to that's hi good evening hi good evening welcome to a special 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 25A Leen Lane heightstown New Jersey minutes will be provided at Cost 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 meeting act there being none we may proce seed in compliance with the 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 the two sides please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance okay 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 I'd like to thank everyone parents and staff and everyone who came um to do the strategic planning session the first session for 20 23 24 and I'm going to turn it over to superintendent Mark Daniels everyone um it's great to see so many people out here tonight uh rainy Tuesday I was not sure how many people were going to actually attend so this is great so just to set a little toal purpose in terms of why we're here together obviously this is the first of three planning sessions uh I'll will begin actually just by if you glance over when you signed in you saw Maran Freeman from New Jersey school boards she'll be facilitating uh much of this evening's work uh in the subsequent two meetings as well so just a small sense of why we're here uh each year we engage in the the goal setting process um and typically that's gathered from multiple areas of feedback along the way um whether it's you know anecdotal data student performance data uh but but often times we are kind of moving rapidly in terms of you know engaging in the work we're looking to do so today serves as an opportunity to kind of map out where we currently are as a school district and then Gathering stakeholder feedback from the community uh looking to put together a sense of where we're looking to go uh for the next five years so um it's intentional in terms of you being here this evening is amazing because we definitely want to get a sense of what people are experiencing whether you are here as a student awesome to see students here tonight whether you're here as a parent whether you're here as a staff member whether you're here as a board member right we want to really value uh your input uh because you are a part of the community and our school district is a clear reflection of that and we want to make sure that there are some voices that contribute uh to the direction in terms of where we're going so this portion of the evening is a brief superintendent introduction Maryann is looking at me because she said to me that superintendents talk a lot so I'm going to curtail it I don't talk about that but I'm going to just keep it short uh so I'm going to just give you a brief overview right now this obviously this in front of you as well this does not capture everything that's happening within the district these are at a high level but I wanted to give you a sense of kind of looking at it from a District overview in terms of um what I would consider to be strengths we could also talk about challenges some of those go together right so I don't I don't want to leave the witness tonight I don't want you to because you you may have come here tonight to say you know what this is why I'm here tonight and I'm G to you may not see it what what I'm discussing that's fine okay but this just to give you a feel for some of what I believe are the ingredients to where we are as a school district so this is really just serving as an introduction I am then going to transition over to Maryann who will kind of engage Us in some of the brainstorming that we will participa in this evening so look who are we obviously we're about 5,000 students in the East wi Regional School District comprised of six schools I think we all know that um our our student enrollment has been pretty consistent um since I've been here we had a slight what we thought would be a slight decline maybe during that covid phase but but ultimately we're just above 5,000 students we do not anticipate a significant increase uh in the next uh few years uh which is a good thing uh we were looking at some developments in the area that at one point we thought would be breaking ground um but it doesn't seem like the from a family unit standpoint there's a significant number of uh students that will be connected to that so in terms of demographics I think it's important I look at our demographics as obviously being something that is a strength of our school district something that I think is is unique to New Jersey in terms of the level of diversity that we have uh and I think it's important for us there a couple of things I want you to to take a look at obviously we've got almost 50% Hispanic uh students representing our our school district and I would imagine if you go back 15 20 years that that number's changed somewhat um I'd say that one area in particular that that we're looking at would be the the economically that's the Ed number approaching 40% um one could argue that that number might be slightly higher than that to be quite honest with you um during covid that was an opportunity where folks did not have to complete any paperwork regarding free or reduced lunch eligibility so we're not sure I think we're we're kind of moving back towards a number that we think is more reflective of the community um the number below that the 22% for elll M ml which is English language learner multilingual learner that percentage of the school district has grown I'd say uh from the past three to four years it's jumped a third so it's a it's a growing number uh that reflects our district so on the one hand I definitely view that as being something that's a gift but but along with that uh comes some some challenges in terms of us making sure we're looking to meet the needs of students who are coming to us um as first generation immigrants uh students with disabilities that last number of 14% pretty steady I mean slight increase for us but not significant um still somewhat under the state average um but obviously something that we want to make sure that we're watching over those students that that we believe um need that individualized support as well so this just gives you kind of an overview of of who we are as a school district and obviously behind those numbers are are students right these are individual students who all deserve quality caring education so in terms of strengths and challenges this is kind of