##VIDEO ID:7wG-AS4UksE## e e e e e e e e e e e time is 7:00 the meeting is being called to order public portion of meeting begins the New Jersey open meeting law was enacted to ensure the rights of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act business administrator board secretary has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place or posted on the botion board the municipal building communicated to the her news the record and follow the clerk of the bar offer roll call Mr car here Mr CIO here Mr Doyle here M AR trout here M colon here Mr here Mr here and Mrs thank you please join me for the flag salute United States of America meeting regulations during each regular meeting two opportunities are provided for citizens to ask questions and to make comments during the first opportunity early in the agenda the meeting is open to the public for the purpose of addressing items listed for approval and this agenda only second second opportunity occurs just prior to adjournment when citizens May address any subject matter that is pertinent to you know directly related to the operations of the school district persons wishing to speak must upon being recognized wise State their name address and subject matter comments and questions shall be addressed to the board president or the presiding officer and shall be M to to five minutes per person the board may or may not respond to issues related raised by members of the public at any time at the time they're uh raised but will provide a response if and when appropriate the board ask that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking please note that the board will not respond to comments regarding students or board employees a light of the Privacy rights held by those individuals moreover the board discourages comments about such individuals and will not be responsible for such comments members of the public who choose to to speak during this public session should carefully consider their comments since they could be held personally liable for any statements they make finally please note that in accordance with the district policy the board will not officially comment or respond to any matter mentioned unless it can confirm that the matter has first been brought to the uh to the attention of the appropriate School Personnel in an attempt to resolve the issue public be heard agenda items only seeing no one I'll entertain a motion for the approval of minutes for the September 23 2024 regular meeting both public and private motion second any discussion roll call Mr CL yes Mr CIO yes Mr doy yes M yes M yes Mr yes Mrs Atara yes thank you correspondence we received the uh invitation from the boys and girls club for their 31st Annual every kit coun Awards dinner on Thursday November 7th uh reports Mr goof welcome aboard and uh please share your report thank you uh good evening all I hope you're enjoying your October so far our busiest time of the year has arrived at Haw High School our fa oober events have kicked off and students are having BL the hawor high school's week of respect helps start off October with every day having a different theme encouraging students to reach out to teachers and address to a certain theme to encourage respect of our teachers and peers the HW High School homecoming dance has made its return voting for homecoming royalty has been has been taking place throughout the month and the winner will be announced on the night of the dance school spirit themed days will take place the week of the homecoming the themes include color day where each grade wears a different color and teachers wear tie dye anything b a backpack backpack day and others Spirit Week hallway decorations are being made by each class's class cabinet the SATs took place Saturday October 4th the PSATs took place Monday October 9th um Sports the hawor High School homecoming game takes place the 25th this month is breast cancer awareness month so the hawor high school football team placs pink ribbons on the back of their helmet in support of breast cancer awareness and the game on the game Thursday October 11th Library Contin continuing celebration of diversity in and inclusivity this month the high school library focuses on several important National events including the week of respect domestic violence Awareness Month digital literacy week National Hispanic Heritage Month National Italian American heritage month and Indigenous people's day information facts books and resources are displayed in the library as well as in digital teacher resources and hallway and weing announcements Miss diano is currently meeting individually with each of our new teachers to explain the many ways the library can support their lessons and their stud students she is also meeting individually with senior students to help strengthen their college application essays at the end of the month the library will raffle off a bucket of Halloween goodies raffle tickets are distributed with every book signed out this month clubs the Haw High School arm society and Spanish club will be joining will be jointly hosting its annual Latin American Heritage celebration of community friendship and diversity on October 30th 2024 we appreciate the support of the hawthor word of education and broader Community advoc advocacy groups St Mr Durant the event will be held in rooms 225 to 227 during the course of the school day and will feature a variety of activities including live music and cultural entertainment and a diverse array of food options to purchase the event will be cash only at this time although members of the hawor high school student body have requested the integration of digital pay options such as cash app VMO and zel HHS looks forward to the cooperation and support of community leaders in every way possible to make this event a success we pledge to proudly strive to make a difference while we have the chance Mr on behalf of the Spanish club and Spanish National Art Society Shar just finished up its first fundraiser of the school year solicited donations and sold candy to purchase items to stock the Comfort closet the Comfort closet is a private area in h high school that allows students who may be struggling financially to fill a bag of personal hygiene Necessities as well as clothing and Adwear our club members will surprise Dr Deborah feifer the founder of the Comfort Clos closet at a pizza party lunch in with over 800 items we collected and purchased along with some gift cards to Amazon and Target good good job thank you will after SC the floor is yours all right thank you uh I just want to start by welcoming will to his first meeting with us so look forward to hearing all the great things happening in hor high school so thanks for being our student rep this year um and as we'll mention a lot going on at the high school I seem there always a lot going on at the high school uh but there is a lot of different events taking place right now along with the week of respect as we'll mentioned things going on in the library Spirit weeks homecoming uh look forward to the homecoming dance and of course one of my favorites the hallway decorating uh which will take place I know we we always judge on that Friday of hallway decorating and it's one of my favorite events of the year so I look forward to participating in that um since will mentioned the Comfort closet and I just want to to give a shout out to Mrs dochay and uh the share club uh which rep which stands for students of horor acting responsibly and effectively uh as will mentioned I was invited today to the uh uh the donation uh to Dr feifer for this Comfort closet here at the high school uh and as we'll mentioned you know over 800 items were donated everything from jackets to personal items toiletries uh toothbrushes toothpaste you know list deodorant all kinds of things that students might need and that will now be available I mean there were some beautiful brand new jackets gloves hats scarves all kinds of different things that were donated so of course we appreciate uh everyone's generosity it's just one of the things that makes hathorne special that people are always willing to give and participate in something like that so I just want to thank Mrs D and all the members of the share club and I appreciate her inviting myself and the other administrators uh to that uh little ceremony at lunch today we got a little pizza out of it as well so was it was a nice nice little treat uh for lunch in regard to uh my report I have a number of things to share so ask you just to bear with me uh I want to start by uh just reminding parents that we are happy uh to partner with the horor police department and offer a program uh regarding uh social media it's talking specifically about the dangers of social media uh this will be run by Our Heroes and Cool Kids organization so that is an organization a group that we participate in it's a bunch of students here at the high school and the Middle School uh um our Sidekicks program at the middle school but uh it's a program that we participate here at Horn high school Our Heroes and Cool Kids they host uh this program and they'll be coming here during the day they'll be running a program for our middle school students during the day our high school students as well and then uh offering a parent program at night um that is Monday October 28th at 6:30 p.m right here in the High School auditorium everyone in our community is invited not just uh you know parents of students in our district but people in the community if you want to come learn about some of the dangers of social media uh you know we welcome anyone who's interested attending again it'll be Monday October 28th at 6:30 p.m. right here in the High School auditorium parents in the district just keep an eye on on the weekly announcements that flyer uh will be added to those weekly announcements uh I want to thank Chiefs spranza and the north fire department for their presentations at our elementary schools as part of fire prevention week uh I can tell you the elementary students just love having the fire trucks and the uh you know the the fire department attend those schools and offer those programs PRS and giveing the fire hats uh they they love uh they love participating in it so I just want to thank Chiefs brand and the fire department for their continued support of of that program and other programs throughout the year um one of the things will mentioned uh is week of respect and in October every year all of our schools participate in two weeks one called the week of respect and one called School violence awareness week so I want to share just some information about those two weeks so you have an idea of what they are uh and the purpose behind them so from October 7th through 11th is what we call the week of respect it's required as part of the HIV law um in in in during that week there are activities at all of our schools uh include resolving conflict peacefully managing anger uh the week also includes presentations by our staff our guidance Department sometimes we have outside speakers there are fun activities it's part of spirit weeks academic activities that focus on respect responsibility uh and cooperation uh with others and of course much more but that's something that happens in all of our schools I did share some of the flyers from the schools with the board as part of your uh the the uh weekly uh or the board packet uh you got to see some of the activities that were taking place in our schools as part of week of respect from October 16th to 20th we celebrate School violence awareness week and this this began back in 2003 and activities during that week are geared towards uh the awareness and prevention of school violence and bullying uh these activities also include assemblies