##VIDEO ID:a3frFo3H3zY## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e [Music] okay adequate notice of this regularly scheduled meeting of the French Town Board of ation has been provided in accordance with the open public meeting act by notification to the Hun County Democrat on January 11th of 2024 a copy of this notice has also been posted at the public school at the municipal building and filed with the burough clerk the pledge of algi I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for Mr Blackburn here Mr dery here Miss Howard Miss Klein here miss nakahara here miss pello here Mrs nent here um at this time we invite public comment if anyone from the public has comment or yes stand up I this uh if you could say your name that would be great uh my name is Randy gold I'm the father of two girls who attend Frenchtown elementary school I'll start by being transparent and inform you that I am not a resident of Frenchtown I've got the first class education on how important that is I'm a divorced father who lives in nepon Township New Jersey 90 miles away from here I have joint custody of my children with my ex-wife who not only resides here in Frenchtown but is also a graduate of Frenchtown school that being said I did attend Alex Andria middle school and graduate from bval Regional High School so I do have an understanding of this area and how Frenchtown operates I have reviewed your guidelines and will train from using any direct names during this open Forum but at the conclusion of this session I will be filing a formal complaint letter over the past two years I have been made aware of instances where kids are reporting complaints of abuse to school officials which are going undocumented and unreported I've been in contact with the school and they do not deny that these instances have been reported however quote they don't feel they need to be documented or reported at this time I would like to stress that the school is supposed to be a safe place for these students and school officials have a moral ethical and legal obligation to document and Report any abusive issues immediately the school's negligence in handling the abusive situations lead me very concerned about the safety of all children and parents who place trust in these school officials to uphold their responsibilities the school refuses to communicate with me via email and only wishes to speak to me in person which makes sense when you consider they do not want to document paper track of the situation however as a parent I cannot in good conscience allow them to operate in this manner and I ask this board to investigate these issues and hold all parties responsible and accountable for their actions or lack thereof as the Damage Done to these children will not fully be known until it's too late I'll finish here tonight by outlining with the guidelines for emotional abuse from The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children Are first listen carefully to what they're saying let them know they've done the right thing by telling you tell them it's not their fault say you'll take them seriously don't confront the alleged abuser explain what you'll do next and most importantly report what the child has told you as soon as possible thank you for the opportunity to speak here tonight and express my concerns thank Youk you thank you is there any other public input this evening okay um we'll move forward with our presentations and recognitions um 6.1 is our violence and vandalism report um motion to adopt the violence and vandalism report in 6.1 so mve okay comments or questions about 6.1 this is uh primarily about the um we of respect Jim correct so um each year we we document [Music] um events of violence or vandalism right as it as it pertains to the school um it's in your folder um we are you know we report on last year's 23 24 so there has not been any um which is certainly a good thing you know for us at French Town Elementary School um something you know we're it's it's a it's good to be in that boat last year also just to you know review we did have throughout the school year we did have um alleged incidents HIV that we looked into so there was five and then there was a culmination of three that were confirmed and we've been talking about that but this is also a time just to kind of capture that moment um and in all those cases we're certainly doing remediation we're doing um bringing those um opportunities to teach students you know the best way to go about these things and um we spend a lot of time on that as as this board knows um utilizing the teachers utilizing students utilizing roleplay utilizing education character education um to support many of these things um we just came off of the week week the respect um you know which we tried to make very a positive culture and environment with doing things like blue and gold day and you know pride and um knocking out bullying and things like that right like those are things that we are stressing to our students our family or Community which is really good to see the participation we do a lot of um you know not even accolades during the school day but we do you know some social media posts and we do weekly updates that and you talk about all those things and with the support of um meard our Cur and spirit coordinator as long as many members of our team that play a role in that um we also which we talked a little bit about from previous meetings are just the training programs that are stack are a part of right so that's always a piece not only the activities of things such as first day of school and having Marley or doing review of HIV presentations or review of kind being kindness and respect more to the K4 or reviewing that code of conduct with K4 viewing the the 58 code of conduct with um middle school students all those pieces become part of events and training as captured in um our student safety data system um and those are reports in there and you can see um how many staff train various trainings we talked about the behavior threat assessment training that was done um with multiple multiple um team members on our school school culture climate committee which of becomes our Behavior threat assessment team small school like ours um and you know I know it's something that we always look at as we've talked about making each day part of what we do instead of having these events oh we could respect violence awareness week next week that will be a part of having this part become just what we do each day um so our total trainings um our programs just from last year I know the board is always interested in how many we've done and we we kind of make it more of what we do sportsmanship award kindness Awards um so last year we were 45 at this you know at this juncture basically about 20 20 in each first half so we talk about um July to J January and then we talk about January to June so 45 was our total this year and this past year we had 83 um so again you know with Marley coming a service dog that would be a part of you know social emotional health and supporting students and staff too um there's certainly moments that it's equally as beneficial to the staff um so events like that um any other questions just with pieces and parts of things that we're doing but that captures everything as it relat to um violence and violence and vandalism reporting as well just a review of our ssds um we week respect we're in this week just coming up next week we'll be posting things out a l thank J you're welcome can I just say Brandy we as a board and can speak to this are not allowed to engage during these kind of feedback sessions but I I want to say that I appreciate you speaking up but your children as a parent and I think that's very important and I know probably was very difficult for you to come here and speak and as a board member I just wanted to say thank you for coming and thank you very appreciate um for 6.1 we need a vote all those in favor I oppos tostain okay we're moving forward to 6.2 um for the uh testing presentation that [Music] all right [Music] Swit can everybody see it's pretty all right it's good everybody's good all right so um got my my pad up here because I feel like each year we always have some questions that sometimes I can't answer right on the floor here um we have to do some followup so I'm ready and prepared um first off I just want to say thank you to Mrs Doyle um for helping us out here and I just want to say thank you to the audience in here tonight too because we don't always have such um a large group so it's great to see people um from our community in the building so thank you for that um Christina Doyle who helps us out she's our testing coordinator um and somebody that I brainstormed a lot along with the team members um in our school to come up with plans U make recommendations and follow through so um just quick overview so when we talk about State Testing which we did in the spring um third through eth grade ELA math Fifth and eighth grade science um scoring for ELA and math is did not is did not meet partially met approaching meets and exceeds expectations it's a five tiered situation science is four tier um we're not going to normally I would post that but we're not going to talk specifically that because our students are less than 10 in science this year and I'll get to that but we can't report that out when we have student scores student a group of students that are less than 10 that's the criteria with the state um and we follow that um so as many of you know um this year the testing became a discussion I think probably it's always been a discussion but I think a more heavy discussion maybe November December last year January February and that time um and I think the board had just kind of asked some questions about testing and what is people's what are this community's perception of testing what is the staff's perception of testing and so forth so I think we look back at some things and we just try to make ultimately look at some strategies that we could use that could benefit the students um and then just Pro promote an environment of more achieving environment maybe if we weren't doing that before I'm not going to say that we weren't or we weren't um but we came up with this Five Point testing plan um which we intentional focused on U practice test prior we talked about