more so what I would just want to highlight in terms of strengths and and we the list could be endless but I wanted to just focus on a few things I just talked about diversity connected to that we did engage in an equity audit at uh the district level last year we had some recommendations I shared those uh with the board uh early this school year and um there's a few domains that that Equity audit was focused on and ultimately that what drove that as a as a district goal was to ensure that our mission uh that's on you know that's on paper uh we we were curious to ensure that all students had opportunities to um participate and Achieve and have access to the Quality education our district reflects so there are some recommendations that came from that District uh Equity audit there were five domains that it was kind of focused on um you know the the natural next step for us was to establish a district Equity team to kind of determine how we want to strategically uh roll out some aspects of what audit recommended not that we have to do everything that was recommended but in terms of the the areas that it addressed I think it it created some curiosity for us so um we're engaging in that work as we speak I have facility upgrades there um you know our district is is one that we've been fortunate to be able to uh continue to invest in our buildings I think it's important to have welc in facilities for our staff and students and families uh we have not engaged in approaching ing the community regarding the bond referendum so we've we've utilized um you know our district funds and like to commend our business office for ensuring that our capital reserve is such that we have a portion monies for ongoing upgrades you know when we look at our six schools we have some aging buildings especially on the height toown side and uh We've needed to both invest in uh infrastructure especially HVAC but also aesthetically and I'd say GNR and wc in particular but also the high school uh we'll be engaging in uh tackling the high school next year uh from an hbac standpoint through um some grant funding actually via the the state so uh we're excited about that but each year uh since I've been here uh We've continued to engage in upgrades whether it's parking lot reconfiguration tennis courts um like I said a lot of classroom renovation work that that um we're we're pleased about I have foundations on here just to highlight that especially as we're transitioning out of uh the pandemic where we're leaning on kind of resetting and and looking at foundational um skills for students especially under the literacy umbrella look this District implemented foundations um prior to my arrival I commend the folks to participated in that I think for some districts foundations is kind of used for certain students who they think May benefit from it this District has made it the decision and we've committed to maintaining that as a K2 approach for all students to be exposed to some foundational foundational literacy skills excuse me uh that we believe serve as kind of those building blocks and uh access to learning so I'm pleased that we have that I transition to multisensory reading support which is more so it's not designed only for students who are uh under the special education umbrella however um we do find ourselves utilizing that for students who are uh having difficulty reading in a traditional sense so um Wilson is kind of our platform Wilson Reading is our platform for that which is related to foundations as well and we have two staff developers in the district and also 13 Wilson certificated teachers that provide that that level of uh support for students which I think is really vital I have Personnel on here um just because I think we have outstanding Personnel in our school district you know we've gone through uh as all school districts have gone through um some challenges under the Staffing umbrella in public education especially as folks were looking at what they wanted to Value whether it was working closer to home different work conditions whatever the case may be or just working at home right that's probably the first thing uh and uh we were not immune to that I feel like things are calming down but I definitely um we we had our governor educator of the Year recognition last night you just talked about really appreciating the work that folks bring to the table we have really amazing staff both within the classroom and folks who support the classroom and that's something that I'm very proud of in our school district I think that going into this year our administrative team I think did an amazing uh job in terms of the recruitment especially for those classroom positions in terms of believing that we have um what we think are the most qualified individuals who are good fit for our school district so um transitioning to Self insurance which is more of a financial discussion but a couple of years ago had a conversation with Paul Tod our business administrator we deal with a a group kind of a broker intermediary um that supports us through our health benefit needs and there was some conversation with districts were engaging in the possibility of uh becoming self-insured for health benefits uh and just just to kind of a brief description of what that means it Al well alleviates some middle middleman kind kind of um uh costs that come along with that obviously there's a host of factors that contribute to being a good candidate uh to pursue Self insurance and often times it's driven by claims so um we pursued that about two years ago and um there's been some significant cost savings that have come from that obviously the cost savings we we we almost hold on to because we we looking to potentially offset claims as we move forward but that has been um a a good decision uh fiscally for the school district that has limited U the elevation of health benefit cost for staff members I have I have a here scop training and I just kind of outline what that reflects that's one of our goal areas for this year um you know we talk about multilingual Learners and we're talking about providing tools for teachers to meet the needs of those students you know obviously those things don't magically happen and we have to have a sense of um strategic intentional support for teachers to address the needs of students who are coming to us and English is