##VIDEO ID:WyyoBAZbvJA## e Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all the mission of the beler school district is to celebrate our past and Empower our future while focusing on the four cornerstones of our district tradition Excellence academics and Community we strive to build confidence and promote collaboration we encourage an equal partnership with our students and staff as well as its community members we Empower everyone to develop the best versions of themselves the beler school district is committed to shaping students into Global Citizens who take Initiative for their success and contribute to the continued Excellence of the district our students are leaders in the decision- making process of their education and will be prepared to excel in the 21st century Society roll call please Mr Akerman here Mr Blum here Dr zith here Mrs Duckworth here Mrs gleen Mr Scott here Mrs Stefan here Mrs wenner here Mr chiarelli here Mrs Gardella here Mrs roboam here okay so we will start with committee reports curriculum first everybody get the notes you with you I don't have them with me sorry probably if we need I'll just run through it I know I sent these out I think it was with the update from last Friday um we started our meeting we did talk about Renaissance Learning not going to say too much about that because Mr hin line is here and momentarily he has a presentation for for the public um we we did talk about proximity learning currently right now we are using them for our CP English 2 class until our new uh English teacher takes his new role on I think it's October 21st is the Monday uh that's the only class that we're using proximity for we were able to fill uh Mr Jackson's other class with our teachers temporarily um we we will be talking in proximity about potential some other classes down the road but for now uh we're starting with them we had a conversation about guidance um as many of you can see on the agenda which we'll we'll mention later uh Mrs skoo has uh formerly resigned with the intent to retire so we'll comment on that after uh we are having our goals meeting on October the 9th that was set up we discussed that our njsla test presentation will be on the October meeting um we just talked about when and where we offered SATs and PSATs and we did have a discussion about uh whether or not we should be offering the act for our students it's not something that's very popular uh in this part of the country but uh acts are a viable option to the SAT so we were going to take a look at that uh we have just a theater update uh Mrs kerat will be taking uh coming back to do the um Middle School play and Mr zom will take on for the high school uh we mentioned the dates 1115 1116 Murder Mystery Theater that Mr zrom is putting out there I'll mention that again in my notes also uh we talked about the Dena students position and um that was pretty much it I don't know there's any questions from the notes or any discussion from the folks that were there and if not we'll call it Mr hline um ready Mr hline um I asked Mr hline uh last week if he could just do a presentation on on our new program Renaissance and Renaissance Learning uh Mr hline uh right out of the gate went right into it and has done a great job with it so I know he's super excited to talk about learning but um I think this gives a good overview to the board and to the folks that are here about our new product and how we're using it in the classroom so Mr Hein absolutely thank you Mr kruba so yeah I've been asked here to give a very quick overview General overview of Renaissance and how we're going to use Renaissance in our district and with our students so again I'm Seth High Elementary School teacher here also a coach in the high school going to try to keep this as brief as possible I know we have a lot more important things to attend to so I'm going to make this like the Chris Burman the fastest three minutes at the halftime of Monday Night Football so we'll see okay you guys can ask me some questions after so what is the star assessment this is going to be replacing our our linkit um the bundle that we basically signed up for is going to include star which is the the main the main point that's the assessment piece and then we have a couple of student platforms Lilo and Freckle which I'll dive into briefly in just a moment and then nearpod as well so our star assessment this is basically the main component of of Renaissance and it is an Adaptive test for reading and for Math and these students will take that um in the spring and also I'm sorry in September in January and and in may we have the CH we have the opportunity with Renaissance to take up to 10 um different screenings but that seems a little excessive but you can SC screen the students anywhere up to 10 times the average time to take a star assessment is about 20 to 25 minutes and you typically get results back within 10 to 15 minutes and and and you're good so I want to show you kind of how the test works so this is a chart um that shows the Adaptive test and how that this test actually tailors the student responses to really kind of quickly zero in students achievement level to Rel a reliable score so each student again I teach fourth grade ELA my fourth grade class everybody started off with a fairly basic question and that question was I I even saw some of their their screens it was a horse a dog and a cat ran a race the horse won the race and the question was who won the race so they should get that question correct they're going to move up the questions are going to get a little bit harder and harder and harder and then once they start to get some answers Incorrect and start to Plateau that's where they're eventually going to arrive at their score which is their scaled score and their scaled score is going to be between 0 to 1400 1400 being a perfect score um but this is going to help achieve learning learning targets see where the students are gaining ground and falling behind this is an actual chart of my fourth grade ELA again I waited out a lot I waited out all the names to keep them Anonymous and things like that but this is my class as a whole up here you can see that this is The Benchmark based off the state so every state that is in the state of New Jersey all the schools that are using Renaissance this is The Benchmark this black dotted line shows where they should be at coming into fourth grade um in September with their data dark green is above level light green is at level blue is watch yellow is intervention and then red would be urgent intervention so this is good for me to be able to get a good overview of my class and take it from there next one would be individual student data the individual this is two separate ones two separate students I wanted to show you one that is on watch per se and then one that is at level you can see that this student scored a 965 on their on their scaled score on their star assessment and then of 10,24 what we're going to be able to do is track their progress we're going to help determine whether the student is responding to the intervention in the long run this is the very first one that we took so we are going to start now so when we take the the very next one in January and be able to go years from now be able to track that we really want to meet the needs of those students that are falling that are falling behind but then also challenge those students that need that that challenge as well so there's a lot of big fancy acronyms on here and I can talk about all of those with you right now but I know that's not necessarily what we want to talk about but one of the things I want to point out here is there this page continues on for about four or five pages long and it talks about all of the scores and all of the um I'm sorry all the skills that they were um low on so you can see that this this student that was on watch is actually going to be working at a third grade reading level um in main idea while this student is going to be working at a fifth grade reading level with their Lilo and Freckle accounts I'm going to talk about that briefly in a second but again it gives that those students to be able to work at their own individual pace and their own individual learning