the office of the board secretary and all school buildings welcome and we'll take a roll call and have a uh do we need to do another roll call okay Mr Donnie here miss clock absent miss mcau here Mr mmud here miss Brogan here please join me in a flag salute pledge of allegiance to the flag the United States of America oh I guess we go right into comments from the public so we have no audience here tonight but let's see doesn't appear that we have any comments from uh anyone listening online we will have another public comment at the end of the meeting okay so we'll go uh then into um a Clos public comment uh and we'll go into presentations uh Dr Schwarz thank you first of all let me say happy summer to everybody especially to all of our students and our teachers and our faculty um uh we have some exciting things going on this summer for sure um some of which of them are memorialized in recommendations within the agenda but tonight we are really blessed to have with us um uh two wonderful Educators our supervisors of Lang English language arts at the K5 level we have Dr Julie Matthews Walsh and we and we also have um our our 6 to 12 English language arts supervisor Miss Susan n tonight they're going to share with us the work that they have been engaging in in conducting an English language arts uh CC program evaluation which we are kind of right smack in the middle of and they're going to share with you uh what to expect as we look to do uh to engage in continuous Improvement on behalf of our students so Dr Matthews and Miss n do you want to join us and I think we we have some also some other guests as they're coming up we also have with us and I'm not sure if they're just fully here from moral support if any of you want to come up and join us looks like we have a we have um Mr Brian Ross who's representing the principal who I think is going to join us at the table I know specifically he's been a big part of our program evaluation and strategic planning uh preparation at the K5 level so Mr Ross thank you so much for being here and we have Miss Genie O'Neal who's also our K5 stem supervisor who does a lot of really fantastic work as well did you want to come up or you good she's happy where she is but thanks for being here for the moral supp for and if you just give us a minute they're going to get all set up and ready to present e okay everybody can hear me yes okay a little closer yeah Dr Walsh you can just bring that all closer that'd be great I am softspoken to begin with so okay um good evening my name is Julianne Walsh Matthews actually um and I am the bridge Public Schools uh Elementary superviser of English language arts and social studies tonight I oh that's better tonight I will be presenting the K to5 English language arts curriculum and program review science of reading research will provide a foundational understanding of how students learn to read The Ridgewood public school's K to 5 English language arts model will showcase evidence-based practices our plan of action will outline next steps in the creation of highquality curriculum and instruction the presentation will conclude with ways to build the homeschool connection and key takeaways the following slides will provide an overview of historically prominent research related to The Guiding question how do students learn to read the reading League defines the science of reading as a vast interdisciplinary body of scientifically based research about reading and issues related to reading and writing research has been conducted over the last five decades across the world and is derived from multiple Fields including education Linguistics neuroscience and psychology the national reading panel identifies pheic awareness phonics fluency comprehension and vocabulary as the five pillars of reading best taught via systematic and explicit instruction skills are taught in a planned logically Progressive sequence the teacher clearly states what is being taught and models how the skill is used the simple View of reading is a scientific theory that shows reading comprehension as the product of word recognition and language comprehension essentially this Theory illustrates the ability to read as dependent on decoding and word meaning Scarborough's reading rope consists of individual reading skills strands within word recognition and language comprehension that are intertwined as skilled reading in the baseball study seventh and eighth graders read a text about a baseball game the students were divided into four groups based on their knowledge and reading ability as you can see high knowledge of baseball with low reading ability scored almost as well as high knowledge of baseball and high reading ability the baseball study is the Home Run of all of these studies because it underscores the power of knowledge in learning to read perhaps the best way to illustrate the power of knowledge is through a student Spotlight here is Caroline how's your name are you in kindergarten students grew knowledge about life cycles of animals that come from eggs classes were immersed in the topic by reading lots of books hatching chicks and learning the word ovus no I'm it seems to go into a loop so the next part will lead you through a tour of the Ridgewood Public Schools K to 5 English language arts model of instruction with close-up views of each component component highlighting the classroom experiences for each the ultimate goal in the creation of this model is to ensure skilled reading and writing for understanding three essential building blocks are needed to achieve this goal a knowledge building curriculum serves to build and deepen topic knowledge as students progress through the grades the gradual release of responsibility includes reading and writing components along the scaffolded Continuum which moves from teacher modeling to Shared practice to guided and independent application systematic foundational skills instruction lays the groundwork for success as students move along the Continuum to independently read and write for understanding this illustration of the Ridgewood public school's K to5 English language arts model details how the essential building blocks work together each topic of study within a knowledge building curriculum lays on a foundation of content-rich knowledge the reading and writing components within each phase of the gradual release model share guide and apply Continuum provide a literacy experience that builds and deepens topic knowledge foundational skills lay underneath with several arrows pointing upward showing how word study and language inventions support learning together the topics of study and foundational skills interact and progress to the ultimate goal of skilled reading and writing for understanding the following slides will guide you through a closeup view of the different components within the model first we will zoom in on content-rich knowledge within a topic of study literature integrated topics include literary elements such as character story elements and theme and formats in genres such as graphic novels folklore mystery and fantasy science integrated topics include earth science such as Earth's patterns weather and climate and Space Systems and life science such as life science and ecos life cycles and ecosystems social studies integrated topics include geography and Civics such as Global Connections our changing landscape and Civic engagement and history such as our States history and the American Revolution next we will zoom in on each phase within the gradual release Continuum the bulleted descriptions underneath the components are highlighted in Maroon to emphasize knowledge and teal to emphasize skills model is the first phase it is the highest scaffold along the Continuum with the bulk of the responsibility on the teacher during the read aloud the class builds knowledge together as they learn new vocabulary and talk about the information they gather modeled writing enables the class to process process their learning and follow the writing process together as the teacher demonstrates how to compose a piece share is the next phase along the Continuum the scaffold lowers as the teacher and students read and write together during shared reading the class reads the same short text across a week each day the teacher hones in on a specific skill to support meaning making shared and interactive writing promote class collaboration that strengthens writing skills while processing learning the teacher does the writing during shared writing and the class takes turns during interactive writing guide and apply is the Final Phase along the Continuum the scaffold is at its lowest as students independently apply with teacher guidance during independent reading students choose from grade level topic related texts peers work together to plan talk and grow their topic knowledge during independent writing students compose topic related pieces peers collaborate on projects by talking and writing about reading to deepen knowledge reading and writing foundational skills are explicitly taught and reinfor forced serving as a solid foundation for learning within the topics of study word study combines clear direct instruction with experiences that incorporate the visual auditory and tactile senses to enhance learning language conventions combine clear direct instruction with inquiry as the class studies how a sentence is constructed our K to 5 English language arts plan of action is divided into three categories knowledge building professional development topics of study enhancement and foundational skills instruction refinement here are ways we are working to build our own knowledge of knowledge and to incorporate knowledge building successfully in the classroom I have been emailing building background knowledge bi-weekly blasts to all K to5 teachers and administrators with articles and podcasts among other bits of information all K to5 teachers and administrators received a copy of Natalie wexler's the knowledge Gap and are prepared for the author's upcoming speaking engagement here in October K to 5 teachers also received a copy of Molly ness's book read alouds for all Learners Dr NES will be working with each grade level in September Natalie wexler's speaking topic comprehension and writing where do they fit into the science of reading will provide a segue to a focus on writing the across the curriculum progressing from the sentence level up here are ways we are working to enhance our Ela topics of study to promote a knowledge building curriculum grade level literacy teams collaborated to identify topics of study that serve to deepen literature science and social studies knowledge across grade levels the K 5 media Specialists Have Been instrumental in the process of creating topic text sets with read alouds and independent reading selections a menu of reading and writing strategies will be completed this summer the first step in creating mini lessons for our topics of study a group of dedicated elementary teachers are working together this summer to write shared reading lesson plans for each topic of study read aloud lesson plans will will be written across the 2425 school year a shift to organize class room libraries by topic will take place over the 2425 school year here are the ways we are working to refine our foundational skills instruction youly foundations an instructional resource developed by the University of Florida will be used to support K2 word study sound walls will serve as a classroom display that organizes spelling patterns by sound the heart Word Method will be used to highlight irregular word Parts grades 3 to five word study will be Revisited to ensure systematic instruction focused on syllabication complex spelling patterns and morphology language conventions lesson plans will be written using sentences from read alouds this slide provides an overview of which practices have changed and how they have changed last summer we revised our grades K And1 reading strategies to Prior prioritize decoding we purchased decodable texts for grades K And1 classrooms we also held a summer book club using the book reading above the fry by Julia B Lindsay knowledge and skills unite within a topic of study the focus has shifted from teaching strategies applied to any topic to teaching strategies to help students build knowledge about a class topic the first step to organize classroom libraries by topic is to remove letter labels from the outside of bins and begin to sort books into categories a k 5 language convention scope and sequence and teaching model was created as a means of providing direct instruction of grammar Concepts grades K to5 literacy assessments have been revised to include Universal screening assessments as part of the dyslexia screening process outlined in the Ridgewood public school's dyslexia handbook this slide outlines a general timeline of the topic of study enhancements and foundational skill instruction refinements that will take place over the next two years The Homeschool connect oh of course The Homeschool connection is crucial to ensure that our work with building and deepening knowledge hits it out of the park the topics of study for each grade level along with guiding questions and class texts will be shared with families here are two ways that you can help first talk is key talk to your child about the topic of study and ask specific questions about the learning that is happening in the classroom second notice and wonder together visit the library and read about the topic go places and engage in activities in conclusion here are the top three Ridgewood Public Schools K to5 English language arts curriculum takeaways number one building blocks form the foundation a College building curriculum gradual release of responsibility and systematic foundational skills instruction are in place to achieve the ultimate goal of reading and writing for understanding number two it's all about knowledge professional development for our K to5 Educators is focused on knowledge building in the classroom and number three let's hit it out of the park together The Homeschool connection strengthens knowledge to help our students soar towards skilled reading and writing for understanding the more our students know about a topic the more they will grow thank you so much Dr Walsh I understand that um Mrs N your presentation kind of flows well with this one so board members is it okay if we have them just continue and Go do both and then we'll ask questions across the board is that okay all right so Mrs N if you can then also just uh we'll flow right into your presentation good evening I'm Susan n the super advisor of English language arts 6 through2 and I'm here to present the English language arts curriculum and program review we are completing the first year of our review where we focused on the analysis of best practices data and the newly published 2023 njsls standards and feedback from stakeholders our recommendation is to revise curricula based on This research with a complete realignment with the 2023 NJ SLS standards we will focus the next two years on professional development for staff in addition we will continue to create opportunities for grade level articulation and data analysis to Target instruction for all Learners in the final two years of the review we will continue to monitor the proposed changes and identify lenses for the next program review our year one research process began with examining programming with surrounding districts and conducting professional development to explore the newly published standards there was an extensive evaluation of the state testing data from the njsla and NJ GPA which resulted in the identification of gaps in the transition between the levels as a result linkit was introduced in Middle School in February 2024 and will be introduced in grades 9 and 10 in September 2024 in addition we held grade level articulation of writing expectations and collaboration sessions to ensure equity and writing assessment H transition articulation between fifth and sixth grade teachers and eth and nth grade teachers to identify opportunities for growth between the levels explored new books and resources and evaluated current resources to support student learning collected survey data from teachers students and parents and Guardians okay we reviewed the NJ SLS standards published in October 2023 I met with Bergen County School Ela supervisors to collaborate on standards alignment we created and shared with Bergen County an njsls progression of Standards we created templates with aligned standards for 6 through 12 units for curriculum writing which we streamline for Bergen County We examined the newly introduced environmental standards and created Research Unit templates to incorporate them there are several changes in the newly published standards there are new are several changes in the newly published standards that will guide our curriculum development and pedagogical shifts at the secondary level the new Ela practices are a k through2 articulation that focus on developing responsibility for learning adapting communication valuing evidence and argumentation building knowledge leveraging technology understanding self and others the overall restructuring eliminated the separate categories of the reading Foundation skills K through five and the companion standards they move Foundation reading into the language category and the companion standards were integrated into the reading informational text expectations revisions in the reading domain reduced redundancy and standards clarified the developmental complexities across grade levels and specified skills and knowledge related to the literary and information texts the four categories in the reading domain of 2016 have been expanded with more specific skills outlined including close reading Central ideas and themes of texts interactions among text elements text structure perspective and purpose in text diverse median formats analysis of argument and comparison of texts revisions in the writing domain reduce redundancy