##VIDEO ID:_YJcYoml6Mo## e e e e e e evening everyone good evening welcome to tonight um welcome to tonight's uh board meeting uh please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and remain standing for a moment of silence please to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stand One Nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all all right May thank you as we start our meeting let's pause to acknowledge that the hackensac school district occupies the unseated ancestral lands of the Ramapo m we are grateful to be able to learn work and gather today and we continue our commitment to support all underserved and undervalued members of our school Community as a reminder please speak slowly so that our translators and interpreters can help us tonight in accordance with the open public meetings act adequate notice of this meeting was advertised in the record posted at the board off office and filed with the city clerk I hereby call to order the regular public meeting on October 16th 2024 in the hackin sack high school media center at 618 at 6:18 p.m Miss Singh will you please do a roll call uh Mr Carol present Miss Harris Mr Martin Mar Mr pow present Miss springle present Miss Somerville present Mr s present Miss cira Alton present Mr James vicory present we have a COR thank you is so doesn't look like our student is oh come on up you have a a name tag in everything what are you doing so you can just always come straight on up to the de and join us welcome we have our our new student representative Thomas sorry I can read that too um welcome we are thankful that you're here and we will start with your report okay thank you hello my name is Shena Thomas and I will be presenting the October student board report our school is off to a flying start with our clubs activities Sports and academics in full swing earlier this month the high school hosted a Student Activity Club fa during lunch periods students were able to learn more about our clubs and activities during a barbecue lunch on October 25th all 10th and 11th grade students will be taking the practice sat during school this will be a delayed opening for students who are not testing on October 27th the hackin high school will be hosting our annual robotics competition in the main gym at 10:00 in the morning on October 28th our hackensac high school guidance Department presents the College and Career Fair over 100 colleges will be represented this will occur in the main gym from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. all families are welcome our dropin Center continues to host welcome back events for our students events include mindfulness activities meet and greets and a pumpkin patch coming soon on November 14th our homecoming dance will be in the East Wing gym at 6: p.m. and on November 21st will be our grade a open house also at 6 p.m. thank you thank you so much we appreciate you being here all right now we have our 2024 spring uh njsla data presentation and it looks like drum Brad will be doing that actually I'll be doing that during my superintendence report okay but I'd like to bring uh our assistant superintendent Mrs Andrea oats parchment to provide the information around the school safety data system report okay good evening everyone good evening tonight I am pleased to present to you the hackin sack Public Schools student safety data system report and this is information that occurred the last school year and I will be providing the end of year report and what is ssds it's the student safety data system uh we're required to report this information to the state incidents of violence vandalism as you can read harassment intimidation bullying Etc and all HIV trainings and programs and other information is also collected and reported uh to the state so we have two reporting periods the first reporting period I reported to you last school year I am now reporting from January 1 through June 30th of the 2023 2024 school year we have certain types of incidents that meet the definitions and I'm just going to show you the incidents but before I show you the incidents I want to say that all the incidents listed are not incidents that we have experienced at hackensac public schools these are all the incidents that are required to be reported but again this doesn't represent the incidents that have happened in Hackensack Public School not everything on this list this next slide will just show you it's a breakdown of the incidents and the type of incident for each school you can see in the first column listed are the schools and if you read across it will show you the number of incidents from uh January through June of last year just want to give you some time to look and then the total this slide just gives you a comparison from year to year of comparing a high school in middle school and the incidents that have occurred and I'm happy to see that um HIV confirmed incidents have been reduced and I would say it's because of some of the things that the schools are doing and how our district is responding as well of course I'm not going to read all the bullet all the things on this bulleted list but I will say that each school has created a culture and climate goal to respond to the data that has been presented also we see the schools again and the number of trainings they have completed and the number of programs they have completed to be proactive in order to continue a great climate and school culture so just a breakdown of each school and the numerous events and trainings that they have had and programs to create a positive culture and climate Jackson Avenue School look at the number of programs and classroom lesson on SEO Fanny Meyer his hillers as well and lessons malie K Parker and classroom lessons included be Mount School and all these as I say to maintain a positive School climate the middle school and you see there's a new item listed to address seal and wellness assemblies programs incentives for students and then the high school specific meeting and initiatives and parent Outreach so you see our schools uh continue and have continued to uh develop and Implement a number of programs to maintain a good climate and culture and in terms of that you notice that the report is called student safety data system and now I have Harry Ruiz who will speak to us about about other safety measures that we are taking good evening everyone uh thank you for this supper yeah thank you for this opportunity board president trustees Dr McBride uh for this security update this evening so the first slide you see here it's it's rounding around uh the new update on the staff by Allied security um we've added five new Allied security Personnel um to the high school uh which that brings the high school to a total of six Allied security Personnel um the six Personnel uh has been there Dennis as we referred to him Mr Dennis has been there for several years uh at the high school so five of the a the a us which I'll refer to as the Allies uh un uh Universal Security Personnel uh they have a shift of Monday through Friday 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. uh they're assigned various building posts and throughout the floors um as you know right the high school is a large footprint and multiple floors so working with the building Administration we identify different areas is that we would like to see them uh scattered throughout the building to provide the roaming Patrol and follow the schools uh calendar and their bill schedule so they understand the movement of the children in the building um again the one existing uh Allied Universal staff member is a Monday through Friday shift also uh his shift is from 1 p.m. to 900 P p.m at the single point of entry uh where you uh might have seen him there tonight just to add that layer of security that we are looking for uh and also does building patrols so if the building is unoccupied his duties are to patrol the building look for open doors maybe support any activities with the athletic department or any nightly events that um we may be having at the high school um again the collaboration of the scheduling the post and those building patrols uh sat with the building Administration the Deans the monitors and all all the people the stakeholders at the building uh to make sure we understood where we needed to have the best coverage and the resources for them to uh head to with that we move on to the Middle School uh we added a uh new Alli security personnel there uh the middle school has a total of three Alli security Personnel um as we moved into the same single point of entry at the 78 side where if you visited the middle school you'll see a g at the desk greeting everyone that comes to the building checking for visitor IDs and or appointments that are scheduled for arrivals uh making sure that the doors secured following those events uh we then went to the 56 side and mirrored those events and those coverages on that side of the building with a person at that single point of the 56 side to do the same duties and responsibilities the third allly security Personnel then uh rotate with some of the security at those different po posts so they can cover also with the multiple floors and the entry points follow the schedule work with the Deans and the monitors and the building Administration to ensure that the building is secured uh as we expected to be um so those are the duties of the new Alli security staff uh Alli security provides their certifications and training uh one of the certifications is through the New Jersey State Police Sora is what they refer to uh it's the security officers registration act this certificate is a mandate for them to be employed by Alli and it's also a mandate for us um as we're looking for the the quality of the background checks that are required for schools um and they also are involved with other school districts and colleges so we're we're um are confident with the uh the process that they have in place uh to provide us that coverage with that there's an update on the um our metal detector added layer of safety security um we have taken a step in that safety security measures to uh provide an enhanced walkth