uh to address the issues discussed during the week so sometimes we have outside presenters sometimes it's again it's our own staff U but those are two weeks that are celebrated in all of our schools um and as again I shared some of those activities and things that are happening in our schools um with the board the other thing I want to share excuse me one second open this up uh we also have to report out and this is the report from the 2324 school year year are Hib self assessment so another part of the Hib law is we're required uh to do each school is required to conduct a self assessment uh of their school and the programs that are taking place in their schools related to harassment intimidation and bulling so I just want to read this report to share with everyone publicly uh for this is for the 2324 school year so uh say during the month of September the administrators and school safety team in each Building completed the required comprehensive self assessment of the building's programs initiatives and procedures for investigating and Reporting the self assessment process included the Gathering of documentation to evidence uh the ratings provided the self assessment consists of eight core elements each with two to five indicators to be reviewed schools could receive a score of zero does not meet the requirement one partially meets the requirement two meets the requirement and three exceeds all requirements and the eight core elements are as follows number one is HIV programs approaches and other initiatives number two is training on the Boe approved HIV policy number three is other staff instruction and training programs uh core element four curriculum and instruction on HIV and related information and skills number five HIV personnel number six School level HIV incident reporting procedures number seven HIV investigation procedures and number eight HIV reporting all five buildings uh did score above the 50 points required to meet all the state requirements in this area all the scores either improved or remain the same the maximum score a building can achieve is a 78 which would mean that dist the district exceeded all requirements and all indicators of every core element so I could just give you the scores for this year so horth high school was a 74 Lincoln Middle School 73 Rosevelt Elementary School 76 and Washington at Jefferson Elementary Schools were at 69 so again well above the 50 points required to meet all the state requirements in the 2425 school year the following areas have been targeted dis required an effort to continue to enhance our existing programs in the 2425 school year ongoing training will be provided to students and staff on the Boe approved HIV policy reporting procedures and preventative strategies uh exceeding the required two hours this will include large and small group presentations on preventing HIV and using the updated reporting for form via hibster which is the new program we use to to document all of our HIV reports staff will be receiving training through our safe schools program and for antibullying specialists in each School schools will continue integrating SEO activities into lessons while anti-bullying initiatives such as week as respect School violence awareness week and Red Ribbon Week will be celebrated across the district increased communication training support and guidance for our school antibullying specialist specifically on the utilization of hipst and newsletters will continue to provide resources for students and parents uh we will continue to participate in the no place for hate program in Our Heroes and Cool Kids program uh to support positive peer relationships and those programs are really mainly focused at the middle school and high school but our students do go down to the elementary schools to work with our elementary students as well so that is our uh report our self assessment report uh for the district for the 23 24 School gr okay next item Alex if you could share that picture I'd appreciate it so I want to just give a shout out and you may have seen on social media and I I Shar this picture I'll explain why I shared this picture and I want to just say kudos to uh horor High School sophomore Ella Alberta so if you haven't seen Ella spearheaded a fundraiser here at horor high school and I'm just going to read what what we wrote um and and I'll culminate with what this picture is uh that took place yesterday so over the first first month of the school year sophomore student Ella Alberta was on a quest to raise awareness and funds to support pediatric cancer to provide a little background Ella recently finished treatment for leukemia and decided she wanted to raise money to give back to the nonprofit tackle kids Cancer Foundation that helped her so much during her treatments according to its website in September of 2015 tackle kids cancer kicked off its partnership with the New York football Giants in Eli Manning and although only 4% of the National Cancer institute's budget goes to Childhood Cancer every donation made uh to tackling kids cancer directly benefits essential research clinical care and support services for young patients and their families with this in mind Ella sat down with the High School administration Mr Fister Mrs Pasqual and Mr mazaka to share her idea with the go-ahead and full administrative support ell and her family arranged all the details involved in launching the campaign they called orthorn high school goes gold for Pediatric cancer awareness mod in designated locations throughout the month of September Ella set up a gold table during every Lunch Period Ella accepted $2 donations for the cause which gave the person who donated a gold ribbon a necklace and a raffle ticket for a signed Eli Manning jersey which was raffled off at the September 27th home football game and by the way Ella was able to meet Eli Manning during her treatment so she contacted him about the fundraiser and he willingly sent her an autograph Jersey to be raffled of ell's efforts will have a positive impact on many other children and their families and although Ella has shared with the administration that she is grateful for all of our support uh I can share that we are grateful for Ella and her idea and all of her hard work I can tell you Ella's goal was to raise $1,000 and as you can see she raised over $3,000 in the month of September uh she you know of course is very appreciative of everyone's support not only our teachers and students but everyone in our community and everyone who purchased ribbons whether it be at the game or outside of the game and again I just want to personally thank Ella and just tell her how proud We Are of her and all that she's done to raise this money um and fortunately for me I was able to uh participate in this ceremony where we donated the money uh at an event at hackensac University Medical Center yesterday and as you can see Miss Russo the high school administration and myself as well as some members of the hospital joined us uh for the event I don't know if they're all that picture uh some of them are and uh so it was it was a great event uh on a personal note share my daughter is on the right side there uh that's my daughter who also works in the uh pediatric oncology unit at hackin sack so she was able to join us as well so it was a proud moment for me in multiple aspects from a superintendent and a parent perspective so just want to congratulate Ella and just tell her how proud We are her for all that she's done I know she's excited about possibly doing another fundraiser in the future uh but I just just wanted to share what a great job she did with this uh this fund Riser okay now with all that said uh I am now G to turn over the floor feel like I'm introducing uh Megan Stallion and beon here I'm going to introduce Dr jabona and Mrs Pasqual who will be presenting our district testing report Dr featuring Mrs pasal today hi everybody that was a that was an awesome one you guys have I have a very like hi like hold up to now um good evening this is not something new to any of us um we're here every year we go through this this year um I'm happy to say that even though we've face some struggles with our test scores and stuff the way that we're going to present this is we are going to show some highlights for you we're going to show that growth takes time and that growth that we are having is coming in small increments but it's still it's there and it's happening um the assessments that we're going to talk about tonight are obviously the njsla um in English Math and Science our DM which is our Dynamic learning maaps for our most severely disabled special education students access for L's which is for our English language Learners and um we added on tonight some of the big strides we've made in our advanced placement scores and our AP scores at Hawthorne High School which is why I have my sidekick here Fon yeah I forgot who I was I pa you um so one of the things that I think is really important for us is we have to know what we're looking at and what we're doing but the the biggest thing for me is this first bullet where it says what are the district Trends over the past last three years so we are now postco we've been testing postco I know people still don't want to think about the pandemic but we're starting to come out of that and we're going to see that tonight that we're starting to see these growth trends of these kids picking back up and moving in the direction that we want we want to look at particular groups of students in comparison to peers across the state we've always talked and compared ourselves to the state um and we want to look at our strengths and what skills are in our greatest need of improvement um this is just basic of who takes the test for these tests that we're reporting on tonight it is grades three through n for the English language arts portion um for math it's three through eight and then it's ninth graders who are enrolled in Algebra 1 and geometry and scien is grade five grade eight and grade 11 um this is what I really want to bring to so if we look at our trend of uh proficient or exceeding proficiency we are as you can see the the two circled ones are proficient and exceeding proficiency we're in a trend where we are moving in the right direction so I did a comparison on the right where we're looking at 22 23 and 24 so we've gone from 54% to 57% in English language arts which obviously is a increased Trend but what's really important is we've increased it by 20 particular students meaning that 20 more students even though it's only a 3% increase 20 more of our students have crossed the bar into going into that exceeding or meeting the standard so I don't like to look at percentages because we're dealing with children we should be looking at our actual children and they should be accounted for who they are um when you look at the math as well even though our gains are not as big we know that math is our struggle and we went 30 to 34 to 32 um obviously our enrollment is changing but if you notice we still went from 33 students meeting exceeding to 47 so when we put numbers to it we see that growth is getting there and the goal that I set forth for the teachers this year was that if you get at least one student in your class to make that shift and get to that next Mark then these numbers are going to quadruple next year so not that we shouldn't be focusing 25 but we need to really make sure that we we set our goals and we work to where each student is and that one or two students it's culminating and we're getting there well when we break this down a little more you can see I always put Hawthorne and blue in the state in green um for the majority of it we are outperforming the state obviously 9th grade we have a little dip we