and standards and recognize the digital and virtual shifts in communication by integrating and amplifying digital interactive graphic and other non-traditional text formats the four categories in the writing domain of 2016 have been expanded with more specific skills outlined including argumentative writing informative and explanatory writing narrative writing writing process writing research sources of evidence and range of writing we will need to add a mandatory Research Unit in each grade level to meet these requirements the two two categories in the speaking and listening domain of 2016 have been expanded with more specific skills outlined including participate effectively integrate information evaluate speakers present information use media and adapt a speech the 2020 New Jersey standards of learning introduced standards to promote topics of climate change across all content areas the 2023 New Jersey standards Ela specifically outlined standards in each Ela grade level that require students to read research and write about a specific topic related to climate change and environmental justice these standards also encourage interdisciplinary units that focus on climate change and include authentic and action oriented learning experiences our 6 through2 program has several opportunities to meet these new 2023 standards as well as extend our learning experiences to meet the needs of all Learners Middle School is a mandatory English language arts course in each grade level with quarter selective courses to support the core classes currently literary analysis supports student writing and word study supports language skills in seventh grade public speaking will be utilized to teach the Research Unit and journalism will focus on the expository writing in 8th grade students will have one mandatory research class and a choice of several different English selectives the high school program offers College Prep honors and advanced placement courses English is required all four years of high school we offer three different advanced placement options in addition students can opt into Bergen County community college credit for both English 12 college prep and English 12 honors our electives can be taken by seniors in Li of English 12 College Prep or English 12 honors classes Juniors can take these classes as electives we collected feedback from our 6 through 12 students our parents and Guardians and the ELA Department staff to guide our next steps first we will begin reviewing the middle school student and parent data then we will review the high school student and parent data finally we will review the staff data 487 middle school students responded 70% agree or strongly agree that they've enjoyed their middle school English experience 91% agree or strongly agree that they've been successful in English class 70 % agree or strongly agree that their English class connects what they are learning to real world experiences 66% agree or strongly agree that their English class connects with their learning to other subject areas 80% agree or strongly agree that they're confident that they're developing the English the skills in English to be successful in the future okay Middle School Parent survey results 337 Middle School parents responded 81% agree or strongly agree that their child has an interest in English 90% agree or strongly agree that their child enjoys their English class 92% agree or strongly agree their child has been successful in English class 73% agree or strongly agree that their child has been appropriately challenged in English class 75% agree or strongly agree that they are satisfied with the English program 73% agree or strongly agree that they are confident that their child is developing the skills in English to be successful for the future we're going to move on to the high school student data 514 students high school students responded to this survey 81% agree or strongly agree that they've enjoyed their English classes at Ridgewood High School 90% agree or strongly agree that they've been successful in their classes 75% agree or strongly agree that their English class connects what they are learning to real world experiences 73% agree or strongly agree that their English class connects what they are learning to other subject areas 80% agree or strongly agree that they are confident that they are developing the skills in English to be successful in the future and 90% agree or strongly agree that they have been appropriately challenged in their English classes at Ridgewood High School the High School parent survey results there were 295 parents who responded to this survey 83% agree or strongly agree that their child has an interest in English 79% agree or strongly agree that their child enjoys their English class 92% agree or strongly agree that their child has been successful in English class 87% agree or strongly agree that their child has been appropriately challenged in English class 81% agree or strongly agree that they are satisfied with the English program 73% agree or strongly agree that their confidence that their child is developing the skills in English to be successful in the future staff survey results 41 teachers responded to this survey 69% agree or strongly agree that their students have a high level of interest in English 98% agree or strongly agree that English education is a priority in Ridgewood Public School schols 98% agree or strongly agree that the English program program has the resources it needs to provide a high quality education to all students 78% agree or strongly agree that they routinely incorporate interdisciplinary planning into their instruction 97% agree or strongly agree that they routinely connect what they are teaching to real world experiences and events 95% agree or strongly agree that they rout L collaborate with their colleagues to articulate standards skills Concepts and assessments okay this is narrative feedback this was write in feedback and not all responders wrote in narrative feedback summary of feedback for middle school students and parents they would like to see more grammar instruction with a transparent scope and sequence and more writing instruction they currently appreciate the strong student teacher relationships the curriculum offerings and the level of challenge the summary of feedback from high school students and parents similar to the Middle School parents and students High School parents and students would like to see more writing instruction in addition they would also like to see more consistency in grading and evaluation and more modern updates to the curriculum they also appreciate the strong the strong student teacher relationships the curriculum offerings and the level of challenge the summary of feedback from staff teachers would like smaller class sizes to evaluate writing more thoroughly more collaboration time to implement upcoming initiatives like analyzing linkit data they appreciate administrative support new resources and their professional collaboration with their colleagues I'd like to share some of the new initiatives from The Last Five Years where teachers and administrators participated in professional collaborations to enhance the Reading Writing and language learning experiences we've brought 15 books on the Core Curriculum the last few years focusing on diversifying our voices and experiences for students this work continues each year tell me your stories our most recent reading initiative all Ridgewood High School students choose from pre-selected Memoirs to participate in book groups in their Ela classrooms we offer new selections each year to extend our expiration of various narratives and perspectives the rising seniors will have participated in this Initiative for their entire High School career and have been able to choose four of these books we have hosted four author visits for tell me your story Michael mccre visited both middle schools and the high school the high school is also hosted Briana Scurry mik G and Robin ha are tell me your story selections for September 2024 are born a crime by TR Trevor Noah educated by Tara Westover the American dream a journey on Route 66 by Shen Ken core code talker the first and only Memoir by one of the original Navajo co- talkers of World War II Chester Nez for the last four years the middle and high school classes have participated in the African-American readin we have held it every February 15th with more than six million participants we celebrate the month by sharing a teacher's favorite work by an African-American artist in support of the Ridgewood public schools have habits of learning 6 through 12 ELA teachers have examined best practices and designed evaluation tools to promote student learning Educators have participated in intentional and systematic collaborations that Foster equity and transparency and assessment these include in July of 2022 we created a k through2 Ela dimensions and proficiencies to outline skills processes and outcomes for reading language reading language research empathetic communication and writing for purpose we explored and created single point rubrics aligned to the proficiencies for students to monitor growth we created a process rubric for the literary analysis essay September to December 20122 High School teachers created a grade level on demand writing rubric for the midterm exam in January 2023 High School teachers administered the midterm exam with the the common grade level rubric in February to March of 2023 High School grade level teams met to Read sample essays from the exam determine the best to determine the best exemplars for different levels of writing these exemplars were placed in a bank of essays available to teachers for instruction and assessment practices in March of April 2023 High School teachers revised the rubric based on the articulation and designed writing instructional strategies in August since September of 2023 middle and high school teachers collaborated with grade level colleagues to create a grammar sgo or student growth assessment refined the conventions category of the writing rubric based on skills assessed in sgo October 2023 Middle School teachers revised writing rubrics and determined common pre-writing activities High School grade level cohorts articulated writing assessments and calibrated evaluation nov of 2023 Middle School teachers refined impromptu writing rubrics and articulated grammar skills related to the sgo high school teachers collaborated with grade level cohorts to design exam writing prompts with the on demand rubric in January 2024 High School teachers administered the writing midterm and selected examples for the writing calibration Middle School teachers finalized their impromptu rubrics and prompts in March 2024 High School teachers met grade level cohorts to read midterm examples and select exemplars for instruction and assessment these exemplars were added to the bank of essays Middle School teachers administered the ond demand writing and selected examples for calibration grades five and six teachers articulated skills with a focus on the grammar Continuum for K through 8 our recommendations for 2024 to 2028 implement the grammar continuum developed in the 2024 summer curriculum writing conduct routine benchmarks with linkit to monitor growth for all students identify support and enrichment needed for individual students or cohorts continue to articulate between the levels Elementary to middle and middle to high to examine the changes in curriculum and adjust accordingly Implement newly designed curriculum Guided by the 2023 njsls standards implement the Research Unit and all grades 6 through 12 continue to articulate writing assessment and calibrate evaluation and Julie and I would just like to thank all of the teachers who have participated like and all of their collaboration and professionalism and hard work that is making these goals a reality for Ridgewood Public Schools thank you so much for the presentation um I feel like if we had an audience here you'd get more of an Applause so I'm going to go ahead and give you a little round of applause um thank you so much for such comprehensive uh detail um and I would at this point in time just welcome any board member questions and follow-ups I'll start um first I I also just want to thank you both um for all the work that you've done and for these um really incredible presentations I I learned a lot and I've met with you before and I'm still learning a lot so um and I'm sure our community um really appreciates the work that you did in preparing the presentations and and of course the work that you are all doing so I appreciate that um I'm gonna start is my mic not on it's rare that people have trouble hearing me so okay um I I did have one question um well actually have more than one but I wanted to um for uh Su old I wanted to compliment you on the choices of books I know that we've gone through that in a curriculum meeting before and I've got my summer reading list now so thank you um the research portion that you know we're now required the Research Unit um I was thinking about that um do you have any idea what that's going to look like we've developed so we actually we we developed the exemplars so when we met we had the standards um published in October 2023 um with the implementation for September 2024 so in a few months which is very fast um so the Bergen County Supervisors created a cohort to and we we created a progression but we started with the Research Unit because there are so many new standards that we have to incorporate into it and so we actually have t temp uh templates for 6 7 8 9 10 and 11 and 12 and the six seven and8 articulation is a very um is a very specific shift away from how we've done research in the past meaning I could have a question um about koalas or about environmental justice and my research essay may just be answering that question whereas these units for six seven and 8 um the research summi of assessment is actually an argument essay a position essay that argues the best source to answer that question and all of the formative assessments leading up to that summative are teaching students how to evaluate evidence how to evaluate sources how to know something that their reading is real and so there are eight or nine formative assessments that are integrating language you know so for example if I'm in eth grade my language study could be participial phrases and so even one of those smaller assessments teaching students how to read that article maybe getting them to exercise that phrase underline all the participial phrases list them on a piece of paper let's take it out of the article is this now unbiased or objective information can I look at these participial phrases and see the modifiers and see the bias if there is any of the writer so everything is intentional and leveraged we are going to have to reimagine the curriculum as we know it to meet these standards um we're basically going to take everything out of the closet and um and we're going to have to think about what it looks like before we put it in so instead of looking at we C what we currently have um and trying to make the standards work for those we're looking at the standards to guide how we are going to to instruct students and how we're going to assess students and it's it's going to take a few years you know I mean we're of we're going to be in and Julie and I are in in step one this summer um but it's going to be intentional um and collaborative and we're pretty excited about it no it's it's interesting it it seems to me it it sounds a little bit like you're actually teaching the skill of the research like when I went to college I had a whole research and writing class right where you had to learn how to do that and evaluate it as opposed to like for example in history or science when you're writing a a research paper you're not necessarily giving the kids the skills to like you said evaluate the sources they're relying on which is really important in light of we in we that's available to kids today to teach them what's real you know I mean and I that's really the the standards for 6 through 12 are really leaning into this is a different world than 2016 and how do we make those shifts so that kids can read the Digital World um and they can do so with empathy that's fantastic thank you sure um moving right along to Doc so it's Dr Walsh not Dr Matthews okay so I'm going to have to you'll correct me if I'm wrong um so again I wanted to thank you on all the work that you've done um I wanted to compliment you specifically on um the graphic you had with the five pillars of reading because you don't toot your own horn but I know that when we met during curriculum that was your graphic and you kind of created that those five pillars so that it's very very clear to someone like me who doesn't have the education you do so I want to thank you for that and um just compliment you on you know the continuing work you're doing and the the feedback that you're taking in from the community to articulate the standards and what needs to be done um if I had a little one I would understand now what it is that they would be learning um and I also wanted to ask U Mr Ross a question um you know we've heard a lot about the overarching you know philosophy and what's going to be happening but as uh the representative of the the guy on the street and the guy in the building can you just talk to us a little bit about um there go you know about the principles and the teachers and how this is going to be implemented at the building level absolutely so um full disclosure I'm not just the guy on the street I'm the guy who owns that playroom so when you saw the little girl in the video that's my daughter she just finished her kindergarten year and um we chose that chose that clip specifically to illustrate that uh there are ways that content you in this specific instance life science is being integrated with Ela instruction so there are uh you know eggs BL through the life cycle of tching into chicks and that's married