through uh metal detectors um that the district invested in we have an expectation at the end of this month with Supply demand that we receive these units um similar to our large events as you saw deployment uh with the Alli security team uh we've used them at football games on the wands if you see on the right I Illustrated the wand as I referred to um this is a device that complements the walkthrough unit so that way we can ensure that if there's anything that's um uh setting off the unit we can identify it by manually identif you know wanding the person in the areas of concern um and it it's a very smooth operation and moves swiftly um and we seen that with the examples at at the games moving large large folks through it um the other part of the the update would be we're going to consult with stra ese on reviewing our policies and procedures for these types of units and continue that consultation to provide a robust um policy regulations that can be brought to the board for further review and um approval uh um again we do this consultation with our building administrators the hacken stack Police Department uh their administrative uh staff and um stakeholders within all the buildings to ensure we we're covering every area that we we understand the random checks and other deployments you know that'll uh be determined at the building levels and as those discussions continue so we can identify the best course to take with those types of random checks at the buildings as we move forward with that we were looking at another layer that's already in place and we were speaking about our student identification um summaries that they have inside their codee of conducts we feel that um another reminder of it allows us to enhance the this you know the environment the safety security environment for the students uh and the community within each building um this impation of these ID cards are a way of now being able to ask the students to produce it um all the ID cards are generated throughout the year during their uh photo taking they'll produce the cards and then the cards will be deployed to the students so they have them uh readily available in the event that if a staff person would like to identify the student the student can have it at the ready and um produce it not only in the school but in our events that we have throughout the year uh this is same for the high school and the middle school so the principls uh create these plans our assistant principles monitor it and it's supported uh between the building monitors and our staff and our new uh appointed security Personnel within the building and um you know this plan assists all of us um our school security resource office our s 3es at each of the elementary schools that sometime May lap over into our large events to assist us um and our security staff and it just continues to support the building level process so that way um it gives the student ownership that you know we do care about what's happening in the buildings and it's not just a challenge but it's just a verification that we believe it's it's in place for a reason and it adds to the layers of the safety security component that we have in place so we felt it was an area to take a look at and just uh do a gentle reminder ensure that you have it with you um that completes my report to you I appreciate this time and the opportunity to present this update to you um thank you sure sir we don't have instead sure so great question so we you know we sat with uh hackin saac um the Persia so I'll give you a little as you know right we have 10 it's a total of 10 hackin saac police officers that the district has supplemented in the safety security element as as as you're mentioning um we have our sl3s that are retired officers that are assigned to each of the elementary school we have three um officers assigned to the high school it's an SRO which is a full-time employee of the hackensac police department and we have the SLO 3s there's two of them one's assigned uh to a perimeter checks and one is assigned to the east Wing uh then with the middle school we have a full-time SRO and we have a slo3 that's assigned to the 56 side uh when we consult with them about our growth in the direction we were going um they felt that this was a good for us to allow the different layers so Alli security is doing our different floors in our building checks and then allows our SLO 3S to move uh throughout the building in a different way and assist Administration with um any ongoing incidents or activities that they need to respond directly to them so um that's where where we were at when we were looking at this uh grow actually more concretely uh uh in the meeting that we had with uh Mr Carol and uh the task force around school safety and we asked uh Lieutenant dep Persia about that he said they're at capacity right now they don't necessarily have the Manpower yes to be able to support us with any additional Personnel from that so that's why he recommended uh Allied security are my question is why we didn't add extra officers who more trains have more to lose than we security guard when I say more to lose as far as so so again we asked all of those questions to our partner with HPD which is Lieutenant of Persia and the response was that there are not a pool of people to choose from and that they're currently at capacity uh we were asking for a variety of different options and this is the one that he yes identified as the best one for right now yeah given the limited Personnel correct thank you real quick um if they weren't at capacity is there a limit as to how many officers we can have be how as much as we can we can pay for so and I know part of that so when it comes to school resource officers it is based on a contract between us and the city because while we pay their salary for the resource officers they pay the their benefits and so it is based on two budgets one and then the SOS the last time we were so we were cont contracted for eight and then we asked them for 10 and they did go up to 10 but it took them months to find those Personnel those people so it it is literally a hard hard ask for them to find the the folks and so um requesting more is um a challenge to to get the Personnel in the time frame that we need them thank you yes anything else all right thank you so much thank you so much Mr Ruiz thank you sir I neglected to tell you that uh Harry Ruiz is our school safety coordinator for those who don't know thank you all right so actually we have one more before I jump in with the uh the data the hmh presentation hope you all don't mind me presenting from here so at at our last part of there um so as a during the last meeting a a conversation or comments were made about the uh current curriculum that we have and I think it's important to always provide um the most accurate information as it relates to to the kinds of services support we provided to our Scholars so we just want to make sure we uh address that so that we have it on the record and provide clear evidence around the fact that we have adopted a high quality uh curriculum for our Scholars and so just to review the process of how we came to this adoption we had various representatives from from different groups meaning teachers administrators union leaders come together for three meetings in this in the spring to discuss the direction of our Ela program and this came out of the comment from one of our uh teachers I believe who asked us why we were not having science-based uh research techniques and strategies and so that prompted us to form a committee and so out of that committee different uh people came together to evaluate our current curriculum and align it to what we knew uh represent best practices and so out of that uh surveys were distributed and collected from all of the schools focus groups were held at each School within the district uh four programs were reviewed by the committee and the committee was anywhere between 24 to 34 people I want to say um and circulated at each school for teachers reviews so we sent the materials to every school and have them have the opportunity to look at the materials fill them ask questions discussed them as teams the pros and the cons um and then the two companies that were identified as the top companies were asked to present to the group of teachers and administrators and they were able to preview the materials ask all of the questions that they had as it relates to how it supports various groups of students uh how it's aligned to the standards so on and so forth and hmh was a resource that was determined by the teachers and the administrators to be the best resource for our needs as a district so when it was communicated that it was just chosen by the district I want to make sure that it were clear that it was a collaborative process that was Guided by that committee that had representatives of all all constituents within the district um hmh resour resources are aligned to various State Standards including the New Jersey state learning standards and common core standards uh they have we have the correlation charts for the standards which can be accessed on access excuse me within the online platform summer planning happened where work consists of lesson planning for module one for three weeks for grades K through four these lessons included New Jersey standards for each week of plans teachers were able to work with their Ela coaches along with various consultants and hmh professional learning teams to assist with aligning the lessons in the subsequent V modules to come and the D District curriculum guides are found on the websites and are updated to njsls and aligned with the hmh resources and more specifically uh for anyone you can look up so every curriculum in the entire country is evaluated assessed if you type in edreports decom you can pull up any curriculum within the country that people are utilizing and it's it's a it's a a process where you see if if the curriculum meets certain benchmarks it's it'll be green if it has partial areas it's orange if it doesn't meet it's red as you can see hmh for K to6 inter reading meets is at the highest um found foundational