##VIDEO ID:DpT7DURwJp8## please pursu to the open public meetings act adequate notice of this meeting has been provided as follows by having the time in place of the meeting posted on theen board and the administration building January 12 2024 by sending a copy of the meeting notice to The Star Ledger newspaper and the local Source on January 12 2024 and by filing a copy with the township the hillside in Hillside Public Library January 12 2024 pres GI Mr Howard Mr L here Miss Parks here Mr Shapiro here miss best pres good evening everyone and welcome evening so I will allow I have U superintendent Glover introduce our student rep from the high school blessing good evening everyone evening good to see everyone out on this beautiful muggy evening finish the month of September so we are going to return to a Time honor tradition of having a student rep from our high school sit on the board and I'm loving the shirt that he has on he's already ready and prepared and so I think it's just that the principal of the high school who has gotten to know all of our students in the last year and a half come forth and introduce our new student rep who will serve on the board in his student capacity for the next year we welcome him he's going to give us information hold us accountable give us information on what the students at the high school and across the district are thinking as well as the community members so at this time principal wer will you come forward I'm going to just ask for a quick adjustment can we just move the mic over to that side so that we're not looking at the back of folks at and everyone and TV Lane can see our our great scholar so princi will bring forth your student who will now serve as our 2024 2025 Board of Education student [Applause] rec so I am proud to present to you this evening our student rec UI Cole he is a junior at our school and on our student council [Music] [Applause] good evening everybody good evening my name is O and as you heard I'm the student representative of the students of Hillside High School as a committed advocate for the students of hilside high school I plan to amplify their voices by actively listening to their concerns and promoting inclusive dialogue while working collaboratively with faculty and administration my goal is to ensure that every student feels heard and represented fostering an environment where their ideas and and aspirations can Thrive together we can create a positive change and Empower our [Applause] community for welcome aboard we look forward to working with you and learning of all of the needs that the students of Hillside High um as a whole need from us as the board and the district we will now have um at this time we'll have the board members introduce themselves so that the student can know who we are I'm Lana best president of the hillside Board of Education absent is Donald Howard he's abent today we want to keep him and his wife um in prayer um and we have I'm the board attorney Ray hin not a board member just a [Music] [Music] lawyer welcome again now we'll have the superintendent report right I I sit here tonight smiling because I think for so long we probably did a disservice not having the student voice present and short and sweet our young scholar Mr Cole eloquently stated his role to bring voice to all students of Hillside so we welcome you and thank you I was trying to get you a seat up here so you could you know be with the important folks um we're gonna work on that and see all right unless you want to take my seat not see where you're at so let's begin we were in a workshop today and the presenter and I had to give credit to the presenter for doing their homework and actually bringing for centering the work around our mission statement and some of the core comments that came out of the conversation today that I just want to highlight and I think is afo considering what our student rep just stated to make sure that we are a community that engages our students to be to have our students become engaged citizens to make sure that our students have Knowledge and Skills necessary to be successful to create an environment that's culturally responsive to create an environment that Fosters leadership Innovation and strengthens character if you haven't had a chance to walk the halls of our schools and interact with our students from prek to 12 you're missing on on streets every day you had had a CH haven't had the chance to talk to some of our great Educators who educate these young scholars you're missing out on a tree media May cast certain things that may be those whove had a bad experience I'm not negating their experience when they may have had interaction in one of our schools but every time someone speaks about our district especially in a way that that's not flattering It cast doubt on those Scholars who are busting their behind W to be great and we have to think about that so the mission and the vision I put up there every month we talk about it in our meetings it's important that we live it because we are under microscope not just by the public who are not operating inside the organization about the students who live every day the educational experience that we you give them kind of reverse some things a little bit but new Pathways new possibilities and new Pride I won't read this but I I keep in bold print I don't know if you can see it on your screen passive learning is instructor C while Active Learning is Student Center passive learning is instructor Center while Active Learning is Student Center take that with you tonight you go home continue to ask yourself what's your role your drive and your why our priority goals which we will continue to make sure it becomes embedded in our head and how we Center our work you'll see it again in a little while of my presentation and this year