e e e 30 had to go to close session now we've returned um next up on the agenda are our student rep s supports I see you how are you hi I'm good how are you how many more days um yeah okay so first up on the report is we've had a lot of spring concerts recently so um the orchestra concert is actually tonight and the choir concert was last week on Thursday um this concert went really well but something special about the concert was that it was Dr Wilson's last concert at brhs because he will be joining um the State University of New York so it was really special it was a really Bittersweet moment for all the choir students um and also coming up we have our band concert on Thursday May 30th um throughout this last week we've also had the robotics steam fair so how this works is that the robotics students um they hold a bunch of activities such as experiments and procedures in the cafeteria and students um in like Elementary and Intermediate School who are interested in robotics can attend this and they just demonstrate a bunch of Robotics procedures so if so students can have a better idea if they're really interested in robotics or not and it's been going really well um we also had our world language honors World honors language induction ceremony on Wednesday May 22nd in the auditorium and this was for French German Italian Spanish Latin and Chinese honor societies so it went really well a lot of family and friends were able to attend and watch their kids be inducted into the Honor Society and this year we had a lot of students who were inducted um speaking of the induction ceremonies we will also have our National Honor Society induction ceremony soon for the new members of NHS um around this time we have a lot of stressfree environment going on because AP exams are over njsla makeups are over and um there's only 2 weeks left before final exam so seniors are getting really excited and um just like really looking forward to graduate but it's also really Bittersweet and a lot of students are in Shock that graduation is approaching so rapidly um speaking of seniors we still haven't had everyone commit to their college yet because a lot of schools have extended their deadline to June 1st so a lot of students are waiting until the last moment to commit because they might be waiting on wait lists um also senior awards are going to be held on June 7th in the auditorium um the students who were invited should get their uh should get their invitations by tomorrow um also our prom was on May 17th it was really well I haven't heard a single negative thing about it I enjoyed it a lot all of my friends enjoyed it it was it was a great venue it held 700 students so easily and the food and music was also great and almost everyone stayed the entire time so it was a really positive experience for everyone uh also a lot of teams have been a lot of sports teams have been doing really well because a lot of teams made it to the state tournaments for example the lacrosse and tennis teams have qualified to playing the state tournaments but also the baseball team won their first County Title since 1996 so this was a really happy moment for everyone and they will also be playing in the state tournaments and that's the end of the student report thank you very much I know some of us were actually at the game FR it was a great night for baseball beautiful night at baseball only one you know that was kind of cool thank you so much um I appreciate you guys what you've done I want to tell you thank you for you all and I look forward like you said make those days count again thank you for the report uh you know you and your fellow students have done such an awesome job this year I I really appreciate the time you've put in and your patience for waiting for us this evening because we started a few minutes late but once more thank you and and we are going to recognize our Board of Education student reps at the next meeting we should know that as a group so we're going to do that as well um now it's the superintendent report and and what we're going to start off with is is a goals update so as we know it's part of our process every every year we set goals as a district and then one of the things that was approved back in in August were the action plans for those goals so typically what we do at the at the end of the year is we provide an update both to the board of education and to the community on where we are with all of these initiatives now there are some that are multi-year goals that we're going to continue to to work on um you know next year and the year after and the year after but I think it's important for all of us just to to recognize the work that's been completed some of the results that we can report on and uh and I I believe it's going to paint a an incredibly po positive picture of where we're headed as a district so with that I'd like to hand it over to Jason marielo Emme Mia and Karen Jones sure I can do that so so what again every summer we set District goals and and the 2023 24 District goal is very similar to the goal the year before it's to optimize conditions for learning by implementing effective instructional practices that support all students ensure a healthy and safe learning environment by refining operations and providing opportunities that Foster the social and emotional well-being for students and staff and to ensure the Equitable allocation of the district's resources to support the district's mission and goals including access and utilization of grade level materials resources and programs so we also had quite a few action plans that go along with these goals and now my colleagues are going to take us through um the accomplishments of this year thank you okay so I just want to mention that these are just highlights of the initiatives and our progress related to goals this year so this does not include everything and it does not address programs and practices that are that have already been in place so um as we're presenting we will be touching on data and specifically you'll see some of the data at the end but I did want to address that because as academic committee knows this was about an hourlong presentation on Thursday so we're going to try to streamline it a bit and then you can ask questions at the end all right so the district highlights so what I think is a big and important change I'm sorry I'm so loud a big and important change this year especially when we consider Equity is that we now have gifted services and ESL Services across all our 11 schools so that was a huge deal we're very proud of that and it's been a very successful implementation so go us um we also implemented a consistent Health Resource in grades K to8 as you know we did not have one um but we adopted the great body shop which was piloted last year and we're we love it because it goes home and parents should be able to see it um we also partnered with Ruckers and we conducted a school climate survey and this survey um sought feedback from staff am I on today next one here nope all right um sorry from staff students in fifth grade and above and the community and now we're using the outcomes from the school climate survey to set our goals from next year all right we also reviewed our K8 counseling program and we actually just the other night recommended a common character education resource in K5 we are additionally going to be building common lessons in grade six through 8 and we reviewed and we streamlined our screening processes and protocols for all for K12 um with all of these changes of course there's we have to provide professional development we provided professional development to school counselors specifically in risk assessment and finally we partnered with Ruckers Behavioral Health to provide Therapy Services that could be accessed by both individual students especially students in crisis what we call tier three intervention but also it provides therapy for families and they have Services throughout the summer so that was exciting as well all right at the high school we have had APN honors courses available for some time but what we noticed in reviewing our um graduation rates is that we really needed to build in more supports for struggling students and so we created four High School support programs or services for students who are struggling and they may be struggling academically it could be social emotionally or it could be attendance issues in some cases these services or programs address ongoing struggles that students have