##VIDEO ID:PZEwTAiWALU## I would like to call this meeting to order will the secretary please call the role Mrs Becker here Mr Cummings Mr goswami yes Miss guas yes Mrs herck yes Mr Hong Dr James M ree here and president LAX here we have a quorum please rise to salute the flag I pledge allegiance 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 the New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the rights of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business business affecting their interests is discussed and acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the East brunck board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof posted at the East Brunswick Education offices written notice was also provided to The Sentinel The nework Star Ledger the home News Tribune the alternative press of East Brunswick and the municipal clerk of East Brunswick all Board of Education meetings with the exception of executive session discussions are videotaped for later broadcast it is the policy of the Board of Education that videotape meetings are not edit Ed for any purpose individuals who speak at the board's public meeting should be aware of these videotaping rules good evening I am going to ask for a motion whereas the Board of Education must discuss matters which are not appropriate for discussion at a public meeting and these subjects are within the exception to the open public meetings act and are permitted to be discussed in Clos session the Board of Education intends to discuss matters as follows those items listed on tonight's agenda the length of close session is estimated to be 1 hour after which the public meeting of the board shall reconvening action will be taken now therefore be it resolved that the East bronck Board of Education will recess into close session for only the aers said subjects and be it further resolved that the East brunic Board of Education hereby declares that its discussion of the affers said subjects will be made public at a time when the Public's interest in disclosure is greater than any privacy or governmental Interest being protected from disclosure in accordance with the open public meetings act move by Mrs Becker second by Mrs gos is there any discussion all those in favor opposed exstension motion carries thank you we shall see you in an hour okay and welcome back and Welcome to our visitors very excited to have you here this is a treat for us and a treat for you tonight right so you're going to get to see a little bit about how a board works and you're going to get to hear from a student from the high school as well but before we get to that I'm going to ask Dr veski to give the superintendent report for you guys thank you president LAX good evening everyone uh the artwork on display in the boardroom this evening was created by students from Warren storf for elementary school the art teachers of these talented students are Alana trainer and Takara naichi Joseph satari is the principal on Friday November 1st all student assistant specialist nurses counselors and secondary certificated staff and administrators participated in diversity equity inclusion and belonging our professional development facilitated by the center for supportive schools the goal of this training was to Foster School cultures where everyone feels valued included and welcomed the k6 student assistant specialist who attended the training on November 1st will TurnKey this critical information to all k6 staff on Wednesday November 13th the special education department and special education parent advisory group also known as what you may have heard cpeg hosted a resource Fair families were able to explore local resources for East Brunswick families the fair included recreational activities therapeutic resources transition information legal services and more as an added benefit the middle sex County prosecutor's office was in attendance with a registration table for families to add their child to the special needs registry which will help First Responders better assist in emergency situations on Thursday November 14th chid Elementary School celebrated and honored our veterans during a Special Assembly each grade level presented family Heroes with songs and poems that symbolize our gratitude to Our Heroes the high school sources of strength group visited hammera to share their personal stories of strength they focused on how healthy activities mentors positive friends and caring for their own mental health helped ease difficult times the peer leaders then went into classrooms to lead a cahoot which is a game-based learning platform and that ended the day with lunch in recess at Churchill Junior High School Seline Clark's ninth grade honors English classes hosted a virtual author's visit from New York Times best-selling author in 2024 MacArthur Foundation genius Grant Award winner Jason Reynolds this was graciously funded by the East Brunswick Education Foundation and along with 300 other schools across the country the students listened to Reynold's talk about writing with author guame Alexander in preparation for the visit students were able to explore important social themes such as I identity racism and resilience through through protocol-based discussions and writing while reading stories written by Reynolds and Alexander his visit provided an opportunity for open conversations about these issues helping students to develop empathy and a deeper understanding of the world around them I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the parents who visited their children's school for American Education week parents were able to see firsthand the high quality teaching provided by our talented teachers and supported by our Innovative administrators in sports two high school seniors signed their National letter of intent Samantha Arnold signed her National letter of intent to Rucker University for field hockey Dora Diaz signed her National letter of intent to St Peters University for track and field congratulations to all of them or to both of them congratulations to our October high school athletes of the month students were selected for this Honor by the coaching staff based on performance demonstration of leadership effort and practice and of