not their first language it does not mean that these students have a cognitive or learning issue it just means that they have to adapt and adjust uh we have to make sure that we understand how we can Bridge those gaps for those students so they can obviously have access um to to the curriculum and quality education here so this year we was you know we were very deliberate we engaged did a three-day training um for Bilal ESL and some other folks at the elementary middle and high school feedback thus far has been very positive regarding that obviously we're not going to do a driveby we want to make sure that we continue to sustain and support that but that was definitely something that was needed um and I'm pleased be invested in that this year I have on here strong educational program look we're we're we're a strong School District we have a strong as I talked about strong uh educational Personnel uh strong curricul strong programs our graduation rate is is is 95% and above um 90% of our students are going to two fouryear programs uh so we have a competitive program and I'll say that connected to strong educ educational program under that i' also talk about what I consider to be kind of the Three A's and we have a really strong athletic and extracurricular program um as well as our performing arts program that um you know I'm a huge proponent of I think it just enable students to kind of tap into the things that releas to strengthening academics but also building Talent discipline and confidence so uh during Co we were concerned about our performing arts program we we were worried about participation we've invested as a school district through the board support at the elementary level uh where we've developed the Strings program um which is which is continuing to grow as well as strengthening our our instrumental program under the brand umbrella the elementary level so our numbers are flourishing and uh I feel very good about where that program is also connected to the strong educational program talk about our student services department U whether it's supporting our special education um students and also our kind of counseling support that we have within the district to try to meet the social emotional needs of students under the technology umbrella we are um in a place where we are providing students with onetoone technology obviously we don't want to lean too heavily on technology in terms of the learning process but we do believe that technology enables us to kind of support and enhance the educational process Co to be honest with you kind of forced us to be a little bit more intentional regarding how we were designing that we have a a three-year cycle for refreshing our technology uh most students in the district will have a device for two for three years except the high school they'll get a device as a ninth grader and they'll return it as a as a senior when they're leaving but we believe that in that area we very solid and fiscally planned out how we're going to take care of that um when I talk about Personnel I just want you know this year we we were fortunate to have National recognition as it relates to having one of our teachers at the elementary level U Miss tro Taylor tro being recognized with the the Milken educator award and she received a $25,000 um you know prize for that of sorts the ERS of teaching they they call it and that what that made that award a little unique is that we didn't go out applying for that like we didn't seek that that was something that kind of came to us through through her great work so I think that's a positive reflection on our school district and and the Educators who are here I have transportation department on here really is a bit of a plug um years ago I'd say approaching you know 15 or so years maybe going back further uh there was a decision here to have a transportation department with its own Fleet of buses obviously that's grown over time but when I look at and talk to you know my my colleagues across the county and surrounding the county um having your own Fleet of buses in the school district there's a luxury something that I don't take for granted look you know there's going to be times where you know the bus didn't come to the right stop and it wasn't quite on time but I think our our transportation department is is uh very impressive in terms of our level of efficiency safety in addition to that and and I I say it for two things one there's an element of convenience that comes along with that and reliability that comes along with that because you're not thinking you know which bus company's coming to pick up my child today we know it's in East Winds Regional School District bus there's an there's an element of accountability and care that comes along with that in addition to that uh you know we're servicing other school districts so we have a pretty impressive mechanic team who also provide service to school buses from other school district so uh I'm getting Lobby right now from other school districts in the county to see if we can support their uh EX curricular Transportation they want to kind of partner with us uh from a busing standpoint so I definitely want to make sure that I I provided a highlight for something that I think is a worthwhile investment because in addition to that um school districts right now a significant portion that's probably about five or 6% of the district's budget for us you know there are there are districts that are unfortunately forced into having to dedicate funds for busing because they are having to rely on using other bus companies to transport their children to school but also beyond the school Deb so those are just some highlights of what I deem to be strengths I could go on and on but I just want to give you a feel for where where I I see where we are currently um in terms of uh some challenges and and and the list could be way longer as well but as I think about what we've been dealing with post pandemic but also just in terms of where I think we need to go these are just some things that come to mind so obviously addressing academic needs always going to be uh first and foremost for us right as an educational institution organization we have an obligation to take children through that prek-12 Continuum to ensure that they are ready for postgraduate experiences whatever they may be right but um you