but sometimes students just need support during certain units and in specific subjects or concepts so what we did was we created a different services to meet the different needs of students so one that I would like to highlight is the structured learning lab and this is a period that's actually built into the student schedule with um access to both a teacher and an intervention specialist and just from this you know support from providing time and structured support we found that this improved outcomes for students if there were about 87 students I think currently in the program and 76% of the students show significant Improvement um another program that I'd like to highlight is the bright program so the bright program is a much smaller program it uses an online platform and it really provides kind of personalized learning for students who are struggling they can work at their individual Pace again they're supported and we had 100% success in this program so that's super exciting um in addition to these programs for support we also created new courses so there was a cyber security course new Pathways and Mathematics that include courses such as practical math and integrated Algebra 2 with data science we received the a P honoral award which is based on student participation and achievement across their High School career and finally we expanded the Unified sports program at the high school this year to include soccer and theater okay Middle School moving on in the middle school we implemented an improved schedule which allows for extra help and tutoring throughout the day it also eliminated excessive music pullout which increased enrollment in you'll see how much oh it's up there but we'll talk about it again later in chorus band and Orchestra um we updated our cycle program which was based on a survey of all students last year student eighth grade student interest and these courses that we created are aligned with high school elective so it's kind of a pathway into the high school or a pipeline some of these new courses include Business and Entrepreneurship engineering design and stem we implemented a character education program and lessons and group counseling for the first time actually in the middle school we created well the Middle School created a brms equity committee and they did many things among which was they brought in assemblies like 3G and J and that would be for people who are a third generation relatives of Holocaust Survivors to tell their own stories and so that was for Holocaust and genocide education we also had Dr Mikey Fallon who focused on creating a safe and welcome environment where all students can access learning and reach their full potential um in addition to assemblies they had planned activities and celebrations throughout the year and this was to recognize and represent our many subgroups their Traditions holidays and very importantly their contributions to society and and Mrs Maddie is going to take over from here good evening everyone okay so on the next couple slides we're going to talk about primary and intermediate highlights and at the top of that list is our um adoption and roll out of our new envision math program you may remember that last year we piloted different resources and we selected Envision um and so we successfully implemented this and rolled it out across nine schools um in grades K to five this year we actually started um some of that professional development and training last year and then we focused um our time in the early months of this school year on helping teachers to acclimate to um this new program it's a digital platform so they needed to learn the platform and the different components they also needed to learn um the structure of the lessons and once they started to feel comfortable with all of that we dove into more of the instructional strategies and so um I can say now that we're at the end of the year that looking back that it was a successful implementation and everyone has really embraced it and our students are doing very well um of course we are still continuing to focus on um literacy instruction um of course we're primary and intermediate schools um and so we're continuing to um the work we've been doing to shift toward a structured literacy model um with that we've continued PD for our teachers in the foundational skills rolling up um as our students have moved up kindergarten through third grade and moving into fourth grade for next year um with that to help um help our teachers with their tier one or classroom instruction we had a group of ets's and coaches as long as well as myself and Mrs Mulligan our Ela supervisor we did a um video and book study um called Shifting the balance and that really helped us to think about how we can support our teachers in making this shift within their literacy instruction that third bullet addresses our Orton Gillingham training for the first time and you um you may remember that we are partnering with Fairley Dickinson University to offer courses after school um we had our first coh cohort they're actually finishing their first year um of after school courses and they will um continue next year for year two and we're inviting a second cohort of teachers to begin another two-year training um course of courses also though in addition to that we are offering training um this summer through the inter Institute of multisensory um education and this training will be offered to all of our special education teachers in grades K to six um in June and it's similar MC is an organization that's similar in um what they're providing to fdu but ftu is more of coursework and certification whereas MC is really an intensive training that training will be done in June and then we'll TurnKey that to our intervention specialist when we're back in September speaking of intervention and intervention specialist as we continue to improve our intervention programs we really have um identified the need to provide um professional development and um to be able to look for consistent practices and consistent resources and so um and assessments so our teachers this year received um training on Dibbles and Dibbles is an early literacy assessment it's a free assessment on online but it's really well regarded in terms of identifying students who have who are at risk for um early literacy um difficulties or ly difficulties um so all of our intervention Specialists were trained on that and they are using that to help identify um students who would be in need of services we also provided um the state offered you might may recall that the state came out with a training called Rapid or rapid plus that actually if I can remember what it stands for is I don't know somewhere near it's reading acceleration um professional integrated development and um all of our intervention Specialists along with our ets's our coaches some super super iers and some principles attended this training this year um and it was really a great um overview um it helped us to ground ourselves in what the science of reading is so we were all on the same page and then finally we recently were finishing up an I ready pilot um this platform um is being used for both math and Ela as I mentioned at the beginning we are still looking for um a consistent resource that's going to be able to be used across all schools and all grades on the other end of the Continuum we're really happy and Karen mentioned this um before in her first slide that we are now offering I'm super excited to say we're offering small group um gifted and gifted and talented Services um in all of our schools and we are now offering small group investigations which is a pullout investigation um once a week um service for our students to be able to kind of research um and investigate topics beyond the curriculum we implemented this in grades K to four um this year and while we had robust number of students participating this year that number is actually increasing for next year so we're really happy about that students being identified and cluster grouping um is something that we is a model of instruction for mathematics that we implemented in grade four across all of our schools this year it it's a model of Accel enrichment and acceleration within grade level curriculum and um we're expanding that to grade three um we're rolling that down for next year in 2425 of course with all of these um changes and all of these updates and improvements as Karen mentioned earlier there's the need for ongoing and sustained