providing students a free breakfast so everybody that was testing got free received free breakfast um all students had pre-movement so not only did you get breakfast before the testing you got pre-movement before um during the test we did not allow students to just go through the test and then get to a book or get to an iPad or get to we said you know the the deal of this whole thing you know the preest and is for you to be actively engaged in your test as best as you can be obviously on an individual basis um and within that we had teachers aad um all the basically at least two student at least each student probably could potentially get up to two um positive reward certificates which allowed them as part of our PTO and part of our positive behavior positive treasure box which believe it or not as I've said this before um we always thought positive treasure box might live prek through fifth grade but it is is very interesting and and students want that at the seven sixth seventh eth grade level equally as much um that's one thing we've definitely learned um I think between that and also our Wellness room um that's been that's a prek through 8 want and um desire and so forth so those were those pieces and we've always had when you're done with the testing we get to go outside that's always been a part when all the grade levels test then we go some additional recess um outside time during that week if it was raining or something we would use the gym and utilize other things but I think if I remember recall correctly I think the weather held out for us last week or last spring during this time so those were just five points that we really had intentional focus on um and I I think I reported back aside from like doing polls with the students I feel like we were 100% on all of these things um except maybe the pre-movement there was a couple students that didn't love the pre-movement piece but pretty much 100% so that's which is okay we like you know um we appreciate that and we were appreciative of their input um so so that's where we landed so just kind of bring that back and recall that that was our first year where we really had um since my time here like that intentional focus and again I'm not comparing it to other years but I'm just going to speak to last year and how we did that I think students were I I'll say that students attended more that week for sure we had probably the least amount of makeups in the in the time that I've been here that week so I think that's telling too so maybe some of those things were definitely motivating for students um okay so we can talk about four six and seven from last year um so Ela we have um 6.7 my blocking everyone over here yes that's fine all right TR you you're good no you're good I think I think they're right 6.7 exceeded um 46.7 net 20% in the approaching Beal 13.3 um partially and then we had did not meet we had a 13% group to um I think what's always important when we talk about um students in in our school it's that we have to think about on an individual basis for them and and how they're progressing um but we also have to look at those percentages typically in our school like ours don't represent so many students because we know we're not that many big in each class so just sharing that um but the data is what it is right it's it's sharing that um you know we have a little bit work to do in here and we're going to be talking about some of those strategies that we've been doing um sorry just to be clear we don't have any results for third fifth and eth because the classes were too small correct but at the end there is a cumulative School score for of the testing sure it's just the testing group yeah yep which is on here I'll get to that that should have the third the fif so this is just our Ela um and then you know some we we talk about State averages you know 49 is the state averages in this piece we're at 50s um State average over here is 33 we're at 31 so we're a little below that um not much but slightly below that grade four math again we had no one exceed 60% met the expectation 20% approaching 13.3 partially met and then 67 did not um so again a nice chunk of met expectation but we also have um again some work in there fourth grade math same deal State average 740 we're at 750 so we're above grade six we had 18.2% exceed which is you know it's always great the a just exceeded 455 that met 91 approached 273 partially approached and we didn't have anybody fall that did not me category grade 6 Ela average for State 49 we're at 54 than the average score when it comes to written expression 34 and we're at 34 to Jim when we're looking at average scores for elas in particular for English we are looking at kind of state averages that include a quite a different demographic correct where there's a a larger proportion of students who come from economically disadvantaged households and there's also a significantly larger proportion of students English is uh Second Language yeah I mean we're talking about the entire state so when you're benchmarking in benchmarking it in your own brain is it are you trying to get to kind of the state average are you trying to supersede the state average like what would be a healthy performance for a school with a demo like ours yeah I mean I I think we look at the we're looking at the Met expectation and approaching expectation like we want to be meeting as expectations right so I don't don't know if I I mean I certainly look at it we're looking at it but I'm really looking at the individual score high it should be overperforming in the state because you think that our PIV has a high economic it does so I don't think it it does I know it okay okay I mean I think that's that's available public available we can share up the whole board that's something we could certainly look at our demo you know versus the state I mean main thing is like when you're trying to Anchor it is this question is is are the state averages the right an for us should we be aiming higher or should we be aiming lower right so I think we definitely should aim above that right I think that would be our goal but I'm also looking at the individual growth of that student like what they scored this year what they scored in the previous year um those things those are the things that we're really looking at and we'll talk a little bit about we're also looking at which which standards within the testing did they yes not do so well on right so we want to be better with those specific standards that's part of one of the activities that we're doing right now go can you speak a little bit more to that but like what how closely does the data that we receive her State like how much does it Dill down to actual you know specific skills like how much has it so are you asking like in in sixth grade math is is there a way to tell that you know most of our kids who did not exceed expectations or did not reach expectations are you know struggling specifically in this scale right so there is a so there the state does do a print out of this per standards that were assessed so and I'll talk a little bit about that later but we can talk about it now too um not every St so there's there's standards New Jersey state learning standards that most of you are familiar we've heard about that um we don't the assessment doesn't do every one of them right so I think that's just something to be out there and learn I've been you know doing a little bit more and that's been some of the more local administrator discussions have brought up that point um not it's just I think it's just a point to know that you're the assessment is not doing every standard so with that said we want to look at the standard breakdown of the assess standards that were done and see where our students um did really well and so like I'll just break it down very simply and this is part of an activity that we' been working on with the team is if the students scoring let's just say we'll say 10 out of 11 students in this particular class are getting they they got the they got that correct right they have 10 out of 11 on this they have 10 out of 11 on that they have 10 out of 11 that so how much time are we spending on that specific concept or standards right and then but then okay on another standard maybe the same standard I not the same but a different standard you would say okay so three of our three out of 11 students got that same one wrong three out of 11 got this sign one wrong okay so now we're now we're talking right so we need to figure out how to get that a little bit more intentional focus on that particular standard that we're not doing well as a group on and maybe just I'll try and break this down simply if we're spending three days on the standard that we're getting 100% on maybe we only need two days to spend on that 100% standard and maybe we need to go down and put four days into the one that we're not doing well and that's what we're doing right now as a team breaking down these are these are the pieces of a working in a small school like that which is great because you don't have 450 third graders to breakdown and try to figure out and get teams to work we have the teacher the team um the supporting teachers that may be a part of it whether it's special ed or basic skills to be driving that home in our areas that we've bumped out to do that um that make sense like just like I don't mean it does make but do you understand where I'm coming it's about a curriculum like are we matching our curriculum to kind the expectations the state has for okay okay all right um all right so move on six seven so we move to seventh grade ELA we have um 9.1 exceeded 27.3 met 36.4 approach so we have a chunk there that that's approaching um partially is 18.2 and we have 9 one that did not mean um so again you know we we want to be here right we're we're we're getting there with a pretty good chunk of of students but what are those things that we need to be targeting more within our curriculum um and what can we be doing a little bit more targeted in our additional times such as an educational support period um or one of the other enrichment summer enrichment piece that we might do or an after school um academic support club that we might do this Bo so again state 50 on um on our overall Ela average and then speaking to written expression and conventions 34 State 33 us