skills is 81 out of 84 building knowledge is 214 out of 224 and if you look if you it's very specifically outline science of reading snapshot in the areas that have been identifi identified as the primary sources to support students become literate the needing awareness phonics fluency vocabulary and comprehension and as you can see for yourself eight out of eight eight out of eight two out of two four out of four 28 out of 30 and so on and so forth so I want to people to have concrete data not District data this is National Data anyone can go look it up um the same goes for our uh into literature which is our 6 to 6 through2 piece as well as you can see at the top it meets every uh criteria of a high quality rigorous curriculum and if you can see also where it falls into each category as it relates to text quality building knowledge and usability uh for all 6 through 12 I also would like to add there is no perfect Community uh there is no perfect curriculum uh they all of them are have areas of growth but we have one of the highest rating that there is so I want to make sure moving forward that there's no more conversation about uh or or commentary about we us not prioritizing high quality curriculum for our Scholars that are research based and aligned to the science of reading thank you good evening everyone so um when we first joined the board I had a discussion with the superintendent and the board president about different collaboration opportunities that we could do with various people people in the district and as a result we're excited to announce that we have um completed a few of the stuff that we had on our agenda one is the revitalization of the interaction between the city council and the board uh that concluded sometime in April and Dr McBride is now set on a schedule to meet with the city council monthly just to go over different opportunities and areas of needs within the school district um but today we are moving on to announce the fact that we ALS o did the bcbsa uh came in and did a presentation at our last meeting letting the staff members know that you can reach out to the bcbsa for any other opportunity that you'd like they provide training for board members they'll provide um training for board members to go back to staff members within the district if there's areas of concerns or opportunities they think can benefit staff in the board but for today we'd like to go into saying that we have two other collaborative opportunities that we have with between the hackin saac public schools and our Community Partners the first one is that Hackensack Public Schools will be working to partner with u Mount Olive Baptist Church and Reverend Dr Paige on opportunities where we can kind of collaborate between stuff that's going on in the church and the district for our parents and for our students and Dr Paige unfortunately had a conflict today he's not here but I'll task Dr McBride real quickly just to give a quick heads up on that um opportunity so I had the privilege of meeting Dr Paige to discuss uh a variety of ways that the a faith-based uh Community as well as the school can intersect with various opportunities for our Scholars one being the area of mentorship um and figuring out how we could collectively come together to support our Scholars with social emotional learning but also the ideas of having mentors that they can uh be in their lives to support them with and guide them for those next steps and the second area is around financial literacy which is a priority to ensure that we are empowering the community with information and knowledge and that's the most I can speak about right now without giving too much too early okay thank you and then the second one is to do an introduction and a partnership with um our state senator so everybody knows that New Jersey has our state senator that is Senator um Gordon Johnson and we want to make sure that everybody recognized the uh face to the name know that they're there to help the school district when we have efforts things that we can reach out on and it's not just for you know whenever things go south there's also opportunities for the school to partnership with him on various initiatives that we may be able to reach out to the state and there's information that uh state Senator Gordon and his team can provide so state Senator Gordon um we invited him he's here tonight and we'll just call him up for a quick second just to say hello evening everyone I know you don't even need the mic I'm good good evening everyone I just uh well you said it all pretty much you know we at the state level are here to work with you to sure that these young people that you're educating the best education they can have in this state and um we have been I say see we uh a swimming woman uh Park and hater and myself we' we've worked and been pretty successful and getting funds school funding in our towns in our 37th District I think Hite got about 38 million uh last this this year I guess it is though and we'll continue to ensure that you have the money that you need coming out of the state to um assist you in your program so Dr mcbrien we we met about maybe a month month ago in my office or so so we had a brief conversation and thank you for coming to the office by the way so um I just came to say hello and uh we are here for you we're here to work like like you said we are we'll we'll be working together for the students of hackensac and actually the students of the 37th legislative district all of them and um that that's it any questions of me from the state level I didn't bring I didn't bring a check or anything but no we just wanted to say thank you for the opportunity to engage in the newal program that I know Mrs Marx yeah is looking into that you are offering potentially for our district to support our Scholars who are dealing with mental health issues yes thank you Toth health so um that's that's one example of what what we're doing to ensure that these students have the best uh basis uh best foundation that they can get uh in a public school system and uh I think it's happening here so move on Sports I'm not so sure about I'm not following I haven't followed the comments the uh the team I have to look into that I've been distracted by the Yankees but anyway um but we're here for you and the Mets yeah okay I'm a politician that's right and and the Mets you didn't mention Jets though you didn't talk about them okay never mind so uh thank you for let me say a few words I let you continue your meeting and thank you uh for bringing me here and we'll move forward together okay that's it thank you thank you appreciate it and I think we are now ready for our superintendent report yes and before I get into the actual data presentation just want to highlight a few things that are happening this month uh and this there's no particular order so please don't uh take offense uh we want to highlight this is National principal month so we want to celebrate our amazing principles who are leading our scholars in our schools and our all things to all people so we honor them this month so please take a moment when you see them to give them a high five or send them a word of encouragement so thank you to all our amazing principles this month uh we also have the opportunity to in have our first uh Hispanic heritage District wide event where our Scholars and our families came together to celebrate in a wonderful and amazing way so I want to thank everyone who came out to attend our board trustee members who came out and spoke trusty Harris trusty uh Corda Alton were able were on stage sharing uh their culture and and with the uh Community as well our Scholars were amazing I sat there in all and as I said next time we're going to start selling tickets because it was they were uh ticket worthy so we are appreciative of all the individuals who made the day possible excuse me my eyes watering um who helped the children practice who uh parents who brought them so thank you for a successful event um next my eyes running some kind of we also like to honor Italian her American heritage month as well this month as we are celebrating I have on pink today for cancer uh breast cancer awareness was it cancer or breast breast cancer I'm sorry so that's happening we celebrated indigenous people day the other day open please thank you my eye is really watering this is interesting uh and yesterday I had the privilege of meeting with 15 phenomenal young Leaders with my very first superintendent advisory Council so we had 10 members from our high schools and seven members from our element our middle schools who came together to meet with myself assistant superintendent uh Andrea parts I mean o o parchment uh and Mrs Rosemary marks other assistant I can't speak right now assistant superintendent and they literally led the meeting uh we communicated what the purpose is and how they are going to have a voice in decisionmaking and they had the opportunity to share some of the things that were on their minds in ways that we can help support their learning or things we just need to know about and consider when we are making these decisions that impact them that they feel like they would not been a part of so they gave us a Litany of things to think about and so we helped to scale down at least two to three things that we're going to prioritize solving because I wanted to teach them about yes we can come together and identify all of the problems all the things that are wrong uh but then more specifically what are we going to do about it so they're going to have an action approach to addressing districtwide problems and so you'll hear more about that from them coming in January so it was just our introductory meeting and they were amazing it's when you give kids the opportunity to lead they will show up and they will lead so we're excited about that structure that's in place and my final thing before I jump into the data presentation is we are pleased asking um all of our families all of our Scholars all of our teachers all of our school leaders all of our administrators to complete the survey that you have received one of our priorities this year as a district is culture