our core values one of my great principles in the room today used it in the presentation and he almost forgot the first one but I think he was just testing me to see if I was on point but do we put our students first in everything and all that we do the reason why we're here tonight is because of our students are we having clear communication and do we operate with a level of Integrity this our Public School strives to respect the diverse and Beautiful People engaged in our school district the month of October the month of October we many of us know we celebrate breast cancer awareness month it's also health literacy month energy awareness and finally cyber security awareness I stuck that one in there for reason and those within the organization should understand we are currently going through a cyber security audit it's been very enlightening and also eye open to see where we are at need to be at information our organization our curriculum and instruction academic goals I just keep on making sure that you understand where we're trying to go this year Kudos again I keep on giving shout outs to my first grade Educators V me the challenge now kindergarten and second grade it's time for you to step up if you do this correctly long term goes by the time to get to middle school we will have 100% of our students meet in proficiency now I want to take the time to recognize some more Scholars who are in the audience and at this time I'm going to ask Miss iang to please come forward if you haven't had a chance she's going to explain it she does a great job you know she has three minutes or less to explain her great team that traveled over the last two years but these are students who have participated in competitions throughout nationally for the last two years consecutively right Louisville and this year we went to Florida yeah I forget Orlando right um and and in in competing it's not about the trophy or the victory it's about the experience and I was happy to see some of our parents travel with the students so this is truly a community Affair and this is an opportunity for us to celebrate and highlight the great work so miss ebang I'm to turn it over to [Applause] you thank you superintendent and first of all I thank the GL board members for their support and especially the superintendent of school and HSA High School principal I have two other people that I have to thank um Angela Laura and secretary and um the secretary to the superintendent I'll say thank you because they keep on checking on us while we were in Florida um the first student you seen with blue with me they competed we went to Florida we Bor right here in New Jersey so they have to go to National so they competed with over 300,000 people all over the world so at least Hillside name is being here all over the world by those four [Music] students and I would really thank the parents she really came with her whole family to come and check us up so please can you stand up thank [Applause] you she drove down with the whole just to come and check us up and we really really appreciate it okay superintendent he just made a statement that he puts the student first and which is really true and our principal they really put the students first each time we are going for any competition he's always there he's not tired out come and he's really there even before me so thank you so will the students all stand first and then we'll have Mr Von call your name so take a picture come stand up here so we can give you ACC first of all didn't you be remiss I read it this is the teams engineering another world technology Student Association Hillside High School New Jersey has attended the 2024 national teams competition that took place in Orlando Florida this year is hereby recognized as a member of an esteemed group of Technology and Engineering students and teachers pres and and the last can not be [Music] good [Applause] [Music] I just want to add you know Missy bong is an advocate for her students and she lets me know when I SLI up a little bit sometimes I appreciate that I don't ever as I take it truly she about her students this is a woman that when they travel she went out and make sure they they travel with lasers and ties they didn't have it she purchased it she comes out of her pocket on a regular basis to make sure not only do they represent are they prepared but they go looking good and that speaks viol and they don't complain I'm sure there's some pictures that them you might be able to pull up and show next time of how they left they traveled on airplane they went to the airport I think last year they had bag I even have my red shirt my red side we're proud of the work that you're doing with our Scholars I want to say thank [Applause] you you they all came back sa amen hopefully it's not in Orlando next year so Hillside during the month of October the next board meeting I'm required and I will be able to present data from my New Jersey student learning assessment that took place in the spring of 2024 and I'm a big believer those who know me I'm driven by data there's multiple data points that tell the story of our district of who you are as an individual your goals your accomplishments even sometimes your shortcomings tonight I wanted to just kind of highlight a few data points and kind of give you an idea of how we're conected to our priority goals so that everything throughout organization even our leaders tie everything we're doing back to our priority goals if you see the table that's in front of you you'll see that I want to give you some metrics as we have begun this year just to talk about couple of the first two metrics I'm really proud of there a challenge put forth by the schools and we're starting to meet that challenge already as of yesterday our enrollment was 2,9 52 students 2,952 students it's