normally do see a dip in nth grade there are several reasons we could speculate for that um some of the reasons I'll talk about in a little bit one reason um is that we do decrease the number of students taking it so we lose about 40 to 50 students per year from our eighth grade year to our nth grade year with um either nonpublic or pcti so our our batch is different so that's why we see a continual Trend and then we see a sudden drop the other reasoning is um sometimes the maturity level in 9th grade the nth grade students know that this test is a marker test meaning that the test that they need for graduation is their junior year and if you remember our percentage of um passing was much higher on our 11th grade test which counted and I sometimes feel that the maturity level of these students is they're not taking it as seriously because they know that the test is junior year that counts not to say that we don't need to work on that but it shows that sudden drop off a little bit um when we start looking at our subgroups what you need to realize is that um I highlighted our our most prominent subgroups so our white hispanic economically disadvantaged students with disabilities and elll students um when we're looking across the grade span um besides there being one typo and grade four that I just noticed and I apologize for that um we our Trends are pretty much um they're they're not too far off so we see a little bit of offness in the white to the Hispanic in grades three and four but it's it's trending upward to being similar in that percentage or economically disadvantage um they really don't stand out in one way or another to say that they're they're under represented or that it's an area of concern our students with disability and obviously our mlr multilingual learner students are the areas that we need to focus on I can say that within the data days that I'm going to speak about later we are really Drilling in on the multilingual Learners because one of our teachers um in the elementary level and I believe it was at Roosevelt School when they were digging into Data realized that we had three ml students in third grade that missed it missed meeting proficiency by less than 10 points those are three targets that can shift that percentage astronomically because we're not talking about a large percentage so right now we're hitting zero but it doesn't mean that the students aren't close so this is part of what our data analysis this year is looking at um when we go to math you're going to see again in some areas we outperform the state um in third and fourth grade we see a sudden drop off in fifth and then a larger drop off sixth seventh um and eth now we are looking into reasons for that drop off um one of the the standouts that we're looking for is that drastic shift in instructional instructional minutes because when you're in the Elementary classroom your instructional minutes are divided amongst the teacher and where we can allot 100 to 110 minutes of math in an Elementary classroom we now go into a nine or an 8 period day in a middle school and your shift is dropping so we're looking out ways to um refocus how our core subjects are at the middle school without impacting Us in terms of increasing staff and stuff like that how can we get more minutes in math and Ela so that but still provide a well-rounded education but that's a lot of what we're noticing as that drop off in middle school so we're trying to Target that um and and we know that it's an area again when we're looking at this demographic we're we're looking again we're looking white hispanic economically disadvantaged students with disability and elll um in math I think our students with our economically disadvantaged students they're slightly lower but I think that's just because overall we're lower in math so that it it's just showing that Trend we are working on doing different things to Target subgroups and I'm going to speak to them in a slider je um some Ela interventions that we've done so one of the big things is the transition to standards based grading for the K5 at least what that's going to do is that's going to give us tactile data where we're going to be able to look at what a student's performing and it should now match the grades are not going to be inflated the grades are not going to have things that aren't core to whether or not they know that goal um so I think that's going to give us a more accurate picture uh the task assessment and pacing guide work that we have done for the Wonders program so what we've done was we've taken a program for wonders which we adopted two years ago and we know that programs are not a one-size fit all and these companies they put a stamp on it and say it's aign to New Jersey but they also sell it to California Kentucky and every other state so what we had to do was really dissect it and make it work for New Jersey so we take our wonders program and we make our own pacing guides and what I explained at the parent nights where you you're going to see sometimes a child come home with chapter one homework or and then they're going to be on chapter 13 that's because the concepts go together and we need to teach it the way that it is um impactful not just chapter one chapter two our Renaissance progress monitoring we have been working a lot with um our building principles for them to assist their teachers in the inrs process in the data process to look at the data part of our PD at the elementary level yesterday was showing the different reports and the data we can glean from this and how they can utilize this um in consultation with the standards based report card the biggest thing and I don't know why I put it as the fourth bullet but our district data days so as a result of our district Improvement plan from our qac data we've implemented District data days um and Spotlight students program program so basically what we're doing is as a district we have a focus we're meeting six times per year um in each of the buildings and we're going through data to start targeting some of these subgroups so we can find those three ml students that only missed it maybe by one question or find some of those cusp or bubble students as we call them that we can provide targeted intervention so we're calling them our Spotlight students and teachers are going to be introduced to Spotlight students and then they're going to pick some of their own students and in consultation with that we're going to do a tracking and really start to see if if we get targeted interventions and if we are doing some of these changes do we see the Direct effects of it so we need to collect the data behind it but it doesn't do anything for me to collect the data it needs to be at the hands of the teachers who are in there every day so we are supporting them in that um and obviously our language uh lab courses at LMS and HHS it is new to HHS this year where we have the language lab and the math lab um in consultation with the study hall which is becoming a very big success we're hearing um some we're hearing the study hall side of it is good and we have kids moving in and out of the language labs and the math labs to keep them small and personalized we also continued with our Learning Ally which is the program that um recites audiobooks for our students because the research says a lot of comprehension shouldn't be impeded by um a deficiency to read so now students have the opportunity to listen to audio books so that they can still do the critical thinking behind it and not be impeded just by the reading and we got to Grant for excite reading for this year which is the K5 version of that so we're in the midst of setting that up similar interventions um in the math program um we have math Labs at LMS and what we are continuing to do is that conquer math cohort training so that's that's where we're going with this we are bringing the teachers in they're really dissecting the standards they're working with their administrators we have Mrs Ashen brand from the high school attending with her Middle School and High School staff um and we're really looking to just support the teachers as they're trying to support the students since we know math is an area of weakness for us science uh kills me as a science person to say it's science it's a test that's there federally um we're below the state that's not great but the state data is not great um it's an area that we're working at and the way that we're approaching this is we're approaching it through test taking strategies we're approaching it through we're trying to make that well-rounded student so that when they sit for any test regardless of what it is they are going to come out of it in the better how do you answer a question how do you prepare yourself how do you approach it if you don't even have a clue what it's about there's different test taking strategies um the difficulty with the njsla science is it's offered at the end of fifth end of eth end of 11th every high school and middle school can offer something science in any order there's no concrete on what is on it versus what's not on it it's more act based or problem solving based um we'll continue to battle it we have increased slightly over the years but um there's no way to say that it's not a struggle for us and we will keep trudging through it um I will say that this is my most exciting uh slide to speak of tonight so our Dynamic learning Maps is for uh less than 1% of our population students of our special ed population take the dynamic learning maps and these are mostly our self-contained Arch and step students um so their their daily struggle is a lot more than worrying about sitting down for this test and what I can say is that the supports that we have in those programs this year Alone six students are at Target for ELA one student is Advanced for ELA and four students are at Target for Math and two students are Advanced for math um the two students that are advance for math we are getting ready to Pilot them out of the arch into an lld test trial to see if that they can do it and and for us this this is one of the biggest gains we've seen um in a while and I can say that the continued support of that program growing from Jefferson to Washington and above is really you're starting to see the effects of that as these students are tested um post pandemic and uh kudos to the steps and arch teachers on that one another area which I want to highlight is obviously we can't give some individual data last year we had 105 students participate in the access for L's grade K through 12 realize that our um participation in this when I started here in 2018 we were about at 57 kids participating so we've doubled in the seven years six years I've been here and that has really increased over the past two years I will say that by next year our number is going to on the upper range of 130 right now we have students um ml students identified in the program um with that being said 19 students scored a four or higher and with that we were able to either Exit them immediately after the access test or if they score up for high higher 30 days after they enter school the next year we can give them the weeda model and all of those students have now exited the program so we had 19 students exit the program um okay one areas that I can give specific data on is any area that has a above a net number of 10 because otherwise they say it's identifiable so kindergarten had 13 students um zero of them were four or higher first grade had 11 it's common not to see those students meing it because they're learning their regular language skills on top of English language skills but in ninth grade of our 15 students who tested we had three that were were hired and have now since exited the program I'm going to turn