board correspondence we did have two uh emails one was regarding the graduation ceremony attire which uh I referred as per my conversation with Mr Burber to the high school administration uh and we had another email from a parent concerning a 504 for a student um which again as per my conversation with Mr bernberg we referred to the 504 coordinator excellent thank you uh I will Reserve comment uh Dr excuse me Mr sty any business administration comments skip oh I'm sorry that was intentional that's why I started with he's not used to us having board correspondent so I'll give you that that's what I thought that's all right I'll I'll I'll give you that one actually I'm um I'm Gonna Leave most of the comments to Mr size because we did a walk through of the construction yesterday and had a meeting today um with the the contractors and The Architects we have some nice updates about the construction going on um it's it's really really exciting actually so I have to say I thought that the learning Commons project was exciting but some of the other spaces that we're doing right now um it's it they're it's really going to they're very Innovative and it's going to be exciting I think when when school reopens um the one other thing I did want to share we had a a student one of our members of the class of 2024 Juliet Chang she had come to us um a asking about doing something meaningful with the leftover funds in the lunch accounts in the that that uh students end up having in those accounts when they graduate sometimes it's a it's a few dollars yeah it might be you know it literally might be like $320 um you know not that much money that that people might not even know they have in their account and so she was great she was really committed and diligent with wanting to figure out a way to um encourage parents and students to donate that money to the food bank to the Somerset County Food Bank and so I had talked to her about how as a board it's difficult for us to try and encourage people to steer their money towards a specific charity but that we would help her if she uh she actually in concert with uh Tina Osmond um posted something on social media to the class of 2024 students and parents asking them uh you know to please donate if they had some you know small funds that if they had more funds in their account you know certainly they might want a refund but that if they didn't care about the refund then they could send our business office an email asking let the money go to um the Food Network the food bank network of Somerset County and so I just wanted to let you know from that um effort by this student $536 38 was donated so by her efforts and the generosity of our class of 2024 students and parents um so I really commend her for that because that makes a difference uh so you know I'm I look forward to seeing what other good she's going to do now that she's out in the world but I wanted to share that because I think that's pretty cool and um you know really nice that a student started that and that our um our former PTO president who was very involved with Project Graduation uh helped her out with that so that was a a really nice Legacy to leave and I believe that's all I have for my comments tonight thank you Mr bernberg sorry yes Mr President so we uh in terms of our referendum project the nurses Suite uh we did obtain the TCO we're just waiting for furniture so that's good news um the gym 56 and it's it's a significant change whenever we get the board to go there you guys got to take a look at all this stuff because it is uh particularly in the steam lab when I get to the and the um the photo classroom the photo um photography classroom um the change in the space is kind of crazy and we're just I mean I'm used to seeing the old robotics lab uh which was hideous and it just I can't even describe it at this point it was an it was an old uh welding shop but when you walk in now and you just see the space and what it's going to be uh it's pretty amazing so anyway so the steam lab there are uh some significant structural issues that we coming across um and I'll give credit what credits do later but the architect and the contract are working really well to mitigate and it's an old section of the building so there's a lot of weird I knew there was going to be weird things in that because there's there's like a pit back there it's I don't anyway and so that's probably going to push that particular piece of the project out probably into October maybe even late October um you know we're hoping again the architect and and the contract are working very well so it's a lot to overcome but I think they'll probably have it in that range um the ceramic room there there was one issue with the flooring in in the hallway uh and they're working through that um so the only delay at this point may be the windows uh Windows uh are coming in a little late these days so that may cause a couple of week delay uh but it looks like we're in pretty good shape um they're working on the ceiling grid and the um and the uh just probably the other there's like other doorways and there's an office in the back that they're putting in so those things are being worked on as we speak but um that's going that's going along pretty well uh the photography classroom is moved to room 122 um it was actually part of an old classroom and a little bit of an office and now it's almost shaped like an L it's significantly larger um that one looks like it's coming along and I we're thinking mid to Mid September uh for that one to be finished um we do have spaces for these folks to go in the interim um the pack lighting infrastructure uh we do have significant amounts of uh lighting that were were in this referendum one of those and I didn't even know it until Dylan showed me that the infrastructure they were using floppy discs um I haven't seen a floppy disc in a while and that's pretty bad but and there and there was a older windows and if you go way up on the I don't even know what this is it's like you got to go up a a set of stairs and then there's this like Spiral Staircase that goes into this that computer room and it's weird believe me I've been up there and I'm like