how are you thank you for I'll just read next week okay good we're good hi welcome everybody thank you for having us here at Jefferson School it's lovely to be here so today is the um quw West qu Board of Education public conference meeting the board met tonight Monday at 6:00 p.m. executive session here in Jefferson Elementary School in the music room located at 85 Prospect Street in West cell New Jersey the purpose of that meeting was to discuss Personnel litigation miscellaneous and old business matters this meeting has been advertised and is in compliance with the open public meeting act and njs 10 col 4-6 also known as the Sunshine Law the matters discussed will be made public when confidentiality is no longer required and formal action pursuant to said discussion shall take place only at a meeting to which the public has been been invited the public conference meeting is happening now at approximately 7:05 p.m. cuz I was chatting so sorry my apologies here at the Jefferson Elementary School multipurpose purpose room the Board of Education meeting will be streamed live however all Community questions and comments will be welcomed here in person only the Caldwell West calwell Board of Education public conference meeting is also in compliant with the open public meetings act and njsa 10 col 4-6 also known as the Sunshine Law notices have been sent to the progress in calwell New Jersey The Star Ledger in nework New Jersey and tap into West Essex notices have also been posted at the Board of Education business office located at the Harrison School great Street West Caldwell and have been delivered to the clerks of the burrow of Caldwell and West cwell for posting um Brian will you take the role please yes stud Mar here here M here Mr here M here voting MERS pres you have a for great okay normally we would ask Miss Alberta to run lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance but we have two students that are going to come up today so can I have the two Jefferson students come up and lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance please and can you say your names really loud so we know them um my name's Maxine rer Maxine and Katie B and Katie okay are we ready here we go whenever you're ready I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you you thank you thank you okay Brian are there any Communications for the board this evening nothing for tonight thank you okay so then we're going to pass it along to the superintendent for the superintendent report um if Mr s come up to the front i' like to introduce the principal of Jefferson so he can tell us what's so great about Jefferson's School sure good evening everybody uh so we're just going to give you I have six of my my friends here who were selected by their teachers to be represent representatives of Jefferson School and I think they did a very nice job not only they great uh students and had a you know really represent Jefferson well but they're a good crosssection of of different things that happened at Jefferson School and and we decided to take a different TCT we talk a lot about math and and Ela but we don't talk a lot about so many other things that make up you know our students day so they each chose something that maybe you don't know goes on at Jefferson School that's very important to them so they're going to talk a little bit about that I did put together a little slideshow for everybody so if you want to position yourself there so family engagement is something that we've really been focusing on as a district not only Jefferson School um and what we have is families as learning Partners so at least four times a year this is a fourth grade uh I mean a first grade uh some pictures um parents are invited to come in to do either Ela or math math games with their students um it's been a very popular program the parents like it for they get a little snapshot of what's going on uh in in school the added bonus is it also kind of squashes that you know conversation at the dinner table what you do in school today nothing well you actually see really there is something going on in actually in school um you know and what's great about this the the spacing of it it allows parents everyone is busy um and you know they would unfortunately aren't able to come to every event but they're spaced out and planned enough so that hopefully parents would come to at least one of these events Community Equity inclusion is something that we also focus on as one of our district goals this is an example of our third graders coming together both classes coming together to take a look at their published writing pieces and you know at first um it's a difficult skill to provide somebody with a critique right so the teachers go through the process of of actually how do you you give someone some meaningful feedback while also giving them some praise about some of the things that they saw as well it really is a great program for these uh these students to go through and they they do appreciate appreciate the feedback from their peers um each month we have Spotlight texts that our media specialist will highlight and the teachers will read as read alouds this is an example of this month of black history and Lunar New Year these are some of the books that are available for our teachers for read alouds learning and growth mindset obviously that's something that we want all our students to adopt and and and you know work towards uh kindergarten the reality is today's kidss are on some type of device uh you know uh doing a lot of things that you know involve um U entertainment but in school we actually use devices for uh the learning process whether it's using dream uh programs like DreamBox web based programs like DreamBox or Lexia the students are actually using uh technology the further they're learning this is an example of also how