##VIDEO ID:-XP3M_Aq58U## e test test e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e good evening welcome to a regular meeting of the East Windsor Regional School District Board of Education written advance notice of this meeting was provided at least 48 hours ago such notice provided the time date and location of this meeting and included the agenda to the extent it was known at the time notice of this meeting has been given in accordance with law minutes of this meeting are being kept by the board secretary and will be made available promptly to any member of the public requesting them from the board secretary at 25 Leen Lane heightstown New Jersey minutes will be provided at cost and in accordance with board policy are there any board members present who believe this meeting to be in violation of the open public meetings act there being none we may proceed in compliance with fire code of the state of New Jersey I call your attention to the emergency exits for this room which are located in the back and side please stand for the Pledge of [Music] Allegiance ALG to the flag of the United States of America to the republ stands one nation indivisible andice item C having read the materials received I move the agenda be approved as submitted second any questions P the board please Miss Drake yes Miss Lans yes Miss Patel Miss Salter yes Miss Kia yes Miss laruso yes item D be it resolved that the East Windsor Regional School District May hold two closed sessions at this meeting these closed sessions concern personnel and ewe EA and orisa perk update minutes of these closed sessions will be made available to the public when the need for confidentiality no longer exists second any questions hold the board please M Drake yes Miss Lans yes Miss Patel Miss Suter yes Miss Kia yes Miss laruso yes um so we don't have student representative report we have no presentation this meeting so we'll move to superintendent report okay good evening everyone just a few summer updates uh at the last meeting I believe on August 5th we had talked about um strategic plan and District goals so chair of the board that after the uh the receipt of the Strategic plan and the associated goals um and objectives we would uh we had our administrative retreat with scheduled during the week of August 12th so uh The District Administrative team had an opportunity to review of the objectives within the the plan obviously the goal areas the goal statements are set however we realized there were some uh prior core goal areas that we thought have value and relevance and were not intentionally uh evident within the uh proposed goal area so um we've Incorporated those goal areas into the uh the new goal uh plan so I just want to highlight those so those were the five areas three were incorporated into um the first goal area which was student centor learning so the first one was just talking about the the graduation component within our school district ensuring the students have the necessary Knowledge and Skills to qualify for and succeed in postsecondary educational and work rated opportunities that's currently 1.4 also we talked about ensuring that all students become functional skilled readers by third grade by strength the development of foundational literacy skills in grades K through 2 that's listed as 1.5 also under student cented learning uh we we brought forward the uh the goal area that talked about uh continuing to address the achievement gap of underperforming current former multilingual Learners economically disadvantaged and special education students as listed as 1.6 also we uh thought it was important to ensure that the under the Staffing goal are the professional development plan is aligned with the district's vision mission and established goals is 2.3 in terms of of uh Community engagement a goal three ensure the district decisions and operations reflect the diversity of the community Through commitment to educational Equity access opportunities and cultural responsiveness that's listed as 3.6 and um we also part forward the social emotional goal uh um it talks about cultivating the development of students fundamental social emotional skills essential for academic learning and success in life that's under the culture climate goal area and that's l c is 5.5 uh tonight there's several curriculum documents for approval um couple things in terms of what that looks like so on September 9th we'll have the remaining uh curriculum documents on the agenda for approv we actually could have have them one it tonight but we didn't want to overwhelm the the volume of the curriculum documents for the board to review so they will be on the agenda for uh September 9th a couple of uh things to highlight the um 2023 New Jersey student learning standards uh under the ELA umbrella um districts need to have those prepared for this school year we we do have those prepared initially the um Department of Education also indicated that the 2023 standards for math would also need to be um implemented during the school year uh recently about a month ago they indicated that that implementation could be delayed however we're prepared and we're going to uh roll that out so our math content grades 3 through2 we we already approved K2 at the August 5th meeting but grades 3 through2 will be on the agenda for approval on September 9th appreciate all the the teachers and our uh curriculum supervisors who engaged in those uh curriculum updates the last spe we also talked about I just mentioned that we were in the process of um reviewing an acceptable use policy for generative artificial intelligence AI quite relevant and popular so um there a couple of different things we looked at so we we actually have a small committee that we we met a couple of times we actually met today so we did receive um some guidelines from stout SME just in terms of a framework we already established a framework when we initially met without that policy guideline but we had a productive meeting today so my goal is to provide to the policy committee uh starting with the policy committee I'd like to to share something with them um within the next couple of weeks to hopefully get something established so we can at least have some parameters in terms of the role of AI um you know some of the appropriate uses of AI as it relates to supporting the educational experience obviously some things that students are not permitted to do as it relates to AI uh and obviously some of those potential consequences and pitfalls that can can occur um but also the the role of how teachers can leverage it within their classroom so I hope to have that to the board I intend to have that to the board for review the policy committee within the next couple of weeks uh as we approach the beginning of a new school year it is our annual tradition to host our new certificated staff members so we we're excited to do that that will begin tomorrow uh that will continue through Thursday so we have three days of new teacher orientation obviously under that teacher umbrella we're really talking about our certificated staff members so councelors chel stud team members and so forth uh so we're excited about welcoming about 55 uh new uh certificated staff members to The District some of those a small portion of those individuals already joined us last year but they miss disorientation so they'll be joining us for the next 3 days um this three days is really about um a few things one obviously setting some tone as it relates to the culture um and some of our expectations and also some traditions within our school district but also ensuring that our new staff members have a sense of the community um we'll engage them in a bus tour which is typically a highlight so they have a sense of of the lay of the land but obviously we will also engage in um providing an awareness of some best practices obviously dedicating time for them to have a deeper understanding of their specific role um whether it's related to classroom then they'll be delving into some instructional practices and some curriculum uh and then we'll also provide uh just some broader sense of um resources really resources for for them as uh new uh professionals acclimating themselves to our school district so very excited um to meet with those folks this week you may have noticed that during the summer uh there's been a missing piece Miss LaRosa just talked about the fact that we did not have a student representative report tonight so um don't worry we we'll have that returning in September uh the September 9th meeting we have our two new board reps that will be joining us sahana pumar and Sanji carala I think we meet we met them uh towards the end of the school year they were kind of passing to Baton but we are uh looking forward to them joining us and getting some information regarding uh what's happening with our