this would be a parent report and even this QR code this QR code is not going to take you to this student's um score what that QR code was even if you wanted to P your phones and show it now it would really honestly take you right to to the Renaissance um homepage and it will show you what all those acronyms mean how can we what is a scale score what is that grade equivalent what what does that mean that they're right now have an instructional level of a 4.7 so it'll also break that down again I want to give these to everybody at conferences this year in my classroom but hopefully the long-term goal is to be able to send these home at the end of each test so that they know what's going on and where they where they scored um and then the last piece of the star assessment is a star CBM it took me a really long time to figure out what CBM stood for um but I finally figured it out that it was curriculum based measures this is basically kind of replacing a Dr or Running Records this is a one minute test this is nothing to do with the Adaptive tests by star this is something completely different but they have one minute to read as much as they can of this passage they're going to get a score of how many correct words um per minute and then we can take the score that they had from from this which they would do right to me face to face the student comes up and we're going to look to see if there's any kind of instructional adjustments needed because maybe they guessed one that was really right on this on the star assessment and maybe they needed to be dropped down a level or two or need to go up a little bit because they're reading really well so again star star CBM is just an additional test that you can give that star also offers so what do we do with all this really fancy information that we have now and again I showed you probably 2% of the reports that you can really formulate with Renaissance Lolo this is going to be geared more towards your Primary students these are going to be geared towards most likely kindergarten to second grade and you have to remember that this is there these are this program is for the students that are learning to read okay um the students that score lower than a 900 on this on the star assessment on their scal score they would be put immediately into this Lilo program so they would use Lilo at their literacy centers in their teachers classrooms to again help strengthen those skills to eventually get better and better and better as they move along also Lil low is going to be perfect for students that are in let's say grades 3 to six that are struggling and they need that extra boost right they can go back in here and use that to pop up you're going to see a couple of examples I'm going to show you here but again these are interactive developmentally appropriate exercises and it's going to use extensive Data Tracking and they're going to work on letter skills word recognition vocab writing social literacy um comprehension INF fluency and for us as teachers it's really cool to be able to see um all the data that it's going to give because I don't necessarily use Lilo um with my fourth grade students but you will know that in Freckle they'll they'll give you all different types of reports and things like that but you want to be able to work on this for about an hour a week so 15 minutes a day put them in literacy centers if you have something maybe when they come back in from recess time to put them on it however you want to use it that's up to the teacher to use okay and our second student platform is for the students typically in grades three through 8 and what you're going to use Freckle for is again a scope and sequence type of thing it's going to place and when you take the star assessment it will automatically place the student at their level on freckle and all of their assessments that they're going to use unlike Lilo which is only for ELA Freckle is actually perfect for ELA math science and social studies what the students are going to see when they start to use freckle and yes this is a k to2 dashboard and I just told you K to2 is typically Lilo but if you have a first grader that's really reading at a really high level they're not going to be using low they're going to use Freckle because that's what's going to challenge them so once they log in they're going to see a cool database like this they're going to get an avatar it's going to instruct them right away to design this Avatar they absolutely love this part they get all these fancy coins when answer their questions correct and they get to uh play around with that cool fun teacher point that I really like about this is that the store is only open for a minute in 30 seconds and then it completely closes and they can't use it again until they reach basically another coin limit that they have accumulated so you know as a teacher they're not just foing around in the Avatar Store trying to decorate things for them um here's going to be your third to five dashboard in Freckle two different options that you see here is your backpack and your practice skills with the backpack those are going to be assigned by the teacher so if I see this class is struggling as a whole if I'm teaching something in ela that I want to add to Freckle they're going to be uh once they sign in it's going to make them do that assignment right away or their own learning path would be through the practice and this is going to be set up for um math Ela as well the way I work it in my classroom is I use my fourth period which used to be called targeted skills in the past now I have Ela math lab it's a shortened period before lunch and my students know to come right in and we're working on that for 20 minutes a day sometimes 25 minutes Monday Wednesday Friday we work on all of our Ela skills and they have different um they have the writing the reading um language and they also have something called Focus skills and in that individual student report I showed you earlier they have little lightning bolts next to all the really important skills that they need practice on so you can work on those and then the same thing for math all different types of practice skills that they can choose what they're learning oh missed one this would be again a more age appropriate look for the sixth to eth grade students I don't think 9th or 12th we're not doing it 9th or 12th so we could don't worry about that one but this is the learning path and you can see the most important thing here is the starting level so that star assessment it was done they formulated their data and everything that was in green they're not going to have to work on they've already gained that knowledge before so they're going to start right here at level 10 I may have a student that's working on a level 21 I may have a student that needs to start on level two everybody is going at their pace which is obviously one of the coolest parts that I have again and Freckle will uh there will be remediation problems when they are struggling and more advanced concepts when they get it right so just because they are on level 10 now doesn't mean that oh hey they might have to go back to a nine eventually because they're they're struggling here oops I go to yeah and this is what one of the practice problems would look like again this is a math question fraction problem multiple choice question cool part about this this though is they give them different options over on the side hints and videos and things like that if they don't know the answer to a question and if they get the answer wrong it's actually going to require them to then watch the video they can't actually move on until they watch the video to help teach them that skill and then they get a chance to answer the question again and a chance to again earn a couple of more coins so hints videos and things like that that is what one of the practice problems would look like on freckle and last is near Pod near pod's been around for a while but Renaissance accumulated this one this is an instructional presentation tool and this I want you to know is a supplement for Lilo and frle those are the those are the two main platforms that our students are going to use but this is a supplement okay so when I