turn this over to Beyonce right now um because this is her this is her gig so hello everyone um first and foremost I'd like to say I am honored and privileged to be standing before you today um the most important thing is I'm going to give you the best news possible um so our advanced placement program the vision for the program was to increase the number of AP courses that we offer to our 572 students so please listen very carefully every number I'm saying today because this couldn't be more exciting number one 10 years ago when Dr SPO came over and took over and he said we're going to add more advanced placement courses right now we have many more advanced placement courses than we started out 10 years ago so let's start with that for example example if we didn't have an AP uh computer science program we have now AP Computer Science a and AP Computer Science principles program that some of the Bergen County schools are not offering to their students so this is important to know secondly we do have a psychology that we didn't have before we have AP Government we didn't have before we have AP uh geography a human geography we did not have before so these are and finally the last star we have AP seminar that we're offering as of last year continuing this year to our sophomores even at the high school so now here's the biggest news please take a look at 2020 2021 2022 2023 and 2024 data and look at the numbers of students who have taken those tests so last year in 2023 we had 153 participants of AP exams that number in 2324 school year went up to 258 now a quick math it is about 67% more of our students took that test once again 258 students actually represents almost half of our school enrollment so that is an incredible increase in the number of students who who actually took the AP test so Vision was to increase the number of AP um courses the mission that was to be executed is for everybody to be exposed to them and everybody to be able to take them if they wanted to yes they needed needed a commitment yes they need some uh prerequisites that being said just allowing people and encouraging people having that vision and Mission in place saying don't take it you will be successful we have the right staff here and we're going to do this is what really brings this to a conclusion of now look at the numbers as in and uh percentages of total AP students with scores three and higher so three is a passing score in an AP test and three four and five is a passing score and most universities will actually accept that credit uh for their first level course because advanced placement courses are really college courses so last year in 2023 we had 55.84 of our students nearly half of 153 that earned a three in plus now out of the 258 we have now 58% of those students earning three plus so that's a huge difference because we have a 67% increase in the enrollment of the AP courses so um although it seems like it's three percentage points what's the big deal but three percentage points of a 67% increase of students who are actually scoring three plus so with all the njsla data that we just shared with NJ GPA data that we shared we also have something to be so proud of here because we're talking about advanced placement courses we're not just talking about standardized tests here so um I would like to also tell you um that we highlighted the uh Administration highlighted um the certain teachers in our uh first faculty meeting because uh we just wanted to make sure that they are as proud as we are of them so um just like Dr trabona did before I just want to give you a few things here um you see Miss Kelly Clifford down below uh with the AP language um and AP Literature Miss Kelly Clifford has been actually doing this for 17 years that I've been in this District as far as scoring above the state and global average each and every year she teaches these courses Mr Matthew corvo does the same exact thing and then we have newcomers um such as Mrs Flanigan with the uh sophomores and actually uh putting the foundation into AP seminar which is our um e highlight so as you can see this data also coincides with where our strengths are our strengths are not just in ela we actually Excel to the point of we are scoring above the state averages we are scoring above the global averages and we're competing with those averages and and we're surpassing them exceeding them in advanced placement courses so um I want to also highlight um Miss Marta Gomez who's our new Spanish teacher this is her second year of teaching AP uh Spanish advanced placement Spanish used to be um run without a teacher now it is running with a teacher and the teacher is exceeding all expectations and she's getting them uh get threes and and fours and fives that also speaks to our Hispanic heritage program in the high school that we are starting and we have um an incredible Hispanic heritage program that's coming up um and stay tuned to the family nights and everything else that's coming up and of course our star Michelle febs with our women in programming um the the courses that she has single-handedly um done and and uh wrote the curriculum and and taught the curriculum and did is just incredibly well done and we are actually uh getting threes fours and fives so overall all this study increase has again a couple of things that I want to mention number one is the vision that Dr SPO brought in saying we need more AP courses the mission was to be able to let everyone be exposed to it and as well as putting the right teachers in the right direction in the right classes and seeing this success is kudos to our teachers because most of them actually sleep breathe andat eat AP tests and that is a real success because of the fact that these are advanced placement courses this is not standardized testing it is actually considered part of your college course they give you credit for this you can put 16 credits and 20 credits 24 credits into your pocket before you even step into college can you just imagine that doing it over and over again so I just wanted to say um kudos to Hawthorne High School kudos to Hawthorne Community and kudos to our teachers and thank you for listening to me we're going to continue with some happy news uh our four-year Jesse goor graduation rate trend has also increased significantly from 2001 to 2024 um and this year we're highlighting a 95.7% graduation rate which is the highest again since I've been here um in 2018 so again this is kudos to what's going on there kudos to the efforts that we're putting in we're making those strides we're making those changes we all know change of the process um and we just have to be patient because when you start looking the the data showing from that I know that I think two months ago or something we talked about just highlighting some of the Strategic plan accomplishments we put the document together Dr SPO and myself it's posted on the um strategic plan part of the web page what I want to do is I just quickly am going through some of our goals and highlighting one or two things um we highlight student successes with students of the month recognition at all educational levels this was one of our goals that I think is um newly implemented in some of the buildings and it's really a program last year that has um been successful and moveed forward uh we conduct regular data team meetings for the evaluation and interpretation of data this is again another goal that we put forth and we're meeting here it's nice to say that we've ensure the availability of translation services at Key District events um to accommodate diverse language needs I will say that our bilingual uh parent night for the standards based uh report cards was well received Dr fiper did an amazing job working uh hand inand with me in delivering that and we had multiple we had over 30 we had between 30 and 40 families that specifically came out for the bilingual portion of it and we're so grateful to Dr Feer and the translation um we did hire a school resource officer to enhance the safety and support within the school district community and I know that Dr SPO has said this multiple times it is such an asset to have detective Vega with us and um just the whole atmosphere around it has been great goal three we've in enhanced the entrance to the High School Athletic Facility to improve accessibility and Aesthetics um the upper fencing replaced at haor high school hawthor high school included the new fencing down the hill and added some landscaping again this was more about the overall Community feel and the Aesthetics of the facilities um and goal four we developed a summer sports camp with hawthor High School coaches and Athletics for our K8 students so what I did here was we obviously did a lot more than M but I went in each goal and just highlighted some of the things that I think the community should hear about that we have made strides in and we're continuing um and next year I can't wait to tell you some of the good things that we're doing this year to meet this strategic plan and that's it might drop I I don't know what Beyonce does but we'll it before has questions thank you as always you guys did a wonderful job and I appreciate the presentation um one thing that's always been pretty close to my chest is with the math scores and and how we continue to work on improving them and I know when we first started it's something that we were kind of using as a gauge to continue to improve upon and and it seems like we're working in that direction but does the state guidance or has the state given any guidance on changing the framework of the curriculum as of yet or is it still based on it's been what we should see a change on this year is they shifted the standards for ELA and sorry I speaking here they shifted the standards for ELA and math um which were approved and adopted in 2023 2023 we implemented them as of this year um with that's going to come a little shift in the test we're hoping that this shift because what they did was they identified Focus standards and the prerequisite skills needed to meet those standards so we'll help you kind of streamline those gaps so when a student is in fourth grade it's telling you specifically what skills from third grade do you need to meet this Focus standard they're also saying these are the standards you need to Master first before you go to accessory and supplemental standards so what we were able to do this summer was rework our curriculum to ensure that we spend more time on the focus standards bringing in new activities and measurements for the focus standards and put the supplemental later on because those are the ones that are going to show up least on the assessment and when I say supplemental when you're talking fourth grade um your Crux of it is fractions multiplication division fluency um decimals and fractions supplemental is going to be um applying fractions to time so something that is yes a skill we want them to know but if they don't know fractions fluently they're not going to be able to Go fractions applying fractions or decimals to time and uh like that so what we're doing is we're spending more time to ensure that because that is going to get us further than just giving them exposure to the fractions on time and that's a blanket example thank you but we're still trying stuff and I will tell you that we started collaboration with Mrs deor Mr bird Dr sco and myself in looking at what we think is one of the biggest issues of the the number of instructional minutes for math I mean I I will say where I'm leaning towards is obviously it seems like there is a trend from that same group or uh that's postco right and and how we need to reinforce that group and unfortunately now that they're in LMS and with the shift in how the dynamic Works uh