student body at the high school I also wanted to provide an update regarding just for the fact that we started our our summer Athletics uh the high school uh but also the Middle School recently so wanted to provide the board an update regarding uh something that I definitely appreciate I think the community appreciates that would be the uh establishment of Middle School football so um we did create Middle School football the board uh supported that we had about 42 students uh register they started practicing last Monday August 19th U they it's a two-e window with them practicing uh participation has been great just want to thank also coach Schuman who's one of our High School coaches and also a parent in the community and Coach Charles who's a former graduate of heale high school so really excited about and thrilled about providing uh anytime we can expand opportunities for our young young people to engage in constructive and productive opportunities to Showcase talent but also learn a sense of discipline and being part of a broader team Beyond themselves we welcome that and I think developing that at the middle school level is critical I would also just like to remind the board that last year we approved well the board approved the expansion on formalizing uh a volleyball program making that an inter Scholastic sport of the high school huge numbers uh we started with a junior varsity team here for both boys and girls very successful and we're looking forward to kind of continuing that as we transition into this school year summer construction uh this year I've talked about this a few times we we haven't had as much summer construction this year but still enough um to kind of keep us busy so I just want to provide an update regarding G&R specifically May mention of this before and this is about a fouryear window GNR obviously is one of our older buildings in the community uh so as much as we appreciate its character and history uh for an elementary school that used to be a high school it tended to need some updating uh not just aesthetically but also the infrastructure within the school so we've uh through the support of the board we've been investing periodically during the past four years in particular um with upgrades both from a HVAC standpoint uh but also from a classroom um kind of layout and configuration floor fling uh new lighting um some cabry within rooms so this this summer serves or represents as the final kind of room upgrade phase of the process where we upgraded the cafeteria we upgraded the third grade Wing uh with new flooring new lighting uh and anytime we upgrade Lighting in the district at this point we're going with LED lighting which makes a significant difference in terms of Illuminating the space we're also engaged in upgrades to the library media center at G&R that also includes the HVAC upgrades as well so we're excited about the work at G&R what's remaining at G&R will be to move into a phase of kind of focusing on hallways we started that process but we have not completed it but in terms of rooms uh this will represent um the completion of that which is a pretty heavy lift during the past four years couple of things so as a reminder uh the last board meeting talked about and we've been communicating this with our community just in terms of August 23rd served as the date for the parent portal to be available for families to gain access uh to find out if you're an elementary parent who your child's teacher is for the upcoming school year if you haven't done that please I'll urge folks to do that if there's any concerns regarding access in the portal uh please reach out to your child school and they can provide some support and assistance in terms of making that happen uh in addition to Elementary uh teachers uh um secondary middle school high school obviously can find their schedules for the upcoming school year we recognize with the secondary level sometimes with schedules you may see the schedule and it's not what you anticipated it to to be so if that's the case reach out to your child's school um and either via a counselor or an administrator we can provide some support uh regarding what that means uh obviously the first day of school is uh Thursday September 5th we are looking forward to our students returning our uh teachers our 10mth staff will return on Tuesday September 3rd we'll gather here at the high school in the auditorium for our staff commucation and uh definitely looking forward to a year of possibilities and potential and uh with that it concludes my report thank you did the um the high school did the entrance way get done no so the entrance way did not get done it will get done there's have been a delay regarding the starting point for that a lot of the work with that is is internal where we converting kind of an access point between the school and the exterior so um I believe we should be getting that work started like tomorrow yeah we we were um scheduled to start demo um today or tomorrow we have not confirmed that or the contractor has not confirmed that with us we're trying to get them wrangled down to that uh they had indicated when we met about two we weeks ago that they could get the noisy heavy dirty uh work done before school started that was contingent upon starting today or tomorrow so we're looking to see their schedule so that won't will that have a lot of if it's started this week will it have a lot of disruption once classes start next week no no but it just won't be finished before school [Music] starts does anyone have any questions for Mark just one on the math curriculum will there be any changes to the textbooks or material is the same not this year no if there's no other questions um we'll move on to item five first opportunity for board member comments are there any board members have any comments I have a a bunch oh wait that's a I just want wanted to again propose the idea of moving to committee as a whole for all of our committees um I think it has a lot of benefits um in the seven months that I've been on the board I've only heard finance and curriculum report out once in seven months policy was again cancelled tonight we've had other committees canel they're not not rescheduled and I know we're always concerned about people's commitment of time actually if we were to have our first Monday meeting we all have two meetings set aside so if we were to have our first Monday meeting be our working meeting and our second our regular approval voting meeting we would actually be committing less time because we wouldn't have our additional policy meeting and I just feel like having committee as a whole would really Foster more board discussion um I was hoping like last week T um timy you weren't here and so we pushed the discussion off like I your notes that you sent on the last curriculum meeting which was April 22 which we still haven't discussed like there's so many things on there that I think we need to discuss as a board but we still haven't we still haven't done that we were waiting for you I don't know if you're prepared to do that later tonight ding our old business committee meetings but there's a lot of stuff from April 22nd I just think that it's a really valid suggestion there's a lot of other districts that run by committee as a whole and I just don't feel like our committees are effective right now in the in the sense that it is and I think that if we were to move to a committee as a whole even for policy policy committee has made a really good Headway on getting through several of the outdated policies but if we had more of us doing it it could be faster so I don't know if anybody has any opinion or discussion on that I can see it working both ways my apprehension is that if we have a committee of the whole for all of our issues our our one monthly meeting could last a long time and we need to be sensitive of to people people's times the reason why we have committees in the other room is so that certain people could hash it out bring it back to us and then we can work on it I understand the whole curriculum that's a larger thing which is why I did say perhaps with curriculum because it's such a vast it's not just curriculum but it's also like the documentation of approval of commit curriculum but it's how our district was run and processes that are in place it's a big topic so I how would that work I don't understand how having one committee as a committee of the whole I don't know how that would work logistically like it's just that anything that comes up for curriculum related we would talk about here as a whole because it's a lot of information to push through the policy like you said you guys made great Headway on it already you're Distributing it amongst us out to us which is how we've done it in the past so anything the finance stuff if there's something that goes on on there