see them struggling in a certain skill I'm going to go ahead and immediately say hey maybe we can do this as a class or we're going to do this individually and I can send that out to them this is what teacher page looks like you can search all lessons any subject I have used it for ELA in the past I've done it with setting main idea theme I've done it in science okay we can use it all the cool part about nearpod the way that they set up their lessons are some lessons have virtual reality so the kids are in there bruising through and seeing something really cool they have quiz questions discussion boards which are my favorite because I use this during our covid year when we were at home we used I used near pod then and it was really cool to the kids thought it was the wildest thing because they thought I was controlling their computer but I'm not once they log in you're actually going to be able to hit next on the screen and it's going to move on their Chromebook or their device when they're at home and another cool teacher feature about nearpod is the fact of when you ask a student a question again in the upper grades they're not going to ever raise their hand to answer a a teacher question but in the younger grades they all have their hands that they want to answer you well in in near pod when you ask a question they're going to be given a discussion board they they can all answer and it gets posted up on like a Post-It note on a little discussion board and we can see everybody's answer and talk about them so that's a really cool feature as well and lastly I have based off of that practice problem that we had back on the freckle math problem I will get an alert I have no idea why it's set up for me at this point right now but 11:59 at night so basically midnight I get a report again I do not see that until the morning I get a report that lets me know what the students have done have they succeeded have they passed a new skill um are they struggling with a skill or I'll also get something that says Needs a helping hand when it shows up as needs to helping handle my freckle report I know that that student needs a little bit more than that hint or that instructional video that would be a good time for me to search fractions send them something if it's something that I see about 15 of my students struggling in again I don't teach math but if I saw them struggling in this I would probably do this nearpod as a whole group and a whole group assignment um but again this is a supplement and it is just a different way to present them their information again this was the quickest overview I could possibly give there was so much more I felt like I talked a mile a minute but I know there are way more important things tonight so I wanted to see if there are any questions or take any questions if anybody had it any and if not we're good I have a question yeah go ahead what's the comparing this to link it what do you think are the the most strongest benefit versus what link it has yeah so for link it the the the the good parts about both were that link it and the star both provided you with all those different types of um data and they'll say hey your this is where what your students at but the link it never gave you a chance to say here's the platform that the students are going to go and use so as a teacher we were the ones that were going and pulling out worksheets or we used iel I don't think we have iel anymore because we would used to assign them outside sources that would take away from our planning time we would have to do the work to find that now with this they're going to get a lot more fun they think a game based type of assignments to work on so hey they're low in a skill me Mr highing sitting at my desk I'm not going to be using my prep time to set up all those lessons the lessons are going to be set up there for me I just have to check in and make sure they're where they're at so it adds much bigger component that way and and the test is quicker and for I can only speak for fourth grade ELA but they used to give be given all of these um reading passages that they would have to to make but that reading passage may have been way too hard for that fourth grade student this one this reading passage that they may get the next one's going to be easier and easier and easier until it finds their correct level so you may have a student that scores really poorly and Link it and you never know how they really did because it was just too hard for them this one adapts to them and will make it easier or more challenging for when they need it I have two um first one is when you said that you get a report where it said that they need help is that can the student request can they stay on there or is it do you get the report only because they didn't score well uh I get a report whether they do great but not great I get a report for each student it'll even tell me how much time they spent on it um but to answer your question I don't know if they have that feature I'm assuming they do I just haven't gotten to that that part okay I'm curious because if they're stuck on a question can they say need help on this one and then go on to the next yeah I my I would have a line at my desk they would still come up and ask me and then I typically say to them listen it's very early in the year and I can't necessarily give you the answer to this one right now I said let's I've actually had them watch I've watched a video with them I've seen them with the hint I don't want to give them the answer because then that's going to throw off their progression path they don't actually know that themselves then they need to take a step back a little bit you know so it's it kind of puts me in a weird spot of do I really want to help them that much right that this EX spot or or not so and then the other question was what's the success rate or what do you what kind of improvement have other schools or other um areas that use this this program have they seen yeah that that would be a Mr karuba question it's a hard question speing different but but they've seen increases with using this program as opposed to like or the link correct yeah so the key is um I need to get in microphone should here the key is is the Adaptive piece um because as Mr heinlin said I think when students are struggling on link it there's 30 questions so if I'm having a hard time with the first 10 good chance I'm really not working all that hard on the next 20 but with this program if I'm having a hard time with the first five the test itself is going to modify it so it's more at the level I should be at and then Mr Highland gets that report and we you know him and I met yesterday and he was talking about a couple of kids who one kid I think was reading at close to a seventh grade level already so that test is going to go higher but one kid who was probably more on a second grade level and it's going to adjust a lot of times frustration plays a big part in that you know in their role so the the couple of schools that that I specifically spoke to um they they're they're starting like we are like on the lower levels and then they but they have seen you know probably 20 25% increase in their test scores because the the students have that that um comfortability and I said one of the things I like about it when we were talking about it was without anybody ever saying that the njsla test is an Adaptive test we know it is we know it it just gets harder um link it's not it's the same 30 questions whether I got the first 10 right or the first 10 wrong this adjust it and I think that help the frustration what you said is key because and in here I mean think about the first question example they just gave you it's already going to give them that self-confidence that says oh wow I actually can do this one right other than they're going to have these questions and we've seen so many students with link it in the past that just go I can't do this in their head and they're just slamming keys and just trying to guess all their answers this one it's going to make them have to redo if they finish it too quick so is that it one more yeah is there an at home component like if uh we if we talk to you and you say they're struggling maybe if we do 