I can't believe I'm going up here but the um the um computer system is a very old windows system so the infrastructure is why we have glitches here and there uh so that's being changed and that that is all on the um uh the agenda tonight we're changing all of the stage lighting to LED um I become a big fan of led the heat that you get from the other lights is significantly different and I actually I'm S I love the LED and obviously there's some Energy savings as well um and then the other thing is a new lighting board so we have that those three items on the agenda we did a significant amount of searching uh we did a lot of ref um we we checked references to the and degree and we got I think we got the contract that we wanted uh for the price we wanted it's Generations electric they actually worked on our football field lights which um I know they were delayed but they were they did a great job on them um just a tad I don't remember and then speaking of uh the track uh so the track is completely ripped out um so is the asphalt uh they have the drainage pipe in all the way around and they're putting in the uh the sectional drainage pipe right now um I saw a lot of stone that was put back on around the pipe so that's a good sign um so that looks like it's heading in a great Direction it should be complete by September 2nd you know weather is the only thing you always got to worry about this phase of the project is pretty simple you don't really need weather it doesn't hurt you when you're curing um the asphalt and the and the the surface that's when it gets a little tricky U that's when it gets a little bit harder to deal with but right now knock on wood let's hope that it goes according to plan it looks like it is and finally the uh fiber optic cable um not as exciting project but we replaced all of our fiber optic cable through the North and South buildings uh and we got e- rate money for 40% so that was a great job uh we got that ahead of time we actually moved it ahead because the cable itself went through the steam lab right in the middle of it which was weird but we so we had to put it all in and now let and allow them to rip the old part out we couldn't rip the old part out because we would have had no computers so in the south building um so that's kind of where we stand I do want to thank um and just acknowledge Chris Bick for the work he's doing with the contractors um there's been issues that have come up and this is where his experience and his knowledge of this building really come into play so just for an example there's a pit that I I talked about in the steam lab this pit had a bunch of condensate pipes and it just it was just wasted space in the corner and Chris came up with the idea of why why don't we at least research where these pipes go and if we can move things around and utilize that space and fill in that um that pit so essentially after some research that's what they're doing it it creates a lot more space in that room we would have wasted a whole corner and you know so that's an example of what he does and he's been doing that on all the projects he takes us around all the time and he explains the stuff to us sometimes we get it sometimes we don't because he talks very fast sometimes I tell him okay reader digest but you know he's enthusiastic about it and he's done a great job and and these in these little details that have really helped out the projects so I just a credit for him because that that's a big deal I mean we had a problem with the flooring over over in the steam lab and the Ceramics he's the one who came up with the idea of well okay here's a here's a way to fix that move the door here as opposed to on on the side where the where the floor was raised that way you don't have to cut into the floor and it's no harm no foul you're not cutting into any space so again very practical very smart um and he works well with the contractors and architect so just acknowledged these are these are big things and his experience is helping us so anyway not to port on but I I want to Echo what Tim said all of these projects we talked about we have some really really major projects going on around this building and outside of the building and most of them started before the school year ended um and Tim and Chris and our principal and The Architects and the contractors spent a lot of time we started months ago sketching out a timeline to try and minimize disruption to learning and our supervisors and our teachers were so flexible and willing to roll with it seeing the bigger picture of you know where what the end result will be um that I I have to say I don't think anyone here got any complaints about disruptions at the end of the school year about noise about disruptions to instruction um it was it has all gone really very smoothly um but just been very well coordin at and Chris has really been very proactive with when he sees it you know anticipating an issue of addressing it but I I really have to say considering the number of projects because I sometimes forget until we go and walk around and look at the major uh you know pieces of the building that are that are torn up right now um they've done an excellent job and part of it from the from this project you know when our architect started with this project they involve so much of the staff in the planning that were able to kind of anticipate what some of the issues are but the teachers at the end of the year were really phenomenal with having to be displaced um you know for the end of the year so and Tim's done a great job coordinating that and even today um Chris Bick and Chris sheer actually came to find me because we've been trying to figure out how to make the entrance to the South Auditorium pop a little because it's we renovated the South Auditorium a number of years ago it's a really nice space but when you look at the pack and the entrance to the pack it's much more impressive than the entrance to the South and we had looked at doing some things for the South Auditorium but we always we kept cutting them out of the budget just because they were you know things kind of always the the last in and first to go so you know you know that chrisher