in the way that we are able to create a culture of unity uh of that's aligned of Excellence is that we get information about what people need and how people are feeling and so as we are prioritizing Community engagement whether it be through districtwide events that we are now having whether it be through town halls whether it be through surveys we are asking you to please fill them out we want to hear from everybody I know that um Miss Jackson has started a campaign to make sure that we are getting more students more leaders everyone completed so we would like to present the data uh in a very uh organized way in November because November 1st we are closing the survey so ask your neighbor ask your friend did you complete your survey if not please please please do so we want to hear from you because voice is important and as we are uh actually about to approach 2025 when we are about to enter into developing a new strategic plan uh we're going to be asking for the voice of the people to help drive and guide the conversations so that concludes the super super intendent portion of but now I'm going to shift to the actual data portion where I actually stand can I just piggy back really quickly um I I was really impressed with the student council that you put together um I personally know several of those students whether it be through Sports whether it be through academics and I was very very excited to see them become contributing factors and not only their education but as well as the community that surrounds them and I truly believe um some of these kids I've known them since they were about four years old through wreck programs and to see them here excelling participating it it speaks volumes to me as to what we in this District in this community are absolutely doing correctly so I I was very excited I look very much forward to hearing and seeing them in November thank you and I I can't take the credit for the students I have to thank thank uh principal montisano uh Dr wiing and principal uh SAS because they were the ones who engaged in identifying who the scholars were I just wanted to make sure that I prioritize getting to hear from them because I get to hear from other people but I definitely want to hear from them as well as we're thinking about the things that directly impact them so anyone who knows me knows I don't like to read from my paper but I will for a short piece said so as we begin to think or begin the discussion on our district student achievement data I want to address a narrative that may arise some will claim that our data doesn't matter that it's skewed or that it fails to represent the works that's being done or it's attributed to our multilingual Learners or our special education population but I ask this if these groups are driving our data why aren't our general education and our g&t numbers significantly higher than what you will see we need to begin to focus on the work of identifying the data and more specifically what we plan to do about the data and the truth is that everyone plays a role in this data our Focus shouldn't be uh on finding someone to blame but on recognizing that this data reflects our Collective responsibility we all contribute to the to these outcomes and if it's up to us to be a part of the actual solution recently I saw a post uh by uh charlam God it said I rebuke the bare minimum and that struck a chord with me because too often we settle for doing just enough and many have become accustomed to living life that's basic meeting only the minimum requirements but that's not the standard we should accept for ourselves or more specifically our students at our opening convocation we emphasize the importance of standards-based instruction ensuring that we meet and exceed the benchmarks necessary for our students to thrive but the second part of our challenge is to build the actual culture focused on Excellence one that goes beyond compliance and mediocrity in order to truly move this needle that you will see in a second we have got to shift the mindsets and embrace going above and beyond this is not also only about academic rigor it's about creating a districtwide culture of Excellence it's about refusing the bare minimum and pushing to move higher than we've ever gone before which is going to take a considerable amount of work and our students deserve this Relentless pursuit of these results and that starts with each and every one of us taking accountability often times we become distracted about the things that do not improve student achievement and those things take priority and get in the way and do not support the work that we have all signed up to do so in a second you're going to see a series of numbers but these are not numbers they are Thomases they are Marx they are Kenneth they are Scotts they are Demetrius carols these numbers have names and these our children's lives so when we are distracted by the things that don't impact that we have to always recognize now I don't want to be a Rec a broken record that all of us in this space have graduated high school have become homeowners have done have raised families so we are in the MX the midst of Our Lives it's our responsibility that we give our Scholars a shot to have a life so when I said at the convocation that I am a champion of children and I understand there a variety of different things that people prioritize and I try not to you know immerse myself in the minutia of those things because I know that the reason that I come to work and that I advocate is because those students represent me and if someone had not picked me up made sure that I had high quality education I would not be here I'm not I'm not sure I'm sure I'm not the only person who had that same story somebody challenged you somebody pushed you somebody believed someone gave you the tools that you needed to be successful and that is what we have to do so I prefer this by saying this is not a debate about the data I'm going say it again we are not debating the numbers the data is the data it is where we are actually starting I always tell people I wasn't here before I I can't talk about when I wasn't here I don't know what happened it's not my business I don't judge I wasn't here this is where we are starting from today and I think it's important as we are talking about transparency as we're talking about communication as we talking about the sharing of information that everybody knows to sound the alarm because it is time that we sound the alarm I'd like to start off with the attendance and discipline data first and I want us to highlight the the greens and the pinks because pinks represent six to 10 days of students being absent and green is greater than 15 days and we have it listed by grade n9th grade 10th grade 11th grade and 12th grade we have the years 2021 22 and 23 as you can see for the ninth grade we are we decreased the amount of 6 to 10 days and we are in we increase the amount of grad in 15 gr days for the 9th grade our 10th grade students if you see we had we were at 30 in 2022 23 we are down 1% in the amount of 6 to 10 days for the green greater than 10 days we have 16% that increased by 1% Sor sorry Jackie I can't see what you do me a favor thank you um we are decreasing the 6 to 10 days for the 11th grade by 2% and decreasing this greater than 15 days by 5% for our 11th grade Scholars it stay the same for our 12th graders about 27% of our students are still 6 to 10 days absent and they've decreased the amount of students from 32% to 27% so again our we want to make sure our our Scholars are coming to school because once you're in school then you're able to get the information that you need to be successful as it relates to information and standards these are this is our high school infraction data by grade level and this is very this is a very good sign we see the uh amount of infractions decreasing over time for example the uh 10th grade we had 10,000 I mean 1,47 in 2022 we went down to 588 in 23 24 we went down to 450 and they've gone down in every grade level for the high school so great job high school and decreasing the amount of infractions suspensions by program programs meaning specifically special education general education and the the 36 of the numbers that you see are actual students numb it's not a percentage so for example we had 38 Special Education students suspend in 2122 that number decreased to 27 in 2223 then decreased to 18 so we're seeing a downward Trend there for our special education students in the High School general education there were 58 students suspended in 2122 84 in 2223 97 for general education in 2324 number of multilingual Learners started at three went up to 12 increased even more to 33 and 2324 non mlls went from 91 up to 99 and down to 82 our graduation rate if you look at the top is 20 23 22 23 schoolwide 88.5% of our School Scholars graduated uh special education we had 81% multilingual learn is 93.9% that is a decrease from the before we had 94.1% uh and we had a decrease in special education as well that was at 85.8% as well as a a decrease from the multilingual Learners that were at 95.3% so participation rates as you can see this is the amount of students who participate in the actual assessments uh we had pretty high ranges anywhere from 98% to our low was 81% for ELA which which is sixth grade we had high grades for math from from 100% to our lowest was 86% of participation that means students who actually sat down and took the assessment now let's look at the demographics for ELA specifically broken down by ethnicity for the students who took the the assessment who were Asian 74% of those students passed the test or excuse me met or exceeded uh the uh expectations for black or African-American 41.2% Hispanic 33.5% two or more races 54.3% white 62.9% as a district 38.6 of our students met Mastery or exceeded it for ELA for math Asian 55.8% black africanamerican 21% Hispanic 19.6% two or more races 40.5% white 31.1% overall district for math is 22.1% now we will have science by ethnicity Asian 35.5% black African-Americans 11.8% Hispanic is 99.1% two or more races is 15.4% white is 27.6% as a district 11.9% of our students pass the state