um so again we're a point lower there um than the state average but again we're my I think our team's focus is most back on that individual food all right and then on our math we have we don't have anybody that exceeded we have 9.1 met and we have this huge chunk 54.5% of approach and then another group is 36.4 partially met so this is another area that we're taking a deep dive on and looking at those standards that we didn't assess well on and figuring out how to reboot them not only not next year like there's stuff that we can do this year um that I'll talk about um that we can to start hitting some of these standards and and trying and really understanding maybe why we're not you know doing so well in that area J do you how confident are you that it's the curriculum when 91% of the seventh graders are not meeting yeah I think I mean I think that's where I think that's one of the focuses that we start on is understanding why are the students not getting a particular concept right I think it could easily be argued too because the class sizes are so small it's it's like hard to understand why they wouldn't be more exceeding you know what I mean it's like wonder I'm not an educator so I don't totally understand it but yeah since the class sizes are so small you would think that there would be more than one kid that yeah I I I can see that point yeah I certainly can I'm not gonna sit here and um I think that's why we're doing what we're doing um as a team to look at standards and make adjustments can I are there and this is just forgive me because I don't have a seventh grader so I'm curious about what is the big transition that happens between sixth grade into seventh grade because the previous year when you looked at the sixth grade class which is then this 7th grade class they were at 53% either meeting or exceeding expectations so I think that's a matter of a small class size it's like just this tiny group of kids like there could be these really but but that's what I'm saying those 12 kids the previous year more than half of them met expectations and then those same 12 kids only one of them has met expectations the following year and so like clearly the ability is there they're the same kids and so like somehow over the course of a year is it that they're being introduced the concepts of they you know like is there something that happens and this is honestly an ignorant question for me between grade six mathematics and grade seven ma mathematics that the same group of kids can go from being pretty decent performer to being a business I think I mean it's definitely getting harder right I mean that's something that I'm you know without going into like you know I would love to consult with my team on that right but just being honest it's getting harder is it's going to get harder right like we're building upon Concepts so it it will get a little bit more challenging each grade level that we go right um so like I I I'm just I mean not going in detail not looking at the standard in front of me to look at where we are um I'm just going to say it is going to get a little bit harder um and that's an excellent question um you know what the what the shape of our curriculum is are we relying too much on stuff to meet State Standards that's taught on an iPad and not taught in person also bear in mind that that stage kids are going through a lot of changes themselves you don't get the same kid same individual moving in sixth grade in sixth grade you do in seventh grade that kid could have fallen off a cliff of some kind who knows what um but and because our classes are so small that's going to shift you know two happens to two kids it changes all of the numbers um so not to Discount you're saying at all but I'm just saying that you have a social element here that has a disproportionate impact problem yeah but the same token you would think that the advantage of being in a a small school is that you know these kids so well as they're going through these tumultuous times you're able to kind of like hold them because they're so few of them I'm just saying that could be argued saying I think you could just argue that their marketing period data right doesn't reflect the the two or three days they took on this math test yeah um where you are getting supported where you are getting a chance to if you make if you make errors right you're then getting a chance to work back with the teacher to see the errors that you make this is one moment just being very honest right it's it's what I chose and that's that's the answer so um that shows how the testing lines up with the GPA yeah you had showed us their GPA last spring I remember some of this and and correct me if I'm wrong but specifically within seventh graders I'm trying to remember there was like mostly A's and needs in that class and you would know you're familiar with I mean I I would want to look back at it I don't I to say that everyone's getting an A and B I don't I don't I don't feel confident saying that but because I be interesting to look at like do our grades reflect similar performance because at the end of the day this is mathematics right so it's like it's a it's it's cleaner to tell a math for and comprehension of a specific you know like whether they're grasping something or not in math than it is in many other subjects and I'm curious that if their grades are suggesting proficiency yet they're unable to test a proficiency level like is there some sort of a mismatch there as matter yeah it's it's something that I can you know certainly take a look back and look at various grades I don't know what's up you've already done it for us yeah you know I don't and I can look at that but I don't definitely feel like depending on score I I don't feel like across the board everyone's got an nameb but I'd like to check it for sure I mean I'd like to say yes they are I don't want to yeah we follow this the extra appellation would say only one of them has an a majority are C's and then we've got like over a third that are D's are failing yeah and does that and that's not yeah I mean that's so I can I can sit here and say are all the students you know are the students okay if partially met what do we want to call partially at a 70 right like I don't know I'm just I mean there's five if you go down a five point scale that would be a d so it would be around a 60 right so 60 so in our world 65 but around there right so I think it's just do we have students getting those scores probably not right I don't think we have that group this type of group getting those scores um and I think that's a combination of you are building that rapport with the teacher you are in that small class you are getting that support to your point they're taking this snapshot and they're not doing well on that snapshot I mean some people are on testers that's I mean you've hear I mean you don't need there's data out there on that but um 91% of the B to St there yeah I just think I just think for me we're always and we've talked about this the last few meetings like we want to look at that individual and their growth yeah and every individual in our school has a different reason for you know I'm just going to say Adam makes a point there are other things going on um that I think our team contends with to support right so just going to you know leave with that AIT the reason I'm and I promise I'll shut up after this one is that when we talk about growth we now have proof that year over year the performance is declined and this is also the same class that's in eth grade now that will soon be going into high school and like my heart goes out to them because we talk about adolescence we talk about the changes that come with high school just the DraStic social experience they're going to have once they come out of French Elementary to go into a large After High School and the adaptations they're going to have to make in order to just fit in and learn a new way of being and be in high school and be more mature Etc and if we are sending them in not fully equipped we not even like it concerns me for what their self-esteem is going to be like what their sense of self-confidence is going to be like if they are not at six seventh and eth grade grasping basic subjects in like at these levels that to me is really concerning because I worry about what is the experience of that ninth grader going to be what is that going to do to their self-esteem how is it going to influence the following four years in high school if we're not fully prepping them here now and yes it comes to individual students but to see 90% of them not meeting expectations when the prior year they were doing better it's suggest that like they're not growing they're actually declining and I worry that we're not like being aggressive enough in kind of looking at this and saying how do we fix it if this is the direction we're headed in right because it was a concern last year now this year we're seeing worse in Num I disagree all with what you're saying but I had a question like I had read this information before when you were sent it out last night but is it not the case that we're the average that we're on average and now are the kids coming from Holland Kingwood Alexandria are they also on average aage or like are we assum sounds like you're making the assumption that our kids are coming in lower I am because if you look at the Essa scores we are currently considered a low performing School we're in the bottom 17 percentile of all Elementary and high I thought we were average those are just standard testing scores if you look at just where we ranked as a school we are bottom 177% and that's based on standard scores and gpas based on demographics standardized scores the progress of children taking those tests are they going up or are they going down so growth rates it's um also based on climate so HIV reports things like that and lastly absenteeism which is an issue we have at this school then they combine that they give you a composite score ours is around 27 for last year anything below 39 is considered a low pering school and when you rank that into a percentile we're at 17 percentile so the Bott 17 % Kingwood is in the top 80% Holland is in 57% so that is how we compare to those two schools so we can verify for sure right we can look at that yeah I'm not I mean I'm not here comparing us