professional development and we've really maximized our time to be able to provide that for our teachers now we're gonna hand it over to Mr marielo thank you right thank you very much uh so everything that we've spoken about so far is really programs and services that have been implemented for this school year so really the planning for that occurred last year towards the beginning of this year over the summer last year and we're implemented for this year um everything we're going to be talking about now we're looking ahead for programs that will be implemented for next year so really we're we've been in the planning phase this year we're going to continue planning and they'll be rolled out and officially starting this upcoming school year in September uh so the first thing we want to talk about is the expansion of our AP program at the high school so one thing uh that occurred this year since we gave the PSAT to all students in grades 9ine 10 and 11 part of the PSAT reports are called AP potential reports the reports that identify students who B based off their PSAT score have a potential or a high likelihood to perform well on the AP exam for different subjects if they were to take that subject the following school year um So based on that information um we identified students who would perform well on AP exams we sent letters notifying them informing them that you know hey whether you've kind of thought of AP or not this may be something that you could perform well and and do well if you do this the following year so we sent letters to many students and you can see the data that we've supplied there so for the 22 sorry for this school year 23 24 886 students are currently enrolled in AP courses at the high school for next year the numbers worked out very interestingly exactly 96 students are currently scheduled to take an AP course next year so exactly 100 student increase next year from this year and that's fantastic considering this year was the first year in a while we receiv received the AP honor award for having a high percentage of our students taking AP exams so we continue to see that increase um also the total number of AP courses taken by those 96 students um is also increased from last year and you can see there are the courses that have the most significant increases American history English um language English literature physics one and AP seminar so the most significant increases from this year going to next year moving on to Visual and Performing Arts so we'll start with uh Visual Arts in the high school um there has been kind of revision to the programs and the course offerings that are available uh for next year in our Visual Arts the high school and due to those changes um we're seeing 300 more students uh scheduled to take a visual arts course next year compared to who are currently enrolled in a visual arts course that's a 38% increase in the number of students and specifically just looking at the courses drawing and watercolors previously our courses were called Art one art two art three right now they're actually labeled with the specific um topics that they'll be discussing and and doing in the class um we have uh 100 more students that specific course which is a 54% increase kind of in that introductory first level art course um moving to Performing Arts at the middle school due to the change in schedule that we've had and now uh Karen had mentioned earlier that we don't have we've adjusted that excessive uh pullout music program um and due to that schedule change it's really increased opportunities for students to participate in all of the Performing Arts and you can see um the increase for it next year compared to uh the students currently enrolled in the course especially in chorus a 67 % increase that's a huge increase in the the number of students who are going to be able to take a chorus course and we also see significant increases in band with 21% and Orchestra at 177% so increases across the board for all of our Performing Arts courses at the middle school one thing we've been uh working on this year in particular is really trying to increase and expand our dual enrollment options uh we currently um don't offer too many when we really wanted to improve that um so we've been working with RVC and Sean Hall in particular um to get more courses approved so what dual enrollment is is when a student takes a course in high school we're partnered with a college so the college says hey if a student takes this course and pays the minimal not the full tuition the minimal course you know value they will then get credits towards that course at that college and then those will be transferable based off of the rules of the college that they're looking to transfer um so the only course that we've had prior to this if you look the last one under rvcc English 4A that's what we've had currently approved for me for multiple years every other course that you see there for rvcc and everything that cat and Hall was just newly approved really within the last month um so that's great and we're still in the process of trying to get more courses approved not only through rvcc and seatan Hall but through other colleges so this list will hopefully continue to increase um as we go but this is where we are currently at this moment and these are options that all students will have the opportunity to um next year um based on the criteria of those schools another thing that we've been working on are the career concentrations so we've been planning this for a little while now so they officially start uh this September September 2024 um so what career concentrations are are there programs for students who are interested in right now we have five different career concentrations business computer science engineering and Robotics music and visual arts so students who are interested in these areas and really want to concentrate their electives in these areas um can take a certain number of credits in these areas uh there's a Capstone uh course a Capstone requirement that students would then complete and there's some um career exposure hours that students would uh complete to kind of see what it looks like to be outside of the classroom and in the real world a little bit about what it would be to actually be uh in that profession in the workforce um so students who complete that these are the number of students who have already enrolled in those different concentrations on the right you can see the new course enrollments so going along with those concentrations we added some courses specifically to the engineering and Robotics this will be this is very exciting next year will be the first time that we're offering an engineering course and a robotics course really designed for all of our students I know we were kind of talking about uh robotics right the robotics team that's doing a lot um we have 41 students enrolled in our robotics course for the first year next year so that's exciting I think um this will actually play well with the robotics team I think students on the robotics team will probably be interested in the course students can take the course and find out they're interested in joining the team right um so we also have a new data science course uh that will be implemented for next year and 26 students signed up for that as well so additional plans uh for next year uh Karen had mentioned before we're looking for the implementation of a consistent character education program in K8 so we're looking for those resources and I think we've just approved those resources for K5 and we're moving forward with that uh we're continuing to do professional development for cultural responsive instruction and sheltered instruction strategies those are for our multilingual learning Learners um to provide strategies and supports for them uh we're looking next year is the uh official implementation of the new state standards for ELA and for math so we will be implementing those standards uh next year we are continuing to look at our intervention programs making adjustments and looking uh for resources getting consistent resources across the board for all of our schools for intervention we have the Unified sports program um at the high school so next year we're looking at bringing that also into the middle school and starting Unified sports the Middle School uh we know that we will be planning for full day kindergarten we're in the planning process we're going to be planning you know the whole time through that so we're definitely um