about right where we're at on a yearly basis by the time we get done we'll be over 3,000 the second one Student Success around student attendance if they're not here how can they be successful I put forth the challenge who was going to be the first schol to get 100% and I and I keep on driving it who was going to be the first schol hit 100% I've been putting out these nightly videos highlighting right and I'm happy to say this because they didn't they started way behind but the first school came from our Early Childhood Center a Morris and little [Music] [Applause] bears now it's hard because this season of one cold so little bears 100% the second School de 100% was Hillside invas Academy [Applause] well they only have they have less than 100 students well if you look at what the metric says our average daily attendance has been over 95% across the [Applause] district it wasn't 100% but I gotta give shout outs to Old Edwards C looker 98% [Music] [Applause] 99% maybe only one day has not been over 96% [Music] [Applause] you know everybody said the high school students don't come to school I think only two days maybe three they have not been over 95% I forget about w w also is hitting 95% a couple days they've been a little off but 95% we celebrate that because they're not in school how can they be successful and that's a tribute to multiple staff members not just the principles office staff those parents phone calls that's a tribute to everyone because I was a little um heated when I saw some early data numbers and it said we weren't hitting the mark But now the challenge still assist let's keep this up in October in the winter months when we know it's struggle and parents I thank you for getting your children up getting them ready and tell for the first time in I've been told at least a decade and it's probably longer our free and reduced Lun status is over % why is that important because it ties directly into our funding especially when it comes to Title One funding which will allow us to do more for our students so just make sure we keep that up and I'm sure it's probably highed you had some events that drive home that we're going to begin tutoring from October 1st in school tutoring similar what we did last year this year we've extended to from grades three through eight last year we stopped at fifth grade this year we going to eighth grade 60 students in each grade level third fourth fth and six in elementary school and 60 students in the Middle School of w will receive two so it's a total of 300 students Al together that will receive children services this year we have a partnership that we just launched with Scholastic 115 Scholastic mentors that's community members high school students 115 we put forth the goal to have 100 mentors to go into the classroom read to our students and thanks to principal Willer ath director M McNeil as well as the coaches at the high school bear Grant we met The Mark with 87 of our high school students and another 30 plus of our community members representing Hillside fire department Hillside police we have parents County Commissioners Office who will be come in and read to our students so Kudos and thank you very much and a special shout out to beautiful young lady sitting in the second row to my left who help to make that happen candy R thank you very much for that we were charged with making sure that we have a GI enement curriculum that's ready for approval and with the board's review and approval by October we will have that in place that was a major undertaking we talk about having an Engaged Workforce engaged Workforce requires us to make sure we are hiring we know we still are short in some areas but it's not stopping the instruction and 98% of all of our leaders have already been trained why is it important to make sure our leaders are trained correctly because we giving our teachers appropriate coaching and feedback it pays off in classroom for our students happy to announce that yesterday we had the CEO of Amazon Bo up come and visit our school district went to Ola Edwards her looker and de Taylor we are considered a model District across the country so much so that we have been invited to participate in a National Conference representing Amazon Bo up and Cody and Kudos there's another little surprise coming out that not say but not only being the first in the state of New Jersey First District to to represent Amazon boot up here in this state andion folus to be dividence for our students our students are cing in first grade imagine what that's going to look like by the time they get to high school and they're join generic courses another little surprise our high school CAD classroom is going to be r we just ordered some of the most high tech digital devices that will be in there but to create an additional pathway we also started out at w so we also have it at w and invation Academy so we're going to have a modad program that's a pathway from middle school all the way to high school and finally Student Success research based math and literacy interventions are taking place there's the list is too long for me to go through but just knowe that the board has allowed us to be use our f resources to continue to accelerate to enrich and provide interventions for our students in grades one did you say I forget about the high school I did not there are several programs that the high school already has embedded in the day and the programs and Partnerships are equally just as strong at our high school so superintendent you paint this glossy picture of everything but sometimes people read things in the paper and say you're not where you are your ranking is not where it needs to be well I think that's a little disingenuous so I will be honest and say that to me if you're not at 70% or higher in proficiency then you're not