has painted pretty much our entire building um with the colors and and U making it you know really very aesthetically pleasing so we're doing something similar outside of the South Auditorium so you can even you'll he was working on it today so you'll notice the difference but I'll let you know when it's all done so I you know they take a lot of pride in this building uh and it makes a difference so I I really the work that's going on this summer is tremendous it's going to be really exciting when it's all done so thanks to him too for overseeing all of that okay I'll throw out a few thank yous as well then I thank the board and the administration uh for the commitment to the infrastructure because it really benefits the students I know we don't necessarily see it because it's happening this summer and uh when it's done we may not fully appreciate it but it's really so important to give the students a much better experience and a much better learning environment and of course I want to thank the public for the confidence they have in us to enable us to uh you know provide for the students especially with regard to the infrastructure okay great uh NJ GPA results uh we have okay do do you have a what call okay Andy's gonna put it up uh Michael and and Jim I just wanted to say how excited you've been all day for this so I don't want to take it away from you all summer that's true so we have Mr delesio our director of math and business and Mr aquavia our supervisor of English and so they're going to speak to the njpa results if you recall last year our timeline of presenting results changed a bit because we get them at different times and we are obligated to report them publicly within is it 60 days I think Michael of getting the results which is why uh you are getting this presentation tonight to make sure it's in the time frame uh and then it'll likely be our September meeting I guess that will'll do the njsla September October uh September October September October that will do the um njsla results but we I think it also works better last year chunking them so that you didn't have everything Al together overwhelmingly in one presentation so thank you to both of you for joining us tonight and I'll turn it over to Mr delesio without further Ado thank you I hope everybody's had a good summer so far so first I want to give uh uh a little overview what the ngpa is um really hasn't changed in the past year a state statute requires um a state graduation proficiency assessment to be given to all 11th grade students uh called the New Jersey graduation proficiency assessment uh New Jersey is always not always but traditionally has given an 11th grade test you may have remember the hspt or the HSPA uh now it's the NJ GPA NJ GPA is designed to measure the extent to which students are graduation ready in two areas English language arts and Mathematics and graduation ready is reported separately for each of those contents um Mr qu will talk a little bit more about the ELA this evening but the ELA assessment is aligned to the grade 10 student learning standards while math is aligned to Algebra 1 and geometry as well as some additional topics uh within there um test is given in um March of the junior year so you want um two years ago or a year ago on May 3rd 23 2023 the New Jersey State Board of Education adopted the proficiency cut off for ELA and Mathematics through field testing in Prior years uh and also designed a menu of what we call alternative assessments students can take if they don't perform on uh the 11th grade njpa currently the minimum score um for passing the test is a 72 or higher on each assessment and students as well as uh Administration here get additional supports uh and reports to to kind of help students or help students understand and parents understand uh of what the test is about and how to look at those results uh if you don't make those cut off scores there uh still is a way out of high school New Jersey and uh you re can retake the English language arts or mathematics component of this test in October of your senior year so we're starting to gear up for that now um or meet a design cutoff score and another set of subst substitute competency tests including sat act acup Placer or complete something called a portfolio appeal uh either in math or Ela in which there's uh basically questions designed uh to the New Jersey learning standards in ela or math um so first slide and and and Mr quy will come up and talk about Ela a little bit more but I just want to give you a general uh overview of percent graduation ready for all students at wung Hills compared to the state so for mathematics it's uh 73.1% and we had 315 out of uh 431 test takers there well at the state level um it's 54.7% so obviously we Eclipse that um graduation ready for ELA I'm going to let Mr aquavia talk to you about because then the next slide it's also our subgroups and then I'll come back and if if you have questions regarding math so this is just the overall all the students at Wong Hills graduation ready percentage State vers watchong Hills hi everyone we're really pleased to report that just over 90% of our current seniors demonstrated Proficiency in English language arts on the njpa that's that 9.4% is a slight improvement over last year's overall Ela score and while this is strong performance in English language arts and we are pleased we are not satisfied we continue to learn from this assessment and from others to help improve Ela performance for all students looking at these subgroups this year's results are slightly lower for two subgroups for students with disabilities and for Hispanic students it's a very small difference but we not it here and we learn from it performance is stronger for every other sub group listed when compared with last year uh we use the njpa subgroup performance along with other forms of performance data to provide targeted interventions for students for individuals uh and to improve instruction at all grade levels for instance at the start of the school year teachers of seniors do a very nice job of reviewing their students njpa results they see students individual reading and writing scores and they