because of classro structure you know that might contribute to to drop so just how to try and hone in on that a little bit more and emphasize it just because of that circumstance maybe in future years that would not be as big of a drop but we are hoping that too because what you have to remember is we're looking 3 through 12 or 3 through 11 as we look at these scores and we're coming out of exactly like you said the kids that were impacted in their primary fluency years for reading and Mathematics are now in middle school so that Trend we have to and I don't it's it's horrible to say but we have to like almost wait until that Wheels out because some of that catchup is never going to come because some prerequisite skills with is vocabulary acquisition that they just didn't have exposure to because they didn't have somebody sitting there with them reading side by side they were reading through a zoom box or something to that effect and just to say out loud this is definitely something that's greater than the horor school district it is a Statewide uh issue um but obviously seeing it within our own district is evident so I appreciate what you I I um apologize but I do have to agree with you it is a state problem it's actually a country problem at this point but one other thing that we are seeing in trends that we didn't have time to share here um is our passing rates in njg PA is actually skyrocketing as far as what it was before as in percentages so 9th grade to 11th grade the kids are learning but it also has other factors so you have your algebra 1 you have your geometry you have your algebra 2 now by the time you take the test you are actually being uh tested on the standards of Algebra 1 and geometry so in Algebra 2 You' not only completed that but you also started exceeding that and see the extension of it so not naturally the mathematical mat maturity comes in so now you're actually not only focusing on the standard you start implementing and then you're starting to see uh increases like we had a great increase in njtpa unfortunately um you know in ninth grade and e8th grade that's where we we have to focus on you know getting them there faster thank you just on kind of on that subject can you explain what math labs are at at at the middle school or high school at at either okay I was thinking the Middle School drop in ninth grade okay so at the middle school what math lab is is Mrs deor and her data team will identify students um based on their growth from previous years and where they are so and they get put into either one marking period two marking periods or three marking periods one to two times a week in Li of an elective that they get to pick up their choice so they get to say like I don't want to do art because in Middle School the electives kind of rotate and drop and they go for supplemental skill-based support so basically it's TW folds part of the 52 minute period they're working on what they're working on in their math class and then part of the 152 minute period they're working on fluency skills that they need for that grade level so if they're in seventh grade and fluency is to be able to manipulate equation like um single linear equations then they're going to work on fluency skills with that so it's it's a twofold approach to it so is that currently happening now or are they still Gathering data like happen right away math labs are start off at the beginning that's all summmer using data from the previous year and identifying them let's say they're identified over the summer starting immediately started immediately okay so um just kind of going with what Marco said that algebra seems to be algebra one for ninth graders e and nth gr seems to be where we really do kind of miss some something's missing right because even with students with disabilities it was I think 40% those was the biggest numbers correct or the lowest depending on what graph you're looking at so I was just curious why that spec because you're you said I noticed that it wasn't due to co so I'll tell you been an ongoing issue algebra one has always been an ongoing issue and and as full as easy the one of the biggest pieces for algebra one is we have the majority of our students take it in nth grade we only have 24 students one section of it take it in eighth grade and when they transition into nth grade and take it we're losing sometimes 40 of our top students who are taking them when we lose our 40 students really is that it's not the ninth grade Maybe they're not ready or they don't have those they're not scalp they don't have the foundation yet to do the alge one there is one small portion to it as far asade one has distinct differences such as um someone who taught I taught eth grade ma here at when I first started my career and then I also Tau in algebra one so there is the abstract piece that uh you know um makes everyone go okay I'm not exactly going to put Pi into an equation and understand what that means right so the abstract piece is being handled by which is also really difficult with disability the abstract thinking yeah because you you say two orange plus 3 apples isal to 5 instead you're saying 2x + 3 y = 5 for a child to actually conceive that and it it is very very hard but it gets there little by she does what she does with the conquer mathematics conquer mathematics is Hands On ttile Learning and when you do handson ttile learning You're Now not working with two x's and three y you're working with colors and piles and now you're actually making the image understood before you can understand the concept that's why our teachers are going there for five years now so it sounds like we are trying to get them to start thinking like that in eth grade towards the end of the school year we are we are working on that transition we're also working on what we spent last year was we put algebra one um and Algebra 2 teachers together in pull out time to really align the practices to say like okay what is the foundation we need how should we be teaching this like we talked about rearranging the pacing guide to make it not a chapter based that's your traditional Matthew like page one page two page three you did the odds and the evens now we're really we're picking and choosing to say like what do we do to make them learn it as a concept and a theme rather than individually looking at just a math problem because I know we've rearranged certain courses that students take through year like with science for example which help our students so algebra unfortunately algebra one well you have to start with algebra one could you flop geometry and Algebra 2 yes because they're independent of each other but it's not going to benefit us because algebra one being the introductory course has to be offered in nth grade there's nothing really okay and I will say that just in flip we used to have Algebra 1 I think it was AB it was called it was taking algebra one over two years to see the kids could actually do better at it and we found zero think that's what I meant sorry not actually flipping them but breaking it was a and but there was all the data showed it did nothing help didn't help also it help with our students who needed to complete three years of because they needed their senior years satisfied because algebra is not NCAA approved no it's one year right right so it seems like algebra's always has been an issue for a long time for everyone not just it is it's it's a trend across the street it's a trend across everywhere um we see it as our biggest drop off all we can do is hope that like our 18% goes to 19% goes to 20% like those little games and not that's where we are I think we're up to 23% now when we were at 18 and all these extra things that we are doing are going to help to help that yeah and we're we're constantly revisiting them so like LMS math lab had been there for a while we've revamped it right um high school math lab is brand new this year I'm sure there's going to be tweaks and adjustments to it once we see what's working and what's not working we try to keep everything fluid and so my last question was um as far as the spotlight student programs will parents be involved in that or is that just staff and students like staff students AR even well we're calling Spotlight students is we are just identifying students that are within certain ranges of their scores based on their data that we want to track meaning that these are kids that we're saying is in a particular subgroup based on our district Improvement plan right um we're going to administer targeted interventions and we're going to track their project product Pro progress oh my God sorry um because what we're going to do with this is if we do this K through 12 in different aspects and and Miss Pascal is doing something that different than say Miss schur and something like that we'll be able to see what's working and what's not and then when you do it with a small group then you could start bringing some of those interventions large scale Spotlight and data is really just for us numbers staff what's working what's not so you're not actually saying like after you look at the data this student needs help we're pulling them for a math lab for example no we are we are doing that we are doing that so we're identifying students and then will be involved in that correct don't aren't parents going to be told if they so I will say that the way well if the kid is in math lab right now they've been identified for the Elementary schedule the way we've done it is our BSI program has turned into a total Flex program okay so with that being depending on the day but depending on the skill a student may be pulled out for intervention a student may be supported by a push in support there is no more this six students are identified as BSI students and get walked down the hall to another room right so it's a fluid process um and that's why certain marking periods certain kids get one marking period certain kids get three marking periods at the middle school same at the high school depending on the need what parents are oh that's all I was asking well it's on their schedule that's all I meant I didn't me like they're coming in to work with I just meant are are they being notified if their child's struggling in a certain area and hey we're going to give them some help whether it's a push in a pull out so that they could then work with them at home and know you know that's all just just notified yes yeah awesome it listen at the end of the day we're we're and and I'm going to go back for a second because we talk about these data days and all this that we started looking at data just to your point about starting we we have an administrative Retreat over the summer one of the days of that retreat was looking at data that's what we did I mean we just we we administrative they said we the administrators before the teachers even came back like we we start looking at that in August before the teachers got here we started looking by districtwide and by school and when we talk about things like Spotlight students we're just trying to find ways to track kids and determine what we feel is working and what's not and how can we tweak what we're doing to make it better to help improve all of our students right so our goal is just let's look at everything we can we can to figure out you know what are we doing in these different areas what are different teachers doing how can we determine who's having the most success to replicate that success in other places right and in the meantime we're providing additional support to those kids who need it so we're doing kind of two things at once if you want to say it that way right yeah great I mean and we're going to continue to do that I mean that you know it's not something I don't want people to