wanted to also suggest that uh courses at MCC can fill an important role for students there is the High School Scholars Program I know at one time there was scholarship of money available in the High School for students to take advantage of those I helped raise it I don't know if any of that is left but I hope um that's the kind of thing that that students will be encouraged to do it's a way to broaden the curriculum uh and finally um I just wanted to say uh that I know negotiations with the Union are coming up and just as a as a parent par and an educator um I just wanted to say I really do want to hear uh what the union requests are for conditions of work that will drive better pedagogy in our schools uh for instance things like class sizes and prep time and all of those things so thank you very much uh for giving me this time uh I think it was well under 30 minutes and of course I wouldn't dream of uh taking up so much time uh if it wasn't the case that it does not appear that anyone else wanted to make a comment so thank you very much you are very welcome Dr stop um all right did anybody happen to raise their hand in that okay no we're good all right uh president's report so on uh March 4th U Miss stanio Miss prce Dr Coleman and I joined members of the central leadership team at the Labor Management collaboratives work shop titled growing your collaborative practice we engaged in sessions related to the facets of collaboration and effective communication building trust and sessions related to our roles within districts um two Reflections or two takeaways that we had was that we need to improve the visibility of the work of the central leadership team so we spoke with Dr Susa about creating a tab on the website um which would have kind of the purpose uh what the team does and its members and then also being more um clear and uh really kind of presenting I think not just verbally but also more visually um the work of the CLT um in practice so our next CLT meeting is in April and we will get to practice at least the latter in terms of delivering a thorough report um during one of our April meetings and uh the website will be on the summer to-do list um we also had our meeting of the May with the mayor um we just uh Denise uh D roza made a wonderful presentation about District budget um kind of where it comes from it's very complex um and we discussed with the mayor our particular budget needs um we asked the mayor for help with advocacy with uh transportation and also special education reform and that concludes my report is there only any old business I actually wanted to um uh Dr sesa had shared with us on our board notes um about um some successes uh in our school and it follows up on what Andrew was talking about um uh during his report but the I don't think you mentioned this one uh the high school robotics team competed um and First Tech Challenge and they were chosen uh to compete with the winning Alliance they moved on to the semi-finals and the finals where we won um so now Highland Park owls are going to the state competition so I think we need to really commend our our students for working so hard in our staff they will be at the state's competition on March 17th in Hillsboro High School so and the other one that she had shared with us was um our mock our mock trial team our high school mock mock trial team defeated Somerset Somerset County Champions and then the mammoth County Champions to advance to the regional finals for the first time in our school's history so uh yeah congratulations to them we are in the top six out of more than 215 teams and we're going to be competing for the state championship in the quarterfinal round on March 12th so so our teams and you talked about the DECA so there's a lot of really exciting things happening with our with our uh Academic Teams and um I'm happy about that I'm proud of them um the other thing I wanted to say was to thank um Dr cesa and Mr Rosa and our tech department for working on this changing our format something that's been on our radar for a while um we had purchased the equipment and tonight's our first night I hope it's working well out for the you know the community I heard we had some some issue there but hopefully over time we get our the the glitches worked out it's what our bur Council does and we're following your lead on that one hopefully this works more smoothly the future so thank you for leading us on that so that's all just some comments can I add one thing to that I just also wanted to give a shout out to the model un team who flew back from Mexico today oh um they I don't know details yet because I haven't seen my son I'm here but um they won 23 Awards you know individual group I'm sure details will be available at the next meeting but I will be sure to report on that count on you all right any new business history or at least a perception of um a history like a perception that the board doesn't hear the community you didn't try again hello oh much better not usually that quiet okay so there has been a or at least a perception that the board ofet doesn't hear the community so regardless of whether that's true there seems to be there's definitely some kind of Disconnect and communication and understanding the needs of our very diverse Community as a whole and to B Bridge the that Gap I'd like to propose or suggest that we start a community community Advisory Board uh we have seen that when we engage with our community we learn a lot about new ideas and struggles that affect most people that we otherwise would not have realized um I think that an board would help give a voice to those who otherwise wouldn't have one um this board could be compromised of community leaders that folks would normally voice their concerns to such as PTO presidents clergy people students from each School including ble like student council members um and other community organizations like the teen center directors or Pride Center uh directors just to name a few so I welcome any thoughts or any discussion on that I think actually Dr cisa correct me if I'm wrong but you did something like that when we were looking or I think you guys were trying to explore things for after school uh for middle-aged students can you describe a little bit of what that work was using my mic sorry I'm down my mic so thank you yeah so many years ago um when I first started there was a need for our students to have engage in after school activities beyond what the School District offers we found that we don't have a local boys and Club Boys and Girls Club of America or really places safe places for our students to go after school um and so uh I know that the burough has the zone six which has been really helpful since then um but a bunch of community leaders uh lots of people within the community school community and and local community came together to try to brainstorm ideas on ways that that we could support the students just around the town to engage them in activities um because we were finding that some some of our students were engaging in behaviors after school that we didn't really condone and and were problematic and so we thought maybe connecting them to mentors to activities to community events would be really helpful so we did something like that um uh connecting to the food pantry that actually was a good connection we connected to the food pantry we got um our students opportunities for uh the backpack program where we sent kids home well the upper grades we sent the kids home with back packs fulled with food if we knew that they had food insecurities our lower kids was a little bit harder because um it's a lot of non- perishable items and the weight of those backpacks are very heavy