provide targeted support uh for any student who still needs to demonstrate proficiency teachers of 10th graders do the same thing they conduct a similar review of students individual njsla results in order to provide targeted support for any students who have not yet demonstrated proficiency across the department we also learn from the these results to improve programmatically we continue to teach and refine close reading strategies to strengthen students ability to read critically because much of the exam requires this kind of close attentive reading we continue to provide ongoing individualized feedback to help students become more effective writers and we continue to work collaboratively to implement and to strengthen those classroom practices that bring results thank you two or more races yeah mied mixed race sorry I have a quick question for either of you it doesn't matter what are the accommodations for the IEP students for this test other than extended time so extended time is the biggest one some of the students get text to speech um use of a calculator um by hand vers uh first uh computer uh you can bring your own calculator anyway so that's really not an accommodation anymore text to speech and extended time are most same as any other stand same as any yes so so yeah thanks so um similarly to what Mr Quia said uh regarding the subgroups there were not many changes this year overall in math and it's the next slide so I don't want to let the cat out of the bag yet we perform pretty much the same as as last year couple things I do want to note about the sub roots of subgroups if you look on the left you know we we uh results for some subgroups do not appear because they're a very small size and that does have an impact every year when you are looking at Subs groups so for example uh when you have a subgroup that is in the teens a few students here or there that pass or don't pass do change the percentage um will change the percentage quite a lot but again it's a small amount of students that are in the teens in some of these subgroups do want to point out our students with disability subgroup uh so students in disabilities U by state definition are classified to have IEPs or not so if you have an IEP you're classified uh in for this test with a student as a disability does not include students with 504s um and also it does it's just IEP only I do want to point that out because sometimes that gets lost in looking at the data uh like I like Mr aquavia mentioned before uh we did better in two of our subgroups uh this year but again they're so small uh when it comes to the amount of students sometimes that can be mislead eting um including what we do with uh with a lot of the data is I did mention that the that the test isn't algebra and geometry based test that's the main content here uh but they're supporting content uh such as functions problem solving reasoning and modeling uh very elaborate questions on the math end for students and uh a lot of questions uh so that you know test is not easy and the feedback we get from students St is uh know it's it's a challenging exam next slide does show the comparison of of the 2003 to the 2004 results so graduation ready in mathematics increased by 003 per and for ELA 08 and you know when you're when you're looking at a test now and it's we could say it's a new test but they've had field tests of this and now it's been two years uh you're not going to get large swings in in uh graduation writing this throughout the state uh it's pretty much an established test now with some baselines and uh uh my uh my history with testing whether it was the HSPA the hspt park uh njs lasas you're not going to get large swings because uh you know the test items are pretty much well established uh and so forth It's when you introduce a new test and then you have field testing and trying to find those cutoff scores that's when it gets a little murky so some key takeaways from this and I I I do have some other points regarding the slide that I think are important that aren't written if we look at now September coming in uh looking at our seniors 51 of 431 Rising 12th graders are considered not graduation ready they still need to take a math assessment for this so so as R were mentioned earlier you can pass through alternative assessments such as the SAT or the act so that's a large group of students who may not have done well on the NJ GPA but get a passing score on those other exams uh and we code them as graduation ready uh for English it's 21 out of 431 I want you to understand that some of those 51 and 21 are coming from us from new schools so we're getting their njpa results as as we speak but things move slowly in high schools in the summer so when you call guidance departments from other schools and try to get their njpa results that 51 or 21 may go down because well they've passed at another school so we still have to we're sifting that through right now just recently there was a June sat we do have the scores for those and they were inputed but this past Saturday there was an act and we did have students who are in these categories who took that test and they could achieve a passing score and some of the students here will also be IEP exempt however we just can't IEP exempt them without having a case manager speak with parents or myself or Mr aquavia explain the situation regarding the test so those numbers pretty much will go down once school starts as we get closer as we get more data in from 12th graders who've come to us from different schools and standardized testing you'll you'll be surprised that somebody will walk into my office and say oh I took the uh the sat in in March and here's my score and they show it to me and you know we never got the score for some reason maybe they forgot to put the school code down so those numbers will go down and then eventually like I said we will retest all students uh in October who still are not graduation ready and go from there and uh we do have remediation of course on our next slide it shows uh some of that we just don't have our students go in in October and take the test again um the remediation from math is uh skills in our algebra 3 