meting the mark and so you can see I said no we're not meting the mark 70% or higher so can a lot of other districts across the state but because of the goals I've set forth for my leaders I'm convinced that we're heading towards leaving that 70% on higher in significant grade levels but growth took place across all of our conent you'll see that next month when we have our presentation on that I leave they got rush through this slide I'm embarrassed it is embarrassing we don't get efficiency at 70% or higher but I also know where we're growing at so I'm confident that we're going to get there want to just continue to give accolades and give some announcements accolades and shout out to our Hispanic her just what took place last Saturday I heard a looker how many folks were in attending so got a chance to come out we do a lot of Comm events we're trying to do more but that was definitely a very festive and warm time for our students and our families back to school events have been taking place clud to the schools that are starting to elevate their interior and exterior to make sure it's reflective of the diverse population that we service our communication plan will be coming out next month that will be on the website also it will be sent out to our families just want to put this on I love our students and those who know but our students Keep Their Heads down a little too much in their cell phones parents you might just want to prepar the policies are going to be changed and that might be they call sticker shock for some of our students and I can hear parents not how will I get in touch with my child call the school well the phones don't always work there's enough phones in the district where one of them will work and they don't will work on that but your cell phone there's enough research out there that says cell phones in our students hands it's not always the most helpful and they all tend to bump into people when they're not looking up artificial intelligence policy we're working on that we have a press release that will be announced on October the 2nd Hillside has been invited to an innovation space and a press release will be announced on October 2nd I will be traveling to California as part of that conversation so it's another beautiful J in the crown of as I stated I'll be giving the data report on October and proud to say some of our teachers have participated in the ruers OR about to participate in ruers Civics program I think it's a good way for our students and our staff to understand about being civically engaged especially in this current climate of our country last announcement please say the date October 29th that will be the next next superintendent district stakeholder community meeting October 29th I will make sure that the location is announced to you and then there other one will be 17 that's opportunity for parents and community members to speak your peace respectfully as always have a great night and I'm gonna make some people real happy when I say this have have a motion for public comment please residents are requested to State their names addresses and subject matter in the event it appears the public comment portion of meeting 15 minutes presiding officer and liit each statement made by participant in three minutes duration issues raised by members of the public may or may not be responded to by the board all comments will be considered and resp response will be forthcoming if and went appropriate the board ask that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking specifically comments regarding students and employees of the board are discouraged and will not be responded to by the board students and employees have specific legal rights afforded by the laws of the state of New Jersey the board Bears no responsibility nor will it be liable for any comments made by members of the public members of the public should consider their comments and Light legal rights of those affected or identified in their comments and be aware that they're legally responsible and liable for their comments Angela Lawler 54 hard Street I did have a question in regard to the tutoring I noticed that um it was only for 60 students and in each of the elementary and then 60 in the Middle School um is there a reason why only 60 students hi my name is Vanessa 15 that place my daughter currently Indiana and they have vacy in her class she's not in her level I need to know when you guys going F it up it's been almost a month it's still teachers so I'm like I'm really stressed about it because I cannot afford to have my daughter not getting at her level because I spent so much money on hun and to and to hear her and the she was she's actually was I just moved her back to the hillside so I've been really stressed about it I'm working home at home but she need to have a and I spoke to the principal I need to know what to do I should I take my daugh out bring to another school she cannot stay behind again she right now she's in fourth grade she was supposed to be inade but I her in second grade and I was a single mother her meting is not good good evening everyone 133 silver yes um that's actually why I'm here right now so I am a firm believer in the notion that it takes a village to raise a child and I am a firm believer that I have a very strong Village and a part of that Village has been the hillside Community for the last 33 years um I came here as an immigrant this was my kindergarten um and the support that I have gotten from Hillside the foundation that I had to enter college and not only enter college but also recently complete my doctorate um I'm just incredibly grateful and I come to you this board and this community teachers are excellent um the teachers that I had throughout the years were excellent my administrators um the the everyone in this community