with books describing that process and that's also tied to writing exercises that come home every night where students are writing sentences so really what what we've been looking at is how to uh be sure that that is systematized and scaled K to 5 uh and so it's a really good representation of those research based best practices that will be you know integrated into our curriculum and um one of the things that I'm really excited about is uh the two-year process that you saw here on one of the slides um the deliverables uh and so so we have an extensive two-year professional development calendar with trimly the deliverables and so you know as we we're going to be rolling this stuff out in real time but the teachers are going to have all the support they need and all the resources they need so we're very excited about this and um I think you'll see results quickly much um thank you um this was very detailed and very um helpful presentation and um the the presentation is probably like 30 minutes but uh hours and hours and weeks and weeks of work has gone into that so and we have seen that over multiple curriculum meetings and multiple meetings that happen so it's it's multiple years of work that you're um now coming to uh like we have an action plan and it's progressing right so that that was a lot of work that went into identifying what needs to be done and when it needs to be done and um bringing everybody on board on that plan so all of that has happened so it's a lot of work that has happened as a team um and I know from science uh content has come from science from literature from um the history um social studies so from all of the content areas it's a it's a group effort so really thank everybody for that um I just have some questions on the presentation um and so on the um on the ELA presentation on the uh Elementary School one so I'm trying to remove the information that I have from curriculum meeting and I'm just looking at this presentation from a parents perspective that if they don't have a lot of background information that I may have and if I'm just looking at this presentation then I see that we covered what's the uh what are the foundations of Science of reading in the first couple of slides with the pillars and the content and Scarboro chart and baseball example so we covered all of that and then we covered I think the next few slides covered what what's the state of Ideal curriculum right right what how it should be happening I think that's what we covered in the next three or four slides when we were showing the uh share knowledge the models the individual shared and uh there were three parts of that right so all of that we covered as if that but if somebody is listening to that for the first time it doesn't really identify from that list what is currently implemented and what is currently not implemented so so from that is this idea state that is not today's State because when we are show in those slides we are showing ridgewood's Ela curriculum or ridgewood's Ela approach and we are showing those slides but that's not today that's ideal that's after two years that's where we are trying to go towards right that's not we have we are not there today right I think I'm just going to oh so it's I see right the model where where it says rewards model right this one yes so this model we are not there today well right if I can just go back to the essential building blocks um we really have the gradual release oh sorry keep forgetting about this the gradual release of responsibility and the systematic foundational skills instruction that really is that that exists already it needs refinement um but that is in place the knowledge building is the piece that has not been in place so um if I could just go to um this slide here I think the uh the second bullet under what has changed is really important um because I I believe I said something like that the the skills and the topics topics of study unite you know the skill and knowledge unite within a topic of study um the the shift we' we've done a very good job at teaching skills and strategies but one of the main shifts is now applying it not just to any topic but to learn you know about a specific topic right so this is this is a great slide and I think somehow what what I'm missing or to understand is how to reconnect this back to the initial two slides where you identified what is science of reading or what are the five pillars that somehow I need to connect um so if I'm talking to a resident or if I'm a parent of a student yes I need to understand what is science of reading which you explained here then I need to understand what was missing in ridgewood's curriculum that we are improving what what instead of saying what was missing we can say what were the areas of improvement within ridgewoods curriculum right we have we have to identify what what did we identify as areas of improvement we are showing the ideal model or in the end state right but what were the areas of improvement that we identified and what is our plan to implement those areas of implement and which ones are already happening so out of these five which are which were identified as missing and what is our plan when will they happen right so that timeline like for example in the six to 12th grade there was a timeline from 21 to 24 so there was a 5year timeline every year what happened right so that's what I think is missing that what is all the buzz in the uh industry or in the newspapers about science of reading versus what is not what was not working right so the teachers College um Reading Writing Workshop all the news that happen so as a parent I need to understand okay there is some problem which of that problem is part of ridgewood's problem and what what doesn't apply to Ridgewood right so that's first what is the problem what or areas of improvement and what is our timeline to fix that and where is that timeline so that I think is is missing okay from from parent communication yes um because I speak about knowledge building and a knowledge building curriculum which really the comprehension of the vocabulary really are it's tied to to those two skills um whereas the phic awareness the phonics and the fluency are more uh skill comprehension of vocabulary fall more in the the knowledge right so there's some con because to me I don't understand that so I just need a graphics that shows okay this is already done and this will be done one thing I would suggest that we go back to is the baseball slide which I I'm sorry I'm going in the wrong direction here the baseball side I really think is illustrative of what we're talking talking about here in the sense of we're not going to start teaching baseball but what we're going to be doing is teaching more content and interwinding all of the literacy skills with the teaching of that content and in teaching the content in that fashion what we're doing is empowering all of our readers those who are strong decoders those who are aren't as strong as decoding and we're kind of bringing up that level across the board and that's what this approach does it's not necessarily there was a problem but there's an opportunity to reach more readers in more ways right for when we talk about the content based approach yes so we are doing that but what we need to show is we are now including literacy we are including the science uh curriculum as content and we are including um the social studies so what's our timeline for that right that that timeline is missing because science has already happened science was implemented two years ago right you'll see here the uh here we go so the topics of study are lined up for 2526 to be fully ped out but that's more more mainly for the social studies science was already implemented last year these are all still Ela units so this is independent of the science standards and then science instruction which we also deliver in addition to the ELA so these are going to be units that incorporate content from the science areas from the social studies areas but there're still going to be Ela units okay so that's part of the the content based curriculum so or Scarboro uh that you showed so that would be 25 26 and then the Five Pillars where we are showing skills so which of those five skills were missing and what would be the timeline for those skills all right well I I don't want to say that they were missing um but we've refined we refined all of them but the the the final two I had said earlier the comprehension and the vocabulary because knowledge and and the baseball study and and the knowledge building curric that is an area um that where we're targeting to to grow and develop so is it safe to say by end of 26 so by so this is we are starting 2425 then 25 26 so at the end of two more school years we will be at that model State that's our goal for all k25 correct that's correct and what you'll see here too and I was going around actually the slides but the word study to work with youly specifically uh so this is an area we're looking at those five pillars where you where you will see greater emphasis on those pillars and the you know the explicit instruction so that's where we're strengthening the delivery of those you know those five pillars like phic awareness and phonics right so maybe like from my perspective if I'm talking about timeline I can just say end of 2026 school year that model state will be at the model State some of the stuff already in play right now I just want to just provide I think while we're all here there's a great opportunity here because we also have our supervisor and we have a principal who's on the ground actually seeing what goes in the classroom on like real time in his actual school too so an important clarification when we have these conversations because we're having a very high bird's eye view conversation right this is at the highest level at the governance level it's at the chief executive level right and then we have some of our other District Executives who are responsible but none of us are actually the ones in the classroom doing this work right so our teachers are doing it so there are there are two complimentary systems that work together and the first is what we're talking about here which is our our system for ensuring at a high level that our kids are getting a great education right and that's a function of our planning our resources our strategy right that's all that's what we're talking about here but a whole complimentary other half of this conversation isn't in the room and that's all of our amazing teachers right and so our teachers boots on the ground are also one of the reasons why we have such high standards for the people that we hire and retain is because we want teachers who can think critically about what they're being tasked to do and good teachers are always filling in the gaps where maybe our very very high level instructional planning and ideas are aren't maybe maybe aren't exactly on point we can't possibly create uh even with such excellent professionals we can't possibly create a curriculum that is going to be perfect there's no such thing so we need those Educators to be filling in the gaps and I think what's happening right now is that we're having very high level questions on the strategy side but there's the whole teacher side that's going on and I think what Mr Donnie's question is and it's a very similar question that I have and tell me if I'm if I'm if if we're if I'm right with this is that I'm observing this is my take on everything all right most of your citations for the studies that were done are over 20 years old right because and that that that's not that's not a bad thing that's a good thing because that means it's that doesn't mean it's outdated quite the opposite it means those are foundational studies right that are still relevant today kids still learn the same way so along the way if we believe that these foundational studies are relevant and we're talking about them today I think there's an implication that along the way we and probably lots of other school districts and I think probably most of New Jersey got a little bit off of this foundational track and we kind of lost sight of the importance of decoding and we kind of lost sight of the importance of knowledge right we had Ed HS has been preaching this for many many years but we also got into a big thing with we going too crazy but like the um like Bloom's taxonomy like kind of I saw I observed myself when I became an administrator that there was this the whole emphasis of higher level thinking often deprecated depreciated excuse me depreciated knowledge and for years I've been saw this as a social studies teacher I saw it as an administrator and when I was a principal I was Ardent that no I wanted results and we were not going to get results unless our kids had knowledge and I didn't know how to put it in words at that time but I think along the way we've gotten into this fad of emphasizing all this higher level thinking stuff all the synthesis right because that's the highest level of Bloom's taxonomy and so we've gotten into practices that are all about well the kids need to be synthesized they need to be writing all the time right and so there was a bit of a dmhas and then also we want to make sure that differentiation is also really important so we created all these reading levels and structures and and ultimately we got away from things that we've known many of the people who are in this room probably were not taught with our were taught with the old methods and uh we found them very helpful so I think the the question then becomes I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna make a couple of assumptions I'm going to assume that throughout all this time there have been a lot of teachers who just see what what what the kids need and meet the kids where they are with what they need and I'm also going to assume that there's no that my experience of working with teachers college and the writers and Writers Workshop as well as traditional more traditional methods is that good teachers find ways to work with the materials that they have to make sure that kids are learning and kids make progress and which is why I think we still see despite the fact that we've been a teacher College District we see we've still seen really solid growth in within language arts but I think the question that the community has and Mr Donnie has and I think I have too and I none of us can answer this is recognizing that all of our teachers are in different places and every classroom is a little bit different where do where are we on this Continuum right now meaning this is where we want to go right and I think and I'm sure that in a few years we'll refine this right so but the point being that we're emphasizing knowledge we're emphasizing decoding right we're emphasizing grammar structures and like the like the actual how Reading Writing work which is different than what had what has been The Fad for many many years so we are declaring and I see the emails M wal steny's wonderful Dr walen's wonderful emails really bringing everybody up to speed and I think that we've had the paradigm shift as a district I I see evidence of it all over okay so the paradigm shift is there the question comes down to what is the state of teacher practice right now on that Continuum and I know that that you can't answer that simply because it's not like the teachers aren't robots that we program and then they all do the exact same thing right they're all in different places but if you have to answer that question and I need your best shot at this question where are the teachers in terms of migrating to this practice because we can't possibly have snap our fingers and just have all these additional resources for them and structured documents where are they in terms of being in the process of this transition and where does that leave our kids was that was that helpful yeah it's and actually I also noted down all the the three studies one 1988 one was 2000 and 2001 and that was my question that I was going to ask at the end that where did we lose that momentum or like what happened because if we are going to the baseball study from 1988 yeah and uh compared to for 6 to 12 we are making progress from 2016 to 20 24 right so if on elementary school so you summarize it uh pretty well so thank you thanks yeah and if it's okay I'd love to hear both the departmental perspective and the school perspective sure sure um well really so much is in place already uh it's it comes down to like teachers are doing a really great job um with teaching strategies it's just not a being embedded in in a in content so that that that's what it comes down to um I had said earlier it's specially because we we because we we have not gotten to a place where they have all the resources that they need for to that that rich content yeah yeah so um but they have there is so much in place um of with the with the skill instruction uh we just need to embed it in a in a Content Rich uh and and have the resources uh to provide that instruction and we're saying it but we're talking about multiple things here right but specifically with respect to like decoding because I know that's a big concern for folks and maybe at the building level Mr Ross you can speak to that I think what you often hear is people talk about K to2 as learning to read and three to five as reading to learn so you know there's a very heavy emphasis on decoding in in K to2 and then much more content in 3 to five and I think that generally that's true and I think that generally we doing a pretty good job with that um what we want to do is make sure that as as you indicated Dr Schwarz U you know teachers are fing in gaps and teachers are finding ways but what are the best ways to do all of these different things what are the research backed ways what are the explicit systematic ways of doing this and that's what a lot of these resources will do so UI for example you know gives the word study uh you know in a sequential fashion that you know not anybody could