you come out you tell us about it if we have further questions we have a quick discussion instead of everyone having to sit here for every single topic but that doesn't happen it doesn't happen that's my problem and concern is that Finance has met one time in seven months since I've been here I I I have heard one report out on finance and there wasn't even any discussion like I don't feel like and when we come here we we're whoever is in there comes out and says everything and we all just sit here because everything is spewed at one time we don't hit it by bullet point and we also don't have anything in front of us to look at because there was no agenda questions when people present out like when we did Wellness last meeting if there's questions that's when we H that's why we do it in board member comment so if people have questions on the committee and what was said that's when you would ask the questions yes I I agree that's when but a lot of times we don't have any discussion because it it happens it's like rapid fire but if there's questions when they're saying rapid fire you can say can you slow down or wait I have a question on XY or Z so I I actually do have questions but it's from last time the the committee read out and at the time I didn't have any questions and I didn't have the questions until we got the presentation so I'll be bringing them up today which is why it's on Old business right but the policy committee I raised back in February that we had outdated policies and we're just now getting to it but we had discussions about it we went and had stra Esme do their assessment and it's it's moving forward everything can't happen overnight unfortunately and I've been to one finance committee meeting since I've been on board one whereas the other finance committee was rescheduled and no one could go because it was the C's graduation and we were looking for other dates right and it was never rescheduled okay but I mean for the other committees I haven't heard any other issues with anyone else having the Committees I will say back years ago we did do curriculum as a committee before I was on the board I would say right now because this is a conversation that should be had and we could actually check Mark table this for our board retreat which still hasn't been scheduled that I would like to do and I understand I pushed for it to be over the summer because I feel that's downtime but everyone goes away myself included I went away three times so it's hard to heard cats over the summer for lack of a better you know description so we can definitely have this discussion during our board retreat I'd like to have it when all of our board members are present board retreat is a special meeting so it is you know open to the public um so it's not like we're going to be behind closed doors talking about this it's still you know a discussion to be had out loud that would be my suggestion instead of having it here tonight when three of our board members are absent and I think maybe everyone needs to think on it because there's pros and cons to having it both ways absolutely and I've heard pros and cons mostly cons from people who do Board of a whole because they say they never get anything done and their meetings are five hours long that that's what I've heard in my six years seven years yeah six years of being a board member but that's not to say that would happen here we could be more productive absolutely but are those that have the Committees run by the Committees do their committees meet more than once a quarter more than four times a year not necessarily there's everybody does it different I've I've seen people meeting once a month I've seen people meeting once a quarter I've seen people meeting once a year on certain committees which I think is not acceptable so we just have to find our groove and we also have to remember that everything can't happen at a fast pace as much as we want it to it can't happen but it's a great discussion to have but I don't think we're going to answer that tonight to say that we're going to do it no I don't think so either but I think it's one a discussion to have sure but the board retreat might be a like we're keep looking for topics of what we want to cover I think a lot of it is how the functioning of the board and how we're doing things and maybe making some changes and that could be all topics to do at the board retreat so hopefully we can get that nailed down a time probably not September I'm hoping beginning of October we could find a date that works for everybody because September is going to be busy for everybody and including our Administration to have them involved so I do remember when we had the curriculum committee because everybody wanted to be on it I was really interested and so we had folks come and every the the folks who would go to the committee meeting just came and presented to all of us how would that work all in one meeting I get concerned just for myself of jumping from this topic to this topic to this topic and not really being able to get my head around anything in particular which sometimes even happens at the board meetings for me but couldn't you just pick the topics like that are relevant for that meeting like not every meeting that meets of the committee as a whole has to go through every single topic but we know okay this this meeting we need to go through some policy information and some Finance information but next meeting we may not have to do that so it wouldn't be every one every meeting right it would be okay thank you you could also just for the the Committees for example Wellness I think is fine meeting quarterly but if Poli policy you have Comm if you have things that you need to meet more often as you are no one said that we couldn't have additional meetings for finance or policy um or curriculum absolutely but we need the commitment of people to come so you're not you can't guarantee necessarily that you're going to get the commitment of people if you're going to have a five hour meeting of the whole with the and I never said five hour meeting on the whole but all I'm saying there is a possibility since February one finance committee meeting there was two February and April April was cancelled no June was cancel so I wasn't here February then so so it was February and April um then we passed the budget and then June we had to reschedule um and then there's one scheduled for September night right which I said for weeks now that I cannot attend okay Paul can you email the committee so we can reschedule that you want to reschedule the September 9th meeting okay yes Paul I can't come okay or can you take a poll to see so who else is on finance it's me Colleen Paula jti least three you have a temporary U or interim date if you guys want to pick it out tonight and let me know and I'll let Colleen I'll check Colleen's availability so it sounds like we all agree that some finagling has to be done for P for the Committees and so we have a couple of different ideas having some committees more often having some having them having having the B Committee of the whole and I guess it's something that we'll have to decide um what I mean So the plan for deciding that I guess would be to decide on a day for the retreat is that what we want to do [Music] okay could you turn your mic on please [Music] hi can we finalize the finance uh can we do the following which is the September 23rd the following week I mean next more Mee if it's possible yeah would that work for everyone we're missing one person right thank you Mark and I can make that JY can make that what about Paula Nicole I don't have my work calendar but it should be fine okay all right so I'll wait for confirmation for and I'll also confirm with Colleen um September 23rd what time would you like to start normally we start at 6 but we don't have a board meeting that night still work it's just fine thank you are there any other board members have comments yeah first I'd like to say once again when audience members are speaking or answering questions of the board if they can please come up and turn the mic on cuz when you listen back to the um meetings on YouTube no one can you can't hear anything most of the time for the I heard Chris at La 17th the one meeting I was here he was in the front row so I was able to hear him but most of the time when David was answering questions or people you can't hear the question so there's no point in having it and also there's certain board members like if we're not fully talking into the mic it's also not being broadcast well or it's very very quiet and you have like I had my headphones turned up so loud and you can't hear it so for our sake if we miss a board meeting and want to go back and watch it I've mentioned this before but also for the public who doesn't want to listen and watch we should have them