##VIDEO ID:sbzQh8itRMI## the New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed and acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act The Brick Township Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be posted on the administrative office bulletin board the official District website and channel btv2 and sent to the asur Park Press brick times Star Ledger and Municipal Clerk's Office exective ex s motion Fran you have to get a motion second motion second Mike this is a loud microphone yes um whereas the brick Tona board of education has been formed pursuant to applicable New Jersey state statutes and whereas the board is charged with the responsibility of Performing all acts and doing all things consistent with the laws and the rules of the state board of education necessary for the lawful and proper conduct equipment and maintenance of public schools and public school property of the Brick Township School District and whereas section 7 the open Public's meeting Act njsa 10 col 4-12 permits the exclusion of the public executive session session from a meeting of the board in certain circumstances and whereas the board has determined that circumstances exist for such an executive session and whereas the board has found the action described below to be necessary and proper now therefore be it resolved by the board on August 29th 20124 that one public shall be excluded from discussion of an action on the executive session here in set forth two session will be approximately 30 minutes and the general nature of the subject matter to be discussed is as follows harassment intimidation and buling appeal it is anticipated at this time that the above stated subject matter will be made public if and when it is deemed to be in the public interest to do so and the need for confidentiality is no longer required by the board Miss seber Miss D Benedictus yes Mr Mesmer yes Miss picala yes e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e I'd like a motion in a second to return to um open session motion Nicole second fr Miss Sebert yes Miss D Benedictus yes M Mr Mesmer yes Miss Bala yes would everybody rise to uh salute the flag for a moment of [Music] silence I pledge Ali to the flag of the United States of America and to the republ for which it stands one nation under God indivisible Li justice for all thank [Music] you often it may appear to some members of our audience that the Board of Education acts with very little comment and in many cases a un unanimous vote please understand that before a matter is placed on the agenda at a public meeting the Administration has thoroughly reviewed the matter with the superintendent of schools discussed it in appropriate Boe committees and only then if the superintendent is satisfied that the matter is ready to be presented to the full Board of Ed education is placed on the agenda for Action at a public meeting board of education m members are given advanced notice to review the agenda and through the chair ask questions or voice concerns in rare instances when necessary some matters could be presented to the board of education for discussion and vote at that meeting um Miss MC can you introduce our presentations please thank you Mrs pallo the first presentation this evening is on harassment intimidation and bullying with Mr Mosley Mr Mosley e e e e e e internet especially in the high school Ocean County prosecutor has been in last me to move uh has been has been in to discuss some of the stuff we've had the students in gym classes go in and and get hammered on Internet safety um both anti-bullying specialists in both schools have been in there for these sessions and that's that's something parent you need to be aware of keep an eye on what your kids are posting this is some of the stuff that we've been doing throughout the year uh peer leadership youth Prof Coalition health and wellness groups School based initiatives those are things that have happened at the secondary level at the secondary level we think they've already gotten a lot of the basics so we've are just basically refining Elementary kelos choices um it's a basic program lessons and it's all been what we call approved through the system um evidence-based and the focus is how do we raise kids with good character because if we're raising kids with good character they're not going to do some of these other things any questions thank [Applause] you our next presentation is going to be be with Dr Anderson uh Dr Anderson is going to present on access and NJ GPA just give us a minute while we get the presentation up on the screen I'm that as funny as Mr Mosley so I'm sorry this is a little drer um so uh my name is Dr Anderson the director of curriculum instruction and each spring we administer access testing to our ml students access stands for assessing comprehension and communication in English from state to state and by Statute we're required to track the progress and growth of our ml students in four domains speaking listenting writing and reading and so when you look at the access scoring report that's how it's broken up listening and speaking are 15% reading and writing are 35% respectively and then that breaks down into three composite scores of oral language literacy and comprehension and so here's our results for the 2024 Administration um as you see it's broken down into bands the K to2 Band 156 students were tested in the 3 to Five band 152 kids were tested in grade 6 to 8 112 and Grade 9 to 12 146 students are scored on three levels