to Holland or Kingwood or Alexandria that's not which just only when she made the point about going into the high school like at a deficit from other I mean I think that's something the you know our academic achievement committee has had some dialogue with the high school to um see how we're progressing up there um so that's something I I think our end goal is somewhere by the end of this coming Spring right in the year to kind of have some our first exchange of just a conversation about what they're seeing so I look forward to that I think I think all the districts are looking forward to that 11 this is this year's eth grade M all right so again State 739 and I know but 731 is where again we're below that um this is our overall testing this is what I think the team was referring to earlier um your way again um so across the board in our grades that we just talked about that we can test that we can share um 12% exceeded 41 met 197 19 approached 17 partially and 10 did not beet um and then our math 3% exceed 29 met 34 approach again big chunk in there um and then that partially met in you know did not meet at the bottom again that's where we're going to do some work we're going to talk about some strategies that we used so the this does are does not include the classes that are fewer than 10 it doesn't wait Jim is this the is this the data you got from directly directly from the state then it does include we we did this last year remember when you said it it didn't and I went back to the Department of Education and I can on that for you were present for that and you were cced on those emails that this the data that they send the combined testing overview includes the full student population that was tested including the grade that had less than 10 students so it should include the third the fifth and the eth class classes as well I can better that for you but um and but resend it yeah that's fine um but that's my understanding and we can check that um for everyone but again these are the scores that we're talking about and these are some of those pieces that we're going to be we are currently spending time to try to make a difference in Target pretty sure all right um so these are we said the areas that we can't because there nine students are fewer um and that's where our percentages come from so um again I'll check on that for you fifth and8 as we talked about they're too smaller report um maybe we're going to spend some time in the academic achievement uh committee to kind of look at some pieces and we could certainly share back um if we need to go ahead made a question earlier about could those two grades be combined together yeah we're not supposed to do that I have an email out already to Orlando that's our gr um to kind of see um Mrs Do's helping me up thanks yeah and we can see if we can do that um I think some highlights for sure right um we had some first off seventh grade student have perfect score I think you know when we talk about amazing things and all the things that we do as a school that make students feel welcomed and um reinforce that kindness and respect its pieces um we have a really nice opportunity to sh to have an academic Moment Like This um students in third and fifth grade also in that exceeding expectation mode which is awesome I I you know I can't say enough of those pieces and then more than 15% of our partici participants had exceeding um expectation in their score right so we had those pieces so there are some highlights that I just wanted to point out in there um we are going to be we we plan to contact the parents in the coming week or so of those younger ones and make them a part of our honorable breakfast um so we can be a moment you know to celebrate their success um in an already planned moment um for either middle schoolers so so other things to consider um love to just sit on this side all night but other things to consider are tendance concerns um and we and we know and bet had mentioned it and it's just something that I think for us we do notice it in a couple ways and I'll talk about that a little more a minutes but tardies I think leaving early right sometimes that's affecting whether or not so a student might come in and their attendance might be okay but then they leave after at 12:45 right and so now if you're a middle schooler you're missing reading your language arts that afternoon if you if you might be a um a sixth grader you might be missing math if you were late and you're a sixth grader you might be missing science first period so those things all play a role um you know we know that there's been more not more but some Cass destructions that occur so K4 we came up we talked about it summer we put a lot of work into code of conduct for K4 very supportive using zones of Regulation um you but supporting students understanding why they may be doing the things that they're doing to act out but then to support them with strategies and really trying to encourage them to utilize that strategy so they don't get in that spot um again and if they do get in spot again they use that strategy right so it's something that's ongoing um I think so far um it seems like students and parents involved in that process have been receptive to it um and it's something that we can will continue to work through um because we have to have students ready to go in school not disrupting others within school right and things like that Revis code of conduct for 5'8 and it really wasn't a significant revision other than we made you know detentions before school because that's an inconvenience right and that's you know it's it was I think we learned at a lunch detention okay I just got a lunch detention so now we've made detentions before school because again supportive using zones of Regulation to support through strategies for that um but it's just something that we I felt and so did the team it was felt we needed to change that approach um and make it a little less desirable um for sure um but also within those moments getting students in a small group whether it's one-on-one one on to to Really support them and kind of talk to them and and conversate to be better especially metal scores like they're grow they're young adults they're getting to be young adults U and I think you can have more more direct and more supportive conversations depending on the individual basic skills is a piece right we brought back um and that's been something again that we will continue to utilize we'll continue to communicate to parents um when teachers think that this is you know a good opportunity for your child um again we get a lot of positive feedback from parents on that and supportive right they want to be a part of those things um zones of Regulation I talked about again we talk about green Z and being in that ready to learn Zone if we're not it's hard it's hard to retain things if you're not in that piece so that's something we've been SP spending a lot of time on and I would say that a lot of time on in the sense training the staff to identify and see that when in children so we don't get more interruptions we get be able to kind of see that in a moment and then get back to where you know what we're doing so less classroom disruptions absenteeism we have like we're talking about it um and I don't love showing the next couple slides but I think it's worth seeing when when we talk about percentages of small students when it comes to testing um you know 10% of all of our if you have 10% or more right 180 school days 10% or more 18 or more you're comically absent and I just you know think about that for a minute but there there's there are some students that are more than 10 days absent and I think there's always good reasons right there in the sense that there's certainly excus days right there's days that you have to go to an appointment you have to be at this you have to be at that and we understand that but there's only a set number of certain days by policy that are excus days just being you know clear with people and these p is and this is something that we I felt like it was needed to be a part and I'm not going to read it to everyone but just poor attendance can affect whether or not children read proficiently by the end of third grade and it's just something that kind of like for me even when we were preparing for this presentation to read that and kind of think about that again that can be impacting right and I think we're in this together we're like I'm the administrator at the school we have a great group of teachers around us we have a great Community around us that get it that walk here most of us which is neat some of us drive but you know they I think they certainly I don't know anyone here that doesn't want their CH child to come here and have a good day and you know learn learn in different ways but I I just that's just something so the attendance piece is an important piece um you know they talk about sixth grade P GS and leading into WEA student will drop out of high school that's heavy I I don't want to think that for anyone in here but I read it because I see stats like that and I'm like okay well I hope that's not happening I hope because our fifth grader sixth grader for some reason we couldn't support them along with the family and reach out and communicate and use strategies in school to get them in here to be a active participant or just be a participant right um and make some strides and then now they dropped out of high school those are things I'm not wishing certainly you guys know that um but it's just when you see things and you hear things like that you know it's it's something um and then you know I think most all like being absent just two times per month can lead to a student being considered chronically absent and because got nine months you got two days um so one of the things and part of our action plan in there is to communicate more with the families and educate them that educate them pretty sure most families know that students need to be at school right um and I don't mean that in they get that um but I think and certainly then there's also the school side which if your child's sick right or you have a temperature and listen I'm a parent too I get it it's it's kind of a like where are we at um but all those things considered ultimately we wanted the child in school and so do you so on those days