e e e good evening and welcome to the pasak Valley Regional High School District Board of Education meeting uh today is July 17th 2024 for uh Mr USI roll call please Mrs farges here miss Calderon Miss Mrs Swang here miss Keller here Mr louisi Mrs Martin here Mr Stanis miss stefin here Mr Weaver okay uh would you all please join me for the flag salute and Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by mailing copies of said notice to the record filing copies of said notice with the municipal Clerks of Hillsdale Montvale River Veil andwood Cliff Lake and Publishing said notice in the record on July 21st 2023 uh we are not going to do the appointment of the vice president today as there isn't um take a motion to um do I have a motion to postpone the election of the vice president second okay here oh roll call please Mr you saw here or yes yes yeah yes okay uh now okay we are going to enter into executive session uh but right before we do that let's have comments from the public um citizens invited are invited to make comments regarding agenda items and are limited to 3 minutes according to the pasak Valley Regional High School District Board of Education policy numbers 0167 persons wishing to speak must upon being recognized rise sign in and state their name town of residence and which agenda items they are referencing is there anyone from the public who would like to speak oh an on agenda items okay can I please get a motion to enter into executive session second and I'll just clarify that executive session is to cover contract negotiations leader ma legal matters and Personnel should be about 30 minutes and we will take action when we return okay e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e okay welcome back to the board of ad uh Education meeting um next uh we are back from executive session next on the agenda is for minutes from June 17th the regular meeting at 7:30 and the executive session at 9:40 uh can I get a motion so moved second roll call please Mr Yami Mrs Swang yes Miss Keller yes Mrs Martin yes Miss stepin yes Mrs vares abstain uh we have comments from the public uh we had comments from the public already next we have policy for which we have six consent agenda it items can I get a motion please so moved second any discussion roll call please Mr usami Mrs Mrs Swan yes Miss Keller yes Mrs Martin yes Miss Stefan yes Mrs barges yes next we have education for which we have four cons agenda items we are omitting item number three five oh you made it okay got it okay uh so there are five consent agenda items but we are omitting number three or no we're not omitting we are sorry uh can I get a motion please so move second any discussion roll call please Mr Yami Mrs Wang yes M Keller yes Mrs Martin yes Miss stefins yes Mrs varis yes next we have human resources for which we have 14 consent agenda items can I get a motion please so move second any discussion roll call please Mr Yami Mrs hang yes Miss Keller yes Mrs Martin yes Miss stefin yes Mrs farges yes for finance we have 29 consent agenda items can I get a motion please second second any discussion oh yes you're correct sorry Joel uh 30 consent agenda items roll call please Mr Yami Mrs Swang yes Miss Keller yes Mrs Martin because there's a supplemental there was a on theendum the finance 30 second addendum to the agreement of sale okay yes yes Miss stepin yes Mrs Baris yes uh next we have old business any discussion on Old business one uh let's do this I don't think this was included when the supplemental for human resources was that included in the 14 that we did I think this I think we need to do a motion for the supplemental for human resources that's before the board thank you yeah that's what I thought right oh it's not in okay okay so we have the supplemental agenda for human resources right uh can I get a motion please so moved a second any discussion we call please Mr usami Mrs Swang yes Miss Keller yes Mrs Martin yes Miss stephin yes and Mrs bares yes and then I think do we also Jill this was not in there or was it I think we need a separate wait I'm sorry I'm like it is under there okay never mind then thank you okay very good all right okay okay okay sorry no no worries um thank you for pointing that out any old business yes so um I just want to give you guys some quick updates um the uh we've been going back and forth about self coverage at Valley specifically and um I want to just give an update so we did have some conversations with Verizon specifically um they are working right now with one of the townships to put in a tower that is near by the valley they did ask if we would be interested in putting a tower basically in the front of our building um our our thought right now is to actually defer let's see if the solution that the township has to put a tower nearby solves our problem before we consider putting a tower either in the front or the side of our building um because I think that the region would be better served and it would be a much easier process if resin were to be successful in putting that up nearby so we're going to kind of like table our conversation about um either adding in our own cell boosters or adding in our own cell tower until we let Verizon townships uh kind of work out where they are with that we anticipate uh that process coming to conclusion within the next year so I think that within the next 12 months or so we should have a better sense of where the townships are going and what that coverage could potentially be I'm very hopeful um that this uh is going to result in better cell coverage down at Valley in the meantime um we are uh working to open up our Wi-Fi in our parking lots to parents um at dismissal and at drop off so parents would have access to our school Wi-Fi while they're in their cars in our parking lot the one caveat is that we did try it out our Wi-Fi does not reach across the street I know a lot of parents pick up at the church it we just don't have Wi-Fi that reaches that far um so it would just be kind of our parking lots but it does reach um the entirety uh actually of our parking lots so that'll be really helpful I think for people um as they're picking up their kids I know that that's a complaint that we get a lot especially from new nth graders who don't realize that there really is no coverage um in that area so we're hopeful that