be able to hear everything so that's number one um Mark I wasn't here to officially congratulate you so I'm doing that now um on your superintendent of Mercer County of the year um and I appreciate and look forward to honoring and celebrating the others throughout the district that Aon had mentioned that's super exciting so and we had talked about you know doing special things each month for for you know honoring people and showing what the district is doing which is great um David I thank you for your suting an informative update on special education and look forward to the future updates and the statistics I do have one question I will put it in an email if you can't answer it now oh he's not here I sorry I have my computer glasses on so that's embarrassing my reading glasses so I will put it in in a in an email but I was wondering like it was news to me that Wilson was the reason why we really didn't look to um Implement changes to the way the kid shoes were learning it was like third grade and then we were stepping it back to second grade because Wilson those were Wilson's guidelines about implementing a program why aren't we doing it in prek and kindergarten I know we're looking to move it to first but if we're moving it to First there's always indicators as early as prek even with students with specific learning disabilities specifically I'm speaking with so that's something I'd maybe love us to talk about because it would help us I think it could help immensely in Meet reaching our goal for having readers at grade level by third grade so we can follow up on that me there there's some curriculum revisions K2 as it relates to making pheic awareness more intentional for all students obviously we have Foundations at the K2 level as well which addresses that but we can we can talk more specifically yeah of course we have it I'm looking like those as atrisk students like there's indicators that teachers can Zone in on and and kind of pull out going hey maybe we should look at this student closer we're also looking at we we're looking at some um additional screening tools like Dibbles as well so okay great I think yeah there definely an attack yeah I'm sure there is but like if we can hear about it too cuz that was a great presentation and I've been looking for that information for a while because I heard some of it from David and Chris last year and that was it was wonderful to hear what we're doing um oh Jean actually also mentioned something about the visiting to see what the programming is like but Dave was very specific about not interrupting instruction time so that was if were anyone's interested in going to see like the ice cream day or to maybe even be a guest Chef a guest cook in the in the in the selfcontain classrooms or something like that that could be fun um and then for right now my last question is how did scop training go for the additional staff members and how many participants did we have and if you can't answer now that's fine you can get back we had about 970 PR no so we had several three-day sessions uh actually the train was here for 3 days at a clip he broke it up into AM and PM sessions I don't I don't have the specific numbers but I sat in on a number of training San I know if you know the number off the top of your [Music] head look definitely well attended so that was on the presentation from last meeting was it last meeting or the meeting that was the July meeting it had to be July meeting I get you we'll get you the number I mean in terms of maybe I just you anecdotally it was well attended you know by Design we we made it a little bit more I think teacher friendly um that hopefully will create some additional curiosity one of the selling points for us it's not a hard sell but I think we shared this before the trainer that that um that we've consistently requested is a large part of that process so um yeah it was definitely um folks took advantage of it this summer and we will we will be offering the three-day training this year for designated groups who work uh under the bilingual ESL umbrella okay great thank you tin if I could just respond a little bit to the sound I had a audio tech out last week from Reed sound who we played around with the system uh so hopefully go ahead and listen to the meeting tonight I think you'll see an improve sound quality also you have a very good point about speaking into the mic so as a general rule of thumb when you talk imagine a closed fist between yourself and the microphone you should be somewhere around there to to make sure that we're picked up at home the there's a different uh volume for inside and there's also a different volume that goes out to the YouTube stream and they have to be a different levels and sometimes it's hard to tell what's streaming out until you hear it and it's too late but we think we have that better thanks for being proactive about that are there any other board comments I'll just add some follow-ups from last meeting and I know I I sent this so it was responded I haven't checked my emails yet today do we have any feedback on the curriculum software and which curriculum was used to demo it or yes so I shared this with you shared it with the board probably two board meetings ago so we said that we're going to go with Atlas as the the company and we're going to use the business Department's curriculum so we're going to have the board approve the curriculum and then migrate that curriculum over to Ellis I'm going to do that this year oh so we'll approve it first and then migrate it so that's what I was questioning yes anything we were approving now was with the new software yes okay um and any update on the Twilight program no I mean the what I'll say to you is we've identified some students that we are not we're going to offer additional support for them to accelerate their credit recovery but it will not be a traditional Twilight program they're still going to attend school and then we're going to we're going to look to leverage some time beyond the school day to to accelerate their their credits but it's not you know it's not a traditional we're looking at that as being a pilot uh but we're looking to start that this year so what happens with the budget then that was set aside right now the money's there know we we initially allocated funds for some staffing to support that this won't require that this will be stien additional pay so we will not be exhausting all of that budget this [Music] year now if something changes obviously I'll I'll let the board know you know what I mean um and then any update on us receiving the STAR testing results from the previous school year I know we say that they always predict we have it we have the data um we'll get that to you we have it and the last was the at the last meeting we said we'd have a draft of the goals for this year thect goals the goals I have the the goals on the agenda tonight those are the Strategic goals same thing it's the same thing but what part of those goals are we doing this year well this year we're going to address all of those areas but it's over a 5year window that's why it's a strategic plan so it's over five years so those are the it simplifies the process there are five goal areas there are goal statements and objectives related to each of those goal areas those are the goals that the board will be approving and those are the areas of focus for us with the objectives under each goal [Music] area I may have follow questions that but I'll talk offline okay Mark I think maybe if I ask my follow-up question to that um it might help so the action plans those are still being worked upon right yeah no the action plans with develop the act right now we according to Maryanne when we I offered to add the goal areas from prior the the prior Court goals uh I need to develop action plans for those okay so that was I said when will we expect to see those but his action plans in the Strategic plan that was presented by Maryann that all board members should have received received the copy of she presented it on August 5th the action plans for those initial objectives under those goal areas were in there I don't know if you did you receive that Tina maybe I didn't I think I may have your copy because you went there for that oh okay I do not have that so when will you expect to see them hear about the resources needed the metrics of success that's all in there okay thank you so are we approving the action plans or just the goals and OB typically no the board does not approve the because there's an element of fluidity to those action plans and I'll be providing updates regarding the progress throughout the year so my only concern is like at the end of the year and the board had issues with this when we evaluate what was accomplished the goals are five years so but there's incremental phasing in depending on the