in the works and starting what that looks like part of that is also reviewing the primary school and the intermediate school schedules um and revising and making some um improvements to the schedules um when we do that restructuring and through the partnership that we have with Rucker Behavioral Health we're looking to really do more parent Outreach and create a parent University um Focus really on the behavioral health and to involve them a little bit more in that process and thank you very much that uh concludes the presentation if anybody has any questions we'd be happy to answer any questions um first of all thank you so much Jason and the entire team we are so lucky to have you guys you're just amazing um I just it's more of a more of a comment I wanted to thank you guys for um partnering with recers Behavioral Health um I mean as we know we've been talking for a long time about the mental health uh issues and crisis amongst um our young people and um I know myself as a parent have often sought to try to find resources available and our guidance team does do an amazing job um but this is so so important and so key and I just I really saw that and I wanted to thank you I also wanted to thank you for bringing the unified program down to the Middle School um I've seen a lot of those kids come to the high school events and have often said I wish we had that so um this is great and it also benefits the character education as well so thank you um I had a I had a couple comments about equity and a question so bear with me um first I'm I'm really proud to be a part of this board as this was done but also I just want to you know acknowledge and commend you for um for the gifted and talented being rolled out to all of the elementary schools I I think for kids that may not have known that they had talent in in a specific area that must be really rewarding to to learn that and uh and also I I wanted to um recognize that the music program too by by what you've done is it just makes it more accessible to kids that may not have been enrolled in music in the earlier years um I didn't see it mentioned but I will mention it that the um the that dropping student dropping fees for Student Activities I think also creates an Avenue for equity and um my last last my question was um when when do you identify candidates for the four programs that you mentioned one of them was the Brite program but I don't remember the names the other one I feel like I should have Mr hamburger come up here actually the breite program is ongoing and and so work when you're looking at intervention with students so when we're doing gifted and talented we are identifying students at a certain point in the year the letters go home we accept appeals sometimes parents don't accept it when we're looking at intervention it's supposed to be flexible so we are identifying kids all the time and so with um the structured learning lab for example students were identified at the end of last year based on um their marking period grade so if students were failing two or more class as they were uh identified for this program and scheduled into it now there are times throughout the year where some students are very successful with that additional structure in the first semester and then they may no longer need the program and so then maybe they'll take a different elective a semester course likewise or conversely you could also have students who partway through the year begin to struggle and then we identify them for the program um the same with the bre program the bre program kind of evolved this year and actually wound up meeting a need with attendance that we had not even anticipated and so next year it will grow into two sections from one section but any of those programs the tutoring may not be something that's ongoing for a student it may be that a student's struggling you know during a certain um unit on a certain concept so then it might be very temporary and there might be students who access it in a more ongoing way so we probably had like 94 students who were accessing the tutoring program as well and and predominantly it was an algebra one as you might expect so all of those programs are really ongoing so they did terrific work at the high school Jason you talked about um the dual enrollment programs and that's something that I'm very excited for at our high school and think that uh it's a long time coming um you mentioned that that's something that's been implemented in the past month so students who already put in their schedule requests for next year how is that going to work with with them in for these programs that weren't previously available until just so so like I said this has kind of been ongoing so uh the high school is working out the plan the communication plan that will go out to students parents um regarding this and you know come up with the plan for how that will be operationalized thank you the the students who elected to take those courses are going to receive the information they'll be scheduled into the correct courses because in order for the concurrent enrollment or dual enrollment to run you also have to have teachers approved so specific teachers are approved in specific courses so you have to make sure that all lines up but they're working on the communication and that's why it will continue to grow it's a long process actually yeah and the reason I ask about is because there are students who might not have taken those classes because they didn't know that there was a dual enrollment option they might be interested in at this point that they weren't before a question about the training how many teachers were in that first approximately don't quote me but I think we had 19 and then I think there were been one or two that ended up having to stop so our numbers might be less than that I can I can find out the exact number for you I'm just is this something that we want all of our teachers to eventually be a part of because I feel would help all kids so yeah so it's a great question um it's something we've actually talked about um um this year um so the Orton Gillingham training actually is leads to certification and that certification like you said is over a course of two years um the part of the reason we're offering this the MC which is the Institute of multisensory Education or Eng I mean FD doesn't offer that otherwise we probably would be going with fdu so we looked for another agency or organization that could provide intensive training so this is a five-day intensive training that will lead to you know much deeper understanding the opportunity for them people to continue um but it won't be the same as the coursework and um you know the discussion we were having is do our teachers need to have an actual certification or can they have this um this training for what they need and so we have some teachers that are identified for needing more and some teachers that are identified for um the training at this point as at least as a starting point Karen did you want to add something yeah just that we also look at positions so depending on what the teacher's position if you're pull out resource room teacher if you're an intervention specialist like you know some teach teachers do need a different level of training if you're if you're in an inclass support room versus if you're a general education teacher so we want everyone to have some of it but they may have different needs depending on their positions and the students they're working with I just wanted to add um what Jennifer said before um the expansion of the gifted and talented um is great because it does not just limit the students to the AI program that will continue but the gifted and talented and kids might have gifts in drawing music you know what have you right it's just not limited to couple of subjects so this expansion is really great idea and I think we're going to reap the benefits of it in the coming years so I just wanted to add that on there as well so I want to make a comment about uh the uh how great it is to see the increased participation in a lot our programs so so good job thank you well done and I want to um have a you know a inquiring about uh two of our programs how do we gauge the success of while we know that increased enrollment is a clear indication of success of program so some of the other program for example that consistent character education program how do we gaug the success of that and uh like for uh the gift and talented that AJ was talking about uh how