that will work out very well for us um and then the other thing that I wanted to talk about this is more for the board um there was a question about um a a reference sheet not being attached to the last agenda just so you guys know I want to make sure everybody knows this Jill actually brings a whole box of what we call the backup so Jill actually has hard copies of everything in the agenda all the time so if something comes up and this came up a moment ago when somebody asked about did have the hard copy of an HIV Jill always has the hard copies of all of the documents that are in here so if there's ever a question about that um you can either just you know quietly ask her or you can say as part of discussion hey is this document available for us and we can grab it for you um I just wanted to make sure that you guys knew that that was the box that Jill lugs around that we always have the backup um thank you but that is super important though yeah I do appreciate that yeah and that way too if there is is something that is missed or isn't hyperlink or isn't clickable and we think that it is always at the board meeting is always here um and jel always has that for us so and then I think Yas you wanted to talk about the nomination um petitions yeah just a a reminder to everybody that um there are three seats open one in Hillsdale one in Montvale and one in Rivervale and just want to let everybody know that the deadline to submit your nominating posi petitions 4 pm. Monday July 29th 2024 that's at the county clerk's office bur County county clerk's office in hackensac I know there's sometimes confusion about open seats we do have incumbents who are eligible to run who I do believe are planning to run for those seats yes I believe I believe everyone's uh planning on running for reelection yeah perfect great uh any new business okay uh next we have comments from the public citizens are invited to make comments and are limited to 3 minutes according to the pasac Valley Regional High School District Board of Education policy number 0167 persons wishing to speak must upon being recognized rise sign in and state their name and town of residence and it can be on any does not have to be on agenda items Mr Fox good evening just want to share this is definitely not the place I want to be um I miss my daughter's uh volleyball um summer workout today um but I felt it was important that I come to follow up after the meeting and I did have a chance to go back I didn't stay it was actually very cold here um and I had left U but there were some great comments from the board which if I have time I'll reference some of the board's comments but I thought they were very good in the questions as well tonight I'd like to share some of the items pertaining to the administration of midterms and finals to clarify some of my past conversations with the administration first as you know I began the conversation in February of 2023 in that meeting one discussion that sticks out to me is it was with Miss bot at the time um it was our first meeting I stated I believe about 50 to 60% of students averages in math and science decreased after the large exams Miss bot had shared you know this is was on her opinion piece of it was about 80% on a national statistic not PV and she promised me and she did she would look into the fact of if if there is a decrease what it is and she was going to spend some and she has been doing that uh but she needed to learn the practices of PV first so I appreciate that at the last Board of Education meeting she stated 92% of students at PV were unchanged or went up I have the ability to speak to many students and parents uh in the communities who speak on the contrary and I'm kind of dumbfounded where that number came from especially since the two students who spoke at the last board meeting stated they surveyed 15 students 66.2% decreased 12.3% unchanged for a total of 78.5% in the other direction of the 92% that was St publicly stated I appreciate the opening comments by Miss bot at the last Board of Education meeting as she continues spending a lot of time on this matter and looking into it with a lot of information but I want to share on January 9th 2024 I met with Dr back Dr Russo and Miss Graziano for an hour Dr bachenheimer opened the meeting with Mr saying Mr Fox what is it that you want I stated again since we've already spoken about this that I would like to see a change in the administering of midterms and finals he stated Mr Fox we heard you and we made three changes since we talked in June of 2023 and this is from my notes from that meeting we shortened the amount of testing days which so everybody knows this year was seven last year was 10 so that did happen we prepared an internal document for teachers to use to prepare students for these exams I may question if that's Theory versus practice most importantly we move the weight this is Dr behe we move the weight the exam weight from 20% to 15% this completely contradicts what Miss bot stated at the last meeting when she said this year that all courses were 5% and some AP courses a total 7.5% this is where I'm confused I become more confused after doing this for a long period of time and I gets frustrated to a degree I have multiple syllabuses that state and I blew up some 7.5 I have others 7.5 Mr Weaver said his son 7.5 7.5 in math um I get you know again it's perplexing but if everyone in the room is not clear on grading as I've stated for a year and a half there's a major problem on how the school is operating in regard to math and science exams um the students 100% believe that the exams are 15% this year 20 last year and I strongly believe the teachers believe it is 15% as well because that's what my children were stated 7.5 and 7.5% of the total grade uh this is exactly what Dr bachenheimer told me in January of 24 and the supervisors on January 9th 2024 but the the statements at the last board meeting were completely different and that's where there was no communication from that point to me about being five or or 7.5% or whatever the case was um I think it was Mr stankus who was talking about you know um digging we're not digging in our heels he's taking it curriculum lead and I appreciate that and I appreciate all the board's time on this but you know I want to share with you there was two students and I hope