science exams by gender for ELA 42.8% of our female identified students and 34.5% of our male identified students for math 20.8% for our female identified students male 23.3% identified science female 10.9% male 12.7% so now we're going to look at the specialty programs so uh students with 504s for ELA that met or exceeded the expectations were 49.2% economically disadvantaged students 32.7% English language Learners 21.3% students without a IEP 46.9% students with a IEP 9% and again the 38.6 is the same for math students were 504 24.6% economically disadvantaged students was 19.7 English language Learners 10.8 no IEP is 26.5 IEPs 5.5 District wide was 22.1 science 21.9 for 504 9.2 for economic economically disadvantaged students 0.5 for English Learners no IEP 13.4 IEP students 2.2 and again 11.9 is what we have for the district in science so here comes the district analysis this just again communicates how many students were tested in 2023 we had 2,396 students tested in 2024 2423 students which was an increase of about 27 students for math 2789 students in 2023 2024 was 2,693 which is um um minus of 96 and again some students in grade 8 participate njsla Algebra 1 assessment in the place of the 8th grade math assessment so those students were pulled out of the data um and again 2023 was the final year that a 2-year algebra one course was offered where students were asked to take the njsla at the end of the of all the two years so now all students now take the test in year one leading to the the sign significant jop drop that you see the amount of students tested in science they're tested in grades five 8 and 11 um and 20123 was 11 1,129 students 2024 124 an increase of about 75 students tested so let's do a quick comparison level four and level five are students who either meet and exceed state standards and this is so in 2023 the district was at 41.7% the state average was 51.3% in ela this year we are at 37.7% % in ela and the state is at 52.2% as you can see there is a big gap between where we are and the state and we have a decrease of four percentage points math level four and five in 2023 was 19.1% the state was at 31.2% this year we're at 21.5% and the state is at 39.5% and although we had an increase of about 2.4 we are still significantly far away from where the state average is science in 2023 we at 12.6% the state was at 24.9% this year we're at 11.6% the states at around 24.8% and so we are about 1% we were from last year but as you can see the difference between where we are and the state so achievement by grade ELA specifically and again these are all the students who met or exceeded for grade three 30.8% of our students grade four 41.3% grade five 33.3% grade 6 28.6% grade 7 29.7% grade 8 51 51% grade nine 51.8% which we want to highlight grade eight and grade n and then we have it broken down by each school for grades three and four at Fair Mount they were at 24 the year before they now at 22 with a loss of 2% um for grade four they were at 44% now they at a 37% which is a 7% decrease for hillers we were at 36% in the third grade and went down to 31% of a loss of 5% grade four 58% down to 48% which is a decrease of 10% Nelly K Parker they were at 35% in the third grade now they're at 36% which which is about a 1% increase uh grade four they went from 54% to 47% which is a 7% decrease Jackson Avenue was at 36% and went to a 35% with a loss of 1% and grade four they were at 38% and now are at 35% for ELA hackin sack Middle School by for ELA by grade five six 7 and eight fifth grade went from 36% to 33% a decrease of three% uh sixth grade went from 22% to 28% which is an increase of actually 6% should be there um 7eventh grade went from 46% to 29% which is a decrease of 177% in e8th grade from 53% to 50% which is a loss of 3% High School increased from 47% to 49% in ela and again this is got just the itemization of all the levels for all grades so I'm not going to spend time on that I just did that individually it's just again each grade three four so on and so forth mathematics achievement by grade grade three 35.1% grade four 36.9% grade five is 14.3% grade six is 13.2% grade seven is 16.7% grade 8 is 17.2% grade nine is 20.5% ohc me one excuse me Algebra 2 is 38.9% and geometry is 22.3% same uh scenario for each individual School fair amount from 31 point 31% to 22% in grade three grade four they went from 39 to 34% hillers for math they went from 29 up to 38% so shout out to great three uh and went down from 52% to 39% in the fourth grade Nelly K Parker went from 41% to 36% uh grade four went from 43% to 40% Jackson Avenue went from 34% to 46% great job third grade and went from 31% to 34% pinac Middle School fifth grade went from 7% to 14% it's good increase grade six went from 14 to 133% grade seven went from 12% to 177% and grade eight went from 12% to 16% is are our algebra scores went from 74% to 82% great job there and from 100% to 78% for our geometry meeting expectations for the algebra 1 7% to 16% and geometry as well from 4% to 14% High School mathematics and it's the same chart that we just kind of went through science achievement fifth grade 11.4% 8th grade 99.1% 11th grade is 14.5% it's the same information [Music] these are all the tables that you can take the time to look this will be posted on our website for your review as well and so it's good to give a comparison to our neighboring Bergen County districts uh the ones that are these are all have the similar demographics I believe Adrian correct to us specifically Moni munaki L I can't speak today and Loi um and you can see where we we hackin saac is not fairing well 2122 22 23 in specifically in ela we are trending towards the bottom consecutive years same for math we are trending towards the bottom so what are we going to do about it here are some of the intervention strategies that we are identified as priorities for English Language Art interventions include small group instruction from hmh into reading and arba Laura resources personalized learning online programs bonic Reet teaching opportunities for the fundations programs pulling out support for reading specialists after school uh tutorial tutorials mandatory intervention blocks tiered intervention and something that's not on here is high quality tier one instruction next mathematics interventions include pacing includes reteaching opportunities exit tickets within the program that allows for more small group instruction support number worlds intervention programs support learning gaps after school tutorials mandatory intervention blocks Middle School intervention strategies these all have been uh devised by the leaders as well as the supervisor supporting those leaders for ELA intervention activities from hmh into reading reading Labs using read 180 and our systems 44 programs after school tutorials um four for um for the mathematics specific speically use of manipulatives to strengthen understanding of conceptual skills Alex adaptive mathematics programs to reinforce a reach skills and strategies after school tutorials and something new uh for 2024 25 is the comments class creating opportunities motivating everyone to succeed this is the course purpose of the class Monday and Tuesday we'll send to on Alex math where students complete lessons in their learning Pathways all activities for Wednesday and Thursday will Center on independent reading and free rights Pride passion purpose Friday will Center on community building andal Wellness High School intervention strategies quarterly or semester independent Choice reading projects new integrated non-fiction reading and writing units to address specific non-fiction skills in research writing reading Labs using reading 180 and or systems 44 programs conferencing with students regardless create regarding reading goals and progress monitoring them in their classes math specifically use of manipulatives virtual and concrete and integrated use of Alex adaptive mathematics program in core classes science intervention strategies Mystery Science at the elementary level to supplement instruction with Amplified science units opsed curriculum resources in Middle School to align with the New Jersey student learning standards inquiry Hub biology and inquiry Hub chemistry at the high school level as well as nwaa map growth Science assessment in G grades 5 through 12 to inform instruction and address gaps in student learning so I say all this to say that if the conversation isn't about this then what are we talking about and that concludes the DAT of report e the board not only welcomes your comments but wants to hear them um all participants must sign in when it is your turn please State the following your name municipality and any group that you're affiliated with please clarify specifically which one that you're speaking from each person has a limit of three minutes please direct all comments to me as the presiding officer all responses that are appropriate to be responded to will be held to the end We Ready nope we are not not complete enrollment report I talked so much I was trying to get out of it um was trying to get out sorry he he did ask me he did I thank Lydia for bringing our attention uh our enrollement report currently we have our attendance is we have a 90 8.3% 98.18% of student attendance we have 5,274 students currently enrolled as it relates to our residency report the number of residency cases we've received in September was was three uh Year date was four in home visits that were unverified were three in September and year to date was four as relates to Hib we had we had one that was founded in the high school we had seven unfounded four in middle school three in the high school total for middle school was four total for high school was four total in general was eight pending currently for the high school are three and our total is three and preliminary determination for not Hib one for Parker two for the Middle School two for the high school totaling five preliminary determinations not HIV and that concludes the report all right thank you now everything I said earlier still stands um Miss point of order yes ma'am point of order I have a family emergency and I have to