course for modeling exceptional character our new girls softball and field hockey complex is close to full completion so this is going to be an important word it's called gmax testing of the Synthetic Turf field was recently completed and this testing measures the impact attenuation that's the ability of the plane surface to absorb a shock so when a player Falls how much is that going to hurt that's from a collision or anything else that happens on the field there are also some other s some other items in process before the site can officially be turned over to the district and these include the installation of handrails security gates ball stop netting and of course our important security systems we are also waiting testing and certification of the sound system and the scoreboards so while the project may appear to be complete there continues to be work to be done but this picture is a very good example of later this I believe that was Mr Juliana that was later this summer right I'm sorry that that picture was taken later this Summer that was yes and so um that's a very good example of we do have some landscaping that's been installed down below anything else Mr Juliana that's been been changed from that picture look I'm just looking I'm just looking over on the far left um it looks like there's uh dirt Mounds over there I think that's now uh grown in with grass um but that mostly uh looks close to what it is now but we are looking forward to dedicating this facility and having it ready for our girls teams in the upcoming season great so it's going to be awesome the East brunwick Education Association held a denim day this month to honor Veterans Day ebea members along with the District staff raiseed $2,000 to help support VFW Post 133 and the Wounded Warrior Project each holiday season Barnes & Noble organizes a book drive to support a local organiz ization in this year East Brunswick Public Schools was chosen as the beneficiary the new books collected will enhance our teacher classroom libraries and the book drive is currently underway and will continue until December 12th so thank you to Barnes and Noble the East Brunswick High School drama club is proud to present save Hamlet the production will run Friday November 22nd and Saturday November 23rd at 700 p.m. and Sunday November 24th at 3 p.m. and as always tickets can be purchased at ebhs dr.org believe it or not first quarter report cards can be viewed online through Parent Access tomorrow and that's Friday November 22nd hard copies will be made available at the request of anyone without internet access just a few important reminders Wednesday November 27th is a single session day with lunch serve for students in grades cas through 6 schools will be closed on Thursday November 28th and Friday November 29th for the Thanksgiving break and I would like to wish the East Bruns Community a wonderful Thanksgiving thank you thank you how do you do guys good yeah you're going to do better right oh see they know they're going to do better I have faith I already gave them a 10 so Dr veski had mentioned American Education week and we have a resolution of appreciation whereas public schools are the backbone of our democracy providing young people with the tools they need to maintain our nation's precious values of Freedom Civility and equality and whereas by equipping Young Americans with both practical skills and broader intellectual abilities schools give them hope for and access to a productive future and whereas public education employees be they administrators Teachers Health and student service workers Librarians custodians bus drivers clerical workers Food Service professionals skilled trade workers security guards technical employees or substitutes work tirelessly to serve our children and communities with care and professionalism and whereas Public Schools encounter encourage Community by bringing together adults and children Educators and volunteers Business Leaders and elected officials for a common purpose now therefore be it resolved that the East brunic Board of Education proclaims November 18th through 22nd 2024 as American Education week moveed by Mrs Becker second second by Mrs herck um and doctors and Vicki I thought I saw you somewhere here and her team and her team and I actually saw Mr Werth you want to vot oh well we have discussion yes this is true I'm going to so see Florence so um before I come and and give this to you I'm going to ask um all those in favor exension oppose extensions motion carries sorry about that guys I went a little out of order um but thank you all we really do appreciate you doing all that you do for a students and any of you did your did your parents get to come into see your classes this week for our friends that are here yeah you enjoy that that's good thank you thank you thank you I'm gonna give this congratulations very much thank you she's got the Steelers colors on so for you guys that big tall guy in green when my daughter was in the district that was one of our favorite teachers see things for you to look forward to but right now it's the one of the things that I look the most forward to when we have learning across the district because you brighten up our days you show everybody what is going on in our schools how well you're doing how amazing your teachers are in preparing you for things like this so our friends at Frost Elementary School um are going to be highlighting their schoolwide climate events from November and sharing their Galaxy of gratitude is that correct all right I'm not going to I'm not going to do any more spoilers I'm going to ask you to come on up and Lindsay's going to tell us what we got thank you I'm GNA even step on this okay hello so as you know I'm Lindsay Lori I am the East Brunswick education association's pep chair who helps organize these events and tonight I am proud to have our third and fourth graders here um to help present to you along with all of my amazing colleagues who's filling the back of the room so thank you so much um so our schoolwide theme for the 2024 2025 school year is Frost is out of this world every month is a different Focus depending on what events are happening we hold a frost family meeting at the beginning of each month