nature of the goal so right so we won't see what our goal is for this this year to accomplish for the years the action plans are broken up by fiveyear increments so you there'll be accomplishments at the end of year one based on the action plans anticipated accomplishments of course see I was under the impression that the Strategic plan was The Five-Year Plan but that each year we would still have District goals slm Mark goals because that's what we evaluate on come same thing that's so so ultimately you're evaluating the superintendent on those strategic goals that is that is what that is it right there those goal areas the objectives and and the work related to that is what my evaluation is based on not that I want to get into a conversation with my evaluation tonight but but ultimately that that is it so it just keeps it where we're not like wondering what's happen is the district goals the progress related to those District goals or how the superintendent is assessed yeah I haven't looked at the action plan in the booklet since I didn't have it but if you look at the action plan it says major activities Who's involved from board and staff folks the resources that are needed so those are resources that we would need to approve to have these things happen the timeline it's expected and there's indicators of success so that's what we we would be evaluating along but you didn't look at you haven't I Haven seen this but this is why I asked that question right so I'm just saying the indicator you'd have to see this to understand the questions that I don't I just don't understand how where like the indicators of success are not a lot of these are not measurable and I was always taught that goals need to be measurable goals so that's but I also didn't realize that everything so all these times timelines for 2024 and 2025 that is what the goal is for this year like that's what we we would be evaluating on based on progress towards the if you think about the Strategic plan by designs a five-year process obviously depending on the nature of what we've indicated that the objectives are um that's what you're basing the progress on so so so some things um by Design you're not going to get everything done in one year so you know we're not going to start um a full scale preschool program in one year right one year this next year we're going to engage in identifying what we think is appropriate space um and the curriculum that will support that so that's that's that's the that's what you're using as a measuring stick in terms of what we're accomplishing there's some information in the goals that are specifically related to student achievement progress right we've talked about an objective under the student learning student censor learning goal it talks about um standardized testing performance um so so that the the the process is based on the progress that we're making towards completion of the steps related to addressing the areas and the objectives under those goals those goal [Music] areas I but I um I also think though there's just too many in the F like I just for you for the benefit of your evaluation I almost feel like you should have your I just feel like this is too many if you look at how many things are supposed to be completed in 2020 24 and 25 it's way more than what we evaluated you on last year I just that's why I'm I'm also concerned on that aspect like there's a lot well aim high aim high so you know I think that you have to have it's a balance of one wanting to be ambitious but not you know foolishly ambitious and obviously if something uh occurs or does not occur or or we need a little bit of a different approach or maybe some more time I'll communicate that to the board so it's not like you know I'm going to be keeping the board informed in terms of how that progress plays out throughout the year because ultimately the the goal areas in the are you saying that the objectives are too much we've added some objectives by the way but but oh no it like just looking at when I look at the Timeline column the ones for 24 25 there are several things that will happen yes so that's why I was very confused by this because I thought you would we would develop like three goal I think we had three of three goals we evaluate on I don't I thought we would tie in this strategic plan into more specific I I just thought we tie them in I didn't think no the the process is so it streamlines it so you're not like creating separate goals so it's like there's goals you know the so school board's advice is not to exceed five because ultimately those goal areas will be based on what what the evaluation will entail we can talk about a some more if if there it seems like we probably need some additional clarification we can have Maran come back and explain it but in terms of the process um as as far as my understanding that that is the process I understand the streamlining I just I I did not understand that I the action plans are just the how no and the action plans the action plans is really that's up to you to get us to that just the hell I and I understand the streamlining I just didn't realize that these were going to be the your goals that we would be evaluating I I just would also think do you remember in the evaluation like we had a lot of question I felt like it needed to be a little bit more concrete and measurable I think the most important thing is going to be that first of all all this you know the work will be fluid right but we all have to be on the same page about what you know throughout the year about what success is looking like about what goal attainment is looking like so that we're not thinking so that we maybe not be thinking one thing and then something else is true or Mark is thinking something else so I think that Mark is saying he's going to make sure that we're up to date on all the things that are happening and we can ask questions regarding what you know we think or what throughout the year and I think that in the end will all end up on the same page well folks if I can just jump in here I've been listening carefully to the conversation and so far I think we've stayed on the right side of the line in terms of what's appropriate for public session discussion even though it tangentially affects the superintendent's evaluation I'm concerned that if we get any more into the Weeds on that than we are I think we may be Crossing that line into stuff that's a private session discussion so that's my two cents on where we are right now and hopefully we'll won't cross that line if I think we have I'll jump back in I think we should um maybe talk about having Maryann come back if there's a lot of questions people aren't fully understanding the strategic plan um Paul can do you want to reach out to her or do you want me to reach out to her to see when she's available to come back I can do that it's our old business with Maryann because at the end of her session at the end of her presentation no one had any questions so now we do have questions so that's our old business so I think it would be better to bring her back in this way they could be addressed specifically since she helped create it and was here for the entire process and I also just think that we should just push it off just because Tina didn't have a chance to look at the um indicators of success okay are there any other board member comments I would just like to quickly say that um tomorrow is the bridge program for incoming freshmen at the high school so um good luck to everyone and thank you to everyone at the high school um the administrators who are um participating and planning should be exciting um moving on second opport first opportunity for public comment are there any members of the public who wish to speak all right okay um so my name is Andrew Guzman I live at 12 comington Drive uh I'm a rising eighth grader at kis Middle School I also had the pleasure of serving at the schoolwide student president last year at the Middle School uh before I move on let me just say I'm speaking on my own behalf and with my own concent uh anyway I'll start off with a little anecdote so uh in April of 2024 I made comments detailing my view of the school and eventually student was demonstration about it it did not sit well with them as a result I got suspended for a few days and got removed from my position which is one that I holded to my soul deeply because I rign for it you know not for status but to improve my school uh moving on while I won't talk about the incident I will speak about a very crucial component of the entire process that was virtually missing and that is support in the midst of all that happened I was devastated and I had a very hard time dealing with my mental health I was struggling and one could say that I still am but that could have easily been prevented after the incident all I got was