do we gauge the success of that so I'll be curious to know the answer that thank you do you want to take character Ed yes I will do character Ed um so character Ed is the consistent program will be rolling in next year so what we'll have to do at different points in the year um would we hope that eventually it reaches the classroom and and we might find that you know we have less behavioral issues it could but really what we want it to be is proactive so I think the way that we'll know that it's successful is really probably from the students reporting back if it's successful from surveying students um and from teachers and then I think really at each building level what we see in the building as well so you know well I'm I'm not sure yet at this point but I think we would have to look at all those things the individual buildings the teacher feedback and student feedback and and one of the things we're looking at as well we started our climate survey this year so we look at what the effects of of the climate survey would be in successive years and and also I just think sometimes in education we fall into that trap to think that everything can be Quantified and measured it can't be right sometimes that the purpose of doing something is that we're teaching kids the right way to act and there may not be an effective test or measure or what have you we know with our own children we do a lot of things or not saying well is that a 94 or an A or this we do it because it's the right thing to do and and part of character education is showing kids the right pathway helping that that the uh personto person interaction and and and there are things we do where it's more of a feel an implementation ver a specific score or grade and I think some of these things fall I just want to add one thing to that um as a former English teacher qualitative data is real data too so qualitative you know we'll talk to people and find out you know what they think collect feedback but the other thing too I just wanted to mention along those lines is every when we're doing these goals some of them should sound somewhat familiar because we talked about them last year as well good goals in education are multi-year goals like if you have a really good goal you should be able to continue to build on it and expand so that's what we're looking to do as well I'll just add um that in terms of the gift and very similar to aop and Karen just said you know how do we def define success right when it comes to determining what are the points that are important for us to measure when we Implement any program right and so with gift and in talented it could be that it it goes goes along with building confidence and self-esteem as Jen said right it could be that we're developing students problem solving and curiosity right and quantifying that right that's hard to do it could be that we're measuring achievement but we're not just identifying students based on achievement we also identify based on aptitude and potential and so it's not cleancut it's not easy to say that and especially after year one make no mistake we're looking at this right we want our students to be successful and we want our programs to be successful we've you know I've recently surveyed the um the teachers who are implementing um our small group in investigations um and our CL groups to be able to say you know what feedback do you have about improving our programs how can we make be able to better meet the needs of these students in our um that are participating so it's an ongoing process but I think it really comes down to that there's multiple measures of success so thank you and I'll actually add to that for the small group investigations in particular there is a final product that every student completes um as the small group it's research investigations and they complete a final product and Amry was actually just showing me pictures while we were waiting kind of you know before today um from one of the schools and seeing the final products seeing the the work and the time and the effort and the excitement that students had that that they put into it um and you know seeing the the creativity because this is something above and beyond what they would do in their typical classroom um giving them the opportunities and seeing them take off and being able to create these products um you know I think that's also you know part of how we evaluate it thank you everyone for the great presentation um s speak a little bit more to where we're at with or not where we're at but what the planning for full day kindergarten looks like at this stage obviously we're still a year or two two years away is it more two years away thank you Barry uh is it more operational more planning for instruction Personnel or is it just kind of all of those those together all of the above with the expansion of kindergarten and the shifting of grades right the only school that's not going to be affected is the high school well no I I mean we're adding sixth grade to the middle school and and everyone is Shifting so you're going to have some changes we're looking at schedules Etc and and look we we've told the public you know and and I might as well say it because I I mentioned it at the CSA meeting I thought it was assumed but I I've got to say it in public in September 2026 we're opening full day kindergarten all right so we've got to build a wing Etc but if there are a few delays or what have you we're still opening in September 2026 now that would be a contingency plan but that's the whole goal that that right that's what we voted for that's what we're implementing that's what we're doing and we're working towards that goal right now I mean this is a there are so many great things happening in the district through curriculum instruction changing and evolving programs dual enrollment full day kindergarten and a lots of construction going to happen this summer so it's just so exciting that the when we're evolving growing and transforming um I had a you know I'm it's delightful to see all the PD and staff investing in your staff is incredible making sure we have the Educators continue to learn and evolve so that because our students are changing you know from where they you know go it had some impact areas and what we need to make them successful so it's great um I it's great to see the dual enrollment program I'm so excited about that I'd love to see some funding for that in some way but that's a budget issue so Mr Stars might you know Karen have to have that discussion um one thing I was want wonder about the this might be the ask versus enroll in the AP classes when you the student ask if you indicated to a student say hey you're available AP should you apply how many how many appli and actually enroll from that from the ask to the apply I'd have to look at the go back and check check the numbers but I know there were many letters went out to students based on that so I forget the the exact number of how many but I mean some of the and what's difficult is some students who got letters also met the typical criteria meeting the grades so some students would have enrolled regardless of getting the letter or not some students you know probably got the letter and that may have been the difference in why they enrolled so it's difficult to you know discern exactly that but this came from a presentation I saw from Franklin School District Franklin High School um they they tried to they again they had a goal to increase their enrollment and they had their you know they identified the Educators or an individual that identified with that student and had them ask too also additionally so they didn't get a response so that they had a a personal connection saying hey Jason I think you can do this I believe in you you've shown this this and this not just a letter because you know I get letters over day in the mail rip them up but sometimes that personal connection will help that it just came from something I saw at a presentation at one of the Schoolboard workshops so just an idea if you you know those ways areas so yeah and I think this can continue to evolve this was the first time that we've you know done the letters and I think as you said like I just throwing that out there as an idea so yeah wonderful things happening which is great and the goals like I said multi-year goals I mean the goals don't change really too much and the action plans are where adjusted and you you're you're changing you're looking at the small group in Junction