good evening everyone and welcome to the budget Workshop meeting of the Wall Township Board of Education for Tuesday February 27th please join me for the flag salute thank you at this time I'm going to ask our board secretary to please read the sunshine announcement and perform roll call yes this is the Wall Township Board of Education meeting for which adequate notice under the open public meeting Act was provided uh by notice of the co-star Asberry Park Press all Wall Township Public Schools Township Administration office and the board Administration office on February 1 2024 and this is a special budget Workshop meeting uh take a roll call Mr anio here M barier here Mr buffer here M djovani here Mr Mali here Mr Nasser here miss shimko here Mr wandra miss stes here thank you so much at this time I'm going to be opening the floor for public comment anyone who has any comments for any school related issues please feel free to come to the Post Podium seeing none we're going to close the floor for public comment at this time I'm going to ask for a motion to approve the consent agenda Miss D Giovani oh may I have a motion I'll make that motion thank you Mr Buffa can can I have a second second Mr adeso thank you um Mr SMI take aoll call Mr Ania yes M barier yes Mr Buffa yes M djani yes Mr Mali yes Mr Nasser yes Miss shimo yes Mr wandra Sorry Miss stes yes thank you and at this time we're going to be moving into the board Workshop session to discuss the preliminary 20242 budget um I think it's very important that the public understands that this is a workshop meeting um we will be having several of these meetings that will be led by our school administrators our professionals um to discuss different pieces of the budget and how uh the budget is developed this is by no means set in stone this is a working document that we continue to work with but this is an opportunity for the board as a group of nine to sit and hear and digest some of the information that's here um and at this time I'm going to turn it over to Dr handerhan and I thank everybody for all your hard work working on this thank you very much Miss Stites um I'm certainly going to be a bit redundant uh to our Prelude provided by our board president tonight but I think there's some things that are worth repeating so um I would like to wish everyone a wonderful um evening thank you for tuning in thank you for joining us those that are uh present um budget workshops as Miss St said are sessions for for the full board to meet as a whole and discuss the 20242 budget and are in addition to the discussions that take place in committee meetings where no more than four board members meet with school and District administration on a monthly basis the budget Workshop is held in public because it includes the full board and therefore Pro provides an opportunity for the public to observe the board as they work on the budget the budget workshops are working meetings of the board Board of Education and they are not presentations of the budget as Miss stit said uh previously this is a work in progress and um just to reiterate that it is not a board presentation this evening it is um a work session and documents being referenced reviewed and discussed have not been made available to the public and are not made available at the workshop meetings it is important to note that to date State a a figures have not yet been released we are expecting state aid figures at the end of this week please understand that the state figures can and certainly will impact this process and our budget uh possibly greatly so please keep that in mind that the state figures have not yet been released we expect them either I'm hoping either Thursday or Friday of this week at the upcoming March 19th Board of Education business meeting the board will be add asked to approve a tentative 2025 20 uh 2024 2025 school budget for the purpose of submitting the budget to the NJ doe for review and approval prior to advertising the proposed budget that will be presented at a public meeting and voted on by the Board of Education work on next year's budget will continue after the submission of the tentative budget and and the final again the final budget will be presented at a public hearing our next budget Workshop so that would be um a format similar to this evening um if not identical just different topics will be is scheduled for March 26th the public hearing on the 20242 school budget is scheduled for April 23rd 2024 and at that time a budget presentation will be made to the public and there will certainly be uh public comment specific to the budget on that evening the board will then on April 23rd vote on the proposed budget before we get started this evening I would like to share with you some priorities of for this year's this upcoming Year's budget as we move through this process our goal is to create a budget that supports the following curriculum updates and programmatic changes rooted in evidence-based practices and brain-based research additionally strengthening capacity of Staff members through professional development and increased leadership opportunities student wellness must continue to be at the Forefront of our decision-making K12 evidencebased practices will be implemented and once again there will be a continued focus on maximizing efficiency with respect to Staffing and with respect ECT to purchasing as I mentioned earlier the 2024 2025 budget continues to be a work in progress at this juncture we have um you we've been uh working very hard and at this at this very moment we have a budget gap of approximately $1.7 million after factoring in all of our built-in and recurring expenses priorities and initiatives the finance and Facilities committee and District administrators will work diligently over the next almost two months to close this budget Gap at this point I would I welcome and certainly ask members of the Board of Education if there are any questions to the process that I laid out for you for you this evening or if you have any questions uh budget related questions in general for Mr SMI and me so if there are there any questions on certainly the process that I laid out that M president yes Dr H just curious the 1.7 million budget Gap that stands right now is that anticipating like a a number of school aid basing it off maybe last year um the number the 1.7 is um we have the administrators and certainly through the work of committees we have been working towards identifying uh different priorities that's also factoring in all of our um really uh fixed costs um fixed costs which include um contracts um that type of thing um also there are there we also had to take into consideration um you know the um just like when you go to ShopRite um the costs I know my cart cost a lot more than it did so um you know we're we have identified what we um what we've prioritized our fixed costs and now we have to really hone in and prioritize priorities so that's where we are right now um Mr SMI did you want to add to that um sure and just as a followup the correspondence that went home on Friday we were at like 2.9 uh between