one checkin from my counselor and trust me he does a phenomenal job and while I'm on the topic I think the board for having two counselors per grade this year however the school district failed to take the appropriate actions to ensure that I'm doing okay when a student gets suspended Administration should not expect the student to come back to school content and happy the student will still need support especially in cases where the student was involved in a fight which by the way I hope the district is working to minimize but in the times that we all live in right now students really need that support they need someone to go to and so I suggest the board adopt a policy where counselors are required to hold meetings with students and maybe even families at least three times after they get suspended to make sure they are changing for the better because there can be cases with other students where they get suspended but they don't change their actions for the better keep in mind disciplinary action is not 100% guaranteed to solve an issue and the mission of all of us students parents both students parents staff and the board our mission should be to make our students have a positive mindset so they can have the best education possible I thank the board for listening and I expect to see some change this upcoming school year thank you [Music] Andrew uh I know you know as I know we know each other so I I just want to thank you for expressing your thoughts obviously we'll follow that up um I thought what you shared today was was interesting from a student perspective um and I appreciate you sharing that as you know you were one of my focus group participants at the middle school last year so I you know I'm used to getting some feedback from you but I do think what you Shar today has value and we'll look to see what we can we can we can do differently as it relates to providing some ongoing support okay are there any other members of the public who have any comments there's none will be leaving to go to exec session it should be um it shouldn't be that long and we'll be back to vote on items e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e okay the board's back in session um let's move on to item seven old business um here's a list of the committee meetings so we'll move Finance to September 23rd as soon as we hear from Colleen policy met today did policy meet today no it didn't but they homework right working with the committee to find a new date prior to October 28th so I think I proposed two September dates um so I'll I'll follow with the with the committee this week to have some consensus in terms of where we are I was trying not to schedule it um to conflict with another committee but we just may have to so I'll follow with the board this week okay and while we're deciding on committee as whole during our board retreat when will we be able to discuss the curriculum committee from April 22nd on the notes that you sent out can we do that next meeting yeah I did not hear that until I didn't watch last meeting until right before this meeting right that's fine but can we just put that then on the agenda for next meeting to discuss the curriculum committee all the notes that you sent us from the April 22nd Sandy does that work for you because I'm sure you'll have questions you need to answer does that work okay old business B is the NJ GPA update we have this as a placeholder if anybody had any [Music] questions I had some questions and I don't know if you'll know them tonight but um so the 14% who didn't pass are they retesting now in the fall like do they retest Andy could you go to the microphone Tina will yell at us because she looks directly at me when people don't use the microphone thank you so we um look at the students who were in a Range that was close enough to pass with without frustrating students who we know have no uh are not in that area of passing with some extra supports the students that are making a number up now so if the passing rate is a 700 if they're between a 675 and I know it's not a 700 that's why I chose that number between a 675 and a 699 we would give them extra support so that they would test again in October if they're 100 points behind we would not go into the frustration point of making them sit for the assessment they would then just just be um part of our portfolio process and that after school test program um it was funded by the title one and I know there was just a there wasn't a large attendance but do we know how many of the students that attended are actually eligible for free or reduced lunch I would have to check that that I don't know and so just I don't know if if you're conf if when I say you I mean as a plal is that if the confusion is that only those who are free and reduced lunch are okay I was just wondering if everyone because a large were invited a small attended if it was attended by those who aren't like mostly those who aren't eligible for free and reduce lunch that was all and do we know that those that did attend did it help did their pass rate significantly increase like is there a way to gauge whether or not the after school program helped those that attended so that's it becomes a really difficult thing because we don't know if you hadn't come if you had passed whereas if you did come you had you passed we don't know if that was just you know some of those supports one of the things we are working for is to be much more targeted with our supports so therefore we can come in here and definitively say because of the targeted supports this is where happen one of the things that happened this year students who were who were invited did not come on a regular basis so our Target is to get them on a regular basis so we can give them the supports so that we can answer that question and I think that was it thank you quick follow up to that so based on that how can we improve attendance and how like in general how can we get them to participate number one and if they are coming any ideas of how we get them to come regularly so uh one of the things that we've done over the summer is the high school we call it a cabinet which are all the administrators together we sat together and we created a title one plan for the year so that we already have the dates in place the programs that will be targeted and then what the only thing that has to happen at this point is prior to the start of each of those we call them phases um prior to each of those we would decide what students would best be suited for that and then we would have letters home to parents we'll be able to talk to the students about um the programs I think one of the things that hurt us this year is we were more reactionary than we were planning so I think with the planning approach is going to set us up so that parents and students are aware well ahead of time when these programs are running and what the purpose um is is for each of those programs and the students who do R test when we probably don't have a ballpark on one of those results it's October when it happens but how quickly will we get those results there it's actually pretty quick okay because they the whole idea is so if they retest they don't have to do the portfolio Okay so like maybe before the end of the calendar year would you have an update on that all right thank you you're welcome Sor have one more thing just you were talking about Outreach by letter is there are people getting phone calls or is there any personal Outreach to people's fames so yes so one of the things is um Dennis is going to Dennis I'm she picking on you one of uh Dennis's first faculty meetings he's actually going to lay out the entire Title One program for the year so that he can inform the teachers of what's happening so that we get the teachers to become part of the program and part of that is a mentoring program as well so that if you're part of our program you also have a mentoring piece to it so you'll have that one-on-one uh support there as well you'll have some students that only attend the um test prep if you will and you'll have other students who will be more targeted because they need a year-long support which will be the mentoring involvement not all students will have the mentoring but the portion of students that we are looking to Target for a full year will have a mentoring program so they will have that um one-on-one um reach out good does anyone else have any questions for [Music] Sandy um item C is the Strategic plan we're going to move that until Maryanne can come next is second opportunity for board member comments are there any board members who have any comments I just want to ask Mark could you send the board please send the board a list of all the courses that we'll be running in the district for the year sure you want to include Elementary in that or more secondary I'll just send you