do it but someone with a you know General understanding can can do this and really deliver this at a very high quality for kids who maybe might be struggling with some of these Concepts so that's really what we're building out here so I think you know it's a very complicated question but I think the short answer is we're doing you know a pretty good job so far but what we really want to do is make sure that everyone is speaking that common language that everyone is getting that same training and everyone understands to your point also that working content is a skill and and you know that content does Drive EMP power what we do and that we are embedding all of these you know skills in our work with content so to be just to make it just to be very specific we're at a place right now where as a district we understand the importance of decoding right and and and making sure that students at the youngest age and to be clear content knowledge is important even with the little ones because they have to know what they're reading about right but that we that we're not trying to teach with some undefended kind of uh methodology that is like like the kids are going to learn by osmosis right we explicitly teach how to decode correct we explicitly teach how to decode my kindergarten Twins were bringing home decodable books they're talking to me about blends about magic e about all of it you know so it is being explicitly taught and then talked about in my home so yes it's happening and if he didn't catch it his kids do go to school here I just it's a Shameless and then but and then as far as but but it's really the and so then what is the area that you that you both would say and I think you said content right that that that were that our continued efforts are going to produce the the most yield is it specifically in the content enrichment yeah that's that's the biggest area to me that's that's the piece that I that I want to develop um the um if you notice on this slide I have foundational skills instruction refinement because we have you know there's a lot in place already there's always room for for growth and Improvement uh and so I feel like this area we've already put a lot of work into this area teach have received the IC training uh so there's there's a lot already that has been going on but um but there's certainly is um opportunity for refinement okay and then so for next year specifically just in words here what's our big step forward next year um the big step forward is uh well read aloud is big uh we'll have professional development as a train strategy meaning we there's there's read aloud is in practice but formalizing it and training everybody so that we have high so that we have consistency in read aloud correct yes yeah that's big uh and the and and and the knowled you know I mean I we started that this year but to really drive it forward through the we we also have shared for next year as well which will be texts related to the topics okay great so a lot of a lot of that formalized training so that we can ensure that all our teachers are on the same level same same Paradigm Level formalized Training here you know at the district level where we bring together an entire grade level of teachers to work on it and then building based trainings to follow up and reiterate that in team uh Team level meetings with Dr Walsh the principle so that we can actually take a look at what is produced how it's being rolled out what if any changes we need to make so so that we are you know constantly updating and uh and strengthening this material yeah and although it's not necessarily Direct connected to the science of reading the the link it that I want to make sure that we went back to that because that doesn't necessarily come up in that science of reading migration conversation this is more of a systems of quality control conversation that is I know I is is is is very critical and I don't want to I think it's just as important because again one of the reasons why I advocate for an evidence-based uh methodology of leading a school district is that schools are are uh very prone to F fads and I think that when we focus on evidence space approach it kind of neutralizes some of that like some of that energy around fads like if we can demonstrate that something's working well then it's working right doesn't matter whether it's if it's popular or not but if it's not working it doesn't matter if it's popular if it's not working it's not working right you know just so everybody's clear the link it assessments are tied to the state standard so they give us a real clear snapshot of how our kids are doing and progressing over the course of the year so this is something that we constantly are referring to you know schoolwide in individual situations or team meetings so yes it's a very powerful tool okay sorry I I didn't mean to take over you I think you summarize it very well um I just have two or three small comments on that U one one like when we are saying that the decoding is happening um or your kids are bringing decoding books and that's where I think that timeline would help because that was recently implemented by Dr Walsh so a lot of the things that she has done in last 3 four years I think we need to highlight that because that has made a lot of difference so where we are today and you are saying sitting here and saying we are doing a lot of and we are all proud of it but a lot of work has gone into that so if that timeline is there that would help uh because that was not there of like the whole decoding text was recently included the second thing like I think 99% of my comments here are related to how do we communicate this to the residents I'm not questioning what you're doing I'm I know all all of this work is happening my comments are how do we communicate this back to the community because they are Reading New York Times or other places that everything is falling apart but we need to give them an assurance that rewood is in a good place and we have a good plan right and um I think I had uh one more but I forgot but it was something positive that I forgot if I if I can speak to that that is actually a component of our work as well we meet on a almost weekly basis to talk about how we're communicating this out so that's Mr fredman Miss corus and ourselves and so we're we're working on the messaging component of that too so there's a shared vocabulary and understanding so that people who are reading have a sense of where we really are in relation to the rest of the world yes so I remember now my last one so um the there was a a lot of evangelism Dr Schwarz you said that teachers uh know what they are doing or they like there is a lot of evangelism or information or tra or motivating them by Dr Walsh about okay these are the changes and we need to change right so that has gone into that through those bi-weekly emails and the workshops but so if I if I may ask a question that in after 2026 if I take a student from one of our elementary schools from second grade and put them in a different Elementary School in third grade do you think they will have a continuity and um they will be able to catch up or will there still be things that are building specific just to be clear you're talking about another District school no the number six elementary schools oh well that's that's really the purpose of all of this to be sure that no matter where you go to school there is that Equity of experience that is that you consistency that continuity so that if you pick up and mo across town tomorrow you are going to be getting the same instruction perfect you had something I I just wanted when you talked about communication before I just want to give a shout out to Christine corus she's been really tremendously helpful with that single-handedly so um and and then on the 6 to 12 um that was also very detailed presentation um I just have a couple of questions there one is um all the percentages that you had shown uh the survey responses um how do they compare from previous years or is there anything that is there any of those server like any of those numbers do we need is there a deviation from previous years or they are is there an improvement or are they do they look good like there were couple of 66% are do we have have a like room to Improvement right okay so these are this year survey but how do they compare from previous years or back to this one um we typically score high 70s 80s um so similar I think the the most noteworthy was the Middle School my English class connects what we were learning to other subject areas but does it need to connect well you know what's interesting is um pre pandemic we focused a lot of the the program review on an interdisciplinary um study mostly with social studies in English and we did a lot of professional development for that post pandemic um we've really been looking at the gaps from virtual learning and so there's been less professional development with that but what I think is going to be interesting is now we have have to intentionally put the environmental science standards into 6 through 12 um which we're going we're going to need to lean into science and into history to do both uh but I think Ela is always looking to make connections you know we naturally have the teams in middle schools to do that um we do focus a lot of collaboration at the high school to do that and with the Research Unit we are going to need to collaborate with social studies and with science and also our library curriculum review our media curriculum review which will be next year the secondary level will be focused completely on research and so I I think we're going to see that but we do want students to see how English uh writing research uh language connects to their other subject areas we don't want them to be siloed to think I don't I don't need to write in this way um that one and the real world um that one and then other one that that I thought was the standout um with with both the parent um surveys I'm confident that my child's developing the skills in English to be successful for the future we're in the 70s I think that's great um I really do but you know we typically are in the 80s closer to the 80s with that um I do think that from The Narrative responses people are concerned about the grammar instru struction which you know we have been focused on for the last two years I think also people are concerned that kids aren't reading which we we know is is true so I I think that there's a lot happening um that our intentional articulation should address and we're looking for those numbers to get higher but overall I think people see themselves as being successful in their English class um I think that they see themselves as enjoying English and so um I don't think the results are that divorce from 2016 but the anything in the 60s um good is different you know I would say high 70s to 80s for the most part but I'm happy to see some 90s to be honest with you um thank you so then from the free response answers there were two that stood out one is grammar so um again do we need more um parental communication on that without what we have done in last couple of years on grammar and what's our plan and the second one was um class size so what is the current class size that is concerning and what what's the ideal class size there well the ideal class size and what's a realistic class size are two different things when we we are talking about uh teachers evaluating writing and you look at a middle or high school teacher they have 120 125 students people want to see more writing instruction but to do more writing evaluation um in the way that we're doing it is nearly impossible um so I think when we talk about class size it's less about discipline it's about uh the expectation of an English language arts teacher now is to improve writing to um and to facilitate that it's difficult when you have 22 to 25 students in a classroom um that's hard you know so I I think that the class size is more a nod to that that than it is to to any other aspect um but if you can give me more teachers we'll take smaller class sizes that would make everyone happy for sure but our our typical class sizes are about 23 at the high school um they can be as low as 22 they can be as high as 27 28 but you know we look for 22 to 23 and even that's large when we're talking about you know that means 120 plus students when you're teaching five classes the middle schools teach five sometimes six classes depending on the quarter it's a lot of um that's a lot um so anything that you can do to reduce class size would would also um support writing evaluation and the grammar part the communication on grammar do we do we need to increase something yeah I mean we're going to have a very public facing curriculum we do right now um but one of the goals especially with the k to8 um this year is to have completed grammar Continuum with K to8 so our teachers articulated in March um so we did the fifth sixth grade articulation so that is definitely going to be part of the 678 um public curriculum and we do have skills that we focus on at the middle and they're also specifically outlined in the standards there are specific language and usage and Convention skills that are outlined um with the new standards but ideally we'll have a published grammar Continuum K to 12 um but definitely K to8 by the end of the summer and and last question is um one of the 24 to 28 goals is to calibrate on evaluations so do you think that will take up to 28 or can we expect that we've been doing it for two years with writing uh we started with the midterm exam at the high school two years ago and we do Julie also Dr Dr Walsh also does this um where we do a blind calibration where teachers select examples so for example we give the the midterm at the end of January and teachers have to evaluate that very quickly 120 essays within two weeks so we can get a semester grades in and then from that they pick their best we have four categories on our rubric um with three different um four well four different points with three different categories and they're choosing their best examples of a one a two a three or four and then we put them in a blind sampling in March we we have teachers in a professional development read those essays and they choose their best example of a one a two or three or four and we use those examples for instructional um purposes so ideally um it's helping us calibrate but it's also giving students an idea of what is expected at this level so for example if I were to give you a three and a four but I didn't tell you um or I could give you a two and a four that as a student you would be able to use the rubric with a partner or in a group um and you would be able to take what's abstract in that rubric because these rubrics can be huge you know we want to want to simplify them and for the students to be able to say well this is a four for a thesis statement or a claim because this one is compelling and I know this because um where this is three it's argumentative but it's not a unique idea and I know this because but that's really we're we're in the second year of that um and I I I do think it's going to take some time again we have you know a staff of over 40 um and you know but it it it's closer than you think when when we do get into these calibrations we don't really have any dispute in terms of identifying these essays so the more that we do it and that's intentional um then I think the the closer we get to to calibration to equity thank you yeah yeah great um I have just a few questions but you answered mine because my big question was how do we ensure consistency and so um I Heard it so um and now the next will be how do you measure it that it's happening so we can teach it we can talk about it but where do how do you see it in action and what are the results so I suspect that would be through the uh test okay yes I mean I think that that goes a long way first toward answering Mr Donnie's question is if I you know if I go to school at and then I move midye to Orchard right we we've done that interal reliability work how does how do we see it we look at the test scores we look at the linkit results you know we're looking at all of it across the board and then all of this work that we were talking about at the K5 level starting at the sentence level does bear fruit at the high school level some years down the line too so it really is all related and connected um thanks for that uh could you give me an example of um a topic you would use for knowledge um pick any grade I know third grade okay uh third third grade um a genre topic uh would be mystery um the um we do tie in the uh the climate change we um so we have like a weather and climate uh uh topic that will tie in um climate change as well um and a social studies topic would tie in um the the studying New Jersey um and actually one of we're trying to do is tie in the um like the folktales that new you know tie in with the new J New Jersey that way so it it it um enhances what they're learning in in social studies as well right yes yes and science what um when you you mentioned um Universal screening for dyslexia now we've had to do that for years in our district H how is that changing or is it I wasn't quite sure so I believe originally it was just one screening uh now it's it's got an extra layer so Universal screening is um Everybody receives that screening and then based on the assessments um the benchmarks where they fall then they're flagged for a closer look which is called now that's called dyslexia screening okay and and what grade or is it all through the grades it's all through the grades K to five um do you think that uh you could share some of the Articles and podcasts with the board oh I'd love to that'd be great sure yeah that would help us um be better understanding of this I think um and then link it we keep talking about linkit and the importance of linkit and what it will do um maybe next year we could look towards um having an example of what linkit does at the board