class uh our math lab some of our students maybe even be in our senior pre-calculus class uh so we make our teachers aware of who those students are and we do targeted instruction uh trying to uh you know get them more prepared for the test uh the alternative graduation assessments you know we review those um like I said You' be surprised to how many students come in with a score oh you know I have it and I'm here in September um the retest in the fall and then if that doesn't work out for students we have something called the accuplacer it's a college board exam that we could administer to the students um and uh we've been very successful there with students passing the acup Placer it's a shorter exam I don't want to comment on whether it's an easier exam uh it's a it's a shorter exam and you know when these exams are long um there's a um it just makes it a little bit more difficult for students so there's Pathways uh for students to get there and I'm proud to say that in the years that Mr quav and I have been doing this we work really close with the students Mr aquavia spends a lot of time uh getting students ready for accuplacer essays uh which that test is an essay based test uh getting their skills up to par so that when they take that they can pass and uh I work with students one-on-one getting them ready for accuplacer or ngj GPA review and again our teachers in their English FL classes or any of the math classes as seniors uh getting them ready so um that's uh where we're at right now we're sifting through the data in this summer and um you know we'll see how things shake out in September uh Mr President so uh just for uh just to refresh my memory when when were the cut scores changed so good question the there was a field test in 2022 where the cut score was 750 a year later they were changed to 725 prior to the first year of the test being the real graduation requirement which was 2023 so the first year the test was we have a graduation requirement now because remember the covid and everything was 2023 but they sat on those scores for about a year till they changed it to 725 but it was initially 750 so then so the comparison between 2023 and 2024 then is comparing Apples to Apples because it's using the same cut score correct okay and then my second question is um do you have comparison on changes for the subgroups year-over-year uh we do um I have some I mean for for math they're within two or three% uh we do have them I don't I don't have them with me but we can get them to just curious if there was any significant changes in any of the subgroups the significance usually is because of the teens number in the subgroup so when you have 17 students one year and then 11 the next there could be some wide gaps there uh the larger subgroups are very very steady very steady thank you I have a couple questions if I may um we talked about the smaller sub groups so I just want to talk about the Hispanics as an example how do our Hispanic students compare with other districts that are perhaps have a higher concentration of Hispanic students and is the math part given in English or is it given in Spanish sorry English Okay so let's go back to my first question do we know how other schools do is it and the question I really have is it a Hispanic issue is it a small issue a small size issue you understand where I'm coming from of that I think you know when I can speak to math U and I'll have Mr qu speak to English I think it's an issue where students independent of who they are struggle in math uh they can be in one of our sending districts for eight nine years they come to us and if I had looked at their test scores from K through to8 they struggling on standardized testing so I don't think it's an issue of who you are but rather know do you like math you know there are you know one of the things that I have conversations with students about is um I really don't like math Mr leio so I don't really you know I try to just get through this test so there's a lot of things that go on I I don't really look at um subgroups Too Much from the other districts I look at we do look at districts that are in our um I guess Lizzie would say it as uh comp comparable regionals yeah so uh we're pretty steady in those with with compal regionals over with overall results I'm just concerned with the tests in general with New Jersey whether or not these tests are because we always hear about bias in exams but it's a bias in an SAT whether these tests are biased against subgroups and then you look at what the sub groups are doing in other districts where there's a significant number of students and you don't have uh the issues that we have where we have small uh a small subgroup or one or two people can throw off the data well I'm going to catch myself because I've really never seen these exams we're not allowed to see them so I can't tell too much about those they have released items and you know when I look at the released items and and look at them with teachers I feel you know that's a good question you know our students should be able to answer that or we get a lot of the time we went over that I think our students should be able to to do that but you know when when when you're sitting in front of a test as a teenager it's difficult it's a it's a much different ball game when when I'm sitting with teachers and saying they should get that question verse you know when you're sitting in the chair as a teenager to actually do it so and just to confirm that even though uh when they take this exam as when they first take the exams and our numbers are below the 100% we take various steps almost every every student gets to a position where their graduation ready through the alternative means is that correct absolutely we Mr qu and I deal with students one-on-one with this when we retest in October you know we'll probably get more than half of students to pass that was the trend last year so then you know we have X amount of students that we're dealing with one-on-one afterwards and there's a lot of personal attention um there's a lot of parental conferences and talks we don't we send out a lot of letters this is something that people know about