10 minutes of this at home yes more that parent report yep you have more things that you can be able to doing the parent report they could sign in and do this at home as well um and we could sign them near pods if we needed to as so is that uh the CBM report are they reading that is it picking up their voice oh my God C CBM so if they're reading that to me so the difference with this the star assessment that is on their Chromebook they're taking that fourth grade it was 34 questions everybody's was 34 questions the star CBM that is one minute Mr KR is going to read this passage for me read as much as you can in one minute and I'm on my on my computer looking at the screen you're you're able to off the words they and if they skip a word Miss word or misspell it I'm gonna I'm G to dock that on there and it's going to track their fluency on that as well sorry I moved your stuff out of the way thank you okay all right awesome thank you guys thank you Mr gr thanks for [Applause] timeing and and just to finish and I do appreciate Mr highin coming in and and doing the presentation excellent job um Dr mckenny and I were were walking around this morning we actually stopped in kindergarten and they were using um they were using the Leo and it was actually and you when you walked into a Kindergarten class I looked stopped at the first students and was kind of looking at it and and watching her do it and then if I was like oh it looks good and then I realized that the other 17 kids also wanted me to watch their screens and what they were doing but it was it was actually really interesting because there was a lot of sounding Out you know with those skills that they need so it was great to see it in action right out of the gate so um thanks again Mr high and thanks to the teachers to really jumping in on this okay so that brings us on to interview board candidate Carn Shone and everything was in your yes hi I'm carlyn Sone this is my first board interview so I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to supposed to do anybody have any questions for her well want you to tell us a little bit about yourself and why you want to be on the board yeah sure so um my name is Carolyn sbone I grew up in beler I went to beler Elementary School beler High School uh went to East straber University I'm a manager of business analysis I've been doing that job for a long time 10 plus years probably um at least the business analyst part um I pretty much specializ in business process so what I do is I talk to people in different business units I collect all of the issues that they have and then we work through how we can make their processes more efficient and then I meet with the IT team or the developers and we build the technology to make it easier um for them to use and then they do testing and then we roll it out and train and do support um I'm a big believer in giving back into the community I have always given back um I still started helping I helped start the feeder program way back in the day with Miss corn for field hockey um I was on the Bel Recreation committee for some time I've been on the PTO for the last four years um I helped start the beler Education Foundation um and this just seems like the next logical step so I um my son is in the sixth grade so I definitely have a vested interest in what is happening in the school and so I thought I'd apply any other questions for her you have any family members that are in the uh teachers union well I have Define family members my husband's second cousin ones removes wife don't even go any further stop good I mean it is beler we're all kind of related in some weird okay yeah that's it then you're good okay thanks we're good then we don't have any issues that was really where I was going we have different committees that everybody's on um Personnel uh curriculum Finance policy and negotiations is there oh yeah we have a Sports ad hoc we have a couple specialty ones too is there anything that you feel that you would be most interested in or that you would bring something extra to the table for any of those kind of committees um I don't know yeah maybe Finance I'm thinking yeah fin in full disclosure I just want to let you know that I am currently on sabatical for the treasurer of the Education Foundation um Jeff wilick and I discussed we would see how the election goes in November and then we decide in January um to fill that position so I just wanted to disclose that because it is a conflict of interest um yeah the finance curriculum wherever you feel there is a need I'm a quick learn I research thoroughly um pretty okay great any other questions okay are we going to go exec then okay thank you very much we are going to need a motion to go on Executive s for um Personnel hi negotiations and board candidate discussions motion all in favor I any nose no any abstentions okay um any discussion held by the board which need not remain confidential will be made public is soon as practicable minutes of the ex session will not be disclosed until the need for confidentiality no longer exists the board will reconvene in public session at the conclusion of the closed session in approximately 20 minutes to a half hour okay I sorry all in favor I where going okay you're on just uh before we get rolling again I do want to introduce our new student uh student board rep from the high school we have G GMO natal Ramos khil we welcome you we're glad you're a part of this board and uh welcome tonight and feel free to say whatever you want how's that no just I know I know you you're going to give a student report so we appreciate that we'll have that on the agenda a little later on so welcome thank you thank you okay so I am looking for a motion to appoint candidate Carolyn cbon to um the board motion I need a second second in Stereo all right all in favor I I any nose no any extensions okay welcome to the board Carolyn you crazy woman there's one right over there for you no no it might be where cross just say the o y these tables move too easy yes you want to go over to your seat and turn the microphone on so that be good job Tyler we out tell if these lights are on y um I carollyn cbone do solemnly swear or affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear truth faith and allegiance to the same and the government established in the United States and this state under the authority of the people so help me God and I Carolyn cbone do solemnly swear or affirm that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law for the office of member of the Board of Education and that I am that I am not disqualified as a voter perant to RS 19 4-1 nor disqual qualified due to the conviction of a crime or offense listed in njs 18 a-12 12-1 and that I will faithfully impartially and justify perform the duties of that office according to the best of my abilities me Don on today thank youcome thank you thank you welcome to the board [Applause] okay so we are on to public participation this is public participation in regards to any agenda items on tonight's meeting any public participation no oh we got one okay my name and address or what's your name my name uh Chris Allen um uh so I had questions on agenda items 14 15 and one um I'll start off with one we get any insight on um what's happening with those board seats at all is it getting reduced the terms changing what's going on okay so this is not a back and forth this is public comment okay but I can I'll answer that in my in my notes all right no problem at all um okay regarding agendum item 14 um with the reshuffling around of administration uh for the spe specifically the Dena student um one was that job uh posted and advertised if it was how many people expressed interest and uh do we give any interviews out other than the one applicant that's on the agenda second thing second is um was all the requirements fulfilled as if it w it was a vice principal instead of a Dina student so either a principal supervisor Administration certification requirements are they all met because I feel like if we're giving it to an administrate if we're Dena student is not required to have those certifications so i' feel comfortable in terms of the discipline especially what comes with Dena students is if