table so that we understand it and maybe the public understands it better since now it will be um grade two through 10 right that'd be great um and I think that was it so I had my asks thank you just want to add one thing first of all thank you great job uh for summarizing I think just that last comment uh Sheila made is the most important for me is I still have not seen our link it data truthfully I think the only data I've seen reported out uh so far has been njsla and the standards data but I personally care more about our own data like how are we progressing our students to the levels that we want right we should have higher standards than the state has and it shouldn't be good in I know we have to report publicly and all of that uh but in the long term in the next few years that's what I would love to see right is how are we seeing our our own third graders are they what are those percentages that are progressing satisfactory exceeding not exceeding what are those metrics that Define right exceeding satisfactory not satisfactory what's the plan of action for those that need help right how many of those are getting help outside of the district versus in the district how does that correlate you know historically over the last few years uh again not a question for today or even this year but I hope that's the direction we're we're headed so we can have kind of our own database on our tools and I I do want to wrap it up I I you know this year was heavy into our math program and then um ultimately looking at the sequencing and and and moving forward um I appreciate all the work that's happening and H and when I was sitting on curriculum I I saw great movement and I continue to see that so I I thank you for this every time I hear um presentation about our curriculum growing and moving changing and being modified it gives me more and more hope that our district is really working towards the betterment of education for the kids that are sitting in the classro so I thank you for that and just real quick just to just acknowledge both both your comments um both Mr M Mahmud and uh M president Brogan's comments um I just made a note of those I think it's a great idea uh we talk about link it a lot just to be clear for those who aren't aware link it is a proprietary product that really consists of two pieces one is a data warehouse or they call the data Locker where we house not just our njsla data but the Benchmark data that that that and we can really house all kinds of data there but then they also have a system of benchmarks that are proprietary that we can just use that are aligned to the standards already so it just saves us a lot of time plus they can create alternate forms as well so if kids need to take test different times it's just very it's very helpful for us so but in terms of um but to be clear where that fits in the grand picture we've been talking about like a a system of supports or a multi-tiered system of supports again I try to avoid using acronyms but those in the industry know it as mtss multi-tiered systems of support but one of the found elements of a of any type of system of support or quality control system is of course progress monitoring and um like like project management monitoring it's the same concept that obviously like treating every child like kind of like their own project and like they're moving and and and we're benchmarking them along the way and then we but then we also need systems of intervention to provide them with those supports we need systems of being able to um communicate that out to everybody as well we need the teachers to be the ones actually really doing that work we could do it all day up here but if it doesn't actually impact change in the teacher practice um then the kids aren't going to benefit but I love the idea of uh bringing that more to the FL because I think uh it's When Things become real and tangible they they become more U engagement and buyin becomes stronger and that's really uh what what um that's really critical and the research really supports that that uh to to Mr Donnie's Point again before that when that if the parents understand what we're trying to do and they understand what these assessments are all about and why they're important um they're going to be able to convey that to their kids and between when when parents and teach are aligned on anything the kids will accomplish anything we want them to so great great well thank you thank you um good work and um I'm sure you'll be busy this summer so thank you and feel free to grab some bread on the way out there's see uh Dr Schwarz do you have a superintendent report yeah just a quick one just want to say congratulations to the class of 2024 one more time and congratulations to everybody at the high school um all our administrative team and all of our custodians um as well as our first respon our um uh our partners in the village of rid Ridgewood and the police department the Fire Department EMS um everyone was really on Deck just making sure that we were good it was very hot um and even know I couldn't be there I was I was sweating myself both because I was hot in my son's promotion but also because I was stressed that things would go well here in Ridgewood um and I was pleased to get a few pictures from folks and assurances that everything was going fine but I understand that the ceremony was was as beautiful as ever and I'm really grateful for uh just such a great uh illustration of how this community comes together to do great things for kids and I'm really grateful to be a part of everything here we had a superintendent coffee last Thursday where I gave a basic rundown of some of the more recent headlining events I pointed to the the for anyone who might not have might be kind of new to conversation or is like kind of looking to get a handle on where we are I pointed them to the the final budget presentation I pointed into the state of the schools address and then uh for board members as we've been working on uh my evaluation and I provided you with a with a report I pulled up some portions of that relating to the district goal uh feedback um kind of report that I gave you all and I shared that with the general public as well so that they could have a sense as to like how these goals that we're talking about publicly are actually turning into action and then what to anticipate moving forward so we had some very nice conversation um for those of you who were part of it some of you were were were some of you were there I know Mr Don you jumped in thanks because there's some confusion around uh around the conflict between the federal observation of juneth and the State observation of juneth we did get some feedback for some from some folks that um that perhaps we should be looking at uh that for the sake of our school since we have discretion as to when we observe it perhaps we would prefer to observe it uh on juneth um so we'll we'll engage our our calendar committee as well as uh some of our community groups to figure out what's best uh what what the what the most appropriate way to observe juneth is um but we also talked about again the state of the schools address and I want to again encourage everybody if you haven't seen it please check it out we will have a couple of um we'll have a couple of um superintendent coffees over the summer we have two board meetings scheduled this summer and the Thursday before each of those board meetings we will still have a superintendent coffee we'll provide updates on what to expect in the new year and the progress that we've been making and of course it is a two-way dialogue so we really appreciate everybody who came out and shared their concerns and we certainly uh will be providing status updates on the variety of topics it's important to me to try to close loops on issues that are both brought up in the public here with the board as well as things that are brought brought up at the superintendent coffee so and now now we're in a place where I feel like we can really close Loops so we're looking forward to doing that over the summer so I appreciate everybody's patience the last couple last month or so has been a little little busy um it's been a little crazy so uh now we're really uh riging in all of those kind of open topics and we're looking to close them out really well over this this summer as we plan for a great start to the 24 25 school year but in the meantime I want to wish everybody wonderful summer I want to thank everyone uh there's some folks who aren't returning in the new school year and want to thank all of those folks for uh for their service to the district and we've got some new people joining coming on board and we're really excited to have them as well I so want to thank the board for uh for um for considering all the different recommendations that I've been making regarding uh how we can set ourselves up for Success next year and uh look forward to some conversation as we talk about some of those items that are on the agenda great okay we'll move to um consent items regular and routine attendance at conference um I'll move attendance at conferences have a second second Mr Donnie yes Miss M yes Mr Mahmud yes Miss broen yes Administration someone like to move that move Administration someone like to second that second Mr Donnie yes Miss M Mr Mahmud yes Miss Brogan yes curriculum instruction curriculum instruction well thank you I'll second we have a lot of um uh curriculum uh uh for Math and Science on the agenda that we will be approving licenses uh M Johny yes Miss oh m m yes Mr Mahmud yes M bran yes uh Human Resources uh again we have you've been busy I move Human Resources I second Mr Donnie yes and I'm happy to see Mr treatment here for the third term so um he's been doing a lot of great work so that will continue it's just till September right we till September still we still waiting still waiting but okay this is Hope right yeah we have we're staying hopeful yeah okay I agree that will be I'll be happy to see that on the agenda m m yes Mr Mahmud yes M Brogan yes is it a long one I'm moving through the agenda of Finance um I'd like to um just discuss uh a number four separately so I would move Finance but would ask for number four just to uh be pulled out okay so yeah number four I need to thank you for doing that I need to be um I need to recuse myself from number four I would like to move number three out of the consent agenda number three okay oh the Student Activity fee yeah um so is that for a separate discussion separate vote okay I just had some um so um let me just uh redo is there any else that anybody wants not I had questions about um wait am I in the right I want to make sure I'm in the right uh yeah where we talk there were two questions I had one on um E11 I just want to confirm a question I had can can we but we'll move the we'll move it and then we can take questions okay that was it yeah so it's not okay that's what I wanted that was she want to do that so I'm going to brief uh um sorry start again and we're going to uh move Finance but without e three and four second okay cool add questions you want me to ask the questions now yeah okay so um I just wanted to on um let's see on E11 which is the shared services agreement with Glenrock I just um wanted to make sure and I raised this with Dr Schwarz but I just wanted to make sure that um the that we get the updated Certificate of Insurance from manelo Contracting I know that um it was maybe erroneously not included I just wanted to make sure that that is there before we approve that um that was one question and uh do we have any information on that now or I'm gonna pull it up right now okay great um and I I had a more substantive I just wanted to U talk to you a little bit a more substantive question on the um that's number 18 E18 um on the uh agreement with Monclair State University um mostly a question for Mark and it was uh on on the inclusivity inclusivity yeah um my question was just I think it would just kind of um illustrate maybe the role of what we're doing here is when I took a look at the agreement um it appeared to me that the the majority of the work being done is a review of our policies or procedures um which is important um and I think useful but I what I didn't see in there and what I was hoping to potentially see in terms of an equity audit was um how do we how do we get more information on um the more qualitative experience when um for example when Dr Schwarz gave us the state of the schools address um what really jumped out at me was we had some uh we had groups of students that did not experience um Ridgewood the Ridgewood Public Schools uh and the policies and procedures you know they didn't feel that they were um equitably applied to people and so um that's where you get into I I think I described a little bit that's where you get into more qualitative information I think that's really really important because that's you know a big part of what goes into making people feel that they're included or inclusivity and so I'm wondering how we're going to address that with this agreement and I also want to make sure that yep that that actually I think that's the question so okay look what I I could not understand the question so what so my question was um my question was that when I took a look at what we're hiring Montclair to do they're looking at our policies and procedures okay and our policy procedures are going to say a lot of things but the question really becomes how are they implemented and how are they going to investigate how they're implemented so we know whether or not um what we strive to have in terms of inclusivity is actually achieved in the schools you know kind of like what you were asking about in terms of the ELA curriculum right we have the ideal and then we have what happens so how are they going to be addressing that and then more importantly how are we going to address it and improve it that's my question so just couple couple points first of all we did get confirmation manelo did update their the forms that they needed so a political contribution form in a COI thank you so thank you for following up on that um uh as far as the questions around yeah and Mrs mall and I spoke earlier and I recommended that she raise her question here so we can have a chance to clarify that for the general public because I know at least one other board member had a similar question so the question pertains to and if I'm tell me if I'm phrasing this correctly but the question pertains to like really what are the deliverables on this that are going to make a difference for for our kids kids particularly and how is this significantly like so if it's like a document review per se like how is that going to translate into something that's helpful for our kids right um and uh so and but and actually Miss Murphy who's serving as U board secretary right now um was led the committee that actually brought us that brought this recommendation forward so actually I'll let Miss Murphy share a little bit with us sure so I I think that this is a step one in the process right so just like with the curriculum views we're talking about there was there's a baseline that has to be established with some of that work so a lot of what comes out of our students experiences starts with process and the underlying documents and and all these things that we're going to look at um which we've I think as we look at the evidence of what we've done in the district there's been a lot of work and curriculum and integrating other pieces but it is the experience part and part of that starts with the things that guide how we we Implement everything that we do so we're going to start there the one piece that we have to understand about partnering with universities is that it does limit us as far as um their direct interaction with students because they have to answer to um internal review boards and this would be looked at as research so what mclair state university will be doing with us will be this initial review they'll look at data they'll look at we'll provide them with the surveys that we have also done this year so they will look at that research as well it will allow us to start to build goals and then they will be H there will have to be a step two some of that will be part of professional development some of that will be working internally um we may want to then contract with a different vendor at some point to do some of that that next level work which is um what I would say the the qualitative piece the stor of our individual student experiences um and that's like part two of This research so we have to we have to dig in and get started somewhere so Montclair is going to do the Deep dive into all of that data work look at our curriculum documents look at our policies look at our um student manuals our employee manuals look at our hiring processes um all of those pieces which is which is huge um and a lot of a lot of work our our test data our New Jersey performance and report cards all of that um attendance things things of that nature the surveys we've done internally and then once we start with that Baseline and we develop some goals around that it will help us start to also look at where to dig in um when we take this next level able to give us um that's very very helpful I I don't think I even realized the the breadth of what they were going to be doing and so I I appreciate the fact that you kind of delineated that for me um once they get all this information together and they they kind of synthesize it um will they are they able to um or qualified to give us suggestions as to here are some next steps which maybe they can't do but you know we think you need to do X Y and Z Beyond documents like real world real people let's let's change the experience of people where it needs to be changed yes that's the second part of their work with us is oh but actually help us to develop they'll they'll help us to develop those goals and and steps that we'll take for with real specific concrete suggestions correct awesome thank you you're welc