to add and enhance it and I I think that's great because putting that that equity in all the schools is fantastic and it also shows the kids other areas and they all see it and the other kids make well how do I what I like that let me you know where it go and they can be identified but thank you great presentation wonderful progress this year we're going and things are we're moving in a great Direction in this district and I thank all the community the staff the students and the board it's just been exciting so thank you thank you thank you Mr morelo and Mrs Mia yeah and and uh finally in everyone's packet there there's a copy of the annual District summary progress report for wellness there's an attachment and um you know if anyone has any questions on that we certainly uh do our best to answer them here or um whatever any questions on that see none um moving on anybody any other Mr nope that was a great report thank you for your staff and you it's fantastic to see where we're where we've been and where we're going to and what the future leads to um next to the president rep I have set enough and I'm going to move on to to the vice residen report Jen uh so for the board calendar um we we have to complete the superintendent evaluation in June as well as finalize it um there's the Board review of pending legal matters and the endof year report on strategic goals and action plans which we just did so clearly we don't have to do that again oh wait that was June right okay that makes sense sorry go gets thank you Jen um Community reports academic comme Mr Joshi josi sorry Joi so we met last Thursday May 23rd at 5:30 here at weit uh in attendance were myself Mrs kri Mr Pepe Mrs Jones Mr beers Dr Charmin Mrs L um no she's not here today Mrs M Mata Mr moriello that's it I think we I good everybody uh so the first item on the agenda was the new contemporary cext for 2024 2025 uh Dr jarmin explain how um high school English uh courses have two common texts at each grade level a contemporary and a conle which are reviewed for relevancy as new texts are p uh piloted two new contemporary texts are being recommended in U 9th and 11th grades um and this will be Neil gaimon's the ocean at the end of the lane and Trevor Noah's born a crime stories from a South African childhood and the ninth grade units are being restructured to allow Choice within the Shakespeare and Holocaust studies units any questions on that okay item two goal progress and program updates that we just saw uh the presentation on goals progress specific uh to curriculum and instruction was shared and this pres was presentation was just uh given to us in the report item three uh was K through 8 counseling platform and update uh Mrs lulo reviewed her pilot process for character education program that she recommended for grades K through five and next year she will review for grade 6 to8 um Mrs L ruler piloted four programs and recommended everyday speech as the K through 5 Seal program also everyday speech is aligned to Castle competencies and includes videos activities and materials to provide context for this tier one resource Mrs uh Lula also reviewed Castle's five competencies and the three tier of intervention support within the counseling Department this was a long meeting we adjourned at 8:00 our next meeting is on June 27th at 5:30 that's my report it shows a good meaning to be absent from I'm sure it was a great Mee but I'm that's right um next up is commun relations Miss kri yep our next meeting is June 4th I think it's at 5: and it's virtual Finance Finance facilities and transportation Mr singer our next meeting is on June 3 at 5:30 and it is in person thank you Mr singer personal Comm me Miss Freelander it looks long but it wasn't um hi yes so we met last was last Tuesday at 5:00 pm um we reviewed the draft of the Personnel addendum which you all have the new updated copy of for approval this evening um reviewed the non-bargaining unit reappointment uh the job description for the assistant manager of building and grounds um which we briefly spoke of and are there any questions on those three before I go on to the good stuff no okay um we also had a lengthy discussion on the music and theater art Staffing as well as the technology department Staffing and um I actually thought this would be a great opportunity for uh Mr fonder to give you guys an update on what that looks like it was briefly touched on in the presentation sure uh in the in the minutes I kind of included some of the uh the details but in short we have a great music and uh theater arts program in Bridgewater ran and what we've seen is some of the changes that have been made recently or or a little bit longer ago are really um developing into what we had hoped which was that the programs are more accessible to more students um the places where we're seeing that is even with declining enrollment at our intermediate schools we're seeing an increase in participation in the music programs and then at the middle school level the schedule change that started in 7eventh grade this year will be in seventh grade and eth grade next year provides dedicated time for students to particip at in um the uh instrumental and orchestra band or in the coral programs and so uh what that did was uh increase our seventh grade numbers somewhat but in eighth grade they're especially higher than they had been in years past and unfortunately in years past it was primarily because there were students who dropped out of it um they had the interest but it was complicated and uh maybe stressful to miss other classes to go for your Orchestra lesson or your band lesson or for your Coral practice now with the dedicated time in the schedule we're seeing very few students exit from those programs which means our eighth grade numbers are significantly higher uh we talked about it at Personnel because that means we're adding in a half uh staff member we had five and a half staff members in the music department of the Middle School this year and next year we'd appropriately staff with six we're not doing anything uh new we're just uh meeting the needs for enrollment and so that's a a great way to have to increase enrollment especially to increase Staffing especially when enrollment is is decreasing so we're seeing that increase and then uh um three years ago we started Theater Arts as a cycle at the middle school and new students now who are maybe wouldn't have necessarily been involved in our theater program are having that opportunity to experience it in middle school and so it's growing our high school theater program and so we're going to be increasing from a half of Theater Arts teacher she uh currently does half Theater Arts and half music to full Theater Arts um and it increases the high school music and theater art Staffing half a position as well uh this is excellent because it shows that the on-ramps we created for introduction to guitar um for students who weren't playing an instrument that that's working well uh we have digital music composition classes we have a second level theater course um and there's a lot of different opportunities that are capturing more students so it's not necessarily the the the same students that were taking courses now we have those students with more options and additional students into the fold of music and theater at the high school level yep that was a great summary and we were all thrilled and excited to hear about those opportunities um additionally we reviewed um needs for security Personnel um we reviewed policies in the 1000 series The 1100 1120 1130 1210 and 1220 policies um we reviewed the behavior specialist evaluation rubric as well as the safe return plan required um update and I would like to thank my committee for adhering to my strict um time on that meeting and I look forward to seeing you all on June 18th at 5:00 pm virtually thank you m Freelander are there any delegate or Le ons once you got the new mic oh than gu butt easy so real quick the delegate assembly for the New Jersey um school boards Association was it was like longer ago but it was last weekend um and there were 14 resolutions so I won't go through them at all but I just F forwarded everyone the document um that has the result of each resolution and how it came out the short the past version is that everything that uh the njsp supported passed in some form and everything that they uh that they decided that the resolutions committee decided to oppose either didn't pass or was referred back to committee for