has been amazing I just want to say thank you I am very humbled by this accomplishment and I just want to say thank you so much for all of your [Applause] support proud can I or no anybody else okay Angel 54 Street so um this is to the board I am here as the hillside Education Association president I know you have on your agenda this evening our contract um to vote on um I wasn't going to speak about it because I would rather talk after if you don't mind um but I hope that it is everything um that you have expected um I can tell you that overwhelmingly we ratified this on Tuesday the membership was extremely happy um and hopefully it will go through this evening as well thank you thank you hi Florence I'm just curious to know there turn over certain areas like math and science what are we doing to replace those teachers that have left in those subject areas I just supp those a very important area especially for African-American kids kids in general you know those some just curious to know what are we doing to put subject matter experts in those class areas thank you thank you will respond to those questions soon comment I take a motion to close [Music] first of all thank you for those who came for us different order first and foremost congratulation maor accomplishment know that know Journey you have to take complete that but also started [Applause] congratulations Staffing one last to to answer the question in regards to tutoring so the model that we are using allows for us to touch 60 of the most Lous students throughout the course of the day that window of times they receive Tut is 20 minutes we hired approximately three tutors per school May Vary a little bit but if you do the math and think about the time frame they have to work with the students you can only see 60 so that model that we're following and using allows to see 6 students in those perspective grubs so it's actually 180 students at her ler 180 students at Edwards and maybe 60 it's a little smaller at top might be 180 also no 60 60 and then the high school I mean middle school we're going to see a total of 60 or [Music] 12 and then staff so hopefully some of our staff we have been interviewing I have to give my my HR team a lot of credit we have interviewed we have hired we have had people resign we offered contracts people went and Shop themselves in another district and they left so one of the things that we hope now by tonight s the contract and the board votes to approve it that will bring our salaries in line with what our neighboring County are doing as well that's a major p because people go out there and actually shop themselves and command much more we're working on making sure we stabilized the first and second part is we have been interviewing we had we thought we had some people we still have interviews to take place the challenge is really about people wanting to be in Hillside and stay and I can't control when someone has another opportunity I will say this we have already tried to bring in teachers who have been here whether they're in subtit stattic but they also are dedicated to teaching as might not be the right answer the year but they do hold a certification be subtitute teach and we give them the same training that a certified teacher who has full 120 credits or bachelor's degree with our goal is not to Short change any child we also have tried to put dual teachers or make sure that our interventionist our child one teachers are pushing in to provide additional support now hearing that your daughter's student that Tiana Taylor also makes me question if she's going to be on the tutoring list to receive additional supports and tuting is not a bad we all could be to so and that would save you money from also having to go to 100 and absolutely not do not leave the district and go back to another school district we going to take care of your baby and make sure he's successful I'm going have a conversation with principal Grant we'll find out more about what the status is but we going to make sure we take care of your so she doesn't go behind I assure you of that you have my word you find me things going the right way we take care of grand make sure as well and math and science I'm sure everyone know that's the hardest to we're blessed tonight on the agenda we have two Math teachers but that's the hardest thing feel right now we are utilizing a variety of ways that are trying to still make sure our students are getting the standards based instruction but it is a challenge I will ad thank you thank you earlier this week we had our committee reports member of the Finance on Monday SE C was to approve transfers of buildings and grounds yes Monday we had Mee over the new buses on number five went over particular we about new addition to we had to do today me we went to building and that building is really nice it's going to be super kids and we can take something off everything in there give everybody some space you needed in school scho so small for years so educ good evening everyone 22 many of some of the programs that um discuss um very expensive item that we able to offer and possible polies Monday thank everyone involved in negotiations all three sides ades of our faculty and staff for a always a difficult but pleasant experience got we got to and hopefully will set the ground for Contin grow momentum going forward and also e the superintendent said in response to the question with regards to Staffing it's it's incredible the amount of work that human resources department in this district has done and against very significant odds and headwinds in a world of a lot of competition and people moving you know for dollar here here or there they've done incredible work and it's reflection also the entire District people are here want to be here people thank you now may I have before I