you went back and watched those two students speak on what they said at the June meeting uh um I will share was there even I'm gonna fast forward then um too much time in my opinion is lost to testing seven days for midterms and finals add in njsla and other testing throughout the year I want to be honest with you I taking a long time look at social studies in English versus Math and Science we don't hear anything in Social I don't know if anybody here hears anything about social studies and science I don't I'm looking for change in those areas I know they're looking at it please remember teachers are assessing all students regardless no need to cram for a test that causes immense stress with no feedback doesn't help with any depth of knowledge that we want our students to obtain and enjoy learning I think Mr Stevens um you know Hit Upon some really good points I went back through of you know the value of and what it does to children as far as when you bomb a test on the emotional status of children um I don't even get into that part right right but there's a major piece to that of these children being successful a year somebody else had St said it to and then bombing these tests it's just into subject matters I just don't see it as necessary um and I appreciate your time thank you thank you Mr Fox thank you I that's it I think I know can we just talk about this for a second of course um and I know this is a conversation that we keep kind of revisiting because I do have my own concerns with it um is there a way that we can collect some data about the increase of the anxiety with the kids just in I know that some of that's not measurable but with the visits to the guidance because I I know my daughter said that when the midterms came she couldn't even get into the Wellness Center because it was so popular um so I I that's a something that I think we really do need to take a real good look at if we're going to claim that the wellness and the mental health of our students is Paramount then we need to make sure that that's not being impacted the grades are the grades are the grades and I know this means thousands of dollars in scholarships I know there's a lot of things that our kids might be losing out on um even getting into a school um because some of it's so close you know to where they want to go um but I I do get very concerned with um the increase in visits to the guidance and or Wellness Center during those times like the week leading up to those exams I do see like a lot of districts are kind of pulling away now I'm in a middle school but we don't do that anymore we stopped doing that years ago um just because uh like Mr Fox said we weren't really seeing the bang for a buck you know it was a lot of stress the kids were getting anxious they didn't perform well um and it was not because they didn't know the math it was more because they just they they froze they panicked it was just too much for them and you know in a program like math where it builds you know we do have an expectation that there's retention because we're building off of each of these Concepts um but I think that by doing diagnostic exams throughout the year we might be able to get the same results but have the ability to kind of go back and revisit those tests and actually use them for informing instruction like so I think that that's probably all of our goals right that if we're giving these big tests that we're using them not only as teachers to make sure we're doing our job well but also that our students are learning from any mistakes they made and I know that the math department and I know not all of the math department does it but certain levels they have a very good learning opportunity where if you don't do well on an assessment you have opportunities to go back and retake them so you know I know they do it for one year and then that's it's it so I don't know if there that was kind of just something they were piloting and it's something that they plan on moving but that kind of philosophy of them actually learning from those assessments is something that I thought was very helpful to my son when he went through PV um and it might be something that the other I think they did it what did they do in Geometry it was no Algebra 2 tra was the year that they did it in um but I don't know that that followed through with a cal so they did it like it was standard based that's what they called it standard based so that each time they did a standard they could even get the answer wrong but they would get credit because they were showing they understood the process so if it was a small computational thing they're like no you get it so you got proficient in that standard um and if you're not proficient then we need to teach it to you so like the tests weren't re redone but all of those standard opportunities throughout the year the kids were giving opportunities to go back so I know it's something the math department has explored and kind of the final contradicts that whole that whole Theory so I I appreciate that and I've been taking uh notes on everything that Mr Fox has said that the students have said that all of you have said um we actually have a running internal document where I've kind of put all the questions that have been raised um um and so right now our um approach to this is to uh do our final analysis on this past year answer the questions that have been raised over the last couple of board meetings um we're looking to schedule a board curriculum committee meeting to um discuss kind of like our answers to some of those questions see if the curriculum committee has any additional questions for us to investigate before we go ahead and um kind of like uh present our findings to the full board and to the public so that's kind of the process and the timeline we're looking at meeting with the curriculum committee hopefully the first week of August for second week of August which would give us theoretically enough time to turn around and do um a presentation at the board meeting in either late August or early September so I just added the things you brought up to my list here and we'll continue to kind of keep this running document I will say one thing that I find very confusing is the way that the weights are post it on the syllabus and then the way that's translated to Genesis depending on if the