where the whole school comes together to find out what our focus is in September we lifted off to learning in October we were launching into a peace school year this month in November our theme is Galaxy of gratitude and here are some of our third and fourth grade Frost students to share how we showed gratitude to our veterans this month veteran wa veterans who are family members of frost staff and students were invited for our Veterans Day celebration the school that we started off with a Bre Bre to welcome our veterans the the media center was decorated in red white and blue chains made by our student council after after breakfast after breakfast there their family members after breakfast students escorted their their family members to the to the gym for our assembly our veterans were introduced and then student council members members read a poem to them teachers and students brainstormed questions for our guests before the assembly we spent some times asking veterans some of our questions it was very interesting some things we learned from our veterans are that it was very hard to get anywhere close to8 hours of sleep also in order to keep in touch with friends and families some veterans wrote letters letters and could mail them for free all they had to do was write the word free where a stamp would normally go one veteran shared that he was able to call his friends and family because his unit had a lot of [Laughter] money we learned that the veteran often had challenging drills in the middle of the night one of the veterans shared they handled the fear of fighting by knowing that their Partners always had their backs lastly we learned some veterans were drafted While others joined the military voluntarily no not yet not yet after they answered our questions Su of frost students president presented our guests with cards that we made them we made for them cards we created earlier in the month with Buddy classes a buddy class is usually when an older grade class is paired with a younger grade level class to do some activities that go along with the monthly Focus our art teacher Miss K worked with the students to create amazing artwork for the East Brunswick VFW the artwork was inspired by the American Artist jaser John's to conclude the celebration our music teacher Miss cam led the school to a patriotic song Proud To Be An American it was A Day to Remember so we have a nice little presentation to show you oh great of uh our Day celebrating our veterans so we celebrate our veterans on the 11th of November we thank them for their and pledge always to you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] okay I want to first and foremost I want to thank um our Frost Community for coming out tonight to support you know even though the emails came out too make sure you're here but I know that you will always come out for our students because we are definitely a family Miss Lori Miss schwam Miss com thank you so much for all that you did to make sure this project um kind of went went out went off without a hitch but tonight we were able to provide you with a glimpse of the amazing events that take place at Frost as a school Community is important to show our students the meaning of gratitude and to thank those who have given so much to us the Veterans Day celebration is just one of the many activities that take place during the month of November where our students are able to learn more about their community members and just to say thank you I hope you enjoyed our presentation tonight students you know I am always so very proud proud of you you did an amazing job um please know that we always have to come and do with the frost way and we hope you enjoy our presentation and we have one more part that's extra special oh camera's behind me you we want to thank the board the Board of Education members for having us tonight can everyone please stand up to conclude our presentation the same way we conclude our Frost family meetings with our Frost Mantra we are We Are Family we are models we are optimistic we are smart we are talented we are number one [Applause] yes can I take a picture hello I'm Julia Julia Kinski I'm the art teacher at Frost and the week before and the week of Veterans Day week or day we created poppy inspired artworks students had a brief introduction to moena Michaels who created the idea of poppies being a symbol for remembrance of our veterans and we created artworks showing the texture of ground to represent the hard Earth that poppies are able to grow grow through and to show their resilience and how their resilience is like our resilience of our strong veterans so we made uh these poppy flowers second graders used lot texture with tissue paper and our third and fourth graders learned to do a layered poppy flower with two two kind of bow tie looking pedals [Applause] good job absolutely CH October [Music] [Music] because they had yeah they moved it to the 12 thank you all great job I have so you guys got to see that Heroes walk amongst us right some of you even had those heroes in your family I think that's beautiful and I love that you shared that with us and I'm going to call a brief recess but before I do and let you guys go home to finish any homework or whatever you get to do at 8:00 at night I have a special treat for you my friend Rishi over there is a high school student and he is going to share with you what's been going on at the high school so give you a little bit of a glimpse into your future well uh good evening ladies and gentlemen it was wonderful to see you guys go up and uh present um I myself went to frost so it was wonderful to see things are definitely still the Frost Way um so that was amazing but um it's been a while since we last met but last met but I have a lot of important news and information that I'm excited to share I want to start off by congratulating all the fall sports teams on an amazing year we had multiple teams qualif qualify for States and perform very well most notably our girls tennis team who won State sectionals talking to talking to senior captain of the boys cross country team Samar lamba he says finishing my final season of cross country was a bitter sweet moment for me and I will miss the the dynamic and exciting