where maybe it's like oh I got a little cough today or I got I'm not feeling up to it today today or you know can we be a little bit more forward let's try let's get here right and we've had great conversations with parents in the community saying listen let them get here like try to get them here and we'll do our best to support them through being here at school one period at a time four periods at a time just to get more than just none right and we will work through that this team here will work through supporting you do that um and for those who've been involved I hope you you know I hope you felt that support when you were in that moment with us um so again and I'm not I'm not linking this at all I am really not so like asteris red whatever it is I'm not linking this at all I'm just saying so our fourth grade who probably did a little bit better in all the groups they're here a little bit more right but we had four out the that group that were over 10 10 or more absent last year um our sixth grade group we had eight of them right 8 out 11 was 10 of more absent right and I don't even want to show it too much but and then our 11 you know we had five of them excuse me six of them no five of them five of the 11 um so those are pieces I think just as you talk about like and again I'm I'm not I'm here to say we always have work to do always have work to do um I'm not in this business of I'm not thinking we always got to improve and be better for sure and and our teachers feel the same way but I think that the the student being present and being here and again we didn't even dive into leave those leave early situations or arriving late situations where you might miss science or you might miss math or you might miss you know reading in language arts we didn't talk about those pieces um I really I feel like our energy needs to be spent more in you know what strategies we're using for sure so kind of some quick like recap of something and I I appre appreciate everybody's patience and working through this analysis of the assessment as we talked about not every stand so when we write a curriculum and a lesson plan and so forth not every ass not every standards being assessed so just be aware of that right in the sense so we might be spending time on something not going to be assessed and then we're not prepared right um so that's things that we're looking at I'm not saying that's happening but those are things that we're looking at and then we're going to make adjustments if so and I think the example earlier of like the three if we're scoring 100% on something and 10 out of 11 maybe let's make KN that two days and that three that we're not scoring well on we bump it up to four days um or find a targeted spot in an ESP period or something which I'll talk about um just Ela focuses heavily like this assessment focused heavily on vocab acquisition informational tax and written expression across grade levels um and the math focused a lot on operations and algebraic thinking as well as model and reasoning so M more more questions were in that range so that's just kind of an easy one we got to spend more time in that world right um so that's easy um we're spending time now with the teams we've been looking at last couple weeks the individual students and and their progress looking where they're at what adjustments we need to make part two of that phase two of that is okay looking at our individual student and now looking at our standards um that we scored lower on as a group um and looking at them and making adjustments making adjustments now making adjustments as I just kind of gave you that example those are the type of adjustments we'll start making um and then recommendations for next year what could that look like should we should we be extending more time in math should we be extending more time in a specific area um collaborative time getting teachers together within the school day is always an important piece of this process administrator is part of it as well but always getting the teachers together to have that communication to see what they're seeing because sometimes students look a little different in one area than the other area and well this is what strategy is working for me um so we're looking at those things um for professional development support if there's opportunity so yesterday really excited that we had our articulation with Ela high school and all of the sending district elementary schools got to be up had a chance to be up there um we had great breakfast and keynote speaker and then we broke out into two different grade level teams with everyone in the district so the team had really good feedback um we worked through some some of that discussion yesterday afternoon and then we did some of this work that we're talking about ear um and I look forward to hearing more comments from our team about that experience because I really think they enjoyed it and I felt like it was beneficial to them and I think bringing back that conversation to the superintendent group we need to do those type of things a little bit more um other things educational support period we made a big push on that this year that was a fifth through eighth grade opportunity um you know um teachers within our building are there to support so we're having that direct teacher contact Mrs Thompson is our basic skills part-time and specialed the other time excuse me she's in one of those sessions with each of those grades so she's a really nice liaz on to everything that's going on um we have shared documents of all the kids of all the students progress and what they need to get done and how they need to work through that um so not only you know Mrs Thompson's is a nice lead on that but we also have supporting teachers that are within that 5 through eight who are very versed in the language and the knowledge and able to support and work with the teachers there um we have extra math spots so every every pay for um teacher this year has an extra period of math to reinforce some of those math concepts this year that's something we took from last year and we really applied for last year and we continued with this year um Tutor Time Homer Club those are After School academic opportunities for our students um to engage in to get more academic support um we branched out here um V and Adam have been part of um a Boe achievement committee um that we as well as Kate sorry Kate you're always a part of um but and that's a group that we've been looking at some things maybe um you know when we have discussions like this then they're like okay well let's look at this can we target something here or let's let's see what this is looking like to see some other correlations or Trends within our group um so that's something you know I'm sure that group has a number of questions um as we go through this tonight and then we are and so here's our um students in action um for sure and certainly a nice uh nice nice moonlit Sky the other night for sure that some of our share so because at the end of the day that's you know that's our Focus right those students in their growth and and making sure we as teachers and the adults are trying to you know Target what they need to do each day um which it really comes down to and that's easy to say um but I really do feel like our team cares a whole lot and they want to they want to see that Improvement there any other questions certainly if you do please don't hesitate to reach out um and we can you know if I need to further clarify something at the next meeting or however we need to do certainly let me know I know the science piece we we're going to look at that school card we report card peace question for Kate and Jim I don't know which one of you would be better to answer this because looking at these results if I'm like trying and do you get the accountability SP card when these testing goil to come out or does that come separately the accountability scorecard that gives us our score range for SSA the accountability indicator I I I I could I get I have all the access report so if you're saying you know if there's one in there with the accountability then I'm that's the one that like creates a composite score and essentially ranks the school according to all the other Public Schools I definitely won't I I can't say that I reviewed that in preparation only reason I'm bringing it up is As a low performing school which we were last year given these test results my anticipation is we will remain so this year um the state of New Jersey the Boe has special programs and grants in particularly for low performance that given the situation we're in we should probably take a view of and potentially apply for to help us with either curriculum additional Staffing whatever it is that might actually help um beyond our existing budget it just seems like an opportunity that if we are Curr if we remain in this bucket which I'm assuming we will that we at least take advantage of some of the New Jersey programs that could potentially fund some of the the ideas that you and the staff have sure I'll take a look at those pieces I want you know I want to check I want to verify a couple things but then definitely look into that if there's something that we can qualify for this District you know we're going to try yeah we don't qualify for anything that like because we're not in the bottom 5% you have to be in a bottom 5% and a title one school to get like the full comprehensive support but there is kind of all of these grants for the in between where schools left ours and it feels like we need it and then my second question is is there a plan to communicate these results wider the parents in the school Beyond this meeting because in the few conversations I've had and again my children are too young to attend school but what I keep hearing is individual parents saying well my kid is really struggling and assuming that all the other kids are doing very well and we see the results we know that is not the case that largely large trunks of the school population are struggling especially in that and I wonder is there an opportunity to bring parents together to better communicate what's going on to ask for their help with the xmt ism issues and to start to kind of like approach this together and I know it's hard to like you know like I'm a parent myself we like have a babysitter tonight