everything everything's good all right I think I'm I think I'm oh I did have should have mentioned this earlier when Mark you were talking about Ai and I'm sure you're already aware of this resource but njsba has that group that one I can't remember her name but I can look it up and send it to you if you don't know there's one woman who's heavily ingrained in figuring out this whole AI thing and how it works for districts and how it doesn't like it seems to be her life's mission right now to make it work so it can't hurt to have more information from them and see if they can guide us um I think we covered everything else if not next time um second opportunity for public comment are there any members of the public who have anything to [Music] say there being none we'll move to item 9 let me just make 100% sure that I'm in the right meeting because I had moved to the other earlier meeting so item nine so mandated policies for second reading a policy 5516 use of electronic communication and recording devices or ecrd second any questions hold the board [Music] please miss trake yes Miss Lans yes Miss Patel yes Miss Suter yes Miss Kia yes Miss Luso yes item 10 recommended policies for second reading a policy 0155 board committees B policy 2330 homework C policy 2363 student use of privately owned technology D policy 5511 dress and grooming and E 55 policy 5514 student use of vehicles on school grounds second any questions P the board please miss Drake yes Miss Lans yes Miss Patel yes Miss Salter yes Miss col yes Mr Russo yes item 11 motion to approve routine items by exception having read the materials received I move that the board approve the routine agenda items as submitted a staffing for August 26 20124 B East wi Regional School District strategic plan goals for 2024 through 2029 C job descriptions D approve travel and related expenses for virtual and inperson E NJ doe 20 2024 to 2025 approve religious holidays F approve new high school heightstown high school uncompensated clubs G approved curriculum documents H technology recycling batch number 50 I Ida Grant fiscal year 2025 J School nursing Services Program 2024 through 2025 K Professional Services for students L out of District placement m board approval to establish a new program/ service for a secondary special class program for US History 1A n Co-op purchases and O Bill list of August 26 2024 is that supposed to be US history onea or just a one because I think in the document it just said one I might be wrong and the documents says US History 1 so then the document needs to be updated if you have to update that document is it going to mess up for school starting next week I am fine with us updating it afterwards as long as everyone approves it and the update's made it's a it's it's the same curriculum just it first what's the difference between one and 1 a okay I believe it's a slightly different approach right okay go ahead I'm on it this the US onea are the students who are in the special program like we had the German 1A this year it's the US onea that with special needs students who are in that program okay can I ask a follow-up question to that then try to answer no no it should be easy and I think I'm stealing one of your Thunders too is it's taught by a gened teacher but is there an in-class support teacher teaching with them so it is taught by a teacher who has history certification okay but no special ed support um it's not an inclass support um classroom yes if that's what you're asking got it thank you just to add to that the reason we're proposing this is because these students were in self well in resource room settings at the middle school recommendation as they were transitioning to the high school was to to move them to a more least restrictive setting but in terms of course selection for freshman we didn't have enough gened students to make it a traditional IC section that's why we're we're asking for the the special compens with a special arrangement for the 12 students to be together got it that makes that makes a lot more sense abut just by Design the intent was to move them out of a resource room um setting and in terms of course selection we just could not create the uh in class support environment that we had intended but definitely programmatically we were no longer recommending a resource room for those students right but if that teacher saw issues of course supervisory that would just go up the chain hey I need help with these kids obviously on a day-to- day that's how it works okay thank you so there are no gen ed students in that class I I don't believe so no so so how is that and I'm still trying to learn but how is that different than the the resource room if it's a special ed mean timately I would prefer them to be gened students in there just unfortunately from a freshman course selection standpoint we didn't have any gened students that that were recommended for that US History course it's a standard course um so so those students happen to be classified uh although it's not recommended that they need a resource room setting uh but that particular course section just so happens to be no gened students assigned to it now this class is for this year it is so if this class didn't exist yet would it be it's not in their IEPs as of yet correct well I can't speak the IEPs I mean what's in the IEP is a recommendation for them to not be in a resource room setting for um for I don't even know the specifics of their courses but obviously for US History the recommendation was for them to leave the resource room setting and be more inclusion are saying just so happens we don't have any Janet students who have selected that course what do you mean by selected that course so it's a US History one course that's I should say that that we're we're assigned to that course because you got different levels right you've got standard academic and so forth so we just don't have standard uh students under the genella who are assigned to The Standard standard US History one course I guess I'm just concerned that it's a class of 12 special ed students with a general ed teacher that's my but what I would say is it doesn't require a special education teacher I don't know who we have assigned to that course are we looking to have someone with specialer in so it's a special class program code allows you to have a special class program when you have a general education teacher and you put all special ed CL kids in there so what that does is reduce the least restrictive environment sequentially to move kids out of resource into gened and then into like an IC class that's bigger this is a smaller section there's only 12 or so kids in there it can go up to about 16 so it's kind of an incremental move so the teacher who's in there is a general Leed teacher who happens to also have some special education background but he's in there as a general ed teacher so the incremental move is just having them have a gened teacher because gened teacher and then a bigger class size right it's bigger the curriculum shouldn't be modified it'll be regular standard level curriculum I look at it is training wheels like you're moving out of resource trying to go into J Ed and it happens that it works out that those students can all be together that's the way that I'm seeing it they're not SED into a gened full I don't know gened class I did it to my own son on my own terms by dump I gave him training wheels this year on my own terms but this is like all these students were recommended to be in this classroom setting with getting out of resource room going into a gen Ed classroom but they just happen to have been special ed students so for history this is their for right into gen Ed classroom because a lot of students can move out of special ed into gen Ed so then and we obviously don't know the specifically the students then their IEP would should if they have an i if they have they might not even we would think it would say that they no longer need the resource room that they should be in General Ed it could I mean their I can say anything because each one is individualized so each one of those students can have a different IEP so this is just them going from the least restrictive resource room into this standard history class with 12 other kids there just wasn't any other freshman who we're going to take a standard it's not across the board on all subject levels it's just history we're going to we're going to let you try this out but we it's a new course so it's not it's a US History one course same curriculum this this I mean we're being asked to establish a new program or service so we wouldn't have had any kids be recommended for this gened kids because we didn't have this program sure they could say we need this this make it happen it doesn't exist but the teachers would recommend it and say can you make this happen