more information so there's some interesting resolutions there Capital reserves for buses instructional days being virtual if needed um and there's a whole bunch of them so if anyone has any questions on how those discussions went I'm sure everyone was watching and there at nine o'clock I just missed you on a s day but let me know if you have anything Mike you're so positive about that so excited you're our representative there you're doing a great job anybody else be yeah so I just wanted to note basically what you said um Mike represented Bridge ran very well there were over a hundred delegates in attendance most of them didn't get up and speak Mr Pepe was there he asked direct questions and provided very insightful thoughts on a number of different occasions and so I was proud to have him there that's it thank you very much daeve I appreciate appreciate that appreciate the uh opportunity to serve he's the announcer at the swim meets of rers so be careful anybody else yeah I just have one thing um I spoke with council president uh Tim ring from Bridgewater he just gave me an update that the utility poll That was supposed to be on the high school will no longer be put there because the utility company determined that it can't go there it's going to be across the street so I just wanted to let everyone know that that's the update marks so on uh my gosh I don't even have it uh on May 21st I attended the CSA meeting I think it was the last meeting of the year and they reported that the summer camps are filling up but that there are more openings they also reported that they um raised an impressive amount of funds um and that after basic you know operation needs are covered that they will be distributed to all the PTO and since I was acting president for a week I I got to uh speak at that meeting and I basically just thanked all the pto's and the parents and the teachers that volunteer their time and try to rally volunteers to show up to events it's a lot of work it's hard to get the communication out um but I really appreciate their efforts and the work that they do that was it thank you Jen um one more thing the Ed Foundation um will be holding its inaugural golf fing July 11th at Fox Hollow Golf Club in uh Branchburg from 12:00 noon shotgun tea off I don't know what that means but shotgun tea off and means you started all 18 holes oh okay at the same time and you cycle through um and 5:00 P pm and thereafter will be uh dinner with prizes in the clubhouse so spread the word thank you AJ anybody else seeing none open to the the public Indi individuals and or groups are invited to present their concerns comments and and requests regarding the following actuals to the board of education at this time in accordance with board policy members of the public are allotted one opportunity to address the board for a maximum of five minutes during this period of meeting please be advised that a video recording of this meeting will be posted on the district's website okay I'm G to close that item 12 agenda this is for concerning agenda items only action items only no there were no action taken out those were just reported out that can be discussed at the second public comment that can be if You' like to discuss that can be bring that the second public comment yeah the first com public comment is for the action items only that we're taking action on which is the personel dandm The Business Report minutes and those areas listed there any other questions I'm going to close public comment seeing none and thank you for understanding um approval of the minutes uh do I have a motion to approval the minutes for May 8th regular and close session May 14th regular and close session second is there any discussion I had a comment about the uh May 8th close session meeting um I emailed my um motion to amend but I I W I emailed my desired language change uh but I don't think I've heard back um I don't know how we handle this I think you I think there was an answer back to you you could make a motion to modify the minutes if you'd like to all right does that need to be seconded you need to make did you make the motion sure I'll make a moot motion to amend I can't make a motion okay is there a second yeah do she have to what you going to what what do you want to read you have to tell what the motion needs to read yes in the close session there do we need to actually go too close to talk about this that line I there's nothing confidential about all right so that line has uh raised the issue about um losing data I would like to change that into passive tense uh files being lost is there a second from losing from a active tense to a passive voice to from active voice to a passive voice so that there's no specific subject being mentioned it's the same meaning is there a second seeing none there's no second of the motion okay okay any other discussion Mr Stars can you call the RO please miss Huna yes Mr Pepe yes M Freelander um abstain on May 8th yes on May 14th Miss Lee no on May 8th close session yes to rest Mr Joi uh yes on May 8th abstain on May 14th Miss kri yes Mr singer yes Miss lockran yes to May 8th uh abstain on May 14th Mr Walker yes motion passes approval of action items Personnel 24-3 through 32 through2 4-37 do I have a motion second is there any discussion I have one quick thing there's a two typos on the uh the Personnel addendum I just wanted to bring them to attention uh in section D the appointments the first one uh should be a start date of July 1st uh I mistakenly put 91 but should be 71 and then also in section H the transfers line three uh it's an administ minator transfer and it should say it's effective July 1st bless you uh instead of September 1st so just wanted to mention I was wondering about that I saw that okay thank you your curiosity satisfied I wasn't that curious I didn't email you any other discussion Mr Stars can you call the role please miss Asuna yes Mr Pepe uh abstain on 2435 yes on the rest Miss Freelander yes Miss Lee yes Mr Joshi yes Miss kalri yes Mr singer yes Miss lockran yes Mr Walker yes motion passes so so with the approval of those motions at this time I would like to introduce the Board of Education and Community to Tracy Cobbs who's going to be our new assistant principal at bridgew Ron High School uh Tracy comes to us with leadership experience from the Asbury Park School District where she served um as a a supervisor of curriculum and instruction prior to that she was an aspiring leader and teacher at North planfield High School so please join me in welcoming Tracy to the bridgew riton [Applause] team Now Tracy we you get stuck taking a picture with me and Mr Moran um before you get to leave tonight so thank you and congratulations do you mind if we continue all right thanks boss curriculum 2467 through curriculum 2468 do I have a motion so moved is there a second second any discussion see Mr Stars can see none Mr Stars the role please miss Asuna yes Mr Pepe yes Miss Freelander yes Miss Lee yes Mr josi yes Miss kist yes Mr singer yes Miss lochran yes Mr Walker yes motion passes business 24139 through business 24-1 146 is there a motion is there a second second is there any discussion Cena Mr Stars can call Ro please miss Asuna yes Mr Pepe yes Miss Freelander yes Miss Lee yes Mr Joi yes Miss kist stre yes Mr singer yes Miss lochran yes Mr Walker yes motion passes special special services 24-38 is there a motion so moved is there any discussion seen none Mr Stars can call the RO please miss Huna yes Mr Pepe yes Miss Freelander yes Miss Lee yes Mr josi yes Miss kri yes Mr singer yes Miss lockran yes Mr Walker yes motion passes other 24- 43 through 24-35 is there a motion any discussion on any other 2443 and other 24-44 would have to been on close session is there any discussion seeing none Mr Stars can call the rooll please miss Asuna yes Mr Pepe yes Miss Freelander yes Miss Lee yes Mr josi yes Miss kri yes Mr singer yes Miss lockran uh yes to all except for uh 265 371 uh no Mr Walker yes motion pass at this point we're up to item 14 this is the second opportunity to open public comment individual Andor groups are invited to present their concerns comments and requests to the board of education at this time for any matter in accordance with the board policy members of the public are allowed one opportunity to address the board for a maximum of five minut during this period of the meeting please be advised that a video recording of this meeting will be posted on the district's website please state your name