appreciate it yeah I would just just to highlight that little bit because I did bring this up to Dr Schwarz before as well it was a similar concern which is I would just ask if you can ask them for a sample of their output documents that they've done for other engagements just to see what the final state looks like so that way you feel like okay this will be valuable not you know 31 or 41k or whatever the amount 25k to it uh now we're like oh you know what this was obvious like we knew this already that's all I think we just they were actually one of the only providers that were able to provide us with multiple documents that like live documents that they used with other districts they've worked with and that was part of the decision-making process so we did request those documents um and I I have them I'd be happy to share um you know what they Prov sounds good thank you I think great there's no limitation that's the wrong word but um they're not married to for example only um ethnic diversity they're looking at religious they're looking at they're looking at all the protected categories or all the potential minorities so that the experience of every single kid that walks into this district is and our staff as well I don't I don't want to exclude them but every single person that walks in they feel we can improve the inclusivity for them correct this is not limited to one category the sex this this is the gamut of of identity that could be for an individual so it could be ability it could be um you know culture religion um English language uh ability all of those pieces okay right appreciate it thank you so you'll you'll give us um a a sample of of one of their outputs just so we can see um do you feel you need to see that before we can move ahead with it no okay all right um were there any other questions Mary S did you have any okay I think we can then go ahead and vote on finance except for three and four Mr Donnie yes Miss maau yes Mr mmud yes smithb yes um Finance three so um on three um we have we have increased all of our Revenue sources by between 2 to 5% that includes taxation that we tax to our uh property owners that are in that have children in school and not in school so everybody's taxes going up by 2% are expenses everywhere are going minimum 3% plus up everywhere and um during the budget review I was talking to our ba and she had also recommended that um everywhere that she has worked this fee goes up uh in the districts that she worked uh before um so I have not done a research on other districts but based on that evidence that other districts do increase that every year and I have not seen that increased in our district um in a while so I'm um for the record I'm moving an amendment for approve uh Finance 3 approval Student Activity fee to amend $100 to 102 and amend 150 to 153 so those are my Amendment from 100 to 102 and 150 to 153 so let me just give you the background uh so we discussed this in finance committee and Miss Quack and I were aligned the initial actually recommendation from the administration was a flat 2% increase across the board right Miss qua and I actually agreed to make it a 5% increase but hold the Student Activity DS flat since that's for students uh and that's students and their parents that pay that but for all the leasing and additional rental fees we actually increased that up to 5% so just giving you the background we were aligned on that um if you want to propose that for the Student Activity fee you're welcome to but yeah that's what I've seen at other District based on uh RB Commendation and um so I'm just moving a motion and I'll see if there are any takers for a second from 100 to 102 and 150 to 153 that's a good question um so what I understand you just said was thatc you've increased everything else to 5% so you've essentially made up the money that we would have gotten I mean I haven't done the calculations the intention was increase it in the more commercial area and save the students for this year um yeah that was our intention is actually increase it higher in the areas where right it's groups and and adults taking you know making use of our facilities right uh versus and increas we again we increased it higher than was originally recommended and then keep it flat for the student activ right it's not just just to clarify it's not the 5% increase that you have done is is impacting a lot of students so it impacts itdc so all the parents that will go to itdc that this impacts community school so all these students who are using community school and when you increase the fee by 5% in community school that increases all the summer programs that increases all the sports clubs that are using facilities so so the Ral there was that's our rental charge to them for use of their facilities uh because the typical rents are going up by much higher than that anyway I mean typical rent increases are anywhere from 5 to 10% so we felt that that was more fair with Market rates for us so that's why we recommended to jump that up 5% um now of course you know how those entities distribute right tuition salaries and all that is going to be up to them but at least our fees should be fair in and on that fairness that's where I'm moving this motion that um it should go all of our Revenue sources should go up by 2% every year minimum so that's my rationale yeah I mean just Mr and I on this one we felt like it's student fees so we felt keep it flat okay so you made a motion is there a second for that okay Mo motion doesn't pass but can that be recorded in the minutes that there was a motion for increasing from 100 to 102 and 150 to 153 I I would just say speaking completely off the top of my head um I wouldn't be opposed to considering a reasonable increase of the Student Activity fee at some point um given the rationale that you know you explained to me right now I see there's you know today no reason to do it but um I would consider it uh I don't know when the last time was that we did it and it's we're talking like you know not 2% is not a lot um so I think it you know should we have to start making difficult decisions and compromises in the future I think this is something we should not just um I think it's something we might need to consider I will say that absolutely I think it's it's reviewed every year so um yeah all right um so should we just uh vote on that now we um so we have a motion uh to for the Student Activity fees as written on the agenda somebody has to move it I'm moving that yeah would someone like to second that can it Mr Donnie no Miss mcau yes Mr Mahmud yes Miss broen yes motion passes um I asked for four to be um and it's it's the same objection I had last year um and it is the uh column and I know it's um a line oh yes sorry announced that I'm recusing myself and actually stepping away from the table for this discussion and then when you're done with that I'll come back thanks maror so it's a it's no different than um my last year's um objection to the final column which is the um tuition rate for staff members effective um hired after 7122 um so I'm fine with the rest of that but I would um guess I I don't know I know it's policy but I it's not a policy I agree on so I um right so on that Miss Broan um I know from last year you had the objection but last year you had not set the agenda so this year you had set the agenda you're the board president the agenda is approved by you and if something is part of the policy and um you're recommending that on the agenda or putting that on the agenda but then how how do you envision this working if this vote doesn't go and if it's still policy and it's still implemented then is the vote just a symbolic vote where we are just voting symbolically to show um where we agree with the policy versus we don't agree with the policy or is there any wanted the policy reviewed um it right but didn't that didn't happen so what's the purpose of this vote if uh that's what my question is what what do you see that will happen like last year if the last line well I don't think any staff member took advantage of it so um I'm not sure if that's the case um but um I would like to see that policy reviewed I I'm objecting to that uh tuition amount and I just clarify that the the the it is on there based on my recommendation and that recommendation is based on what the policy currently says about the what the what the rate was that was actually memorialized in policy right so that's me just uh forwarding this uh con cons recommending it consistent with what policy Curr exactly so this the vot even if the vote fails it's still policy yeah yeah and from finance committee perspective you're okay with the Year this is coming from finance committee recommendation right um yes I trying to remember if we reviewed this I cannot remember remember mark back before Oh we we began a review of it but it it never went anywhere and then um not the policy I'm talking about Finance Finance oh Finance I'd have to go back I don't remember if this was it's I can pull up the minutes and tell you but I mean even even then it was it would be reviewed by the reviewed by the policy reviewed by the finance committee and recommended by the superintendent right um I I don't know that we that we discussed it because no we did we did we did talk about the policy because we talked about it from the perspective of out of District students as well so we didn't discuss explicitly any the numbers pertaining to staff members children but we did talk about the out of district tuitions and we did make CH we did discuss changes to those data District tuitions as well to be clear if the if if the U if the resolution fails as it's written um the big the the that wouldn't change the policy for the staff members children but this resolution is needed to adjust to set our tuitions for next year right and there are changes there so I would say before we put it up for a vote that we think May Fail I think it' be more appropriate to maybe break out this table into pieces and vote separately on it we can amend the resolution by doing that separately but so maybe we can ask M do we need to break it or do you think it's uh are you willing to vote for it I again I also don't love the the right column but I recognize that this is the policy we we had agreed on so I will vote in favor of it okay so we can take a vot y so I move um Finance 4 second Mr Donnie yes Mr mud yes Miss broken uh I guess I'll have to vote no motion passes okay um 8:00 oh Mary you're um just in finance I did just want to make note of the fact that we are accepting uh the 2024 climate change education resilience competitive Grant funds um the Richard Board of Education upon the recommendation of the super inen of schools accepts the award in the amount of $75,500 for climate change education and resilience a competitive Grant so um thank you to uh it would it be um Mr fredman and Mr fredman M Mrs fryberg Right yeah there were a variety of other folks on there who I I know were missing so I apologize in advance but but th those two those two folks played very very very lead roles in that that's great the number of grants that we've gotten this year um is is really impressive I think when we we've gone many years without getting grants so um I'd also like to acknowledge the donations um that we've received uh and it's Richmond High School student activity account for $1,037 to be used to pay chaperon for the 10th grade dance uh Christina goury a $2,000 gift and kind a gift and kind of a treadmill for the rise program and donations for scholarships from um Robert soel and Nina a soble and RD soble and GM soble and uh Bern Bernard burtz for the class of 17 17 1972 scholarships and Lee Lynn s long uh a piano scholarship for 3 $867 so I thank them for that and um and we are also approving in finance uh we approved in finance um uh moving ahead on our strategic plan with um uh hya and uh the um inclusion um audit uh through Montclair uh State University so those were part of um part of the work of the goals that you did this year to research and determine what we needed to do so thank you for that all right um I think then uh we have no resolutions and motions not included in consent agenda approval bills um Mr Donnie yeah I I looked at the bills they were all in order so I moved the approval of bills I second Mr Donnie yes Miss MC yes Mr Mahmud yes M Brogan yes um board member announcements no no board member announcements graduation was well done you that's the only one I have that everybody was worried about temperature but I think we were lucky that we had Breeze there and um there were times when students had to use the fans but uh it was very well organized in terms that every chair had a bottle of water every chair had a fan um and um there were recommendations for all the students to like they change the route to accommodate the students to come there and uh um it just went perfect and the weather worked so it was it was hot but not it was it it didn't feel hot so it was good actually I want to give a um a shout out actually to Dr schwar so I was um even though you weren't there um I was uh sitting next to Keith kasmar during the graduation and we were just talking about how hot it was and he just you know told me how you and he spoke a couple hours before you were concerned about the temperature and how you know you work together to have a tent there we had extra EMS there we had extra water we had so God forbid there was a problem we were set up and ready to go those are the things that you don't notice until there is a problem and it's not there so we didn't have a problem and it was there and that was really because uh number one you were thinking about it and also because you've developed a really good and Cooperative relationship with um our village manager and that's really important and I just want to thank you for it oh thank you thank you and I I think give credit to Mr uh Chief fire chief judge who also supervises EMS because um he was Will to put on a radar that we might want to consider uh working out uh how to how to get some additional EMS there just God forbid something happens we have a backup so there there's always somebody on the scene but thank you for the kind words and I'm very lucky we've got a nice team uh Team leading the village right now and I'm grateful for them too thank you okay uh board committee reports we have finance and curriculum did you have anything more you wanted to add on finance uh I mean I could give a quick update because there there was a lot in the last Finance meeting uh we did just talk about all the contracts coming up for Renewal there any red flags there were none just the usual review process uh we talked about the Manila one as well uh we did talk about increases in rates which we talked about uh earlier um we talked about uh uh the itdc red doing the playground there's a quote there but we just asked to make sure that we have multiple quotes from different vendors that would be paid from the same fund the fund 62 uh we do need a final confirmation if it's an Enterprise fund or government fund we believe it's Enterprise fund I think yeah sorry I think we believe it's an Enterprise fund but I think we're like 90% certain if I'm not mistaken so we were just gonna dig into that further to just reconfirm if that's how we should be treating the fund um for itd c um and then we talked about the shared service agreement for the SRO that is currently under in progress and uh we also we did bring up the uh e possibility of the EIP Bond early Redemption uh Aaron said it's we can't do it until May 2027 I did ask him to just um prepare for us like what that amount would be and the rate what the rate savings would be if we paid it off early at that time I know it's early but get our hands around those numbers numbers um and then uh the tennis court project came up it was a pretty high number so we said that this needs to go back to facilities to really dig into it what did they say the the tennis court oh tennis court uh I think it was 80 something K and so we were wondering is that it looked initially like just a rip out and replace of the whole tennis court but do we really need to do that or not is right every three years do we need to exactly those those are the questions Miss qua and I had so we said they should come back to facilities for like a deeper riew before it comes to finance for any discussion so that was it thank you oh that's the first time I've heard that number there's actually there's actually a number much higher than that too it appears that the quotes are coming back for different Services one of them was like hundreds of thousands of dollars but it was for Milling four and a half inches of pavement off and repouring the whole thing so or re repaving the whole thing so um I I don't think that there is a clear scope of work so we we need to we need to clarify that and it would be helpful also if we talk if we coordinated with the village on what has been actually done in Prior years just as simple as just repainting or refinishing or is it truly a reming and a re and just a reconstruction so we need to get some clarity on that and and who through the village do is this is this a well from what I understand is there's some sort of an alternating uh system yeah so we need some clarification because if there's going to be some agreement to alter and the and but the level of service changes from year to year theoretically based on it then that then then that's not NE we need to have a way of working out like what happens when it's our year and we have to do this multiple $100,000 job versus another year where it's just a simple $40,000 refinish so we should have uh I mean we should have some data too the district should have some data when it was our turn what was done right yeah the general consensus from our team though is that the prices are very high right now yeah yeah who looks at I mean who um who's the expert who evaluates what needs to get done I guess I don't know is that that not their architect is it I think