uh we try to make Global Connections to uh the outside world this is a second grade science of social studies lesson you know you if you listen to the news you'll hear like there's a lot of emphasis on pollinators and how just various environmental impacts there there's really some stressors on these these pollinators but what kids don't really realize that how important they are into everyday life especially food production so this is an example of how they learn what pollinators do and how we can help them also with their global economy everyone has products that are made all around the world it's kind of hard for a young child to understand that concept so this is an example where they had to bring in a product look where it was made and actually put a dot on the map so that make the connection of when something says made in China Europe wherever what that actually means and how far away that is from your you know West cwell some of our our hardest working students our ESL students or ell students um really are are learning Leaps and Bounds and just think about how complicated the English language is with some of these Learners it it truly is their first uh foray into learning English so uh Miss nbone really works hard with our elll students and um it's great to see the progress that they make Through The Years steam is also something that we incorporate um in various different programs one of our students Max will be talking about the gap program some of you may have been there at Lincoln school when they did the the library restaurant design showcase which was really a great way for all the kids to work together as a team and come up with a plan about a restaurant they would like to create um again here's another example of how computational thinking in the media Center using technology Miss burkman really does a great job with the students like as young as kindergarten with pattern recognition abstraction decomposition Al aloric thinking so this is another way for using technology definitely way over my head these kids have to help me with my phone let alone you know learn what they're doing in the media center coding is is also big and uh this example of our fifth graders who are learning uh various fourth grad is learning uh various aspects of coding through the programs that they use um in media our smart program is is uh relative we had it and then we reintroduced it uh recently and it's another way for our students to be participate in extra learning this happens after school another here's an example of and Kell's going to talk a little bit about that as well this is an example of of how they had to program robotics let me see if I can get the video to work my little clicker here so very simple demonstration but all that movement had to be programmed in so it didn't go off the other side of the track so it was something that students had to learn and program the the motor inside the the Lego set that's that is basically the the the first step the second step is doing um uh art Bots and other the um speo Bots bolt Bots sorry that they do later on which is more complex more coding as well and it really kind of just springboards the students um abilities in using technology to form Robotics and other forms of um you AI really so that really is a you know a snapshot of some of the things that go on in in Jefferson School that you you know that don't necessarily get some of the spotlight I'm going to bring my friends up here all right so we have Maxine rker Kellen Kavanagh Alex hunkley they're getting an order they decided on the order they're going to speak Max and lepus and they said going to talk to you about what they like about Jefferson School and some of the programs they participate in Mexi hello everyone good evening today I would like to talk about band and all about it my name is Maxine I'm in fifth grade and I play Chone in each grade from second grade to fifth grade different instruments are available second graders can play violin third graders can play all string instruments and fourth and fifth graders can play any instruments available but I'm here to talk about band if you are an advanced player meaning you have been playing the same instrument for two or more years every Wednesday there are morning practices at 8:00 a.m. for concerts there's usually Winter concert and a spring concert usually one to three songs are played and for this year's Winter concert we also performed in Wilson school it was a blast in band instruments are flute clarinet drums trumpet and trumbone we take a few months to learn a song and at and at its designated time we perform usually to parents I've been playing trombone for 2 years and I would like to thank Jefferson School and my music teacher Mr chw for giving me an amazing time at playing trombo and an awesome time with all my friends and band I really enjoy playing an instrument it makes my school year way more eventful and a better experience even though waking up 45 minutes early every Wednesday morning for B for band practice isn't fun at least I know I'm waking up to do the things I love and it's so worth it [Applause] hi I'm Kellen another fifth grader here at Jefferson I will be talking about my involvement in Orchestra in the ELP stem program Orchestra meets before school once a week and the program has students that have been playing their instrument for two or more years the orchestra has string instruments such as violin Viola cello bass and I play the double bass it is the massive instrument in that is in the back we practice for months with our instructor Mr McCoy for the winter and spring concerts we usually perform two or three songs at our concerts I really love our teachers and it's so much fun learning to play cool instruments and make friends who also enjoy music ELP is another program that I participate in at Jefferson