know since we and that was an issue prior to co right postco yes we are dealing with for some of our students that gap of uh consistent in-person learning uh didn't work well for some of our students right it just it just didn't for some of our students it actually was fine I'll be quite honest with you but for for students that need um that that experience and that interface with a teacher and that level of uh consistency um it did not bode well in addition to that there were some students who just from a developmental standpoint missed some of those early transitional components in terms of coming into a school environment and that could be from a social emotional standpoint interacting with peers in addition to those Readiness skills whether it relates to literacy or or math computation we know that um there are some gaps and some acceleration that still needs to occur in addition to making sure that those students that we want to push forward we still have those challenging enriching experiences for them uh to be a part of so addressing academic need for us and I'll be quite honest with you we're having those conversations in terms of allocating resources looking to see how we can strengthen classroom environments recognizing that teachers have a lot to do and we're trying to be conscientious to not give them more um so how can we supplement some of that but those are those are those are real issues that we grapple with day in and day out communication and engagement I think that we've made a concerted effort to communicate I think part of the um part of the the recognition is that in a F in a diverse Community we want to make sure that our communication is reaching the as many folks as possible it's relevant and and it's something that we think is um not White Noise We don't want to just overly communicate without it being meaningful but I think the part I want to focus on is engagement tonight's service as engagement where it's not just oneway communication but it's really hearing listening to talking with and trying to get a pulse on on on where people are what they need um prior to it being a problem it's there's going to still be problems but I think it's important to just have that level of Engagement because I think engagement builds understanding and it builds trust and I think trust is really important as we move forward so we'll continue to have a pulse lease is here tonight lease is not a knock on you your communication is solid but I just think it's just you know it's one of those things where I'm kind of focused on the engagement piece to see how we can really kind of tap into that behavioral challenges so when I talked about the Readiness to school one thing we have noticed in in the past two years especially in the K2 world the K2 people here are nodding their heads right now the K2 World we're dealing with students that are coming to us and they just haven't had those opportunities to uh socialize with peers um take directions um some of them have experienced trauma and I don't want to blame everything on Co but it's just a reality so we're seeing students that are um presenting themselves with some behaviors that we typically would not see in that K2 world and I'm not saying that it's voluminous but I'm saying that when we have students to present themselves in that way uh it's noticeable and and it's something that we've had to kind of adapt to to determine how we meet their needs but also being conscientious that it's not taken away from the learning and safety of the other students who are in their classroom so I think it's one of those things where once again looking at supports because we can't just just put every student out of District we're looking at what do we need to do to say are there some additional supports we can provide uh within the district as well as providing some tools um for for teachers as well as students we've got some new standards both uh Ela and math that the Department of Education has indicated need to be rolled out for the upcoming school year I just put that down as just a reality when I say challenge anytime we we're rolling out new standards that means that it's going to be you know engaging in curriculum revisions uh professional learning that may come along with that it just takes up some oxygen um and I just see that as something that's you know looming uh quite soon multilingual Learners I talked about that before it's just to making sure that um we are conscientious of addressing all Learners that come within our doors and making sure that we have the tools uh to provide that level of support and also the teachers I mean you know uh I'll talk about that in a moment preschool child study team referral this has also increased significantly in the past three years one could blame it on the pandemic but it clearly appears to be a spike in students that are coming to us um before we even know them right and they coming to the to us with a recommendation for them to be evaluated by the chel study team so and these are these are three and four year olds which is which is an adjustment for us in terms of potentially having to develop program to support that that may slow down once again we we noticed that clearly correlated with the pandemic but it's something that we're we're dealing with as we speak professional learning I just think we also need to make sure that as a school district when we talk about providing tools and and ensuring that teachers have what they need we just need to make sure that we are um providing relevant embedded professional learning experiences for our teachers because it appears that those demands or those needs of children aren't going away right now I want to make sure that We Are One identifying what the needs are via a host of different Avenues I'm a huge believer in building base PD I think that you know the PD that you that's generated from where you live and work I think there most often the talent is there we have to make sure we cultivate that support that enable that to flourish and there's also times where we need to leave the district or have someone from outside the district come in to provide those aha moments and make sure that we are uh having an element of innovation in terms of meeting the needs of of our students uh one of the needs we have and we explored it last year was um you know taking