atmosphere AB brought but I am grateful for the memories and lessons the sport has given me as we look forward toward towards the winter season teams will be kicking things back into full gear following Thanksgiving break not only will they be burning off those Thanksgiving calories but they will be engaging in team bounding activities and scrimmages against local towns some major events have happened at ebhs since the last meeting including student council's annual homecoming with 700 plus tickets sold and 800 attendance my fellow peers all agreed that this is one of the best student homecomings within the last year as president hearing that I just had to get myself a pad in the back nonetheless this event would not have been possible without the tireless efforts of all the students and staff involved on the day prior to homecoming students Lin the terminal hallway putting their best efforts on display during hallway decorating watching each class get fired up and competing to have the best decorations was truly a sight to see unfortunately for the sophers and juniors the seniors put on a dominant display and walked away with the title A best hallway decorations the East brunck Education Foundation Student Association ran their annual 5K barar crawl this past weekend and it was a huge success the Student Association had about 50 volunteers helping out with planning the event running signin cheering on the runners and even running in the race the EB Education Foundation and Student Association worked cohesively to make this CommunityWide event as successful as possible students at the I High School have gotten the firstand look into the amazing things that ebf provides the event had over 500 Runners from across the community has been the most successful date to to date most successful event to date Junior and president of the Student Association tazne barsby says it was fun seeing all the members of the community come together and seeing the efforts of volunteers were amazing I can't wait till next year looking ahead towards promising events tomorrow the ebh ebhs drama club will be putting on their annual winner production performing the play save Hamlet senior and president of the drama club Mia rosin says the drama drama club has cast and crew has worked so hard to put on their production of save Hamlet after many long rehearsals and builds they're ready to put on their production on Friday Saturday and Sunday come out and see the show personally walking by the auditorium daily it is truly a spectacle to see the amazing sets they have handcrafted if you are free this weekend please take the time to watch the hard work of these students on display finally next Tuesday at the high school the girls will take on the grid iron and the boys will be on the sidelines during nhs's annual Anderson Bowl senior and president s coach our says it'll not only be a memoral high school experience but also a show of compassion as all the proceeds are going to Leslie Anderson scholarship fund and the St Jude's Children Hospital students are excited to support a good cause and watch their fellow classmates cheerlead and play football personally not only am I excited to watch the game but I'm even more amped up for the Chick-fil-A that will be provided at on Tuesday night with holiday festivities approaching next week I want to wish everyone Happy Thanksgiving and a great holiday there are many things I thankful for including this great opportunity to speak at the board of ENT meeting and meet with all the cherish members of our community thank [Applause] you all right our Frost friends did did did your Frost alumni here did he do you proud all right so a couple of years maybe some of you will kind of eye that seat then thank you very much you get better and better every report we had quotes this time this was really impressive and now I understand why cuz he came from the frost family because you were all very well spoken so I am actually going to call for a brief recess about 3 minutes board members um so that you guys can maybe take a couple pictures with your parents and um head home you are more than welcome to stay but I understand the late hour um feel free to um to exit at your uh leure we'll see you back in a few minutes change there we go and and we're back hard to follow that correct true that that's that is my favorite and I I am so appreciative I think did Lindsay leave oh okay so you'll tell her um these are the best loar across the district is absolutely the best and right we are incredibly grateful for it and I did not know you went to frost and I would have had you up there with them had I known that so president LAX before open good to the cause yes could I make a statement for the record just to for the public domain just to correct what we believe is a misstatement on social media sure sure um from time to time we're made aware of of things that are posted at a variety of social media sites we were made aware today that uh there was a post that alleged that one of our um members of the transportation department did not have a valid CDL license and had been transporting students without the proper credal ials um I want to assure the community that that is not correct um that the individual that was referenced in the post does in fact have a valid CDL license and I just wanted to state that for the record so there won't be any further miscommunication about it thank you no I appreciate that that's very important thank you okay um we are up to the good of the cause for the public the Board of Education recognizes the value of public comment and and educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters of community interest to protect the privacy of all students and staff concerns regarding individual students and staff members should generally be addressed by first meeting with the appropriate administrative staff you will have three minutes to speak to the board I always like to remind people this is a time to speak to the board if there's anything that needs followup I will ask you to leave your information with the ladies in the front and they will be sure to get back to you and that being said is there anyone this evening that would like to speak to the board Randy