it happens after school on most Tuesdays and Fridays depending on your grade we work on doing stem activities such as coding Lego spike essential kits and spheral bolts which are sphere-shaped robots that can move make noise change color and react to things I really enjoy these types of activities and having a program like this that has allowed me to be able to do more Hands-On stem activities than we typically could do in our classroom this has prob been the most F my most favorite activity that I had that I have done at Jefferson since kindergarten hello my name is Alex hunkley I a fifth grader here at Jefferson Elementary and I am here to talk about the reading with a buddy program in my opinion there are many benefits to this program one of these is help one of these is helping my younger peers with reading and vocabulary I think this is important because they are just getting into the flow of school and reading is essential as they get older in addition meeting younger students that look up to me look up to me and my fellow fifth graders is no better honor finally helping the younger students grow as as people seeing and seeing them improve feels amazing I love knowing that I was a part of it I would like to add that my time here at Jefferson was great I made memories that were amazing I just want to say thank you to my teachers and my principal who helped me in many ways I feel very prepared and excited to enter middle school thank you for this amazing opportunity my name is Max first let me start with gap Gap is a fun extra that I'm part of I've learned many things from it I've learned how to work better with a group also how to speak in public and lastly how to do things on my computer in gap we get to think outside the box instead of math puzzles or equations we do logic puzzles I love all the activities we do in gap now I'm going to talk about the fifth grade kickball game I can tell it's a fun activity just from watching it in the past I like the fact that we get to walk to Wilson I like I love playing kickball I always enjoy myself it's a fun way to Hype up the whole school [Applause] hello my name is Gerald lepis and I'm a fifth grader at Jefferson School one of my favorite programs that I am a part of this year is safety patrol this program helps students in kindergarten through fourth grade kindergarten through fourth grade getting to to and from class every day to be selected for a class you need to write a paragraph paragraph explaining why you should be chosen I requested to be a safety patrol for Miss posa's class because my younger cousin in his inner class and that makes it special I think safety patrol is important because it gives fifth graders the chance to help younger students and to set good [Music] [Applause] examples hi my name is Katie Bohan and I'm going to be adding on to what Gerald said and teaching you about the benefits behind the safety patrol program one benefit is leadership skills fifth graders have the ability to lead influence and guide younger students throughout the school you also need to be dependable and trustworthy as a safety patrol fifth graders need to be able to keep younger students safe while also leading them to their classroom or after care overall there's a lot more to Jefferson than what it seems like this is including band Orchestra ELP reading with a buddy program Gap kickball and safety patrol thank you for listening and have a good night but when we're preparing for this I I I told them I would tell the story how the kickball game actually got started so you know I I I've been here long enough that some of you may not even realize how the game got started um I was probably a second-year principal and I don't know I was feeling cocky and and at the time uh Dr gerardi was the superintendent um for those you that know Dr Gerard he was like a pretty serious guy but he he really loved March Madness and the Yankees right so figured I can kind of get in on a silent the sports thing I was at his his office for a meeting of some sort and I said Dr J I want to pitch an idea to you now this mind you this is 15 years ago we didn't have air conditioning so like June was brutal it was brutal and I said Dr Gerard you know we don't really do anything in June I could just tell by look at his face face that was the wrong approach right and I said well I have this great idea how about if we do like a March Madness type like kickball tournament and like I don't even think I finish a sentence he's like no so I'm like so I just kind of okay and I get my stuff and something came out you know over me as I'm walk in there I go Jefferson versus Wilson and he goes okay so that's how it got started and I'm glad to hear the other schools actually have started it as well and it's a real fun event as um max said in in the spring and it's funny when you see that the younger kids they're playing I'm practicing for the fifth grade game they're in kindergarten in first grade so it has taken on a pretty cool um life of its own I think Miss Alberta was part of it when she was here as well right all right well thank you so much my friends who who came here tonight thank you so much for you did a wonderful [Applause] job anybody have any questions or need clarification what we discuss tonight thanks so much Mr SS for your presentation and thanks uh boys and girls for yours we're going to take a two-minute break so if you guys can come up we'll take some pictures if that's okay with you yeah just before we do that I just um Maddie made a comment to me I think it was probably the best comment of the evening please say it aloud I said I feel so old she looks at me she goes I feel so old my this is hysterical Maddy's a senior and she's the president of student council for those of you that don't know and she's our student representative does anyone on the bo I'm a