you know if your son or daughter is in this situation so I'm proud uh that we do work very closely with with the students um I'll have Jim talk about you know some of the things you do with the essays with students sure yeah that's that's a really important outcome of the information that we get from these assessments is that we're not just looking at them on a very large level we're using them to help our meetings with young people one at a time and so we'll sit next to one student or two students who are working to complete um preparation for this alternate form of assessment and we'll coach them for as many hours as it requires to to help them through to pick up uh an earlier question your original question while this isn't a complete explanation I do notice when I look through the data and look at the um the results for individual students we should remember that English language Learners now not all of the students you're asking about are in fact English language learners but there are students who are English language Learners and for whom this is an enormously complicated reading situation right and so they too sit for this assessment which is on grade level with grade level text technically they're 10th grade standards that they're assessed on but but that's a really complex task if one is in fact an English language learner and as I comb through the data I see that that is the case for students students who are in ESL classes and and we do require them to sit for for the exam and and that's included in the results and I try to remember also when we look at 20 2023 subgroups and hold them alongside 2024 subgroups we're not talking of course about the same cohort of students right this is a different group of kids so we try to look closely at a cohort also as they travel to make sure they're making incremental progress as they move through great thank you one final question maybe not directly related to the results but you alluded to the fact that the stand standards have changed a little bit the state has reduced the grading let's just say or the passing grade cut score cut score the uh what's the talk down in Trenton so to speak are they married to this NJ GPA uh I mean again I'm in this 60 years and seems like every five plus years there's new testing when I was a kid it was the Iowa tests I mean there seems and even on the board we've had are they committed to this or changing do you have any information on that no I don't really talk to Trenton too much so but I I will say this you know obviously I'm preparing for the testing for the next year uh Jim and I are looking at things and the alternative assessment menu only goes up to the class of 2025 so the cut score the SAT score need needed if you don't make the NJ GPA runs out for this graduating class so if you go to the website the department of bed website that's they only have till 2025 they haven't released any testing schedule yet uh for next year which I'll be honest they usually do in May June so I'm waiting for that because Mr labr and I talk about scheduling so if that is a hint for something that's all I could say but I don't know uh too much um I said I don't call Trend too much okay great well I want to thank both of you appreciate one more question oh sorry Bob um your questions led to more questions so um uh coming back to the subgroups uh again and trying to get some context because our subgroup numbers here don't really help us that much because we're looking at them in isolation I know we asked about you know looking at other districts or peer districts um uh but I'm also wondering if the state doesn't release um the the subgroup information for the state and even maybe if they uh release the subgroup information by uh School characteristics whether that's DFG or something else that would allow us to at least look at our subgroups in context of other like subgroups across the state so that's a really good question I'm I have the magic piece of paper right in front of me with from with all the data from this past Year's test so if you're looking at subgroups um within um within the state it's really just watchong Hills uh in terms of percent well you have percentages and but not numbers so I can you know we have percentages for subgroups that the state does release so we can you mean for other districts for other districts well either EI or or or the state like Statewide what is the state exactly what's the Statewide and and do they release it um if not at the distri District level at least in those other characteristic levels because they historically they have released stuff by what's it look like by District Factor group what's it look like how we so slice it this way you can dig into the the Performance Group reports uh and we do uh that come out I believe they come out in February is maybe the or something like that you can dig into those and and at that time really get more data and we do um to see how our students did on whether it's njsla or njg so so this is only our schools data with highlevel State averages but not broken down into the groups correct correct correct and again you know this is it is ridiculous that they are not providing the additional data to so that we have context for what's happening within these subgroups you know because we can sit there and look at what a Hispanic group looks like or what you know I was particularly troubled by the math subgroups for our African-American students so what does that look like are do we have an issue there or are we trending the same way that the rest of the state is trending or are we in line with other you know high high performing District Factor groups districts I think that's that's the kind of information that would be actionable for us because then we have better understanding of you know is this a problem or is this you know or are we seeing something that we're actually overperforming where everyone else is right now when I'm just looking at a number without context it doesn't help us yeah I would say that and that's not a and that's not a criticism of you or or Mr Quia it is a criticism directed at the state yeah it's really hard to and and I mentioned this before