right like these folks are here like it's hard to bring people together but it seems like instead of forcing each family to think of this as an individual child issue like my kid is underperforming we have to look at it as a community issue of like there's something that we're not doing for kids as a collective that we need to together do in order to lift these scores because I don't think this this is going to be a whack Ault this kid this this kid this just the the scores are simply too low for it to just be that I was recently at someone's house today and they each parent received a mailer with the yeah so every so to clarify every parent receives their scores like their child scor their child scores but it also showed the school everything the district it did but I wonder it's like is there an opportunity to bring the parents together I the opportunity definitely exists with our strategic planning Rachel and Jim and I met this week to discuss strategic planning and how to um kind of communicate these scores as well as a number of other things when um in our first meeting where we do like the kind of state of the school presentation um so yeah in in the past I know we put the presentation on the website we can do that you know um but I think the real like come together have a conversation will happen with strategic planning so we think it's springtime um no I have the date t i I have the tenative dates I should say um but uh we're our hope is the first meeting in uh January the second meeting and February and the uh final meeting on April Fool's Day why not you think it's more effective to want when we want to bring this to The Wider attention of the public general public to have some Strate some strategy say like okay this is where we're at these are some action plans that we have can you help us move forward I wonder if that would be like a better place to meet the public at so it's not like here's information I think be good to get this out in front of people ahead of all that starting up so they know where we're coming from yeah I don't think majority of the public understands that we are currently a low proving SP you're right and I think it's going to be very surprising because only five years ago we were pretty well and I think the reputation overall among kind of locals especially those who don't have kids it's the assumption that parown is still performing very strong and so I think that's going to be a big eyes and like how do you want in the context of like the entire nation all the last five years everyone's kind of I don't know if we we disproportionately gone down never you mean I mean everyone has gone down everyone has gone down we have gone down more than the trend forever and I hate be like I just want to say I hate being the bearer of this news all the time you're not the bearer of this news I you know it's it's also hat it but I I would also just you know um really stress that we're talking about one element of evaluation yes there are multiple evaluators that our staff uses for these kids um and this is a snapshot of a segment of time of this population um you know so I I hes I hesitate to send out this message of like oh my God the sky is falling um because of our performance on state tests um but Kate you you recognize that I'm not talking about the state test but about Essa which includes State tests it includes the growth of students over time it includes our absenteeism rates it HIV like it is a fair comprehensive metric that places Us in the bottom 17% and also a very difficult vet for very small schools um I'm I'm not denying that there's an issue I'm just saying I don't I think if you talk to parents of kids in the school currently um in many regards they feel like their kids needs are being met um and I don't think that um this is the only indicator of what's happening at Frenchtown Elementary School I I agree there I don't think the standardized testing is the only indicator of what's happening I mean the feedback we get from the academic achievement committee and what we find out from you know how we perform at in high school will be a vital piece of that understanding that'll be far more sort of qualitative and TR want to sear them as well but it really point to how we fairing kids and what the net result is in addition yeah so what we have here yeah un unfortun I mean and this is no knock on high school but unfortunately um the high school is kind of starting at Ground Zero this year um their feeling was like many schools that looking at the data from the last few years is in some ways pointless because of all of the learning loss from Co so they're starting with um the current the incoming freshman at the high school this year to kind of um track their progress because they are the first group in the last several years that's that had a full Middle School experience or relatively full Middle School experi yeah that's that's what they you know living about and building upon that thought for sure but I agree I think I think they're you know they're preparing to do an excellent job and they'll be sharing that information with us yeah it's not Magic Bullet either right no about one thing that we're going to find is gonna fix it for you know next year is freshman or been freshman for years or now yeah two years not even May by three years we start to have some functioning Solutions once we see the I'll explain it next time okay thank you thanks Jim you thank you very much thanks for thank you okay okay so we'll move forward um with the board secretary report um thessa anything specific you wanted to point out uh just a couple of things the November 26 meeting is that something that we need to discuss as far as the date oh okay I'll so I'll bring them you exp yeah so the qack which is our state monitoring program the assessment is due uh by November 15th we have um asked and received an extension because it requires the board resolution um but instead of going all the way to the 26 we were hoping to maybe move the board meeting up so we're not as late as the 26 and submitting our data to the state if we could move it closer to the 15th that's a possibility yeah we were just looking at potentially moving it up a week we did get the extension um as USA talked about but that would be the correct mean you're GNA be here that get a crown so November 19th the Tuesday November 19th is the date we're looking at by me yeah so then we may need a motion from the floor to um change the board meeting date to the 19th for November so moved second all those in favor I a pooser obain and then just um just wanted to remind anybody I did send reminders out about board member training so please check your email if you need to do your training that's due by the end of the calendar year thank you then we need a motion to approve the minutes from 7 September 24th regular and executive session seconded questions you would pass up your executive session minutes when you're done with them here in favor I oppos exan okay we'll move on to the CSA report all right so good evening again um so just quickly going over um this is our HIV result for 0 and Z for this month um did have um uh student contact student cot conduct um report and then we do have security and fire drills on 910 9.5 and just while we're in there I mean you heard us talk about a lot of our um District goals and action plans just kind of talking through everything tonight um but we're certainly focusing on that academic achievement piece um within that plan um focusing on curriculum standards alignment um focusing on attendance um a number of things in there that we kind of went over in our in our program here tonight um and then we also have um our second piece which we're going to be seeking out that the enrollment um drop real s um and just understanding that better and so we have a plan um with our team here which I'm excited for everybody's going to play a role in this for sure um and having one of our board members here work through some responses from parents and understanding if they're willing to be a part of you know what things could be um keeping it really simple what things could we um be potentially improving on or maybe why did you choose to come here why did you choose not to come here right that type of thing so keeping it simple but understanding just to get a broader sense of commity maybe perception or maybe reasons um you know I think the board made a great great um comment just last month right there's you know could I do it sure I could do it but to many point some people maybe they don't want to be as honest with me um because for a lot of them I I was very close to them during that time here right um and I think there's a number of those families that will be that you that will be a part of hopefully they'll be a part of that process I hope they will um because I think they'll have something great to add to it and I want them to I want them to be honest um because if we're not doing something I I want to know why and I want to improve on it and I think our team is the same way so that's also just some timelines in there like one of them sooner or later is you know getting some of that then also in there is just our memorandum of agreement between uh law enforcement and us and last year if you remember there was a number of new revisions um there are you know the board a asked me are there any there are no revisions in this year's plan so it's exactly the same as last year um as many of you know we're very um we have a very supportive local police department for um everything that we're doing here in fresh elementary school which I really I'm super proud of and our officers know our students they're they come through the building um they're visible they're they're a part of events here um I really just can't say enough about that relationship that we have I really hope it continues um and this is just another agreement that just really um um sir shows that collaboration in that relationship that we have now do a little recap whens okay um so we need caressa can I do 81 to 87 as a consent should I speak preschool well um do we have a motion to approve um consent agenda of the CSA .1 to 8.7 second okay Jim you wanted to speak to the preschool yeah just to the addendum just so as TR and I sat in on the qap meeting and found out some some de our new deadlines