from entering to merging developing expanding bridging and reaching uh for a student to exit the program they have to score 4.5 which is between the expanding and bridging uh levels uh this year pleased to report we had 42 students exit um many of the students at the kada 2 level the uh are predom predominantly fell in the emerging level in grade three to five uh most of the students fell in the uh developing or the green level and the expanding the blue level in grades six through eight they also fell mostly within the developing expanding level and in the 9 to 12 band they felt pretty evenly distributed among the three levels and so what we Arch tells us is that it takes MLS which stands for multilingual Learners um about 3 to 5 years to acquire just social language in order to develop academic language and proficiency on state assessments it usually takes five to seven years um and we monitor our MLS closely uh throughout the programs each year to see their growth um if you look at our um data by the end of last year we had 618 students 34% of them were in the district less than a year 20% uh for one year 18% for 2 years and 8% for three years so 80% of our MLS were have been in District three or fewer years and so just in the last five years we've seen a real increase in our in our program in our enrollment we've gone from 327 students tested through access to 566 for an increase of 23 9 students or 75% of students a 75% increase and so last month um we approved a language instruction educational program plan that is required by the state of New Jersey and so um what we ask us to do is outline our model our English is the second language program model and what services are available in in Brick Township we offer bilingual classes in grades K1 and 2 in Spanish we have ESL services in elementary we have high-intensity monel in grades 6 through eight which means there's um pull out and uh push in in in services in uh high school we have um a course for students their English course counts towards graduation um and so that's how they receive Services there we've um expanded our program to include more digital resources um we have three different platforms that we use and we um have developed some grading criter here for teachers and we've provided some integrated access activities and assessments to help us monitor the progress of how students are doing during the course of the year um prior to their access Administration we also had a summer program we had leap which is um learning English um uh language program um this summer we also had extended day program for newcomers during the course of the last year and uh hope to offer it this year we also do a lot of parent Outreach which involves a bilingual ml parent advisory committee and informational nights and family fun nights um and we do a great deal of professional learning or professional development for our teachers uh that involves sheltered English instruction training uh and teachers have to um in order to be certified as SEI trained they have to accomplish 15 hours of um uh online um self-paced professional development they also have a lot of PLC support which means they work within the Departments and with with other ESL teachers and with um grade level uh colleagues who have ESL students and they have job embedded professional support from our ESL coach and we do send out monthly newsletters with updated information so like we we've expanded our program this year uh to vets Elementary School we're really happy that those students will be able to attend their home school um and we've hired uh two new um ESL teachers which will allow us to um to to uh provide more services to to the over 150 students that enrolled last year so really excited I have to thank personally uh Mary Kain she has done an amazing job she's our a our elementary supervisor and also K through 12 um ESL supervisor she's done an incredible job leading the program kudos to her she works around the clock to make sure our students needs are met so thank you Mary she's back there and so next is our NJ GPA overview so NJ GPA stands for a New Jersey um graduate proficiency assessment it's administer to every 11th grade student in the areas of ela and math um and it's uh the ra component is aligned to the grade 10 standards and the math component is aligned to Algebra 1 geometry standards and so these are the results from the 2024 Administration um it's reported in terms of graduation ready and so in ela in English language arts 85.1% of our students in District were deemed graduation ready on this assessment the state average is 81.6% so we're 3 and 1 12 points above the state average we grew 5.1 points last year and the state grew only 1.1 so we exceeded the Strait's growth in mathematics we had tremendous growth we grew 7.6 points um to 48.6% and the state actually went down A3 the state average is 54.7 so we're closing the gap between our average and the state average and so when you compare both Middle Schools they're I mean both High Schools they're really close um they went up both high schools went up on on both Ela and in math uh from two points to Seven Points um in ela and two points to 12 points in mathematics and so like we saw some really strong growth since the past year for a net increase of 4% in ela and 8% math and our subgroups um are closing the achievement Gap so we went up three points in economically disadvantaged um subgroup and students with disabilities it was an eight point increase for our ell students it