teacher is using points or percentages is it's legitimately confusing um so that's something that's been like a priority that we've talked about internally of like this can't be this confusing like we're all confused um and so I you know I we recognize that um and that's something that we've talked about and Dr Russo has explained it to me several times of why the math works and he showed it to me and I I see it um and I still am like this is confusing using so I feel like um that's one thing that certainly we're going to look at um changing for the future is just how that is explained to students and how it's written and how it's accounted for in Genesis because it is it like it's like this we've seen this it's confusing if you're doing seven and a half percent of the beginning of the year as like a midterm and then that's put aside and now you're doing a separate SEC you know second half of the year and it's like a fresh start and you're doing seven half then it is seven a half percent right because it's it's not 15 it's yeah but if they're doing but sometimes the seven and a half and seven and a half are actually 4.25 right so confusing it depends on how the teacher has their grade book set up so correct it's legitimately confusing and it's it's it's not it's consistent in that they're almost all the same in the end but it's not consistent in what it looks like as you move through the course because it depends on if you've got your grade book set up where all the grades count as zero until you put it in do the grades not populate until you like just it's I we hear you it is confusing I also think that um this coming year what's going to happen is you know we have Genesis we have canvas and we've never we have not looked at raids on canvas before because they just didn't have that ability but now they do so come September there's going to be this one place where we get to see as a and I'm talking as a parent uh say what are you talking about you don't see the Grays on canvas so you mean it's so you you go to grade book in Genesis to look for grades so it's like two separate things and then it's like well okay what did you get on the like it's it's it is confusing as a parent and I know I've asked my 15-year-old son like you know hey show me this and he's like I don't know how to get it or you know and I'm like uh yeah okay but it's confusing as parents to figure out where everything is so I think the fact that it's going to be all on canvas I do think that it is going to make it more streamlined and easier and um that we are able to understand it more because I think there's also that that messaging part of it right like it gets it gets lost and confused and I think that's a big thing that we need to work out and just because I know we've got uh uh teacher reps in the audience to explain what we're talking about canvas came up with an update that now allows us to automatically sync between canvas and Genesis before teachers had to do all that manually there's now an update we were able to implement implement the update for the July 1 rollover um I think that's going to be a huge timesaver um for our um teaching staff and I think it's going to make it a lot easier for parents and students when they're looking at it and it's certainly going to be easier for our teachers and that you don't have to double enter now um they'll sink and I don't know I don't know the specifics of which way it sinks or I not sure about that but I know that it was a big deal when canvas came out with the update um because new New Jersey has been asking for this for a long time they previously had a similar service for power school which is what a lot of the nation uses um but New Jersey basically all uses Genesis and so canvas actually uh worked with Genesis to create that sync function which we're super excited about which should be good no exactly yeah because it was like because you had to like double it but now it'll actually sync so teachers can decide how they want to sync it and I think it's going to be it a lot easier yeah that's really helpful because um I mean I think it's a little bit off topic but kind of in line with it I know that um you know there have been times where you know students have been going into a midterm or a final and there's grades outstanding so it's kind of you know what I don't even know what my grade is because I'm missing three grades right now I don't even know what I need to get on this midterm or final to maintain my average because I don't know what it is M so that's a huge concern as well I'll have that on here I just wanted to chime in I really like Kristen's idea of maybe monitoring how the midterms and the finals affect the students overall well-being and um health and mental health Wellness um only because when I think of it as like a hierarchy of needs the child's mental health is at the base of how they're going to succeed in school and if their minimal needs are not met starting with their mental health and well-being um they're not going to test well if they have testing anxiety if they're struggling with um really any kind of barrier and we you know thank you to Mr Fox and to the students who have come here to to communicate to us that the these tests are in fact barriers um in more ways than one um we've identified that they've been barriers to getting into colleges we've identified them being barriers to succeeding in school as far as getting um higher grades and we've also seen or heard rather from our students here and parents and concerned parties that um the tests have actually you know kept students from you know students that are not going into college it's actually been a deterrent for them um just in life in general and so if we're monitoring the whole child and not just the academic piece and we're talking about how are we meeting their needs acade or sorry mentally physically emotionally um how will that impact the students whether or not we're breaking the exams down into pieces um or or what you know I think that like we had said more data is needed here and not just the academic piece I think that uh data on how it's affecting the whole child is important so thank you Kristen for bringing that up and I just wanted to Echo that sentiment great anyone else okay so uh can I get a motion to adjourn so moved okay we're returned thank you for