work over the weekend meeting with technology uh following up on information that was provided uh with regard to how a district tuition and and adjustments made to those budget Pages we are now looking at 1.7 so that wasn't that's the difference between Friday and and today uh and with regard to state aid we should be receiving that by the end of the week but the numbers that we're looking at right now is based on anticipation of Flat state aid from last year it would be wonderful um Trenton if you're listening you know if we get a little boost we won't complain okay thank you very much um I would like to welcome Miss Bond she's going to kick off this evening uh this evening we are focusing on uh special education wellness and curriculum and instruction those are the areas that will be focused in on tonight um we've done this for the last couple years where we've had uh we Tred to present um highlights and priorities of the budget in a thematic sense so um this evening we are um you know this is very much uh classroom and counseling office focused so with that um I'm going to turn this over to our current director of special services soon to be assistant superintendent of special services Miss Kelly Bond thank you very much um good evening everyone the packet I think are all on the folder and I think mine should be the first one on top so that's good um thank you for the opportunity to talk about the proposed uh special services budget and I do want to take just one moment to thank all the people within my department who are very hardworking and um help to put all of these dollars to good use and a special thank you to uh both supervisors Dr Nancy Samaha and Miss Sam bagar Roa for who helped to put this budget together so within the presentation this evening you're going to hear about the responsibilities of a special services department the administrative code and um the requirements within that that do have budgetary impact future goals of our department and assoc Associated costs with the programs that we are currently running the proposed budget supports the mission and the principles of the special services department and the Heart of our work is truly in caring and supporting for students um but each action we take has um federal and state guidelines that have budgetary impact so the first slide um demonstrates the many requirements and guiding forces overall we create and maintain programs for students age three through 21 the proposed budget provides funding for each of those programs the Staffing the curriculum and um funds any extraordinary services that a child may require the next slide outlines the Continuum of services that we have here in Wall Township and um when we're making placement decisions for children we always have to consider least restrictive environment so at the bottom of the uh graph there you can see the least restrict Ive environment is a general education classroom then we move along the Continuum we may add a special educator to a gened classroom we call that in-class resource moving along that you will see pullout resource where a special educator may pull a group of students to teach them a specific subject area then you can see self-contained classroom moving along the Continuum where a special educator may work with the same group of students all day and those children are removed from their typical and general general education peers for a longer period of time if required we look to uh Place children in an out of District placement if we are not able to meet their needs here in Wall Township and then the most restrictive environment that you can have is home instruction and that is because a child is on their own with no exposure to any peers that's typically done on a short-term basis due to maybe a medical need or something of that nature so when we bud budget for staff and our special programs we have to follow all of the guidelines within the code there is a table in your packet which outlines the number of students that are allowed by law in each of the environments so you can see there an in-class resource for an elementary um grade can have eight students in it and for secondary you can have 10 there is no negotiation on those numbers if we were to need a ninth student in a fourth grade inclass resource setting we would either need to open another set SE of that class or potentially look at another Elementary School that might have that same program and and have room when you look at the resource numbers the pullout resource numbers you see a number so six for elementary nine for secondary and then you see numbers in parentheses um those numbers are allowable if a par professional is added to the resource room if you were to go over that again you would need another section and there's also a table there that shows the not the numbers for self-contained classes and again the ranges if a par professional is added to the class so it's it's um I know I shared this last year as well but I think it's always really important to highlight um because these are the numbers in which guide our staffing Budget moving on to the next slide you'll see the current self-contained programs that we have here in Wall Township starting at primary with our three-year-olds and moving on through high school and then the students who remain with us until the June of their 21st birthday at this time last year we discussed the opening of the emotional regulation impairment class at whis for September 2023 um the successful creation of that program has offered many wall intermediate students access to the class when we create a program like this we like to include more than just a few students um because that's really important for socialization and a sense of community so when we're able to we look to accept tuition in students from neighboring districts who may not have that same program to offer their residents so with the creation of the ER program it not only benefited Wall Township students but we were also able to maintain four tuition in students who required that program and we were also able to return one student from an outof District placement to participate in the program um which resulted in approximately $200,000 being brought back to the district to support having this program the ER program at whis will continue in the 2425 school year you will notice on that sheet there is one in bold at the high school and that is the Rise program that we are projecting for September 2024 the vision of this program was presented at the December Board of Education meeting um and creating Innovative and supportive programming in District is not only fiscally responsible but is best for students and their families there is a slide in your packet that reviews some of the important details that we discussed at the December Board of Education meeting and um regarding the importance of rise's creation we have several students who are already identified as candidates for the Rise program and we will continue to monitor students throughout the school year at this time we have one student who we intend to return from an ad