Jefferson alumni yes Jefferson alumni does anyone on the board have any uh comments or questions they want to make I do just have a quick comment um my daughter's in sixth grade right now and she went through Washington and I have a 20-month-old who will be coming to Jefferson so I'm not familiar with the school and this really was very enlightening and made me want to be a part of the family here so thank you no I I am a Jefferson parent I know Mr danola was um and Jefferson really is a very special place my son still talks about that reading buddy program so thank you for mentioning that Alex that was really a special time for him so you all did wonderful you all are great leaders and we love Jefferson so thank you thank you and then one more thing I just want to say to all my little friends in the back row I have to tell you I don't know what you're all drinking the water in Jefferson School like these are Future Leaders of America folks I mean to be this well spoken at your age and to stand up on camera and a group of people staring at you you guys are rockars like absolute rockar amazing and this is just you and your leadership and your staff here at Jefferson School I think like one of the things I personally love the most about tonight is we pride ourselves right as a district to say we're not just about data and numbers we're about educating the whole child and what I loved tonight was that you gave us a glimpse of what happens in here outside we have enough with power points coming up this percentage that and we need to know those things are important but I love tonight the pictures the smiles the Legos the the robotics right and what I loved was that you all spoke about the things that make you happy which is the things that we really want to promote the band right Gap safety patrol like all those things that make you want to wake up every day right Maxine and go to school even if it's 45 minutes early like you said right but it makes you happy and your children and our children should be happy that's our goal here as a district to raise happy well-rounded amazing smart wonderful Future Leaders of America and that's what we're doing here so Mr s thank you to you and your staff and thank you to parents for doing your part as well as home and showing up here tonight so one more round of applause and then we'll andine we have a little on behalf of the board because you did the Pledge we have a little certificate and a flag for you which I forgot but Dr conon ran in and got for me so we'll give this sorry everybody can I just have everyone's attention just one moment our custodian Richie has been here tonight like setting everything up and being so kind and super wonderful thank you thank you still here still here that was thank you have a good [Applause] [Music] night okay all right so we're going to continue on Dr Conan you have anything else for the superintendent report or are we going to uh I do not okay all right so just for all of you that don't know it's this is not a voting meeting tonight it's just a review of the agenda so we're going to go through the agenda quickly but before we do that um I wish everyone had stayed before when I did this because we're going to acknowledge some important people but hopefully people are watching at home so the first people the board wants to acknowledge is the James calwell high school fbl club which is future Business Leaders of America a team of four FBA members recently competed in and won the Essex County Consumer Bowl sponsored by the New Jersey Department of Consumer Affairs the group will now move on to compete in regionals in April yay F uh we are in the process of completing our celebration of fbl FBLA week uh during this week the students in the entire School competed in trivia challenges as well as raised money for Prelude to a cure for West Caldwell the mayor of West Caldwell mayor tempesta honored them by proclaiming the week FBLA week of West quadw which was pretty cool for mayor Joe so thank you mayor Joe yes um now we have some sports acknowledgements pretty awesome we have our girls woohoo female power the girls are stepping up so our girls swim team okay ours North North group two sectional state champions amazing let's let's go yay they defeated Glen Ridge this past Thursday night to win this prestigious title please note there are only 14 members on the girls swim team and every one of them contributed to the state championship it's a really amazing honor for them and we are so super proud of them um so I'd like to acknowledge their head coach Mr Steve trino their assistant coach Miss Elizabeth kugan Russell for those of you that know and love her and many of us do that's coug so yay cou um team members are and please forgive me if they're listening if I if I Mar the names I'm sorry and Maddie correct me if I you know so Lenna Hari that sound right um Lily Phillips Elena condelli Sophia mestis Emma Brit Abby flegler yeah okay grace krinski Ella lepis Gerald was just here um Mia Martinez Madison McGinley Caroline Murray Amelia ukama UK Ok Okay uh tan Quinn and Michaela Tui so let's give our girls a big round of applause amazing and now we have also our boys varsity wrestling team um so our wrestling team competed an amaz completed an amazing team season okay they finished 20 3 and two was their record and then after being seated second in the group two section 2 team State Tournament they defeated Rutherford 690 in the first round and then Bernard 60 to 18 in the semi-finals they then won on to face the number one seated Governor Livingston team in the sectional finals at Governor Livingston I was there it was pretty and crazy because last year Governor Liv Livingston was seated second came to cwell we were seated first and they beat us on our home turf so we flipped went to Governor Livingston this year and we defeated them 