I think it well I mean we could but we could bring in an engineer uh for sure but I mean primarily I think that our our uh our athletic director and our our supervisor of facilities are going to have a pretty good sense as to the level of what needs to be done based on the symptoms what we're seeing so um so we need we need a little deeper dive with them what's the timeline on this when does is it September that it I mean whatever has to be done is it has to be done by September the the use our student use is not in the summer at all is it what's G to well it's going to come down to uh whether we've State contract or not um but I would say that we'd like to it depends upon how how urgent this is I mean I know kids are playing on them now but if it's something we want to do this summer um would certainly be something we'd have to get on a board agenda as soon as possible um and as I said is above the bit threshold so um so I I don't have a very clear timeline at this time right yeah okay well our next meeting is July 22 Yeah if it comes into if it comes up to be something that's critically urgent and there is a um a state state V State contract vendor that doesn't require a bid then we could put together an emergency meeting for the purpose of just of uh of approving that um if it if it is that urgent yeah I don't yeah I I don't have a sense of that other than it's something that gets done as I understand every three years so but I think it's important to know what were the costs and then what happened every three years yeah you know what's the extent of the project yeah okay um thanks uh curriculum I know we've done a a lot but c yeah we've basically discussed everything we discussed here tonight um uh and the inclusivity and and the Strategic plan proposals uh honestly I don't have anything to add that was pretty much what we covered is that fair yep yeah okay um I got to talk to you about cpag yes my last cpag report of the school year because I want to acknowledge um so we had the steps graduation on the 17th um which I attended and it was really really great to see those kids and and how proud they were and for the first time cpeg um gave gifts to the kids um where they gave a one-year membership to every graduate to the Y and they gave them I think it was A50 or $75 gift card as well which was very well received and it's really you know they're really up in their game over there that's ceg so I just want to uh I think it's James coell and and uh of course Jamie Davis so I just wanted to give them the shout out about that that was good good stuff nice okay um discussion items acceptance of minutes I have one I'm sorry sorry I thought you were going in so um on the policies uh there is one question that was sent our way uh by a resident and that has been asked a few times before so I don't know um Mary and Jamie uh would this be a board level is there a board level policy for that or are these um building specific policies that are not governed by board but a notification to parents when there are extended uh time offs or if the if a teacher is uh going on a vacation for a long time or uh absences um is there a policy for notifying parents or should there be a policy to notify parents is this vacation vacation no I think we've we've received we've received messages from a few different constituents who are concerned about um the communication and the and the terms of teacher leaves particularly at the high school so I think I flipped you another one of these earlier today yes yeah so all right I think there's a process in place where Outreach is done either by the the teacher or by the supervisor of the department depending on the timing of the leave um to parents there may be a case or two as we're seeing where communication isn't made directly or in timely manner or clearly so I'm looking into these individual instances but overall in the district and I know this because the principles and the supervisors always coordinate um with me also like when the leaves are becoming public um I think what we're getting into are some situations where um they're short they're not truly leave of absences I think it's short-term things that may be happening and some of this is falling through the cracks um a little bit so I'm looking into it um speaking with the administrators especially in these two these two specific cases to figure out what exactly happened here right so so I think the the question there is that do we have a policy for that or should there be a policy like when there is a process is that process governed by a district policy or is that governed by superintendent rules and regulations of processes like how does it how do we make sure that there's a consistency on that so yeah it is it is not um I'm sure we have some regulations that speak specifically to substitutes and like and handling absences and leaves of absence but in terms of what I think I think what what what is I think a primary driver of the people of folks concern is the fact fact that we have an open campus model at the high school and so if a teacher doesn't have a leave of absence that doesn't trigger a long-term substitute and we don't always provide a substitute teacher at the high school then then what happens is if a teacher is out for say a week then effectively classes get canceled for that week now there should be an expectation and this is what I'm asking Miss Murphy to M Murphy to review is that there should be an expectation that if the teacher is not going on a long-term leave that even if they're out on a short short-term basis they should be providing adequate information about what their students are supposed to do when class is not being held um and the school should be mindful to track how long that's going for because if it's more than a couple of days there will there will need to be some level of intervention and oversight to make sure that there's continuity of instruction as well and and one of the things we've done one we did some data analysis so um as far as absences for the high school teachers and I've shared that with the administration there um and I think it's there's there's a there's a few people that this is affect this has actually um where there's an extensive amount of time that's not related to necessarily a true leave of absence right um but I think one of the things that we did is is in the new um Rea contract we we created this provision for class coverage that's explicit for the high school level when because there is an increase in short-term absences which I'll say 10 days or less right a formal leave of absence what what you see on board agendas are going to be absences where someone is out for more than 10 days and you'll see the corresponding Point twos all the time but when you have what we're finding is that we're having a many more issues where we have our our teachers are what we're calling now the sandwich generation they have child care and and and care for parents um in many cases and we've had many instances this year where we had staff that needed to take off as they're coordinating care of Aging parents or other aging relatives and in some cases and you know it may be for five days or six days or you know there's a hospice situation going on and in that case they tried they've tried to arrange point2 so sometimes you'll see you've seen this year some very short-term point tws but we don't always have enough staff to cover in in a Content area so in an area where have less teachers in that department it's very hard to use Point tws as a point of coverage it's much easier in large departments like English and math and science to do that but when we get into our more specialty areas it that becomes much more difficult so providing class coverage will allow our certified teachers that are not necessarily certified in the content but our certified staff in our buildings um in other content areas to be able to serve in a substitute capacity in that classroom and still provide instructional guidance for assignments that are left by the teacher that's out for those shorter term leav so that is going into effect for for September and we'll be able and we now have the guidelines of how to pay staff for that kind of coverage where they're may be giving up their prep for for three or four days to make sure that that we don't have students that are not in class um and are because of this open campus model perfect thank you well so I W to I want to add to that so um I'm trying to absorb everything that you said right um because 10 days is not a long leave of absence in the real world but it's two weeks of classes right um for kids uh in there can be a substantial amount of learning loss if regardless of the you know how great the assignments are in Google Classroom you know you could have a lot of problems with that anecdotally I've heard of and seen some experience with that the and the I'm kind of laying this out for a reason the other thing is that you have um I've heard of this as well where you have not five or 10 days consecutively but one day a week or you know one day every two weeks and and it and it ends up adding up and the reason why I'm raising it ISC and I'm also aware of I think there's a change in the law about permissible absences that is really expanded yes um right that really expanded you know I I swear I think they said at the njsba training that your dog I know if your dog were to die that that's not a good thing okay I mean I have one but my point being that you can take days off from work for that my point being that at the end of the day we have kids that may or may not be uh they're not necessarily being educated at the level that we expect them to be um and so I think we need to look at it larger we need to talk about compensation but how do we arrange for coverage it just be a few teachers but if they're a few teachers in some real high-end or high-end you know high level courses it could be an issue so I would just ask that maybe we look at it in a little bit more broad sense to come up with um a solution that maybe protects the kids a little bit more than I think to date has been happening through no fault of anybody's just is that fair put it that way yeah I think that's fair and I and I a concern at high school yeah and I think that has been a conversation that we have started to have and because you're right sometimes it's not just consecutive absences and we are looking at that separately yeah okay I appreciate it thanks and just to be clear the impact of the law is pretty is real and I think it's it's it's also real from a cognitive perspective like the teachers are aware that this is something that they're now entitled to and for many many years it was like um for good reason teachers were very discouraged from using that time and often held accountable for using that time improperly so without the ability to hold folks accountable the majority vast majority of our teachers are still coming on a regular basis and and having great attendance and helping our kids but we do have some circumstances where some notable positions some High Press positions like like really intense classes when a teacher is absent for a period of time um it's harder on the kids now there are very few substitute teachers even if we had substitute teachers who are going to take the place of meaningful class instruction right so so and I think I in my professional experience a really good a really good well-designed lesson on Google classroom with a substitute teacher is great but if you had to be like a like just kind of a thrown together plans with a substitute versus like a thoughtfully designed uh um Google Classroom experience I think the kids are going to be better served with that high quality Google Classroom piece but that's also but that but there's the devils in the details here because you know what exactly is our expectation when something go really aai in a teacher's life like how much do we expect them to actually put something together I'm also of the mind that I would really prefer that teachers and again I can't we're not at this level yet with my time here but I would really like to move make sure that we have an environment where across the board we can say that it every teacher at the high school is going to have an online presence with all their coursework and that if they have to if they have to bow out for a day that plan is actionable for that day and that's different than just like traditional lesson plans that's why I've always favored uh actual on building the actual online learning tools in over traditional lesson plans because traditional lesson plans aren't actionable whereas the online things are actually that is the actual sequence that the courses take so that the kids take so but there's we need to do kind of autopsy this it's a great time it's the summer something we can focus on with the high school over the summer too to try to do some norming we've got some great supervisors too I think doing an auditive practice is a really great way to start that's why asked Miss Murphy to start by having a meeting with Mr Nas and really sitting down and and of course as principal of the school this is really he's not at the table here but this is something that uh is is Right smack in the middle of his purview so I just want to say I'm not I'm not suggesting that any of the absences are inappropriate or you know that anyone is abusing time I want to be very clear about that am I but they only just a a there needs right there's just a real life consequence that I think think the world has changed and as with many other things our policies and our practices maybe haven't caught up with it and now it's something that we're really you know it's coming coming to light look at it I'm I'm gonna say this to let you off the hook for because I feel like you're you're concerned concerned just so let you off the hook I mean the problem is that without clear guidance as to like what's appropriate and what's not appropriate is like and I know this from talking to other superintendents my wife's also also a teacher right so this is becoming very common where you have good people and committed teachers who you know we preach in this I preach on my team family comes first you have to put your family first but then that creates a lot of areas of gray right so like obviously if someone in your family is seriously ill or if someone passes away who's very close to you I mean those are never in question right it's now all these things that you describe it's this well I'm really distressed me stick with your analogy it's a good one right I'm really distressed because because my pet passed away or I'm really distressed because I'm struggling with anxiety and I'm having a really bad day the the law accounts for that right and so and and so if if you're in a situation where you have um you're just kind of uh like that is a legitimate use case now we're going to end up with more absences period and and I think though there is there are some guidelines to these days some of the new law essentially follows FML practices essentially so there are some limits but there is definitely um well it's broad but but my point is you know if somebody can't function they can't function right the idea is less about why the absences are being taken but more about do we have an appropriate plan in place to make sure that our kids are still getting the level of education and teaching that they need when these things happen that that's that's really what it is which you know I just think ends up costing money and time and we'll have to figure that out but you know that's that's kind of where I'm going with it yeah I agree I agree and that's my my point is that we have we have clear clear expectations around what is expected when you're out then you can exercise your discretionary absence within within within the within what the law allows and I don't know if I don't know the extent to which uh pet bement is part of that I'm not mocking that because pets are really like like that's a really important thing for folks just the example they gave us at but my point my point is but you could can interpret that as like some sort of like you know having that now you're having an emotional toll and now you're in an emotional state where you're not you need you need like you need you need time so but my point is that um that when when it's clear that there is still a level of responsibility and this is what I can't answer right now but but if we make a very clear level of responsibility and there still is a work commitment even on the day that you're not in which there should be this part of being a teacher right that's why the teachers work 186 1889 days I forget I'm getting contract I'm getting my contracts messed up from District to District but that's why but that but that's why we we we that's why they um teachers aren't expected to work the whole year it's ununderstandable because the days that they're here are really demanding they're really important and it's one of the things that really stinks about being a teacher is you don't get to take off the same way that ra gets to take off it's it's it's much it's hard um so but I agree but but having clear expectations I think will help to improve that quality control and I think that's really the core of the issue so so to summarize or answer my question there's no need for Mary or hju to do anything on the policy committee it's it's in ball is in your court to implement whatever since it's a since it's a constituent concern there's no reason why we can't look at it through the policy lens okay and just say like what policy do we have that says something and maybe we want to add something to a regulation that's that that clarifies what a teacher's expectations are when they're absent so okay we can take I think it's I think it's legitimate to have the policy Comm at it okay and the other and and can can we have a um just a followup I I I don't know how broad um an issue this is you know so uh even if it's impacting a few students