of District placement to participate which offers close to $70,000 to support the open opening of The Rise program we anticipate more enrollment as we continue through the year and monitor student need in addition to supporting our IND District programs the bulk of the special services budget goes to out of District placement I would like to note the care and caution that goes into making a decision to remove a child from their Community School to go to an out of District placement it's not a decision we take lightly we value our children being educated in District however there are times when a child may need more or something different and we are obligated to provide that I am happy to share that uh we continue to have a downward Trend in our ad of District numbers you can see back in 2010 and 11 our added District numbers were higher we were at 43 students who required an added District placement at that time um last year at this time we were projecting 32 out of District students for September 2023 due to students aging out and an emphasis on creating and maintaining in District programming that meets the needs of all Learners we are projecting 27 out of District students for next year this results in a decreased out of District tuition budget in the next school year it is important to note that the number of added District students can fluctuate at any time given student need giving students moving in or out of the district but this is the information that we have in the this moment the 27 reflects special education out of District placements and does not reflect students who um attend Mammoth County vocational schools the next slide demonstrates the tuition in Trends over the past few years we have projected to have 11 tuition in students in SE in September 2024 we have had some students um move out and go to a postsecondary programs which is wonderful for them but caused a slight decrease in our tuition in numbers from last year um to what's projected for next year again this fluctuates based upon the needs of our surrounding districts and when they reach out to us to consider looking at one of our programs the downward out of District total and the number of tuition in students that we maintain is something our department continues to be very very proud of and um speaks to the quality of the programs that we have here in town as we move into the 2425 school year we have several noteworthy goal goals within the department the continuation of the ER program at whs the inclusive related Services initiative that we have been working on remain priorities in our department the district objectives surrounding inclusive practices are in utmost importance as we create programs to maintain students in District and to expand our Unified sports program to close your package shows various services that the budget supports within our Department that meet the needs of the whole child and approximate totals for specific items within the proposed budget so you can see there is a decreased out of District tuition cost from last year but then there are some added costs to support the creation of The Rise program I continue to be very grateful to the administration in Wall Township and this board for your continued support of our special services programs our staff and the work that we do so I thank you very much and I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have Miss Bond at some point in time um I think these slides are fantastic and I thank you and your department for the work that you've done um I would like to see at some point the slide about the Rise program maybe um be placed on the website because I think there may have been some confusion about what that program is based on some public comment at a previous meeting um and I think I don't want to see this program be mistaken for something that it's not it's a very much needed program um we want to keep wall students here in our schools as much as possible um and these are real needs that need to be met so I would just like to see if we could I mean obviously I saw the December presentation but I I would like to make sure that we keep accurate information um available to the public so that we don't misconstrue what that program is um it's incredibly valuable and I know you've been working really hard on it so thank you thank you I have a question and this might be for Brian more than um you mismon the budget numbers that are within that projection do they include transportation for special services okay so that's just the educational expenses in the classro correct the uh if we are required to provide transportation then that is included with uh under the transportation budget gotcha okay I'm I was just running some numbers here and it's just amazing to see how the budget for or out of District placements have gone up um substantially um in the the past few years you know right now we're at an average of almost $130,000 a student not including Transportation so anything we can do to bring it back in I think you know is great from a financial standpoint it gets even better if we're able to provide a better product and a better environment for the students to be in so thank you for your your work and congratulations on the promotion I wasn't here last meeting so I didn't get a chance to say thank you very much Madam president yes so um the one-on-one nursing 250,000 how many students is that Encompass so that is um an increase this from last year to this year we had um several students move into district with the need so um there is an increase but that is it it does vary and we give ourselves a little bit of room um um but it's about it costs a lot of money so I think we have about five students some of them are Transportation um nurses and some are needed for the entire day dependent upon the student and their needs so even even if it's five stud and we contract that out correct we do some of the students are in out of District placements so that that actually that number would be lower than if we had them as employees yes yeah okay thank you anyone else for any anybody else for any questions from Miss Bond okay thank you very much Dr hran thank you Miss Stites thank you Miss Bond um I think nursing is probably the perfect segue as we as we um segue to our um to miss Steiner our director of intervention services and student wellness and it's my pleasure to turn the microphone over to her so she can uh discuss some of the priorities for next year in her areas thank you Dr handerhan I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the board of education for allowing me to present this evening and um I would not want to be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the hard work of the counselors the nursing teacher leaders like our head nurse Amanda marock and our district select leader Caitlin gilvar there input and unwavering commitment to our students is so essential when we're planning a budget I want to begin by describing a comprehensive student wellness program and what that offers it offers a variety of services to address the needs of the whole child the social