37 to 26 to win the group two section 2 state championship W okay we're going to shout out congratulations to our awesome seniors Levi bun Lorenzo kamano Julian Cassel Marco Koka Joey Di Maria Mike D roza Jake guses and Charlie ma um we'd also like to acknowledge our fine coaching staff our head coach sha Romano our assistant coaches Dave Pepe Z Nick Zara Steve Martell and LJ castalano okay the team now we had a bunch of our wrestlers I think pretty much almost every weight class competed this past weekend in districts and many of them moved on to Regions which will happen this weekend Friday and Saturday at West Orange High School so that's more individual for those that don't know like their team season is is done but a lot of our wrestlers some of them are ranked in the state which is pretty impressive um and they're going to be wrestling individually this weekend they they went through districts and now they're moving on to Regions this weekend so we want to wish the boys good luck and we're very very proud of them so one more round of applause for all of us swimming girls swimming boys wrestling it's amazing and then um we're going to accept next week the resignation of four teachers and just on behalf of the board um I just want to take a moment to just acknowledge them for their years of service many of us have shared these teachers as Washington School parents um and Grover Cleveland Middle School parents um so the first is Joan jobes elementary teacher at Washington School Miss de Dena Larson who was a music teacher uh Miss Lisa zevan teacher of special education at Washington school and Miss inz Marcy is that inz Mar inz Marcy who teaches articles over Cleveland Middle School listen whenever teachers retire from the district I think it's bittersweet like definitely for the children it's such a loss and just as parents too I feel like when they leave it's like a little piece of our hearts go with them and these are really four very very special women who really have impacted our children and it is definitely a loss and next week when we accept the resignations I will do it with a great deal of regret but we wish them well okay so that's the president report for this evening um Brian are we going to we're not approving anything no minutes nothing so the only thing we're going to um vote on is curriculum 7A yes right okay so approval of minutes will happen next week um we're going to open up right now we can do let's do public comments since it's just a small group on agenda items anything on or off the agenda that anyone would like to get up and say I'm just going to go through my quick Spiel a public participation shall be governed by the following participant must be recognized by the presiding officer and must preface comments by an announcement of their name and address statements are to be limited to 3 minutes duration participant may speak no more than once on the same topic until all others who wish to speak on that topic have been heard all statements shall be directed to the presiding officer boards use the public comments of meetings as an opportunity to listen to Citizen concerns but not to debate issues or enter into a question and answer session or a cross-examination between the public and individual members be aware that not all issues brought before the board will be resolved this evening boards May respond to public comment by seeking additional information or by delegating the authority to investigate the issue to the superintendent or his designate the presiding officer May interrupt warn or terminate a participants's comments if they exceed the allotted time or are objectively obscene participants may be Civ liable for any obscene defamatory or slanderous statements made during public comment that being said does anyone want to talk about anything on or off the agenda with the board this evening okay okay so then we're going to move on um committee so curriculum and Technology we are going to vote on 7A so ter if you want to take that upon recommendation of the superintendent of [Music] schools thank you may I have a motion thank you yeah that's okay may I have a motion to approve item 7A under curriculum and Technology great and do we have a second I'll second it okay Brian will you take the role please yes Miss D Martini yes Miss lindal Jefferson yes Miss Mack yes Mr dimola yes M Gro yes 5 Z motion carried great so then next week we have Personnel we have our retirements that we spoke about some resignations amended leaves of absences appointments um new staffs we have the continuing ed summer enrichment program mentors and Subs some more field trips um that's under certificated and same under non-certificated we also have some non-ath atic appointments as well and extracurricular activities um Finance we have the certification funds secretary's report budget transfers bills and claims all our normal boring budget stuff um facilities we have the use of facilities by the W uh Grover Cleveland Middle School and Girl Scouts as well as some HSA little league and um the CPA for dancers only um and then policy we do have some amended sickly policies based on new legislation that was passed that we'll be approving and that looks like it's about it so anything next week please feel free to come like I said we're Monday back here at Jefferson School so if you look at the agenda between now and then have any questions you can always email Dr Conlin or come up and speak to the board at the meeting um that being said do I have Antion to end public session at 7:39 p.m. and enter into executive session I'll make a motion and a second I will second it great Brian will you take the role uh all in favor I all against nay any extensions motion carried great thank you so much everybody we'll see you next Monday and Mr thank have a good night everybody there you are you saved me