come on up and I'm just going to ask everyone when you get to the microphone if you could please state your name and address for the record hi my name is Randy gagnan I'm 17 Buffalo Run proud Frost family uh vice president of the brunic Education Foundation I'm here on behalf of Jack levit he's away on vacation to report some news uh we just finished our big Grant season at our last meeting the grants committee presented us with just over $47,000 in Grants that they approved in that group there were several grants that spanned over the whole District so every school is getting something this round as always the grants are creative and wide ranging in scope we had a grant for an AI app to help early readers we have a Shakespeare company coming to perform A Midsummer Night's Dream for our eighth graders and a gym game that can be used to build different skills at each school and this fall we will be giving away our three $3 millionth we plan to celebrate by presenting the recipient with a big check and a bit of a surprise ceremony which I believe Dr veski and some others will be attending we're also coming off a hugely successful bear crawl which featured over 560 Runners and of all ages and raised over $177,000 huge shout out to the dream team that made this happen the district's own Meg Fischer and Katie matesi we're hoping to see you all next year with your running gear please this time uh reminder Barnes & nobl book fair is coming up shortly December 7th and 8th just in time for the giftgiving season finally re-energized our Facebook Instagram please like us and follow us uh you can track the events if you'd like to attend and see all the grants we have awarded in action thank you again for your time and Happy Thanksgiving to everyone thank you Randy and thank you for all of the Education Foundation does for the district it's greatly appreciated Oh I thought bill was coming to speak there anyone else yeah I did too oh you faked us out hi come on algra Sidler 12 South Woodland Avenue um those of you who have read my forwarded correspondence with upper Administration are likely aware that myself and several other parents across the district are significantly concerned with the quality of our language arts curriculum our tier one curriculum is based primarily on fountis and panel and Lucy ckins units of study also known as Moss flower copious amounts of literature spanning decades exists explaining the numerous issues with both of these products including the revision for those who are hearing about this for the first time tonight to summarize the district curriculum often referred to in whole as balanced literacy is outdated not rooted in the science of reading and is known to be academically harmful it does not appropriately identify struggling readers it does not off does not Foster sufficient growth and it is being removed from schools Across the Nation with phenomenal success I have requested further information regarding the district's 2023 decision to purchase the revised units of study immediately after its contentious publication and despite the non-existent data showing success the creator of which denied all evidence that any changes were indicated for at least two decades the district has been unable to sufficiently provide responses regarding what other curriculum was considered how much this revised addition cost why parents were not explicitly informed that a new curriculum would be implemented or what the current mtss data shows about how our curriculum is serving our children furthermore in my quest to obtain such information I discovered the district appears to be woefully out of compliance with the state gifted and talented law from 2020 Administration asserts that the differentiation supplied by the aformentioned Tier 1 curriculum is sufficient to act as a gifted and talented program for lower grades seeing as the law requires a formal program with publicly posted criteria this very clearly does not qualify all things considered the current curriculum is a hindrance to students of all levels this would be incredibly apparent if teachers were empowered to speak freely with parents and voice their concerns to Administration without fear of retaliation while that's a story for another day I am pleading with you you to please look into this there are many parents and Educators who know too well the damage it is causing in communication with the district I was told that foun and panel have been in use for 15 years in that time we have added plug after plug in an attempt to fill the holes in this curriculum hegerty fundations limited Orton Gillingham training the associated professional developments my opinion is that we are past due to get rid of the actual problems and stop the academic and fiscal hemorrhage covering it up has caused this is an opportunity for Change and our current students did not have another 15 years to wait my correspondence is heavily cited and it was forwarded to the board if you have any further questions thank you Miss Sidler is there anyone else this evening that would like to speak to the board okay seeing none I'm going to close the public portion and before I ask for a motion to move this evening's agenda is there anything that need separating out no then I am going to ask for a motion for this evening's agenda moved by Mrs Becker second second by Mrs herck is there any discussion on any item on tonight's agenda I have yes I just wanted to say about the trips that are planned by Community programs um I had the pleasure of being in the community programs meeting earlier earlier this week last week last week um everything before the holidays gets sort of a rush but the trips that we are running uh on the days that school has off are phenomenal and the only problem I had with any of it was that my seven-year-old overheard about the trip to American Dream um she heard the zoom from the other room and now apparently we have to let her go but but the offerings American dream uh we have Liberty Science Center yeah I was looking for that Liberty Science Center I mean these are trips that we would all love to be able to take our kids on but the idea of them being able to get to go with their friends on a day off when their parents might