emotional behavioral developmental health and wellness needs IT addresses skills for relationship building for self and social awareness for pos positive decision making and it essentially provides our children the confidence to successfully navigate relationships social media peer pressure and stress and when outstanding needs surface it provides a structure for the delivery of intervention services that we have planned within our budget our intervention services are seamless and flexible our district Str strategic plan includes a wellness goal that outlines how to cultivate community Wellness through intentional programming and support actions aligned to intentional programming like using data to identify needs implementing programs and practices that are evidence-based and structuring our supports in a manner that uses resources equitably are just some of the best practices that we use to plan our student programs the evening the proposed Wellness budget represents all of those important elements um it's it's responsive to what we need and it's resourceful we maximize the use of community-based services as we explore grant opportunities we maximize the use of funding like Title One title two and title four funding and our proposed budget is also mindful of considerations and uncertainties that arise when we speak about student wellness you know essentially children get sick children require home instruction families lose access to permanent housing and unfortunately children require care for mental health and substance abuse we went into preparing a budget to make sure that we had a proposal that's responsive to even these situations that we can't control lastly our proposed budget also adheres to the guidelines of the law um there's an example for an example the mckin vento law has specific guidelines for providing educational stability for students who are without permanent housing so tuition and transportation are just some of the costs that we as a district are responsible to assume when one of our students is temporarily housed inside or even outside of our community so within our strategic plan we have three goals that we discussed um implementation of the seven mindsets program which I think I've been come to known as the sign of seven mindsets woman um postvention planning which is another area that I want to discuss a little bit more about tonight um and then also this comprehensive system of support that responds to needs of all children in a really thoughtful and effective manner with our student wellness program our seven mindset program our objective is to continue to implement kada 12 seven mindsets our year two of implementation will take a deeper dive into the mindsets including expanding the amount of lessons that we'll be delivering for each mindset K to8 we will be extending the program by engaging different members of the staff like our PE teachers media Specialists and other staff members so that they're able to use the program within the confines of their current curriculum at the high school level we will be implementing seven mindsets 9 to 12 through more of a school-based model um the nth graders will receive a curriculum that will be written this Summer that will combine age appropriate topics with the seven mindsets so it'll be very um resourceful to them at this time in their life for example like post-secondary planning or career interests and Pursuits will be discussed under the mindsets of everything is possible passion first and the time is now we also um will continue to host the array of mindset based activities that we use to build community like some of the activities this year like the Jenga challenge extension resources for the seven mindsets can be funded through grants the professional development aspect of implementation we would like to continue through a teacher leader called our district select leader who I know you're all familiar with Miss gilvar um our current leader who assess with teacher professional development family evening programming and provides opportunities for Community Partnerships her contributions are invaluable the cost of her Skype in curriculum writing and seven mindsets licensing is a little over 20,000 but more than half of this cost as you can see is funded through grants which will result in a district carrying about $9,500 of that total cost our second important Initiative for next year is the continuation of postvention planning and crisis response this is the area of Wellness that is so crucial to student safety we would like to continue our license with the lifelines trilogy for prevention intervention and postvention programming we have developed and trained um response teams at district and school by crisis management teams along with implementing this year State mandated School and District based threat assessment teams these teams um need professional development these teams um you know have professional development Beyond just the system and what the responsibilities of what the team are but also in proactive um and evidence-based counseling community-based counseling restorative practices these are some of the topics that we weave into professional development we also require technology ology to maintain um to ensure procedural safeguards and produce the required documentation So currently we we use a platform called hipster and that um helps us track our harassment intimidation and bullying investigations but it also has platforms for intervention and for threat assessment teams so the cost of these platforms as you can see are um documented on one of our slides I also wanted to men mention the nursing portion of this budget and how our nurses serve beyond the the typical you know school nurse but they also serve on our school-based crisis management teams our 504 committees and um they help us to deliver services that align to the requirements of the law so um one of our laws Janet's law require schools to have have staff members that are CPR and AED trained um a certain number of Personnel in each of the buildings and this year our head nurse Mrs marock developed a training plan where we can take our own employees and I have three nurses who have volunteered to be trained Mrs marock uh Mrs Penn and miss ncot and they're going to be trained to be CP CPR certified trainers so just this service alone and training them and equipping them with the skills will allow them to maintain the certifications of our present staff instead of Outsourcing this service um so our last initiative is aligned to the systems that we use to deliver comprehensive programs and tier supports providing group instruction on habits of mind group counseling to students with common needs or experiences like the loss of a parent and providing individual counseling services are just some of the offer offerings within our Wellness Department we also Implement teams like our inrs teams to plan for students who demonstrate multiple needs in academic and behavioral challenges teams like the inrs offer strategies for instruction track progress and modify student plans as goals are attained