and I don't want to be labor it but some of our subgroups are so small that I don't know if comparing it to the state overall would be statistically the right way to do it but I would doubt that that's the case for our Hispanic students or our African-American students it's a African-American students is actually a small small group we're talking teens it's fine yeah so I'm actually I went on to try because they only they have the 2023 scores on the um State website but it doesn't seem to go past the hes for the counties so I can't if you get a chance to look my this is very odd I can't even find for what is it I just went on the the the State website of data they don't have the 2023 data of course this is um the 2023 24 data this was this is a year old that's the most yeah they're not going to have that for a while they're not going to have that until next May that that's but I can't even get it's going to be mid year can't find our County on here it's mid year just as in aside when we talk about averages to say there's a dozen kids in a subgroup you can have an average number which is very low but then maybe next time we get the bless maybe next time we get the information with respect to the scores because maybe it's 10 kids who are doing very well and two kids get yeah get a zero so to speak and really bring it down and then we can really isolate the issue because just like you said when you look at the average in a small group one person can throw it off but may and maybe that is what's happening yes they got a 725 or they didn't I mean the scores do range up you you can get scores in this close to 800 but it is a pass fail exam in terms of those those statistics are who passed and who didn't correct yes a blend of scores it's oh I'm sorry so we still have a smaller group so Ian so if it's 50% six are passing and six are failing that's what it means that's correct oh okay I apologize thank you Susan I Mis interpreted that but then it' be interesting to know the six who failed what the numbers were are they failing by a lot or a little that's where qu and I come in and you know that's we that's where the hard work happens where I want to thank both of you and appreciate all your efforts and certainly getting all the kids to graduate and uh I know it's not an easy task so thank you thank you both of you we're on that now okay I thought I thought I thought he did the operations report earlier so no well no just one other issue and I think most of you were there but for the folks who weren't there uh on July 9th the committee met we reviewed RFP proposals uh and interviewed three health insurance brokers um we had Bob Morrison Carol prev Michael bernberg had the trur we had Liz Nicole and in my office uh Brenda fler was there we started the interviews around 4 we ended sometime a little after 7 and then debated discussed a little bit probably got out there around 8:00 so it was quite a long evening uh thanks the committee members for indulging it was it was a long discussion uh a very good discussion I thought um the three um groups that came were Brown and Brown Centric and Gallagher um all represented well uh their prices the highest price that we got was uh Brown and Brown who we have now uh consistent where they've always been and then there was Gallagher and Centric um we discussed for a while and ultimately decided to stick with brown and brown um their presentation was excellent their track record here has been terrific um and at we uh what we did at that point was we had myself Dr JT and Nicole and we filled in um a spreadsheet with scores and there's a report that's in all of your folders if you want to look at it um but ultimately again I I we all felt that Brown and Brown seemed to be the best approach for us for the school district as they've they've been a proven track record um and they they did they really did an excellent job on the presentation if you guys want to add anything feel free that is on the agenda tonight by the way Pro no I I agree with Tim and one of the issues that we had discussed there was that um uh Brown and Brown has been with us for 10 plus years and they got us we were in a bad situation one would argue back then they came in and uh really turned it around and really help help out the district and Tim specifically and uh when things are going well you might not need them or might not need anyone for that matter but when things go south uh we felt that Jim Finn and his team were the people that we'd want to be with it's kind of like uh you know having a medical procedure a standard procedure anyone can do but when it gets a little more complicated or something goes wrong you want to make sure your team is there to respond and that was my takeaway and I think there was some discussion with respect to that um if anyone else has any additional comments or anyone have any were you there okay Lisa or anyone else have any questions or yeah on a good note I did I did bring because we were there for four hours I had cookies and I had fruit and I'm very happy to report that there was a lot more cookies left than fruit at the end of the night so a healthy group here I I comment that I had both because I didn't want to play favorites okay thank you uh Mr Morrison shared services regionalization study just a quick update uh the shared services regionalization committee met on the June 24th um the focus of that meeting was just to go through the work plan for the summer and also to identify some priori areas uh to be focused on particularly as it related to shared services uh and so the three areas that were identified as priority areas for the study to look at as it relates to shared services uh included special education uh Transportation including a look at starttime considerations uh as well as curriculum alignment and professional development so those were the focus areas uh for the shared services uh in addition during the conversation we learned that uh along with wung hills who is working with Ruckers on our school culture and climate surveys uh that the Bureau of watchong or watchong burough of public schools is also doing the same um using the same tool and now that the state is using