have to work it's just such a great opportunity for them I just want to make sure we shared that thank you Mrs herck yes so um first I just want to say um regarding the dance team um and the hiring of um the burp giving the siphon for the coaches I'm happy to see The Varsity dance team come to fruition and I commend the young ladies who came to the board months ago with a plan and worked with the athletic department and the admin team to see it through um regarding the New Jersey qac um thank you for providing me the information regarding the rating of our prior qac score from 21-22 it seems when we were last evaluated we exceeded the required passing scores for each category including receiving a 100 for fiscal management operations and Personnel currently it seems are waiting for the county to provide us with some of our scoring information for 2425 do we have a time frame as to when we expect to hear back from the county regarding our new score Dr bully do you want to speak we actually are in the qac process right now so we're submitting the DPR which you're approving tonight which is the um preliminary part of of the qac process but they'll actually do an on-site uh review they'll come in Dr Bo do you have an update on when they're going to arrive I believe January February would be the time frame okay perfect thank you and we're qac for us is a threeyear cycle so every three years we're evaluated on our proficiency by the state and um just one last thing for the linkit I'm looking forward to seeing the reports that are being offered on school level on District data as I think it can be very helpful to look at patterns and Trends and areas of achievement and Improvement for our students that's all it Dr James I just wanted to uh direct the Public's attention to community programs number one because I know that's come up um a few times recently there's been um interest in it so this is a title to grant funding um to provide Career Training for some adult school students I just thought some uh folks would be interested to know uh that that is um happening as usual and that it's being approved here on this agenda so just another exciting thing to pull out under the Community program's uh fun part of the agenda thanks thank you okay I'm going to ask the secretary to please call the role Mrs Becker yes Mr goswami yes Mrs guas yes Mrs herck yes Dr James yes Mrs ree yes president LAX yes motion carries leaving leaving us to community I'm sorry I'm having trouble speaking this evening committee reports information items and for the good of the cause for the board um and I just wanted to um start out because Thanksgiving is next week and this is a month of gratitude we talk about people like the veterans who are the heroes among us we've talked about our teachers and American Education week um so I just want to say all the things I'm thankful for um and I also just wanted to make a quick statement that I'm thankful for the people that I've served on this board with some for for a long time some for a shorter time and I'm thankful for the new people that are coming on board and I'm looking forward to unification um and working together because what we saw tonight these kids and this gentleman up here who came from that are really what this is all about and for the people that sit up here um we know that we appreciate the people that make children like that turn into young adults like this um and so I'm thankful and I'm optimistic so I just wanted to make that comment and um I will turn it over to Mrs Becker thank you uh last night uh the Township Recreation Park Advisory Board met and I just wanted to bring attention to two upcoming events uh this Sunday the 24th the East Brunswick Community synfonia will be presenting a concert at the Community Arts Center at 3:00 as of last night there were some tickets left and if you go to the east brunck Township website and go um either into events or the recreation or the Arts uh and culture page there is a link to purchase tickets this is um for those of us who had the the privilege to attend the First Symphony it was composed of mainly professional uh artists um this Symphonia is community members and I was told that they range in age from I think it was 16 to 82 wow so um really looking forward to seeing that the other thing is on December 7th is the winter wonderland and um those who came last year we remember so many things and unfortunately the weather this year um we put in a fix for very very good dry very dry weather um it's going to be Saturday December 7th from 1:00 to 7 p.m. there's many many family events Holiday Market lighting ceremony there'll be live music dancers carolers cookies with claws seasonal children and family photos a lot of kids activities food trucks train rides Isa skating winter t and sores get it I was just going to ask Dana do we get sores again um the best it really was wonderful and uh they have even more vendors uh this year and um just wanted to let everyone know about it then it's for anyone um but um very family oriented which of course is what he friend's about thank you thank you just to add to what Vicki said uh uh the community Symphonia tickets just eight are left so if you want just go rush and buy it only eight left I am part of that Symphony there were a few no few is eight no few is eight okay as of yesterday night thank you thank you Mrs is Rees um I just two things I went to the cpeg resource Fair uh so imagine you'll be mentioning that as well but I just wanted to say it was a great experience it was larger than it was previously and a lot of credit to cpeg and to the district for putting you know what all your support for that event and uh some of the therapeutic resources that they had available transition resources very impressive and uh I also wanted to mention i' had gone to the school boards conference back in October and I attended a session on high impact tutoring and uh we offer high impact tutoring here at the district and for those that not familiar with it it basically the definition they gave us it refers to a structured form of tutoring that is free frequent sustain and focus on specific academic needs so basically after covid there was uh you know loss due to co and um learning