trainings for these teams is ongoing and is ongoing and will continue to be a priority our comprehens ensive systems of Support also consider Health needs and resources like our medical supplies so aeds epipens those are things that we consider in our budget we have a school physician which is a yearly um a requirement that we contract with and these costs are of course a little bit more consistent from year to year because um obviously we we have a plan based on prior years but we also do factoring and costs that are a little less consistent like home instruction um you know and things that arise throughout a year that that we know that we need to address finally I'd like to mention other Medical Services like I had mentioned prior the prior uh home instruction and we also have nursing care for students that are before and after school nursing care um we have several students who medical conditions require life saving medications and that requires a nurse to administer those medication these children are active participants in our school community so our goal is to provide them with the services required for them to continue to be engaged in outside school activities like clubs and sports so in this area we are proposing a budget as you can see that's close to $62,000 for both Services I hope um this evening I adequately described the resources is in our proposed budget um I thank you for the opportunity and I obviously thank you for all of your ongoing support and um I can certainly respond to any questions you may have at this time Miss Steiner thank you so much I appreciate this um this presentation I think um it's very important that the public recognizes the um amount of Dedication that the board and the Administration has focused on student wellness um definitely important that we budget appropriately um for these programs um we've done so much work with seven mindsets um I had the opportunity with Mr maloff to attend our community leadership uh program the other night that that was hosted with you and Miss gvar outstanding had many members leaders in the community coming together um so that we take these initiatives and bring them out to our community it'll make our whole our whole Community stronger um I appreciate everything that your department is doing for our students um this is going to really benefit our kids now and in the long run make our communities as a whole much stronger so I appreciate everything that you've uh managed to break down for us today so we get some sense of you know everything that is entailed in this part of this budget thank you does anyone else have any questions for Miss Steiner at this time okay seeing none Dr handerhan thank you very much Miss Steiner um at this point I would like to uh direct our attention to our assistant superintendent of curriculum instruction Miss Jennifer McAn and she's going to uh share with you some upcoming priorities and also um provide some insight into um certainly some of the Esser funding so um with that I know she has a lot of detailed things to share so miss mccan thank you Dr handerhan and thank you um to the board um for as Miss Steiner and Miss Bond have also said for your continued support with all of the initiatives from each of our departments um we wouldn't be able to do what we do without your support so thank you um when it comes to building a curriculum and instruction budget um I work most closely with our building principles to see what their particular needs are going to be terms of um curriculum instruction professional development and resources as well as um the supervisors and directors within the curriculum and instruction department so um this was a team effort in putting this proposed budget together so thank you for everybody and in your due diligence and putting the students first um so one of our first topics that we um come together with is the summer curriculum development so each of our courses require us to have a curriculum document that aligns to the New Jersey standards and there are two different reasons why a curriculum would need to be updated the first reason would be that the state department adopts new standards and then they outline for us a timeline as to when we have to realign our curriculum to those standards um and the second reason would be that we are to follow a five-year curriculum cycle so every 5 years whether the state adopts new standards or not we are required to update our our documents so that we are current with resources and instructional practices so with that being said in grades prek through five we will be rewriting our reading and writing curriculum this current summer as well as our Mathematics Curriculum the state of New Jersey adopted new standards in October for both of those content areas and we are required to implement new curriculum aligned to those standards for September of 2024 um when it comes to to our ESL program we are updating our entire K through 12 ESL curriculum um it is a little outdated and we need to um bring it up to speed with current resources and instructional practices at the secondary level again our all of our English language arts courses from grade 6 through 12 will be updated as well as um any of our AP curriculum that go along with those course those that subject area in math ma matics again due to the state requirement all math classes math 6 through 8 prealgebra Algebra 1 geometry Algebra 2 pre-calculus statistics and AP Calculus will be Rewritten this summer and again at the secondary level ESL and one of the other components although the state does not require us um in a standards for elective courses this is where it falls under that 5-year curriculum cycle we have elective courses that are um due for the 5 year cycle we will be updating business law we're proposing a new class this year called Financial investigations so that'll be a brand new curriculum for the high school um in terms of electives we are updating our um Harry Potter and um fiction class to be renamed fantasy fiction to incorporate more types of um uh of those the Harry Potter novels sorry just totally slipping my mind um and we're updating the American Nightmare class um and also AP Physics we will have a total of 49 courses being written this summer each course we like to have two teachers at um writing each course so that they can brainstorm and work off of each other um if it's a revised course the teachers will receive 12 hours per teacher if it's a brand new course it's 12 hours per teacher for a total as to what you see on the slide of 162,00 ,000 and of course when we are writing curriculum there's also the possibility of instructional resources needing to be updated which is another caveat of curriculum and instruction um we have taken it um a situation where we used to you let the the buildings um purchase all of the instructional materials but with the adoption of our new reading program Le past school year for K to2 and with the Imp mation in 3 to 5 the curriculum office will be doing all of that purchasing for our new magnetic literacy portfolio um we will continue our contract with