and dates and so forth um it also came a few days earlier with the preschool so again November 15th turns out to be um a really time whenever you know the state stuff needs to get him to so um that's why it ended up being on the agendum because we weren't going to make it within the current date again so we had to make sure we have to prioritize this information get this on tonight's agenda but threeyear preschool Plan update so we did a big three-year plan last year when we initially got Aid um so we just made adj adjustments to um just projections and then that's the statement of insurance of our team is and then just our contact list this is just part of protocol that we have to do um so we're just looking for your approval on those pieces um and really there's not there's not a significant change with the plan we continue to do um what we've had our numbers represent the change of what we're doing right so whatever our first grade numbers is that's basically where we go off of our projections um and for those who know we certainly are still we still have our loord preschool lo location too um that's going on so if you again I say this again if anyone knows anyone in the community that is looking for an all day preschool opportunity we have spaces in our mford location so please communicate to them and have them reach out to us that's good any questions for Jim on 8.1 to 8.7 okay then we'll need a rot call Mr Blackburn yes Mr dery yes Miss Klein yeah Miss nahara yes Miss pallo yes Mrs nen yes um and Jim you wanted to another it y just a couple quick things um normally I usually go along but we had a lot on tonight so um just wanted to quickly say that um you know we're proud to say that we're making some progress with our modern fossil project the holes are dug out front we have safety and Boards over them um but it was inspected today so we're moving forward with that project it's early in team so excited about that um we continue go hund in Walking school bus we're in mode right now we're actually looking to set up a Bike Rodeo shortly uh but yesterday I just can't say thank you enough to not only our our teachers and our support team to go up to Del Val to be a part of that articulation but it was really nice to get everyone in the room and talking about similar things right talking about challenges talking about strengths talking about areas resources areas that we could support better resources um so our teachers got had to had the opportunity to be in a preschool room with other preschool teachers um kindergarten room with other kindergarten teachers first grade room second grade on and on right in middle school had a nice chunk of so everyone was looking at things like State testing scores strategies in the classroom so I really look forward to um you know developing that more with the local administrative group here and giving our staff more opportunities to be a part of that feedback was was welled I think staff want to do more of it um and it always it's you know the first time you do something like that there's a little like oh my gosh I got to go up there but it really turned out to be um a great event the keynote speaker was pretty good um got everybody moving in the morning and um so just again thank you to Scott Stephanie Kevin Rick and uh is there everybody all our local superintendant um as a part of that group it was it was really good to be a part of um certainly after school bubs are continuing seventh graders had a blast at Fairview um just again thank you our parent volunteers who go out and do that it's it's you know we really appreciate them um so much we ulated them in for this past week's update um week of respect again everybody particip in and I know it's just easy to say that but parents are keeping us in the Lo one you know making sure that their child is is they want to participate that day they're thinking oh you need to wear Bloon and gold today or you need to wear this you know and we appreciate that um it definitely goes a long way um for those type of events and the last thing is just you know continue to you know gain from us not only on our website for weekly update and then obviously our always a terrier um social media piece when we have opportunities to go out thank you okay um so I did want to mention that um Rachel and gimini met with our uh field rep from New Jersey school boards about um strategic planning um for those of you who don't know our field rep has changed um Glen has taken another position within New Jersey school board so our new rep is Patricia ree um so we met with her and talked about um strategic planning um and then Jim and Rachel and I met after that and you know talked about um Outreach first strategic planning and dates um and you know kind of scheduling and um as I mentioned before that like state of the school you know that first meeting where we have the state of the school and and what um you know we need we want to communicate through um in that presentation um so our plan is to begin emailing um the in early December late November early December um following up with um phone calls in early January um we have a list of like stakeholders in the community um some of which is carried over from our last list from strategic planning but we looked that over added to it we'll share that with the board so that the board can look at it and say like hey then remember this person or this person would be great to add those people will all get um a personalized invitation um and then we will communicate to the community at large and try to get you know as many people as we can to attend the meetings there is no commitment to attend all three meetings although that's ideal um we also discussed the the options are to have it not be a formal Bo word meeting um and just have a you know not have a quorum there but Rachel and Jim and I all felt that the board members would want to be there um not just three of us but all seven of us so and that's what we did last time and the way it works is basically all you have to do is like call the meeting fil or and adjourn it in in between that it's not a board meeting it's it's the but you do have to um publicize and and then you have to call the order and uh adjourn as because we rob going to be here there sunsh yeah so you it has to be there has to be some protocol but it's in between um it's it's a strategic planning meeting um so our dates and I have cleared them with Town Council we did check the high school um calendar um I'm just waiting for confer from our field gr um but she said her calendar was pretty free after the first of the year so um it's January 14th with with an alternate for of January 16th the next one will be February 18th with an alternate of February 20th and the last will be April 1st with an alternate for April 3rd um those are all Tuesdays and Thursdays and our the reason we did we were a little like oh gosh like the weather stinks and it's dark and but we want to get it done um so that we have them to inform our yearly goals by June so that you know the they'll everything will be done and we'll have you know it all in a nice package before June um so I think that it's pretty much I think that's all I have um but again we'll talk more about that at the November meeting by the November meeting hopefully we'll have that list of stakeholders for everybody to take a look at um and just you know in the meantime you can kind of we can kind of think about that it was you know it's basically like you know people from the fbpa people from the council people from the planning board and other any other organizations that have in the town okay um so we'll move on to our consent agenda um we do have two the two additions of 11.8 and 11.9 so we'll need a motion to approve consent agenda 11.1 through 11.9 so M oh I'll second okay comments or questions um I have one um 11.7 curriculum writing there something we do every year or is this um a new so we have so remember Adrian Al was on with us um our plan for the summer and then ended up leaving us for another opportunity so um similar the curriculum right continuation of this yeah this will be a person that will come in and support us in the curriculum writing way um doesn't have the administrative role that um Adrian had but ccul writing yes so we're bringing um we'd like to bring Miss food and when will she start um immediately weeks ago she's um for those of you who don't know she worked at school for like 30 years of course retired it wasn't yes T kindergarten and then uh fourth grade and fifth grade I think yeah we've been looking for someone to you know support that spot um and by recommendation of our own skip committee that was a name that was s there so we looked into that and I have an opportunity there she's willing to support all right thank you she's great you mind if I talk about 11.4 to 11.6 not at all okay so 11.4 with the budget development calendar this is the believe it or not we're kicking off our cycle for the 2526 uh budget development and spend very little time dealing with one budget so um yeah so we'll be kicking that off so the calendar C represents our normal schedule we haven't been notified that there's going to be any changes to that schedule um so we'll stick with the normal dates the the budget election calendar actually for 2025 has not been um posted yet but we kind of know what those statutory dates are as far as uh initial submission of the preliminary budget and then um what the adoption for the final budget is we kind of know what those are it once the um election calendar for 2025 is published if there's any changes that are needed we can um make adjustments to our action items at that point um we'll have to I think we should probably discuss how we might do the budget development if we think there's necessary additional meetings needed because of the strategic planning it's probably going to be difficult you know we'll be spending a lot of time together we're doing strategic planning board meetings and then um if we're inserting a separate budget I think we were good last year and I think we did one separate budget meeting um in one of the months so as it gets closer and as we're developing I think this year as far as doing projections I've already um created the new budget year in my budget development software and I can sort of start to do Revenue