think that we ah you know the scores are the scores it is what it is that's not the case at all I mean we we're we're trying everything we can we're talking to different people we're sending people for training right we're work even yesterday we were pulling apart data like even on a level that part of the day yesterday we had the teachers literally looking at last year's assessment what standard their particular students scored the lowest on go back to the curriculum figure out where did we teach that are we teaching it this year do we need to add days to it did we add days to it when we did it like so we're trying to really get into the nitty-gritty of it this is an ongoing process it's not something that we talk about for and say okay that's it we're good this is ongoing throughout the year which which we appreciate I mean it's been top of mind since you got here so thank you something that I wanted to mention was maybe a fact you know variable that doesn't get considered because maybe it's not easy to track or what not but just I think it's worth mentioning is that just last week I engaged with two High School seniors and both of them had just come toward District last year one from Patterson and one from Queens so the trends that we see AR not necessarily our own right we're inheriting for good or for bad somebody else's Trend actually Mr CIO that was brought up at the data days that teachers wanted to know like can we track the number of students that can we track the data of the students who have been in our district less than x number of years um I did a large uh followup feedback form and that came up multiple times and not for anything but that that's a that's an outside Factor so in a if you're really in a statistical point that person wouldn't be included in your sample population and and to to your point I've been testing 12th graders for ngpa 12th graders who didn't make it in the junior year testing in more more time at the full uh window so we have two students for example who came to us from um different countries their entrance date to the country is 611 let's say but technically after if if they entered before July of this year they get the math test so these two students do not speak a word of English however they're extremely bright their teachers tell me they're extremely bright when they actually fall short of explaining themselves in mathematics let's say they start explaining things in Spanish so it is hard to conceive that these people are coming to an environment you're giving them a test that they don't understand half the stuff they're reading but they don't understand what they're reading but they're exceptionally right actually because the teachers have time to identify what their skills are if you're subjecting them to a test you need to read and they need to be able to understand and explain themselves um so to your point we don't know in the system there there's so many limiting factors to our scores we can't possibly explain it more but um language is one of them and then what other schools that they have been to before we do not know that's a good point other countries to a couple weeks ago we have a Polish student that just recently arrived and joining the school system so know good point our like incoming rate of um immigrant students and it's maybe something Rick we could share at the next cni has has skyrocketed um and I think it' probably be beneficial to look at what grade levels we're seeing the biggest influx and seeing if it's a correlation to where some of the areas where are Dro just because our percentage of students taking it is larger and now you know you have students that are not adequately prepared for it we we appreciate you keeping a top of mind it's encouraged to see the trends and uh you know that it's a uh an ongoing effort baby steps that's what I keep saying baby steps thank you thank you you yeah thank you Dr Spiro uh before moving on to the general items just want to note for the record that I'm filling it for uh our president miss cof who's away on a professional assignment uh curriculum instruction Miss AR TR please thank you Mr C pursuant to the recommendation of the superintendent of schools the committee on curriculum and instruction recommends the following resolution ci1 through ci3 on page ci4 through CI 10 on page four on behalf of the committee I ass second second by Mr Poo any discussion yeah just I want to make a correction um on ci1 about three uh three4 of the way down you see the high school uh HHS AP environmental science um I just point out that the Ed Foundation actually funded um that field trip is that the one say PTO uh it does say PTO on it yes so it should say Ed Foundation correct okay thank you for clarifying that thank you Mr BL any other discussion roll Mr C yes Mr joyle yes M yes m m Colson yes Mr Poo yes Mr zaro yes Mr cor yes Personnel Mr thank you Mr the following resolutions are pursuant to the recommendation of the super end of schools P1 through p8 on page five P9 through P20 on Page 6 p21 through p28 on page 7 p29 through p33 on page on beh of the committee I move second second by Mr T any discussion I just wanted to say that I saw Mrs G retire yes uh and I'm sad to see that but also I wish her a very happy retirement she's been an asset to the district for a really long time agreed um so happy retirement Mrs gay thank you for everything any other discussion as always I'd like to welcome there's a few new hires on here and some are part-time Paris and just a bunch of different positions so welcome to our district anybody else good this uh roll call please Mr Doyle yes M Aaron trout yes m m Colton yes Mr Poo yes Mr zaro yes Mr car obain on p27 yes on all uh Mr yes uh Mr Doyle Finance Administration please thank you Mr VP Finance Administration donations uh we have the acceptance of a donation of toys for the Jefferson preschool program valued at $268.5 from the kining family um moving on to action items pursu to the recommendation of the superintendent of schools the committee on finance recommends the following resolutions bottom of page 8 want F1 and that's the last a so I'll be have for the committee I Mo second by Mr car any discussion roll call Miss Aron TR yes Miss M Colson yes Mr Poo yes Mrs aoro yes Mr cor yes Mr C yes m do yes please miss AR again thank you in accordance with njac 6A 23-2 11b C3 and C4 it is recommended that the board approve the bill list for the month of October 2024 I motion second second Mr blo any discussion I have one comment okay I I know it comes up often about our conversations with pctvs and it really is always alarming or eye opening I guess again when you review the bills and I know we all take turns doing it but so the public knows like about how much and this is just the tuition cost um for pctvs not not even including the busing it's it's it's over $185,000 a month or so so just so we know how much when we talk about it and have those conversations um it's it's a big chunk that we all review on the queen so just wanted to share that thank you anybody else r m Mo colon yes Mr Poo yes Mrs Tara yes Mr yes Mr clo yes Mr Doyle yes M AR yes Mr to buildings and grounds thank you Mr cille uh pursuant to the recommendation of superintendent of schools the committee on buildings and grounds recommends the following resolutions uh bg1 approval of applications for use of school property subject to non-interference with school activities and the execution of appropriate releases including receipt of a Certificate of Insurance the board on high school facility roller uh hockey rank is uh submitting an application uh through the board of Rec for the October 31st 24 through April 20th of 2025 Monday through Friday 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday 11:00 a.m. to 9:30 uh and see excuse me I'm sorry uh I'll just read off the board policy uh Board of Education policy 7 510 use of school facilities facility use shall be in compliance with all rules and regulations of board policy and here ad here to all requirements listed in the said policy including but not limited to the following dates must not interfere with school events including athletic events any hockey practice and or games that conflict with the school schedule will be canceled and rescheduled all use of the rank must be properly supervised by at least one adult coach who has completed the ruer safety course continuing on to page 10 the roller hockey rink will remain locked when not in use and must be locked immediately after each practice or game by the permit holder or their representative use of the H the the roller hockey rank is only permitted during the times listed on the permit application vehicles are not permitted to be driven or parked anywhere within the High School Athletic Complex exceptions may be made for handicapped access only the board reserves the right to deny an application and to withdraw permission to use of school facilities after approval has been granted and after the use has commenced permission may be specifically be withdrawn from any organization whose representative has willfully made misrepresentation of the application or whose members violate the rules established for the use of school facilities such withdrawal of permission May constitute grounds for denying a future application made by the organization uh with that said uh we'll continue on for bg2 through bg4 on page 10 continuing on to page 11 BG5 on behalf of the committee I so move second by either M or Mr I'll I'll discussion for BG this is transportation to two Northern Region educational services so all all one two three no all three buses or contractors are going to that place can you I'm sorry let me start over we bid the routes through Northern Region ed services other words they bid the routes for us that's just the company bids the routes you look at said there's a contractor that's right that's the bus company so they bid the rout these companies uh basically submit bids Omar uh move me and and tan those companies bid those they they were bid the routes they were awarded those routes and they're going to the schools listed um right is this route school then the cont that's why I'm asking because it makes it look like they're going to our schools they're not those are students in those schools or going to those schools do you know because what's Lincoln Elementary then yeah because I think it's it's a pton lake student Lake yeah that's what it is it's a PPT Lake students some some of those students are coming here like tuition students but um yeah but they basically we bid all routes through Northern Region ed services they bid it for us I should say we don't bid them they bid them for us and these are the bids that won contract and we're just approving those bids but then so I could find out exactly which students they are I'm asking are these students coming to us no no no well that that's where I gu Su in here yes but well Tuesday hawor yeah I I I I'll clarify where they're where exactly those those routs are going so so then Lincoln Elementary DPL obviously is not our Lincoln it just happened to be the same name corre as our School correct and it's only until November 29th these are quotes so you can only to a quote for so long right have to re okay okay that's why usually we do it for it'll say like when we approve it'll say like school year 2425 or esy 24 that's why I was like why are these stocks these are quotes so they can start immediately right because we needed to get we'll back on the agenda again yes then they'll bid out the route for the rest of the Year this is only what happens is we need a route for them to get school right away and there's a process okay that that makes sense thank you for explaining that's why it's a queue in front of it