was a one point increase and for all students it was a four point increase and in mathematics uh we went up nine points over the previous year and St with for economically disadvantaged and students with disabilities went up nine points um our ml population went down two points but that is because we had an increase of ml uh students take the test in math they're exempt for it if they enroll in in within one year um they're exempt from it in ela but not in mathematics so um it's very hard the math test has a lot of English um and and so it it's not surprising to me that we went down we dipped a little there and all students went up for a net of eight points and so we have tons of strategies that we implemented uh for last year and we continue to implement for this year so we do identify the students who need additional support based on nsla 9 results we have a interventionist who's working with those students we also um have a focus on text structures vocabulary um rst stands for research simulation task and L stands for uh literacy um analysis task in writing and so our curriculum is revised based on the weaknesses that we see in the previous years's data uh We've also revised our us2 pacing guide to integrate more writing uh with document based questions and we incorporate more NJ GPA tasks into our ESL curriculum to help support our ESL students um and there's a lot of coaching support and NJ GPA aligned uh items it added into the curriculum as do nails just you know integrated throughout the curriculum and our focus on science of reading and writing professional development will continue to occur this year and then so intervention strategies for the 2324 year included um doing an analysis of the student content roster and seeing the areas clustered areas of weaknesses in algebra geometry and transition algebra revising our pacing guides to make sure um that there's a lot of practice just like an Ela that it's integrated into instruction and not Standalone test preparation um making sure that um 11th grade students get a cumulative review of njtpa why that's important is because we're on block scheduling so you could actually have a math class sophomore year um in the in the fall and then not have math again until junior year in the spring and there's not an not a REV if we don't put a deliberate review and integrate that into their junior year they they'll just that won't um remember the content from a year and a half prior um we've done more embedded enrichment and targeted support and this year we're so excited we're going to launch um a computer adapted program called Freckle which will um help kids and in remediating their specific areas of weakness and we will be hosting class assemblies to emphasize the importance of the test and highlight student testimonials uh brookin is really successful in having a student tell other students how important the assessment is because sometimes 11th graders are like ah it's not that important it is important because otherwise if you don't pass then you're going to have to retake the NJ GPA or you're going to have to show that you've demonstrated proficiency either through sat or PSAT or act um or you have to take a portfolio assessment and that takes time and you know 11th graders don't want to invest time in creating a portfolio so our high school counselors will work with our students in the fall they'll identify a pathway to make sure they graduate and so that's it thank you Dr Anderson and just one shout out to um Mr Thompson uh who's our math supervisor and Mr Cuts our Ela secondary supervisor um who are continuously focused on improving these scores um I'm I'm grateful to them thanks Dr Anderson that was very informative and understandable I'd like to ask for a motion and a second for the approval of minutes from July 16th motion BR second ni Mary please miss yes Miss D Benedictus yes Mr Mesmer yes Miss pakala yes I'd like to have the committee reports presented now Maria this is Maria Roberts her title is does everything does everything well thank you what's your title Maria that that's it um assistant this administrator officially though um I have two sets of committee reports the first one would be the facilities committee met on August 20th at 2:30 presid were Miss balum Miss walro Mr Mesmer Dr Farrell Mr Edwards Mr Pico Mr ChatOn Mrs garlatti and Ms Cashman uh discussed was Lake Riviera's air conditioning which is working and it's pending final inspection and close out V middle boiler Replacements and air condition conditioning is being scheduled for next summer um the power is on and the air conditioning is being commissioned and work will continue until complete for Emma Havens vetel Drum Point and Lanes Mill um midstreams air conditioning and osbornville air conditioning they have bid opening scheduled for September 23rd Warren Wolf's air conditioning we are waiting for Rod grants from the SDA Herbertsville air conditioning the design documents have been started osbor ville's kitchen Edition um we need to increase the budget which is on this this agenda tonight for approval and we are planning to bid shortly thereafter brick Kai's kitchen the units are running and we're waiting for final inspections um midstreams kitchen the planning board approval was receiv received July 31st and this project is ready to go out for bid with no changes brick High's long jump has been postponed by the contractor until the until October the SDA emergent needs uh grants projects are all done except for room 104 in