do that I wanted I think I saw a Linkin [Laughter] may I have a motion to go into executive session the resolve pursuing to the open public meetings act that the Board of Education meeting Clos executive session at this time to discuss matters Rel to Personnel convenient litigation labor negotiations contract negotiations the board will Recon in public session at the conclusion of the post session the matters discussed in post session will be disclosed to the public as soon as they need to our to our students thank you for coming out I want you to get home you have homework to do I'm sure and for the rest of you we'll see you when we come out of executive thank you than --------- ##VIDEO ID:Xf-eaRynMQI## good even have a motion to go back s all in favor M parts can you move the organization [Music] okay so I move organization items [Laughter] one yes yes best yes fin motion yes yes mrir yes with an extension on best yes motions it yes yes yes GI yes Mr L yes M yes Mr yes second after vote okay yes yes M yes G yes Mr L yes M Parks yes Mr shafir yes 1 through is best yes this is a resolution to approve the renewal of the settlement agreement related to special education student number and fill in the number the terms of which contain in agreement be in the same term subject to 3% increase per have a motion motion a second second yes yes yes m g yes Mr L yes M pars yes Mr shabir best yes M please policy uh sure I'd like to move items one and two of the policy second Miss yes yes M har yes misson GI yes Mr of yes for number one St number two M Parks yes Mr Shapiro yes is best yes items 1 through 61 under lab yes yes M yes M GI yes sister lost I'm saying from number two and number 60 and 61 yes M Parks yes but I'm [Music] number8 Mr shapir yes this is best yes do we have any old or new business M Shapiro would you like closing remarks just want to thank everybody for coming out this evening want to again thank the uh members of the Education Association for all the hard work that was done in the last few months where summer getting contract done and my colleagues on the board here negotiating committee um and just really excited about the new school year and all the work and all the progress that's been made and looking forward to Contin going forward let's continue going strong thank you and then before your closing remarks can you hear mear I love that commercial so um I wanted to say thank you for everybody that came out on this evening um I'm really excited about this school year and all the things that um our superintendent is doing to progress the district further as well as our administrators and our teachers so we wanted you to know I want you to know we appreciate all that you guys are doing we know that it's not easy coming in every day I had two boys that came to school so I understand that it can be a challenge but we appreciate your efforts we appreciate the parents the Partnerships that you guys are doing as well so go Hillside and thank you for all that you do thank you of course we have a come on up um it's not okay there we go um I just wanted to say thank you to all of you I think um this contract was a lot of hard work a lot of give and take on both sides um I think that we are going to be able to hopefully fill positions based on the salary guides that you have approved this evening and I don't believe in my time that we had a unanimous vote from the board on a contract I think there's always been some exstension for whatever reason um but I just wanted to thank all of you um it was a lot of hard work on both sides I do appreciate all the time and effort that we've all put into this um I this is probably one of the longest ones not time wise but the amount of um information the amount of um energy that we put into this I think this one um probably stands on top from me and it's not just about the money I know people say it but it's really not um teachers just want to make sure that they're heard they want to feel valued um in their positions and I do believe that the staff that is here really wants to be here I know I've been here for too many years but um I've been here for a long time as well and and we wouldn't stay if we didn't love it and I truly believe that the veteran teachers do love being here um so I just want to say thank you I appreciate all of you and I appreciate you voting on the contract this evening thank you Miss La thank you um it definitely was a labor of love during this contract negotiations period um and and despite that it did take quite some months um I think that it just shows that we truly care about our teachers um our students because it's the teachers who are in front of them um our staff the security guards the custodians everyone that takes place um to make our children to help our children grow up to be successful individuals um so it just shows the dedication and the time that we put in because we truly appreciate you all we wanted to make sure that we represented each category within this within the haa so thank you on both parts for your time your energy um and I Echo all of the senates of my colleagues up here and I just thank everyone that is here tonight um I'd love to see a full house here it shows that we truly do care and support one another so um on that note we will close tonight I'll take a motion to adjourn I'm sorry there's a hand being raised I like to say something well it is hey it's Thursday night will allow the public to speak my name is Jeffrey Wade I just was appointed head basketball coach at uh so I want to thank the superintend Govern for me head basketball coach of Hillside basketball and to the hillside Community I just like to say thank you and I'll be Visual and try to make the basketball program as successful as [Applause] possible thank you welcome aboard a motion to adjourn go cowboy