for the route number I see it so a quote so you're only allowed to use a quote for a certain amount of days okay and then while the quote while they're transporting during the quote time they bid it out okay so these same uh contractors may or may not be the final person after November okay okay thank you for explaining Mr yes I would like to thank Mr Taro for reading out bg1 and our um policy um for school use facilities hopefully that provides some clarification for anyone watching that that's just a portion obviously of our the policies much more comprehensive than that but those are some of the areas that we want to highlight in that particular policy I mean it's a much longer policy than what's listed there just provide some clarification and that policy has been existing for for some time many years so it's not something that we just created it's a policy that we have and that Beed to it should be adhered to and it's really no no different than direct what they do at the wag fields for safety purposes right you can't just compl play on those fields well and that policy that we have applies not just to our Fields but of course but any of our facilities right whether it's our gyms auditoriums the athletic facilities all of it so they going to continue to season and everything yes anybody else R Mr yes Mr Toro yes Mr cor yes Mr CIO yes Mr Doyle yes Miss ER yes M colon yes moving on to committee L on reports uh legislature Mr Pare thank you Mr Vice President uh alleviating the bus driver shortages 2180 s 3000 this was signed by Governor Phil Murphy following his conditional veto of the original Bill last month prior to the governor's veto the bill would have created a type a new type S School Bus certificate to be issued by the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission the certificate would have authorized a person to operate a Type S school bus to transport children to and from school without obtaining a commercial driver's license passenger endorsement or School Bus endorsement type best buses are smaller vehicles that that can transport up to nine passengers excluding the driver New Jersey school board strong support of the bill as signed a new law will expand existing statute which currently allows School Personnel to transport students to school related activities to prent school Personnel to transport students to and from school vehicles used to transport students must have a capacity of eight passengers or less excluding the driver drivers will have to meet various age driving physical training and background check requirs that concludes my report thank you Mr car for finance and administration finance committee Matt uh we uh discussed the uh Rosevelt Elementary School group fit openings I won't steal any Mr ter Thunder on that uh negotiations with the HTA are ongoing we have our next schedule meeting for November 14th uh brick assessment was completed U likewise U Mr T will report on it um the only thing I'd like to comment is that the uh the repairs that are needed are not covered by our insurance as that's more of a liability policy uh in regards to referendum balances uh there are some balances left over funds would may be able to utilize for a different project uh at this point the preliminary numbers for the high school are in the tune of $359,000 uh elementary schools approximately $15,000 each the administration is going to review uh and do an assessment of what's the highest and best use of those funds um year end figures for 20 2024 will be finalized once the audit is completed which is which is ongoing at this point that's it for finance and administration moving on to policy Mr do please Alex sorry question did you say 15 or 15 sorry uh so uh the elementary schools have 15,000 oh okay the high school is $359,000 which makes sense that they would have the line share of it because the uh bulk of the uh referendum projects we focus around the high school at that point yeah so it's 15,000 each for elementary schools and nothing for the middle school thank you for asking that Mr nothing new reported policy thank you Mr trout both Council aison and curriculum instruction as far as the council nothing new to report there's a council meeting tomorrow evening and our cni curriculum and instruction did not meet this month I'll have a report next mon thank you um Miss scof is not here miss mki on P of ccsba please uh so we met uh Mario's restaurant on September 25th and our very own uh lawyer Sten Cy as presented there on um financing a referendum to maximize impact on a tax l um and our next meeting will be on December 9th there is a workshop October 21st um and that'll kick off the NJ School Board Association Convention in Atlantic City next week um so that Workshop is on Quest for Student Success um and then that'll start off the workshops but as far as um state county specifically they aren me again until 129 but uh Mr FY did a great job thank you TR L on but what you know the link that they gave for the virtual was in I heard there were some issues so she come in person we had a great dinner should have yeah should have Mr for the interesting yes he's an expert yeah know we're glad to have on board for the for as long as Mr SP has been with us y um Mr Palo have C Pac and PTO please thank you vice president um I'll start off with uh hathorn day the weather obviously didn't cooperate but the P's did um I think it's kudos to them that um all the PTO of the district joined together at one table at Hawthorn day to promote all the good things that they do in each of the schools um they're working to collaborate with the executive boards from each of the pto's um you know for Community awareness you know and how the hardworking togetherness will actually um you know help benefit all of our schools um moving on to Washington School PO is currently uh looking forward to their October 25th trunk Retreat and they're hoping families can donate at least a bag of candy if anybody else wants to donate please reach out to the Washington CTO um so they can have a successful trunk Retreat on October 25th Rosevelt um as I mentioned last meeting they were having a clean out your closet where you can get rid of any of your new or lightly used sneakers um I just got word that it expanded for two additional weeks so you can continue to clean out your closet and uh and help out those in need in Haiti uh also rosille PTO has a give back night coming up and I believe it's October 29th at poogies hogies and they are also selling spooky pies for Halloween it's $14 you get your DYI Pizza kit so you can create your own pizzas at home home the sale is going on since October 7th it's going to be going through the 18th October 18th and you can pick up your pies uh your pie kits at Rosevelt door number five between 5:30 and 6:30 on October 23rd uh for CPAC cpac's having open enrollment we're looking for new members so please if uh you have any interest reach out to CPAC um they also have on October 23rd it's going to be um Board of Ed candidates will go and share their platforms so again you know we encourage everybody to show up and listen to what the Board of Ed candidates have in mind um it also CPAC has announced their seventh annual CPAC 5K Color Run walk on Sunday May 4th 2025 so you'll be hearing me mention that for sometime coming but please mark your calendar it's always always a great event um Lincoln Middle School there's a new um there's a lap for Lincoln right now please reach out to any student or reach out to the school or PTO and donate some money they're raising money for new uh projection and screens um he Hef is uh continuing their gift card raffle which they did last year there's going to be $1,500 worth of gift cards um the money that is raised will be for scholarships so contact Jen Doyle if you're interested in buying a $10 ticket the drawing will be on December 5th and I believe that is all I have for ppos and have and see back I do have another uh event I don't know if I should hold off till to the end um or say it now District it's it's it's related to The District so um there's an event that a lot of people aren't aware of um and it's it's to promote uh the booster club money was going to be raised towards the booster club um it's to promote hawor football and our community um it would be honoring the 1975 class which was actually the 1974 football team they're the first to ever win the state championship um it's a 50th you know uh 50th reunion for the first football state championship I think a lot of people were Mis you know misunderstanding that they thought it was a 50th reunion for that class it's really you know designed for anybody who wants to go you know whether you're a past football uh you know player um family or just somebody in a community that wants to you know help out again we're we're they're honoring the 74th uh season but the money raised is going to be going towards uh the booster club um so if we still have a little bit of time um it was supposed to be there's a lot of changes here going on but it was supposed to be at the boys and girls club uh with a beef steak but because of the um low numbers we couldn't guarante a certain number for the beef St company so it's being switched tomorrow it's going to be confirmed um but I think we're switching it to the Brownstone I'm not sure the cost probably between 65 and $75 um but it's a Tricky Tray as well so I just got a list of of some of the bigger um things that they're going to have there so for any Jet fans um number five Garrett Wilson sign Jersey um and number 20 um I want to say Bryce but it's not Bry Bree Bree hole thank you sir um there a Jet fan for you um and it comes with a A certification so it's a it's a certified Jersey and it's a legitimate um signature on it so I think those are two great um prizes plus four more there's a forsome for great Gorge uh golf a forsome for Crystal Springs Golf there's a four tubing ride event at Mountain Creek and also four lift tickets uh to ski at Mountain Creek so again that's some really good prizes the event is October 26th again it's going to be at the Brownstone if you can reach out if you want to reach out to me um or Scott Lambert I really don't want to share his phone number right here um but reach out to to you know to myself uh you can just do Anthony poo at gmail that's not my board of end email but just shoot me an email if you're interested in tickets we do have to kind of finalize a number within the next few days um so again it's it's to honor the 74 state championship but it really is to promote Community um the hawor football program and the booster club and the booster club just the booster club supports all of our athletic programs not just football so you know any money they rais doesn't just support the football team it supports all of our Athletics here at oron high school they purchase things for the for the uh different teams um and they support all of our they're also running the snack stand throughout the year that's that's who runs the snack stand is the booster club so it is it is a fundraiser for the booster club to clarify you where do we get this because I didn't know about it where do you get the info and where do you buy the tickets other than calling some I uh I could share the flyer with can you I didn't know about it yeah you know it was promoted the best they could you know you know the haor Press is not around anymore right so Facebook page just they put it on classroom they put it on a lot of different you know say class is 74 yeah um I uh I was not in that class I was 8 years old but I do remember going to this games I do have an older brother that was part of that team so that's how I know about it and that's why I'm trying to promote it a little bit more like Dro said it's