so we found alternate ways to get uh food home to our our students in need so we really work collectively um to solve some of those problems so I think that could be something that uh with some new staff members and Community leaders we can definitely revive back to uh to addressing concerns within the school community and community at Large I'd like to add to that um Dr shisko when we had a student representative Summit orientation one of the things that you said was that we were the voice me and Roy were the voice for the student body um me and Roy have taken that very seriously in the sense of we have let our Stu or peers know um what we do here and how we voice things that they may have as a concern um to you as the board um and we have worked very hard to allow the students to come to us with anything so just so that you guys I know miss you brought this up um that if any concerns that are huge come from the student body um we as the high school at least student Representatives will let you know thank youate that I was gonna say one thing Nikki along along those uh route of just thinking about things that we can do so when I went through my njsba training we learned a lot about kind of best practices what other towns do and I think there are are a couple really good opportunities to look um to what other towns do and and you know evaluate what might be successful for us so I think this is a really good moment you know to to look more deeply into that um can I ask so uh Miss Pixley do you mean sort of like um students or not students uh community members sitting in committees or what what you have in mind well I mean so there's a couple things that other towns do so some towns um I do have Community folks sitting in in the subcommittees some towns have Town Halls that are really targeted around a specific topic um and uh you know it would be interesting to sit in on those and see how those go and and some have advisory Council so I think those you know I mean each each town is different and each Town should really evaluate you know what what what the needs might be um but certainly worth a discussion I think at this point in time yeah and I would add to that that we have done the town hall model for a couple of big topic topics and one that's top of my mind is when we were looking at bringing in a school safety officer at the high school um and there was a lot of discussion around around that in the community and folks you know following on different sides of that topic and so the town hall model was really helpful for bringing everyone together and feeling like their voices were heard in that process of making that decision at the district level um similarly when it came when it when it has come to uh for example our discipline uh our work around discipline Equity we had a uh discipline study group comprised of f parents teachers um administrators and students um at elementary and middle and high school level in that group um and that again is a type of model that I think you're you're mentioning here Nikki and that is really making sure that we have the stakeholders uh represented when we're discussing topics that impact the community and it in those smaller settings and groups it helps I think parents to feel empowered and comfortable and speaking um and I think that we also were able to reach reach a more diverse representation of our parent body as well in those smaller groups um so I think diversifying how we do that and continuing to think about the bigger Town Halls as well as having those um smaller committees or subcommittees or strategic groups that are coalescing around a particular topic are going to be ways to make sure that we're casting a wide net as well so yeah there's precedent for this you know these kind of models that you're talking about related I was going to say um I guess it was about five years ago when we did the last strategic planning they also had committees that included parents I served on one of those that was really helpful small room you know was in the superintendent's conference room uh wondering if that's is that possibly being planned for this round since we haven't narrowed down to the goals at this point have you considered doing something great okay uh Dr SSA said they do a similar model just just doesn't have a mic so I'm just gonna they do use a similar model now that they've narrowed down goals um in the Strategic plan any other new business y uh I I like um Miss Dan's specific idea though of a of a standing Community advisory committee um I think these ad hoc you know sort of uh you know committees on a particular issue that we've identified or these Town Halls that happen once in a while I think that's great I think we should keep doing that but um I do think it's sort of like you know standing outlet for community members to bring up issues that are important to them and uh you know contribute directly to discussions would probably be helpful I think you know I think I think that would make be help we do have a very diverse and outspoken um people group people in this town and I think if they had a way to you know to you know to to speak their minds regularly that would be helpful um another new business I also want to say I appreciate um Mr Scott's suggestions and you know when people don't always agree finding points of agreement is really important and so I think on the on Equity Excellence we talked about the importance of you know pushing Advanced learning opportunities down to uh to Bor in Middle School elevating the rigor across the curriculum and at the high school level I mean more AP classes more opportunities to take courses at community colleges more honors classes and that speak to kids with different learning styles and different interests I think is just a great idea and I'm upset of myself not mentioning it more so um I think we can all get behind that as my guess one more thing Alison do you think as part of the personnel and Communications comme we could take on something like a PTO report you know where if all the PTO presidents emailed me as as chair and then I could report out on what they wanted to share similar to what Andrew does for the different schools I wonder if I could do that from the parent teacher perspective and you don't have to answer me now but just wondering if that's we'll definitely talk about it more okay okay if there's no more new business I'm uh mve to our second public comment the Highland Park Board of Education welcomes public participation and has reserved the right time for your comments board policies number 0164 and 0167 establish and regulate the right of the public to participate in public meetings is there anybody for public comment in the room is there anybody for public comment on Zoom webinar how many attendees do we have okay Mr Scott uh yes I just didn't hear uh anything of substance with respect to the issue that generated a great deal of public comment at the last meeting uh which is the issue of the ble start time so I just wanted to invite the board members um to offer their own thoughts on the issue I think the community would appreciate hearing something back it's extremely frustrating to put an effort in to articulate a position to note some empirical facts um to be concerned about your children your neighbors your community um and then really just not even get any sort of response okay thank you is there anybody else for public comment uh just to clarify in the president's report we did state that the central leadership team meeting is in April where we we will be reviewing the start times data and other points of data to look at the overall impact I move to a journ second second all in favor I I e e e e e e