leave so I'm just asking be excuse yes thank you uh so first up for public comments good evening everyone uh Donna West but I want to speak tonight more as a community member and Dr McBride I need to have a meeting with you my goodness that report um okay we'll just talk we'll we'll talk um but I want to speak as a community member um last week and please this is more so like comment I don't really think you're going to be able to like respond okay um but we had a candidates Forum uh last week um at monal Baptist Church and I want to stand here and speak as someone who um has kind of watched what has happened between this board um over the past couple of months I would say almost year but it bothered me only because there was a young person in front of me who asked me after he saw the back back and forth back and forth back and forth which really did not look good and he turned around and he said to me is it always like this and the only thing I could say to him was yeah but not usually this bad so all I want to say is aside from what happened and how it did not get off to a great start I know you are running against each other but I remember as a president of a union just a couple months ago it was it behooved me to never ever ever have our Dirty Laundry be aired in the public and that's what I'm watching this board do um people from the church that were invited to come were beginning to ask me about what they were seeing up on stage and so I just caution you um whatever it is that you're feeling against each other we don't know anything except that we want you to work for the staff and we want you to work for the children and we want you to help us and so airing your dirty laundry back and forth literally wasting I'm sorry time that people took to come out on a night it was really I heard my pastor say to about two or three of you because I was leaving to go to the city council which was another mess another mess but I heard him say he was disheartened and I got it it it was disheartening to watch because we lost sight of the fact that you were there to help present yourself to the community for us to get an idea of where you stand and how you are going to work together to help this District move forward that's all I'm asking please stop with the the back and forth we tell the children not to do it and yet we watch adults do it that night so that's that's just something I ask please in the weeks that are coming up just please do better please thank you anyone else online okay go ahead thank you very much hello everybody uh my name is Tony Jackson um Haack tag resident teacher uh and parent and I'm trying to think if I can narrow it down to what I'm speaking about I may have to do it for each one um first as a teacher um I want to recognize and thank everybody who participated and came out to see our Nelly K Parker Day celebration um it was proclaimed by the dist by the county uh several years ago we received a proclamation this year we also received a proclamation from the city and it was just a a beautiful event um I want to recognize Arina brinon Jones who was my co-organizer we had uh panelists who were stakeholders at every level in the community and I think it's really important to have uh more programs like this where we had a sit a situation where we could hear history we could hear current events that were happening and how it all connected to uh some important hacken Tech History so uh want to thank everybody who was a part of that and who who witnessed it um the second thing I wanted to says I'm I'm encouraged to hear about the increased Community uh involvement and events um and it makes me hopeful not I'm sorry not hopeful it makes me hope that we hear something soon about the community relations committee uh I hope that as all of this is happening that piece will be in place as well uh because I I know that it is a vehicle for good and I'm excited for that to um to come full force as well um and then the last thing I want to say um a part of what was said earlier in regard to um to comments about the the ELA programs um from teachers uh something to the effect of uh I don't want to hear any more um comments about a certain aspect of it and I just want to say that I I I hope that we will all keep the dialogue open because we're hearing a lot of conversations going on and I understand that teachers uh were a part of who was spoken to and got feedback from originally but I've been teaching this program for you know going on um two months and the only people I've had conversations with have been my co-workers about how we're going to make it work how we're making it work currently um how we're doing the best for our kids given the difficulties that we still have um it can be a fantastic program but there are still aspects of what we have to do that are not yet in place and so we're trying to work all of that out so please don't shut us out in terms of a dialogue and please keep soliciting our voices as well thank you very much hi can everyone hear me hi my name is Nicole and it's my first time calling and I'm calling because I never received a waeda score for my um report from my middle school child who was born and raised in hackin sack and should have never placed in a bilingual program thankfully I worked hard and I was able to get her out the program this year but I wanted to know if it was able if I was able to get those scores to see how she did and the second part to that is my child has a new schedule that doesn't have a world bangu Spanish teacher so I want to know what's happening there and when will they have a teacher for that so Nicole we have someone who's coming to address that very quickly uh the director of world languages miss monoa good evening um I just wanted to email you so I can answer your questions privately as a matter of procedure and um and bilingual code we send out all the notification letters through the Genesis portal and then we email parents to let them know to look in the Genesis portal where they can get their results that's how we push out the information both ways um but if you give me your you leave us your name I can respond to you and I can respond to you about the status of the vacancy we currently have okay so I don't think she's still on but if there is if she is still listening um she can email me at m monoa m m o n c l o a at Hackensack schools.org and I'll give you the update everyone keep your fingers crossed I have an interview tomorrow thank you all right and if not um she can contact the school principal and they can put her in contact with the right people okay e oh good evening everyone could you uh could you hear me tonight yes uh good evening everyone my name is Alexander Graham U just a parent of two hackin sack children very proud born and raised in Hack and Sack and they're upcoming students as well I just had to uh I had a comment that I wanted to address I know we've been talking about uh multiple parties uh fighting throughout this whole uh system and I you know I think it's it's all good in nature people are always going to a fight when they're going through their conflicts and what's not but uh I watch these meetings and I didn't find it uh quite entertaining or quite funny that I thought something I heard from Mr Martin specifically is that he spelled the word Comet wrong and uh just coming to my observations that I personally just didn't take it as a joke I mean we're all sorry you guys are all Educators or administrators in your respective offices and respective U departments and I just think that we need to be more sophisticated than that you know just to be um Grownups on situation it's at least to me it's alarming if you know we have educator who can't even do something as simple as that not to call anybody out or shout anybody out but I just think that you know we could respect ourselves a little bit more than that you know that that situation I just I just wanted to point that out uh so thank you very much yeah all right so that'll end our um public comments portion um and then I have a comment as well again one of the things we we communicate is that often times comments are made and things are said and then we are aren able to address them to a month later and things linger so I want to make sure that every time we here that we have clarification and I do want to clarify I did not say that I did not want to hear from teachers I want to say that I did not want to hear that our curriculum is not science based we definitely want to hear from teachers we will hear from teachers we are constantly asking for information from the through the coaches through the supervisors and there will be focus groups we're going actually start our we're starting our walkthroughs as well so those are the time for us to get the from students but I think it's important because it'll be it'll be people will walk out and they'll say well Dr McBride said that he doesn't want to hear from teachers and that's not what I said I said I did not want to hear that we do not have a high quality curriculum that is science research based so I want to make sure we're clear thank you so um thank you for the public comments tonight and um I will quickly so to um piggy back on that um it is always important to me and it's something that you have heard me say over and over to have the right people at the table and I believe having the right people is the people on the ground always and and um I know that it it is new to curriculum for us and that there will be bumps to work out and Kinks to work out I T for many years and I know how challenging curriculum can be um when we're first starting to teach it um so I'm thankful to hear that colleagues are working with one another to to help figure those pieces out um but and and I um agree that the the sentiment is not that that um that Dr McBride won't be hearing and listening and the board won't be listening to teachers it is um that the the assertion was that it was not science-based reading curriculum um and so that's that um and then the other piece that that I need to address um publicly is while um we work in different Realms um the city and the Board of Education uh we we do