benefiting an organization that does a lot for this community um you know so hopefully we can get a few more people and some great prizes too so hopefully we see you guys there okay thank you Mr BL and I will concur kudos to the PTO for putting together their setup been part of that F Day committee for a couple years and your setup was I think one of the best just the flow and the wheel it was it was fun so uh also glad that you're mentioning about the uh candidate form I just want to remind everybody please vote for the border of vet uh candidates you'll see those that got the melon ballot the Border candidates are in the back of that actual ballot so uh interesting enough that's the uh out of all the different offices that you vote for that's the one that has the most impact on your property taxes so um Mr Tara buildings and grounds please thank you vice president the building grounds committee uh met on Tuesday October 8th and the following are updates and various items taking place throughout the district we received the districtwide brick assessment report from the architect these costs have been defined by School in urgency over 5 year period and an estimated value of $1.3 million we will be reviewing this information more detailed as there is substantial amount of data to create an action plan and budget accordingly as mentioned under Finance this is not covered by insurance and I will say just to elaborate the it was a very extensive and detailed report which just will take some time to run through um the architect is also working at the High School Athletic Facility assessment uh which was requested by the Board of Education this assessment only includes the area along banford Avenue and not the entire complex uh also at the high school the art room tabletop edges we're peeling off we notified the architect uh who informed Nickerson the installer and they will be replacing the tabletops in the coming weeks at no cost to the district over at the board of ed office we approved the new company to paint the exterior of the new building uh which we picked the color and I believe they have already started it's not completed complet complete awesome it looks wonderful uh where are we throughout the district we are working with the locksmith to get all the exterior doors for each building to be one key this will help the police department in case there's an emergency in the buildings um and let's see also just going back to locksmith real quick that that's going to be one master key at each building not one master key wall building wall building so so when we did as part of the referendum we completed interior door Renovations and we now we have a grand master key that opens all the interior doors so our plan now is to do the exteriors as well um so it would be a you know the way we have it set up in the schools is there's certain keys for certain rooms and there's different levels of keys yes uh but there is ultimately a grand master key that opens all the doors which just makes simplifies things in an emergency we have to open the door so we hope to do the same thing for the schools that there be an individual key for each school but then a grandm for all the schools obviously for emergency service purposes that would be SE thank you for that department of education is requiring all school districts to provide uh feminine products in the girls bathrooms the state will reimburse the cost uh of these dispensers the district is working with our vendors to put together an order of dis uh for the dispensers and products once the machines come in we will hang them in the bathrooms at the middle school and the high school uh over at Roosevelt last month we mentioned that we went out to bid for the roof replacement project the bid opening took place on October 8th and the work will be scheduled for this coming summer as mentioned in the previous reports this work was partially funded by the rod Grant excuse my cold here guys uh lastly as previously reported by Dr spro we have received the cops Grant which will allow us to upgrade the public address system throughout all the schools within this District including new radios which is also scheduled to be performed uh this coming summer and lastly for some follow-ups uh we are working on obtaining additional pricing from the company which is performing the PA upgrade for the installation of The Vape detection system at the LMS high school once finalized we'll review and determine if we could uh include this work to be perform over uh summer as well whether with them or by another vendor and in addition we are re-evaluating obtaining updated prices for the drainage over at Jefferson Elementary School once uh we are provide that the committee will review and determine next course of action this concludes the building grounds committee report thank you thank you Mr Dr scer Eric I just wanted to update you so the one the one bus route is to pton Lakes as I mentioned one student going there the other two bus routes are actually mckin vento students coming to Hawthorne so basically the way it works if students are considered homeless is our responsibility to transport them from where they're living for the four 365 days for a year to the district and then after a year it becomes a responsibility of that new new town so let's say a student is here is now classified homeless and moves to hackin saac we have to bust them from hackin saac to Hawthorne for a year and then it becomes hackin saacks responsibility to to handle it so that's part that's with those other two routes the outs the ones coming to Lincoln that's what they are you're welcome um moving on to public beard this moment members of the public may ask questions or make comments on educational issues for school matters see no one will close that uh portion of the agenda uh this point will go around the room uh just let me know if it's General comments new business or old business okay so my first comment is that this month is breast cancer awareness and Lincoln M SCH selling these awesome um shirts with a fundraiser and it brings breast cancer awareness and they're comfy and I love them um everyone should go buy one and look good in Pink as well um and then they're also running I don't know if Anthony mentioned this laps for Lincoln soon um and the goal of that fundraiser is to hopefully raise enough money I think 20,000 somewhere in there to buy a new projector and screen for the Lincoln Middle School gym SL Auditorium um I was recently her back to school night and the physical education teachers were of course doing their presentation together in that space um and I did notice that it's working but um you can't really see anything on it so it's it's not working properly so it' be really nice to upgrade that and uh you know our kids need it and the teachers need it um so it's kind of like if your child was in elementary school for example Roosevelt did um a fun run for many years and then we did a Turkey Trot which is all the same type of things just like laps for Lincoln they get to run and exercise and families and community members whomever get to donate um in the elementary school you would donate like let's say a dollar per lap in the middle school you can just give a donation um so right now it just started but we're a little a little low so hopefully soon we'll pick it up I think it's November 12th November 1 oh wow really pick it up let's go November 1st just kidding so the kids get to go outside and run and have fun and we get to raise some money for Lincoln Middle School and our students so that's a great cause um and then I just wanted to say thank you to the schools and principles who added me to their email list so I can know everything going on I'm still missing Jefferson but are you not getting Jefferson no my I check spam you know things happen no I I'll I'll check on it's the only school I have never had a child at so maybe I don't know why that might be something to do with it but I just really like to know what's going on in our schools and support any way I can um and be involved so I do appreciate being added no problem um and that's it thank you I'm good thank you I'm good as well Arthur anything yeah I just uh want to thank uh Jefferson School I went to the uh I don't know what exactly it was called but it was uh parents got to come and participate in fed I realized how out of shape I am despite going to gym every day is not enough um but uh it was a great event and it was great to participate with with the children it was a lot of fun so I think thank Jeff for that and uh outside of that uh as always every year you guys uh always give a great presentation and just kind of letting us know to State of the Union of where we are uh regarding testing and I think it's just important to recognize because at the end of the day uh that's what you know the education components about and and and having our children learn and uh continue to grow and allowing our district to thrive and uh I can't thank you guys enough and hearing the AP component too right just to to understand the dynamic of that and how we adapted and and um that mission and and and how we've grown it uh since Inception is really great to hear because I think a lot of people don't recognize that and um as we may lose children to other uh schools which you know to each his own um I think we need to highlight uh all the good that we do here and and stuff like that is uh very much so appreciated so thank you that helps that helps families save money because when when you score a passing grade a three to a five um and that counts as college credits that's free credits because of of of the hard work that is happening here those families are saving sometimes substantial amount of money in their tuition um so just kind of keep that in mind and piggy back on that I think just to come back for a second because I know timing wise but the open house um I think really highlighted a lot of those things that um I got feedback indirectly through parents that may have not had any idea um of some of the uh services that a public school offers and we're really pleasantly surprised and uh it was nice to hear that as a board of ed member so I appreciate that two general comments um one a reminder for the barricade for lunch it's next Friday the 25th but you're interested ordering or ding in you have to order by this Friday so if you haven't you should get lunch from them second I want to thank dredo for sharing the HIV report I always enjoy hearing that personally because I feel like it comes full circle just in my life probably how I'm even up here um back in 201 I helped enap the anti Bing Bill of Rights as a law in the state with personal situation of a family member who committed suicide so I'm always happy and proud of our district when I see we have the week of respect and school violence and all the good things that we do and take it seriously because it really is Meaningful to people and and I take it personally it is very meaningful to me too but to know that our district does so much to care for people is great so thank you uh just you know I'm just proud of the fact that I've been up here for a while watching all the changes that have been happening and um you know let's keep up the good work with the entire District everybody's doing a great job and I'm looking forward to continuing every month seeing the progress thank you and I know I'll concur with that it's a pleasure to be part of this team um just everybody that makes it up our students our Administration our teachers our PTO our Board of ad members it's a pleasure to be part of this committee on that we'll entertain a motion to adjourn roll call mrar yes Mr CL yes Mr CIO yes Mr doy yes Mr yes yes Mr yes thank you everybody right