all those requirements were met just to make sure that we're not going down in any type of um ability for that because I know when I was in the high school 10 years ago now I had uh Mr kbus and miss mckenny and I think they did a fantastic job at the position they were empathetic and they they did a real good job instead of just disciplin disciplining us students they actually came down with the root problem of things and I think that's really important that you don't you know bully anyone and you sort of pull them aside find the root problem and I think that's a terrific way that they did it and I hope that continues here in the school um and in terms of the salary I noticed that there is a 60% reduction in um in classroom time that's probably going to get trans transitioned over to the Dena student um responsibilities is the salary going to remain the same as if 100% of class time or is that going to be prated down on top of the stipend that's going to be given um that's all I have for now thank you thank you any other public participation hi everybody my name is Kim Mason I live here in badier I have a son in the third grade um my concerns are for the positions that the administration is taking on um I know in the elementary school we have a lot of Behavioral issues I feel that Mr karuba handling the position of superintendent of two different schools as well as principal 3 days a week at the element school what is his presence going to be there and how often and how consistent and then putting somebody else in two days a week I also feel is very inconsistent those kids need consistency the parents need consistency the teachers need consistency the behaviors that happen in that school are awful by those kids they are not benefiting from any of these moves whatsoever I I also feel that with discipline there isn't very very much discipline when these actions occur I feel that um I was at the meeting on Wednesday one of very few parents that showed up by the way I don't know if that's because there was only one email and then no reminder I don't know why parents aren't coming out I do get feedback that it doesn't matter because what they say isn't heard and I'm not going to be one of those parents that feel that way I'm going to come here I'm going to address my concerns and whether you want to take that into consideration or not I don't have control of but I could only hope that you could listen because I speak for myself and I speak for other parents the discipline that is happening or not happening is a shame there's no consequences for these kids in their behavior and the behavior just keeps continuing as well as I did ask about discipline with having Dina students which I I I'm unsure if that's just high school or if that's for the entire District but I I asked if the discipline was going to change is it going to be any better and Mr carabus because the parents do say there's no phone call coming to them when there's an issue and Mr carabus said well if there's an issue then you call me and we'll have a discussion that's all great and fine as long as my kid is coming home home and telling me that there is an issue there are many kids that aren't going to go home and tell their kids that they're being tell their parents that they're being bullied or that there's an issue at hand at school and that leads to a whole other sad result and we don't want that I would hope but I feel that at that time having that discussion Mrs uh black and I guess Dr mcken is the correct way to address her was asked if they had anything to say and neither one of them wanted to speak to us parents that showed up there I F I felt that was a little bit disrespectful because it would have been nice for them to step up and say for those that don't know us I'm so and so these are my qualifications these are my plans in these positions to give us some peace of mind because we did take the time to come out there and listen to what you all had to say I am just concerned that there's too much on the ad administration's shoulders and and adding too many jobs to individuals when these kids need more consistency than what they're getting I would hope that these decisions are being made in the benefit of our children and not in the pockets of the already failing Administration I've been here for starting my fourth year I've not seen a positive change happen in the school every year I have an issue and last year I came and spoke in front of you of an issue that I my son was having and I fought for him and I was still failed now I start every year on with a new slate hoping for summer growth thank God this year so far we're okay but we're very new into the year so I hope that I don't have to come and stand in front of you again because there's no consistency or lack of discipline or lack of consequences and that includes my son too if he does something I want a consequence for him that is required for his his actions but I really hope that you all consider what this is if it's saving money great for the school but I also feel that may be saving money looking into other ways to save money on another note that doesn't have to do with this I have a i it's a question I hear that it happens everywhere but I feel like my son in third grade these kids being grouped at a table is so distracting to their learning they're not paying attention they're too busy clapping around with their friends and they're not I know even at home when it's just my son and I he's so distracted by other things I can't imagine sitting at a table with four or five other students that he's seriously paying attention to what the teacher's saying and learning what he needs to learn so my question is why or how can we get individual desks for these kids start I mean third grade is a grade it's an abcdf I believe so that's really important that they get better grades starting now and listen and pay attention so having individual desks I I truly feel is just a better a better situation for that so that they can pay attention if they need a group table they can do certain projects in in groups but I feel like individual desk would benefit those children more than a group that's it thank you thank you okay any correspondents or do we have any more public oh good evening my name is Meredith Perkins my son is in second grade thank you for the opportunity to speak I'm here tonight to express my concerns regarding the recent and drastic changes in administration within our school while I understand that leadership transitions can bring new ideas and opportunities the extent of these changes have raised significant concerns amongst their parent Community consistent leadership is vital for maintaining a stable learning environment this turnover has disrupted not only administrative functions but also the relationships and trust that have been built within our community this instability can lead to confusion and anxiety among students and peers and parents who rely on a cohesive and supportive environment for their educational experience I urge the board to prioritize a strategic plan for administrative continuity investing in leadership development and establishing a Clear Vision for the future will benefit our students Educators and the entire Community I believe it is essential to Foster an environment where leaders can grow and Thrive ensuring that our school can focus on delivering the best possible education thank you thank you very much any other public participation good evening Richard Newman um just would like to reiterate what Merith and I did not catch the other um my child has experienced disciplinary problems in the young grade my daughter's currently in first grade um start all the writing on the wall this is my introduction to this board to start being involved as parent so I'm putting some names to Faces tonight educating myself and then uh just wanted to reiterate the same concerns that the last two people have expressed thank you thank you very much any other public participation no okay now do we have any correspondence yes I have a letter here from Victoria skoo to the beler board of education and Mr kuuba please accept my resignation for the purpose of retirement effective in 60 days my last day of employment