have our own task that we do but but there are times that we do have to coordinate and it feels like many times when on our side when we have public comments the idea is because we are very on our side we are very much bound um by certain restrictions that we are not allowed to speak back because we have lots of rules and regulations and we have a thousand employees that we cannot discuss Personnel related issues and lots of legal stuff and and we we are very much controlled on what we can speak to and it sometimes it almost feels as if that's the intent of we um people say what they want and then we don't get to say anything back and that's almost the intention just to be able to to say a narrative and it becomes problematic in those cases when when the wrong information gets out and so at the city council meeting it was a a asserted that there is a feud between the city council and the Board of Education and what I want to say publicly is that is not true it is not the case um while we work in in different areas um Dr McBride has a meeting monthly uh as does our um business administrator uh with the city to work on an assortment of things that our district needs from the big stuff to the small stuff because every time a street has to be closed it doesn't just magically happen we we don't have the power to just say we're going to close this um every time that we we need lots of things happen from fire to police to water all the things that H happen we we have a a pathway that that happens and Dr McBride and Lydia or Miss sing sorry um work directly with their they use different terms but city manager and well yeah CFO um every month and Mr Sanchez did before that so I just want to be very clear because what I don't don't want and it is not helpful when narratives get out um that just aren't true um because what one thing we don't need in this city is um more um drama than necessary so um we are absolutely engaged with the city working um for the big stuff and the small stuff so I want to make sure that that is clear um now be it resolved that the hackensac Board of Education determines it is necessary to meet an executive session on Wednesday October 16th 2024 to discuss legal Personnel student related matters Hib reports negotiations and other confidential matters and be it further resolved that these matters will be made public when the need for confidentiality no longer exists may I have a motion to move into executive session thank you Miss uh Pringle second Mr Carroll all those in favor say I I any opposed and there are none it is 7:47 e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e we ready all right welcome back we we will move through our resolutions now miss Pringle will be ready to second us a second all right be it resolved that the hackin saac Board of Ed did that right you know what we need to do a roll call before we start sure okay uh Mr Carol present Miss Harris present Mr Martin it Mr Powell no Miss springle present Miss Somerville is not here Missin present oh she's online okay Miss Somerville sorry about that Miss Somerville did she hear me sorry present present I was double muted present okay thank you Mr Stein I already said president but I'll be president again miss G Alon present Mr James vicory present we have a core thank you let's approve our minutes um be it resolved that the he Board of Education approve the regular meeting minutes and executive session minutes of August 21st 2024 we're going to stop there and do those first so this is for um the regular meeting minutes and the executive session me meeting minutes of August 21st 2024 so can I have a a motion to do that a motion thank you Miss Pringle may I have a second Mr Stein appreciate that um let's do a roll call on this one yeah okay Mr Carol up regular minutes yes um post post session abstain I believe I was online thank you technically it's not an extension you just can't he can't vote so it's no it's a no for close session no it's no no vote no vote okay all right no for close session Miss Harris yes Mr Martin yes Mr Paul's not here miss sprinkle yes Miss somville Miss Somerville voting on minutes Miss Somerville no okay Mr Stein yes Miss cero Alton um yes to regular meeting minutes abstaining from executive session update yes to regular exension to close session Mr James vicory yes so now we will um move to the hack of Education approves the regular meeting minutes and executive session meeting minutes of September 25th 2024 can I have a motion for that motion thank you Miss Pringle may I have a second Mr Stein thank you um all those in favor say I I any opposed any extenstions thank you okay all right now we will move to Personnel hello good evening everyone um a motion to take action on Personnel uh items listed as A1 through d d all right we have a motion from M Cordo outon a second a second a third I second thank you um uh trusty Carroll um we'll go straight to R call that yeah okay Mr Carol yes and obain to anything that has to do with Paris I'm stay from Paris okay Miss Harris yes Mr Martin yes Mr Powell is not here miss springle yes Miss Somerville present I mean yes yes Mr Stein yes Miss G Alon yes Mr James vickory yes motion passes fantastic um moving on to policy there is none there's no policy okay then we will move to curriculum um before you start um trusty Martin on C2 our business administrator gave us for um so be um razza it's the on page seven page seven page seven the amount should be um $175 instead of 4776 page seven fourth from the bottom again uh the fourth fourth from the bottom on page seven got it should be what5 instead of 4776 so the trustees would make that 175 yeah oh yeah gu okay so you're up all right right like to make a motion C1 through c24 highlighting the following items with uh the correction of uh of the U one you just mentioned okay okay uh C1 highlight C11 to appropriate an arrangement with the College Board to provide professional development for district administrators and titled achieving AP access for all for the 224 225 school year the total cost not to exceed $696 this training is part of the APB grant that end on December the 31st 2024 the administrative training will provide guiding guidance to planning and ensuring Equitable access to AP courses and support the creation of tracks for the preap courses for students the additional of a preap track will increase access to AP courses and curriculum for students uh C12 to approve an arrange to approve the agreement with the New Jersey Bar Association Foundation bar Foundation to provide professional development for Computer Science and Math teachers entitled Beyond base and unconscious bias there's no course for this training also c19 to approve the formation of the following Haack high school student Club the name of the club comets sport TV they will meet every Wednesday plus two home games per week hopefully down the road we will see these this streaming somewhere as that's thank you so uh trusty Martin made a motion can I have a second second thank you uh Miss Pringle um any discussion on any of those items hearing none um we'll take a roll call Mr Carol yes Miss Harris yes Mr Martin yes Mr PA no um not here not no sorry H not here miss springle yes Miss Somerville yes Mr Stein yes Miss Ciro Alton yes Mr James Vicky yes motion passes all right moving on to finance Mr Carroll yes I'd like to make a motion to move D1 through D6 highlighting D5 uh which is the proposal for Allied Universal for five additional security guards at the high school and one additional security guard at the middle school total amount of $342 720 and D6 which is a proposal for Granger for six walkth through metal detectors six metal detector casters and six handheld metal detectors in the amount of 22,000 $524 and12 all right thank you um we have a motion can I get a second thank you Miss Pringle um any discussion on any of those items I have one question um we have the six um metal detectors those are portable or Port portable okay okay when you say portable you meaning can move the whole unit where they walk through yes okay all right so um any other discussion with that so we'll do a roll call yes Mr Carol yes Miss Harris yes Mr Martin uh everything except for uh uh five and six no on five and six D5 and D6 yes uh Mr Po is not here miss springle yes Miss Somerville Miss Somerville yes how do you vote yes yes okay Mr Stein yes m c yes Mr James vickory yes motion passes all right moving on uh back to you Mr Carol yeah building the grounds building the grounds I make a motion to move items E1 through E5 highlighting E2 which approves the adjusted project amount from H&S construction for the systems upgrade at the middle school from from 5, 885,000 to 5,598 [Music] 32142 which came under budget and E4 is the proposal from Nickerson for lockers I believe in the girl girls lockers at the high school in the amount of $24,885 that's all right it's not often that we get to come in under budget on a project so that is fantastic um any that's a motions can I have a second second all right Miss Pringle um Mr St I'm Gonna Get You Next I promise um so um I'm not fast enough my any discussion on those items it's good to see that we did come in um under budget and it's good to see that um uh for the girls locker room that's awesome all right let's take a roll call Mr Carol yes Miss Harris yes Mr Martin yes Mr Paul is absent Miss springle yes Miss Somerville Miss Somerville is she there Miss Somerville yes for some reason you guys are not here I said yes but for some not hear you not hearing me L yes yeah now we do hear you that's fine thank you you heard me now yes yes Mr Stein yes M yes Mr James vicory yes motion passes all right um we don't have anything for community relations this time any new business in way of a motion hearing none let's start with board comments Mr Mar uh we'll start with Mr Stan on the end um just hope everybody's having a good start to the year uh keep up the good work uh we are very supportive of our students and our staff and um we hope that continues throughout the year very nice thank you Mr Martin um just wish everybody a good night and um stay safe all right thank you yes um just really