and address to write it down thank you hi Matthew Bergman uh 648 throughway drive here in town um everyone before I get to what I prepared seeing that presentation does shine a lot of good light on our town and from my perspective I really needed that so I appreciate the report that was done there's a lot of good um I would like to talk about a Edge that I feel um our town has so this evening I'd like to talk about the HIV policy the district's HIV policy which I feel like I said is a growth Edge for us um I'd like to call into question some wording if you have it in front of you you can follow along otherwise I'm happy to give you my notes highlighted areas um for later um first the definition of a reasonable per reasonable person is not present someone reasonable to you might not be reasonable to me we might have different ideals or even our understanding of what it means to be reasonable can differ for example I find it unreasonable that my son has had to deal with nine swastikas and three Hitler taunts in school this year and some of you might not which makes our definitions of reasonable different next the policy prohibits any active or passive supports for acts of HIV again our definition of active and passive support could differ and we do not have a clear clear definition of these terms for example I believe that a pattern of non-communication is passively supporting acts of HIV because communication to the district and the families about the rise of hate in our schools is contributing to its rise passively but still contributing also the policy states that the consequences and remedial actions will be according to the severity of the offenses again who decides that because to me the anti-Semitism festering in the halls of the schools in this District should be some of the more severe occurrences yet are being met with less severe consequences and remedial action along these lines what are appropriate actions to be taken if a teacher is committing acts of HIV for example I would think that it's very intimidating and overall inappropriate for an District employee to continually voice their support online for active terrorists cons committing atrocities against the community of many members of our district the policy also talks about how the district may not fail the district may not fail to initiate an investigation of Hib solely because written documentation is not provided and it even says that if a parent makes a verbal allegation that a staff member who hears it must complete the documentation of the form which is interesting because I was informed that it is my obligation to report every incident with names of the victims by a high ranking District employee but the policy contradicts this notion the policy puts a lot of pressure on the superintendent to report these issues to the board to the county and to the state I'm sure you've all heard about the instances of harassment and intimidation and bullying from the superintendent but I'm wondering how many of these acts of HIV have been reported over the last several months do we have a ballpark figure this is not a question back just public comment I guess to to borrow your word seeing none I could just I'll just move on how many of those were racially based how many were allergy based bullying or harassment how many were anti-semitic my concern is that these are not separated on the form to fill out how can you get a full picture of what is happening in the district without separating the types of Acts how can the county know how can the state know finally it is very unclear what the role the parent plays in this policy what happens if the parent feels that their student is threatened even after the issue is closed by the district what precautions can the parent take not request take it is not clear nor is it very fair to hold the parent responsible for the actions taken of their child until they're 18 yet the parent cannot do anything except appeal the process all of these notes and concerns are really about the lack of communication pushing of responsibilities and ignoring the rise of hate in our schools as potential Solutions I believe that actions speak louder than words we need to act on this rise in hate specifically sorry specific hate needs to be called out allergy bullying is not the same as racism Asian hate is different than islamophobic hate the hate of a kid's favorite sports team is vastly different than anti-Semitism which has infected our schools but there's no differentiation available for organizations which can help our district through the reporting of accurate numbers all love is love but all hate is not the same hate the district needs to do better so all our students can engage in learning in a civil and safe environment which you have determined is necessary for students to learn but if the communication in our district continues to follow this unacceptable unacceptable pattern the community needs to be able to take action to correct it I ask you all to fix the issues in our Hib policy expand the policy so our district is not lumping everything together so that the families feel heard so that the students are safe so that your schools represent all our students and not just some thank you thank you for comment anyone else okay seeing none I want to close the public comment thank you very much we are now up to Old business think may have any old business that's my go ahead I don't know if it's a old business but I just wanted to comment on something since we just voted on it on the personel agendum I know it's a loss set we have at the high school with the coral program but as a parent from Eisenhower I'm seeing this Lisa rotundi moving into the high school is phenomenal because I don't know anyone who is more excited about music um so I think it's just tremendous that she is taking on this role I think it's going to be great for the high school I think it's a you know it's we're losing but gaining and I think as we've seen we the growth in the music program and the excitement so I think it's kind of good so it's always good to see change and and people and Dr Wilson was an amazing educator and a wonderful person and inspired a lot of children and I think well Mr Rundy will you know follow in the footsteps and do well I mean it's great to see you know people change and opportunities thank you anybody else I'm going to go to the CSA evaluation we're going to the next meeting we're going to do that 530 :0 is the time I would like to get dinner I've got to figure it out I know we have some eating concerns so we'll get something to eat we should be able to get in for two hours I'm hoping we should can be able to accomplish that two hours before the next meeting 5:30 yes please thank you Mr Stars yes is that okay with everyone can they make it I know you might have but June 11th the next meeting 5:30 I brought this I think I said this a while ago I sent I sent a long email with information and follow well I'm going to probably close out so the CSA evaluation is open now you guys should have got an email on that so you can start assessing it if you find anything there and you'd like follow up or more information please email myself or Bob if you're looking for something in there it's not we can get that done you know check through all the all the documents there they are needed um I'm I will be I can monitor it so I can find out who's getting it done I'd love to have it done by the Sunday before or the Saturday before so you know but you know I will nudge those who are not working on it by Wednesday or Thursday of that week so and if you have you have scheduling issues and stuff like that I understand it's just you know it's a it's it's one voice so it's all it's working together anybody else any other new business okay yeah we got gonna get that so um we are going to go into close session now I'll make a motion so we will not take no action after we come out so we will adjourn thereafter um whereas discussion by the board is required on matters that are exceptions to the requirement that a public body hold his meeting meeting in public and whereas the topic for disc discussion are personnel and student discipline whereas the expected details of discussion may be made public as soon as the issues are may be acted upon acted upon publicly be it resolved the board enters into the closed session this assignment I have a motion so moved is there a second all those in favor I all opposed we're going to close session thank you we can stay here