will be October 30th 2024 and the first day of retirement will be November 1st 2024 the date of my retirement is an important Milestone since it marks exactly 42 years of employment by The District in 1981 I was hired by by the Boe with Mr Carmen Centrella serving as the high school principal and Mr Andrew Mark serving as the district superintendent I considered Mr cello to be the best leader because he was so strong and fair he set very high standards for himself and his entire staff with those standards in mind Mr Cella was quick to call out his staff if needed but also quick to defend a staff member who was in the right as for me even in my youth I quickly discovered that Mr Cella believed in me and his support motivated me to do my very best A good habit indeed Mr Andrew Mark in his role as superintendent was the friendly face of the Bader School District everyone in the district and the community knew Andy because he had a Charisma that allowed him to connect to individuals and also to capture a crowd's attention Andy's personality propelled him into the role of a Perpetual leader of the community even after he retired from his former role as an educational leader for example Andy's annual liance Club scholarship presentations at the Bader High School senior awards ceremony often began with the students in the audience Whispering who's that guy and ended with wild Applause as Andy ignited the school spirit of the students as for the belev High School faculty I have always considered myself very lucky to be part of this close family throughout the years the staff worked together for the common goal of serving our families and students I was always amazed by the talent of the staff as they guided students through their High School Journey The Faculty cared so much about their students and I was always proud to be part of that mission I have found the students of beler high school to be bright curious funny and down to earth they have a strong sense of community loyalty to the school and ability to relate to their peers and adults alike I have wonderful memories of my students from my 20 years as a t as a teacher of History psychology and social studies electives and also the following 22 years as a guidance counselor attending to individual students needs and goals I will miss the students at beler high school especially the class of 2025 which is one of the best classes that I have known all in all beler has never been just a job to me it has been an integral part of my life I live in beler my children attended the beler schools and I partic participated in many school events and Community projects I am grateful for the experience the small town experience that has enrich enriched my life with gratitude Victoria skook that's that's it superintendent report okay we're going to start out with Mr Michael Jamrock from the Hall of Fame committee he asked for some time to come speak to to the board so welcome thank you good evening everyone I know quite a few people here um I am the chairman of the uh beler High School Hall of Fame committee I'm also president of the beler high school alumni association what I'm here for this evening is to request some funds um as far as I know uh our Hall of Fame plaque has not been up dated maybe since 14 um I'd like to get that taken care of um there shouldn't be that many uh names to be put on there because with Co things were very slow I've been on the uh alumni committee for almost 20 years president for 10 and we have not inducted many people in um just a quick estimate I'm thinking that I'm looking for possibly around $800 to uh redo the plaque get the names up to date um and then that's probably about $600 for plaque work and what we had talked about at the last uh Hall of Fame committee meeting was to present the person going into the Hall of Fame with a small plaque with their name on it just showing you know giving something personal for them uh so I'm assuming last one I purchased for the uh uh alum I was about $70 so I'm assuming it's going to be90 so with about 600 and about $100 for this year to take care of that and get the plaque um I would also request possibly a $200 uh budget every year only if we need it you know if we have no one going in to the Hall of Fame we don't need it but at least it's there for you know for me to use um I don't know how any of this would work whether or not I could pay for these items and then submit a bill or some of the places I work with whether they'll accept a voucher from the school you know so I would need your help on that but the uh um Hall of Fame committee laid dormant for a while and uh with the help of Dr mckenny um she was very instrumental in giving giv me all the help I needed to get it going again so it's going and it's good we meet like twice a year um so that's what I'm looking for thank you I I'll be in touch you Mr yro we we'll talk we'll talk all that through what we can do thank you okay now on my on the rest of my report um I'm going to start with um Vicki skoo and her retirement um it's it's interesting that 42 years uh in the district is I don't know if we'll get anybody that'll ever match 42 years um Vicki was one of the people when I when I first started working as high school principal that obviously started to bond with because you know High School principal working with the guidance kind Department you know Dr mckenny was part of that um I'm just amazed at her dedication Vick Vicki just been an outstanding employee can always count on her um I always I always love when you hear something parents talk about how they had Miss sco as a teacher and now their kids have her as a guidance counselor um it's just it's just great to hear I think she's a big loss for the district it's it's hard for me to put words to Vicki because um have been worked together for so long and it's rare that I call her Vicki I still call her Miss scoo um and and she yells at me all the time about that because just a sign of respect even last week we were here and she was still here it was 7:15 7:30 on a Wednesday night and she was still working hard I know last night she was here for college um College uh admissions night and and financial aid and just shows who she is as a person and she's going to be greatly missing this district and um I personally thank her for all she's done to help me and I thank her for all she's done to help all of our students so Mrs scoo you will be missed greatly by the district with that um like to just say that I think that we have been off to a very good start to this school year um it's just been a refreshing school year for myself starting to work a a little bit more down at the prek through five um I think there's been some some positivity that's been going through with the staff so I'm very excited to see what what does come our sports team have been off to a great start this year um today was the first time I think it's rained on a sporting event uh since we started um which is good and bad because we can certainly use some rain on the fields but um everything's been up to a great start uh football senior night is um Friday night I believe uh field hockey was today for the for the for the girls um so we'll we'll try to get that out if you haven't seen uh Mr Feldman with his uh his Sports Marketing class they have a new Instagram handle and they have basically all the events that are coming up within the district it's excellent uh it's great to see and then usually he they have the score right up after the after things just really nice to see keep up keep on top so I do appreciate him doing that um put on your calendars uh April 14th and 15th uh not April I'm sorry November we have dinner theater with Mr zrom is putting that together a murder mystery so little different than we usually do with um with our theater in the fall but I know the kids and Mr Z are looking forward to that so 14 15 should be Friday Saturday do I have that right no 14th and 15th is Thursday and Friday so 15th 16th sorry U but that should be great I know he's looking forward to that and so are the kids um again I want to thank Mr highin for the Renaissance presentation tonight uh as parents you're going to start to hear more about that over the next few weeks