advantage of it's twofold one you know trying to see if we can leverage um some early opportunities for students to be in school um and you know the state is encouraging that the Department of Education the governor in particular is encouraging that in terms of having Universal prek so one of the challenges though that folks don't really talk about is a host of these come along with establishing Universal prek 1 being space and we were exploring that last year we did uh assess where we were we started the school year thinking that we probably could uh allocate about eight classrooms across the district try to service 80 or so 80 to 100 students as we were kind of going through the process we clearly or quickly identified that those eight rooms went to about six then went down to about five went down to about three then went down about two and then we were asking ourselves at that point um uh is it really worth all of this at this moment let's pause where we are let's reassess and come back to it so uh space is an issue for us uh an option is to partner with local providers and partner with them uh I've been reluctant to do that to be quite Frank with you just based on the quality control I'd rather own it uh if we could so that's something that we need to take a look at moving forward and I have Staffing on here look as much as I think that the Staffing um shortages I'll use that word I do not feel them as much uh as we had a couple of years ago um as I said earlier our team's did an amazing job with recruitment there are still however some positions that are difficult these positions were difficult to fill prior to the Pandemic those positions are bilingual ESL and um our special education positions both self-contained but also secondary subject related special education positions are very difficult to to find quality Talent just to find Talent period so I talk about two areas though where children need teachers they need really good teachers to right to support them and and those are areas that are tricky for us I will say that staff retention clearly is still an area that we need to not Overlook because as I said before um you know when there's an educator um someone of an educator shortage folks do have options right and I I said I think I said this last night like you know you don't have to be here people have choices and I want to make sure that um I think we have a an attractive starting salary to work in the district um but I also want to make sure that we are providing those work conditions for individuals where they they value their time and effort that they're they're committing uh to our school district so Staffing will always be I don't feel as uh I don't feel that level of angst I felt a couple of years ago in terms of feeling like core core academic classes um however I want to take that for granted so uh Staffing will continue to be something that we watch over as we move forward so I'm going to stop there a little long as I anticipate I apologize for that so uh that just serves us as a little bit of an an introduction I'm going to turn it over to you I will say this there food and drinks here water water I should say water so help yourselves you know throughout the evening uh but I'm going to turn things over to Mar I'm just going to transition over the the the technology for good evening everyone I we just had a little technical not technical actually um seating seating situation so anyway my name is Maryann Friedman I am a field service representative with New Jersey school boards Association and um I am very pleased to be here so we're going to talk a little oh you're click oh I wondered how that was moving I thought wow I moved my hand over the laptop and it automatically did that um so thank you all for coming tonight this is a really exciting process and Mr Daniels has spoken to you about the strength and the challenges and giving you a really kind of a a breakdown of where the district stands right now I'm actually doing very little talking tonight you all are going to do the activity for the evening so if we could go to the next slide so strategic planning really does create a vision and a mission that stakeholder groups can get behind because you are involved in developing those okay so you're go your contributions are going to be the foundation of this plan and then when we're done after the three meetings Mr Daniels and his administrative team will take all of the work that's been done by you all because these are not my strategic plans for you or my strengths and challenges for you or my vision or my goals for you these are yours for your District he's going to take all of that information and he's going to put it together in action plans and those will be the goals that really are the groundwork and the um kind of the pathway for the district over the next three to five years so what does strategic planning do what are some of the advantages it'll allows the board to be more proactive because boards have become very reactive over the past 101 15 years because things come out of the State Department of Education and New Jersey school boards is not the State Department of Education we're a separate entity that works with training school boards and providing services but because the state comes out with mandates very frequently boards have become more reactive it also allows for you to participate in a way that most community members don't get to participate if if you're a parent in the district you probably come in for your back to school night and your parent teacher conference nights and that's kind of you'll maybe go to events and things at the school but this allows you to sit down and work with teachers and administrators other community members and everybody has a level voice nobody's voice is more important or less important than anybody else's so your students that are here your staff that is here your parents your community members everybody's voice has the same level of importance okay and then it also provides for that continuing ongoing cycle of goals and action plans and items that you're going to see put into place and implemented that will get you to the achievement of those dist of those strategic planning goals so we have a waterfall effect that we use for strategic planning and so everything after the strategic planning goals are set which will be