it's a it's an issue well yeah I think it impacts probably it's a big high school right so it's it's just a numbers game that it's it's going to end up impacting a lot of kids and I think that for the policy committee to make a reasonable recommendation we probably need some of the data and the information that Gathering um but again the expectations is part of it humanity is what it is right so and and you're the boss and so I don't mean to overstep my bounds but there's going to come a point in time when more than once we'll have a very human situation where you know expectations weren't at absences were there what are the other uh what's the safety net what are the other fail safes that we have administratively uh I don't think we have any now that will help to support the kids and the teacher in those situations which is beyond the expectations because we all strive to meet them and not everyone does all the time well and to answer just to answer she's question it is it's pretty it's we've heard this from a variety of different constituents so this is this is even if it's even if the actual issue is much smaller than it's being perceived this is a this is a notable constituent concern right now okay so I think it warrants our attention great and the second question I had on the policy committee was um so in last few meetings there were questions raised about our field use policy and whether there's that's Equitable and whether it's implemented ACR like what the policy is how how it's implemented and um I had some questions Dr Schwarz I forwarded it to you so I think um we are looking for some sort of um like yeah out some communication from the policy committee soon that okay have you guys looked at it or what's I can tell you that we started that conversation and that it's a that's another big conversation um but we can probably get started on that this summer I would think now might be the time we have we have a lot of policy work to do so awesome we'll spend a lot of time can you make some bread as long as you make some bread for those meetings I'm good yeah yeah we also have two alerts too that we have to get caught up on so yeah is it the AI policy there's uh that problem that they um stress as me was goingon to do Michael has not shared with me if that was one of them but she just alerted me that there's another alert that came through so yeah they were saying end of June they were expecting if if we didn't get it yet we're going to get it very soon and that's a major they probably put it in last alert yeah and and the last one Dr Schwarz is um there on I caught a comment from your coffee that uh a resident mentioned that our field uh uh was measured at 134° and U when I heard that comment during the coffee I did a Google Search and what I came up was that we have to notify beond above 90° uh temperature so uh if you can I'm just asking it right on this part so you may not have the answer now but if you can clarify about next meeting that what is the temperature above which our guidelines suggest that students cannot play and if it was 134 how was lacrosse being played that day great yeah we have a so yeah so I don't it's good [Music] okay so uh so couple things on that first of all um they are njsa guidelines they were actually sent to me in the meeting but I just have time to turn them around we're going to turn them around share them with folks um with respect to the individual who recorded 13 3 4 at the same time I believe it was the same day on our field we had a much lower reading so I'm not sure I'm not sure what the the outside temperature was 94 and what I I when you mentioned the njsl regulation I Googled it and it came out to be 90 degrees above 90° so if the air temperature is 94 s Turf temperature is uh higher than that and they have picture of 134 that was circulating on the social media that day so even if it was at some spots our field may have different at some point but if air temperature was 94 that meets the requirement right so 94 we should not have been playing the point that I'm making is that I can't we're only going to be able to account for our our equipments temperature readings right so but if so but but if there's if there's allegations that a different field at a different time is maybe there's a different exposure to the Sun so we can try to we can try to evaluate that as well right I I think they their picture was from Stadium Field if I'm not mistaken I don't remember okay yeah but yeah no but but I mean we'll clarify the yeah we just need to clarify that what is our process what is what is the regulation and are we following our process on that yeah yeah and I don't have any reason to believe that we're not but I will we'll do a review okay okay uh we'll move to acceptance of minutes our May 20th a regular uh public meeting and May 20th executive session do I have a motion seconds all in favor hi hi um oh good other business um and comments from the public we have no public here but um maybe we do online we do hey I only see your your telephone numb so the last uh three digits are 252 you're on with the board hello this is Ann loving hold on I got to move away from my computer sorry I was getting Reverb Ann loving 342 South Irving Street can you hear me yes we can um two things that I wanted to mention the first is regarding the finance topic number four that Mr Donnie had asked to be pulled from the consent agenda if I was hearing it correctly the way that the vote went was there were two in favor and one opposed because Miss quack is absent and Miss mcau had to recuse from that subject so my first question is is two votes constitute a a pass I mean to me that do I thought you had to have a majority and three would be a majority so I would like to have that question answered the second one regards the last bit of discussion regarding the temperatures on the fields on the Astro fields and um I am very appreciative that this subject was brought up I absolutely was a to see how hot I believe it was maplefield that that temperature was taken on 130 some odd degrees I do hope that you are seriously going to have a strict policy that the children will absolutely not be allowed to play When the temperature of the turf reaches a certain point and I don't know what that point is thank you for the opportunity to speak um next is uh Susie you're on you're on with the board should we'll go to the next we'll come back um Jacqueline you're on with the board hi jacel and hone can you hear me yes we can uh thank you I also wanted to bring up uh a little bit more about the temperature of the fields thank you first of all for taking the matter seriously and for agreeing to look into that um I also want to thank I had forwarded some information on the fees I think I might have I'm I'm sorry um to Mary mcau because I I apparently must have the wrong information of who's working on fields but I will forward that too which was the Oprah of all the I had received via Oprah a the field use for last couple of years versus the fees collected and there was a discrepancy in that so I'm not sure if I needed to copy Mary as well so if someone could let me know that I can OB I can forward that um and as far as the fields go and the temperature of the fields I to I'm a resident that is very very concerned with the field use and the temperature of the artificial turf getting so high not just because of the heat but also because now that we know what we know when these fields heat up they're actually releasing particulates into the air and make it an even greater health risk to park users field users and the environment because it then goes in the wind and travels and I just wanted to remind so it brought up a point that happened in 201 20 where at the time Dr fishbine was talking specifically about Stevens Field and said that the field um needed to be replaced due to a gmax levels of over 200 in five out of the 10 spots that were tested and I'm not aware of and if anyone can please just confirm this are the are the fields tested regularly because was in 2024 and we knew that at that point that those that Stevens Field had tested in five out of 10 for max levels and specifically we were told that it had to be replaced and it has to be closed for health and safety reasons and I don't know you know now we know what we know how often are these fields being tested and when was the last time it was tested and I mean the artificial turf fields um if somebody knows that and that's my question for the evening thank you thank you okay I don't see any other hands raised at this time so uh I'll close public comment oh NOP here we go Megan you're on with the board hi can you hear me yes we can all right so I just wanted to thank you for the ELA um presentation and I um unfortunately I was not able to log in and here the whole thing I had some other commitments um but one of the questions um that I'm receiving from parents uh during this presentation and it's been a question um myself that I've brought up in several meetings over the years was um around the dyslexia screening and then if we're doing the dyslexia screenings and following those guidelines and mandates from the state why um why are we not using the term dyslexia identifying that in our students and putting that in our students paperwork um and I've shared uh with the district can share this out um to Dr Schwarz and the board but the US Department of Ed um office of special education and rehabilitative services in 2015 outlined and clarified that there is nothing in idea that would prohibit the use of the terms dyslexia discula um and disg graphia in Ida evaluations eligibility determinations or IEP documents um in addition to this letter that came out in 2015 the uh in 2017 the New Jersey dyslexia handbook a guide to early literacy development and reading struggles um was published by the New Jersey Department of Ed and that's not consistently followed in our district either um and uh I guess the concern with it not being followed with Fidelity um the issue is that parents request appropriate instruction aligned to that document and the state's guidelines we've been told that the district doesn't have to follow that because it's only a guideline and it's not mandated by law um so then the other bringing in the data to support why this is so necessary um I brought this up during the state of schools address the data from njsla if we look at our third grade data um for readers kids with well generally in the districts right 79% of our students are are reading proficiently at third grade and our students with disabilities are only reading at 45% proficiency and our students with economic disadvantage are reading at 27% proficiency um fourth grade students with disabilities reading at 35% 35% of our students are reading um proficiently econ uh economically disadvantaged isn't reported for fourth grade seventh graders um are students with disabilities only 24% of them are reading proficiently so when we look at students uh getting appropriate reading instruction and we look at that from third through seventh grade um as I'm not sure of his name but I think he's the new Ela supervisor in the district there um K through two we focus on learning to read and three through five we focus on reading to learn and you can see these scores continue to drop when the focus is not on those foundational skills of reading especially for our kids with disabilities so that data to me brings up a few questions um and are our children in our community especially those outside of the typical 40% that can learn to read regardless of teaching approach um are they reading to learning to read sorry in their classrooms um or are they learning to read through tutoring and parent intervention the other question um is that uh if 80% about of our students are reading proficiently the statistic for children with dyslexia is one in five or 20% and that would kind of correlate with the students were not reaching with proficient reading scores in the district so those are just some points that I think we need to continue to look at with as we evaluate this data and figure out where to put some of our um efforts to continue to improve this for our students thank you thank you oh we have some more hands raised Susie you're on with the board Susie you need to unmute yourself are you on mute Susie you want to unmute yourself if you are um Contin to have problems you can always email the board or yeah back to Shores I don't know U I'm Jacqueline I'm on I just have a final question is my followup also included the disclosure that we were supposed to get back um the public was supposed to be told the attorney reviewed whether it is possible to have a disclosure or a waiver included for turf field use and I just wanted to add that one thing is for the park users or the players that are playing on the field but there are other people in our community that are not part of the Boe or do not play in an organized Sports and therefore would not have access to this disclosure or waiver and I've noticed that other municipalities have signs at the turf fields that say caution and then they go into what the caution is whether it be heat or um concerns with turf fields and I just wanted to know if that could also be a possibility for our fields and possibly get the attorney to weigh in on that because the first part which is to have a disclosure or a we waiver that um organized Sports would sign off on that excludes a big part of the community that aren't part of organized Sports and families and residents that are just using the fields at other times if that could please be added to the question to the attorney and has that come back yet that was it thank you thank you there no other um hands raised I'll I'll close public comment Dr Schwarz is there anything you wanted to follow up with tonight or yeah just a couple of acknowledgements if that's okay so first of all um Miss loving thanks for sharing that that that that measurement was at maple field we will take a look at that um additionally um uh Miss hone thank you so much much for you I did receive that email where you shared that data with me I appreciate that um uh we will as I said mentioned before we're going to be following up on reviewing the temperature of the fields to be clear we do have a policy about the temperature of the fields to be clear I know that here we do test uh we do test the temperature of the fields in terms of these most recent specific cases we'll follow up on ensuring that those were actually tested and we'll just confirm that everyone's trained to appropriately and that we're that we're getting the same readings uh the question about um I can answer one question and that is the gmax test testing um we do test gmax gmax uh and I know this year I believe every year we have to do gmax testing but um this year we certainly did a lot of gmax testing because of all the fields clean up so uh those fields were retested they did pass it is a multi uh it is a multi- area test so uh we do they we were're concerned that fields are getting old and when they get silt in them um that they're that they are they do not pass immediately but that's part of what we the work that we had done was to have them have it uh have that cleaned and refilled so um so it did PASS gmax gmax testing with respect to your question about um the the waiver I'm not going to be able to I don't have a a closure on that for tonight but I'm hoping to have clear closure on that for July so our July 22nd meeting I plan to be able to give everybody an answer on that and then with respect to Mrs berle's concerns I believe if I heard correctly when M Miss Matthews was speaking about um screenings my understanding of what she was referring to is that we do not do a a comprehensive dyslexia test for every student what she's saying is that what I believe that she said and I'll confirm this with her was that we do more generalized screenings and if we see patterns of concern in terms of how a child is reading or decoding then we will do a more comprehensive dyslexia screening I believe that's what she said but to be clear it's not a function of and being shy about using the term dyslexia it's just a function of being accurate about um what what it what reaches the level of rigor to be considered a true dyslexia testing um perhaps we could call the initial screening a screening and more dyslexia testing testing but um I'll bring that back to the team and we'll we'll evaluate that and get back to you I think that's uh I think I think that's about what I can say for now okay and I think there was a question from an about um Quorum U my understanding was that we had a quorum of three and I I may be wrong uh but my understanding is that three people voted out of five so we had a quorum and then um there are certain um votes that can just Pass based on majority of those who voted so this may fall into the that the one where we don't need a majority of the board but the majority of Quorum yeah whenever we have a a vote like that where we have a a relatively small portion of the board or we have a vote majority that is less than a normal Corum we do run that through the attorneys just to confirm that we're applying Robert's Rules appropriately did you want to and to be clear for E3 which I believe was the question there were four votes three were yes and one were no for E4 that was the vote where Mary uh Miss Mall recused herself and that was three votes of two yes and one no so I I'm not sure which one miss Ling was confirm with the attorney but right now when we are saying it past we are going with the assumption that there was a quorum when we Mo voted and majority of the Quorum voted for yes so that is the Assumption right now but that will be reconfirmed with the attorney so thank you for bringing that up thank you for that catching that thanks for that um uh we can we we do not have to go back into executive session so I um move that uh we close the meeting and adjourn do I have a second second all in favor I okay we are back on July 22nd