projections and things like that um based on some of the things we talked about when we revised the budget for 25 for 2425 um so we'll we'll look at we'll I'll look at all that and be able to kind of give you you know some of those items I think a little bit earlier because we're not kind of waiting so much on state aid and we kind of know where the state aid is probably going to um to be this year since we're done with the S2 reductions um so that's for the budget um the comprehensive maintenance plan and the M1 are actually also kickoff uh documents for the budget that go to the county office the comprehensive maintenance plan shows um for our facility maintenance there is a requirement so the M1 shows what our minimum requirement is that we have to spend on maintaining our facility in order to maintain state aid and then the comprehensive maintenance plan demonstrates how much we've actually spent in the prior year how much we have budgeted in the current year and what we the minimum amount that we need to budget in the upcoming year in order to maintain our facilities and keep that um cycle going and it also then shows how much we've spent on facility um maintenance over the past 10 years so that's a a requirement um on that document so that's kind of explains what those two documents are and those go to the county office for approval and then when we submit the budget they'll compare and make sure that we've met when we submit the budget those line items actually meet what we've documented the other thing that this M1 document does as well is it tells us what the maximum amount we're allowed to have in our maintenance Reserve account um and then they double check that they ask us to also tell them on the form what our current maintenance Reserve um but number is that have and they make sure it doesn't exceed what our our maximum allowable is and all of those what I was reviewing looked good so there for your approval said the 2324 year it was higher because we did the um is that the HB no actually we're going to be going out to bid soon for that for the for the chiller I would have to go how much what is the difference 85,000 versus the rester you know in the it's $858 in 23 24 so for this I could actually pull that up was it beny in that budget it could have been part of it part of it maybe it might have been 35,000 part of it air purifiers is that part of it repairs of these things the reason you're asking is budget enough for this yeah we did add some um cameras we did the water line service we did the water service line replacement yeah the traffic signs and we did we had to do some we did painting and sealing um repairs in the upstairs here that was the the summer before this one previous yeah yeah so some of those things those kind of smaller things combined probably is the difference right wolf I'm trying to read your mind here eron but um the question is uh do we have enough budget for this year some of those are going to be one off cost right like the fence the traffic fls and so on do we have enough money to cover with all other little things that might come up like replacing more ceiling tile or so that's kind of on what we need for the like the maintenance Reserve account so we have so I'm you know back up there in the maintenance reserve and what we have for the planned year is the minimum amount that doesn't mean that when we go to look at the budget if there's specific things we identify it can't be more than that um I don't want to make that number too high and force our hand at like having to meet that number so I kind of make that number just reasonable over what we required to budget but not too much that you were you were forced to budget at a number that we might not be able to support did we pull from Reserve last year not for maintenance well for the traffic sign you did that was a specific withdrawal for the traffic sign okay thank you thanks if this if this question can't be answered um that's fine but um for the field trips when the grade is referred to as buddies buddy program so it's the Buddy program that we run here so how many grade levels yeah and how many kids are we talking about um 20 is okay I get I can get you the official number we have a pretty large buddi group and it's adding and it's it's definitely another one of our a sweet program I love that program it's really so special certainly share it with the te yes that's why just amongst right yeah I just wasn't sure of the numbers I know that Rachel had asked in the previous meeting because I watched it on YouTube around enrollment and the budget and sustainability of the school is that an exercise that we're going to be doing in the next budgeting kind of cycle like are we going to look at what's the lowest number we can get to before but like he of the school starts to be really and not to like bring us down the darkness but I feel like we should know you know what I mean system I know to go from buddies to but is that a part of the is that a budgeting exercise is that a you know like at what point I mean I don't know that it would be a budgeting exercise because it would only affect the state funding the numbers would only affect the state funding I think it's more of an enrollment um discussion our state funding at this point is like it's so minimal I think it's what like 7% or 5% or something of our whole budget like I just said to Adam can't as long as the municipalities right so yeah well that ansers my yeah so I don't think it's a budget it's part of the budget conversation more a political discussion yeah and and a as we discussed the enrollment yeah you know I know it came up previously and I think it was Rachel who had um mentioned it also about we funded our budget with this many students and now we're at this many students just so today actually is what we call the picture day right October 15th is the day that what our student student enrollment looks like today is what we're going to get funded off on for next year so the funding is actually like a year behind so this even though you're projecting a certain number of students for 25 26 you're still only going to get funded for those students that you reported in 20425 yeah um and it's it's always like that year behind that's why I was concerned because we based the budget for this year on last year's significantly higher numbers and now we have less students and so like will that impact us next year or no we just have more to spend for student now and then next year we're going to be kind so because next year's funding is going to be based on this year's numbers which is a lower number which could affect some of the funding if enrollment goes up next year um it doesn't matter whether it goes up or not up or down we still get the same next year we only get a budget for 99 students we're going to have to spread that budget across more right the state the the state will make adjustments for enrollment so if we report this year that we had a huge number of more students than what we got funded forid the they won't put the money in but they'll allow you to increase your taxes generous exactly so and we've had that we've had that where it's called an enrollment adjust which is an enrollment adjustment is the ability to raise your taxes more than the 2% without V or approval we did that last year and that's be that I don't remember which adjustment we took there was there was one year recently where we had an enrollment adjustment yeah and it it was because our enrollment was more than what the state said our average over the last so many years like what our projected enrollment was going to be based on what we've reported in previous years we had more students they'll give us the aid now on those students because now we're out of the state aid reduction so they're going to fund US based on our actual enrollment got it but they will also give you the ability to say well you can you know we don't have to take it um you know but that's yeah kind of how it works with the enrollment understood thank you yeah there are only usually this year was different but usually there are only three um situations where you can go over the 2% cap and enrollment adjustment Health Care adjustment and if is Bank cap so like if we get the enrollment adjustment and we don't use it we can keep it as Bank to use it yeah still learning all the ins and outs I feel like every year a new rule well that's the problem you learn it then it's changes um I mean we found out stuff a week ago yeah so I mean it's yeah seems to be the thing okay any more uh comments or questions on the content agenda all right then we'll need a roll call Mr Blackburn yes Mr dery yes Miss Klein yes Miss mahara yes Miss Cella yes Mrs N yes okay anything else from the board before we go to public coment I I don't um and maybe I'm overstepping I don't want to step on anybody's toes I was wondering if when we're doing our committee for CAC will we going to appoint a board member or yeah we definitely we we need to you want to do that in we're meeting the 19th we would still be able being that we have the being that we have the extension we could point we can do it tonight you prer so just know procedurally if we needed to do that do I need to appoint somebody or can we just take the volunteer it can be it can be you it can be it could be anyone and what's the um time what so what we don't that's what we don't know so Jim and I are preparing now yeah the process so sometime before the 19th board meeting we will have to meet as a committee to review the scoring the DPR scoring and before we bring it to the board so the committee will determine that we've scored ourselves appropriately and then it goes to the board for approval on get submitted to the were on the last round yeah um I'm happy to do it unless somebody wants to do it it's basically bringing a bunch of files together yeah I mean that's a [Laughter] fair I'm thank you for no problem I have a little more flexibility my schedule to be here during school hours too because it's a committee with staff correct yeah yeah okay um okay is there any additional public comment this evening um then we will need there's nothing for executive session tonight so we'll need a motion to adjourn motion thank you all those in favor oppos to obain but thank you thank you for coming thanks for you're welcome anytime