for these students yeah general education students can be a part of this environment no I didn't say they couldn't I'm just saying they're not like my it's in my you're concern something just doesn't feel right to me and again this is not a topic that I'm I'm trying to learn about that we are H creating a gened class for only special ed students to me something it just happens to be it wouldn't necessarily be there could be gened students in this class if a gened student selected this class no Mark Mark said it to begin with it's a standard level us one class the only thing is no gen ed students from 8th grade were recommended for US1 standard these um IEP students were recommended for US1 standard however because there are no gened students that were recommended we don't want to place those students back into an OCR we want to make sure that they are in a less restrictive environment and by doing so we then have to appeal to the county to get this approved but what is it that we're getting a so it's not a new course it's not it's just that if we had had 10 gen Edge students recommend for standard we would not be having the conversation we would have 10 gen ed students and 10 special ed students and we would have a truly IC thing we have no gen Edge students recommended for standard level therefore we don't have the IC we want to continue in the standard level as a gen Ed group and therefore we are asking the county to approve this the us1a which is a special program that special ed students are going into less restrictive environment there Sandy can I ask you a questions I'm listening I'm trying to do a lot of special ed work the law says we're supposed to educate special education students in the least restricted environment what I'm hearing is that this the students placement in this course is in the view of their child study teams the least restrictive environment for them to be in so there's there's no inconsistency matter of fact to take them out of this if the only old alternative is putting them in a more restrictive environment that would be going backwards in terms of compliance with the recommendations of there and it's only fortuitous that there's no gened kids there it wasn't intended to be that way it's just the way it worked out but to do anything other than this would be having these kids go back to a more restrictive environment that is contrary to what their child study teams are recommending for these particular children at this point in their Journey right am I hearing all that correct eron you agree I'm asking ER because she's my special ed counterpart none of them would be eligible to go into the classroom with inclass support there isn't one there isn't an act there is not a standard IC that's the problem here no I'm saying the least restrictive I'm just least the least restrictive environment would be totally mainstreamed with no supports at all this class sounds like it's kind of a kind of a hybrid if you will a gened class which happens at the moment to consist of only special ed kids if you put an in-class resource teacher in there I guess in special ed lingo that would make it a more restrictive environment for them because you're providing additional supports that um you would ordinarily see in a special ed type classroom the fact that it's not there means it's a less restrictive environment which is what you're saying their CH study teams are recommending for them on route to as mainstream a setting as possible POS is that is that what I'm hearing correct well if that's if I'm if I'm hearing correctly then then what's Happening Here is entirely consistent with the way the special ed is supposed to work and to not have this course and have them in a more restrictive environment would be working backwards and putting back on training wheels that their child study teams are saying they don't need is that okay yeah and the goal would be to continue to move them in this direction so next year theoretically they could be in an environment that would be deemed uh potentially inclass support um or or just within a general education setting so um the standard placement is yes if you talk about tiers you know the standard level is the um closest to grade level right you look at the tiers of coursework so one could argue if they were recommended for academic just based on the configuration of student potentially could have been an inclass support setting and and for us ultimately that will be the goal for us moving forward with this cohort of students just so happens they don't have any general education students recommended for that same course and the key that's making me feel comfortable with this is that the recommendation was no in-class support for these particular students if one of those students had been recommended for in-class support or there had been jet it would be a different discussion because of the way it works but because they are all not recommended for in-class support this is why I understand we have to get the approval because it would typically be an in-class support are the parents or the Guardians aware that this is like they've signed they've agreed so we're we're not well we have to we have to communicate that with every family we we communicate this with each family regarding what the recommendation is and what the course will the course will will resemble yes we are obl obligated to do that but we haven't yet I believe we have yeah East Cas managers commun know last year yes the the course does exist well it's just it's a special class Arrangement yes the course exists it's just the our intent was to put them in an environment with the the the least amount of restrictions preferably with general education peers that that was really our intent unfortunately and I say that sincerely because I would prefer these students to be in a classroom with general education peers it just so happens that no general education peers transitioner from 8th to 9th were recommended for this level of US History one that's really all and that's why we're asking for a special arrangement to say our intent was to have them immersed with general education peers just so happens in the placement process that didn't occur that that's really what it means so yes the goal is to make sure we continue to provide them with the least restrictive environment and I believe that our goal moving forward history next year with these students would be for them to be in in a level where general education students are enrolled in that that class with them that's our goal that's what we want can I have a second I have a question on I all right so we did have the second right you got the call okay any questions I wasn't sure they were done or not huh I wasn't sure if they were done or not so well we can just have the questions now okay um this is a reference to I which is Ida grand hall uh it's saying it's put in an application for the basic and preschool budget summary funding what exactly is that because in the category where it's the amount it says other purchase Services what does that mean so we utilize our Ida uh entirely for tuition for outed District tuition for private schools so it's either basic which would cover you know elementary middle school high school and preschool is clearly for preschool students but it's all tuition is that the state program that we we're going to expand for the no that is completely different this is yeah this is special educational okay thank you are there any other questions I just had on the curriculum documents first um the ELA and social studies they were through those to the teachers they were phenomenally all Rewritten um especially the ELA and I know there a lot of changes in them so really great job on that um and Mark you said we'll get the rest of the cric documents on 99 and then how about the course guides uh shortly thereafter because we want to board approve the curriculum documents first and then um quick turnaround with the course guide so it shouldn't be what kind of Tim Lane are you looking at for that course guides after board approval for 30th okay and and mark for [Music] item sorry I didn't write my items down the C job description for the supervisor of counseling prek prek to 12 what were the changes just B like General summary we just um yeah we just we just updated the qualifications and the certification requir requirments for that just it was a little um modled we wanted to make sure we were clear in terms of what the the qualifications were as it relates to the director of School counseling or supervisor Ser were there were a few like and ores and we just wanted to clean that up thank you are there any other questions hold the board please M Drake yes Miss Lance yes Miss Patel yes Miss Salter yes Miss Kia yes Miss laruso yes there's no need for a second exact session so motion to adjourn