Brick High and the next meeting was scheduled for September 3rd at 3 p.m. also I have finance committee meeting U minutes which took place on August 20th at 3:15 present were Mr Mesmer Mr warb Miss Bala Dr farell and Mr Edwards discussed was stabilization Aid the district was awarded 56,000 from the New Jersey Department of Ed um Mr Edwards REM recommended utilization for one-time expenditure since this is a non-recurring source he recommended a oneman lift for maintenance and a pole building for Lake Riviera the um this should be on the agenda is on the agenda for tonight for full board consideration uh also discuss discuss was Community solar and building performance dco energy is still working on projections for future HVAC projects Brick Township facilities still working with the town on appraisals um electric School Bus grants the discussed with various options that are being reviewed now that the governor has signed a bill allowing for a lease purchase of vehicles and infrastructure naming rights uh Mr Edwards discussed whether selling naming rights at the football stadiums would be of interest to board the committee noted they would be in favor as long as the existing names could remain and end with a sponsor by we got some new advertising accounts uh Shore District advertising has brought forth ocean partnership for children Farrow te's and New Jersey Swim School New Jersey Swim School will be the first uh of bus advertisements that we're going to have and Miss wreb requested a report providing advertising Revenue which Mr Edwards will work on for the next committee meeting also they set the date of the next meeting as September 3rd at 3:30 thank you thank you so much Miss Bala uh the CMI committee met on August 19th at 4:30 uh in attend for Miss Kennedy the chairperson Miss Diana rone Mrs picala Dr Mrs batty Mr Cuts Mr Thompson and myself uh first we began by previewing the items on this month's agenda for approval under training and travel and field trips student teacher placements um the autism class and non-public agreements that are on this month's agenda for St Dominic's we also um I also provided a overview of the new and revised curriculum um um Miss Bey uh identified the uh changes in the math curriculum Mr Cuts provided an overview of the changes in the ELA curriculum um the standards have been updated for 2023 um and so we provide an overview of th those changes an elementary report card Mrs Bey provided an overview of the new Elementary report card which will be implemented in the 25 26 school year elementary teachers will be introduced to the standards-based grading um um approach this school year uh and will be collecting data aligned to the new standards uh in terms of ngj GPA and access I provided an overview uh for the committee and asked them if there were any questions related to the njpa and access scores uh in terms of statements of assurance for PDP and mentoring plan I provide an overview of the statement of assurance for the district's professional development plan and mentoring plan um I also provide a overview of the Marzano focused evaluation system which is the tool we use to evaluate teachers and non-instructional staff and administrators uh Miss uh I also provided an update on the k to5 um English language arts literacy pilot um we will be piloting two additional programs wonders and E education to this year uh and we are talked about the uh welcoming our students and parents back to school with our freshman orientation sixth grade Locker night prek orientation kindergarten orientation and back to school nights which are this week um which are you know upcoming this month in September next meeting will be October 7th at 4:30 thank you Dr Anderson uh this will be the first uh opportunity for public comment on agenda items only this will be the board invites thoughts and reactions on agenda items each participant is asked to give his or her name prior to making a statement all statements shall be directed to the presiding officer comments shall be limited to five minutes and each speaker may only speak once the board will not during the public portion of this meeting discuss matters involving employment appointment termination of employment negotiations terms and conditions of employment evaluation of the performance of promotion or disciplining of any specific or perspective or current employee or student for agenda items only I said that right uh we invite you to come up to the podium and make your inquiries it's because I'm presiding uh seeing none we'll close this portion of the meeting and Dr Anderson uh I'd like you to introduce curriculum and instruction thank you Mrs picala under curriculum instruction the superintendent recommends that a board approve following items 1 through 12 um may I have a motion in a second motion Fran second Nicole any board comment I just want to say a couple things the field trips were approving I know we always try to approve most of them in the beginning of the year and they're so wonderful and so many of them are authentic experiences for our students which is so important to take them out of the classroom every now and and then and I did uh review the new and revised curriculum in our committee meeting and I looked that on the agenda again it's just a huge effort by the cni team and I thank you very much I know it's crunch time and a lot of work to keep ourselves up to date and abiding by state regulations so thank you for that Dr Anderson Mary Miss Sebert yeah Miss D Benedictus