and months we're going to really start to roll that out incrementally um but you can see the power of what was there the one one thing that Mr highing didn't talk about was how um everything's all one spot and that's what makes the program so user friendly for both the students and for the for the staff so we're really really excited as to what we see I'm trying not to talk too fast but I know we're we're been been here a while um see the mayor here so we always want to give our Third Street School update uh Kathy emailed me earlier in the week uh we're still waiting for the state approval um unfortunately we know with the Department of Education things sometimes take a little bit of a while but hopefully that comes down shortly and then we can complete that process so it's still ongoing um lastly worth mentioning is the um State Board of Education approved changes to qac um they've they've changed the formula so it's um actually great so I'll give you just a couple of quick examples um the biggest issue that was presented by administrators was um science so science is tested in fifth and eth grade and then again in high school um it counts the same as all the levels of ela and math and a lot of schools saw their scores go down because of that um so at that point 10% of the score was science 10% was Ela 10% was math score specifically with no showing of growth it's the score is what the score is so they've adjusted that down to fives 5% and there will also be a part where a student growth is taken into account so maybe the student didn't get to a four but they started as a one and they worked their way to a three that will now be recognized within that score which is which is a very positive change um so the the bad part of that is the the State Board actually approved it but they won't let it go into effect until um 2526 which kind of like you just bought a brand new car you can't drive it for a year so that's it's an odd thing but that's what they decided us it doesn't uh matter because we're not cacked again until 2526 but it'll be a little bit of a different formula we're looking forward to seeing how that goes out there um that's really all I have for my report so can we do the student report now that's absolutely it's not let's go ahead and do our student report please this hello so first off I have from the Leo Club they have their golf Tober Fest on October 9th and White Town sub trunker Tree on October 20th and they will be doing the bever Halloween parade on October 23rd and a field trip to MAV the Chelsea on October 31st and Camp Marcela clean up on November 9th for the Bel beler FFA they're currently having their citrus fruit sale going on till November 15th and the funds that they raise will benefit the FFA and their CDE teams competitions and end of year banquet we have they have their fall meeting date set which is October 23rd at 6 pm. and FFA members are welcome to attend student government has a running concession stand for every football game to raise money for student events freshman C Class officers were elected and we are currently preparing for homecoming this year's theme is Olympics and we have some really good theme days planned as well as a dance and pep rally class t-shirts are now on sale and that's all thank you thank you very much I do want to jump back in because Mr Allen just specifically two questions just to answer uh number one on the second reading of the board member nothing is changing there so threeyear terms uh and the Bel board stays at nine seats and then second yes the job was posted um we only had one applicant uh but the certifications are uh Miss Black does have a principal and a supervisor certificate okay so we are now on to agenda items um we would be looking at policy it's going to be numbers 1 through n no additions on that can I have a motion to look at items one through nine motion second any questions have a quick question on the service animals because I saw this in the last time uh F uh yeah five yeah horses yeah mini hores a mini horse what is that a mini horse small horse who bring I know what a mini horse is but you bring these into school as as a that's an approved service animal it is yeah just what do they do about the bathroom clean it up they have to get a key just like I mean horses kind of just I just thought it was kind of funny I've never seen that before so luckily that hasn't come up yet if it does I think we're going to have to adress it yes it's good for the fields I mean I've always wanted one we should adjust the typo on there now you got one any other questions on any of the policy items on they're all second readings yes they're all the second readings any other questions no okay and I have all in favor to approve motion agenda items 1 through n all in favor I knows any abstentions hi okay so then we are on to Personnel items and that's going to be 10 through 28 and there are add-ons okay can I have a motion to look at 10 through 28 motion a a 28 28 a and motion second okay any questions about any of the agenda items anybody just a quick question but you're still reading I knew so on some of the items within here I agree with most of them and I have and I don't agree with some so but under under number 14 so some of the components of this structure I agreee with some I do not so you specifically vote no to the ones you do not but would it be 14 fully or would I just if you agree with if you agree so let's just say well let's just say me you don't want me to be the superintended but principal prek would say yes to all but Chris kba okay any other questions no okay roll call please shy Mr Akerman yes Mr Blum yes Dr zith yes Mrs Duckworth yes Mr Scott yes Mrs Stefan yes Mrs wner so yes but I don't agree with the athletic director position Mr chicarelli yes Mrs Gardella yes Mrs ratham um yes but um except for 14 and 15 phone okay sorry about that okay so now I have another question sorry I just realized so then 16 being that I don't agree with the position I would have to say no on 16 also correct correct that would be me too no I have my own mind well said okay so now we will be moving on to education items 29 through 37b so it goes on to the back of the sheet okay can I have a motion to look at education items 29 through 37b motion any questions no all right so that's an all in favor I any NOS extensions all right so that takes us to business items 30 38 through 42 and there is no additions nope can I have a motion for 38 through 42 motion any questions on any of those items no all in favor I any nose abstention I okay so that puts us down to continuing business any continuing business on Thursday feasibility update feasibility update we are expecting the report to uh hit the steering committee which Miss W represents us as the beler board uh late October um Community would get about a week to review it and then uh we're planning for a CommunityWide reveal of the plan uh sometime in November just trying to work out a date any other continuing business small question on that um has Dr Green's group been informed of the changes on this end like the administrative they will of changes yeah once once once we approve it we'll send I'll be in touch with Dr GRE tomorrow okay cool and then um Char is there an update on that jel Grant went for that right we put it in and I did just see an email today that they're transitioning from I don't recall the name of it but there was like they were in section one of it now they're moving to section two so there's a little bit of a hold up and jcpnl approving the next piece until that's up and running but they did say that we're first in line once they start that second piece so we're still hoping to be approved and speaking of Grants I think I had mentioned in my email that um the football team well Mr Sher specifically got the $5,000 Grant from T-Mobile he'll actually be getting his big check on Friday night so if anybody's around and wants to see Mr sha get the big Treck it'll be Friday night send it after any other continuing business no okay on to new business we had um I was just going to mention the special meeting for goal set on October 9th and if you haven't done the survey please do we did it in Harmony and it's worth the time and