enVision Math in K 5 and we are looking to bring in new resources to support that ESL curriculum um for our multilingual Learners at the secondary level um we'll continue with enVision Math in the Intermediate School um for our math 6 through 8 classes um and we are looking to update our resources for statistics AP Chemistry AP Psychology and principles of business at the high school level one of the other components because of our digital age is not only do we have our traditional textbooks and workbooks um but we also have a number of educational platforms that are used throughout the district um you'll see on the slide there's a sample there for you as to um some of the ones that are used throughout the district some are K12 used districtwide some are used just in K to 5 for instructional strategies some are just in the Middle School um Intermediate School and some are at the secondary level 6 through 12 two of the um big hitters in the educational platforms is our I ready and our link it um those are the two platforms that are used most regularly and um for an assessment purpose and for a data purpose for us to really know um where our St students stand um with the standards and what types of interventions and strategies we can continue to provide for them for their success in both math and Ela some of the professional platforms that we use that comes out of the curriculum budget um Tiffany had mentioned um hipster and hipster vention and ASAP in her presentation um they because of the Professional Service we share that service um so we budget for them through the curriculum budget and eye observation is the platform we use for our teacher evaluations if you remember we moved from En course to eye observation um so those are two professional platforms moving along we are proposing this year um for the upcoming school year to have an opportunity for our elementary teachers to have a leadership role in The District um and we felt it was really important to provide this we noticed out of feedback from um the Strategic plan that this was a desire of our elementary teachers there's an opport many opport unities at intermediate and at the high school for leadership but not um at the elementary level so we are proposing um a new position a stien position um where we would have grade level Andor Department from the special ed department leaders for each of the grade levels um and the leaders would be um supporting the implementation of initiatives that come out of either the curriculum and instruction office or out of the special education office um they would be Liaisons between the Departments and the teachers and the principls within the buildings they'd be facilitating collegial discussions during grade level meetings or team meetings within their buildings as well as provide professional development during professional development days or at faculty meetings um when applicable we would like the teams to be integrated so at each grade level we're proposing two grade level leaders where we would mix the grade levels um teachers from each building so there might be some teachers from Ellenwood um Old Mill West Mill in Cent West Mill West belmare and Central all in one team with one leader and we felt it was important to do that integration so that teachers can start hearing what's happening in other buildings instead of just continuously hearing what their colleagues are doing in their their building um getting that perspective and having that again that collegial conversation um is important um for everybody's professional growth so that's a new position that we are um looking to add for next year and along those same lines of whether it's teacher professional development and teacher leadership opportunities um within the curriculum and instruction um budget we do incorporate the um professional development and staff registrations for all staff throughout the district so this includes our teachers our Paras our nurses our counselors our principals the assistant principes supervisors directors assistant superintendents and also the superintendent um there are many many workshops that we um encourage our staff to attend outside of the district um whether they be through the the county or through different universities um we also encourage our supervisors to attend their supervisor conferences as well as national conferences um the more that we're out there and learning best practices and we can bring it back the better off this District would be we would also like to continue our support in our um reading and writing instructional practices we made a a big shift from using Teachers College readers Writers Workshop and moving towards a more um systematic strategic way of teaching reading and with that our teachers are doing a phenomenal job in making that shift and we want to ensure that we continue to support them in that transition so um we would like to continue with brought bringing in um Consultants to do that now that's the big piece of of pretty much all of the curriculum and instruction budget um and as many of you know a lot of what we have been able to accomplish here in the district whether that be in supporting the um Wellness initiatives or in some cases even some special ed initiatives and just our students in general and making the transition back to the district from covid we were able to do that because of federal funding um the federal government had provided all school districts with a number of Grants the first grant having been the cares act and this District had received $249,300 which was from SE March 2020 and was exhausted in September of September of 2022 every every dime that we were provided we spent and we spent that on our summer nights programs on implementing an all wall theater program on High School Credit Recovery um providing data coordinators to our schools as well as um RTI teams to the schools and also purchasing different digital software hotspots and subscriptions during the needed time of covid and remote instruction the second grant that the Federal government had provided to us was the sr2 Grant and this particular Grant we were provided from [Music] um also March of 2020 but it was needed to be expended by September 30th of 2023 so this past September we were required to spend 1, 73,8 73 and again we did just that and we spent every dime and again they were spent on academic support programs our summer night Academy that we were able to provide at no cost to our parents um throughout the summer for K to 5 intermediate and high school students our summer Focus program at the whis program at the W at whs um as well as the nights and training program at whs again a lot of that money was put aside um for data coordinators we used it to purchase intervention instructional materials to ensure that we were being able to close that achievement Gap ever after covid we provided our teachers um a group of teachers with letters training which is um based on the science of reading we provided our teachers with snde training for the special ed Department we helped support the seven mindsets program um we had contracts