that tool and it's free uh we've actually shared it with the other districts that are in the study uh suggesting that they may want to take a look at potentially implementing uh that um uh culture and climate survey that's available from Ruckers so that all of the districts that are participating in the study would have the same information that could be used to inform the work that's going on by our Consulting team um additionally over the course of the summer uh the Rowan team will be working uh uh to acquire and review a lot of the different data sources uh and begin to uh begin their comprehensive review and an analysis of the existing data that is out there um they'll be working on that over the course of the summer uh the next meeting for our group will not be held until September to allow the Rowan team to do their first uh round of research and Analysis which they will then report out to us in September and then we uh the committee also determined that we will be looking to host an imperson town hall meeting sometime probably in October uh to allow for the community engagement and Comm Community question and answer session uh as part of our commitment to keep the community informed of the work uh as it is progressing that is uh my report I'm happy to answer any questions or welcome any comments from folks that were at the meeting anyone have anything again Bob thanks again for all your hard work and uh happy to report and see that we're starting to crystallize some of the issues and some of the concerns and now we seemen to have some formal Direction and it's moving forward so that's great thank you uh first opportunity for public comment the first public comment period will be limited to agenda items for this meeting only the second public comment period will be open to any topic all comments are limited to five minutes are there any public comments anybody please come on up no okay thank you okay any items for board discussion I don't know if this is the right time for this but I saw that Mr Good Sabino is uh was presenting yesterday at um a conference involving about chronic absenteeism and since that's such a big topic right now I just wondered what if there's any advanced information about it or what information we'll get from that well I think he was presenting on um basically what we've been doing here to try and mitigate it and and the interventions we have for the students um uh you know between our Empower program our tiered level of support so that's what he was speaking to because it obviously it's not just an issue we're facing here and I know Bob you've spoken on this a lot you know it's um especially since the pandemic it's been a really uh almost another sort of pandemic of of chronic absenteeism that we've been working to combat so uh and I commend our counseling department our Administration our staff it it really is an all Hands-On deck effort to provide support to students um and to their parents to hopefully get them back to school and get them caught up because that's the other piece that um the further you fall behind the harder it becomes to to catch up um so that's why I every time I get a chance to I thank the board for supporting the Empower program because that has really made a tremendous tremendous difference for a lot of our students and Bob when Liz just said that you're talking a lot about it in what any I know at our meetings and that Garden State sure I mean well I mean it it is a you know it is one of the major crises in public education today chronic absenteeism and certainly the the teacher Workforce shortage you know are are the two big areas but with chronic absenteeism you know the challenge has been you know historically the numbers have been you know 5% 7% students chronic absenteeism and when we're talking about chronic absenteeism it's when a student is um uh misses school with an unexcused absence for more than 10% of the school year which is the equivalent of 18 days out of the 180 days uh and so now here in the state um you know it's up around 20% you know the fact that we have you know oneth of our students that are being identified as chronically absent is a problem because if you're not in school you can't learn uh and and you know amongst all of the other things and uh so you know one of the things that I will share in a study that came out uh from Virginia where they their chronic absenteeism rate last year was up to 27% um the the superintendent of Public Instruction their Commissioner of Education in Virginia they actually looked at high school seniors and went back at the career of high school seniors uh for a 4-year period so four years of high school seniors to track what courses they were taking in and what were some of the things that might have had a positive impact on chronic absenteeism they found that students that took four years of Arts education meaning an Arts course all four years had a 50% lower chronic absenteeism rate than all the other students and that was so compelling to her that she then presented that in March to the State Board of Education and then in April they organized Regional meetings around the state to talk about it um not because of the solution but it's certainly a solution to help address it for those students that are inclined to do that okay great um moving right along uh Mr President I'd like to move items A1 through A4 comments discussion roll call please Mr maio Mr Morrison uh abstain on A1 and A2 yes on A3 and A4 M obber yes Potter yes Mr trur yes Mr bber yes motions carry Mr President I'd like to move items C1 through c16 second comments or questions roll call please Mr maio Mr Morrison yes M obber Potter yes trumpour yes and Mr bernberg yes motions carry uh Mr President I'd like to move items D1 through D14 second comments or questions roll call please Mr maio Mr Morrison yes sober Potter yes tror yes and Mr Burber yes motions carry great second opportunity for public comment this opportunity is for any matter that like to chat out with the board any comments okay seeing none second opportunity for public comment is closed does anyone have any other business no motion to adjourn all those in favor we are adjourned