quick I just wanted to say Welcome to our new student rep uh shenica Thomas um we are excited to have you looking forward to your student report happy National principles month uh thank you to our principles for making our students a priority and creating a safe environment um and a place where people want to come and work um if you didn't know there's you have a pal and principal right uh that's my little teacher joke right there uh um I'm also excited to hear um Dr McBride for our student council um for the new committee I'm excited to hear what those young minds have to say and um looking forward to their reports and yesterday was the last day of Hispanic Heritage Month um it has been truly a month filled with so much pride with so many performances and history um it was really nice to see the community come together and really shine um during the month um and that's it everyone have a good night thank you all right thank you Miss Harris uh Mr Carol yes um welcome to Shena Thomas our student representative she did a great job looking forward to seeing her every month um I want to recognize um Italian heritage month and also recognized that Monday was indigenous people day um uh Spanish heritage month is over but I like to say that concert at the high school was amazing um and um the one young lady from I believe Jackson oh my God tore the house down tore the house down like uh Dr McBride said I would pay to see that performance again she was incredible um and I want to thank the Senator Gordon Johnson for assisting us and supporting us on a state level and thank you all for who came tonight and have a good night all right thank you Miss Pringle okay so real quick I know that um this month October is um breast cancer awareness month but I don't want us to forget about the people that are fighting in domestic violence relationships stff um I plan on wearing purple tomorrow at my job if y can at some point this month before it's over to show support I am myself a long long time ago am a survivor of domestic violence so yeah let's not forget about those people and if any of those people are listening You are not alone thank you all right thank you thank you um Miss Somerville any closing remarks oh uh thanks Scot so hi everybody and um good night so SC first and foremost I just wanted to say um thank you for giving me the opportunity to work and and you also Dr ride to work on the collaboration and cooperation efforts with our various different um leaders uh it's come really a long way there's a lot of progress and Dr McBride I am certainly looking forward to what we are going to do with mon Olive Baptist Church and definitely what we can do with this you know the state to see where we can get Hack and Sack funding or different benefits so you know again I want to thank the two of you for allowing me the opportunity to um to work on those efforts to um I don't know how to say it Mr Stein isn't there a Jewish holiday that started at sundown today so I you know I I think there's a Jewish holiday is it is there one that started Sundown so if there is you know just okay so just to say to you to you guys um you know uh happy you know um Jewish holidays I think it starts now ends on the 23rd or something along that lines um again to I won't go over back for all the other folks I think um Miss Harris and everybody else said all the congratulations to the student council person Dr McBride awesome awesome Hispanic Heritage Month tradition that you just started so looking forward definitely to that I would presume that when it comes to Black History Month we're doing the same thing right because Fairmont usually brings the heat so I'm trying to see what the comp is going to look like this year when I show up again everybody uh oh sorry Miss Pringle yes fully appreciate you reminding us about the domestic violence um issues and you know um glad to see that you're a Survivor and you're doing well you know kudos for uh for that again everybody just want to say thank you I really appreciate it and everybody get home safely and enjoy your evening thank you Miss Somerville um Miss cero Alton um hello and good evening everyone um online and for those of you that stayed here in person we greatly appreciate it um I would like to thank um Dr McBride as well as everyone else who went the extra mile this evening to make some clarifications immediately as opposed to waiting um I I am going to find those really important um to ensuring that everybody is very aware of what is and what isn't as soon as possible so I greatly appreciate the efforts that were made there um another thing that I would I would like to highlight um and I and I assume this is something I'm going to continue to do you know last month I said it it was because of some instances that had taken place and been brought to the attention of the board and I'll just keep saying it from this point forward to all of our students if you see something say something that is actually part of your house every building that this dist this District resides in is also your home so I would like to point out that just today alone with the items that are on the agenda this board approved over $400,000 worth of extra and additional security measures our students have a responsibility to take an active part in how they contribute that means how you behave yourself outside the school because you actually represent both the school and the community and you need to be helping our Administration our teachers with your behavior and how you respond the district is going to continue to do what it takes but I am asking that every parent out there and every student please be mindful recognize this as your home these buildings as where you live and you also need to ensure their safety and that starts with your behavior in and out another thing that I would like to bring up amongst all the items that we were able to enjoy so far in just half the month of October uh earlier last week at the high school there was a presentation uh for a movie premier documentary called home homecoming ready I would like to thank the filmmaker and the director uh F William Samuel apparently also known as Bill I was told I could call him that um for not only presenting but bringing with you a ton of knowledge um great information for the students that were in attendance which I would like to say we had over 25 students in attendance participating um I'm I'm really enjoying it a couple years ago before I got on the board I actually came to the board of education to a meeting and I had an issue with the fact that I did not feel that there was enough of an HBCU Presence at our College fairs um I had an opportunity to discuss that with him however I am also very happy to see that hackens sack has actually really stepped it up uh where that's concerned because we have a high population of those black and brown babies that should absolutely attend an HBCU if they have that opportunity but we first have to make sure they're aware of it so I thank you so much for that um that's it thank you and have a great evening all right so um I would like to wish Miss cord out a happy birthday um so one of my kids always like when when he's in trouble and he he will be going and he'll start when he it's his turn to talk he's like a lot's happened well I Feel Like A lot's happened tonight um with the reports that we've received and um so I will say thank you uh to miss uh oats parchment on giving us that data and making it palatable for us to receive that information and then um then uh Mr Ruiz thank you for following her and and helping us to to know exactly the all the pieces um so that we can make sure that our students and uh faculty and everyone that is employed in this district is safe um so we appreciate that very much um I will say that uh with the the data that that you showed um when you talk about sounding the alarm I I think that that is accurate and that we cannot turn away from that and that we have to look at that um and also understand that that is a a reflection all the way here and um I love the I rebuke the bare minimum and and you talked about that the the district that that we want a districtwide culture of Excellence Excellence well that Excellence is not just by the teachers that are employed here and it's not just a demand of of an Excellence of students and an excellent of parents it's I mean that's Excellence here that's and I mean it starts right here matter of fact I mean it it should be a reflection of what happens at this table and so my challenge to everyone here is that we show not only the people that are employed here and the students the entire School Community but our community at large what Excellence looks like and so um in in the work we do and the interactions we have inside out side um so that's that's going to be my personal goal and and my leadership goal is the pursuit of Excellence for this District um because where we are is not where we have to remain I look forward to um the rest of the month for um uh National principles month that was the cheesiest joke I've heard today but I love it um that's a good dad joke if I've ever heard one um I appreciate um uh Senator Johnson coming in and um I look forward to to the work um with Mount Olive um which has always been very supportive of our district um as a whole already but I look forward to the good work that um that Dr McBride will with a targeted um interaction or collaboration with with them that I think we can really achieve great things so welcome to uh Shena we're excited to have her and um uh also say um for the Hispanic heritage celebration it was fantastic I do want to give a special shout out to the um executive assistant I know lots of people worked on it and I'm I don't want to slight anyone by giving kudos to them but I can tell you those executive assistant put in a lot of extra time energy and love into making sure that our Hispanic culture was shared to the fullest of their ability and so thank you thank you thank you to them may I have a motion to close our meeting Mr Stein may I have a second second I second all those in favor say I I any opposed and there are none good night everyone