with mha for for training on Crisis Intervention as well as providing counseling for some of our students and also a contract with integrated care Concepts um that provided um a number of services to the district as well the last Federal grant that we have is Esser 3 for a total of 2,562 63 as it stands today of that 2,562 63 we have $85,200 extreme diligence and making sure that we spend all this grant money that you know you know uh just a couple things I think the uh leadership uh program at the uh elementary schools I think is an excellent idea thank you um just wondering is this going to be I would because it's a stiped position there will have to be a a process for application and or is this something you just so um with the support of the board if it stays um in the budget and we're able to move forward with it we'll go through the process of writing the job description posting that position interviewing for that position um and then each month um those leader the leaders who we select will meet with um myself and Miss embon from the curriculum Department um we will train them we will talk with them we will let them know what the message is and then as they will meet with their grade level teams on a monthly basis and that will be done well is their their position their instructional position going to be modified or they still going to be they're still whatever they're teaching they're still no whatever their instruction to do that after school time this is all after school hours all right and just one other uh Point regarding the uh the tremendous amount of money that we receive from these grants I assume there's there's a challenge to to choose which programs we can continue and which we have to see Sunset because of the correct and how are we going about that yes so um it has been um a process in trying to ensure that we provide as much support to all of our students as possible um with some of the programs that are sunsetting um some of them being some of the programs at the secondary level for this current summer academic wise we felt as though it was from an academic standpoint to grab the students at the elementary level and provide them with the adequate support for the summer in a 4-week program um whereas the secondary will continue to have their support support programs through Title One money come September you're welcome excellent presentation thank you but not even necessarily for you maybe for the whole board to consider maybe this is an appropriate time for us to and we've talked about it in the past but maybe a a grant writer because there's a lot of Grants floating around maybe somebody that just can focus on that and scoop up money so we can continue programs and expand I mean since we're working on the budget now maybe Mr Smite could find a hole someplace which I know is asking a lot but that's 1.7 well for a grant writer I mean you know if if if you get the right grant writer they they pay for themselves and then some so I I just think you know we've done a lot of great things over the last several years with with all this grant money and especially using it down to the last scent where other districts have wasted it um I just think it'd be a shame for some of the things that we've done to go away because it has made an impact so I I just think that's something for us to consider Miss mccan um awesome presentation thank you so much um as far as the grade level department leaders um I think it's an outstanding initiative um I know we discussed it a little bit in personnel and I think what I really like is each of our elementary schools obviously has its own personality and they're you know unique to themselves and I love that um but what I love about this department leader idea is that by getting everyone together um there's discussion and we're making sure that the way information is kind of delivered then kind of uh goes across all four schools as opposed to it being super unique you know so a second grader's experience should be similar whether they're at West Belmore Old Mill Central Allenwood um and I think that this kind of um Endeavor is going to help um encourage that I know I know I'm sure that's that's everybody's goal all the time um and I also like seeing that our elementary um folks have an opportunity to kind of also continue growing um you know professionally um my one question that I did have is so when folks go for professional development we love that they go out and they do that how do we make sure that that information comes back into the district and then is able to be shared um with colleagues so when a staff member requests um any type of professional development outside of the district um they are required to fill out a professional development request form that comes through my office I read them all um I approve and then Dr Hanahan second approves and then once they return they're required to fill out reflection form where they discuss how they are going to share that information back at their um back to their building level or to their grade level um we then encourage the principles to provide opportunities at faculty meetings and or when they do have their grade level common planning time um to have those conversations um it's a little easier at the intermediate level with the team leaders because they have an opportunity on a regular basis to sit in talk and share that information um whereas at elementary it's a little trickier so having this opportunity of these grade level leaders is prime prime time for them to be able to bring stuff back and not just share it with their building but across all of them um just real quick thank you everybody for presenting it was um informative so from May and I want to piggyback off of uh Mr Ado's comments because I I agree with him that a grant writer might be in our future um particularly because of how we we looked at the grants and the co funds that came in and and Dr hrand I'm sure will will back me up when you know I say that we were adamant on not reducing ing the amount of recurring costs that ended up coming out of those funds they were for programs they were for supplemental items that when the faucet of money got shut off wouldn't drastically impact the rest of the district from a staffing standpoint and a a program standpoint now that we're at the end of the process I I think we need to take a look back and see and and we're doing that right now but um you know the things that are working and worked that there's value to adding to the educational process and the the way we do things here um I if we do if you feel we do need to figure out a more permanent basis to do this Now's the Time to really talk about how we can start to implement and and phase that in instead of seeing it sunset out and if part of that is a grant writer you know I think that should be an option that we consider as we move forward um yes I certainly I 1,000% concur with respect to our discussions with making sure that we use that Federal money not for recurring costs um and one and I have to tell you one of the things that I I did not look forward I'm not