effort get some really good information so yeah it was very helpful yeah that's the link I sent out Monday she sent it to me and then I passed it on so if anybody did not get my email with that that information it's going to be our normal time 6:30 she said she could do and the link is on there so if you didn't get the link please let me know I will send it again if you can't log in let us know and shell will take care of trying to figure out why you can't log in to your school board's account um okay anything else yeah it came up at uh I think it was curriculum about having Ryan come Ryan melli and do a monthly quarterly you pick the time frame but every so ofed to come to the board and give us an update of where we're at on M M and I talked about that right after that meeting um she's going to be coming quarterly to give an update oh excellent any other continuing business it's not really continuing business but I just did want to say that the uh the football team is three in one currently and uh as you guys know I broadcast the games I've been doing it for 10 years and this year for some reason there's over 4,000 people watching every game I don't even know where they're coming from but if you compare it to other schools get like a thousand people like peber but beler is getting about the last game got 4200 the game before that was 4,300 and so if you're looking to make that's exciting put up put up some kind of barcode there so if somebody want to donate money to Mike's project you know you can just scan that thing right off the TV and give five bucks that's awesome that's all I have that's awesome anybody else I I also have I don't know if it's continuing business but um the soccer team although they've only had one win I think they're doing so much better this year I just think it's been a really nice change for them also and they're doing I can see that they're working hard and they're trying really hard yesterday's game there on the other team the goalie had a pretty hard hit with with some players and went down and the our trainer was concerned there was possible concussion and wanted to have him take a timeout but but there was some commotion and everything but I just thought that she did a really great job in advocating for concussion you know concerns and really wanted to pull him out and there was a little discussion between she and um the referee and I think she got a card which I didn't think was very fair because I thought she did a great job of of really intervening and um you know make putting the student first and it wasn't even our student so I thought she she did a great job in that on that end and it should be recognized for her and in the end he came out and yeah did great yeah but she did get a yellow card yeah okay our trainer getting a yell didn't think that was possible amazing anybody can get a card yeah she she was very passionate about having him come out and and the ref and the other coach would not she but I thought she did she handled it really well so I thought that should be recognized for her yeah thank youa I don't know if everyone caught what is on October 9th and why we know what's on October 9th but October 9th's our special it's going to be a special meeting will be announced there it's just for uh board goal and board evaluation it won't be an action meeting um but it is open to anybody who wants to come so if you want to come join us on the 9th again but someone is coming to facilitate that yes somebody from New Jersey school boards is coming to do that for us and set that up for us um any other new business I have one more um so I saw on just like on this thing with North Warren and somehow I got on their page and there's Board of Ed I guess it's two things one they have name tags I think we should all have name tags like you know sitting around so everybody the community knows who is who at least on on the board here um but separate from that they talked about a a curriculum that they're doing over there and it's it's what it's called um capturing kids heart curriculum I don't know if anybody's familiar with this but basically it kind of themes on kids like anti bullying and um you know kind of Wellness type of things it just helps the kids I think learn how to relate to one another a little bit better and the kids get recognized there's like a student of the month who does specific you know I guess checks or whatever during this for this curriculum I thought this might be something we could look into as we talk a little bit about some of the bullying and some of those kinds of issues and it can be done through the high school or we could do it at a lower grade and recognize the kids for the good behavior that they do because I think in addition to discipline and things like that we have to recognize good behavior and I think kids respond really well to positive you know outcomes and I think this might be a way to help steer them to maybe not want to go down that ro road if they're going to get a certificate or who knows whatever some kind of like treat or something who knows but you know I mean something like that I thought might be a good opportunity to explore and then also like a student of the month or I mean a um athlete of the month and I I talked about this a little bit last year too I think that would be a great idea again just get people excited get the kids excited to get recognized and you know like bragging RS kind of a thing and I think it would be good incentives too for the kids to kind of start wanting to work a little harder that's it anything else no okay uh we're open for the next public participation Matthew Myers from badier um appreciate the update on Third Street and hopefully that will move forward because building's been empty too long and it doesn't do a building any good to stay empty um and also it was my impression that we were going to get some report about the regionalization study in September of this year and I wondered if there was any further status on that so we mentioned the feasibility study that's what we're talking about yes so it's just it just got delayed the group that uh that Dr Green was working with one of his main Consultants quit so they got delayed by about six weeks okay but that's it'll be coming up you'll hear about it more November thank you m around Richard Newman uh in regards to the Alumni Association um I think it's a great idea however if we're talking about budgeting um my daughter in prek the amount of paper towels and wet wipes I donated to miss Chris Philly's class is impressive um Mrs Gomez's class in kindergarten the amount of headphones I donated to try and solve a disciplinary action because kids were stealing headphones because they some parents couldn't afford them or the T the school didn't provide for those that couldn't afford them um if we're talking about budget I would rather as a parent of a young child in the school see budget go towards my daughter's continuing education and putting a plaque for somebody who's been here just a two cend comment thank you Chris Allen badier um so today I just ran um five high school districts uh in the county ran the enrollment numbers uh based off the last budgeting cycle and we're dead last at 575 compared to filbur that has 3,841 for some reason RBA makes more money than the Philipsburg ba and we are number one in the county that we pay our ba the highest I don't know how we justify 3,000 kids less yet we're paying our business administrator more than every other school in the county um and then superintendent too uh second highest in the county out of all the high schools um so I never got an answer about stien about the salary getting reduced um so I'm going to assume if there's no answer that the salary wasn't reduced for the 40% less time time in the classroom so I think we are um not spending our money wisely in this uh we just saw another tax increase um townwide and I think people are just want us to spend as a board um and as residents of beler I think we can just do better with do with spending our money thank you anyone else no okay so I'm looking for a motion to adjourn motion second all in favor I I any knows no any abstentions youna stay have a good night thank you everyone for coming