loss in different areas so the district has been fortunate um uh that we received some funding refer back in um January of 24 we received $460,000 and we were able to have tutoring grades K to 12 and language arts and Mathematics and then we also had virtual tutoring opportunities at that time and then in October of 2024 Public Schools again got $37,000 about that amount for tutoring service and so we've had 3,892 hours of tutoring for our students so uh I think it's a very valuable resource to help our kids uh to to get back to where they need to be I I mean Nationwide it's been an issue and also our reading just for a reference 42% of the population our third graders are reading level in the state and if I'm correct districtwide we're at 62% with other some of the schools are at a higher level so absolutely we definitely listen to the concerns of the community but I just want you to be assured that there are efforts in place to help our students and I even remember um we have more tutoring at the high school near the midterm right during midterms maybe you can fill me in on that too because I forget a little bit right there's cuz I remember Emily used to talk about that and that's a big help to by you know midterm time to have additional help and we use our own folks to to to do that our our our staff for is so excellent at what they do so that makes a big difference to to the kids so thank you to the district thank you to the teachers and the administrators who make all this possible and I just wanted to you know that was one of the topics of the convention so it it's a very good convention a lot of us went uh to to the uh School Board conferences so when you see what do they do there that's some of the things that uh they have different topics all different people from all over the state uh with all kinds of different Innovations and things like that Ai and so many different topics all right thank you so much for your time thank you Mrs herck so I also want to um say I I attended the New Jersey school boards Workshop in uh Atlantic City was really great experience um as m said talked um we got to learn areas of student achievement School climate fiscal responsibility um talked about legislative updates throughout the state it was a great opportunity and I'm really thankful to Mr Juliana and his team for their assistance in making it a very smooth experience um in October is actually at Churchill with Mrs Reese uh we observed Living Voices the right to dream presentation which combines live performance with film to represent diverse backgrounds this presentation followed a young African-American activist Ruby coming of age in the South during the black civil rights movement our presenter was very passionate and knowledgeable and the class that we participated with was very engaged and asked a lot of questions um we had our community programs meeting in October we discussed enrollment in before and after care which is at a slight decrease from the prior year as more parents continue to work from home or arrange care with family members all ask programs currently have homework tutors providing homework help at every school student workers are also present which gives our high school students a chance to work with children um all staff have been provided CPR training which includes the use of AED and an EpiPen during our meeting we also reviewed the number of students with IEPs attending morning and after care in each building and how with the support of Louise um Sultana loka Community programs is looking to expand enrichment programs geared towards special educ ation students for after school enrichment program continues to include TNT Sports chess mad science coding schools out programming which Mrs um which was talked about before regarding um going to trips such as the Nickelodeon Universe at American Dream all we also talked about Ela and how new units of study are being implemented some of these are really cute one is pet study which U talks about focusing and caring for pets and owl's Pals which is about social emotional learning um Adult School enrollment is already over 200 and of course all this great programming would not be possible if not for Amry Gilbert and her amazing staff so I'm thankful to all of them for being part of a great Community program's meeting um as was mentioned the special education parent advisory group held a resource fair at the high school on November 13th it had a great turnout we're really excited we're really happy a huge thank you to Sarah Jessica Rose and the special education administrative team for putting it together uh earlier this week I attended a workshop on creating a positive School climate it focused on school climate teams examining how school districts can utilize School climate teams to develop a plan that includes areas of concern goals tools and intended outcomes it spoke of board members roles in reviewing information provided by school climate teams and supporting a positive learning environment with policy change training and resources as needed I shared information provided with Dr veski and board leadership and on Tuesday I um for American Education week I visited Miss R's Spanish class where students were working on presenting their oral assignments regarding a country they would like to visit I loved being in the classroom watching our students learn and I'm grateful for Miss re's willingness to share her classroom and excitement with me um just one more thing that I wanted to touch on um because it's come up a few times regarding the semi form or the semi form so um I know that this came up at our special education parent advisory group meeting that Dr veski you were at in August and there were some concerns because usually how the form is presented is uh at an IEP meeting it would be given to the parents and they would sign it um or we would expect to get it back signed and these forms are one form that is I guess we could say audited by the state and it seems that we weren't meeting the uh number or the um like we weren't getting them back and so what we did when speaking with the state and having recommendations we added it to the list of forms that everybody signs before school goes back and I guess there