looking forward to September 30th 2024 because I know that every penny has to be spent and it was really difficult knowing that um the $85,000 for this Summer that um that Miss mccan outlined that we have left that was not the it was not enough to fund the entire Suite that um that we have been able to provide for for our community um for the last couple Summers and we had to make some tough decisions and you know you know we used educational sense to um okay where where can we um you know really get the the most amount of participation for the for the monies that we had left and uh certainly our attendance at the elementary schools uh it was you know off the chart it was off the chart but it pains me Mr ner that we're not able to provide um we're not able to provide free of cost to the families um the amazing programs I I one of the best things I mean there's not too many great things that came out of Co but one of the great things was to see the amount of wonderful programs that came to the to this district from our staff members that developed it and um one of my f one of my favorite things that we were able to um include is providing uh the summer program for Rising kindergarteners uh that's that that is students that haven't started PR uh kindergarten yet and I have to tell you from the parents from kindergarten teachers I mean I've talked to many many people and they are just blown away by the amount of the just the jump that our that our students that attended these programs were able to come in in September so in many ways the kindergarten teachers felt that um they were already they were starting in October they weren't starting in September and I would like to stress that there are we we have many many of our um families are able to send their um students to to their children to um you know Nursery School um they're in a daycare scenario that is not the scenario for every child so we have kids that have that enter kindergarten um without having been in a formal educational setting where it can be scary you're walking into a room with 24 desks I mean that that in and of itself can be um a little intimidating but we were able to really chip away at that with that summer program um so that is just one of many of the amazing programs so um I certainly um you know I it's painful to not be able to um provide all of these but um I'm certainly I know certainly Mr SMI and I and um others that are certainly at the dayis can look to see if that's something that we can look into and as we look to refine our staff um because um Mr adio you're right um a good grant writer does pay their own salary and um we've just there's just been so many wonderful wonderful things that have taken place U I even just you know the shows at the end of the the the theater programs um the just the showcase at the end where their parents come in for the K5 programs and they demonstrate all the things that they learn their art projects I mean you know I just wish everybody had the same um lens that I did um for these programs and um it's it stings to not be able to um to provide them um we can provide it somewhat this summer with the remaining funds but uh we can absolutely have that conversation and um you know it comes down to priorities um as I mentioned earlier we're at 1.7 right now $1.7 million that is our Gap um we're working um as Mr SMI said the Gap was a lot bigger on Friday so we keep refining we keep whittling away and whittling away and we'll I think that's something we we should look into um as we look to prioritize because um you know a good Grant riter is priceless so um that said I just I I hope that I didn't go on and on and on but I'm incredibly proud of the work that um our teachers our administrators um have just incredibly proud of the work um because I this money all of this Federal money came out to um buoy students um to make up for learning loss and I am so proud of the work um that has happened and I can say because we did not we truly um did not spend uh the bulk on recurring costs in any way so uh we were able to focus it on instru focus on instruction and that's where it belonged and that's where the spirit of the funding came from so um I want to thank Mr adio and Mr nazer for pointing that out and um it certain certainly um you know we're really busy between now and um the March 26 um Staffing conversation so thank you for your input okay are there any final questions or comments from the board I would just like to mention mention um quickly um how proud I am of the crisis response team and plan that we have in place um that has been developed as a parent um you know I get to see things as a parent and as a board member I'm very proud of um how fleshed out and developed our ability is now in the district to respond um in times of Crisis and I think it's also interesting to note um three outstanding presentations from three outstanding members of our district and I think what's really interesting to note is that we have an assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction a position that did not exist several years ago we sit tonight with a uh director of inter excuse me intervention programs in student wellness and sitting with our very soon to be assistant superintendent um for our special services um and I know um there's there's always discussions about how the the district can improve the district can become stronger um I hope that people have an opportunity to really hear what each of these positions is doing um with their departments I think it's a testament to how far the district district is still moving you know we've all taken hits with the pandemic things like that but here we are on the other side still still moving forward and I think uh I think I hope it makes people recognize um how much the district has committed to our students and um to our staff and then our community and I think that it's really interesting that we have the three of you here tonight and that these are newer positions and I think you're really serving um the district with pride and a lot of hard work um and and I think it's excellent because our staff deserves um committed leaders um who are willing to support them and uh I think our whole administrative team is doing a great job I thank you all um so you got a lot of work coming up good luck good luck we all do we all do um so I believe believe that's going to conclude our workshop for this evening thank you to the board for coming out I want to remind people on the board that if you have individual questions Mr Smite has always um been very happy to make appointments um I know with me and walk me through some questions and and help me as I learn to tackle this Beast of a budget um I know Mr Nasser is always also as chair of fnf always very willing to discuss um so you know you're not alone in digesting this please make sure that you reach out um if and when you have any questions so seeing that I think uh may I please have a motion to adjourn I will second that motion okay thank you Mr adio miss djani all in favor all right okay thank you hope everybody has a great evening take care