yes Mr Mesmer yes Miss picala yes um Miss Roberts will you please introduce operations sure thanks Miss Carla um the superintendent recommends operations items 1 through 36 thank you um May I Motion in the second please motion Nicole second Mike any board comment yeah I just wanted to say thank you to all the people that donated school supplies for the upcoming year very helpful so we appreciate it I also would like to thank um as far as operations number 23 grow goes we are um receiving grants of $7,000 for each High School um one of our most prolific and dedicated grant writers uh work to obtain those for us and I think Nicole Panucci can we have a vote please miss Sebert yes Miss de Benedictus yes Mr Mesmer yes Miss picala yes all righty how many pages do we turn Mr kler can you please introduce human resources yes thank you m picala tonight under Human Resources the superintendent recommends items 1 through 51 for approval thank you me I have a motion in a second to approve these um motion Mike second FR any more comment I just want to give a shout out to Mr kler his entire team and our Administration not only is August a terrible month for them to be prepared for the upcoming school year but with us bringing back a lot of our former employees it's been a bit crazy and we've gotten a lot of updates that includes Mary who is texting and emailing 247 as well but we appreciate all of the work and the effort from all of you getting it done and ready for next week and I just have one question on number 27 uh see we're hiring or rehiring security officers can you tell us a little bit about their background yes our uh our security officers are retired police officers and um also retired state troopers from the state of New Jersey so we are fortunate to have them with us thank you thank you um can we have a a roll call vote please Mary Miss cber yes Miss D Benedictus yes Mr Mesmer yes Miss picala yes we have some new hires here yeah let's let's clap them up so we've worked we've worked very diligently to bring on board uh a new group of uh family members to The Brick schools uh the cni super soups and Dr Anderson and Mrs gringer and her supervisors did a fabulous job with new staff orientation over the past two days and we are thrilled to have some of those folks in the audience today so if you've joined our family for the 2425 school year please stand and be recognized congratulations and welcome aboard congratulations welcome don't be a stranger um this is the second opportunity for public comment each participant is asked to give his or her name prior to making a statement all statements shall be directed to the presiding officer comments shall be limited to five minutes and each speaker may only speak once the board will not during the public portion of this meeting discuss matters involving employment appointment termination of employment negotiations terms and conditions of employment evaluation of the performance of promotion or disciplining of any specific or perspective or current employee or student um we invited to come up to share your thoughts want to enjoy Summer Don't You Mita Molita gager it's been a while Molita Gagliardi I am a brick resident I just want to wish the entire brick Public Schools a fantastic school year when I reflect uh upon last year and with my children I had have an attitude of gratitude I am so grateful for everyone and everything that they did for my children personally I have a middle school student and I have a high school student and they come with different challenges and different ups and downs and I can say from the moment they get on the bus until the moment they get off the bus they are greeted and treated with love and kindness and nurtured and are given best practices so so I am grateful for that I anticipate as always another fantastic school year uh the motto that we have up here student centered teacher Le and community connected I feel it I live it and it is my reality so I thank you for everything that you do for our students and I wish you a fantastic school year thank you leita no praise for Dr pajun tonight I everyone anybody else seeing none I'm going to close the public comment section I keep getting distracted by the walking back and forth I keep thinking somebody's coming up um uh is there any board comment for this evening yeah real quick I just wanted to welcome all the new teachers um all the teachers we were able to bring back I know the board is very excited about that looking forward to a successful year and uh can't wait my son starts preschool Thursday nervous and excited thank you yeah dit to that um really grateful for all of our new hires welcome and I'm looking forward to see all the other teachers and all the amazing staff and thank you guys for taking my kids off my hands um but thank you all welcome and we need to keep this up this year with these amazing scores I'm so stoked that a lot of the the scores have gone up that's wonderful but look forward enjoy the rest of your fleeing summer break and we'll see you guys welcome welcome to the family I hope you enjoy yourselves here we are a Fun Bunch so um I'm looking forward to working with a bunch of you guys um what else do I Locker nights um my kids are I got middle schoolers and Elementary schoolers but uh we were at Locker nights so kudos to everybody on successful Locker nights um kids had a blast the AC is working at Lake Riv I felt it it was nice walking around the absolute School little cooler around that end um it's bit the high