after that third meeting and after those action plans are developed everything will inform those will inform everything else that's done in the district so they'll inform your District goals and your board goals those are annually set also they'll also in inform your administrator's goals building goals um Department goals things like that student growth objectives staff professional development plans and all of that ultimately flows into the pool of student achievement and your student achievement will improve over the next three to five years you have many strengths that you heard about tonight and you have some challenges that you've heard about tonight now you're going to get to identify strengths and challenges that you feel exist in the district so the components of Strate we have a strategic planning pyramid so you heard the information for the state of the schools report and tonight we're going to work on strengths and challenges and I'll give you that activity in just a couple of minutes the next meeting is going to be vision and initiatives and we'll identify at the end of that meeting goal areas just very Broad goal areas then the next meeting will come together you'll have those goal areas already you'll identify strategies that you would like to see within those goal areas identify and develop objectives for those goal areas and then develop an overarching goal statement okay and after that superintendent and the administrative team take all of the information and after tonight's meeting I'll be typing up everybody all of the outcomes all of these yellow big Post-it notes are going to be filled with all of your stuff tonight all of your strengths and challenges type everything up I'll send that to Mr Daniels and the board president tomorrow and then they'll put it up on the the district website so you'll be able to reflect on the work that you've done tonight and anybody who wasn't able to come to this meeting will be able to but wants to come to meeting too will be able to look at all of that and see how we got to where we got to by the end of this evening okay we can do the next one so you're mission statement is through a safe inclusive learning experience that's grounded in best practices students in the East winter Regional School District will develop and strengthen academic social and emotional skills needed in order to be successful productive citizens serving every child every day we strive to increase achievement by challenging and supporting each student to reach his or her Highest Potential address the needs of the whole Child by ensuring all students feel healthy safe engaged supported and challenged with opportunities for social emotional learning and growth prepare all students with the skills and awareness necessary to actively contribute as productive local and Global Citizens and provide professional staff with the knowledge skills and resources necessary for highly effective delivery of instruction and services and Mr Daniels talked about some of those things in terms of strengths that you already have so the strategic planning process works on consensus that is not a majority rule okay there there are about six or seven of you at each table and what we're going to do is I'm going to ask you to to do an activity I'm going to ask you to each participate in brainstorming you have a sheet that has the um agenda on the front and your strengths and challenges brainstorming sheet is on the back and I'm going to ask you to brainstorm and then start talking and confirm or paraphrase or ask for validation of some of the things that you're hearing perhaps from other people at the table hopefully then you'll be able to come to consensus consensus is not your first choice necessarily but it's something you can live with and support okay so we're reaching for consensus tonight you've all been given a different number when you came in some of you were not particularly happy about that because you wanted to be with the person that you came in with but in order to get a true flavor of your community we do a very random I'm responsible for it so blame me um do a very Rand random handout of numbers so that you can be with people that you may not typically sit with because as human beings we tend to gravitate towards people who feel the same way have the same values and the same opinions but that doesn't give you the true flavor of East Windsor's Community okay so that's why it's good to break up and sit around with other people so the activity for tonight is going to be consider the strengths and the challenges of the district that Mr Daniel spoke about I'd like you to take about two minutes three minutes to introduce yourselves to each other at your table okay select a recorder that's somebody who's going to use the fat marker at each table there are pens at each table and markers at each table and you have a numbered Post-It note somewhere in the room number one is over here two three are in the back four and five are up here six and seven in the back eight nine and 10 are over there and once you come to consensus on that top 10 list so you want to think David Letterman everybody remember David Letterman please say yes don't break my heart okay everybody remembers or is just patronizing me and saying you remember David Letterman David Letterman used to do a top 10 okay on his show the David Letterman show so we're going to ask you to come up with a top 10 strengths and a top 10 challenges you can split your Post-It note from left to right strength challenges you can do it top to bottom you can do a slash across the you know diagonally across whatever you would like to do but come up with a top 10 if you can't come up with 10 that's okay whatever you can come to consensus on put up on these boards and then because there are so many tonight we'll do what it's called a gallery walk instead of each table reporting out so you don't need to have a spokesperson okay for each table so everybody's we alleviate that stress of picking a a spokesperson so we'll put these all around around the room and you'll be able to walk around when you walk around so I'm going to give you until about 20 after 7 that's about 35 minutes to brainstorm I'll then come around and let you know when you have about five minutes left to be able to come to consensus and start writing up on the the Post-it notes