has been some confusion about that form and the reason that we had changed it to that type of system um and that some were suggesting that the way we were trying to do it was to get money for services um or to not let parents know that we were trying to get money somehow though we were trying to be weird about how we were sticking it in but really it was a state recommendation to meet the goal of getting back the required number of forms and so I just wanted to make that clear because I know it's come up a few times um and just to let everybody know um you know we do need the form signed in order to get reimbursement from Medicaid for the services that are provided through the school SCH District um and that if a cons but only if the sign the form is signed and also signing the form though has no effect on a child's Medicaid coverage for services outside of school so if it's any Services used in school that doesn't restrict them from still receiving outside services so basically we tried to streamline the form to make sure that it was filled out and we were meeting the criteria for getting them back so I know that we acknowledged at the August meeting that it was confusing and that come next year we look for ways to to better have I guess have a better description where the form is or try to find a way to explain it a little better yeah Mrs Eric we we talked at that meeting about actually doing a communication that was focused just on that so parents wouldn't be confused about it because it is in a in a repository of a lot of forms that parents fill out at the beginning of the school year but giving that special attention to that so parents understand what they were signing and it will not impact the services their their students or their children are getting thank you just have a Happy Thanksgiving to everybody thank oh Mrs GL I just wanted to reflect in nowhere near as well-composed thoughts as yours are um I put in a lot of computer time today but I was just trying to write a fair assessment not a long comp compilation of what I thought um I wanted to say I had the opportunity to also attend the convention and um I had always wanted to but if you're a teacher and somebody says let's go someplace that's a little further away in the middle of the week um when the schools aren't closed it's difficult but I managed to make it work this year and I wanted to say I I think that the greatest value sometimes is if you go to classes and you find yourself reflecting And discussing on them days after weeks after which is what we've been doing for this so it's been really useful for me um I wanted to say that the community has had a lot of Outreach about things that they're concerned about about and many of the things that were spoken about tonight addressed it in one way or the other uh the resource fair is phenomenal and it's something that most districts don't have and I was grateful to be able to be there I was stunned at the community support from before it even opened the parking lot in front of the high school was so full I thought there were multiple large events going on I thought I had the wrong day for the play there was no parking and it was just it was all for that um I would also like to say that I was thankful that I took pictures of all the business cards and pamphlets that I took because I have since given them away to neighbors and community members because in discussing it they were very interested in what we had there and I had a parent text me to thank me and talk about how great the experience was before we had even left the room which is I think what it's all about and I had nothing to do with it other than that I was there and um to be supportive I also wanted to say when people talk about mental health the sources of strength trip is such a two-way opportunity for students um my daughter who isn't here so I can say this um my daughter had an opportunity to be a part of that trip and it's not just good for the kids that they go to see in the younger grades but it's also good for the high school students to be able to Mentor other students and to be able to share in this way so I like what we're doing there I want to say Jason Reynolds and quame Alexander I'm gonna have a fan girl moment here I'm an English teacher um the opportunity to have Jason Reynolds and quame Alexander in any way speaking to our students or near our students is phenomenal um I know I know a teacher that was able to obtain a grant elsewhere to get them in and it was incredibly expensive and or just Jason Reynolds and they had to sign all kinds of things nobody else was allowed in the room they weren't allowed to video they weren all it's very very hard to get them if you don't know who Jason Reynolds is he is a phenomenal young writer who whole idea is to make reading cool that kids should want to read and his description of his writing is that everything that he writes is a love letter to kids and kids are so responsive to him and he talks about real struggles that children have about you know racism and Prejudice and stereotypes and I I've never met a student who didn't want to read what he had to write after they'd read a little bit so I'm glad that we're putting that out there too for the kids I wanted to say that when we showed the softball and field hockey complex my favorite part did not get mentioned but there's water filling stations up there um if you're a parent watching a sport water filling stations is phenomenal because you would you would believe if you have if you have kids playing you know how many water bottles they're carrying to sports it's a lot of weight so I was happy to see that we put that up there so they're not throwing away water bottles and there was one more thing and I'm so grateful that the Powderpuff game was moved because it was supposed to be tonight my daughter's playing and I was going to miss it so I'm really sorry about the rain so excited and Happy Thanksgiving [Applause] okay this was fun um but now all good things must come to an end so I am going to ask for a motion to adjourn Mrs Becker Mr squ any discussion all those in favor opposed extensions motion carries thank you happiest of thanksgivings hug your family tight and we will see you next time I