school ones thank you guys for sharing while we weren't able to see most of them um they look pretty successful huge shout out to miss Granger and miss pinucci and miss ball for a successful esy program um also to Brook Township High School and Warren Wolf for hosting let let me tell you it has gotten out my my child does participate so I get to see firsthand like what they come home with over the years it has has gotten increasingly better they love the stability they love going like my kids love school I don't think I can ever have said that when I was younger but my kids love to be in school and the program the teachers the Paras um The Crossing with everybody it's just been a a wonderful thing they're coming home they are learning I promise Miss Granger they're learning they come home and reiterate they are doing things so um the program was wonderful the communication they were great the coordinators were very communicative um they've had their spirit days and the kids I I have smiling pictures all over of how much they enjoy themselves so thank you for another wonderful summer I will add a slightly not nice story but it is part of it it's a nice story I promise you um part of the program they do bring like the amts the fire department in the police to see the kids they get to see the dogs and things like that we encountered a not nice situation while we were school shopping which resulted in um a lot of EMTs and police officers at a restaurant we were going to now a disability of part of my daughters is she has visual impairment so she can't really trust me she could see Target from 20 miles away so we're not talking things like that but her senses are heightened because of it so while in the restaurant there was a medical emergency that didn't turn out nice and we couldn't leave so we were trying to Shield the kids a little bit from the medical emergency but Bella came out at the end and said well we had the EMTs with us this year and we spent time with us and they told us to not be scared of them that they are there to help you so I heard the and she said it I heard the defibrillator and I'm like you even know what that means and she said yes and and I heard them do CPR so she under understood that and like calmed herself cuz she's very anxiety written I promise you but knowing that we've spent time with that and we opened it up when we left because the police officers and EMTs were still outside and she walked up to them and she was like thank you for what you did um you know I I she's like I think you were at my school I'm like no I don't think it was them but we'll let you go with that and she's like thank you for coming you told me not to be afraid of you they let her to for the ambulance they talked to her they talked to my son they gave him some things like you know they started asking questions it turned into a lot of like a big learning experience but I can appreciate that because it's harder for us as parents to try and shield them from like okay nothing's going on don't turn around don't look where they were welcoming to her to explain this is what we did um without going into further detail so I like that we're able to afford that to our kids and tailor it down to their level so they aren't afraid because that's not what we want we want them to understand that so while it's not the most Pleasant of stories it was something I appreciated when she went through no I again she learned something she listened to a presentation and she took that with her that this is what is you know she said the right people are here I'm going to eat my chicken fingers and just continued on with her day so as a mom I very appreciative and as a board member and being on the special ed committee I think that's wonderful and the more access we can give to our kids I think the better I'll end on a nice note I will stop talking you can go home enjoy your summer your Labor Day weekend and I'm so excited for next week because like everyone else set up here I'm ready to give my children back I um I thank you all for your comments I um I'm thrilled about the testing that goes on not thrilled not glad even but I'm glad for the preparation our students get and I'm glad our teachers and administrators are focused on uh uh counting our growth each year showing that our students are improving that that that focus is is more important than anything otherwise they'll be very discouraged and I think what we can do to encourage them and the staff is to just keep pointing that out Dr Anderson I um I also want to thank everybody uh who's Come Aboard I'd like to T thank all the teachers out there who might be listening I want to thank you in advance for all the time of your own and maybe money of your own that you're going to spend this school year on our students you know nothing mandatory it's just a gift you teachers give and We Know It And we appreciate it and our kids benefit greatly from it um and um the calendar says that on September 2nd the district is closed for Labor Day when did we start doing that on September 3rd and 4th it's the first day for staff orientations September 5th is the first day of school for students and staff will be there also on September 12th we're going to have our regular meeting here at 7 p.m back here in the uh PDC I may I have a motion in a second for adjournment please motion bran second Mike Mary Miss cber yes M Ste Benedictus yes Mr Mesmer yes Miss picala yes have a fun summer guys enjoy thank you for coming thank you for coming e e e for