okay and when you walk around the room then after I give you the okay to do that I want you to look and see what you think are common themes from one group to the next group to the next group and then we'll as a large group I'll ask you to come back together and I'll ask you to call out common themes and I'll write those down on other boards okay is everybody clear with what you're doing tonight top 10 strengths top 10 challenges introduce yourselves to each other select somebody who's going to be able to write or print legibly on these papers because I have to be able to read them when I get home so that I can put it into the memo of the outcomes okay you're going good to go you have until about 7:20 so thank you for your attention very ni turn e for e oh e for e e for e e spe e for like spe e e e e e e e yeah e e e for e e e e e e not never [Music] for for e e you spe e you [Music] and e spe e for spe e for I e see okay folks I need you to start if you can hear me clap once if you can hear me clap twice it really does work I learned that in the district last week okay if you can start coming to consensus and then start writing up on your boards you can take them back to the table and write on them I'm not suggesting that you write you know on them on the wall so you can move them around okay but I'm going to give you about um until 7:30 to do that okay e e e e e e know e [Music] l I'll for e your good second you okay for for e e okay folks this is the NFL and this is your twom minute warning two minutes it's crack e e hey Dad e e spe h by e spe okay but here's the thing down okay folks I'm giving you two more minutes if you can hear me clap once if you can hear me clap twice okay I need everybody to be done in two minutes okay NFL two minute warning okay because then we're going to walk around thank you spe so e e for e e e for I'm always a able to find somebody who can do that CU I can't okay what I'd like you to do is take the next 5 10 minutes and walk around they're on that wall over there over here and over here think about what are common to each of them okay I want you to think about common themes then you'll go back to your tables and then I'll ask you to call them out okay thank you EAS you just so smart I guess I can't walk in front of e okay folks if everybody could go back to their tables all okay oh that's so much better all of a sudden before it wasn't sounding like it was on okay table okay and you can use the microphones at your table also this is literally my life journey to do this so they said that I can get to be the person that does this this is my moment okay where what so I like to think no um so Staffing we said is a strength it's a common uh theme that we've seen great what else yes extracurriculars this is not my dream but I'm still excited um I saw a common strength was our stem program okay what else I heard extracurriculars from somebody Arts Pro oh sorry arts program like written out loud is a strength our child study program anything else if it's already been said that's fine but if you have something else to to offer on strengths hit me not literally want to go into challenges and then if you have strengths we can go back to that what about challenges what did you say can do navigating technology landscape else supporting our ESL community in an immersive and inclusive way throughout their time here an inclusive way did I hear immersive and inclusive diversive imersive immersive immersive and inclusive yeah with with with the general education population what else we said teacher support professional development for teachers and staff anything else oh we one lack of youth programs lack of youth programs okay anything else parent engagement where did that come from over here was like the voice of God no I heard it thank you um I said parent engagement okay anything else okay yes I'd like to really thank we have two staff members here who have really translated for folks tonight so I'd really like to thank them for for doing that so I'd like to give them a round of applause I'd like to give anybody that's non English speaking a round of applause and you have about nine or 10 students here that is fabulous okay okay so our next meeting is going to be on March 14 oh it's up there on March 14th 6 to 730 so it'll be shorter this time okay we're going to ask you at that meeting to consider that you've been away from East Windsor School District for about three or five years you come back you stop at a waha to get gas and you go in to get coffee and miraculously Time Magazine is still in print and there's going to be Time magazine in there and I have a fabulous fake cover that looks really real I did it myself and it's going to have your schools on the cover and it's going the title of the article is going to be schools that Ed in addition to all of the great things that you talked about tonight and you learned about tonight's strengths what would you expect to see happening now in that three to five year period that would put you on the cover of Time Magazine so that's going to be a vision and initiatives activity okay so that's what's going to happen next time each table will'll have a Time Magazine cover on it we'll have one up on the the large boards also and we'll ask you to think about different um initiatives that you would like like to see happen everybody will have at their table the outcomes from tonight so you'll be able to look back and look at your strengths and how you might be able to leverage those strengths to deal with those challenges and maybe those challenges in five years have now become strengths for you okay so that's what we're going to be looking for next time I hope that you'll all come um I hope that you'll bring a friend we have more tables we can always put out more tables and if your students please bring somebody else with you we would appreciate that as well sign in starts at 5:45 I'm usually here by 5:30 so that's fine too there's cookies and snacks and stuff I hope you've taken advantage of that bottles of water we start promptly at 6 and we'll be done promptly at 7:30 and I have two minutes to let the board president know she needs to adjourn have a motion to adjourn the meeting no you can do it from there okay all those in favor from the board okay perfect thank you so much for coming have a good night safe home and it's not raining